toe to toe with him in the snarky banter department. He’d say something asinine, and she’d throw it right back at him. But this Bridget was not so much the vixen or the type A maid of honor. No, this Bridget was—
He caught a movement in his peripheral vision. “What are you doing now?”
She had her hand stretched in front of her face with her nose pressed to her palm.
“Hands do so many things, Soren,” she answered.
“Yeah, they’re your hands. They’re supposed to do things.”
“But so, so many things,” she replied, then ate another bite-sized gummy bear as a grizzly bear-sized realization hit him.
Oh shit! This was not good!
He turned onto Mistletoe Avenue. With shops donning Christmas wreaths and candy cane decorations, the place looked like a holiday movie set.
“Are we in Santa’s Village in the North Pole? This is just how I’d imagined it! Do you think we’re going to see a real Christmas fairy here?” Bridget trilled.
“No, we’re still in Kringle, Colorado,” he answered, trying to figure out what the hell to do as the sign for the Kringle Acres Retirement Community came into view. But when he went to turn into the parking area, two men, each with a white beard, raised their hands and signaled for them to stop.
He rolled down the driver’s side window. “What’s going on?”
“We’re moving the cats around,” a Santa lookalike replied as Soren did a double take.
Did he know this Santa?
Bridget leaned over to get a better look. “Kitty cats?”
Jesus! Not kitty cats again!
He gave the somewhat familiar man another look.
Could they have met?
No, there was no way he’d be acquainted with anyone in this damned place.
The other bearded man chuckled. “No, snowcats. You know, what you use to groom all that snow for the skiers on Kringle Mountain. The retired residents here take care of grooming the slopes and doing basic maintenance on the snowcats, right here, in the parking lot. We’re moving Rudolph to the front. He’s the snowcat with the big red light on top.”
“Rudolph is a big cantankerous cat,” Bridget exclaimed, then ate yet another gummy bear.
Soren pointed to her bag of candy. “Can I see that?”
She handed it over, and he leaned in and lowered his voice.
“I need you to act normal.”
“I am normal,” she whispered back, which, when whispered, sounded the exact opposite of normal.
He cleared his throat and turned back to the snowcat Santas. “Where should I park? We’re here with the cookies and to help with the spaghetti dinner.”
The man pointed down the road. “Over there, on the street! Just head inside. Tanner’s in the kitchen now. He can show you around. You’re the first volunteers to arrive.”
Deck the goddamn halls! Thank God! And this Tanner was going to have some explaining to do if his hunch about these freaking gummy bears was right.
He parked the truck, and Bridget bounced out the door with the basket of cookies.
“Hey! Wait for me!” he called.
She turned in circles as she walked, taking in the snowy, festive scenery.
“It’s magical here. It wasn’t like this when I was a kid. Look at all the decorations and lights. They’re everywhere!”
“It is Christmas,” he grumped.
“But this is like…” she trailed off, her words infused with wonder.
“Christmas on steroids?” he offered, taking in the town’s decked out Main Street.
She shook her head. “No, I was going to say it’s like Christmas on steroids.”
Shit! The more she talked, the more certain he became.
They entered Kringle Acres to find the main vestibule empty—a godsend because if his hunch was right, she’d only be getting loopier.
“Bridget, remember, you need to act normal,” he said, scanning the space.
“I told you, I am normal,” she whispered again, which didn’t make it sound any less not-normal.
“Hey, dude! Over here! I need to ask you something.”
Soren looked up to find Tanner waving to them from the other side of the room. He took Bridget’s hand and hurried toward the kid.
“I need to ask you something, too,” he replied sternly.
“Come on. Let’s get to the kitchen,” Tanner said with a nervous cringe as he led them down a hallway that opened up into the retirement community’s spacious kitchen.
The kid shifted his weight from foot to foot. “I was wondering if I left something in the mountain house kitchen. Something I was working on.”
Soren pulled the bag of gummy bears from his pocket. “These?”
Tanner’s eyes went wide. “Where’d they all go?”
Bridget did another twirl. “I ate them. I was so hungry, and they were so delicious, and then the