A Very Venom Christmas - Kristine Allen Page 0,2

because I recognized it immediately.

“I’ll be back shortly,” I shouted out to Mel, the owner, after sliding it into the heater bag.

He was wiping his hands with a towel as he peeked through the window from the kitchen. “Please be careful. You sure you don’t need me to deliver this one? That snow is really coming down.”

“Nah, I’ll be fine, but thanks.” Turning up my collar and rushing out to my car, I was thankful for my last delivery. My car was still sort of warm.

Driving slower than I normally would’ve, I made my way across town. The retirement apartments were next to the nursing home, and my house was across the street from the apartments.

I parked in front of the appropriate apartment strip, left the car running, and tromped up to the door. With a big grin on my face, I rang the doorbell and waited for Ms. Margaret to answer.

Except it was definitely not Ms. Margaret that answered. Knowing I probably looked like a dipshit didn’t stop me from mutely staring. All I could do was blink.

“I’m assuming that’s our pizza?” the sexy silver fox in the doorway growled with his brows drawn together. His deep tone screamed I’ll do really naughty things to you, and you’ll love it.

My voice decided to come back in order to blurt out, “You’re not Ms. Margaret.”

He raised a pierced brow and smirked as dark hair, slightly frosted with silver at the temples, fell over his eye. “What was your first clue?”

“Decker! Stop being rude to the poor girl.” Ms. Margaret peeked around the man who had bad boy written all over him. “Come in out of the cold, dear.”

Despite her invitation, it was impossible to step foot into the small apartment, because Decker refused to move. Finally, after Ms. Margaret cleared her throat, he stepped back and motioned me in.

Doing a mental shake, I stepped into the warmth of the small living room. It only took a few steps to make it to the table.

“Oh, that smells delicious! Did Mel put extra mushrooms on it? He knows I love them,” she said as I slid the box out, set it on the table, and tucked the insulated bag under my arm.

“I’m sure it’s exactly as you ordered it. And with an extra handful of mushrooms,” I replied with a grin. Out of the corner of my eye, I noted Decker had walked past us to the tiny kitchen to pull out plates. She was opening her purse to pay me when he reached in front of her to shove some cash in my hand.

“I got it,” he said, and I tensed as chills skated through me at his touch. Wowza.

“Well, I better get back,” I said on a sigh.

“Do you want some pizza before you go?” Ms. Margaret asked me. The tiny woman looked up at me expectantly. To say she was tiny was an understatement, considering she was smaller than me, and I was barely five foot two.

Confusion caused my forehead to wrinkle, and I cocked my head.

“No, thank you. I really don’t have time,” I kindly responded. She knew that, so it was weird that she’d asked me. For a second, I wondered if this big, burly guy was holding her hostage or something and that was her secret code for me.

“Grams. Why are you asking the pizza chick to eat with us?” he grunted with his arms crossed over his broad chest. Tattoos covered his forearms and snaked up under his T-shirt sleeves. Though I wanted to stare at them to see what they were, I kept my eyes on his bluish-gray ones. He looked as confused as I felt.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” she murmured to me as if he hadn’t spoken.

It dawned on me that he’d called her “Grams,” which meant he was the elusive grandson she loved to talk about. I’d expected someone younger, considering her fairly young age. Then I remembered her saying her daughter had him very young. If my recall was correct, he was around forty. Okay, maybe that didn’t qualify as a silver fox, but the gray highlighting his beard and hair was extremely hot.

“The name’s Loralei, not pizza chick. I’m Ms. Margaret’s neighbor. It just so happens I deliver pizzas part-time.” Why I’d felt the need to explain myself to him, I had no idea.

“Don’t forget! We have our knitting lesson tomorrow,” Ms. Margaret randomly piped in. Dragging my gaze from his hypnotizing one, I gave her a kind smile.

“We can