Mistletoe & Cocoa Kisses

by Stacy Eaton

  Never had I felt such emotion while making love to another person. Chris had touched places deep in my soul that I had not even known existed, yet we were saying goodbye. Rather, he had already done so.

  I rolled to my back and stared at the ceiling while I thought about the day. I couldn’t believe that I had been caught reading his e-mail. God, what an idiot I was to have even looked at it. Luckily, I had only seen a few moments of the video, so I was able to pretty much block that from my memory. I didn’t want to think about Chris with someone else. He’d had every right to yell at me, and I worried all through lunch that his stupid ex-girlfriend would post the video someplace and get away with it.

  During lunch, there had been a quiet tension in Chris, and it was no huge surprise when he asked me to leave. The fact that he had already arranged for me to do so only cemented the fact that he wanted me gone. I’d tried not to let that hurt me, but it did.

  It didn’t matter that he had just whispered that I had stolen his heart, he wanted me to leave, so I would honor his wishes. It was the best thing to do, anyway. I had a plan now, and I needed to follow through with that before I did anything else.

  I taught Matt how to make my favorite chili and cornbread recipes and pretended to be coming down with something, so I could stand back and watch him. He was such a great kid and would no doubt grow up to be an incredible man like his father. I longed to watch him mature and grow, but knew that I should go, and maybe there was a possibility that I would still get a chance to be with this family, but I couldn’t be certain. I’d excused myself from the kitchen when the cooking was done and had gone to my room to pack up my things.

  For the last two hours, I’d lain on the bed and thought about my decision. What if it didn’t work out? What if I had made the wrong choice?

  I wouldn’t know until I tried, and I was never one to put things off.

  I fell asleep late that night and woke early in the morning but didn’t leave my room until I heard a car engine start up and pull out of the driveway.

  My things were all together, so I only had to wait for the rental car to show up, and I could leave. I walked to the kitchen and glanced around. There was a note on the counter under an empty coffee cup.

  Robin – The car should be here by nine-thirty. Here is the address for the hotel I booked you into. I wish you all the best. Chris

  Short and sweet, but then again, I think we’d said all we needed to say last night. I looked around for some paper and then sat down at the table to write my own short notes.

  I left the ones for Geri and Matt on the counter, and went down to Chris’s office to leave his there. I stood in the room and glanced around, already missing them, all of them.

  The doorbell interrupted my moment of silence, and I took the steps quickly as I assumed the rental car was here. When I pulled open the front door, a woman about my age stood on the other side with an extremely pissed off look on her face. . We stared at one another, both surprised to find another female on the opposite sides of the door.

  “Can I help you?” I asked.

  “Who the hell are you?” the woman questioned me sternly.

  “A friend of the family—and you are?”

  She studied me critically; her green eyes almost catlike as they ran from my head to my toes and back. “Chris’s girlfriend.”

  I stumbled back a step and was glad I still had hold of the door handle, or I might have fallen further.

  “He’s not home,” I managed to say.

  “Where is he?” She pushed past me and into the house.

  “He took Geri to the doctor, she’s sick. Are you Molly?”

  She snorted and tossed her thick mane of blond hair over her shoulder. “Yes, I see he mentioned me.”

  I so did not want to get into the middle of this. It was good that I was leaving because she looked like a vengeful witch. I went to close the door but paused as two more cars pulled down the driveway. What was this, a freaking party?

  One of the cars pulled up as close to the house as possible. An older man emerged from the driver’s seat. “Robin Cove?” he asked.

  “Yes, that’s me.”

  “Here are the keys to your car. When you’re done with it, call the number on the paper in the glove box. We will come pick it up for you.”

  “Thank you.” I took the keys from him and watched him leave in the other car.

  When I went back into the house, Molly was walking around the family room.

  “When is he going to be back?” she asked shortly.

  “I’m not sure.” I paused. I didn’t want to leave her here at the house alone, she might say she was his girlfriend, but I knew better. How was I going to get rid of her? “If you’ll excuse me, I was just getting ready to leave.”

  She shrugged, and I went back to my room to get my coat on and start taking my stuff out to the car. It took me four trips to get everything out, and when I came back, Molly was kicked back in the chair in which Matt liked to read.

  “So are you his new whore?”

  “I beg your pardon?” I said as I pulled up short.

  “Are you the reason he wanted to break up with me?” She eyed me critically from head to toe, “Or are you just another piece of ass for him to play with?”

  “Look, Molly, I don’t know you, and I don’t care about what kind of relationship you might have or not have with Chris. I’m just a friend who was here for a few days.” I turned to leave.

  “But you were sleeping with him.” She made it a statement, not a question, and it pissed me off.

  “What if I was?” I spun back around, “Not that it’s any of your business, but what if I did sleep with him? What if I screwed the hell out of him in every room in the house? What would it matter to you?”

  She jumped up out of the chair. “How dare you sleep with my boyfriend!” she shouted.

  “He’s not your boyfriend. I believe he broke up with you a month ago. You’re just too stupid to accept it.”

