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I laugh. “Thanks, I think. What about your family?” I turn the questions around, mainly because I don’t want to explain what I used to do for a living. After all,breaking kneecaps and disposing of enemiesisn’t going to keep the conversation afloat.
“Oh, I have two younger brothers. One’s in New York doing some sort of hedges? Hedging? Not landscaping, but something with money? I have no idea. I just know he’s loaded. And my youngest brother, Ryan, is still in college. He’s into art. He actually took some pictures of my woodworking for one of his classes. Like did an exhibition and everything of me making things.”
“I’d love to see those photos.”
Her cheeks turn pink as she looks down, humble. “Oh, the art was in the way he took them.”
“I’d have to disagree.” I pull her hand to my lips and kiss the back of her hand. “Seriously, I want to see them. I’d love to have some copies.”
Her cheeks turn an even deeper pink, and she has a smile on her face that melts my heart and soothes my soul. “Okay. I’ll, um, I’ll see if he can do that.”
“Thank you.” Just the thought of her beautiful face gracing my walls has me feeling warm all over.
“Any more worries about the guy from last night?” I turn onto the main street of Frozen Falls. Shoppers are busy going from store to store on the decked-out lane.
“I, um…” She frowns.
“If you’re scared, you’re free to stay at my place. Sylvester and I would love to have you over.” Just the thought of her staying in my house, or mybed, has my heart racing.
“I’m not scared. I guess I’m just confused. I thought there was a man, but there’s no evidence of him, you know? Except the …”
“The what?” I ask.
Her brows draw together. “Well, I keep finding that h—Oh, there’s Ted.” She waves as we pull up to the post office.
My warmth fades into a steely cold. Ted stands and waves. He was emptying the dropoff box outside, but the minute he saw Jocelyn, he stopped what he was doing. And now? Now he’s giving her a goofy grin.
Murder is no longer on my to-do list or part of my career. All the same, I’m already mentally cataloging all the locations where I could dump a body outside Frozen Falls. And I can guarantee no one would ever find Ted, not so much as a hair from his overly-styled hair.
10
JOCELYN
Itry to remind myself to stop staring at Mac, but I can’t help myself. It’s extra hard as I watch him pick up the giant boxes with all my orders in them. His arms don’t even flex as he does it, which is both amazing and sucky at the same time.
I enjoy those hard grunts he makes when something is really heavy and the way his arms will flex showing off all those thick muscles he has. But then again, these boxes may be giant to me, but I’m sure they are nothing to him. All I know is that he looks crazy hot no matter what he’s lifting.
“These already have postage on them, right?” Mac asks, catching me trying to stare through his long sleeve shirt that’s hiding everything from me. “Lil bit.” The use of the adorable name he’s given me has me snapping back to attention.
“What?”
He smirks at me. “Do these already have postage?”
“Yes.” I nod. His smirk turns to a full-blown smile for a second before it drops away. His eyes quickly narrow on something behind me. I glance over my shoulder. Ted’s coming our way.
“I was going to text you. You’ve got some crazy mail here waiting for you. We’ve almost run out of room to store it,” Ted says as he draws closer to me. “Let me grab it for you. I could’ve come by later to deliver all of it. It’s too much to put in your box. Figured I could give you a hand.”
“I don’t get much mail.” I shake my head. “So that’s kind of weird.”
Ted follows us into the building.
“Swing by.” Mac grumbles from behind me. “We’ve got it taken care of. I can help my lil bit.” My face flushes at him calling me his in front of other people.
Behind the counter, Jane’s eyebrows raise in clear approval. “Let's get those scanned in for you.” She motions for Mac to bring the packages over, and she starts scanning them in.
When Ted comes from the back of the office a few minutes later, my mouth falls open. He’s dragging two giant sacks. They’re so enormous he can’t even lift them. It reminds me of Santa’s bag of toys, only filled with mail.
“Those are envelopes.” I point out the obvious as I peek inside the bag. I reach in and take one out. It’s addressed to Santa Claus. “They aren't addressed to me.” I flip it around to show Ted. He only laughs.
