Under the Millionaire's Mistletoe Read Online Free

don’t think so.”
    Tula handed her one of the lattes and took a long look at the tree herself. After a second or two, she nodded. “I think you’re right.”
    â€œPlus, it looks great in the front window and maybe it’ll draw in some holiday business.” She could use it, Anna thought. Her shop, Faux Reality, had been all too quiet for the last couple of weeks.
    But then, people weren’t really thinking about faux finishes or trompe l’oeil paintings on their walls right now. They were too busy buying presents and baking. All good, she told herself, because Anna, too, loved the Christmas season. But she could do with a really big job about now, so she could go and do some Christmas shopping herself.
    Tula took a sip of her latte and looked at Anna over the rim. “Is business that bad?”
    Anna sighed. As a writer of children’s books, Tula had her own worries, but at least she understood that making a career out of the “arts” was usually feast or famine. “Bad enough that I took a couple of quickie jobs painting storefront windows. Art is art, right? I mean, Christmas trees on windows is still painting.”
    â€œAbsolutely.” After taking another sip, Tula nodded and said, “So, I heard all about the big mistletoe kiss last night.”
    Anna choked on a gulp of hot latte. “You heard? How? Where?”
    â€œAre you kidding?” Her friend laughed. “You’ve lived in Crystal Bay your whole life, just like me. Youknow the grapevine in town works faster than a Google search.”
    â€œOh, God.” Suddenly, the brightly lit tree wasn’t uplifting her spirits quite so much anymore.
    â€œOh, yeah,” Tula said, walking to the front counter and dropping onto one of the high-backed stools. “So spill. Tell me everything. Word is you and Sam Hale were lip-locked so completely that steam was lifting off the tops of your heads.”
    â€œOh, this is perfect,” Anna muttered.
    â€œSure sounded like it,” Tula agreed, then asked, “still, I’m dying to know…wasn’t it weird kissing the brother of the guy you used to go out with?”
    Weird wasn’t the word she’d use, Anna thought. Hot. Passionate. Intense. Crazy, even. All good words. Weird? Not so much.
    â€œI really don’t want to talk about this,” she said, moving to hang one of her antique ornaments from a high branch of the tree.
    â€œNice attempt at evasion,” Tula told her with a laugh. “But no way are you getting out of this. I left the party early, so I didn’t see the show you two put on. But ac cording to Kate, down at Espresso Heaven, people clear across the room from you guys were going up in flames.”
    â€œJust shoot me.” Anna looked out the front window onto Main Street and imagined everyone in their shops taking about her. Just great.
    â€œCome on, give a little,” Tula whined. “I haven’t had an actual date in six months and the least you could do is let a girl live vicariously.”
    â€œJust what I want to do.”
    â€œWas it great?”
    â€œAre you going to let this go?”
    Tula laughed. “Have you met me?”
    Anna had to laugh, too. She and Tula had been best friends since junior high. They’d gone to college together and had planned to move to Paris and be famous. They never had made it to France, though, instead coming back to Crystal Bay. Anna had opened her own shop and Tula was making a name for herself as the author of the popular Lonely Bunny books.
    Tula was loyal, a great friend and profoundly nosy. Anna knew darn well that her friend was never going to let this go.
    â€œFine,” she said on a sigh. “It was incredible. Happy?”
    â€œNot nearly. If it was so incredible, why do you look so bummed?”
    Anna shook her head. “Hello? Don’t you remember that Sam Hale is the guy who told his brother to dump