Bennett didn’t know what to expect from a Dream Harbor town meeting but the raucous laughter and raised voices he encountered when he walked through the doors were certainly not it. He squeezed past a group arguing about the appropriate time to start listening to Christmas music, nearly got knocked out by a woman in a power suit carrying a giant metal menorah, and was about ready to turn around and leave when he was grabbed by the arm and pulled into a row of chairs.
‘Bennett! You’re here!’ A face he had only ever seen from the screen of his phone beamed at him. Jacob, from his sister’s book club, pulled him in for a hug.
‘Hey, man. Yeah, I’m here.’ Here in this bizarre town, feeling more and more like he’d gone down some kind of rabbit hole and landed in another world entirely. And he thought San Francisco was quirky. ‘Good to see you.’
Jacob pulled away but was still holding tight to his arms. ‘I can’t believe Jeanie roped you into coming to one of these. Are you coming out for drinks after?’
‘Uh … yeah … apparently.’
‘Great!’ Jacob gave him one last squeeze before letting go.
Bennett glanced around at the still buzzing crowd although people were starting to find seats now, not that their volume had decreased at all. ‘Are these things always so…’
‘Crazy? Yeah. But they’re usually good for a laugh.’
Ben nodded, distracted by the woman in the suit struggling to run a cord long enough to plug in the giant menorah. Maybe he should go help her?
‘That’s the deputy mayor,’ Jacob said, following Ben’s gaze. ‘She’s probably testing that old thing out for the tree-lighting festival next weekend.’
‘There you are!’ Jeanie came up behind him before he could untangle himself from Jacob long enough to go help with the menorah.
‘Here I am.’
‘Sorry we’re late,’ she said, unwinding a giant scarf from around her neck. Logan stood behind her like he was being marched to his death.
‘Hey, Logan.’
‘Bennett.’ His sister’s fiancé gave him a nod and a small pained smile before he shuffled into the row and took a seat.
‘And this is Hazel and Noah,’ Jeanie was saying, pointing to the two other humans trying to cram into the already crowded row.
‘Hey, nice to meet you.’ Noah stuck out a hand and Bennett shook it around Jeanie’s shoulder. Noah grinned. ‘First town meeting, huh? You’re gonna love it.’
Bennett was starting to highly doubt that.
The small, curly-haired woman next to Noah must be Hazel, whom his sister talked about all the time. She gave him a little wave as she sat in between Noah and Jeanie. Bennett took the only open seat between Jeanie and Jacob. Logan had managed to scoot his way all the way down the row and was currently reading a book as he leaned against the wall, clearly blocking out the chaos around him.
‘If everyone could settle down, we’ll get started.’ A man with glasses and a hideous Christmas tie was trying to get everyone’s attention from behind the podium.
‘That’s the mayor, who also happens to be Hazel’s dad,’ Jeanie narrated for him. ‘Oh and here’s Annie.’
A tall blonde woman swept into the row ahead of them. ‘What’d I miss?’ she asked, turning to face Jeanie as soon as she was seated.
‘Nothing, yet. Oh, but this is my brother, Bennett.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ he said, sticking out his hand, but Annie ignored it.
‘Ben! Hi! I’ve heard so much about you.’ Her gaze flicked from Jeanie to Ben and back again. ‘Jeanie, you didn’t tell me your brother was like a hot male version of you!’
‘I don’t normally think of him as hot, actually.’
Annie’s eyes were on him again. She was objectively beautiful and definitely trouble, but it didn’t matter anyway, because her gaze had already wandered and landed somewhere past his right shoulder.
Bennett turned just in time to see a dark-haired man wiggle his fingers in a wave at Annie. When Bennett turned back around, she was glaring daggers at the man.
‘He’s here again. I thought he’d stopped coming to these.’
‘That’s Mac,’ Jeanie whispered for his sake even though Annie could obviously still hear her. ‘Annie’s arch nemesis. We’re all waiting for them to finally sleep together and put us out of our collective misery.’
Annie huffed. ‘How dare you?’
Jeanie just laughed and shrugged. Ben knew when it was best to stay quiet and now when he had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on seemed like a good time.
‘Attention, everyone,’ the mayor tried again but was cut off by a shrill whistle. The crowd flinched. ‘Uh … thank you, Mindy,’ the mayor said, and the power-suited, menorah-wrangling lady gave him a serious nod before taking her seat in the front row.
‘We have a lot to discuss this evening with the Tree Lighting rapidly approaching, the children’s pageant in just two weeks, and the toy drive that began yesterday, so let’s get started.’
The rest of the meeting went by in a blur of logistics, volunteering, arguing, and a very odd vote about whether or not Die Hard was a Christmas movie. Bennett tried to keep up, but following along proved to be impossible. Instead, he found himself scanning the room, trying to match faces with stories Jeanie had told him over the past year. He spotted the book club pretty easily since he’d seen and heard them in the background of his phone calls with Jeanie. They’d even left a copy of their latest read on his doorstep as a welcome gift and a hint that they wanted him to attend their December meeting.
He’d taken one look at Daddy December and was already thinking up ways to be busy that day. The last thing he needed was to read about sex when he hadn’t had any in months. He needed something about monks or meditation or suffering or something like that. Not Santa smut.
And why did thoughts of sexy books bring his thoughts back around to that Christmas-tree farm owner? She was so … so rude to him. Not sexy mean. Just plain mean. And … well … sure he’d been trespassing, but he hadn’t known he was, and he did offer to help with whatever computer issue she was clearly having and she’d just shut him down completely. It was … well … it had gotten under his skin for sure.
Like a splinter.
A splinter he couldn’t seem to stop picking at.
What was her deal? Why had she been out there all alone? Why had she been wearing a blanket instead of a proper coat? Was she cold? Did she want someone to keep her warm…
