Preferably the naked kind.
Ugh, Wren was right; Iamin a dry spell.
I blame it on the explosion of holiday cheer and the underlying loneliness that always pokes its ugly head out each December. But aside from these fateful thirty-one days, I don’t hate being single—quite the opposite.
My life is amazing, I’m practically high on the mountain air, and when that special guyfinallyshows up, I’ll be more than ready.
Iwanta guy but I don’tneeda guy.
I learned the difference the hard way.
And there was no way of knowing if he even liked men. One of the girls at the salon had said he’d seemed interested, but there’d been no other corroborating accounts.
And besides, I wanted to see him with my own eyes.
For scientific purposes, of course.
Slowing down, I pull into the lot and ease my way across the dirt driveway to park in front of my office. There’s a truck already parked off to the side with out of state plates. My lips curve up as I grab my coffee.
Time to go for a walk.
2
HARLAN
The farm is quiet this early, my feet crunching along the frozen grass with my breath making little white puffs of air as I move between the trees.
It’s my favorite time of the day. The calm before the holiday storm as locals and tourists flock to the Wintervale Tree Farm to find the perfect Christmas tree. It wasn’t my first choice for work with so many happy people around, but I couldn’t afford to be picky. I had a job lined up west of here for the middle of February, but I needed something in the meantime.
I’d been lucky Winston Sterling hired me at all, since jobs for a hundred miles had been scarce, people like me jumping at the listings for holiday help.
You could survive on seasonal work—you just had to be smart about it.
And I plan to be smart.
Starting now.
Two months after I’d been unceremoniously forced out of Dante’s life, there’d been an engagement announcement that had ripped through the state like wildfire. Splashed across thepaper in technicolor was Dante and a woman he’d sworn was only a friend.
Sure.
Their marriage would unite two powerful families—most likely a strategic move rather than a romantic one but it hurt.
And then the hurt turned to rage and I’d burned through a lot of the hush money because…fuck it.
Which is how I found myself in Wintervale, Montana, with a job at the local tree farm a month before Christmas. There was supposed to have been a big wedding not long after I rolled into town, and they’d needed bodies to fill the positions during the nuptials.
I didn’t need the details.
All I need to do now is keep my head down for a little while and move on as soon as I can manage it.
Running my hand along the pine needles of a nearby tree, I’m so lost in thought I don’t hear anyone approach, and by the time I do, it’s too late to ignore him.
“Good morning!” he says cheerily, holding out his hand. “I’m Reid Sterling. I do the marketing and ads here and a couple of other places in town. You must be Harlan. I heard we had a new hire, but we haven’t met, and I thought I’d introduce myself in case you needed anything or had any questions. I know you’re new to Wintervale, and it’s my favorite place in the whole world.”
Of fucking course.
Reid Sterling.
