They were headed back toward his car, and Ronnie pulled the blanket tighter around her neck. It was so soft—alpaca, maybe?—and it smelled like Eli.

She shouldn’t be reveling in that, but how could she resist? The man was brilliant, kind, sweet—the whole package and topped off with a sexy beard and a smile that could melt an iceberg. She reminded herself for the eleventy billionth time that it shouldn’t matter how irresistible he was. Her project was to matchmake him with his happy ever after by Christmas.

Not to ogle his butt as he crunched through the snow while huffing his scent off the blanket like it was catnip. “Did I remember to thank you for everything you did tonight? Because if I didn’t, thank you, Elijah Conrad.”

He stopped, tilting his head back so snowflakes caught on his beard. For a second, they were crystals in delicate shapes. Moments later, they were water droplets, decorating him with diamonds. “You don’t have to thank me. I wanted to do something nice for you, since you were busy doing nice things for just about everyone else in the town.”

She swallowed hard. “I like helping people,” she admitted, perhaps a little defensively. It wasn’t a crime, even though her brother was always ranting on about how she needed to learn to say no.

She didn’t want to say no. She liked being busy.

“I know you do,” he said, finally tilting his head to look at her. He stepped closer, into her space. She could’ve backed up if she wanted to.

She did what she’d been thinking about doing for a while and met him halfway. Leaning on him, she gazed into his eyes. “And you’re not going to give me the usual lecture I get from Mac? About how I need to stop helping people or whatever?”

His smile grew. “Nope.”

“Oh,” she whispered. The snow falling around them made a sound like a hush, muffling everything so it was just them, in the light of a streetlamp, while flakes drifted like magic from the sky.

“I like you, Veronica Murray. Just the way you are.”

She blinked fast. She hated to ruin the moment, but… “I have to make a confession,” she began.

His fingertip covered her lips. “Before you do, I’d like to do something.”

That touch dragged down her bottom lip, then he was cupping her chin and tilting her head back just a little. When his lips met hers, she sighed into him. He was so warm, and that beard of his was surprisingly soft against her skin. Going up on tiptoes, she was happy when his embrace went from sweet and testing to a little hungry.

A little wild. Their tongues met and she shivered as electricity seemed to dance across her flesh. Everything lit up for him, and she wondered if her body was literally glowing from the heat he’d awakened with just one kiss.

“You’re cold,” he muttered against her mouth. It pleased her on some feminine level that even though he’d said that, he didn’t seem to want to let her go. “Come on, I’m parked right around the corner.”

He’d caught her hand and was tugging her along before she managed to catch her breath and thoughts well enough to formulate a sentence. “Wait! I said I had to make a confession.”

“Can you tell me in the car, once I have the heater on to get you warmed up?”

“I don’t need warmed up,” she insisted, pulling him to a stop. Tumbling back into his arms, she couldn’t help a little fission of pleasure that he reached out to embrace her without the slightest hesitation.

“You shivered,” he pointed out. “I tend to think that means you’re chilled.”

Going on tiptoes, she nibbled his earlobe. When he shivered in reaction, she smiled at him. “So, you’re cold?”

“Quick,” he said. “Confess.”

“I’ve been trying to play matchmaker.”

He looked at her impassively.

“You don’t look as mad as I thought you might be,” she pointed out.

Leaning down, he dragged kisses across her throat, up to her ear, then finally captured her mouth again. She didn’t even feel them move, but when the wall hit her back, she used it to brace her legs and practically climb the man.

Genius or not, he was built for sin and she was really tempted to take him out for a test drive.

“Wait!” she said.

He froze, which was kind of a crime since his mouth was doing such nice things when she’d stopped him.

“Why weren’t you surprised?” she asked.

“Over the duration of my time knowing you, Veronica, I’ve discovered you’re a lot of things. You’re effervescent, bubbling life into the mundane and enough to make anyone smile. You’re kind, giving of yourself to this town and the people around you with an almost shocking selflessness. You’re absentminded, sometimes so wrapped up in your projects that you don’t notice things around you…”

“I’m very observant,” she muttered, scowling at him.

