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“Wow, someone’s cranky. Are you going to let me in for coffee or shall I freeze to death out here?”
“While freezing would get me out of a murder rap, I kind of want the satisfaction of strangling you.”
“Hey, I’m not the only early riser. I saw Declan Gallagher setting up a ladder on the side of your house.”
Holly was suddenly wide awake and grabbed Delilah by the front of her coat, dragging her inside. “Get in here before he sees me.”
“Why do you care if he…wait.” Delilah covered her mouth with a pink gloved hand. “Do you like him?”
“I may have undetermined feelings for him, but I don’t want him to see me braless with my hair standing on end!” Holly ran to the sliding glass door in the kitchen and shut the blinds inside in case he decided to come around the back.
“So what happened between last week when we were getting glitter bombed to now with him decorating your house? I didn’t even know he did that kind of work. I thought he was all ‘Grrr, I hate Christmas. You ho ho hoes suck.’”
“He was, I mean, still is, but it’s almost like we’re dogs.”
“Dogs?” Delilah repeated slowly.
“I know it sounds weird, but at first we were circling and snapping at each other. Then something shifted and we were warily curious. Then we started sniffing each other and feeling each other out—”
“Whoa, wait, you guys did butt stuff?” Delilah shrieked and Holly slapped her hand over her friend’s mouth.
“No, now will you keep your voice down? It’s a metaphor! You’re a writer, don’t you know what that is?”
Delilah grabbed her hand and pulled it off her mouth. “First, I am not the one comparing myself to a dog, and second, I haven’t had any grown-up brain juice yet.”
“Let me get through this and then I’ll make you coffee. Where was I?”
“You were feeling each other up.”
Holly rolled her eyes. “Then he’s asking if we can try to get along and I’m telling him I want to take it a step further and then suddenly as he’s walking out the door last night he kisses me.”
“Oh, was it good?”
“I think so, but it was so brief, like a kiss and run, that I need a repeat to be sure.” Holly went around the counter to start the coffee. “But then he was talking about his dad selling the hardware store and leaving town before it happened.”
“That’s perfect for you though, ‘cause you don’t get attached.”
“Yeah, I thought the same thing.”
“You’re not thinking that way now?”
Holly sighed, snapping the lid down on the coffee maker. “I don’t know what I’m feeling, except being around Declan makes me feel charged, like a thousand volts of electricity racing through me, and I love that sensation.”
“Heck, I like the sensation and I’m living it vicariously through you. So what are you going to do about it?”
“Drink coffee. Get ready for work. Leave.”
“Uh-uh. You’re going to shower while I finish this, put on something to make that man go damn, and I’ll take my caffeine to go so you can get your round two.”
“Delilah, he’s trying to get my display up. I don’t want to distract him, but—oh! That reminds me. I think Mr. James next door has been sabotaging me!”
“Whaaaat? Why do you think that?”
“I was the last one on the circle list to have their display set up and everyone on the crew suddenly came down with a mysterious illness they won’t get over in time to put up my decorations. Every other company is booked solid. And someone got into my shed and messed up the order of my display.”
“Babe, you know I love and support you, but that sounds paranoid.”
“I thought the same thing, but when I brought up that I’d installed cameras and a security system, Mr. James got super squirrely.”
