He nodded. “I’ll take Tater with me. Come on, Bella. I feel bad enough about my part in his injury. You can’t spend Christmas alone. The guilt will be too much.”

Her pretty brown eyes rolled heavenward. “We both know guilt isn’t part of your makeup, Sam. I’ll be fine. Magnolia is so festive at this time of year. I’ll walk around downtown and enjoy the lights and decorations. Binge-watch all those shows languishing on my DVR. Have a mini spa day. It will be relaxing.”

“Tell me you went to the dance last night.” As part of the town’s annual holiday festival, the town council had coordinated some big dance at the old textile mill that was in the process of being renovated. There’d been flyers up all over the station publicizing it because the wife of one of the senior firefighters was in charge of marketing for the town. He’d made fun of the event to Bella, only to discover that she was excited about it.

He’d learned that his neighbor loved to dance.

Her smile widened. “I did go for an hour once Tater fell asleep in his crate. You should have seen how beautiful it looked. The guy who’s running the flower shop in town helped organize things, so there were these adorable arrangements of winter greenery on every table. It was perfect.”

“And did you dance?” Sam asked, unable to resist imagining spinning Bella on the dance floor.

“A little.” She gave a small shake of her hips that made his mouth go dry. Ridiculous, since she was wearing shapeless gray sweatpants and an oversize flannel shirt for the early-morning potty break.

“Any slow dances?” He forced a casual tone even as he questioned his sanity at fishing for that sort of information. But the thought of another man holding Bella—

“Nope.” Another sigh. “No one even asked me. I give off too many teacher vibes, according to my assistant principal.”

“There’s nothing wrong with teacher vibes.”

“They’re not sexy.”

Sam choked a little. He did not want to talk to Bella about sexy.

“I would have danced with you.”

“You weren’t there,” she answered with an arched eyebrow. “Besides, I don’t want a pity dance.”

“It wouldn’t be—”

“Save it, Anderson,” she interrupted with a wave of her hand. “I’m sure if you’d been there you would have been occupied—or maybe mauled is a better word—by your legions of adoring fans. Not to mention all those thirsty exes.”

“I can’t believe you used the word thirsty that way.”

Her grin widened. “I looked it up on Urban Dictionary to make sure I had the right usage. Too eager to get something or desperate. My knowledge of current slang is impressive, right?”

He laughed, a common occurrence when he was talking with Bella. One he hadn’t realized was as important as it had become until lately. “Don’t stay here alone, Bell. Come with me to the mountains. My dad and stepmom close down their resort for Christmas every year to accommodate the family.” The words spilled out before he thought better of them. “I’ll make sure you get your own cabin if you want privacy. Just come with me. I’m only staying a week. It will make me feel better about almost running over both you and Tater.”