Mistletoe Hero. Tanya Michaels

him and Duke Allen.

      Gabe couldn’t imagine anyone who would make a more incongruous companion for him than Arianne. Before tonight, he hadn’t given her appearance much thought, but she could be the poster child for wholesome cheer—fair-skinned, always smiling, with long wavy hair and big blue eyes. If he studied her closely, he might even have glimpsed a smattering of freckles above her pert nose. She looked like she should be having afternoon tea with Tinker Bell, not hitting on men nearly a foot taller than her.

      Or was he reading too much into her overture? He frowned into his drink. Maybe her invitation hadn’t been romantic in nature at all. Perhaps Arianne, whose family was well-known in Mistletoe and who had grown up among a throng of friends, simply felt sorry for him. Gabriel Sloan, outcast and sinner. He grimaced, the idea of her pity more distasteful than the idea of her romantic interest.

      Normally Gabe shopped after sunset to make the most of daylight hours for his outside jobs, but he could change his schedule for a couple of weeks. If he’d been over at Waide Supply around noon, with more people in the store, Arianne wouldn’t have singled him out. Gabe could—

      Get a grip. Was he really planning to run from a five-foot blonde he could probably bench-press? No. Now that he’d refused her dinner invitation—rather bluntly, as a matter of fact—she’d probably prefer that they pretend it never happened.

      Situation resolved.

      Chapter Two

      Arianne had grown up with no sisters and was ecstatic that she now had two. It was great to see both her brothers happily wed, especially since she thoroughly approved of the women they’d chosen to marry. Currently Arianne sat on the floor of Lilah Waide’s living room. While David and Rachel Waide, proud parents of three-and-a-half-month-old Bailey, lived in a suburb closer to downtown Mistletoe, Tanner and Lilah lived in a gorgeous, oversize cottage-style home they’d built on the outskirts of town. Lilah said that her favorite parts of the day were the twenty-five-minute ride to and from Whiteberry Elementary; Tanner drove her and picked her up, so they had time at the beginning and end of each day to make each other laugh or privately vent frustrations.

      “All right.” Seated on the couch, looking every bit the elementary school teacher with reading glasses perched on the end of her nose, Lilah tapped her pen on the clipboard she held. “Let’s look at the preparations, figure out where the gaping holes are and try to spackle them in.”

      The repair metaphor made Arianne think of Gabe. And last night’s encounter. If she’d used a more subtle approach, might he have accepted her invitation? Not that it mattered—Ari didn’t do subtle.

      Curled comfortably in a wicker-framed papasan chair that faced the huge back-wall window, fall festival cochair Quinn consulted her own clipboard. “Food is covered. Pete and Vonda and a few of their friends from the senior center are going to run the bingo tent for us. Vonda already went around town, getting people to donate prizes.”

      Arianne laughed at that. “She probably terrorized them until they gave her whatever she wanted.” It was impossible to say no to the fiery seventysomething who, like Arianne and Quinn, had been a bridesmaid at Lilah’s wedding last winter. Arianne adored the elderly woman.

      Lilah read from her list. “We have some kids from the high school taking care of music for us, and a lot of moms have volunteered this year. The difficult part will be organizing them all. The Kerrigans are setting up the tables and coordinating the judges for the jack-o-lantern contest. Brenna and Adam promised to be in charge of face-painting. Ari, can we put you down to work the kissing booth?”

      “Sure, why not? It’s for a good cause.” Most of the guys in Mistletoe were harmless. They’d donate their dollar to the school and give her a quick peck before disappearing into the festival crowd to try their hand at a skill game or purchase food. The fact that Arianne had two looming brothers—who had apparently used up all the good height genes in her family—dissuaded any wiseacres from trying anything inappropriate at the booth.

      Every year, Whiteberry Elementary, where both Quinn and Lilah taught, hosted a fall festival fundraiser. They held it downtown because the parking at the school itself was too limited, and local businesses helped sponsor the activities. Quinn and Lilah had agreed to cochair this year’s festival committee. They’d somehow dragged Arianne and their mutual friend Brenna Pierce along for the ride, although neither of them worked for the school or had kids enrolled there. Brenna, however, had been excused from this afternoon’s meeting. By Thanksgiving, her work schedule would be jam-packed with holiday pet-sitting, so she was taking advantage of a quiet few days now to go with her boyfriend to Tennessee and visit his three kids.

      “Honestly,” Lilah said as she scanned her sheet, “we have the majority of it covered. But there are some minor construction and wiring issues we’ll need help with. I’ve already drafted Tanner. I wish we had more active dads in my class this year. The mothers are great help when it comes to the bake sale and signing up for story circle, but there aren’t many who are comfortable with power tools. Or capable of heavy lifting. We’re shorthanded on muscle this year, especially since the PE coach broke his arm last weekend.”

      “I don’t know what he was thinking.” Quinn shook her head. “A man his age jumping at a skateboard park!”

      Arianne pinned Quinn with a gaze. “Weren’t you supposed to be getting us more muscle, in the form of the cute new teacher Mr. Flannery?”

      Quinn held up her hands. “I will, I swear. I just didn’t have the opportunity yet. He was out today with the stomach bug that’s been going around the classes.”

      “Patrick Flannery?” Lilah grinned. “He is cute. Maybe you should take him some soup and well-wishes.”

      “Nah,” Arianne said. “You can do the well-wishes over the phone without risking germs. Plus, if you ask him for a favor when he’s feverish, he may agree simply because he’s too delirious to come up with an excuse.”

      “Machiavellian,” Quinn said with admiration. “I bet you can get a guy to agree to anything!”

      “Not so. Just last night…” It occurred to Arianne that maybe she didn’t want to share the story of how Gabe Sloan had shot her down. Not because she was embarrassed—it wasn’t that big a deal—but because her friends might read too much into it. “Hey, why am I the only one without a clipboard here? I feel cheated.”

      Lilah rolled her eyes at the non sequitur. “Fess up, Waide. We want the rest of the story.”

      “I asked Gabe Sloan if he wanted to have dinner with me,” Ari admitted as casually as she could.

      It was a good thing she had perspective on the matter. The same could not be said for her friends. Lilah’s eyes doubled in diameter, and Quinn flopped back in her chair so hard the wicker base wobbled.

      “Gabriel Sloan!” they chorused. It was hard to tell whether they were appalled or delighted. They definitely weren’t nonchalant.

      “Oh, fine.” Ari sighed. “Get it all out of your systems. Anyone want to gush about how dreamy he is? Someone prank dial him while I doodle our names together in a heart on my clipboard. Oh, wait, I don’t have one.”

      Lilah reached down to smack Ari lightly on the back of the head. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were interested in him. Do your brothers know about this?”

      Before Ari could explain that this had been a onetime invitation, not serious interest, Quinn protested, “It’s not like she kept it a secret. She’s been commenting since summer how sexy he is.”

      “I do recall mentioning that a couple of times,” Arianne admitted. And who could blame her? No one in town disputed his quietly wicked appeal—it was part of the basis of the scandal. Although, personally, Arianne felt Shay Templeton was more than equally to blame. Few ever voiced that opinion, though. Probably out of respect for the dead.

      “So why did he turn you down?” Lilah asked, dragging Arianne back to the present.