Oklahoma Christmas Blues

by Maggie Shayne

  * * * * *

  It was just the dim lighting, or maybe it was the country band, playing holiday songs in a slow, sultry cadence that lovers could dance to. It was the dress she wore, or maybe the shoes, or maybe the way that Santa pendant rested right at the v of her cleavage and kept drawing his eye. Or maybe it was her eyes, the way they sparkled in the spinning red and green lights, or the sound of her laugh or the way her smile reached her entire face.

  Maybe it was just her.

  Whatever it was, something was happening to him. He was feeling kind of light headed, and not from Grandma Betty’s spiced rum. It was like he was under a spell. A charm. Entranced.

  By her.

  They ate, and they drank. They danced, and each time it felt a little more natural to press their bodies close, so they were touching from head to thigh, while they moved around the floor.

  Then it happened. They were dancing off their dessert, and he lowered his head just at the same moment she was lifting hers, and their lips just sort of found each other. It was long, and slow, and oh so sexy.

  Then the lights came up. He’d had no idea how much time had passed. But the band was finished, and the ball, at an end. He held her close beside him as they went back to their table, gathered up their things and headed out to the truck to head take her home.

  His home, he hoped. His room, above the Long Branch. His bed, where she would spend the whole night in his arms.

  He helped her into the truck and got behind the wheel, and then he drove them back to Big Falls. As they neared the village, she was snuggled close to him on the seat and he had one arm around her shoulders.

  He slowed down as they neared the Long Branch. She lifted her head, pressed her lips to his cheek, and said, “Tonight was wonderful. But it’s too soon for more. Right now, I mean.”

  “I wasn’t going to ask,” he said. Because he had sure been hoping she’d offer.

  “It’s just…he burned me pretty badly, Darryl. He betrayed me. I’m having a hard time trusting again, and I still don’t know all that much about you.”

  “I’m looking forward to changing that.” He drove on past the saloon, but didn’t pick up speed. “One thing you should know about me is that I haven’t celebrated Christmas in a very long time. And there isn’t much that I thought could budge me from that habit. But tonight, I had a really fantastic time. I didn’t even mind the holiday music and all the twinkling lights.”

  They were passing through the village and then drove out the far end, toward Vidalia and Bobby Joe’s place. When they got there, he got out and came around to help her down, only to find she’d already shucked the shoes. She hopped down easily on her own, landing on his toes and in his arms.

  “I had a wonderful time too, Darryl. Thank you.” She fingered the pendant. “For everything.” Then she stood on tiptoe, and pressed her lips to his.

  He wrapped her up tight, and kissed her back, long and slow. She tasted like spiced rum, only way more intoxicating.

  “Goodnight, Darryl,” she said. Then she hurried to the front door, and was gone behind it before he could even clear his vision.

  “‘Night, Sophie,” he muttered. Then he walked back to his truck, shaking his head, and feeling as surprised as if a lobster had just crawled out of his ear as it dawned on him very clearly, that Sophie wasn’t just a holiday fling. He had feelings for her bubbling up all over the place.

  This could be something. Something he hadn’t even thought he wanted up to now. Up to the first time he’d set eyes on her, really.

  Just about the same amount of time he’d been lying to her.