Faith set up the last table inside the covered arena at the county fair grounds, and shook it to test for stability. The ice sculptures could weigh hundreds of pounds, and she didn’t want this year to be the first year a table gave out and ruined the contest for someone.

When the heavy-duty table held, Faith smiled and ran her hand over the wood her father had hand crafted for this event. But that brought a flurry of other thoughts and emotions. First her mind turned to Natalie and her curt call to Faith early that morning to tell Faith that since she was being so unreasonable, Natalie would forego judging for the greater good so that Holly would benefit.

“Martyr,” Faith muttered, running her finger over one of the many scars in the table. But she was still ashamed of herself for coming down to Natalie’s level. “That won’t happen next year...”

Faith trailed off, realizing next year was one big question mark. She may not be able to make the store profitable enough to hold onto. She may be somewhere completely different, starting over. Alone. No Taylor, no Caleb, none of the people from Holly that she’d known all her life.

No Grant.

Faith sighed and started moving methodically among the tables to double-check the extension cord connections.

Her cell rang and she smiled a little, looking forward to the sound of Grant’s voice. As she pulled it from her back pocket their night flooded back to her. He’d slowly been edging his way into her heart since he showed up in town. But last night he’d impressed the hell out of her. How open he’d been when she’d told him about Natalie. How reassuring he’d been about his feelings for her. How receptive he’d been of her emotions.

And the way he’d made love to her after... God, it had been the most beautiful night of her life. Passionate. Loving. Intense. She’d never felt as connected to another human being as she’d felt to Grant last night, looking into his eyes as he made love to her.

She looked at the screen and saw Taylor’s name. Which made her think of how Grant had been gone when she woke up this morning. And made her wonder if he’d felt it too. And that it had scared him into pulling away.

“Hey,” she answered. “I thought you were going over your books with Grant.”

“I’m headed there now, but I called because—“

“Weren’t you supposed to do that this morning?” It was the reason he’d given her when he’d texted later in the morning to tell her he couldn’t help her set up.

“No, he said he had something else to do this morning and pushed it back.”

A pang of hurt pulled hard at the center of Faith’s body. She winced and pressed a hand to her forehead. “I see.”

“No, I don’t think you do. I just figured out what he was doing.”

Now dread joined the hurt. But Taylor sounded excited, and she would never be excited about Faith getting hurt. “And?”

“Your Christmas Light Fantasia is up on YouTube. It looks incredible. It’s adorable and funny and informative. And the final result is a-freaking-mazing.”

Joy exploded through Faith’s chest and she grinned. “Really?” He’d spent the morning editing her video? “But...I didn’t get around to narrating...”

“Grant did. And he’s really good. He’s got a sexy, professional voice, yet he’s got a really straight-forward way about explaining things, and he’s funny. Must be all those interviews he does with the media all the time.”

He did media interviews? She really needed to learn more about hockey and the NHL and... She shook her head. Yeah. Maybe in her spare time.

“Wow,” she said. “That’s amazing.” She couldn’t stop smiling—even though she knew without any doubt her heart was going to shatter when he left. Which reminded her that she only had a couple of days left with him before he returned to DC to reenter hockey season.

“It is,” Taylor agreed. “But what’s really amazing—are you sitting down?”

Faith slid her butt onto the nearest table. “I am now.”

“You’ve already gotten one-hundred-and-twenty thousand views.”

Faith’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

“But it gets better.”

“How?”

“He went online, found the components necessary to put the whole thing together, listed them, and linked to them on the Home Depot website.”

Faith laughed. “Well that’s great for Home Depot, but it doesn’t do anything for me.”

“It does when you have an affiliate account.”

“I don’t—“

“Yes, you do. Grant set one up for you.”

Her mind swirled. She was still high on the number of views of the video alone. “What? How?”

