Craig flashed his pearly white teeth when he smiled back at her. “I already know you’re a keeper.”
The two bent their heads together and he rubbed his nose against hers. Embarrassed that I was witnessing such an intimate moment between them, I averted my gaze and found myself looking at Jacob by accident.
Okay, maybe not by complete accident. I was curious to see how he was taking their overt display of affection. He was chuckling, though. It didn’t seem to bother him at all to see Allie’s mother locked in a moment with another man.
“Where are you staying?” Jackie asked Shannon from the other side of the table. “Don’t tell me you checked into a hotel again.”
“I did,” she said, turning away from her boyfriend with flushed cheeks and a love-drunk smile. “We didn’t want to inconvenience Jacob by staying here.”
“It wouldn’t have been a problem,” he said graciously, “but you already know that. I’m glad you two are happy. Chiropractor, huh? What’s that like?”
Jacob made easy conversation with Shannon and her boyfriend, seamlessly including me while he chatted. “Shannon lives in New York now,” he said for my benefit at one point. At another, it was, “She’s got stellar administrative skills. I’m sure she’s doing a great job as a practice manager.”
Craig seemed to relax as the evening wore on. If I had to guess, I’d be willing to bet he hadn’t expected to be so warmly welcomed by Shannon’s ex and his family.
Welcome to the club, buddy.
Based on the assumptions I’d made about him, I really wouldn’t have pegged him as the kind of person who was so kind and reasonable with his ex. He was really mature in the way he handled her and the boyfriend.
“Tell us about you, Laurie,” his mother said, interrupting my musings about the enigma Jacob was proving to be. “Katie’s a lovely girl. Allie’s really hit it off with her. I haven’t seen them leaving each other’s side once since we arrived.”
“Neither have I.” I smiled when I noticed the two girls were gone from the table again. I spotted them playing with something I couldn’t see in the living area in the next room. “Their friendship is definitely blooming. It’s really cool to see it happening.”
“That, it is,” his father agreed. “The innocence of children is always something to admire. If they like each other, they get along like a house on fire with no questions asked or reservations based on assumptions.”
Wow. Can this man read minds? I didn’t think so and his tone was so jovial that I doubted it’d been a stab aimed at me.
In fact, as the evening wore on, I began to doubt more and more that Jacob had told them how I’d treated him before. Not even the man himself was anything less than one hundred percent welcoming.
I still felt embarrassed and like I took advantage of him, but I was also really starting to enjoy myself.
“What would you like to know about me?” I asked Jackie, already dreading her questions.
Jacob surprised me by jumping in first, and as if he knew not to delve too deeply into what had already been a shitty day, he kept things light and easy. “What do you do for a living?”
“I’m an author,” I said. Or at least, I used to be one when I could still write. “Mostly young-adult, fantasy stuff but I dabble in new adult too.”
“So you actually have readers?” His eyes flashed in amused surprise, and his brows rose, but then he sat forward and started talking to me about books. The one thing I would always be willing and eager to talk about.
“Have you got anything Allie and I should read? I’m part of the parents’ book club at the school, but my God, are we in need of better material than what those people suggest.”
I laughed, and dinner flew by after that. Before I knew it, everyone else had said goodbye and trickled out pair by pair, and eventually, it was just us left.
I helped Jacob bring the dishes to the kitchen, figuring it was the least I could do. He was covering up leftovers when I walked in with the last of the empty dessert plates.
“Thank you for inviting us to stay,” I said. “I had a really rough day. It was nice to have a good meal and meet your family. They’re great people.”
“We’re glad we could do something to make your day a little better. Did the turkey fix it?” He gave me a teasing grin, but it was a friendly one instead of a smug or I-told-you-so one. The reddish hues in his eyes were warm, and the corners had only two small creases beside them.
I nodded, my mouth drying up when I realized how close we’d suddenly gotten to each other. “Dinner was fantastic. The turkey didn’t fix it, but it sure made it feel a lot more fixable.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” he offered, pushing away from the counter just as I started to pass behind him to get to the dishwasher.
“No, that’s okay,” I said, so focused on trying to avoid having to talk about my day that I didn’t notice him moving back until it was too late.
We ended up bumping into each other, and neither of us backed up right away. Our gazes caught, and I stared up at him while he did the same with me. I was suddenly transfixed by him, getting lost in the depths of his eyes while noticing little things about his features I’d missed before.
There was a tiny healed scar on the outside of his eyebrow and the slightest bit of a crookedness to his nose. A dusting of incredibly light freckles covered his upper cheeks, and the sweet smell of sugar from dessert brushed over my skin every time we breathed.
We moved almost at the same time, his head bending down while I slowly pushed up to my toes. It was like I was being pulled to him by a magnetic force that I couldn’t fight. When his lips were so close to mine that I could almost taste the sweetness I knew I would find there, two loud giggles rang out and suddenly the girls raced into the kitchen.
