A Little Bit of Christmas

by Juliana Stone

  When he was done, he parked the snowblower where he found it and headed to the diner for some hot coffee and food to take back to his room. He grabbed an old newspaper from a pile on the counter and shoved it inside his jacket, while Joely rang up his order of soup and sandwiches.

  “Will you be open later?” he asked after he paid.

  “Where else we gonna be?” Steve grumbled as he pulled a cigarette from behind his ear and lit up. “I hate winter.”

  “And yet you never leave,” Joely said sarcastically.

  “I hate summer too.”

  She rolled her eyes as if to say, See what I put up with?

  “We’ll be open, Cash. Stuck here on Christmas Eve,” Joely said, attempting a smile. “No place I’d rather be.” She winked at him. “Come by for dinner. There’s a couple in thirty-four who’ll be here, and an elderly gentleman in fifteen. We’ll cook up something special, won’t we, Steve?”

  The cook exhaled a long plume of smoke and shrugged. “I’ll see what we got.”

  Cash’s cell vibrated against his chest. He took a step back and pulled it out of the pocket inside his coat. It was his sister.

  “Hey,” he said with a smile, glad to hear her voice.

  “Hold on,” she replied. Cash heard Christmas music in the background and then his sister spoke, but her voice was muffled, like she was holding her hand over the phone. “Tawny, grab the tape and scissors before your dad gets back. Oh, and plug the kettle in for some hot chocolate while I grab your sister.”

  A pause. “Sorry about that. We’re trying to get all this last-minute stuff done while Cam’s out, and the baby is cranky. Another tooth coming through.”

  “Sorry to hear that.”

  “It’ll be okay. But, it’s Christmas Eve, and like usual, I’m scrambling to catch up. And this storm sucks. Cam’s out in it clearing snow for some neighbors. Where are you?”

  He was going to say Kentucky, but his sister beat him to the punch.

  “And don’t say Kentucky, because I talked to Blake yesterday and he told me you were headed this way. I’ve been worried sick about you out in this mess.”

  Fucking Blake. The guy couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, though Cash supposed there was no point in any of that now.

  “I’m in Crystal Lake. I made it here last night but was forced off at the first exit. The main road into town is closed, so I’m at a motel.”

  “Shoot. Maybe I can see if Cam can get to you. He’s got this big truck with chains on the wheels and a big contraption on the front. It looks like something from Mad Max.”

  “I know you think your husband can turn water into wine and perform all kinds of miracles, but no way is he navigating a closed road when the county won’t even send out their plows.”

  His sister started to protest, and Cash cut her off. “Look, don’t worry about me, Blue. I’m fine here. Met some new friends, and hopefully tomorrow, things are different and you’ll have a big-ass turkey waiting for me when I get there.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Blue conceded. “It’s just I hate the thought of you being so close by, but not here with me. I was planning a nice quiet get-together tonight. Poppy’s coming. Cam’s bringing her back after he’s done clearing driveways. You remember her, don’t you?”

  Cash made a face and was glad his sister wasn’t there to see it. Nothing against Poppy—she was something special—but Cash wasn’t so fond of his sister’s never-ending desire to set him up with a good woman who’d balance out the darkness in him. A woman she thought would make him want to settle down.

  That kind of life wasn’t for Cash. He wasn’t made that way. He’d seen too much pain, saw firsthand how love could be used to twist someone up so bad, they lost themselves. His mother, for one. He wasn’t interested in giving up that part of him. As far as he was concerned, love made people weak.

  His sister was the exception.

  “Cash?”

  He cleared his throat. “Tonight’s not going to happen, but I’ll try my best to get there for turkey dinner, okay?” He gentled his voice, and Blue said she’d call him first thing in the morning.

  He gathered up his food and coffee and, with a wave to Joely, headed back to his room. He’d left it dark with the blinds closed and, once inside, carefully shucked off his clothes until he stood in nothing but his boxers. He needed a shower and a change into something clean before he ate and attempted to wake up the sleeping beauty in his bed.