“This is the beauty of living in a small town, girlie. You bank at Old Town Bank, which is managed by Betty Fleur. Betty’s son, Hank, played hockey with Grant from the time they could skate until they left for college. Grant’s parents also keep their money locally and bank there. So when Grant went in and told him what he wanted to do, Betty did everything short of jumping over the teller counter to help him hook up your bank account to the affiliate account. But I hear she did it without giving him access to your account information. Now, just so you know, the funds for affiliates don’t go in for thirty days, so whatever you see in your Home Depot account won’t be deposited into your bank account for a month.”

Faith pressed a hand to her heart. “But...how do you know all this?”

“Faith, seriously? The same way I know his car’s been outside your shop two nights in a row.”

She said the last with a how-could-you-not-tell-me you’re-gonna-hear-about-this-later tone. Which meant that between friends and family members, Taylor had probably gotten that information from half a dozen different sources, vetted it and pieced together a very accurate story.

“Oh my God.” Her stomach jittered so hard, she felt sick. She dropped her hand from her heart to her stomach, then gripped the table edge. “That’s...” Tears welled in her eyes. “Oh my God.”

“I hope he’s good in bed, girlie, cause that boy is a winner in every other way. I just pulled up to the store. I’ll call you if I find out more, but I have a feeling he’ll be seeing you before I do, so you’ll probably already have the scoop by then.”

Taylor didn’t bother to say goodbye before she disconnected. And Faith lowered her phone, staring at it in awe. She couldn’t begin to fathom having anyone think of her so...unselfishly. Anyone but her father. And even he hadn’t been able to do that for years. Not since he’d gotten sick.

Faith didn’t know how to respond to such a kind act. How did she go about thanking someone for something like that? It wasn’t just the time he’d spent working on the video and setting up the accounts. It was doing it for her when he knew she couldn’t do it for herself, yet needed it so badly. It was his ability to think ten steps ahead of her and anticipate her needs, then fill them while she was still struggling moment to moment. It was the sheer fact that he’d not only listened to her, but he’d heard her and then taken that next step and actually made something happen for her.

She wished Taylor wasn’t with him. Faith wanted to leave here right now and find him. Beyond wrapping him a bear hug and kissing him until he couldn’t breathe, she didn’t know what she’d do to thank him. Because she already gave herself over to him completely on a nightly basis and would continue to do so until he returned to his real world.

“That’s an awful deep look of concentration.”

The male voice startled her out of her thoughts. Dwayne strolled beneath the arena’s cover, hands in his pockets, a big grin on his face. Faith’s mind shifted gears. “Hey, there.” She turned to face him. “That’s the biggest smile I’ve seen on your face in a while.”

“Grant’s had that affect on a lot of people in town.” He came up beside Faith and slipped up onto the table next to her. She loved the way no one even thought to question her father’s craftsmanship. “You should see the affect he’s had on the boys. He’s given that whole team an infusion of pure energy. They’re working twice as hard and having twice as much fun doing it. I’m really glad you and Grant became friends. You’re both orphans in a way. Both such good people. I love it when good things happen to good people.”

He sighed happily and looked around. “Where is that boy? He told me he had to move practice until this afternoon because he was helping you set up.”

“He was going to, but something else came up that he needed to take care of.”

Dwayne nodded. “Well, I’m glad he got home even if he did have to deal with his family while he was here. That didn’t turn out all bad. And it gave him a break from all that baloney he lives with.”

Faith shook her head confused. She couldn’t if Dwayne was talking about his family here or... “Baloney.” She smiled, remembering how her dad loved that phrase. “That reminds me of dad.”

“Yeah. I miss that man. We knew what baloney was. These young men, they haven’t figured it out yet.”

“And that would be...?” she asked.

“All the smoke and mirrors around him up there in DC. All the ESPN interviews, the newspaper articles, Sports Illustrated features. Money, power and women—they’re the three common denominators in the downfalls of all great men. In Grant’s case, power comes in two forms—money and fame. He’s already got more money than he’ll ever spend in his lifetime and I always see him with a different woman on his arm at all those events he attends for the team to please charities, sponsors, owners and managers. And each of those women is just as rich, beautiful and powerful as Grant.”