“You didn’t notice the geeky math nerd across the office was fascinated with you for the better part of the last year.”

“Wha—?” she blinked at him, touching his face gently. “Do you mean the incredibly brilliant man with the lumberjack beard?”

He scraped one hand down his beard while arching a single brow at her. “Lumberjack?”

“Sexy lumberjack,” she modified.

“I’ll take it,” he said amiably. “Anyway, you’re beautiful, but you’re not subtle. You’ve been throwing women at me for weeks.”

“So you knew what I was doing the whole time?” She scooted away from him, sorry for the loss of warmth, but thinking it through. “Is that why you sabotaged all my efforts?”

“Hey, that first one, you dumped coffee on me. I didn’t sabotage anything.”

She considered it and him. “You’re trying to say that you knew about it and you intentionally ruined all my attempts?”

He nodded, picking up the bag that he’d dropped during all the kissing. “Yeah. I figured eventually you’d whittle your way through the population of the town and get to the one girl I did kind of have a thing for.”

For a second, her stomach bottomed out. There was a woman he was interested in?

Then it clicked and she stopped to stare up at him again. “Me?”

“Yeah, you.”

“But I’m—”

Again, his fingertip covered her lips. “Remember what I said about insulting Veronica. I’m her biggest fan. I don’t like it when you talk smack about her.”

A little piece of her started to bloom, and she tried to squash it down.

Tried to remember all the reasons why she was the absolute worst possible person for him to date in the entire town. Wasn’t she flaky? Silly? Too colorful to the point of being ridiculous? And she was clumsy and…

Well, hell. She might be something very special indeed if a guy like Elijah thought she was hot.

“So, if I’m getting this right, you want to date me?” she repeated for clarification. He opened the passenger side door, letting her get in, and went around to the driver’s side without answering.

Once he’d gotten in, he passed her the brown paper bag.

She glanced inside. There was only one item left in the bag. It was a sheet of stickers—gold stars. “What is this for?” she asked.

“For when you finish your little projects. I figured every time you met a personal goal, you should give yourself a little gold sticker. My theory is that part of the reason you’re not nicer to Veronica is that you don’t realize how wonderful you really are. I think it is my new job to remind you. If you look in the back seat, I’ve got a chart started for you.”

He pointed a thumb toward the back seat, so she reached back and grabbed the poster board folded in half from the back seat. As he blasted the heat, she buckled up and sat back to consider the board he’d created. There was a completely random list of things on the page, each followed by a golden star. Topics included things like helped old lady Marsden with her groceries. Streetlight sale planning committee Monday through Friday—with a gold star for each day. Got Martha a cup of coffee at work because she was on deadline.

A lot of them were little nothing things like that, which Ronnie didn’t think deserved gold stars or even to be remarked upon, but apparently Eli found them important. And maybe they were.

Maybe she was doing some great stuff and didn’t give herself enough credit.

The last thing on the list was ‘Get Eli a woman.’

“There’s a star next to this, and I haven’t actually accomplished it,” she pointed out.

“You were looking at the wrong women,” he said with a shrug. “Everyone makes mistakes.”

Tears splattered on the poster board.

“Aw, hell,” Eli said before pulling over the car. “I was kidding. You didn’t make a mistake. It was a joke.”

Ronnie shook her head at him. “That’s not why I’m crying, genius.”

“Genius,” he agreed. “Not mind reader.”

“This is probably the sweetest thing anyone ever did for me, you sexy lumberjack.”

“Donuts,” he replied, toying with her hair.

“What?” she asked, confused, but he was tugging her close and she wasn’t sure she cared about words at all right then.

“Donuts,” he repeated, pecking a kiss to the tip of her nose. “I like my women with sprinkles. I like you.”

And when he kissed her, she was really and truly glad that he did. She couldn’t help but smile and he leaned back enough to say, “What?”

“I thought this whole thing was kind of a mess, but I’m a really good matchmaker, aren’t I?”

“The best,” he answered. And then they didn’t talk at all for a very long time.