All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,33

Viv knew, was going to win her the popular vote. People would still vote for Sage—loud customers talking about it in the line made sure she was aware of the fact. A few even making the point of buying but not drinking the hot chocolate, leaving it on the counter untouched.

One woman—a Carol Bingley who apparently owned the pharmacy—came in every day to buy one, vote and then made a point of taking it outside and pouring it in the gutter with as much disgust on her face as she could muster!

The part of Viv that wasn’t horrified by the utter waste of it in a world where so many had so little, was amused. It was her loss—Carol’s four dollars was still in Viv’s till—and if she wanted to miss out on probably the most exciting thing she’d ever had or was likely to have in her mouth, then so be it.

Business was picking up. The plan was working. It was only upward from here.

*

Reuben was on his way back to the police station from the courthouse on Friday morning. He was on foot but he didn’t mind. It wasn’t very far and Main Street was prettier than a picture at this time of year with all the light posts sporting giant wreaths with jaunty red bows and the shop windows switching out their fall harvest decorations for Christmas themes.

And every door displayed a different kind of wreath.

Walking down Main Street like this took him back to his childhood and seeing a kid on the other side of the street with his nose pressed against the glass of the western wear shop, whose window was always especially impressive, Reuben could almost feel the bubble of excitement that had flowed through his little boy veins. Knowing that if he was good, Santa would soon visit and that all was right with the world was the kind of thing that had made his childhood in Marietta idyllic.

This time of year always filled him with nostalgia and once again he found himself thinking about being able to share it with Vivian. She’d told him she wouldn’t be going home for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year and he had to admit that having her to himself at such a special time was something he was very much looking forward to. He was fully cognizant of her warnings about her brief stay in Marietta and had zero problems promising her he wouldn’t fall in love because he wasn’t looking for love, either.

He’d never been looking for it. Reuben had always figured if it happened, it happened, but that he’d know it as soon as he met the woman in question. Like his parents had apparently done. And if it didn’t happen, that was okay, too.

But, in the interim, he could spoil Vivian a little and introduce her to the joys of a Marietta Christmas.

Right now, however, he had to stop off at Copper Mountain Chocolates so his boss could spoil his woman—or at least get back into her good books. Sheriff Walton had apparently forgotten their wedding anniversary yesterday and his wife was pissed which, somehow, today, had become Reuben’s problem. His boss needed some make-up chocolates picked up, and Reuben had scored the task.

He didn’t feel disloyal to Vivian doing it—he’d brought enough Delish chocolate these past three weeks to keep them solvent for a year—but he was annoyed that his boss was using him as some kind of rookie errand boy. Still…he took in some deep cleansing breaths of mountain air. There were way worse things about his job.

A sudden chilly wind on his neck had him turning up the collar of his thick, department-issue jacket and hunching into its folds. Overnight snow had been falling up on higher ground all week—Copper Mountain was looking all snow-capped and majestic behind the dome of the courthouse—and more was forecast for early next week down lower, which meant Marietta would probably be blanketed at some point.

Reuben liked snow. He liked watching it fall and loved walking in it when it was all powdery and crunchy beneath his feet. He liked the blinding whiteness of a fresh fall too, especially beneath a blue, blue sky with the frozen crystals glinting and dazzling like diamonds in the sunbeams. He just didn’t like it when it melted and got slushy and dirty and the roads became slippery and dangerous with black ice and idiots who had no idea how to drive in those conditions ended up in