Colin wouldn't allow anyone to destroy the paper Joe had built. He'd do anything he had to for the older man. Even if it meant using Rina Lowell.

RINA WATCHED with amusement as the head of the maintenance crew tried to hang mistletoe according to Emma Montgomery's direction. The older woman had already hung sprigs in unsuspecting places around the Ashford Times's offices and had taken to adding a bit more each day. Of course, she did her decorating after five, when the core staff had gone home for the day.

"A little more to the left. No, to the right. Left. No, right." From her seat, Emma tried to choreograph everything and everyone in her sphere of influence, a mean feat for an eighty-year-old woman. At least Rina thought she was eighty. Emma never discussed her actual age.

"Geez, lady, make up your mind." The man's weight tipped the ladder precariously with each stretch of his arm in a different direction. "I haven't got all night."

Emma sniffed. "That's the problem with today's generation. Everyone's in such a rush. What do you think, Rina? Come here and check it out from my perspective."

Knowing Emma wouldn't be satisfied unless she complied, Rina shut down her computer for the night and joined the older woman. She glanced upward at the ceiling. "Looks good to me. Want to test it out? Emma's willing," Rina jokingly told the maintenance man.

He glared, obviously not enjoying his role in holiday merrymaking.

Emma laughed. "You need holiday spirit," she informed the man, then squinted upward once more. She nodded at last. "That's it then. Leave the mistletoe there."

Directly over Colin Lyons's hair. Despite Corinne's warning, his return had shocked the staff. Those who knew Colin had expected his long absences to continue. Instead, as soon as he'd arrived home, he'd come on board at the paper. Corinne had agreed to let him take over the small news department, admitting that wasn't her forte. But even she didn't think he'd stay. According to office gossip, he never did.