Page 24 of Under The Meh-stletoe

When it wrapped Ale's body, it made me want to grab her by the waist and pull her to me.

By the way she squinted at me, I had broadcast the intention for anyone to see.

I cringed. This went beyond casual flirting. It crossed a line. This was aboutherand what I wanted to do toher.

"Anyway." A brief escape was my best option. "Good luck judging. I'll come back when the competition starts."

She seemed happy to follow my lead on that.

"I'm sure you can't wait to witness my pain."

"Yeah. You hide your hatred for Christmas well. No one else seems to see it, but someone has to."

"You just really want someone to share in your misery."

I winked and walked away.

"Ugh, I hate sweets," she said.

I chuckled and left without looking back.

For the next twenty minutes, I focused on making sure things were going right throughout the town square. Except that I couldn't stop stealing glances at the gazebo. Ale looked like she prepared to offer herself as a sacrificial lamb.

I didn't need to do something about it… it was a bad idea to devise a plan to rescue her… but I truly wanted to. I wanted to so hard, that it showed me just how into Ale I was.

The whole thing should have convinced me to retreat. I repeated it to myself every time I talked to someone to help me out with my plan. But I was terrible at depriving myself and went through with it anyway.

By the time I came back to the covered platform, I carried a to-go cup and two people followed me.

"Okay." I gave Ale a rEvalution cup of coffee I'd bought for her. "Some cream, no sugar. Should help you survive the next hour."

She grabbed the cup, face blank except for wide-open eyes. Like she didn't know how to react.

I smirked. "I brought extra judges. This is Sebastián, who's an expert because he's a six-year-old kid. This is his mom, Leslie, who is an expert because she makes a big selection of the cookies Eva sells at rEvalution. You're the third judge, who can come in to decide the vote if needed, on criteria such as decoration, for example." I leaned in and whispered into her ear. "Best I could do on short notice. You're welcome."

A smile blossomed on her face. "Thank you, Daniel."

Her eyes stayed on me and, yes. I was pretty sure now my stomach was full of butterflies.

"Where's Santa?" Sebastián asked.

Ale bent down, one hand holding her coffee and the other on her knee, looking adorable. "He was busy in another town, so he sent me to help him out."

Leslie stared at me with a weird look.

"What are you looking at?" I asked her.

She pulled her lips to the side and shook her head.

"You look like Renata," the kid insisted in Ale's direction.

"It's because I'm her Elf twin," she said. "She sent me a letter to the North Pole and told me about Santa not being available, so I came to help."

Sebastian's eyes grew ten sizes. "Do I have an Elf twin?"

"Yes! We all do. You just need to be older to meet them."

"Why?"