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“What’s going on out here? I heard shouting.”
Holly climbed to her feet with jerky motions and gave a little wave. “I’m fine, Mr. James. Declan was just returning my gnome to me, and we both slipped.”
The man lowered the flashlight and it took a second for Declan to recognize his high school PE teacher but there was no mistaking the familiar disapproval in the older man’s gaze. He’d tormented Declan relentlessly. Mr. James had told Declan on more than one occasion that he lacked discipline and drive, and when Declan finally lost his cool and told the older man off, he’d been on the verge of a three-day suspension. If his mom hadn’t smoothed things over for him, Declan had a feeling Mr. James would have booted him.
“Is that right?” Mr. James asked. “You getting clumsy, Gallagher?”
Declan nodded before getting up and retrieving the tossed gnome, holding it out to Holly. When she wrapped her hand around it, he pulled her towards him and lowered his voice. “Be ready, Elf. You’re going to be the one begging.”
“In your dreams,” Holly snapped. She took her gnome from his grasp and called cheerfully, “Goodnight, Mr. James,” before she disappeared inside her house.
Declan turned around to face Mr. James, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Goodnight, Mr. James.”
The older man walked away without a word, only to pause when he reached the front of Declan’s truck. He didn’t speak as he seemed to study the strips of plastic hanging off the side, then simply shook his head as he disappeared into the dark.
Declan shot one more glance at Holly’s house and caught her standing in the corner of the window watching him, the light behind her outlining her curves dramatically, and he jerked his head around. He’d gone this long seeing Holly for what she was; no way was he going to let a tussle in the snow change his mind.
Holly Winters was the enemy, and he refused to forget it.
CHAPTER 7
Wednesday morning, holly walked out of her house with her eyes at half-mast under her sunglasses and took another large drink of her coffee. After she’d tossed and turned the last two nights, plotting another diabolical prank that would bring Declan Gallagher to his knees, she’d managed to squeeze in an hour and a half of shut-eye until her alarm went off. At least her employee, Erica Jackson, would be there today to help out.
Holly grabbed the snow shovel from the side of her porch steps and set her coffee on the railing. She needed to get the walkway cleared off and de-iced before the snow melted this afternoon and refroze, turning the cement into a skating rink. The scrape of the plastic snow shovel made her wince, but she kept on, tossing the scoops of ivory fluff onto her snow-covered lawn. Normally the boy across the street would shovel her walkway for ten bucks, but the family had put their house up for sale last spring and moved.
The shimmer of something sparkling caught her eye on the sleeve of her jacket. She brushed off the specks of glitter, something she’d gotten used to finding over the last few days, and her mind wandered to Declan.
They hated each other with every fiber of their being, but the other night when he’d been on top of her, staring down at her mouth, she thought…
Well, for a moment she’d expected him to kiss her.
Which was crazy, of course. Especially because they’d been at each other’s throats moments before he’d dumped her in the snow. She didn’t like to think about how good he’d felt or how tempted she’d been to reach up and run her hands along his arms and shoulders. He’d picked Holly up like she weighed nothing, so he had to have some pretty good muscles under that button-up flannel shirt, and that speculation had contributed to a moment or two of her sleepless nights.
Holly waved her hands in front of her and shook her head, as if the motion would ward off the spark of curiosity that had been burning ever since he’d fallen on top of her, his body pressed into hers. Maybe it had been too long since she’d been with someone and that’s what had her hormones going bonkers, but Holly knew, logically, deep down, that she did not want to bang Declan Gallagher. That would be a monumental mistake.
A date. That’s what you need. Another plan of attack on Declan and a handsome man to buy you sweets and call you pretty afterward.
“Good morning, Holly,” Theodore James called as he rounded the corner of her garage, leaving footprints in his wake. In his early sixties, he seemed to spend his retirement using passive aggressiveness on his neighbors and rubbing his hand over his shiny bald head like he was trying to make a wish. “Glad you’re getting around to this.”
Getting around to it? It’s barely eight in the morning and I just shoveled it yesterday, she thought grumpily. Mr. James had his good points, which was why they’d elected him as head of the HOA for Evergreen Circle, but he could be a pain in the butt and condescending to boot.
He stepped off the walkway onto her lawn and folded his arms over his chest. “Do I need to come over with my snow plow and do your driveway, or are you going to get to that before you leave, too?”
“I’ve got a plow on my four-wheeler.” Which he knew full well. “I’ll do it, don’t you worry.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it. We just want the neighborhood to be uniform and well-maintained so when the displays go up, people are discussing how amazing they are and not how unkempt the Evergreen looks. Like those people who bought the house across from you? I have to go have a talk with them about their cat.”
“They have a cat?” Holly fought the urge to roll her eyes. Theodore had a thing about animals and took an immediate dislike of anyone in the neighborhood who had them, even if they kept them indoors.
“Yes, a long-haired black thing. You haven’t seen it?”
“I haven’t.”
“Well, I’ve noticed it running around the neighborhood and I started finding poop on my lawn. If they can’t keep it under control, I’m going to have to enforce Clause Nineteen Section B of the Homeowner’s Agreement.”
Holly didn’t know for sure what he was talking about but the year Holly moved in, Theodore put a live trap out. He said it was to catch a rabbit who had been eating his garden, but after the third feline pet went missing, the neighbors had banded together against him and he’d put it away.
“I don’t think you want to put out the live trap again. I’m sure you going over there and making them aware of the situation will be enough.”