  Preoccupied with thoughts of his sister, Cash strode to the bathroom and yanked open the door. Steam hit him full in the face, and it took a few moments for his brain to compute what his eyes were transmitting.

  Long, wet hair tangled around creamy shoulders.

  Perfect breasts that glistened with drops of water.

  A waist and hips that curved just like they were supposed to.

  Long, long legs.

  His gaze traveled back up, stopped for just a second at the juncture between those legs, and then up to the nasty bruises and imprint of a hand at her breast.

  Chess held a towel but was frozen like a deer caught in a hunter’s sight. Her face was averted, but he could see her cheek was still swollen, her right eye puffy and laced with shades of purple and yellow.

  “Oh,” she said, so softly he barely heard. She jerked the towel around her body and glanced up.

  Cash thought the world tilted a little, maybe a lot, because suddenly, his knees felt like liquid, as if the bones and cartilage had given way, and he had to work to keep standing and not fall on his ass.

  He looked straight into her eyes. He saw pain and despair, and for one second, they had a moment, because what he saw was a reflection of his own soul.

  “I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. “I didn’t…I thought you were still in bed.”

  “Can you move, please?” she whispered, the towel now firmly secured.

  She walked past Cash without a word and quietly closed the door behind her. He stepped into the shower that still smelled of Chess and, as the hot spray fell over him, closed his eyes and tried to calm his heart because it felt like the damn thing was going to beat right out of him.

  But Cash couldn’t get the image out of his mind, of her naked, and broken, and looking so damn small, he would have given his left hand to make her pain go away. When was the last time he’d felt that way about anyone, save his sister?

  He wasn’t sure he liked this. Caring for someone complicated things, and he barely knew this girl.

  What the hell?

  A Christmas miracle, Blue would say. And if she were here right now, she’d think that maybe, for a Scrooge like him, there was hope after all.

  Chapter Five

  Chess wanted to crawl into a corner and disappear. Or die. Or maybe walk out into the snowstorm never to be seen again.

  She groaned and pulled on the plaid sleep pants Cash had given her the night before, along with the sweatshirt that pretty much drowned her. She had no choice. There wasn’t anything else for her to wear.

  God, he’d taken a good long look at her, and she’d stood there like an idiot. Seriously. She should have held up a sign that said Naked Crazy Lady, come have a look. Hell, look all you want. I kinda like it.

  Her cheeks burned at that thought because it moved in, real sneaky like. But it was true, wasn’t it? There was a moment, a second, maybe, when she felt something she’d never felt before. A shot of heat. A hint of desire. A connection. There was look in his eyes, like he could see into her soul. It was beyond physical attraction. Whatever, IT was.

  It was gone almost as soon as it had come, and now she stood on the other side of the door, while he was in there…in the shower…naked.

  Holy hell, the man was built.

  She slammed her eyes shut but couldn’t get the image of him out of her mind. Cash standing inches from her in a pair of athletic boxers, the kind that did nothing but emphasize what it was supposed to be hiding. He was lean where he was supposed to be lean and muscled w
here it mattered, with defined abs and the kind of arms that promised shelter. He had a scar on his right pec and a tattoo underneath it, Sanskrit or something like that. He was beautiful in a way that wasn’t perfect, and dangerous in a way that made her weak.

  If this were another time and place, and if she were a completely different person, she might let herself fantasize about Cash Bodine and what could be. A hot one-night stand? Why not? How long had it been since she’d been touched? Really touched? Or met anyone who made a sizzle erupt in her gut?

  Not once in her life had she felt anything more than casual attraction to any of the men she’d been involved with. And her husband had been in the friend zone pretty much from day one. It was why they got along so well.

  Since her divorce, there’d been men, but none of them meant anything. They’d been a means to an end. A body to eat up the desolation and quiet. A way to get by until she figured things out. Not even Nate Jacobs had managed to pierce her armor, and she’d held out hope for that one. Though, in all fairness, she knew his heart belonged to someone else before he did. Men could be such idiots.

