One Night with a Nutcracker: Reindeer Falls #5, page 8
And it hits me. While my dumb-dumb self was imagining that maybe I’d finally found my goat-children a daddy, he was working on converting their family home into a golf course.
I hate that tears prickle at my eyes. This jerk isn’t worth my tears. Not after he called me brave and told me I deserved better.
I’m swiping at my eyes when, suddenly, there’s silence on Jake’s end. Horrible awkward silence, the kind that only happens when you catch someone talking about you and they know you caught them and then there’s nowhere to go from there. I hear the snap of a laptop closing, and before he can emerge from behind my bedroom curtain, I open the Airstream door.
“You win,” I call out, one foot already on the top step. “It’s all yours. You’re in charge. Good luck.”
I bolt before he can say anything else, evicting myself before he can embarrass me any further. I’ll come back for the Airstream tomorrow. I can park it in my parents’ driveway for at least a week, until they get back from their trip. It’ll give me a few days to regroup and make a plan. The plan I should have been making all week, instead of wasting my time falling for Jake Sheppard.
Chapter Thirteen
I make it about a mile away before I break down. Not physically, though sure, I cried. No, my truck decides that after several years of faithful service, now is the time for it to stop working.
Which is ridiculous and, frankly, should be in violation of the rules of Christmas. No mode of transportation should stop working within five days of Christmas. It just isn’t right.
Ugh. I don’t know what to do. It’s not like I can walk all the way into town. Reindeer Falls is small, but I’m outside the town limits. It’d take me an hour to walk in the snow.
Shit. This is really not my day. Or week. I hate to bother anyone for a ride, but the last thing I need is Jake driving by and finding me in my broken-down truck. I don’t need to provide him with another example of how oblivious and stupid the weird hippie girl he had a holiday fling with was.
Resigned, I dig out my phone, swallowing my pride as I text Lexi and Maggie, asking if one of them can pick me up and let me crash at their place overnight.
Maggie’s message shows the blinking dots of death for several minutes before I get an actual response.
Maggie: Where are you?
Me: About a mile from the farm. Please come save me.
I add three sad emoji faces for extra effect.
Maggie: And you want me to pick you up and bring you to my place, not back to your Airstream?
Me: Yes.
Maggie: No.
Me: No? This must be a contempt of friendship violation.
Maggie: Clearly you’ve had a fight with Jake.
Me: Clearly.
Maggie: Go back to your Airstream and either make up or kick him out!
Me: NO. WAY.
Maggie: Go back, Sutton. Everything will work out if you just go back.
I resist the urge to throw my phone when I read Maggie’s message. She is completely off her Christmas rocker if she thinks that there’s any chance of a happily ever after for me with Jake Sheppard. January first I am staging an intervention to deprogram her from her Christmas romance nonsense. No more Hallmark movies. No more Christmas novels at book club. I’ll ban her from hot chocolate too, if that’s what it takes.
Still, I don’t have any choices left. If my friends won’t pick me up, I have to go back to the farm. And Maggie is right about one thing. The Airstream is mine, and I should’ve made Jake leave in the first place. He has no right to Ariel, and, while stomping away felt momentarily good, kicking him out will feel even better.
Though I do have one choice, don’t I? I could call Hudson and ask him for a ride. I could even take him up on that offer to go backpacking across Ireland. I could abandon the goats and my small business and all of my problems in one fell swoop. Live the hippie, carefree, adventurous life I always thought I wanted.
I could.
Except I’m not that girl anymore.
Because if I left now, it wouldn’t be for an adventure. And it wouldn’t be brave. If I left now, I’d be quitting. Giving up. Because everything I want is right here in Reindeer Falls. I can be a free spirit with a home and a business. With roots and room to grow.
I start the walk back, and I’m resolute, if not happy. Normally I’d really enjoy the time in nature. I’d pick up twigs and enjoy the moment and all that jazz. But right now, I’m still annoyed. And a few minutes into my walk, I’m more than annoyed because I spot Sharon just wandering along the road. By herself. One sad Christmas bow dangling from her horn.
