Jesse gasps, placing a hand to his chest. “I would never.”
“I can’t believe you’d bet on the wedding,” Lake snorts. “How much did you win?”
“Two hundred bucks,” Beau says helpfully, his lips twitching as Lake’s mouth drops open.
“You guys bettwo hundred dollarson Pennotgetting married?”
Jesse shakes his head. “Of course not.”
“We bet two hundred dollars that the wedding wouldn’t happenandthat you’d swoop in to be her knight in shining armor,” Wren adds as she wraps her arm around Lake’s waist. The dark-haired beauty appeared out of nowhere, and even though this is the first time I’ve seen her, I can already tell she’s hell on wheels. “Buy-in was fifty each.”
“You guys are the worst,” Lake grumbles as he drops a kiss on the top of his sister’s head.
“That’s why you love us,” she says before turning a calculated smile on me. “And you must be Harlan the hottie. I’m Wren. It’s nice to meet you.”
My eyes widen slightly because I’ve never gotten a greeting quite like that before. “Uh, it’s nice to meet you too.”
“Ignore her,” Beau says, his voice deep and annoyed even as his eyes dance with amusement.
“What are you doing here anyway?” Jesse asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
“That’s a good question,” Lake agrees. With a huff, she shoves off him and places one hand on her hip as she points over at me.
“Obviously to meet the talk of the town.”
“You came all this way to see if the new guy is hot?” Lake looks at me. “No offense.”
“None taken,” I say with a shrug because there’s literally nothing else I can do right now besides plan my escape to some quiet corner of the field.
“We bet on you and your best friend. I don’t think you should be surprised by this.”
“That’s a fair point,” Lake concedes. “Welcome to the Wintervale fam, Harlan. If you stick around this will only get worse.” He laughs like he’s put out by his family, but he can’t hide how much he loves all of it.
“I’ll keep it in mind,” I say noncommittally before adding a quick goodbye and hightailing it out of there before we get any deeper into sharing time.
I don’t need to like these people, and the less time I spend with them, the easier it will be to leave. Wintervale was always meant to be a temporary stop, and I just need to keep my head down until February to keep it that way.
5
HARLAN
“All right everyone,” Winston Sterling says with a huge smile. The man is built like an ox with a Stetson on his head and a jovial demeanor that’s hard to ignore. “We are expecting a bigger than normal turnout today, so it’s all hands on deck.” There’s easily three times the number of people I see on any given day here, and I barely recognize anyone except the Sterlings.
Nods and whispers of excitement go up around me, and I do everything in my power to keep my expression neutral instead of my normal grimace.
Something Reid has teased me about on more than one occasion.
“And,” Elora Sterling says, moving to stand next to her husband, “we have a big dinner in the works for everyone after the day is done to say thank you for putting in all the extra time this season.” She’s a slight woman with dark hair that hangs in waves around her shoulders. It’s streaked with gray, the contrast doing nothing to detract from her beauty. They make a stunning pair, that notion made all the more obvious when Winston wraps his arm around her shoulders and pulls her against him.
“We’ll work in teams throughout the farm, and make sure your radio has a full battery before you get out there,” he says. “We want every single friend and neighbor who steps foot on the grounds to leave better than they came. It’s the holidays, and we want them to experience the magic here.”
I look around because this isnot me,but I seem to be the only one fazed by talks of holiday magic.
Nods and murmurs of agreement go up around me and then he’s assigning groups of two and three to different parts of the farm, while others will be pulling visitors around on the tractors. I haven’t heard my name, and my heart stutters in my chest as I realize what’s about to happen.
“Harlan, you and Reid will be in the north lot to start. We need to precut more six-foot trees and we’ll reassess in a couple of hours. Once we feel we have enough cut, you can relocate to the front and help greet folks coming in.” Looking back over the crowd, he adds, “Let’s go spread some holiday cheer!”
There’s clapping and cheering, and I can’t stop my brow from furrowing because these people arealways happy.