  The bathroom door opened behind her, and she froze, eyes centered on the far wall. His shadow was there, a larger-than-life version of a man she barely knew.

  He walked to the dresser, and she glanced his way as he unpacked two coffees and two chicken noodle soups. His hair was damp and curled around his ears. He’d pulled on a plain black mock neck sweater and faded jeans. His feet were bare, but he didn’t seem to care.

  Chess looked down at her own bare feet and curled her toes. The nails were chipped, the polish all but gone from her trip home in the snow, no doubt, and about as sad and pathetic as the rest of her.

  “Here.”

  Startled, she accepted the coffee cup from Cash and wrapped her fingers around the welcome warmth.

  “It’s Christmas Eve,” she said slowly, as realization dawned.

  He nodded but didn’t reply, then moved toward the window for a look out. “We’re stuck here at least another night.”

  “I wish I was only stuck here for one more night.” She heard the words spill out of her mouth into the room and winced. Since when did she share her thoughts? Especially with someone like Cash? He was passing through town, and when he left, she’d never see him again. What the hell did he care about her situation?

  “How long you been here?” He turned and leaned against the dresser. She saw curiosity in his eyes, but more importantly, there was no pity or judgment.

  “A few months,” she said, taking a sip of coffee. Double cream. Double sugar. He’d gotten that right without asking. Did the man have superpowers? “I didn’t know my mother was living in this dive until I moved back home. She told me she sold the house because she couldn’t manage the property, but that’s a lie. The bank took the house, and now Beck Jacobs owns it. He’s going to reno it and sell it, and that’s that.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” Did she sound bitter? “I hated that house.”

  Liar. It was easier to tell herself that than think of strangers in the house that at one time had been a happy home. She would never get to visit her secret garden again or sit in her window seat and read her mother’s old Nancy Drew books.

  “Where were you before?”

  Chess moistened her lips and glanced down at her chipped toes. “It’s a long story.”

  “Time is something we have lots of.” He paused, his features softening. “I don’t mean to pry. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing, ignore me. I just thought since we’re stuck here, we could get to know each other a little better.”

  “Well, you’ve already seen me naked. I’d say you know me pretty well.” Jesus. Again with the word vomit. What the hell was wrong with her?

  When he didn’t reply, she glanced up to find his gaze settled on her with an intensity that should have made her uncomfortable. For some reason, it didn’t. For some reason, she wanted to share. It wasn’t exactly a pretty story, but he sure seemed interested. She took another sip of coffee and shrugged.

  “I left town the day after graduation. There was nothing to keep me here. I had no close friends, at least not the kind that counted. My mom was lost in booze, and I wanted to be an actress.” She laughed at the thought and felt real pain for the naïve girl she’d been.

  “It was the typical small-town-girl-who-thinks-she’ll-make-it-big-in-Hollywood story. And it’s true what they say, the narrative is as old as time. LA was full of women who looked like me, and a good number of them had a lot more talent. I got exactly one role as the coffee girl in one scene of a made-for-TV movie I’m not even sure aired. I didn’t have a line, I was told to look pretty and to unbutton the top three buttons of my top. The director’s brother was visiting the set that day, he took a liking to me, and two months later, we were married. We didn’t love each other, but I made him laugh, and he made me feel safe and comfortable. He was lonely, and I filled a hole inside him, and he was rich. He owned a company that produced big films with A-list stars, and after the first few months of our marriage, he basically left me alone.”

  Chess sighed and set down her coffee.

  “For a while, we had the perfect life. We were two lonely, screwed-up people happy to have someone to call their own, you know? It’s hard making your way in that world without a plus one. The wolves are hungry, and if you’re on your own, you don’t stand a chance. Brian gave me stability, and I was happy, I think. But then it fell apart. I found Brian in bed with the doorman of the hotel we’d been staying at, while our mansion in Calabasas was being fumigated for horny tarantulas.”

