The festival would definitely bring in crowds of tourists, and that was good, but if the man didn’t stop pontificating about the town, they were all going to freeze to these wooden dock boards.
“Is it just me, or does the temperature keep dropping despite the amount of hot air coming out of Thom’s mouth?” Collin whispered.
Savannah shushed them. Levi gave her the eye roll he’d been holding back.
“It’s sweet how he’s going on,” she insisted.
“All he has to do is throw a switch. We’ve been out here for thirty minutes while he talks about us like we’re living in some kind of cross between George Bailey’s Bedford Falls and Captain von Trapp’s prewar Austria.”
Savannah shot him a confused look. Levi shrugged.
“I was going for two heroic dudes.”
“And you didn’t think John Wayne or Denzel Washington?” Collin asked.
“I was going for heroic and Christmassy.”
“The Sound of Music isn’t a Christmas movie,” Savannah offered.
“Then why is it only shown on TV between Thanksgiving and Christmas?”
“Arnold Schwarzenegger was in a Christmas movie, remember? He beat up Sinbad over a children’s toy,” Collin offered.
Arnold Schwarzenegger probably would have been a better choice. But both Jimmy Stewart and Christopher Plummer had been on late-night TV in their iconic roles this week when he couldn’t sleep for the visions of Camden Harris dancing in his head. There had been no sign of Arnold on TV.
“So was Bruce Willis,” Savannah teased. She wound her arm around Collin’s as she spoke, snuggling closer to him. Levi would never have imagined his baby sister would fall for his best friend, but the two of them were perfect for each other.
Levi rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. Why their perfection annoyed him he couldn’t figure out. But the more they snuggled and whispered, the more he wanted to toss them both into the lake. He’d leave them and join James, Slippery Rock’s recently elected sheriff, but James was canoodling with Mara at the other end of the dock. Same with Adam and Jenny, although they weren’t canoodling so much as looking as if, once they got their little boys back home and asleep, they’d start the canoodling.
Canoodling. What the hell was wrong with him? Levi Walters didn’t use words like canoodling. He didn’t watch sappy movies. He took care of his cattle. Played a little football every now and then with the guys. He threw darts and drank beer—all manly things.
So why was he so annoyed that Collin and Savannah were holding hands? That James had wrapped his arms and coat around Mara, holding her close to him? That Adam just kissed Jenny on her forehead when Thom said that line about the “best Christmas ever”? That Aiden and Julia were currently in a lip-lock, ignoring the speech and the crowd entirely?
He definitely needed to get started on either Plan A, find a local girl who’d fall for him, or Plan B, settle for a weekend of fun with a city girl. Maybe tonight.
The cattle weren’t in birthing season yet, and even if they were, his dad could handle a few deliveries. The cattle knew their routine, and the dairy was mostly mechanized now, anyway. Maybe he’d get in his truck once Thom stopped chattering on about Christmas and drive south until he hit the Gulf. Spend a few days with his toes in the sand.
Get away from Love Central and have a fling of his own. Carry around one of those souvenir cups filled with something highly alcoholic.
Someone jostled him.
“Excuse me, just trying to get a good shot of the lighting.” The woman, tall and slender, with her hair up in a ponytail that came out the back of her ball cap, pushed past Levi to stand closer to the edge of the dock. She had a camera up to her face, looking through the viewfinder as she moved around in the crowd, and she looked nothing like the woman who’d walked into the Slope the other night in a wedding dress. But this was definitely Camden. His heartbeat revved a little faster in his chest. Levi frowned. “Better,” she said, to no one in particular.
“So, let’s count it down, people,” Thom Hall said, raising his voice despite the microphone before him. Levi winced as the mic fed back through the speakers. “From five,” Thom called out.
Everyone on the dock joined in. “Five.”
Finally. They’d be off this dock and into the Slippery Slope in a few minutes, and maybe then he could feel his fingers again. Putting a few extra feet between his body and Camden’s wasn’t a bad idea, either. Levi’s entire body had clenched the moment she pushed past him, and he couldn’t get the muscles to release.
That settled it. He had to get out of Slippery Rock and into a fling of some sort. Pronto.
“Four,” Thom continued, leading the town through the chant.
Once the feeling returned to his fingers, Levi would make a list of things that needed to be done before he took that vacation.
“Three,” the town called out.
Savannah kissed Collin. Camden stepped a little closer to Levi, still apparently unaware that he was anywhere near her. Screw the list—he was just going to get in his truck and go.
“Two” rang out over the dock as the countdown continued. Collin and Savannah were still stuck in their lip-lock.
“One!”
Thom raised his arms like the flagger at a NASCAR race, and when he lowered them, a man on shore activated the lights. Streams of fairy lights crisscrossed the streets of downtown; more lights outlined the buildings and the grandstand. New flags had been hung on the street poles, and the school band struck up “Winter Wonderland” from inside the grandstand.
“Oh, it’s perfect,” Camden said, keeping her focus on the viewfinder on her camera rather than the people around her. “They’re going to love this,” she said, moving the camera from side to side.
Making a video, not taking stills, Levi realized. No wonder she was so focused on the camera’s viewfinder instead of where she was going. She stepped back, and so she wouldn’t land on him and lose her balance again, Levi moved back, too. He put his hands on her shoulders, letting her know he was there.
“Sorry,” she said, “I just want to get all the lights.” She tilted the camera, he supposed, to get the outlines of the buildings as well as the Main Street lights.
“No problem.”
The crowd began to move back to shore. Levi started to inch away from Camden, but when she took another little step back, he realized he couldn’t move. He was the only thing between her and the lake. The dock was sturdy, but this area was where the boats tied up, with no railings to stop anyone from diving—or falling—off the side.
He waved at Collin and Savannah as they started moving away. “I’ll catch up.”
“Playing hero?” Savannah teased.
Levi gave her another eye roll. “Protecting someone from catching cold by falling into the lake in November.”
Collin and Savannah continued back down the dock, along with the other town residents. He saw James and Mara start climbing the steps leading to the street. Adam and Jenny, along with their little boys, were nearly back to shore. He didn’t catch Aiden and Julia, but they’d probably already left the dock. Everyone watched the twinkling lights as they walked, and Levi had to admit the downtown area had taken on a bit of a fairy-tale quality.
Something he probably wouldn’t have noticed if AMC wasn’t in full-on holiday mode with the old movies this week. Old movies beat reruns of those daytime talk shows any day of the week.
Camden took another step back, her heels at the edge of the dock now. Levi reached for her arm.