Dwayne waved it away like he was swatting a fly. “It’s all baloney. Smoke and mirrors. It’s not real. And when it all disappears...well...if that’s all you had, you’re left with nothing. At least nothing substantial.”

Faith was still trying to absorb all Dwayne had just told her about Grant in the span of two minutes. It opened up a whole new perspective on both the man and his life back in DC.

The excitement somersaulting through her chest just minutes go had been relegated to a corner and her heart dropped a little lower in her chest.

“Ah,” she said, as if it all made sense now, when if fact, the more she learned, the less she understood. “That baloney.”

Dwayne chuckled and patted her knee. “What can I help you with, darlin’?”

“Uh...” Faith refocused and looked around. “Actually, nothing. I’m done with all the big stuff. Now I’m just wandering around double checking things.”

Dwayne gave her a long sweet hug. “Your daddy’d be proud of his little girl.”

Unfortunately, Faith seriously doubted it. “Thanks, Dwayne.”

* * *

Grant had taken pages and pages of notes from his hour-long talk with Taylor. A talk he’d realized within the first ten minutes would take weeks, maybe months, to adequately flesh out and understand.

“So, you can see here”—Taylor pointed to one of the several spread sheets she’d brought over—“I have several revenue streams that I monitor at all times. That way I can tell where I need to either concentrate or cut, change, whatever.”

They were sitting at a small desk in the basement that Faith used as an office, and he’d been cooped up there long before Taylor had come by, trying to figure out a better way of running the store so Faith could make a livable wage. And he’d realized a couple of important things.

The first was that if she wasn’t ready to give up something as intangible as judging an ice-carving contest, she sure as hell wouldn’t be ready to do what Grant really thought she ought to do, which was get rid of the store and do something she really loved. The second was, if she couldn’t do the first, she sure wouldn’t be open to the complexity of trying to continue a relationship with Grant.

The only bright spot was Taylor and this niche she’d carved out in what seemed to be a market that wasn’t only thriving, but growing.

Grant shook his head, still staring at the numbers on her spreadsheet. “Don’t take this wrong, Taylor, but, if I’m understanding this right, you make a shit-load of money for talking about really stupid-ass shit.”

To Grant’s relief, Taylor laughed.

“That doesn’t bother me because you’re not my target audience,” she told him. “And my target audience finds pushing a three-inch disc of vulcanized rubber around an ice rink with a stick while brawling with a bunch of other guys some really stupid-ass shit.”

Grant grinned. “Good point.”

“If you use this as a template, you could, in theory, simply change the topics and have Faith film how-to segments the same way.” She leaned back. “For example, instead of a post about how to design your planner for maximum efficiency, Faith would create a post about how to design your garage workbench for maximum efficiency. And instead of posting links to all the pens, papers, stickers, and stamps I used in the process, she would do what you did with her Christmas lights video—ingenious and incredibly sweet, by the way—and link to all the wood, screws, nails, glue, tools, and paint she used to complete the process.”

Grant nodded, his mind spinning with ideas. Visions of how this could grow. “Okay. I see it.”

“Another category she could look into to build revenue streams and gain sponsors would be product reviews. For example, instead of my review on a new version of the Erin Condren Life Planner, Faith would review the newest version of the newly released DeWalt sliding miter saw.”

Grant nodded. “Yep. I get it.”

“Her blog posts with contain photos and videos that feed into all her social media outlets. In kind, all her social media posts will track back to her blog posts. And she’ll use a master link system that feeds all clicks through her affiliate links, so that no matter how a person finds their way to Home Depot or Lowes or wherever from her post, Faith will always be compensated for a sale.”

Taylor lifted her hand, index finger poised. “Now, once she has a following, she can start reaching out to companies to solicit advertising, sponsorships and even partnerships. And if she wants to, she can create an online store where a person could go to buy everything they need to complete a project she’s demonstrated. She could even put together kits at cost and sell them at retail. Really, the sky is the limit here.”