  “Come again?”

  She gave Cash a look and shuddered. “Hundreds of horny tarantulas. They get aggressive during mating season and they’re everywhere. Anyway, the fact that I found him in bed with Johan didn’t surprise me. The big kicker came two months later when I was evicted from our tarantula-infested mansion after my husband was arrested for embezzlement and the bank foreclosed on the property. Apparently, while he was busy having sex with doormen and stealing from his own company, he’d forgotten to pay our bills and defaulted on the mortgage. In addition to losing the house, my credit cards were no good, my bank account was frozen, and for a while there, I was scared the prosecutor would go after me as well. When I was free to leave, I headed to friends in New York City, and after a few months, they made it clear I’d overstayed my welcome.

  “I came back to Crystal Lake a few weeks before Labor Day, the one place on earth I swore I’d never return to, especially since I came home with nothing. After living a life most people dream about, now I’m the butt of jokes, talked about in whispers, and I have zero friends.” She smiled, a cold plastic kind of thing. “I thought Brian was saving me from a life I hated, and for a while, he did, but Prince Charming only exists in fairy tales. I realized the person I am, this place I come from, is always going to be a part of me. I can’t outrun it, not even if I moved to the end of the world. I can’t count on anyone but myself.”

  “That’s a pretty jaded view for someone so young.”

  She laughed at that and looked at him, incredulous. “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when your world is knocked upside down and you’re only eight.”

  “What happened when you were eight?”

  God, she hadn’t thought about that night in a long time. She remembered snow falling. Doors slamming. Raised voices. Her mother crying.

  “My dad left a week before Christmas. He came into my room, tossed a couple of presents on the bed, and told me to be good for Mom. He said I’d see him soon.” She shook her head slowly. “That never happened, and my mother found a new love at the bottom of every whiskey bottle she could get her hands on.”

  Chess was glad for a bit of quiet. She sank to the bed and stared dully at the floor.

  “What happened the other night?” Cash asked as he moved closer to her. When she felt his weight on the mattress, Chess closed her eyes and shook her head. Why stop
now?

  “A girl I know, Bonnie, hooked me up with this man, Gerald Martin. He’s a local businessman and wanted a date for dinner. Someone to look pretty on his arm while he visited the high-roller table at the casino. That’s all it was supposed to be, dinner. I was to smile and perform like a damn circus animal. I’d do that and end the night with five hundred dollars. It sounded pretty straightforward to me. But Mr. Martin and I weren’t on the same page, and he…” She tumbled over her words. “He wanted more, and things got physical.” She pointed to her face. “I wouldn’t give in, and eventually, he had enough. He kicked me out of the car about a mile from town with a fifty-dollar bill for my trouble.”

  Silence greeted her confession.

  She got up from the bed and took a few steps away from him, hating the sudden sting of tears. She peered through the window as the wind continued to moan. Already what little light there was had faded, and soon it would be dark.

  “The diner’s still open,” she said.

  “It is.” His voice was soft and husky, the timbre meant to soothe. “Joely and Steve are making dinner tonight. She told us to come.”

  She whirled around in surprise. “Us? Since when did we become an us?”

  Cash shrugged. “She knows you’re staying with me because you couldn’t get in your room.” He frowned and dug through the pocket of his jeans. “That reminds me.” He held up a key. “I convinced Jerry it was in his best interest to hand this over. You don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

  Cash smiled at her, and it knocked a hole in the ice around her heart. “What do you say?” he asked. “Do you want to be my Christmas Eve date?”

  Her hand crept up to her still-swollen cheek and puffy eye. She knew how awful she looked. How could she go anywhere like this?

  Cash moved toward her slowly. When he stopped an inch or so away from Chess, she kept her eyes glued to the pulse at his neck. It beat rapidly, and she thought that maybe it matched the tempo of her own. He smelled clean and fresh, and he was so big, a girl could get lost in him.