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“Shh, back up,” a voice whispered, and I opened my eyes to meet Hazel’s. “Oh, crap.”
I bit my lip for a moment and grimaced before we both turned our heads to see Gabe and Heather standing on the path halfway to the gazebo. We both did that pathetic finger wave everyone does when caught in the act.
“Hey, guys,” Hazel said after clearing her throat. “We thought we were alone.”
“We can see that,” Gabe said as they walked toward us. “We’ll go and pretend we saw nothing.”
“Ha!” Heather said. “Says you!”
“You can’t say anything!” I exclaimed, holding my hands out.
Heather climbed the stairs just as Hazel stood up again. “Are you worried it looks unprofessional to be kissing your colleague under the gazebo in the town park?”
“At least until I read my contract about workplace relationships,” Hazel said.
Heather waved the comment away. “There’s nothing, I assure you. I want you both to know I’m squeeing inside.”
“Squeeing?” Hazel asked, and Heather jumped up and down, clapped, and did a fist pump as Gabe laughed from behind her.
“Ahh, squeeing. Can you squee quietly so no one else finds out?”
“You might be able to convince me to keep quiet about this as long as I get the first wedding invite.”
“Wedding invite?” I squeaked, making Gabe laugh out loud. “It was just a kiss, Heather.”
Heather turned to Gabe and patted his cheek. “Remember when I said the same thing? That was about a month before you proposed?”
“More like six weeks, but we did kiss under the gazebo roof when the tree was lit, so it was inevitable.”
My gaze darted to Hazel who was biting her lip to keep from smiling. Our plan was working! “Why are you here, anyway?” I asked, figuring I could distract them until we made our escape. “It’s pretty late.”
Heather gazed up at Gabe momentarily before she turned to answer me. “We always come out late on the night of the tree lighting. We kiss under the gazebo to keep the legend primed.”
“The legend primed?” Hazel asked, and Heather nodded.
“No one knows how the legend works, so a group of us have decided to keep love under its roof so it never runs low. As long as there is love here, it can be spread.”
I smiled and winked at Hazel before I responded. “That’s very sweet, Heather. In my opinion, there can never be enough love spread throughout the world. Well, we’ll leave you to it and head home. Nice seeing you again. Talk soon.” I turned my chair; suddenly glad we’d left Star home to rest and warm up. At least we could make a quick exit.
“Not so fast, buddy,” Heather said. “Aren’t we going to talk about this?” she asked, circling her hand around the gazebo where we sat.
“Dear,” Gabe said as he grabbed her hand. “I think it’s self-explanatory.”
Hazel held up her hands to encourage calm. “Irving and I have developed feelings for each other, but we don’t want people to know yet. I mean, Becca and Cam know, but—” She waved her hand as though it didn’t matter.
“What?” Heather exclaimed, planting a hand on her hip. “My brother knows? How long?”
“The day of the gender reveal, Cam and Becca kind of caught us kissing in the tree grove,” I said, biting my lip to keep from laughing at her expression.
Gabe didn’t succeed and burst out laughing, the sound echoing through the park. “This is better than any Christmas couple story I’ve heard to date! Maybe you should stop making out in public places?”
I hit him with a finger gun and nodded my agreement.
Hazel was the one to speak. “The thing is, Indigo’s wedding reception is coming up, so we wanted to keep it between us until after that so we don’t steal her thunder.”
“True,” Heather said, biting her lip.
It was easy to see where Hazel was going with this, so I jumped in. “The Christmas couple from last year should get their happy ending before the gazebo announces the new couple, which means…” I put my finger to my lips.
