His Mistletoe Bride

As soon as he had his prisoner safely inside the police station, Hutch appeared.

“Was that really necessary?” he asked Tag of the cuffs.

Tag said nothing, but sighed inwardly. Who had ordered the arrest? Still, he was now aware this was something of a family dispute. No one ever wanted to be in the middle of that.

“Ask her,” Tag said, and unlocked her wrists.

“He was just doing his job, Uncle Paul.”

Tag shot her a look that clearly told her he didn’t need a one-hundred-pound waif in a Santa hat and a marshmallow coat to defend him.

“Get into my office,” Hutch said quietly to his niece. “Now.”

She sent Tag an imploring look, which he ignored. He’d done his bit, and he wasn’t the least bit proud of it, either.

“I’m not normally the kind of person who gets arrested,” Lila said to him, ignoring her uncle’s command, the only person Tag had ever seen do that.

“I kind of figured you for a virgin,” he said, their department’s lingo for a first-time offender.

It had slipped out, and it was a mistake. He knew it even before Hutch sent him a killing look and her blush went the color of a smashed raspberry.

Which of course made him entertain the extremely naughty thought that maybe she was every kind of virgin it was possible to be.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

“Of course not,” she said soothingly. “We’re all rattled.”

The thing was, he shouldn’t be. He was no virgin. Of any kind.

“I hope we meet again,” she said formally, “under better circumstances.”

“Really? I was hoping the exact opposite.” He knew as soon as he said it, it was way too harsh, a defense against everything she was making him feel. Rattled. Off-kilter. Guilty. Worried about her foot.

Boo chose that moment to waddle out from under his desk. She plopped down at Lila’s feet and began humming.

Lila sat down on the floor beside the dog, wrapped her puffy pink marshmallow arms around Boo’s neck and burst into tears.

She’s exhausted, Tag thought, noticing the fatigue around her eyes again. And then, annoyed that he felt sympathy toward her, he told himself it was probably planning the little extravaganza outside that had exhausted her.

Then he noticed Hutch and Boo glaring at him with identical expressions of accusation. He threw up his hands in exasperation and went and found a cell to clean. Hopefully it would keep him busy until the crowd outside had dispersed, Lila had gone home, her uncle had cooled off and his dog had been returned to her senses.

Hopefully it would keep him busy long enough to forget the way he felt when he saw she was still limping.

CHAPTER THREE

“…DONATIONS are pouring in,” Lila told her aunt Marla, tossing a raft of envelopes she’d been sorting through into the air. “And the best? A man, Henry, who retired in Spokane, but used to work in maintenance at a big California theme park, thinks he can fix the elves and the reindeer. He’s sure he can save the Santa’s workshop display!”