How the Hitman Stole Christmas

She empties the rest of the spray bottle, then she wiggles until Jasper lets her down and runs toward the house calling for her mom and dad to come look at her snowman.

Jasper takes a step back and stands next to me as we gaze at the gruesome thing.

“Now it looks like it’s been drinking blood,” I tell him.

“Why don’t you know what blood looks like? It looks like he spilled Kool-Aid down his chin, at worst.”

“He’s a cannibal,” I state. “He ate all the other snowmen and that’s why there’s blood all over the lawn.”

Jasper shakes his head, looking at the rotund snow figure. “And here I thought it was Christmas cookies.”

“Now you know. Frosty is a monster.”

“All the best ones are capable of wearing friendly faces. I really should’ve known.”

I crack a smile and look over at him. “This was fun. Even if Amira abandoned us and made us do all the work.”

“Mm-hmm. You know what else would be fun?”

I shake my head.

“Snow angels.”

I’m delighted and surprised that he would suggest such a thing—but then he pushes me down into the snow and climbs on top of me, and I realize he wasn’t really suggesting we make snow angels together.

Even though it’s cold outside, a sudden spike of warmth makes my coat feel like a sauna. My cheeks are rosy from the cold, so his touch feels even more startling when he removes his glove from one hand and caresses the side of my face.

I’m crushed beneath his weight, but it feels nice to have him on top of me.

“I don’t think this is how you make snow angels.”

“No?” he asks innocently. “This is how I was taught.”

I bite back an indulgent smile. “Then the girl who taught you had the hots for you.”

“Becky Lawrence. That checks out,” he teases, running his finger along my jawline.

A shiver runs through me, and it’s not from the cold. “What are you doing?” I ask soberly, trying to ground myself.

“Kissing my girlfriend,” he says simply.

“Your pretend girlfriend,” I remind him, just before his lips meet mine.

I know I shouldn’t kiss him back, but I can’t resist. The sensible thing to do would be shove him off me and get back on my feet, head back inside the warm house with Amira.

Instead, I wind my arms around his neck and close my eyes, ignoring the bite of the cold seeping through my clothes and getting lost in his warmth.

We’re lying there on the ground making out like a couple of teenagers when I hear the unmistakable sound of a woman clearing her throat.

Jasper stops kissing me, and we both look up. Nora is standing there with her eyebrow cocked and a hand on her hip.

Tarek is behind her, laughing a little as he hides Amira’s eyes.

Amira isn’t having that. She shoves her dad’s hand away and I quickly shove at Jasper’s chest. I couldn’t move him if he didn’t want to be moved, but he lets me roll out from under him and climb to my feet.

“Sorry,” I mutter, dusting the snow off my butt.

Nora tries to keep up the look of playful censure, but she cracks and grins. “I’m so glad my brother found you. It’s nice to see him happy.”

“Okay,” Jasper says, mildly annoyed. “I’m standing right here.”

Nora shoots him a saucy grin and turns toward the snowman. “All right, let’s see this—”

She stops dead when she sees our unintentionally monstrous creation.

Amira smiles at it proudly and looks over at Nora. “Mama, look! I make pretty snowman.”Chapter SeventeenJasperWhen my mom and Tom get back, they have a tree with them.

Apparently, the tree in the window is just for decoration. The real tree is significantly bigger.

I give Tom a hand getting it inside, then I follow him to the room off the garage where they keep the decorations and fetch the boxes of ornaments and other Christmas tree dressing.

My sister was right—Tom talks a lot about when he played baseball, but other than being far too talkative and mildly annoying, he seems like an all right guy. Not at all my mom’s type. After the parade of creeps and assholes she got mixed up with when I was a kid, I expected far worse.

Since Autumn soaked her clothes playing in the snow and she wants to save the dress she brought for Christmas Eve or Christmas day, she asks my sister if she can borrow an outfit while we do a load of laundry.

Nora lends her a pair of black leggings and a red plaid dress. Autumn looks so sexy in it, I can’t bear the thought of my sister ever wearing it, so I add “buy Nora a new outfit” to my to-do list.

I need to get Autumn a present, too.

Since I told her I’d take her through downtown Stillwater at some point and tomorrow is already Christmas Eve, I really need to take her out tonight.