Chapter 1

Thick snowflakes swirled through the air, blowing into the cottage the moment he opened the heavy wooden door. Big surprise.It snowed every flipping day on this damn island. He let the door close with a thud and held his chunky knit scarf close to his face, hoping he was heading in the right direction. Visibility was limited and he hadn’t been around long enough to get oriented.

Not for the first time, he was glad he’d broken down and bought the new snowshoes from L.L. Bean. Without them, he’d be sinking much deeper into the hills of snow blanketing the clearing. Jules shivered as he stomped across the snow, hurrying to make it to work on time. He’d been at the island for only a week and so far he’d been late all but one morning. It was definitelynot scoring him points with his new boss.

He still couldn’t believe he’d been relegated to the island for ninety days. Ninety days! All for taking the sleigh for a joyride. Okay, fine, he’d also taken the stable boy. But in all fairness, that had been out of his control. Caleb had looked so delicious in his new red and green plaid pants with the matching red suspenders that Jules hadn’t been able to resist his sugary charms.

A few minutes of flirting, a couple of light kisses, and they were hooking up a couple of reindeer-in-training to the sleigh and gliding over the snow drifts. Unfortunately, someone had seen them and reported the whole thing to the Big Guy.

Jules was pretty sure it had been Dancer who’d tattled. When it was announced Jules was temporarily banished from the North Pole, the glee in that reindeer’s eyes had been unmistakable. Dancer’d had it out for him since Jules was a teenager and he’d been busted changing the name on the reindeer’s stall from Dancerto Gangster. The next year, Jules had been caught switching out the bells on Dancer’s harness for mushrooms. They were about the same size as the bells and nobody had noticed until Christmas Eve. Dancer had been furious. Not only did he fly without his bells that year, but was known to hate mushrooms. So, yeah, it had basically been on from there.

Apparently Dancer hadn’t snitched on Caleb, or if he had, the boss must have assumed Jules had been the instigator. Which he was. It still burned, though. Everybody always assumed if there was trouble, Jules must be close by. Just because it was usually true didn’t mean that was alwaysthe case.

The massive log cabin came into view, and he made a final push, wiping at the snowflakes accumulating on his lashes. Warmth was only a few feet away inside the Seasonal Operations Building—or SOB, as it was referred to. Yeah, don’t even get him started on that one.

The entrance door opened before he could reach for the handle and he brushed past the petite woman smiling at him.

“Good morning, Jules.”

Her way-too-chirpy voice grated on him, but he grunted back a “hello.”

“You’re on time,” she needlessly pointed out, watching him as he unwound his scarf, then removed his black leather gloves and thick woolen coat. He hung the coat on an empty peg and laid his scarf and gloves on a table to dry, joining several other wet items, then took off the snowshoes.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, his gaze landing on Eve. With her white-blonde hair cut in a pixie style, full red lips, bright emerald eyes, and petite upturned nose, she would have made the perfect elf and he wondered why she wasn’t at the North Pole. It certainly couldn’t be that she didn’t have the proper attitude, because she was fairly bubbling over with holiday joy. Yet, somehow, she had ended up at Snow Hope Island, just as he had. He had to wonder what she’d done to get on the Big Guy’s bad side.

He noticed someone had hung a sprig of mistletoe near the bathroom door and he rolled his eyes. This place was almost as over-the-top as the North Pole. Almost.

Jules glanced over Eve’s shoulder and saw the morning shipment had arrived. He stomped his feet on the hardwood floor, ridding his boots of most of the snow, and strode toward the large hall filled with long, rectangular wooden tables, set up cafeteria style. Stacked chairs lined the far wall, with one or two placed at tables. Paneled walls in knotty pine rose high to meet slanted ceilings with exposed beams. Two oversized windows looked over the clearing through which he’d just trekked, bringing natural light into the room. Three green doors in the back each opened into an office, while a set of stairs in the corner led to the loft, which employees used as a breakroom.