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“I’ve got to go. I’ve got a huge crack in my screen and I don’t want to make it worse.”
“Why did you scream, though?”
“Because my truck laughed at me. I’ll call you later.”
Declan ended the call and got to his feet, wiping at the back of his wet jeans. He picked up as much of the broken gnome as he could see and tossed it into the back of his truck before going to look for the source of that horrifying laugh. Declan found the voice box speaker taped to the back of his headrest and flipped the switch on the side before throwing that in the back with the broken gnome.
His body shaking with anger, he shoved the remaining statues to the other side of the cab. Declan estimated about thirty of the hideous ceramics were inside and clenched his jaw as he stuck his key into the ignition. Whatever started this feud, he was about to finish it.
Revving his truck to life, he backed out of his space and headed for Evergreen Circle. He was afraid to check his dad’s location and make the screen crack worse, so until he got it in writing that Holly Winters would be replacing his phone, Declan wasn’t going to mess with it.
He took the right of way from his darkened home and hit a hard left into the holiday neighborhood. The houses were large, with well-manicured lawns and immaculate landscaping. He’d heard through several people that Holly made a hundred thousand or more a year with her online elf videos and it amazed him that her silly YouTube channel paid for all of this. People were easily entertained, it seemed.
Declan whipped into her driveway and grabbed a gnome, exiting his vehicle to march up her walkway while pulling his broken phone out of his pocket. The porch light was on, and he stepped directly below it to bang on her front door, waiting impatiently for her to answer. Finally, Declan heard the lock turn and Holly peered out at him with a dark glower.
“What are you doing here?”
Declan held up his phone, screen towards Holly, in his right hand and the gnome in the other. “Because of what you did, I dropped my phone and it shattered. You need to fix this.”
Holly pulled the door all the way open and stepped into the doorway wearing a simple red sweater and buffalo plaid pajama pants. “You going to pay to deep clean all the glitter out of my house?”
“Are you serious? Glitter is harmless. This is a thousand-dollar phone and I can’t even make a call out with it like this.”
“Ever think its karma for being a bitter, angry human being?”
“No, although I sometimes wonder what I ever did to deserve you moving into the space next door.”
Holly stepped all the way out, coming close enough to go toe to toe with him, although she was too short for nose to nose. “I’ll have you know that most people consider me a delightful person.”
“Your family doesn’t count, Elf. They have to love you.”
Holly gasped and a twinge of guilt squeezed his chest. Before he had a chance to back track and apologize, she leaned over and grabbed a fistful of snow from her porch chair, slamming the cold lump into his chest with the flat of her hand. All apologies went out the window and Declan slipped his phone into his pocket.
“You really shouldn’t have done that.”
Her eyes widened, but before she could run back inside, Declan tossed the gnome onto her lawn and wrapped his arms around her waist, hefting her up over his shoulder kicking and screaming.
“Declan Gallagher, don’t you even think about it,” she hollered two seconds before he dumped her, gentler than she deserved, onto her back in snow covering her lawn. Holly gasped, staring up at him with her mouth hanging open. “You cretin!”
Placing one hand into the frigid snow next to her head, he leaned over her until their faces were only a few inches apart. “Don’t start a snowball fight you can’t win, Elf.”
When she tried to throw another fistful at him, Declan caught her wrist. “You really don’t know when to give up, do you?”
Holly glared at him. “By the time I’m done with you, Declan, you’ll be begging for mercy.”
He chuckled. “That’s not going to happen.”
Declan didn’t have time to stop her other hand from shoving a ball of snow under the back of his shirt, and he lost his balance, falling on top of her with a grunt. His knees hit the ground on either side of her legs, pinning her down.
“Ooof,” she squeaked, her hand flying to his chest.
Icy wetness ran down into his jeans and along the sides of his waist, the skin of his butt stinging with cold, but Declan was frozen in place, distracted by the warmth of her outer thighs against his inner. He tried to hold himself off her with his hands lost in the frigid snow, but the angle only pressed his unmistakable hard-on into her.
It’s been a while and you’re lying on top of her. It’s a natural reaction.
Declan’s gaze met hers in the porch light, and he couldn’t stop staring at her flushed cheeks, her full lips parted, and the arch of her neck. He knew she was gorgeous, he’d have to be blind not to, but this was the first time he’d taken the time to appreciate it.
Neither of them moved a muscle for several moments, until a flashlight beam honed in on them. Declan rolled off Holly, shielding his eyes from the blinding light.
