Falling for the Grinch ✔️

Nine | Jolly

Rhett

Claws dig into my arm, waking me up from a much-needed deep sleep. My eyelids slowly open before I find Sammy breathing heavily into my face. I show him a smile, moving my clawed arm to scratch behind his ear. "Hey, Buddy." He only pants harder, leaning closer toward me to lick my cheek.

All I can do is laugh as I throw the covers off to allow my fifty-four-pound dog to hop into the bed with me. It's honestly my favorite part about our mornings together. Licks from Sammy are always the best, even if I am half asleep. As on cue, my alarm blares in the distance, causing my English bulldog to jump excitedly. His weight comes down, nearly taking my breath away as he lands directly on my stomach.

"Yep, that's my cue to get up." My voice comes out strained. Once I lean up slightly, Sammy jumps down and heads toward the bedroom door, scratching against it. "I know, Buddy. I'm coming."

Yawning, I turn off my alarm which reads 6:45 AM, and walk the two of us into the kitchen where I fill his empty food bowl and water. I have to be at work in an hour, so when I see that ten minutes have passed I quickly take a shower. There, I'm thinking about a petite, intolerable blonde who has been consuming my thoughts for the past few days— I don't like it one bit.

Our texts last night were rather enjoyable.

You were flirting with her.

Since when is talking about movies flirting?

You called her Christmas junkie.

And that's considered flirting? Nicknames?

Yes, dumbass.

"Fuck," I groan into the tiled wall as I rest my forehead against it, letting the hot water run down my back. Here I am at almost 7 in the morning... arguing with my stupid conscious and on top of that I have a massive boner.

It's morning wood, that's all it is. It has nothing to do with the said annoyingly cute blonde.

Keep telling yourself that.

❆ ❆ ❆

"What the hell is going on?"

When I got to work thirty minutes after I pumped my dick for a minute or two— okay, several minutes, I found my engineer, Camden, yelling at another employee who apparently doesn't know how to operate a damn excavator. He nearly drives into a massive hole that was dug up yesterday, almost killing himself in the process.

"Boss, this guy has got to go. When I interviewed him for you, he mentioned his great experience with construction and I'm afraid he lied straight from his damn teeth."

I'm pacing the gravel, stomping my steel-toe boots in the dirt when the culprit appears. "I'm so sorry, I couldn't see where I was going."

"Oh, Jesus Christ."

"Speaking of him, are you having fun with your little friend?"

I cock my head toward Camden. "What friend?"

His dark eyebrows draw together. "Richard's daughter. The Christmas guru you've been spending time with. He said she's trying to get you into the spirit, but I told him that's a ship waiting to sink."