Drew nodded. “Of course. That's Donna and this is Jim.”
“It's nice to meet you, Donna,” Rory said with a little laugh. “Donna and Jim are interesting reindeer names.”
“They're named after a couple people back home.”
She looked up at him. “People that are special to you or people you don't like?”
He laughed. “I love all of my animals, so I would never name any of them after people I don't like.”
“So, it's an honor for your reindeer to be named after them?”
“I hope they feel that way.”
She looked at him for a longer moment but didn't say anything.
“The two that are already up at the barn are Lucy and Ethel.”
Rory laughed. “Are they named after people you know?”
“After my grandmother's favorite TV show.”
She nodded, but her smile remained. “So three girls and a boy?”
Drew had been holding his breath for her to say oh, you're such a nice guy or that’s so sweet. And he supposed that it was sweet that he was naming animals after people he cared about or, in the case of his grandmother's favorite television show, something to make her smile.
But it was just one more example of how he was having a very hard time staying focused on the I-want-to-talk-dirty-to-you guy he wanted to be for this week, rather than the I-want-to-tell-you-about-my-grandmother guy he was already showing to Rory. But he did want to tell her about his Grandma Molly. And that she was absolutely kickass at Jeopardy. And that she made the best pumpkin pie in the world. And that about every three months she pretended her knee arthritis flared up so she could go to PT for a couple of weeks and flirt with the therapist, Blake, who was fifty years her junior.
“Yeah. Most people don't realize that reindeer with antlers are typically females.”
“Really?”
“Yep. All of Santa’s reindeer have to be girls,” he said with a grin. “Adult males lose their antlers well before Christmas, but the females don’t lose them till spring.”
“What about Jim?” Rory asked.
“Well, he’s still kind of a baby. He’s a juvenile so it will take longer for him to lose his. So this year he gets to be a Christmas reindeer.”
Rory looked intrigued, and Drew couldn't help but like that.
“What else?” she asked. “Tell me another interesting reindeer fact.”
“Reindeer hooves expand in the summer when the ground is softer and shrink in the winter when the ground is harder.”
Her eyes went a little rounder in interest.
It was not sexy, but he could talk about his animals all day. He’d learned the hard way that not all women were fascinated with alpacas—no matter how cute they were—or reindeer, even at Christmas time.
“That's pretty cool,” Rory said as they put Donna and Jim into their stalls and got them settled. “Could you come up with a bunch of trivia facts about the reindeer that we could incorporate into some games for the kids?”
He grinned at her. “Reindeer games?”
She laughed. “Of course.”
“Absolutely.”
They stepped back out of the barn into the yard. Things were quieting down as the sun was starting to set and families were leaving the petting zoo to go home for dinner.
“So what all still needs to be done?” he asked, looking around.
Santa’s shack was fully put together, including the porch, though the front was not painted. The sign with the alligator was up and pointing the right direction. They had gifts as of today, thanks to the “fabulous” Beau Hebert, and they now had reindeer.
“I need to finish painting the shack and pave the front walk with the sparkly red bricks,” she said, pointing to the side of the shack where, sure enough, there was a pile of sparkly red bricks. “Then I need to wrap all the toys for the kids.”
“You have to wrap them all yourself?”
She lifted a shoulder. “I volunteered.”
Do not offer to help, do not offer to help, do not offer to help.
It was right on the tip of his tongue to say, “Let's get some cocoa, or better yet peppermint ice cream, and wrap those gifts together in front of the fire.”
But he didn't need to help her. She wanted to do this herself. He could respect that. Plus, the more time he was spending with her, the more he wanted to know about her work, her plans for the Christmas party with the kids, and, God help him, even her childhood.
And the more he wanted to know if she smelled like peppermint all over.
She was so damned beautiful. The dress showed off delicious curves and creamy skin—which was probably where the ‘ice cream’ part of his fantasy was coming from—and he definitely loved that dress. But more, her smiles and the way her eyes showed every emotion—from her earnestness about making the Santa Village perfect to her pride in her business to how much she wanted him even if he knew too much about reindeer and didn’t have an ounce of Cajun blood in him—made her absolutely gorgeous.
“Okay then.” He clapped his hands together. “Uh, thanks for the help with the reindeer. I think I’m gonna head up to Paige and Mitch's. It was…really nice to meet you.”
And with that he turned on his heel and started across the barnyard.
He knew he'd startled her. That was a very abrupt exit. Downright rude, actually.
Drew from Appleby would never have done something like that. His mother and grandmother—the one who loved I Love Lucy and the one who loved true crime and unsolved mystery documentaries—would both be appalled.
But he honestly didn't know how else to go about pulling himself away from Rory. Or to resist her.
Getting away from her seem like the only option.
“Merry Christmas, Drew!” he heard her call behind him a few seconds later.
For some reason that made his gut clench and something in his chest feel a little tight. But he resisted turning around and instead just lifted a hand and waved to her over his shoulder. He even resisted looking over at the barn as he drove his truck past on his way out to Mitch and Paige's house a few blocks down the same road that ran in front of the petting zoo.
Well, almost. He glanced in his rearview mirror just before the petting zoo’s barnyard slipped out of view.
But he couldn't see her.
Which should have been fortunate.
Instead, he had to consciously shove away thoughts of her going back inside and grabbing buckets of paint to start painting Santa’s cabin all alone.
He needed to get up to Ellie's ASAP. He needed to find a hot girl with normal-colored hair, wearing blue jeans, who’d had a perfectly normal childhood, thought reindeer smelled bad, and had no aspirations for giving her new hometown a magical Christmas.
And he definitely did not need any peppermint ice cream, no matter how much his subconscious told him otherwise.
4
“So now you’re Santa's little helper, huh?”
Rory jerked and screamed at the sound of the male voice behind her.
She slapped her hand over her thundering heart and sucked in a deep breath. “You scared the shit out of me!”
Roger Robins gave her one of his classic I-don't-really-care grins. “Sorry.”