For Fudge's Sake

Read the first pages

From Chapter 1

Holly is flying to Texas for a Christmas wedding she doesn't want to attend. Her seatmate is way too cheerful.

Before the audiobook started, a tall guy wearing a red and green plaid flannel shirt stopped in the aisle. He had his sleeves rolled up to the elbow, exposing strong, drool-worthy forearms, and gestured to the empty window seat next to me. “Hi, I think that’s me.”

My hope of having the row to myself dissipated. I unbuckled, stepped into the aisle, and waited for him to get settled.

He buckled his seatbelt, then held out a giant hand. “Thanks. I’m Zander.”

“Holly.” I gave him my best nice-to-meet-you-now-leave-me-alone look and barely slid my hand into his. He closed his fingers around mine in a confident grip. I dragged my gaze up his strong forearm, then over his well-trimmed beard and wide smile. He looked like the perfect mash-up of Henry Cavill and Chris Hemsworth when they starred in their superhero roles. If anyone might be able to tempt me to join the mile high club, it would be a guy like him.

Too bad I wasn’t in the market or in the mood to engage in anything beyond a reluctant greeting. The holidays had that kind of effect on me.

He let go of my hand and seemed undeterred in his effort to engage me in conversation. “Are you heading home for Christmas?”

“Something like that.” I wasn’t about to spend the next fifteen minutes trying to explain to a stranger how I’d been guilted into attending my stepsister’s holiday wedding. Especially a hot stranger. Not when it didn’t even make sense to me. That was my dad, though. He’d been blessed with the gift of being able to get people to do what he wanted. It came in handy when we did business deals together, but I hated his talent when I was on the receiving end.

“There’s no place like home for the holidays, is there?” Christmas cheer oozed from Zander’s perfect pores. I scooted to the edge of my seat so it wouldn’t be able to jump the armrest and infect me.

“Mmm hmm.” I didn’t want to be rude, but was more than willing to let him know I wasn’t up for making idle conversation during the long flight. “If you don’t mind, I need to catch up on some work.”

“Of course.” His lips spread into a wide smile with enough heat behind it to ignite the tiny glowing ember in my gut.

I closed my eyes and shut it down before any attraction could start to simmer. The last thing I needed was one of Santa’s self-appointed helpers trying to infuse me with holiday joy.

Find out what happens next tonight.