“This is amazing.”

“She doesn’t even have to be an actress or have special equipment to produce these videos. As long as her space, presentation and speaking are professional and easy to understand, she could use her phone to do it. Though, come to think of it, hers probably doesn’t have enough memory.”

“That’s okay. I’m leaving the camera, software and laptop with her.”

“Really? She agreed to that?”

He looked over and found Taylor’s brows snapped together in disbelief.

“No.” He smiled, but it was subdued. “She doesn’t know it. I’m going to stuff them under her bed before I go. You get to be the bearer of that news.”

Taylor smirked. “Gee thanks.”

“What are friends for?”

“But seriously, that’s incredibly sweet of you.”

Grant shook his head. In his world that equipment cost less than his bar tab after buying drinks for the team when he’d been chosen MVP for the night. “I know she’d throw a fit if I tried to give it to her outright.”

“You got her figured out fast.”

He grinned. “She’s not exactly complicated. Proud, loyal, and mildly frustrating, maybe. But not complicated.”

Taylor’s smile was warm. “She’s amazing, isn’t she?”

He closed his eyes on a laugh. “Fucking incredible.”

Taylor reached out and squeezed his forearm. The affectionate gesture told Grant he’d passed the best friend test. He only wished that was the biggest of the roadblocks facing he and Faith.

“Actually, the most popular tutorials are those that relate to the average Joe,” Taylor said. “And as you can see by the popularity of the segment you put up for her, her looks and sweet personality will be as big a hit on camera as they are in town.” She propped her elbow on the desk and rested her head in her hand. “Now, let’s talk about exactly how you got that video to shoot up in the views so fast.”

He lifted his brows. “You just said—“

“Uh-uh.” She made a cutting gesture in the air between them. “You’re talking to the expert here. I know that video had help. I want to know what it is.”

“Don’t tell Faith.”

“Can’t promise.”

He sighed. “Okay, don’t tell her right away. Let her have the excitement for a little while. She needs a little hope in her life.”

“Wow.” Taylor shook her head. “You’re almost too good to be true.” She narrowed her eyes. “If I find out your married, I’m going to hunt you down and cut off your balls.”

“Whoa.” He laughed the word and put his hands up. “I’m not married.”

She pointed at him. “You’ve been warned. All right, dish.”

“I posted the video, then sent an email to all the guys on the team and asked them to share it on social media.”

“Oh.” Taylor’s eyes glazed over as thoughts churned in her head. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re a freaking marketing genius too?” More narrow-eyed looks. “I’m watching you.”

“I have been warned,” he echoed, smiling. “So, everything we just talked about gets you here?” Grant tapped the mid six-figure number at the bottom of Taylor’s income sheet for the prior year.

“It does. Isn’t that crazy?”

“Why didn’t she do this a long time ago? When she saw it was working for you, why didn’t she start doing it then?”

“Her dad was pretty old-fashioned. Believed business should be between two people, face-to-face, and she didn’t want to upset him. Besides, she had too much going on. This is a serious time suck, one that doesn’t immediately pay off, and she was taking complete care of her dad and running the store. Toward the end, her father had to get angry for her to finally allow Hospice to come once a day.”

Grant dropped back in his chair, blew out a long breath, his gaze on the papers that signified limitless opportunities for Faith. A chance at the freedom she should have had in life.

“God, I’m so damned excited about this for her.”

“Right? I’m really excited you got her started. Between the store, my work and Caleb, we’ve both been so busy we haven’t been able to work out a time to get it together. Again, this is no Holy Grail. This a huge amount of work involved, not to mention an incredibly steep learning curve. The results yielded are based on the work put in—“

“You get amazing results.”

“Because I’ve already climbed those mountains. So, I will be doing my best to cut her learning curve into a very flat plateau.”

