Mistletoe & Mayhem. Lori Wilde

House account.” To the stranger, she managed a nod. “Another time. ’Bye.”

      She was halfway down the block before she remembered to breathe. The last thing she needed was to be introduced to another intriguing stranger. Especially one who made her feel hot one minute and icy cold the next. Strangers were dangerous, especially tall, attractive ones. Billy had taught her that.

      SHANE SULLIVAN STEPPED out of the sporting goods store just as Jodie Freemont paused at the corner to wait for the traffic light. She would be getting her rain check sooner than she expected—in about fifteen minutes to be exact. That was when he’d agreed to meet Sophie and Irene Rutherford at Albert’s Café.

      It was just by chance that he’d run into Ms. Freemont in the sporting goods store. But then Shane believed in chance. It had always served him well in the past.

      This time, too, he thought. It had given him the opportunity to assess Jodie Freemont before they were formally introduced. He made it his business to get to know anyone who might stand in his way. And right now, Jodie Freemont might be the biggest obstacle to his goal.

      He’d come to Castleton, New York, because he had a hunch that she might know more about the five million dollars her ex-fiancé had embezzled than she’d told the police.

      Narrowing his eyes, Shane studied Jodie as she stepped up on the curb and walked quickly and purposefully toward Albert’s.

      Now that he’d met her, he could see that the picture in her file didn’t do her justice. It hadn’t captured her smile or the light that came to her eyes when she laughed. Her hair was different, too. In the picture, it had fallen halfway down her back. Now, cropped short and framing her face, it made her look exactly like the homeless waif everyone in town thought her to be.

      Shane frowned. Why was he so sure she wasn’t just what she appeared to be? And why was he wondering again, just as he had back there in the store, exactly how she would feel pressed close against him?

      His frown deepened. The only thing he should be wondering about was whether or not she was mixed up with her embezzling ex-fiancé, Billy Rutherford. In the six months since his arrest, the man had steadfastly maintained his innocence, refusing to reveal the location of the money. And not one cent had been found.

      A quick gust of wind set bells jingling overhead, and Shane let his gaze sweep the street, decorated in picture-book fashion for the Christmas holidays.

      The money was here. Shane could feel the familiar tingling in his fingers. Billy would make a break for it soon. Castleton was the perfect hiding place, and Jodie Freemont made the perfect cover. Who would suspect her of hiding five million dollars for the man who’d swindled her out of her home?

      He did. He shifted his gaze back to Jodie as she ducked into Albert’s Café. Or he had until he’d met her. Shrugging off the thought, he started down the street. This wasn’t the time to start second-guessing his hunches. His job was to recover the five million, and he had just enough time to store his new fishing pole in his car before he joined the Rutherford sisters. Then he’d get his long-awaited introduction to Jodie Freemont.

      “DID YOU GET the gun, dear?”

      “No. Hank Jefferson flat out refused to sell me one,” Jodie announced as she joined the Rutherford sisters at their regular table in the window of Albert’s Café.

      “It’s for the best,” Irene, the younger of the two sisters said as she patted the peach-colored curls that framed her face. “Guns make me nervous.”

      “Everything makes you nervous,” Sophie declared. “And Hank Jefferson’s an idiot.” In her early seventies, Sophie Rutherford still dressed with military precision and wore her iron-gray hair pulled back and twisted into a neat bun. Sophie reminded Jodie of a tank, and she had a personality to match.

      “It’s your constitutional right to bear arms,” Sophie added. “You could sue him.”

      “Hank would probably persuade the jury that he’d saved my life,” Jodie replied.

      Irene shivered. “Firearms are dangerous. An accident could happen.”

      “I don’t think Hank was worried about an accident,” Jodie remarked dryly. “He thought I wanted the gun to shoot myself.”

      Irene stared at her. “Why ever would you do that?”

      “Because of Billy,” Jodie said.

      “What does he think you are? Some poor Ophelia pining away for her Hamlet?” Sophie demanded.

      “He wanted to introduce me to a perfect stranger,” Jodie said. “I think he was going to ask the guy to take me to the Mistletoe Ball.”

      “Well, Hank’s got it all wrong. Billy’s coming back to you, dear. He didn’t desert you by choice,” Irene said. “When the police came to the house, he tried to resist arrest. That shows how much he really cared for—”

      Sophie set her teacup down with such force that it rattled every piece of crockery on the table. “When are you going to stop defending that good-for-nothing nephew of ours? It’s thanks to him that Jodie lost her house, and we have to turn ours into a bed-and-breakfast!”

      Irene clapped her hands over her ears. “I’m not going to listen to anything bad about Billy. He’s innocent until proven guilty.”

      Jodie took one look at the expression on Sophie’s face and hastened to intervene. “How are the preparations for the Mistletoe Ball going?”

      Immediately a smile lit up Irene’s face. “It’s going to be the best one ever. Having it in Slocum Hall instead of the library gives us so much more room for dancing. It was Sophie’s idea.”

      “You’re the one who thought of having the caterers dress up as Dickens characters this year. People are going to remember that longer than they remember the extra dancing room, my dear.”

      Breathing a silent sigh of relief, Jodie leaned back in her chair as the two women continued to talk about the ball. For as long as she could remember, the Rutherford sisters had cochaired the Mistletoe Ball, an annual fund-raiser for the Castleton College Library. It was scheduled for the Friday before Christmas, and practically everyone in town would be going.

      “Hank Jefferson could be right about one thing,” Sophie said, turning suddenly to Jodie. “You really should have a date for the ball.”

      “Absolutely not,” Jodie said. “No sympathy dates for me, thank you. Besides, attending the Mistletoe Ball is part of my job. I have to stand at my boss’s side and make sure he knows the names of all the important contributors.”

      “It’s time that Angus Campbell resigned from that job if he can’t keep track of the contributors,” Sophie said. “And you shouldn’t let him intimidate you. Did you forget your motto of the day?”

      “No,” Jodie said. How could she, when Sophie tore them off a calendar and stuck them on the refrigerator door each day? According to the publishers of the calendar, if she incorporated them into her daily life, she was going to be a new person in just 365 days.

      Privately, Jodie had her doubts about how effective a bunch of mottos was going to be in transforming her. The expression of pity she’d seen earlier on Hank Jefferson’s face testified to the fact that they hadn’t done much good so far. In the eyes of the residents of Castleton, she was still the same “poor Jodie” who’d allowed Billy Rutherford III to turn her into a complete patsy.

      “Jodie!” Nadine Carter hurried toward them, a teapot in her hand. The pretty blonde had been Jodie’s student assistant until she’d decided to quit college six months ago and start waitressing at Albert’s. So far Jodie had been unsuccessful at getting her to go back to school.

      “I’ve got this new herbal tea I want you to try. It’s supposed to be great for pulling you out of depression.”

      “I’m not depressed,” Jodie said, but she knew as she met Nadine’s eyes that she