It was pretty obvious, wasn’t it? “Yes, sir.”
“Well, let me give you another tip, then.” Thomas stopped short on the trail and put his hand on Nick’s shoulder. “When you find the right woman, it’s no trouble at all keeping her happy. She makes it easy because she makesyouhappy.”
Red hair and elf ears and snowballs flittered through Nick’s head. But that was ridiculous. Holly didn’t make him happy. She made him…exhausted.
Nick followed Thomas back to the wood pile, emotions tumbling over each other like a snowball gathering traction. Maybe in another world, Holly could have been that person. A world where they were honest. A world where they were on the same page.
A world where they both actually hated Christmas.
One Week Before Christmas
Nick couldn’t breathe.
Caught in the hazy middle between sleep and reality, he flapped his hand at the snow pressing against his face. So cold. So…plastic?
He turned his face to the side, but it didn’t help. The white pressed in. He mumbled, words stuck in his dry throat. So tired. He should wake up though. Did he smell coffee?
He opened his eyes, but the popcorn ceiling he’d stared at the past two nights from his media room foldout couch didn’t come into view. Just snow. So much snow.
No…He blinked. Not snow. He reached up to rub his face but the white—The White, because now he was panicking—covered his entire body. He batted at it, and with a thump, The White bobbed sideways and rotated slightly before hovering once again over his bed.
The White had eyes.
With a yell, Nick scrambled backward, pressing into the cushion of the couch. The support bar beneath the mattressjammed into his thighs and he released a wild kick. The White retreated long enough for him to fully awake.
Was that a…carrot? He leaned forward and squinted.
Yes, a carrot nose. On a snowman. A giant inflatable snowman, whose black top hat skimmed the ceiling as it bobbed to an upright position and then fell face forward toward his bed.
This time, he was ready with a growl and a punch.
“Violence is never the answer.”
Another yelp escaped before he could censor it. Which was silly. Snowmen couldn’t talk.
But…wasn’t that the entire point of Frosty’s song? The thing came to life? He made another fist.
A giggle cleared the last of the sleep fog and he leaned forward, craning his neck to see around the giant inflatable.
Holly stood in the doorway of the media room, one hip resting against the frame as she sipped from a mug with a candy cane handle. Her hair was tossed on top of her head in a messy ponytail, her oversized gray sweatshirt nearly swallowing her petite stature.
Grinning like someone who definitely didn’t hate Christmas.
Or maybe she just hated him.
“Um, good morning?” His statement stumbled out more like a question. He pulled the covers up by instinct, even though he’d slept in sweatpants and a T-shirt. Why was his room so cold? His bare feet felt like bricks beneath the sheets. Axel had to be freezing on the air mattress on the floor.
Assuming he was down there. Nick couldn’t see. Maybe Frosty consumed him.
“Sleep well?” Holly calmly took another sip. So hehadsmelled coffee. He wasn’t completely delusional. But maybeshewas, because why else was she just standing there while he slept, drinking coffee as if there weren’t an elephant—snowman—in the room?
Frosty bobbed toward him again and Nick fought back a shiver. “What’s going on?” The media room didn’t have a window, but if it had, he’d expect it to be wide open with real snow pouring in. “Why is it so cold?”
“The heater is on the fritz.” Holly briefly disappeared as the snowman inserted itself between them with another lazy bob.
He pushed it back, probably harder than necessary. “You don’t say.” Frosty’s hat wedged against the ceiling, holding him in place and sparing Nick the temptation of another punch. He stared up at its mischievous painted-on grin. “I uh—I suppose this is the missing yard ornament everyone was so worked up about?”
“Yep. Found him. Not that he could really hide in the first place.” Holly huddled inside her sweatshirt, clutching her mug to her chest with a serene smile. “I thought, why let him go to waste on the front lawn when he could bring theultimatelevel of festiveness right here to your room?”