I jumped away from him like I’d been burned, and I whirled around to look at Katie. “We should go, hon. We’ve taken up enough of your friend’s time today.”
“The night is still young.” Jacob’s voice was a lot more breathy than usual before he cleared his throat. “Why don’t you stay for some coffee?”
I shook my head. All I wanted to do was run in the opposite direction.
What am I doing? This was not the time for me to get distracted or to make things more complicated in my life.
Besides, I didn’t even like this guy. Well, I hadn’t.
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
Which is yet another reason to get the hell away from him before I do something I’m going to regret. “Thank you so much for the offer, but it’s getting late. We really should head home.”
His gaze lingered on mine, but eventually, he dipped his head in acknowledgment. “We’ll walk you out. It was good to see you, Laurie. We hope to see you again soon.”
“Sure,” I lied. “We’ll set something up for the girls soon.”
Once I get a hold of these crazy feelings I suddenly have, I added silently. Feelings I definitely shouldn’t be having, especially not about you.
Chapter 14
Jacob
“Friday, Black Friday,” I sang under my breath as I entered the chaos of the store. I knew those weren’t the exact words to the real song I was using the tune of, but they still fit.
It was absolute fucking madness at the mall, and this shop hadn’t been exempted. There were people everywhere, and each and every single one of them meant business. Their jaws were set, their shoulders squared, and their eyes narrowed as they prepared to fight for whatever it was they wanted.
I felt like I’d entered a battleground that someone had forgotten to signpost properly. It would all be worth it once I got what I came for, and I wasn’t leaving without it.
There was a limited-edition doll in there with my name on it, even if no one else knew it yet. Allie had been talking about it for ages. She needed the doll to complete her collection, and it was the only thing she’d brought up at all when I’d asked her what she wanted for Christmas.
A couple of we
eks ago, I’d looked it up online. I tried placing an order so I wouldn’t have to brave the crowds on a day like today. Unfortunately for me, I’d just received an email last night that my order hadn’t been processed.
I didn’t know what had taken the shop so long, but it came down to the fact that they were having trouble meeting the demand and wouldn’t be accepting any orders for the doll until after Christmas.
Obviously, after Christmas wasn’t acceptable to me. I might not get the doll if I didn’t get it right away, and I wasn’t taking that chance. My little girl deserved the best, and this was the best present I could get her.
It was also the worst possible day of the year to be out shopping.
I surveyed the utter chaos around me, trying to come up with a plan of attack. Unlike most other people in there, I’d come for one item and one item only.
All around me, there were shopping carts filled to the brim. Shoppers were fighting and crashing into one another, yelling and trying to grab things out of other people’s hands.
I cracked my neck. If anyone thought they were prying that doll out of my hands once I found it, they were sorely mistaken.
I hadn’t been expecting to have to brawl over it, but I would if I needed to. Deciding to stick to the outer aisles, I slowly made my way to the toys instead of trying to elbow through the clusterfuck around the checkout registers and along the discount aisles in the middle of the store.
Think like a ninja. I’d watched so many martial arts movies that I felt like I’d spent my life preparing for this moment. This is it, Parker. It’s time to step up and be a hero. A shopping hero, but that still qualifies.
Blending in with the crowd wasn’t as difficult as it might have been if every person there wasn’t so completely focused on their own goals. I dodged people racing each other to get to certain products, nearly getting my foot run over by a man with a massive lawnmower in his cart.
I winced. That would’ve hurt.
Although from the looks of things, it seemed inevitable that I was going to be leaving this store with an injury. Just when I realized it, I walked past a woman clutching her bleeding nose and yelling curses at a man walking away with a smug smile and some kind of contraption I didn’t recognize.
What the fuck is wrong with people? It seemed they’d all lost their minds.
Security approached the woman, and I heard them directing her to a medic over the din. It smelled like sweat and desperation, and with all the yelling happening, I could barely hear myself think.
Several people scowled at me when I passed them, like shooting me their best attempts at a death glare would dissuade me from picking a fight with them. Paying so much attention to the people around me made me accidentally overshoot my target and landed me in the clothing section, which was like a fucking bloodbath.
Oh, God. There are wedding dresses here. Abort. Abort.
Women, men, and even children fought like rabid dogs over everything from discounted sweaters, to prom dresses, to suits, to sneakers. For a moment, all I could do was watch the mayhem around me.
I didn’t know whether to laugh, run, or be horrified. The scene playing out in front of me was hilarious, but it was also scary to see how people lost their minds over special prices.
When I eventually reached the toy section, I realized the fights over everything else was child’s play compared to what was going on there. I was nearly swallowed whole by throngs of mothers fighting over toys for their children.
Some of them seemed to have grown their nails for the entire year in preparation for this day. Clearly, I’m an amateur.
I hadn’t worn heels, hadn’t grown my nails, and hadn’t brought a purse filled with rocks to swing at people’s heads. All I had was my charm and wit, but that wouldn’t get me anything there.
