Page 20 of Wait a HO HO HO Second!

“And steal your thunder?” Marci gasped, hand to her chest. “Never!”

“Fine. Muff me.” Joy held her hand out to her friend.

Muff me? Had he stepped into an alternate universe?

Marci handed her a pair of winter earmuffs while Joy grabbed something else from behind the desk. “These first.” When Kian took them from her, he realized they were foam earplugs for the gun range or for fireworks. “Now these.”

Was she kidding? He’d look ridiculous, but what else could he do? Kian slid the winter muffs over his ears, noting that the noise was considerably lower and that he could hear their conversation more clearly. Joy motioned for Marci to turn the music back up, then held the door open. All Kian could do was follow, even though he was still confused. They left the office and walked toward the mall’s main entrance.

“The mall was tastefully decorated,” he yelled. “Why are you changing it?”

“Getting ready for Santa in center court,” Joy explained. “We hold a window-decorating contest each year. Most of what you see out in center court will disappear until the tree-decorating next Saturday night. We’re checking the lights, inspecting the garland, and deciding on the color theme.”

“I had no idea any of that happened,” he admitted, pausing by the benches at the entrance.

“You can’t expect to walk into a movie halfway through and understand the plot,” she said.

As much as Kian hated to admit it, the analogy made sense. He wasn’t here year after year, so he had no idea how the mall operated. That was the real reason he was here: to get to know his own business. “That’s a point in your corner,” he agreed. “It doesn’t explain the music, though.”

Motioning him forward, she stopped again at the entrance and pointed toward the parking lot. “I assume you parked in the back?”

Kian was stunned into silence by the scene before him, illuminated by the parking lot lights. When he realized what was going on, a smile spread across his lips. It was filled with people in winter gear, busily piling snowballs in various spots.

“Who are these people?” he asked, now that the music was a bit quieter again.

“Employees and owners of the other businesses around here,” she explained, leaning against a stone pillar. “Since we’re an open-air mall, we turn the music up, and every business finishes its holiday decorating, while others are dedicated snowball makers. At exactly 10:45 p.m. on the Wednesday night before Santa’s arrival, we have an epic snowball battle.”

“Them against us?” he asked, rubbing his hands with glee at the thought of tossing a few snowballs to release the day's angst.

“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head. “We pick teams in July. Sorry, you’re out of luck this year. We can’t have an extra man on a team. That wouldn’t be fair.”

“Maybe Marci wants to sit this one out, and I could take her spot?” he asked, hoping she was just messing with him. A good snowball fight with the business community might show them he wasn’t some stuffy suit who sat in an office all day. He could be fun and carefree, too.

“You don’t know Marci very well if you think, even for a hot second, she’s not the most ruthless snowballer out here.”

Then Kian had an idea. A wonderful, awful, incredible idea. A smile tugged at his lips in the sneakiest of fashions as he slid closer to the arborvitae bush, covered in snow. “Then I’m out of luck. Guess I’ll have to be the scorekeeper this year.”

A smug smile spread across her face as she turned toward the parking lot. “Oh, we already have one of those—”

The first snowball hit her directly in the back, and some of the snow clung to the pointed bows of her sweater. “Bullseye!”

“You did not just hit me with a snowball,” she said, dropping her crutches in a fit of anger.

“Looks like I did, though.” He shrugged nonchalantly as he packed the snow in his hand into another ball. “It’s only fair I get a chance to throw a few balls now, since you’re excluding me from the main event.”

“At my expense?” she asked, but she was grinning, so he knew she was preparing to fight back.

“Isn’t there some saying about only fighting a worthy opponent?” he asked, right before lobbing a second ball toward her, which landed directly on her sparkly hip.

What happened next was pure pandemonium. Snowballs flew back and forth between them so fast he couldn’t dodge them all. She’d hit her mark at least ten times to his six. Had he started it? Yes, but he was happy to let her finish it if it earned him goodwill with the one woman he would do anything to win over.

“Don’t think you’re so fancy now, do ya?” Joy yelled, smacking him in the shoulder with a handful of crusty snow. Suddenly, Kian was glad he’d put on his overcoat before leaving the car. Otherwise, his cashmere sweater would be toast.

“I never claimed to be fancy!” he called back as his snowball hit her backside, catching her off guard as she turned to gather more snow. Did he want to brush every flake off that beautifully tight ass? Absolutely, but would he? Not if he wanted to keep breathing. “Ruthless, on the other hand, yes.”

With a barrage of snowballs, they went back and forth, but he made sure to slow his tosses as she threw hers harder, jumping left and right to make sure each of her snowballs hit him where it counted, at least for her. And maybe, for him, too. Joy needed a chance to throw something at him the way he used to hurl cruel words at her. That was one thing he understood, as she giggled gleefully each time a ball hit, cold bursting across his chest, face, and arms. Each one was a bullet to the younger man who had once been her abuser, and she deserved to hold the gun.

“Don’t think you’re such a big man on campus now, do you, bossman?” she yelled, throwing the biggest one yet.