Page 30 of A Pen Pal for Christmas

Hudson turned to face me fully, his brow furrowed. “Sofia, if there’s something going on, you need to tell me.”

“It’s not…” I trailed off, glancing away. “I think I’m just being paranoid. He hasn’t done anything, but I can’t shake the feeling that he’s… I don’t know. Trying to get in my head.”

Hudson’s expression softened, though the tension in his frame didn’t ease. “You’re not being paranoid. If he’s here, watching you, then he’s already in your head. That’s what guys like him do.”

My chest tightened at the weight of his words, and though I wanted to look up at him, I kept me eyes on the ground between us.

“I’m still here, Sofia,” Hudson continued, lifting a gloved hand to my chin and urging me to meet his gaze. “If anything happens, you tell me. Got it? You promised.”

I huffed out a laugh, but the concern in his eyes chipped away at my defenses. Finally, I nodded. “Okay.”

How long had it been since someone offered to stand beside me instead of expecting me to figure everything out alone? The thought was foreign enough to make my chest ache.

Hudson glanced over his shoulder, his gaze narrowing slightly as he looked back toward the now-Dane-free lamppost. When he turned back to me, his expression was unreadable, but his voice was calm. “C’mon. Let’s find Grace before she buys out the entire ornament booth.”

Clocktower clue abandoned, I nodded, falling into step beside him again. But even as we walked away, I couldn’t shake the feeling of Dane’s eyes on me, lingering like a shadow I couldn’t outrun.

CHAPTER 11

Hudson

"Hudson!"

Nick’s voice cut through the comfortable hum of The Hearthstone, and I spotted him waving from the far corner of the bar. I threaded through the crowd, catching the familiar smell of wood polish and beer, the faint twinkle of string lights overhead. The place hadn’t changed much in the years I’d been gone—same warm, lived-in charm.

But the feeling in my chest wasn’t nostalgia.

I told myself I was just looking for the guys. But the truth was, my eyes had already found her. Sofia was behind the bar, her dark hair in a loose braid that fell over one shoulder. She moved with an effortless grace, like she was born to be there, her laugh carrying faintly above the low buzz of conversation.

I told myself that I wasn’t here for her. That she wasn’t the main reason I’d accepted Nick’s invitation tonight. But even as I headed toward Nick and the guys, I felt her pull.

Nick grinned as I approached, and Tommy gave a small nod of acknowledgment. Beside him sat a guy I hadn’t met before.

“Hudson, this is Jack Rhodes,” Tommy said, gesturing between us. “My partner.”

“And my wife’s brother,” Nick added.

Jack extended a hand. “Good to meet you.”

I shook his hand before settling onto my stool. “You too.”

I accepted the beer Nick slid across the bar top. Was I disappointed that they’d snagged me one instead of giving me a chance to order from Sofia? Yes. But they didn’t need to know that.

“Jamie’s around here somewhere,” Nick said. “Think he stepped outside to take a call.”

“Is he on leave, too?” I asked.

Nick and I had gone to high school with Jamie, but I hadn’t seen him since. He’d joined the Marines and left town right after I had. It’d been good to see him at the scavenger hunt earlier, but we hadn’t managed to get to the catching up conversation since there were clues to figure out and bets to win.

Or to lose, in our case.

I’d wanted to get into the spirit of the competition like I used to—and like I’d told my pen pal I was planning to—but as soon as I’d seen Sofia in the wide open space of the square, I couldn’t bring myself to focus on much else. There was something about the setting that had me on edge. I spent the whole time watching for any signs of trouble, so when Dane made an appearance, I was glad I’d been ready for that instead of lost in the drive to win.

“Nah, Jamie’s back for good as of about six months ago,” Nick replied, leaning back on his stool. “Moved back to town and joined the fire department.”

Tommy grinned. “I don’t know him well yet, but dude’s a beast. He can pull two shifts in a row, barely sleep, and somehow make it to the gym often enough to snag himself a spot in the firefighter calendar. Makes the rest of us look bad.”

“Oh, please,” Jack chimed in. “If half our job meant hanging out at the station working out until we got a call, maybe the police would have a calendar, too.”

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