Dashing Through the No (Summersweet Island 3)

Blinking out of my daze staring down at my sweatshirt, I look up and find Allie standing next to me in front of the desk with a tray of assorted Christmas coffee mugs in her hands, while Millie speaks to a guest who just came in from outside.

“Best night of sleep I’ve had in a while, thank you,” I tell her, shoving my hands in the front pocket of my hoodie as I follow her when she turns and walks over to the hot chocolate and coffee bar table nestled between two of the Christmas trees and sets the tray down. “Have you seen Bodhi?”

She points to the wide-open archway on the other side of the tree that leads into the dining room. “Look out those windows.”

My eyes follow where she pointed while she goes back to work refilling glass jars with marshmallows, candy canes, and other assorted treats for the bar that were running low on the table. Through the archway and into the dining room, I can see a wall of windows outlined with garland and white lights that face out into the front yard. And through those windows, out in the snow flurries, I see my boyfriend wearing black cargo shorts, a red T-shirt, and big, fluffy red mittens, while he frolics around in a foot of snow with another man.

All I can do is shake my head and smile at how ridiculous he looks out there in a blizzard in shorts and a T-shirt, not even showing a hint of being cold.

“He recruited my husband earlier to go outside and help him build a snowman,” Allie informs me. “They’ve been out there for over an hour now, and just an FYI, there was an intense snowball fight about fifteen minutes before you got down here that my idiot husband got a little carried away with, and Bodhi might have a teensy little bump on his forehead.”

“Oh my God, I’m sorry he took your husband away when I’m sure you probably have a million things he should be doing around here,” I tell her with a quick sheepish smile before my eyes automatically go back out to the windows, because no matter how ridiculous Bodhi looks with what he’s wearing, damn his ass looks good in those shorts.

“It’s fine!” Allie reassures me as I laugh to myself when Bodhi slips on something, his feet shooting out from under him, and he falls flat on that hot ass in the snow. And then he proceeds to start making a snow angel once he’s down there. “Jason gets a little high-strung this time of year, trying to help out at the bed and breakfast as much as he can on top of his regular job. He needed a little break this morning to stop looking at the to-do list in his damn planner and just have fun. Bodhi’s pretty good at that, as you can see.”

I can see Jason out in the snow with Bodhi, now bent over at the waist, pointing and laughing at him, wearing a more winter-sensible outfit of a thick-lined flannel coat on top of a cable knit sweater with jeans and work boots. He’s a pretty good-looking guy if you like the clean-cut, mountain man vibe. That stupid warm and gooey feeling all throughout my body is back, because I do indeed know how good Bodhi is at getting people to stop being so anal, looking at their planners all the time, and just have fun. He’s been doing it to me for the last six months.

“Did you get the goodies Bodhi came down in search of for you earlier? He was so adorable, rushing around in a panic, loading up his arms with everything I offered from the kitchen.” Allie laughs softly as she pulls a mug from the tray and hands it to me before arranging the rest of them neatly in the corner of the table next to a ceramic snowman cookie jar.

I like Allie even more than I did yesterday when she hands me a black mug with Jack Skellington in his Santa suit painted on it, instead of a mug with a regular boring Santa on it. The Nightmare Before Christmas is the only Christmas movie I actually like. And don’t tell me it’s not a Christmas movie. It’s as much of a Christmas movie as Die Hard.

As I pour myself a cup of hot chocolate from the silver carafe, I mumble out a quiet “yep” in reply to her question about the goodies. The annoyance of waking up alone is put on the back burner when Allie’s question reminds me what I found on Bodhi’s pillow when I woke up and rolled over. Even though I woke up to the horror of Santa hippo eyes alone and without the comfort of morning sex, I still have the sweetest boyfriend ever.