“Excuse me,” I murmured as I edged my way through the moms. It’s going to be worth it. It’s going to be worth it. It’s going to be—
My thoughts got cut off by the sharp jab of an elbow to my ribs. “Ow, fuck.”
“You’re not excused,” a particularly scary-looking woman snarled at me. “I was here first. Get in line, buster.”
“I’m not even here for a drone.” I rolled my eyes at her. On the other hand, maybe I should reach out and get a fucking drone now just because.
The woman looked like she’d be ready to take on a linebacker, though. Nah, not worth the holdup having to fight over something I don’t even want.
I hadn’t even moved three paces before a high heel came down on my toe, but I didn’t know who it belonged to. All over, there were women trying to grab stuff over the others’ heads.
Fuck being ready to take on linebackers. These women were ready to take on entire football teams and win.
They scratched and clawed, screamed and cursed. My head snapped back as I took an open palm to my jaw, my ear suddenly ringing and my skin stinging from the strike. I shook it off, searching for the culprit to demand an explanation before I realized I’d simply been caught in the crossfire.
Two ladies—although the Victorian era writers would’ve described them in far more colorful terms—were going at it over a set of building blocks. I knew those sets could get expensive, but it really wasn’t necessary to slap someone over it, was it?
These people are crazy!
Going shopping on Black Friday was more dangerous than playing football in high school. The only thing that propelled me forward through it all was imagining the look on Allie’s face on Christmas morning when she opened that doll.
She would be super surprised, and her joy was worth waiting in line, getting beaten up, and all the bruises I’d have when I got out of there.
In order to get out of there, though, I needed to get to the doll and that obviously wasn’t going to be easy. I had to find that Zen place inside myself to get the determination I needed, so I took a deep breath and tried to remember the last time the world around me had quieted.
The moment that jumped out at me was a surprising one. It was one from last weekend when Laurie and I had gotten caught up in that weird “will they, won’t they” situation in the kitchen.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d wanted to kiss someone that badly. It was like I’d tumbled into her eyes and hadn’t been able to find my way out. None of how I’d reacted had been familiar to me. I wasn’t used to being held immobile by someone’s gaze. I definitely wasn’t used to having thoughts like nothing else matters except for kissing her right now.
I didn’t know if I wanted to get used to it either. There was a kind of powerlessness to the feeling of getting sucked into a woman that way. I’d had no control over it. My body and brain had been completely consumed by her.
All the naughty thoughts I’d had about her since we’d met had come tumbling back in that moment, and with the dream still so fresh in my mind, I’d been so desperate to get her up to my bed that I’d even forgotten there were children in the house.
Who does that?
Me. That was who. Well, only when Laurie was around, it seemed. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before.
Grabbing onto that moment, I made my way down the packed aisle. It was like I had blinders on. All my attention was on one box and one box only. I could only see it every so often when the sea of people would move one way or another, but it was there.
A purple and turquoise box that I recognized from the picture on the website I’d tried ordering it on. Elation filled my heart when I realized that meant that I’d made it on time. They still had stock, and I was about to make all my little girl’s Christmas dreams come true.
A grin broke out across my face. My hair was pulled, my arm was scratched, but I was doing it. I was getting there. I felt like what I imagined an elite athlete felt like when they realized they were about to take Olympic Gold, and it was glorious.
Only a few more steps to go, and I would emerge victorious in the Great Battle of Black Friday. Suck on that, losers.
Chapter
15
Laurie
Nobody sane went shopping on Black Friday. If even websites crashed, it was pure insanity to go to an actual brick-and-mortar store. Yet here I am, out shopping on Black Friday for a damn toy.
Not even the almighty Internet could escape this day unscathed, and I usually wouldn’t even dream about venturing near any shop, but Katie wanted this doll so badly. I knew it would make her smile on Christmas, and I was desperate to make that happen, so I was willing to take the pain and suffering to risk getting it for her today.
Christmas hadn’t been a joyous occasion for her since Katherine passed away. My parents and I pulled out all the stops every year, but it was really damn difficult when Kat had been absolutely in love with the festive season.
She was one of those people who dusted off her Christmas music in October, had the tree up and decorated by mid-November, and believed the only way to do Christmas was to celebrate the whole of December.
Her house had smelled like cookies all month. There was always a jug of eggnog in the kitchen, and no ugly Christmas sweater had gone to waste if she was the one who owned it.
It was really, really difficult to try reaching a bar that had been set that high. I wasn’t even trying to compete with her and I never would. I just wanted to do something that would make Christmas special for Katie again.
And this doll was it.
Well, this doll was part of it. Katherine’s tree was going up this year since it was in the stuff that had been in storage. Mom and Dad were coming to help us put it up.
Our embroidered stockings were going up on the fireplace, I’d found a recipe for cinnamon cookies online, and I’d even ordered us new funny sweaters for Christmas day. There were too many things out of my control at the moment.
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