Hope couldn’t believe it. She’d read the full book, checked it’s material qualities, and there was no mistaking the book as anything other than the genuine article.

But, Hope had bigger problems on her hand than a book, and whether it meant she owed a mysterious stranger a favor.

She had actual work to do.

The Regency Christmas celebrations had not actually been very Regency, but she had to document exactly how it wasn’t accurate to the Regency period. She also had to figure out a way to present that information to her classes.

She was hard at work on her laptop, figuring all this out, when a man walked through the front door.

The man was wearing a collared dress shirt. That alone would be overly formal for the small town, but, on top of that, he was wearing a green and red ascot, and over that, a tailcoat. On his legs, he was wearing goofy pants with buttons over the lap.

Hope recognized the ascot.

After all, the man wearing it was her ex-fiancé, and she was the one who had given it to him in the first place.

At first, Hope thought her ex was stalking her, but he walked right past her to the counter, where Melissa was working and ordered a coffee.

It was only after the man got his coffee and looked for a seat that he spotted her.

“Hope?” called the man. Hope ignored the man, but he still came over and sat across from her.

“Hope, what are you doing here?” asked the man. “You’re not…stalking me, are you?”

“Excuse me?” asked Hope. “Why would I be stalking you? I’m the one that broke up with you, Jerry.”

“Fair point,” admitted Jerry. “But…why are you here?”

“I’m here to get some material for a class, on the Regency era in the popular imagination…and specifically, Christmas,” said Hope. “Why are you here?”

“The mayor hired a consultant for the Regency celebrations,” said Jerry.

“You’re the one responsible for this dumpster fire of a Regency Christmas?” hissed Hope. “Of course you are. Jerry, you’re not even a Regency specialist! Your period is the Georgian period! Why would you take the job?”

“To get out of town, given, y’know, my fiancé dumped me two weeks ago,” said Jerry. “Guess it’s ironic we both ended up here.”

“Well, we can still be civil,” said Hope.

“Where are you staying?” asked Jerry. “I’ve been staying at this small hotel, and —”

“It’s none of your business, and I’m not interested in sharing a domicile with you again, Jerry,” said Hope. “This is exactly what I mean about being civil. I mean we shouldn’t be anything more than civil either.”

Hope closed her laptop and got up from the table.

“Have a good day,” said Hope, packing up her bag.

“Hope, wait —” started the man, reaching to grab Hope’s arms but he was met with a hand to the shoulder.

“I don’t think you want to do that,” said a deep, gravelly voice.

Hope looked up. The man from the day before — the shifter, the big one. What was his name again? She may have forgotten his name, but there was no frikkin’ way she could’ve forgotten his body.

Big, with broad shoulders, and powerful muscles could’ve been from the gym or manual labor, he dwarfed Hope’s ex-fiancé, a pretty scrawny guy. Eamonn’s grip on Jerry was like that of a camp counselor on a kid in their care. He was taking a very patriarchal and patronizing stance, looking down at Jerry with stern eyes and a small smile on his face.

Hope must’ve missed him coming in during her conversation with Jerry. In her day to day life as a professor, in the English department, she rarely met people with the strangers’ looks and body type — well, except her students that were shifters or on the football team, and she had no desire to date students.

Now, the football coaches, on the other hand…those were just her type, but, compared to the stranger, they were just like Jerry — scrawny.

“And who are you?” asked Jerry.

“Eamonn — the guy who is going to make sure you don’t bother this lovely lady again,” said Eamonn. “Miss, is this guy bothering you?”

Confrontational, right out the gate? asked Blitzen. Way to make the same mistakes again.

A strong defense is a good offense, said Eamonn. Plus – you tell me that defending a beautiful woman from a scoundrel ain’t some Nice shit.

Is this going to be a season full of football metaphors? asked Blitzen with a sigh, not even bothering to make Eamonn’s mark burn when he cursed. It wasn’t Blitzen’s style.

What, you don’t like football? asked Eamonn.

More of a soccer shifter, myself, admitted Blitzen.

Of course, you are, said Eamonn with a sigh.

“Yes — but it’s fine, he’s my ex,” said Hope.

“You and I must have awfully different definitions of the word ‘fine,’” said Eamonn, removing his hand from Jerry’s shoulder.

“I’ll be going, sorry,” said Jerry, rushing out of the coffee shop.

“Well, now things are going to be awkward in the teacher’s lounge,” said Hope, turning to Eamonn. “Thanks for that. Jerry…is, uh, still dealing with things.”

“Dealing with things?” asked Eamonn.

“I, uh…sort of ended our engagement, two weeks ago, and we both ended up here by chance,” said Hope. “Sorry. You’re a total stranger. I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.”

“Do you need to have a reason?” asked Eamonn.

“You sure you’re not a philosophy professor or something?” asked Hope.

“Last time I checked, I wasn’t,” said Eamonn. “I’m just a man that knows that we all sometimes need someone to talk to. I got a feeling this is one of those sometimes. Lay it on me. Starting with your name.” Eamonn turned on the charm. He was used to talking to folks at parties, but that was after they’d had drinks much harder than cocoa. Hope would be a harder nut to crack.

“Oh, right,” said Hope, taking a seat. “I’m Hope, Hope Bingley. I’m an English professor at a college near here. I came down to do a project, on anachronism in Regency themed events, and, well, my ex is also a professor, and he’s also here — ironically, also on that same project.”

“So you two are going to run into each other a lot,” said Eamonn, nodding his head. “You need security?”

“Really, trust me — he’s harmless,” said Hope. “I think that he’s just not used to not being able to touch me like he did when we were engaged.”

Hope demonstrated by reaching out to touch Eamonn’s hands. She pulled her hands back, realizing his inappropriate it was for her to try and hold hands with a guy who was practically a stranger!

“Why’d you two break up?” asked Eamonn.

“He and I…have very different ideas of what my future would look like,” said Hope. “We both want kids, but, he wants me to quit my job and start to be a housewife, while, well, I want to have it all.”

“Eamonn!” shouted a voice.

“Hey…that’s my name,” joked Eamonn. “Well, if you ever want a big jock to talk to about this, I’ve got some big jock shoulders for you to cry on. I can also beat him up for you. I’ve got a bad boy reputation to uphold. You’re a real nice lady, and he doesn’t deserve your curves or your heart. And hey, Hope?”

“Yeah?” asked Hope.

“If it’s worth anything…I think you’re exactly the kind of woman that can pull off having it all,” said Eamonn, shooting Hope a wink before walking up to Krampus.