He Sees You When You're Sleeping (Naughty or Nice, #1)

by Alta Hensley

I can’t lie in bed all morning avoiding the day, and yet here I am.

Not only has he been shoveling my walkway after every storm, but he also hung the Christmas lights outside my window. Granted, it was a single and simple strand of lights on my tall shrub, but I appreciated the effort. “Ha! Not that lazy fool. I’ve known Lionel for years, and that man hasn’t stepped a foot on this property since . . . who knows?” I reenter the living room with the steaming mugs. “But if he didn’t, then who did?” I ask, handing Mr. Haven his tea. He chuckles, cradling the mug between his gnarled hands. “Maybe Santa’s elves. Or you have yourself a helpful stalker.”

Over the past few years, I’ve been shoveling Chloe’s walkway after a snowstorm for three reasons.

I promise myself that this will be the last time I come around to watch her from afar. But deep down inside, I know that’s a lie. Chloe Hallman is my drug.

But as I start walking to work, I can’t shake the image of Chloe’s smile, the sound of her laugh. I tell myself this is the last time, that I’ll stop coming to the café, stop following her. Okay . . . I’m a liar. I miss her already.

“I’ve always found that the most interesting people are the ones with the most interesting bookshelves.”

I want to burst through that window and explain the dangers, lecture her on fire safety, spank her naughty and perfect ass, and then beg her to let me fix it properly.

The game has shifted, the rules rewritten. And I’m not sure if I’m the protector anymore, or just another moth drawn to Chloe’s flame.

I know, I want to say. I want to admit that I was the one working the scene that night. That I was the firefighter who pulled her parents’ bodies from the wreckage. That I held her shaking hand as I got her into the ambulance. That I went to the hospital after my shift to check on her and have watched over her ever since.

Shoveling snow, hot chocolate, and now walking beneath the snowflakes of New York. How much more Hallmark movie can you get? Oh and Jack. He’s a freaking fireman, for Christ’s sake.