Chapter Three
ELLIE
The air was brisk, and snow snapped in the air. It also swirled around the man I hadn’t been able to get out of my mind for the last day.
Making out under the mistletoe wasn’t exactly in my life plan. Then again, having three jobs kind of killed all ideas of romance. So much so that the kiss seemed like a fuzzy flash in a dream. The kind you wake from with a gasp and can’t quite shake.
Because surely that didn’t happen in real life to a woman like me.
It happened in those Hallmark movies I secretly binge-watched in July and November through December. I couldn’t help it. Those happy hours were a soft paintbrush over my usual lonely Christmases. Add in the Polaroids I took of styles for my look book, and watching those movies was almost like homework in between the moments of longing.
But it wasn’t real.
And neither was getting kissed by a stranger.
Even if this stranger had stunning gray eyes that matched the perpetually overcast sky of my hometown. Intelligence sparked there and made all sorts of crazy thoughts flutter in my brain like the flakes that spun around on the shelf of snow globes that lined my bedroom bookcase.
And because I wanted to step closer to him, I folded my arms over my bulging look book journal against my chest. He was holding my favorite cashmere scarf. The one I’d bought myself for graduation. Okay, so cosmetology school wasn’t exactly like a college graduation, but I had a brand spanking new certificate that said I could cut hair in the state of New York. For me, that was a big thing. It had warranted a rare splurge of spending on myself.
His long, slightly dirty fingers were holding out the scarf to me like a gift. Well, it wasn’t quite dirt on them, but they sure weren’t clean.
I glanced down at those fingers and quickly tucked the urge to snarl at him that he was ruining the fine fabric under the polite smile I pasted on my face. “Forever shouldn’t be offered up so easily for a scrap of cashmere.”
He brought the crimson scarf up to his whiskered chin and slid it down his neck. “It’s a lovely scrap of cashmere, and I wish I could say it still smells like you.” He inhaled and something warm and foreign unfurled in my belly. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case. But I remember how you tasted. And that’s why vanilla is my new favorite flavor until the end of time.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Then go to The Rusty Spoon and have yourself a vanilla milkshake. I highly recommend it.”
A flash of teeth gleamed from his full lips. He had just enough scruff to make my palms itch to touch, and a head of thick hair that the hairdresser flourishing inside of me wanted to get a hold of. But it was the lonely woman inside of me who was the real troublemaker. She wanted to step closer and see if that kiss was just a fluke.
But she was me, and that wasn’t happening.
“Then come with me.”
“What?” I blinked out of the haze that seemed to descend when I was with him. “No. I have to work.”
“Then after work.”
I shook myself out of the stupor. “I don’t know you. I don’t go out with strangers.”
He held out his hand. “Callum MacGregor.”
Of course he had a hot name. Hell, it was a Hallmark movie name. Not a real guy. Not a George or Gary or Greg. Nope, he was a Callum.
I glanced down at his hand, but I didn’t take it. I only hugged my notebook tighter. “Look, I’m flattered. And that kiss was…”
“Amazing. Stupendous. Life-altering.”
I frowned. “It was a kiss.”
He stepped forward. “You felt it. I know you did. You pulled me closer.” His attention dropped to my mouth, and he reached for me.
I stepped back, my spine going rigid. “It was stupid.”
His eyebrows snapped down. “No it wasn’t. It was the best thing that has happened to me in a damn long time.”
“Then you need some new hobbies.”
“I have plenty of hobbies, thanks. More than I can keep up with. What I don’t have is your name.”
I took another step back and slammed into the handle of the door to Brewed Awakening. Flustered, I dropped my notebook, and he swooped down to pick it up before the snow soaked into the pages.
“Hey. Give that back.”
He took my arm and gently moved me aside as a trio of girls came out with their coffees cupped in their hands as they talked animatedly about some guy from a TV show. I smiled at them awkwardly. They were regulars in the café.
The shorter one of the three glanced at me and then at my hot mistake, tilting her head with interest. “Who’s your friend, Ellie?”
I resisted the urge to growl at Katie. Now he knew my name.
“Ellie, is it? It suits you.” His long, dusty fingers clutched my idea book easily. As if they were born for such things. Long fingers that had cupped my face so tenderly, though they’d been much cleaner then. Hygiene was important, dammit.
I reached for my notebook again, and he held it just out of reach. “He’s no one. Stranger danger.”
Katie’s demeanor changed in a second. All three girls advanced on him. “Is he bothering you?”
Callum held up his other hand. “No trouble. Just trying to get to know the woman I’m going marry.”
Katie’s sky blue eyes went shiny. “Marry?” She curled her fingers around her to-go cup and brought it up for a quick sip, foam teasing her top lip. “Like love at first sight?”
“Oh, for God’s sake. Keep the book and my favorite freaking scarf for all I care.” I rushed around the girls and grabbed the door handle. “I’m going to be late, and Macy will kill me.”
“Excuse me, ladies,” Callum said with that charming drip of honey voice before he followed me inside. “C’mon, I’m harmless. There was an instant connection between us. You felt it too, or you wouldn’t be so pissed at me.”
I shrugged out of my coat. Before I could get it all the way down my long-sleeved uniform shirt, he was there to help. I huffed out an annoyed breath even as his snow-tinged cedar scent slid around me. The same scent that had chased me into dreams last night. My skin prickled where his calloused fingers grazed my wrist.
He draped my coat over his arm, and I did growl this time. “I don’t have time for this.”
“I’ll hold onto it until your shift is over.” He tucked my look book into the messenger bag over his shoulder. “It’ll be safe with me. Same as you, Ellie. I promise.”
“That’s what murderers say.”
His eyebrow spiked. “You know a few murderers?”
“No, but I watch plenty of true crime shows. Ted Bundy was super charming, wasn’t he?”
“Not really. If you looked closer, his eyes were dead. Any woman with half a bit of awareness would see the same. You are far too wary to get tricked like that.”
Tell that to my last boyfriend who got me to pay for half of the things he called essentials that he was short on cash for. Like his cell phone service and that nifty iPad I got him for Christmas last year.
I narrowed my eyes. “Or you’re charming enough to tell stories like that to make a woman feel safe.”