Clearly, it didn’t take long for Jake to allow the entire farm to devolve into chaos. Did he just set the goats free?
That. Absolute. Prick.
Thankfully, it doesn’t take much to get Sharon to follow me. Because she’s a domesticated goat and not a wild goat that can just be set loose into the wild to fend for herself. I’m fuming and trying to wrestle an old shoe Sharon found on the roadside out of her mouth when a honking, bleating Porsche pulls up. It’s Jake and… Farmer John? Jesus, what is he doing, dumping them one by one?
“I’m glad you’re out of my Airstream because I was on my way back to kick you out. And you’re just going to have to wait a few more days before you start bulldozing everything. Because it’s Christmas, if you haven’t noticed. And in Reindeer Falls, that’s a good enough excuse for an extension.”
“Will you stop?” Jake says, slamming on the brakes next to me. “God, Sutton, you are such a… such a fucking nutcracker.”
I gasp. How dare he. If Maggie were here, she would cite him for sure. I’m about to tell him as much, but he cuts me off before I can get the words out.
“I told the town that I was not going to move forward with the golf course plan because I’d found a much more viable option with a local goat farmer.”
I stare at him, continuing to walk as Jake drives alongside me, his stupid Porsche inching forward in time with my steps. “What are you even talking about?”
“I’m not getting rid of your farm,” he says. “We might have to start from scratch with the big barn, but we’ll rebuild it the right way with the right permits. I promise.”
The tears are bubbling up again, dangerously close to spilling over.
“Are you stealing my Goatvana business plan?” I ask. I swear, the audacity of this jerk. He’ll probably copy my entire idea of a goat retreat and then tell everyone he came up with the idea while eating pie during a snowstorm.
There’s room for more than one goat retreat in the world, but some creative credit would be nice. Dick.
“You’re going to try to take my idea and turn it into some corporate-backed bullshit? Did you get an advance from an investor for the merchandising rights to Goatvana too?”
“Sutton, I can assure you no one is handing out advances for a goat farm. That doesn’t even make sense.” He sighs. “Will you stop walking? This is dangerous, and I’m not certain it’s even legal to drive around with a goat in the passenger seat.”
“Why would I stop?” I say, giving him the once-over. “I feel like I’ve heard enough.”
“I have an idea, okay?” Jake says. “Just… please stop. Hear me out.”
“Your idea better not be as stupid as setting the goats free into the wild,” I tell him. I do stop, though.
That’s when Jake parks the car and gets out. He comes around the side, ignoring Farmer John as she bleats out of the window.
“Sutton, you know I think you’re creative and passionate and bold and—”
“Brave,” I fill in for him.
“Braver than anyone I’ve ever met,” he says. “But I also think that you need help. You’ve built this amazing business from the ground up. But it’s not enough to just wing it. You need a business plan. And contracts. And a new barn. Someone to fix the fence so these goats stop escaping. Capital to expand.”
I stare at him. Does he think he’s complimenting me here?
“You need help,” he says, as if I didn’t hear him the first time. “And I think I’m just the guy to do it. Let me manage the Reindeer Falls Institute for Goatual Living for you.”
Is he serious? Is he really suggesting that we partner up?
“You might be worse with names than me. But I’m listening.”
“And it’s more than that,” he says, running a hand through his hair before stepping closer to me. “I know you could have your pick of men.”
He’s not entirely wrong. Even without the goats, I am a pretty good catch.
“And I know your beardy ex can build sheds while doing kegstands,” Jake continues, as if reading my mind. “But I can do paperwork like you’ve never seen. And I can charm Linda from planning.”
I laugh. Those shouldn’t be the turn-ons that they are, but sometimes, a girl can’t help but be into things like paperwork.
“I’d like to see where this goes with us,” he says, taking my hand. “You’re an adventure, Sutton. I want in on your adventure. On your life. If you feel the same, let’s see where it takes us.”
