Page 24 of Rocky Mountain Desire
Her cherry-piping sale pushed out the door, the front bells tinkling merrily, the same moment one of the hardware employees trolleyed in a tall box.
“Delivery for you, Hope. I’ve got three more in the truck. Where do you want them?”
The blast of cold through the door snapped off as he closed it behind him, but Hope examined his load with trepidation. “Why are you delivering my new shelves now? I thought no one could build them until the New Year? I asked for them to be stored until then.”
He snapped to attention, a grin plastered to his face. “You were on the Secret Santa list. Someone is coming out today to set them up for you.”
Mortification froze her feet in place. Only he looked so damn pleased about the whole thing she forced a smile. “Well. That’s…nice. Umm, I don’t remember signing up for the Secret Santa. In fact, I know I didn’t.”
“Your name was on the list, and someone volunteered to drop by. That’s all I know. Love this time of year—people are so giving.”
He pointed at his burden and Hope nodded. No matter how horrified she was, she couldn’t leave him standing there. “Can you put them just outside the back storage room, please?”
All the while she served her customers and tidied the shop from the mad scramble of the morning, Hope tried to figure out who the hell would have put her name down for the Secret Santa.
It was a charity service. She didn’t need help. In fact, she’d offered items herself, making a couple of quilts for the hospital and nursing home.
Being lumped as a charity case wasn’t a happy thought. Even the pleasure of getting to organize the chaos of the back room onto sturdy metal shelving wasn’t enough to eliminate the distaste in her mouth.
The phone rang, and she hurried to answer it, an additional flash of discomfort hitting as she recognized Clay’s voice.
“How’s my favourite fabric addict?”
She went with part of the truth. “Busy as the elves in the workshop. I can’t talk for long.”
“No worries. Just wanted to remind you I’ll be dropping by later with lunch and a surprise.”
Shit.She fumbled for words. “Right. Lunch.”
He hummed in disapproval. “You’d forgotten, hadn’t you?”
“Guilty.” Although, if he brought food over as he’d promised after their last date, at least that would force her to eat. Otherwise she’d have skipped lunch completely today. “I can’t guarantee a lot of time to visit.”
“You should have hired extra help over the holidays.”
Going solo was the only way to survive the cash drought. “I’ll get by. See you in…how long?”
“Forty-five minutes, an hour at the most.”
Hope dealt with customers and smiled and chatted, but half her mind was on Clay. He was a nice enough guy, patient and attractive…
And for some reason, he just didn’t ring her bells.
Maybe there was too much on her plate right now, and the libido could only take so much stress, but all she wanted was to chat a little then fall into bed—alone. Most definitely alone.
Crazy, mixed-up, stupid female hormones.
With how swamped she was, dealing with the issue right now was out of the question. She’d just have to acknowledge her system was broken. After the holidays were over, things would kick back to normal and she’d be interested in something sexual again. That had to be the solution, because there was no other way she saw to fix it.
She smiled up at the next customer and all her thoughts about broken sex drives fluttered away like tinsel on the wind. Matt’s firm jaw and cold-reddened cheeks were just visible above the raised collar of his thick winter coat—the coat he was removing and hanging on the rack. Like he planned to stay for a while. Tingles raced over her as if she’d hit an exposed wire on the Christmas light string.
“Can I get you something?”
He laughed. “Hi, Hope. How are things? Nice to see you too.”
“Well, yeah, hi. What are you doing here?” Okay, that was borderline rude, but being shell-shocked didn’t make for quick polite responses.
He held up a hand then dug into his back pocket. “My mom had a list of things she needed last minute, but she got roped into babysitting the nephews while Beth wraps gifts. Can you package these up for her?”
