home.”
“Please, Zoey’s gonna crush you,” Graham bragged.
“You two never stop.” Zoey sighed good-naturedly. “Are you sure you aren’t all related?”
As they argued about whether or not Graham’s mother and the Lockett twins’ father could have been secretly involved in a romantic tryst, Rick stood there feeling stupid. There had been more, but he wasn’t all that interested in continuing. The only one still paying attention to him was Lana. Rick gratefully dropped back into his seat. Lana shot him an appreciative look from across the chilly room, warming him far better than the space heaters working overtime.
Man, that woman was pretty.
The first time Rick had seen Lana Montgomery on one of her many visits to Moose Springs over the last several years, his eyes had nearly fallen out of his head. That look had been by accident, and as a then happily married man, Rick had kept his eyes firmly anywhere else when the bombshell was in his vicinity.
Now that he was allowed to look, Rick tried not to. Curves like hers were dangerously fast, and Rick’s life had slowed to a crawl. Not only was he not interested in dangerous curves, he was seriously considering getting off the road permanently. Rick wasn’t a loner, but he was a private guy. And when you’re brutally, humiliatingly left in front of the entire town, it does more than make you a source of local gossip.
It makes you the most pathetic schmuck in the entire village.
Normally, Rick was not the kind of man who women like Lana noticed, so he didn’t understand why she flashed him a sweet smile across the room. He tried to return that smile, but it was awkwardly done at best, probably coming off as a grimace. The last few years hadn’t been the easiest, and Rick was out of practice. Her positivity never failed to impress him though, especially when she had her hands full with a town that hated her.
They all heard Graham’s joke that she was the evil overlord, but it was true that nearly every business owner in the town hall was waiting for the proverbial axe to fall on them. When the Montgomery Group bought out most of the commercial property in Moose Springs, it left the bulk of them at her mercy. If she felt like it, she could take down the entire town.
He was very aware of how behind he was on his business’s rent and that he owed the gorgeous woman across the row more than he could hope to regain before rent came due again.
Like everyone else, Rick was worried about keeping a roof over his and his nephew’s heads. Then again, powerful women had always been a turn-on.
Rick had zoned out, missing whatever Jonah had left to say. Apparently, the meeting was over. Jonah had places to be and things to do, even if their overworked police officer didn’t want to go there or do those things. Rick lingered in his seat, letting everyone else mill about and move toward the exit, then he rose to his feet and started to put up the folding chairs left on the barn floor.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Lana and Zoey in a spirited discussion as they folded chairs on the other side of the barn, but their voices were hushed. Only the words “moose” and “proper attire” were audible. Graham, who was within hearing distance of the pair as he turned off and gathered the space heaters, kept chuckling.
Ash normally would have helped, but tonight she sat on the top of the snacks table, finishing the last of the cookies instead. A cigarette was in her hand. Ash didn’t need another brother figure in her life, but Rick had been playing that role with both of them since they were kids. Besides, Christmas had been tough on all the Locketts since Ash’s and Easton’s mother had died, so he tried to pay more attention to both the twins this time of year.
“Didn’t anyone tell you it’s dangerous to smoke in a barn? And illegal?”
Not that Ash had ever let a little thing like breaking the law stop her from what she wanted to do on any given day. She snorted, waggling the travel mug she was using to flick her cigarette into.
“I live on the wild side,” she said. “Plus, no hay or Jonahs in here. I’m pretty sure it’ll be okay.”
“The elves might not like it.”
“They’re sugar addicts, all of them.”
One of the plastic elves