Page 17 of Falling for the Grinchy Bad Boy

“Oh, you big bully.” The words burst out of me before I could stop them. “I will not stand here and be lectured for an accident. Go ahead, write it all down, put it in an envelope, and shove it down your chimney hole.”

The second I said it, I regretted it.

Another one of the firefighters materialized behind him. “Chimney hole?” he said with a laugh. “I see you’re making friends, Cooper.”

Cooper’s brow arched, his mouth twitching like he was fighting a smile, which only made me glare harder.

“Come on, Joy,” Aunt Victoria said, steering me toward the doors before I could dig myself deeper. “We’ve got cocoa to salvage and thirsty kids.”

I let her drag me away, chin high, even though every nerve in my body was buzzing from the weight of his gaze. I wanted to turn around and stomp right back over to the man. I didn’t know where he thought he got off, but I really wanted to give him a piece of my mind. He humiliated me in front of all those people.

It was a simple accident!

The last thing I saw before we slipped back inside was Cooper Frost, standing dumbfounded in the snow, watching me go like he wasn’t sure what had just hit him.

The cafeteria smelled faintly less like burnt sugar and more like humiliation by the time we got back inside. Aunt Victoria busied herself re-plugging the less-scorched hot plate while I tried to clean up the mess on the table.

“You know he’s aged well,” my aunt said.

I pressed my palms to my face. “Do not.”

“He’s very handsome.”

“Stop.”

“And clearly still interested.”

I peeked over my fingers. “Interested? He just called me a public menace. And humiliated me. I think the only thing he’s interested in is running me out of town with his big red firetruck.”

She smirked. “Sometimes interest wears funny disguises.”

I groaned and wiped off the tablecloth. “Kill me now.”

“Not until after the festival,” she said cheerfully.

Deep down, a small and treacherous part of me replayed the look in his eyes. Yes, they’d been angry. Yes, he had been lecturing me. But underneath all that storm and scowl, something else had flickered. Recognition. Awareness.

Did he remember that kiss?

After seeing him again, I was pretty sure there had been a million kisses after me. I was probably one in a long line of ladies that came after me. There was no way he remembered or cared about that kiss. I was a blip on his radar.

I wondered if he had a girlfriend. I went out of my way to avoid the small-town gossip when I was in New York. Knowing Cooper and getting a good look at him, I was certain there was no way that man had managed to stay single for more than five minutes. Then again, he was probably a player.

Definitely a player. Cooper Frost was the kind of guy that was all about hit it and quit it. Love ‘em and leave ‘em.

Just like in high school.