Have Yourself a Naughty Little Santa Read Online Free Page A

left pocket of his ski jacket. He knew she’d call eventually for her locket. What he didn’t know was whether he could talk the little blonde between the sheets again.
    A thud on the passenger door jerked him out of his thoughts. “Open up, Ricco!” Denny Troyer called over the rumbling diesels. Ricco hit the power locks and the high-school kid hopped in, brushing snow from his shoulders and face. All Ricco could see were two dark eyes and full lips from behind the red-white-and-blue snowflake ski mask. Denny grinned up at Ricco, and Ricco could not help a return smile. “You ready, kid?”
    “Yep, let’s get this bitch on the road!”
    Ricco laughed.
    A loud blast of an air horn startled them both. “Maza! Get going!” Peyton shouted from the yard, waving him on.
    Ricco nodded and put the Mack into reverse. The caution beeps piped up, warning any who stood too close to move out of the way. Then he carefully backed out of the maintenance yard and onto the main street—Evergreen Promenade to 82 north—and Evergreen’s survival.
    As the truck rumbled along, Denny asked, pulling off his ski mask, “How long are you gonna be around this time, Ricco?”
    “Until the new year, like usual.”
    The kid nodded, then turned a sly sideways look his way. “What?” Ricco asked, knowing that look too well. It was the same one his mother and sisters got when they were about to fix him up.
    “My sister Poppy is back from Cal for a while.”
    Ricco grinned. Ah, yes—sweet, sweet Poppy. She was tall and sultry, and, if memory served him and half of the men in Evergreen correctly, she had the greatest pair of tits in Nor Cal. But she was twenty-two years old and Ricco liked his women with a little more experience and age. “Denny, Poppy doesn’t want an old guy like me.”
    “That’s not what she told me last year. She really likes you.”
    “Well, tell her I really like her too, but not like that.”
    “What about Felicia?”
    Ricco scowled, not wanting to think of his high-school sweetheart. He leveraged the steel snow shovel down to meet the road. The attachment locked into place, barely disturbing the huge truck they were in. Billows of heavy white snow arched up and out of their way. Ricco grinned. Worked like a charm. “Can I drive it?” Denny asked.
    “Hell, no! I get my Jones on every time I drive up here when it snows.”
    Denny frowned and changed the subject. “Mom says we might move.”
    Ricco continued to grin as the great waves of snow flew out of their way. Yeah, baby!
    “Why?”
    “Mom says business is drying up. She said the last five years really messed her up, she had to borrow against the house, and if this storm keeps coming, she said she’d have to close up the shop. Poppy wants to go to graduate school, and I’m locked in to Davis this fall. She said she can get a dealer job at the Legacy.”
    A hard jolt of heat zapped Ricco in his groin at the reference to that particular casino in Reno and the woman he’d spent the night with. Quickly he leashed his rising libido and said to Denny, “I was lucky enough to scholarship. You must have had decent grades to get into Davis. How about a student loan? Payments are deferred until a year or two after you graduate.”
    “I dunno. I need to talk to my mom more about it. But she said something about a town buyout. Will the town give us money?”
    Ricco kept his eyes focused on the bright white of the road in front of them. The wind had died down, and miraculously the snow seemed to be abating. Ricco’s belly tightened, and he said a prayer. Maybe there was hope for Evergreen yet. After all these years, he’d hate to see his family pull up stakes and move. His mom was not only the city controller but also a CPA who did ninety-nine percent of all the residents’ personal and business tax returns, as well as their books. She employed three full-time assistants. All three of his sisters were financially embedded in town. His oldest sister, Elle,