A Hippogriff for Christmas - Zoe Chant Page 0,7

break and I need some extra funds for that, so this works out well for me, I promise! Don’t you have anything you want to do over Christmas? No boyfriend you want to cuddle up with on the couch?” She winked, but Annie just shook her head, feeling the familiar stab of loneliness she knew so well.

“Not really. I don’t really have any family or… anything like that. So work is as good a place for me to be as anywhere else.”

“Oh…” Christina said, clearly feeling like she’d stuck her foot in her mouth. “But being by yourself can be fun too! No one to run around after, no one else to worry about! You can just spend all that time in your PJs eating pie. It’s a paid holiday!”

“I guess,” Annie said, before shaking her head. She knew she was being a glum little storm cloud, but old habits died hard – especially the ones to do with Christmas. “No, you’re right. I’m just being a sourpuss. I’ll grab a cherry pie on my way out – nothing beats cherry pie with chocolate ice cream, right?”

“That’s better!” Christina laughed. “Pie on the couch in your jammies. What could be better?”

Annie forced herself to laugh along. Okay, so she hated Christmas – but she loved cherry pie. Maybe she could just eat so much pie she’d be sent into a sugar coma and wake up on the other side of the new year, when everything was over and done with.

“Anyway, I better start getting cleaned up,” Annie said. She paused, only just stopping herself from pulling a face. “By the way, Mr. Dearborn said Scott might drop by.”

“Oh, really?” Christina said, not bothering to hide her own distaste. “Well, I guess as long as he doesn’t hang around. That guy gives me the creeps.”

Annie opened her mouth to agree, but before she could get the words out she heard the back door to the bakery open again, before slamming shut.

Speak of the devil, she thought, as Scott swaggered his way up from the back of the shop, a smarmy grin on his face – though she almost immediately felt guilty about it. Scott might’ve been a pain in the ass, but he wasn’t the devil.

She didn’t think.

“Hello, ladies,” Scott said, raising an eyebrow at Christina, though he didn’t so much as glance in Annie’s direction. “I hope you’re not doing anything fun over Christmas without me.”

“Not much,” Christina said shortly, before turning away and rolling her eyes discreetly at Annie. “Hey, Annie – if you don’t mind, I think we could put a few more boxes of sugar cookies on the shelves. Mind giving me a hand?”

“Not at all,” Annie said quickly, grateful for any excuse to not spend time with Scott.

Together, they headed out to the storeroom. Christina looked at Annie over her shoulder, pulling a face.

“Ugh, yuck,” she whispered, as she reached up for a box of cookies.

“No kidding. He’s super slimy,” Annie said. To be honest, she was often on her guard around new people – she admitted it, she had trust issues – but Scott was a cut above the usual, even without what had happened to Danny.

Annie glanced through the small opening she’d left in the door, suddenly paranoid that Scott might be eavesdropping on them.

He wasn’t – but what he was doing made her gasp, her fingers tightening around the box of cookies in her hands.

No – he can’t be –

“Wait here a moment,” she muttered quickly to Christina, before abruptly pushing the door to the storeroom open, surprising Scott where he was leaning over the register, the thumb of one hand still pressed to the open cash drawer to stop it from springing open too fast and making a sound.

His other hand was holding a wad of cash – almost the whole morning’s taking, in fact, from what Annie could tell at a glance.

“Oh, Annie,” Scott said, quickly smoothing down the look of surprise and alarm on his face. “My dad asked me to stop by and pick this up. He wants me to take it to the bank early.”

Annie swallowed. She knew full well that was a lie. Mr. Dearborn would definitely have mentioned something like that to her.

“Maybe,” she said carefully. “He didn’t say anything like that to me.”

Scott laughed, but Annie still saw the quick flash of anger in his eyes. “Well, no offense, but why would he? You’re not exactly high up on the totem pole here, are you?”

Blinking,