“It’s half mine,” I say without looking at him.
“Kiss my ass, Nick. Seriously, what's going on? Who is she?”
“The love of my life.” I shrug and hear Cupid laugh from behind me. When I don’t say anything, he sobers.
“Are you serious?”
“Have you ever known me to joke?”
“Good point. Does the woman know you exist?”
“A little.” I glance over my shoulder and feel a little shame in admitting the truth. “I might have fired her so that I could date her.”
“I need to sit down,” Cupid says and falls into fits of laughter. “This could only happen to you.”
“Why do you say that?” I scowl at him.
“Because I’ve never, ever seen you twisted over a woman, and finally when it happens you fall head-first into love with someone that probably can’t stand you.”
“I can fix that.”
“By making her decorate a Christmas tree?”
“It’s not just one. She’s going to decorate all of them.” When he looks at me skeptically, I sigh. “It’s her passion in life.”
“If you say so.” He pushes away from the counter and slaps me on the back. “I’m going to go introduce myself.”
“What?” I try to make a grab for him, but the fucker is quick and shoots out the door before I can stop him. I have no choice but to go after him and try to keep him away from my woman.
“Good morning,” Cupid says brightly as I come up behind him.
“Hey there,” Star says as she climbs down the ladder and turns to face him. When she sees me standing next to him, her eyes widen. “Good morning, Mr. Rudolph.”
“Call him Nicky, nobody ever does,” Cupid says, and I elbow him out of my way.
“Hello, Star,” I say to her and hold out my hand. How many times have I wanted to touch her but held back?
“Hi.” She looks down, and after a second of hesitation, she puts her hand in mine. She jerks it a little like the touch surprised her, and I wonder if she felt that same zip of excitement I just did. “Are you having breakfast here?”
Regretfully I have to let her hand go, but I look down and see it’s covered in glitter.
“Oh, sorry about that.”
“It’s no problem,” I say, knowing that I’d be happy to have anything of hers on me.
“No, he’s not here to eat.” Cupid pats me on the back. “He’s here to supervise.” When he waves to the tree, I see some of the light in Star’s eyes dim.
“No I’m not,” I say quickly and then grind my teeth. This is not going how I thought it would. “I just came to the restaurant and saw you here.” Technically that’s not a lie.
“Yeah, well, thanks to you I get to do this full time.” The way she says it isn’t exactly snarky, but there’s a bite to her words.
“Oh, I like her,” Cupid says, and I turn to glare at him.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Nope.” He crosses his arms over his chest, and I sigh. Asshole.
“Well, if you will excuse me, I’ve got several trees on my schedule today so no time to chat.” Star holds up a glitter-covered fork, and I look up to realize she’s done the whole tree with a restaurant theme.
“It’s beautiful,” I admit honestly as I finally pay attention to the decorations and not her. When my eyes come back to hers, my chest does that burning ache it always does when I’m near her. “Absolutely beautiful.”
Her cheeks flush, and she tucks her chin, and I wonder if I’ve embarrassed her.
“All right, time for us to go,” Cupid says, pulling on my shoulders, and I stumble back. “You’re doing a great job. Thanks for coming so quickly. Your envelope is waiting at the hostess stand when you’re finished.”
“Thanks,” she says and looks up at me once more before Cupid drags me out of the dining room and back to his office.
“You need to get yourself under control before you send that woman running out of here screaming.” Cupid closes the door to his office, but thankfully there’s a small window I can still see out of.
“I’d just chase her down.” I ignore his advice and lean against the window to get a better look.
“You’re hopeless.”
“Yep,” I agree because I’ve already decided I’m giving in to this. No matter how crazy this makes me, I’m going to get her to fall in love with me.
Even if I have to do it one Christmas tree at a time.
Five
STAR
At every turn I find Nicky because he’s never far when I’m out and about. After his friend suggested I call him that, I’ve been doing it every time I see him. I was trying to poke at him at first, but it wasn’t working. He only gave me a charming smile when I did it, and now I kind of love that I’m the only one to call him that. I’m not sure why, and I decide not to think about it.