Mistlefoe Match

He saved my life. Now he’s rebuilding it. That doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven him.

Powell Ferguson has been my least favorite person for ten years.

So naturally, Huckleberry Creek appoints us co-chairs of the Twelve Stops of Christmas. I can survive a few planning meetings with the town’s relentlessly cheerful firefighter. His pancakes, teasing smiles, and irritating habit of remembering exactly how I take my coffee mean nothing.

Then my coffee truck catches fire with me trapped inside—and Powell tears open the jammed door and carries me out.

The truck is my livelihood. The life I built from nothing. Before I can figure out how to save it, Powell rallies half the fire department and starts rebuilding it in a borrowed barn. Suddenly we’re spending every day together, surrounded by holiday chaos, power tools, and one miniature donkey determined to play matchmaker.

With every board Powell replaces, it gets harder to reconcile the man showing up for me with the boy I’ve spent a decade trying to forget. Harder still to remember all the reasons I know better than to trust the warmth in his eyes—or the sparks flying whenever he gets too close.

Powell thinks he can fix almost anything.

But he can’t fix what he doesn’t understand—and I’m not sure I can survive telling him the truth.