I. Wow.
That’s a lot to take in.
A snowflake lands on Jake’s head. And then another. And as the snow starts coming down around us, it feels right. Safe. A feeling I could burrow into and live in forever. I step forward, leaning up so that I can take in all of Jake as he watches me for my response.
“How are you going to do all that from whichever big city you dropped in from?” God, I don’t even know where he lives. But I know where he doesn’t live. Here. “You think Reindeer Falls is beneath you. You referred to us as a bunch of rubes!” The worst part about that is I didn’t even know what it meant. I had to Google it while I herded Sharon along the side of the road.
“Sutton,” Jake groans, shoving a hand into his hair to shake off the snow. “I love Reindeer Falls and I was already planning on moving back. I live in Detroit, but I can work remotely most of the week, drive in when I need to. That’s what you overheard. The guys in the office have been giving me shit about leaving the city for months, ever since I concocted the golf course plan when I learned I was inheriting the land.”
“Really?” I’m dubious.
“Really.”
“But if you’re letting me keep the farm, there is no golf course,” I point out, recalling his stupid blueprints and getting wound up all over again.
“We can do both,” he says. “There’s land available right next to us. I’ve already had it surveyed and there’s more than enough land to do what I want to do, with the added benefit of not needing to displace a single goat. It’s on the other side of the Cass river from our farm, but I was thinking we could build a bridge to connect the two properties so we could walk across.”
My heart nearly stops.
He called it ‘our farm.’
I think. I think… he really means this.
“Actually, now that I’m thinking about it,” he adds, looking into the distance with a bit of an excited gleam in his eye, “we have enough land to squeeze in a goat-themed mini-golf course on the farm side.”
Oh, wow.
That’s hot, right? It’s not just me? Jake Sheppard just got like ten times hotter dreaming up a goat-themed mini-golf course. I’m actually a little turned on right now. No. That’s a lie. I’m a lot turned on.
“I even had Ryan draw up architectural plans for a new barn,” he adds, focusing on me again. “I’m not bragging or anything, but it’s big.”
I laugh.
And look, I don’t speak goat, but I’m pretty sure we’re about to live HAAAAAAppily ever after.
And maybe Christmas wasn’t my favorite holiday before.
But with the snow coming down around us and the bells on Sharon’s collar jingling, I have to admit, anything is possible.
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The End
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I hope you’ve enjoyed One Night with a Nutcracker. Find out why Lexi has been sneaking around with Carter in The Bachelor on the Shelf
The Reindeer Falls Collection
Reindeer Falls Novellas
The Boss Who Stole Christmas #1
If You Give A Jerk A Gingerbread #2
The One Night Stand Before Christmas #3
Elves with Benefits #4
One Night with a Nutcracker #5
The Bachelor on the Shelf #6
Reindeer Falls Bundles
Audio & paperback is available bundled:
Reindeer Falls - Volume 1 (books 1, 2 & 3)
Reindeer Falls - Volume 2 (books 4, 5 & 6)
Also by Jana Aston
Wrong (Wrong Series #1)
Right (Wrong Series #2)
Fling (Wrong Series #3)
Trust (Wrong Series #4)
Good Girl (Good Girl Book #1)
Good Time (Good Girl Book #2)
Sure Thing (Best Laid Plans #1)
Plan B (Best Laid Plans #2)
Times Square
The Next Mrs Russo
About the Author
Jana Aston likes cats, big coffee cups and books about billionaires who deflower virgins. She wrote her debut novel while fielding customer service calls about electrical bills, and she's ever grateful for the fictional gynecologist in Wrong that readers embraced so much she was able to make working in her pajamas a reality. Jana’s novels have appeared on the NYT, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestsellers list, some multiple times. She likes multiples.
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I send newsletters a couple of times a month (if I have a new release or a sale), otherwise I forget for months at a time… My Newsletter
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If you’re on Facebook, I have a private readers group. Join us… Grind Me Cafe
Aston, Jana, One Night with a Nutcracker: Reindeer Falls #5
