Jade was in the kitchen, flipping one ugly pancake, when she heard Parker coming up behind her. He nuzzled her neck as he wrapped his arms around her waist. He kissed her cheek and chuckled softly. “What is that?” he asked, nudging his chin toward the pan.
“It’s obviously a pancake,” she tried so hard to be serious, but she couldn’t even pretend to be indignant.
“Is it? What shape is that supposed to be?”
She looked down at it and giggled. “It was supposed to be in the shape of an ornament, but I messed it up. My pancake art isn’t exactly up to the social media influencer level.”
“And why are you trying to make an ornament-shaped pancake in July?” he asked.
“Christmas in July,” she answered, breathlessly excited.
Judging by the deep frown that overtook Parker’s handsome face, he had no idea what the hell she was talking about. She laughed as she dropped the odd pancake into a plate.
“Oh, come on! Even shifters must know what Christmas in July is!”
“I can deduce that it’s a town activity where you pretend it’s Christmas in the middle of summer.”
“Well, kinda. You’ve really never celebrated Christmas in July?”
He shook his head as he drenched the pancake with syrup. “Nope, can’t say I have ever celebrated Christmas in July.”
“When Mrs. Francis was a young woman, she went camping in Toledo or someplace like that, and the campsite celebrated Christmas in July. There was a light parade with Santa and some very interesting cocktails. She loved it so much, she brought it right back to Half Moon Key, and now it’s a town tradition.”
“This town has a lot of tradition,” he said. “And I mean that. You folks sure love to plan parties and get together for the strangest reasons. We just had Beach Day.”
“That was over two weeks ago. We need another party, another reason to get together.”
He chuckled. “And just how many of these parties have planning committees?”
“Well,” she blushed and averted his gaze. “All of them.”
“Is that right,” he pretended to be shocked.
“Yeah. All of them,” she confirmed.
“And you’re on how many of them?”
She continued to blush. “Most of them.”
“Most of them, orallof them?” His grin was so wide that he could have stuffed the misshapen pancake right down his throat.
“Notallof them,” she corrected. “But a fair few. It’s good for my job to be seen and respected. Besides, my mom was always on those committees, and when I was a kid, I loved helping her out. I was always her little co-planner helper. It was fun.”
He smiled at her. “You really like living in this small town, don’t you.”
She nodded. “I do. It’s home. I just love that we all get together a bunch of times a year. It keeps the community close. We’re secluded, and we have each other. It’s nice.”
“That kind of stuff doesn’t really happen out there in the real world.”
She arched a brow at him. “Are you telling me Half Moon Key isn’t the real world?”
He laughed softly. “Well, you’ve got a small town where at any given time, electricity and internet go down. It’s not a big deal for you or any of the folks. It’s mind-boggling.”
“Well, boggle this, hot stuff. We gotta head out and go.”
Parker arched a brow at her. “And just where are we going?”
“Are you kidding me? It’s market day! We’ve got a whole day ahead of us. You’ve got ten minutes, mister.” She kissed his cheek. “I’ll make a Half Moon Key convert out of you yet!”