Grant nodded, but his brain kept repeating: “And she can do it from anywhere.”

His cell rang. He reached for his back pocket. “Hope that’s Faith. She was going to call when she was ready to put up the tables.” But it wasn’t. He glanced at Taylor. “My agent.”

“Oh, okay.” She stood. “We’re done. I’ll get all this from Faith later.”

Grant stood, too. “Thanks so much. Faith’s lucky to have such a great friend.”

Once Taylor climbed the basement stairs, Grant answered, “Hey, Nick.”

“Hey, how’s Twisted Christmas?”

That was only one of his agent’s nicknames for Grant’s hometown. But Grant wasn’t in the mood for Nick’s wry humor. “Did they clear me?”

“Not yet.”

He was both frustrated and grateful. “Why not? This is taking freaking forever.”

“Danbar’s on vacation in the Caribbean.”

Doctor Danbar was the last signature Grant needed on his release forms. “Fucking A.” He threaded his hand into his hair. “This is ridiculous.”

“Relax. He’ll be back tomorrow and I’ve already talked to Max,” Nick said, referencing the team’s manager. “You’ll go right back to first line when you hit the ice. Hey, I’ve got something that will cheer you right up—the perfect way to get you out of that backward little Christmas town and into a place where we know how to do it right.”

Grant squeezed his eyes closed and dropped his hand. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re going to the President’s National Christmas Tree Lighting, and the VIP After-Party hosted by the National Park Foundation. Ted made a big donation to the Foundation this year,” he said, referring to the Rough Riders’ owner Theodore Hennessey, and he and Fiona are in France for the holiday. So he’s sending you, Croft, Saber, Donovan, Hendrix, Andrade, and Lawless to represent the team. This is an awesome photo op for you to get your face back into the light after being out eight weeks.”

“Ah, wow, Nick...” Fuuuuck. His chest tightened. His skin crawled. “You know, I don’t—“

“And I’ve already got all of you the hottest dates on the planet. You can thank me later. You’re escorting Bridgette Ferreira.”

That name made Grant wince. Bridgette was okay, and if he hadn’t met Faith, he’d be happy to return to the sheets with the model-turned-broadcaster, but now…no. The only women he wanted in his sheets was Faith.

“The event is, of course, tomorrow,” Nick said, “and since you’re in Nowhere, USA, I had to book you a crazy flight schedule to get you out of Twisted Christmas and into DC in time for the event. You’re leaving tonight.”

“Just hold on.” Grant rubbed a hand over his face and started to pace. “Remember why I’m here in the first place? Ted was the one busting my ass about spending too much time with women like Bridgette. Ted was the one who forced me to choose something “meaningful” to do with the rest of my rehabilitation time. So, I’m here, doing that. He can’t just wiggle his nose like a fuckin’ witch and bring me back to DC whenever he wants.”

“Uuuuh, yeah. He can. He pays your salary. These events are in your contract. I thought you’d be offering to name your first born after me when I gave you the news.”

Grant dropped his head back and glared at the ceiling. Noooooooooooo!

“I’m here for the kids, Nick. I don’t want to bail on them.” It was true, but he was picturing Faith in his mind. “This is charity too. I’m bringing in a lot of money for my high school team. With them Ted wouldn’t have me to drag around by the scruff of the neck. Just tell him I can’t make it and pick someone else.”

“Dude,” Nick said in his what-the-fuck-do-you-mean-no? tone. “What’s wrong with you? It’s Christmas and all the other guys just finished five fucking grueling away games. One of the reasons Ted chose you guys is because all of you either live locally in DC or don’t have families. And may I stress Ted chose you.”

Which translated to “Go if you want another offer when your current contract runs out.”

“Right, sorry. My parents are making me crazy. But I promised these kids—”

Grant hung his head.

“This isn’t negotiable. This is contractual. And if you’re not on that plane, you’re in breach of that contract. Ticket’s in your email. I’d better see that pretty face of yours on the news tomorrow night.”