A Cowboy Under My Christmas Tree Read Online Free PDF Page B

great time. And he’d be gone the very next day. Not how she wanted to start the new year. She reminded herself once more that he was going to be working for her. And that she didn’t date out of state.
    “Then I guess I’ll go alone.”
    There was a pause. Nicole suppressed a smile. “You’ll have a blast. It’s New York’s biggest party. Now, getting back to the new design—”
    He was suddenly all business. “Right. I had a question about that. Don’t you have to get approval before we start?”
    Nicole shrugged. “After I did the windows for Now last Christmas, Darci doubled her sales. I can always scan the drawings and e-mail them to her.”
    “Okay.”
    He didn’t add anything to that one quiet word, but she felt compelled to ask if he’d witnessed Darci’s tantrum. “Were you outside when she stormed out?”
    “Yes. I was hoping she wasn’t you. I mean, I knew there was a Nicole inside, but I hadn’t quite figured out who was who.”
    “Aha. How long were you lurking outside the window? ”
    He knew she was teasing him, and he grinned at her. “Not very long. I was having a sandwich at the place across the street and I saw the shop and thought I’d pick up a gift.”
    Now sold only clothes and accessories, in sizes and styles that targeted a young, female demographic with outrageous taste. Nicole debated whether to ask whom he had been shopping for, though by now she could guess.
    He took the initiative. “For my younger sister, Annie. In case you were wondering.”
    “Of course not.” Nicole beamed at him. “But I can help you out with that. Darci gives me a ten percent discount.”
    Sam seemed a little puzzled. “Even when she’s mad at you?”
    Nicole waved his concern away. “She’s always mad at someone. We happened to be in the line of fire that day.”
    “Oh. Say, how’s the kid who fell? I forgot to ask.”
    “Josh is better,” she said. “Nothing broke. But he did sprain his ankle.”
    “Bummer. Especially before Christmas.”
    Nicole nodded. “I paid him anyway. Falling off ladders is one of the hazards of the profession, unfortunately. Window dressers work practically around the clock during December. You get so tired, things like that just happen, and you keep right on going.”
    She didn’t add that Josh got plenty of sleep on his mom’s couch no matter what, according to her mother, who knew his mother from back in their sandbox days. It had been Nicole’s decision to give him a chance.
    “How long have you been a window designer?”
    Nicole thought back. “Since my last year at the School of Visual Arts. I started as an assistant, then took my portfolio around to design directors at the big stores and got turned down at every single one. But New York has a lot of little boutiques like Now, so I got some gigs. Took me a couple of years to make a living at it and charge enough to pay a crew.”
    The burger platters arrived, heaped with fries. The alehouse was a zoo at this point, and the waitress didn’t stay to ask if they needed anything else.
    “That’s great. Good for you.” The warmth in his voice and the admiration in his eyes embarrassed her.
    Nicole picked up round, thinly cut slices of pickle from the side of her platter and made a flower out of them on top of the melted cheddar. She studied it for a second and added a circular squiggle of ketchup in the middle.
    “You don’t ever stop, do you?” Sam asked, laughing. “Pass the ketchup, please. Unless you plan to paint a mural with it.”
    She handed over the squeeze bottle. “Don’t give me ideas.”
    Sam decorated his fries with ketchup, not very artistically. They ate quickly—they’d both been working hard. She finished first, and wiped her fingers with a paper napkin, then pulled several more out of the dispenser, arranging them on the table and unclipping a black marker.
    He let her do the talking. The cheddar burger was great. She started sketching on the napkins, then turned them around