The poor woman had announced a Christmas party, not the bulldozing of their homes. And as someone who’d personally tried to catch the Santa Moose, Rick knew Lana had set herself up to fall spectacularly. The only difference was that too many in this room would love to see her fail. Someone should warn her the moose was dangerous—someone closer to her than Rick. Zoey might not know better, but Graham shouldn’t keep giving her pinkie swears and promises that catching the Santa Moose would change anyone’s mind.
Lana wasn’t going to win over the town. Not when she owned most of it.
“Last chance, is there anyone else who has an announcement?” Jonah asked, trying to draw everyone’s attention back to him. It wasn’t working.
Rick glanced at Lana, and for a brief moment, she let her breezy smile fall, her shoulders slumping as she nibbled on a bit of cookie. He hated being the center of attention, and everyone already knew he held a pool tournament every year right before Christmas. But too many people were staring at her, and not in the good way. Without realizing what he was doing, Rick shoved to his feet.
Standing there self-consciously, Rick said, “I’m doing the holiday pool tournament thing again this year. Same day as Lana’s thing, later that night. So…yeah.”
So far, the tournaments he held at the pool hall were still lucrative enough to keep running them. They were a pain in the ass, but they got people in the door. And lately, his door hadn’t been swinging open nearly as often as he needed it to.
“There’s a bigger prize this year,” he added. “A thousand dollars to the winner.”
Ash flashed the room a smirk. “What Rick means is I’m going to be a grand richer. If you’re smart, you’ll stay home.”
“Please, Zoey’s gonna crush you,” Graham bragged.
“You two never stop.” Zoey sighed good-naturedly. “Are you sure you aren’t all related?”
As they argued about whether or not Graham’s mother and the Lockett twins’ father could have been secretly involved in a romantic tryst, Rick stood there feeling stupid. There had been more, but he wasn’t all that interested in continuing. The only one still paying attention to him was Lana. Rick gratefully dropped back into his seat. Lana shot him an appreciative look from across the chilly room, warming him far better than the space heaters working overtime.
Man, that woman was pretty.
The first time Rick had seen Lana Montgomery on one of her many visits to Moose Springs over the last several years, his eyes had nearly fallen out of his head. That look had been by accident, and as a then happily married man, Rick had kept his eyes firmly anywhere else when the bombshell was in his vicinity.
Now that he was allowed to look, Rick tried not to. Curves like hers were dangerously fast, and Rick’s life had slowed to a crawl. Not only was he not interested in dangerous curves, he was seriously considering getting off the road permanently. Rick wasn’t a loner, but he was a private guy. And when you’re brutally, humiliatingly left in front of the entire town, it does more than make you a source of local gossip.
It makes you the most pathetic schmuck in the entire village.
Normally, Rick was not the kind of man who women like Lana noticed, so he didn’t understand why she flashed him a sweet smile across the room. He tried to return that smile, but it was awkwardly done at best, probably coming off as a grimace. The last few years hadn’t been the easiest, and Rick was out of practice. Her positivity never failed to impress him though, especially when she had her hands full with a town that hated her.
They all heard Graham’s joke that she was the evil overlord, but it was true that nearly every business owner in the town hall was waiting for the proverbial axe to fall on them. When the Montgomery Group bought out most of the commercial property in Moose Springs, it left the bulk of them at her mercy. If she felt like it, she could take down the entire town.
He was very aware of how behind he was on his business’s rent and that he owed the gorgeous woman across the row more than he could hope to regain before rent came due again.
Like everyone else, Rick was worried about keeping a roof over his and his nephew’s heads. Then again, powerful women had always been a turn-on.
Rick had zoned out, missing whatever Jonah had left to say. Apparently, the meeting was over. Jonah had places to be and things to do, even if their overworked police officer didn’t want to go there or do those things. Rick lingered in his seat, letting everyone else mill about and move toward the exit, then he rose to his feet and started to put up the folding chairs left on the barn floor.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Lana and Zoey in a spirited discussion as they folded chairs on the other side of the barn, but their voices were hushed. Only the words “moose” and “proper attire” were audible. Graham, who was within hearing distance of the pair as he turned off and gathered the space heaters, kept chuckling.
Ash normally would have helped, but tonight she sat on the top of the snacks table, finishing the last of the cookies instead. A cigarette was in her hand. Ash didn’t need another brother figure in her life, but Rick had been playing that role with both of them since they were kids. Besides, Christmas had been tough on all the Locketts since Ash’s and Easton’s mother had died, so he tried to pay more attention to both the twins this time of year.
“Didn’t anyone tell you it’s dangerous to smoke in a barn? And illegal?”
Not that Ash had ever let a little thing like breaking the law stop her from what she wanted to do on any given day. She snorted, waggling the travel mug she was using to flick her cigarette into.
“I live on the wild side,” she said. “Plus, no hay or Jonahs in here. I’m pretty sure it’ll be okay.”
“The elves might not like it.”
“They’re sugar addicts, all of them.”
One of the plastic elves had survived being played with by a group of children, only to be abandoned on the floor. Retrieving it, Rick stood the elf on the table next to Ash’s hip.
At her raised eyebrow, he shrugged. “You looked lonely.”
“I’m not lonely.” Except Ash spent a lot of time by herself, flying supplies up and down the state. Years of knowing her had taught Rick that the lonelier she felt, the more she smoked.
“You’re not not lonely.”
“I suppose I’ll have to go to Lana’s stupid party.” Sighing, she finished her cigarette. “Zoey will make sad eyes at all of us if we don’t.”
“It’s free cookies,” Rick said. “Who’s going to pass on those?”
Ash’s lips curved. “I don’t know, but the more that pass, the more leftovers for me.”
They’d known each other all their lives, so Rick wasn’t buying the tough routine.