Magic in Christmas River: A Christmas Cozy Mystery (Christmas River Cozy Book 7) by Meg Muldoon Read Free Book Online

we’d just done. The consequences of which were now sitting in heaps of shopping bags in Daniel’s truck. I swear – the man had cleaned out the stores with his enthusiasm for the holiday.
    I finished the last of the sweet potato fries as Daniel studied me.
    “Well, that sounds like good luck actually, since the knife missed your foot,” he finally said. “When you started the story, you said it was bad luck you were worried about.”
    I shrugged.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “It didn’t feel like good luck. In fact, it felt more like…”
    I trailed off, that shadow of doom suddenly creeping up on me from out of nowhere.
    “Like what?” Daniel said, putting his pint glass down, his face fixed in an expression of concern.
    I pushed my plate forward across the bar.
    “Like a warning,” I said. “Like maybe…”
    I trailed off again.
    It sounded too dramatic and ridiculous to say out loud, so I kept it to myself.
    But that didn’t prevent it from rolling around in my head.
    Like maybe that little incident was just the beginning .
    Daniel furrowed his brow and reached over, rubbing my back.
    “Hey,” he said. “It’s all fine, Cin. It was just an accident. Kitchens are dangerous places, right? You’re the one who’s always telling me that. And there’s no way that you seeing Hattie yesterday had anything to do with a knife falling off the counter.”
    I forced a weak smile.
    Daniel could always figure out my pattern of thinking – even if it wasn’t the most logical.
    “Everything’s fine, okay?” he said. “I promise. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You know why?”
    It was a redundant question that I already knew the answer to, but I asked anyway.
    “Why?”
    He smiled.
    “Because I need your help putting up the decorations.”
    I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth and hit his hand back playfully.
    “Daniel Brightman,” I said, shaking my head and taking another drink of my IPA.
    “Cinnamon Peters,” he quipped back, gazing at me with a loving expression.
    “What am I ever gonna do with you?” I said.
    He smiled.
    “Anything you like, darlin,’”
    I laughed.
    I loved it when Daniel got like this: loving and flirtatious, he was making it clear that he was trying to sweep me off my feet tonight.  
    “If I knew that a few orange and black lights could make you so happy, then I’d hang ‘em up year round,” I said.
    “Oh, it’s not just those,” he said.
    “Then what else has got you in such a jolly mood tonight?”
    He shrugged, spinning the coaster in front of him.
    “I don’t know,” he said. “I guess you’d say that I’m just… satisfied. Simple as that. Things are just good .”
    “They are, aren’t they?” I said, gazing into his eyes.
    He nodded.
    “I’m a hell of a lucky man,” he said. “And by some grace of God, I know it.”
    I felt my cheeks glow red.
    I knew a little something about the feeling myself.
    “You know, the other day I was just thinking about how much my life has changed since I moved back here to Christmas River. About how different things are for me now.”
    He leaned in close to me, his face grazing mine.
    “My life used to be Chinese take-out, late nights chasing bad guys, and insomnia,” he said. “I don’t even know who that guy was anymore. Because now, I’ve got the love of a beautiful woman and a job where I get to protect the community I care about. Not to mention all the pie I could ever want.”
    I smiled.
    Daniel had a way of making light of things, but the sentiment behind his words was 100-percent true.
    “I’m sorry you ever had to live any other way, hon,” I said, meeting his burning stare.
    He reached out a hand, stroking my cheek briefly like I was the most beautiful thing his eyes had ever beheld.
    “What do you say we get out of here?”
    “I think that’s a good idea,” I said, hopping off the barstool and standing up.
    I started wrapping my scarf around my neck, as he pulled on