  She stalked toward me, and I prepared myself for her slap, but it never came. Maybe when she reached me, she realized that I was not going to back down from her, and I sure as hell was not going to let her talk to me like this, especially about Chris.

  “He did not break up with me. We had a fight,” she hissed.

  “Really, Molly? Is that what you keep telling yourself? Why are you so hell bent on being with a man who doesn’t want you? Why would you push yourself on a man who has told you to go away over and over again? I saw the e-mail.”

  She blinked rapidly, “Which e-mail?”

  I cocked my head and smiled. “The one where you taped your sexual intercourse without his permission. You know he sent it to the police, right? The illegal video you took of the two of you. It’s called wiretapping in the state of Pennsylvania.” I only knew that because I had looked it up. I had planned on telling Chris that it was indeed illegal and that he should report it, but he already had.

  She huffed, “No one will ever be able to prove that was us in the video.”

  I threw my head back and laughed. “See, that is where you are wrong. I would have thought the same thing since you never show any faces, at least not in the part I saw, but you had a great angle that showed off the scar on his stomach,” I leaned closer to her, “and I have first-hand knowledge of that scar, so I knew immediately it was Chris.”

  Her face turned ashen. “He did not give that to the police.”

  “You’re going to have to talk to him about that.” I turned around and stalked to the door. “I’d say it was a pleasure meeting you, but it wasn’t. Have fun in jail.”

  I pulled the door closed quickly before she could respond and practically skipped down the steps to my rental. As I got in the car, I wondered if I should have told her to get out, but it really wasn’t my problem. Chris needed to deal with her on his own. As I pulled down the driveway, I wished him the best.

  I sat at the end and set up my GPS with the address to the hotel. Before
I pulled out, I glanced in the rearview mirror and took a long look at the house. The wood peeking through the snow-topped roof reminded me of a gingerbread house. I refused to cry and drove the forty-five minutes to the hotel without releasing a tear, but the moment I closed the hotel room door, the dam broke and I sank to the floor against the door and let it flow.

  Chris

  It killed me to leave without saying goodbye to Robin, but it had to be done. By the time we made the one-hour drive to the doctor’s, had the appointment, picked up the medicine for her strep throat, ate lunch, and then drove home, it was already afternoon. I knew that Robin would be gone.

  When I drove down the driveway, I was surprised to see the top of a car poking up from behind a snowbank. Had she not left? Did she decide to stay? My heart began to race at the thought that she was still here.

  “Whose car is that, Daddy?” Geri asked as we pulled around the snowbank.

  “Son of a bitch!” I muttered. I parked and helped Geri get out of the backseat of the truck. I did not want to deal with her right now.

  “Someone Daddy knows,” I growled and climbed the steps quickly and went inside, completely forgetting about Geri for a moment.

  “It’s about time you got home.”

  I stared at Molly sitting in my living room like she lived there. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I came to see my boyfriend,” she replied over-sweetly.

  “You forgot to add the ex in front of that.”

  Geri stopped beside me. “Why is she here, Daddy?”

  “She was just leaving, Geri.”

  Molly snorted at me as she stood up. Her boots lay in a heap beside the chair.

  “No, I’m not. I believe we need to talk,” she ground out.

  “I have nothing to say to you. Now leave.”

  “No, I believe we do.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me.

  I glared right back, and felt Geri grab hold of my leg and pull on my pants. “Daddy, where’s Robin? I want Robin.”

  I threw another nasty look at Molly and bent down to face Geri, “Sweetie, do me a favor and go up to your room for a few minutes.”

  Geri nodded and turned to take another long look at Molly before she disappeared up the stairs and into her room. I waited until I heard her door close.

  “You have a lot of nerve showing up here.” I stalked closer to her, “How the hell did you even get in here?”

  “Your girlfriend let me in while she was packing her car to go. She get tired of you already?”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. I had never wanted to throttle a woman before, but she was pushing my limits.

  “She wasn’t my girlfriend.” Although I had a hell of a lot more feelings for Robin than I had ever had for the nasty woman in front of me.

  She cackled, a sound like nails down a chalkboard. “Oh, maybe not your girlfriend, but you slept with her.”

  “Yeah and why would you think that?” I asked to play along.

  “Because she told me so. She also knew about your scar.” She gave me a catty smile, “Did you watch the video of us screwing and get all hot and bothered? Is that why you slept with her?”

  “Get out of my house!” I shouted at her. “We have nothing to say to each other. The police were informed of what you did. You never had permission to videotape us having sex, and you sure as hell are not going to use that to blackmail me into a relationship with you.”

  “You did not call the police.” Her voice wavered as she spoke, but she tried to appear as if she were in control.

  I approached her. “That is where you are wrong, Molly. I did notify the police, and sent them every e-mail you sent to me, along with the video. You can expect a call from them soon.”

  She slapped me, hard, but I took it and laughed. “Go ahead, you want to add assault to your charges? What about trespassing, or maybe burglary? I suggest you get the hell out of my house and never contact me again.”

  Her mouth fell open, and she sputtered.

  I turned away from her and took a few steps so I wouldn’t throw her over my shoulder and dump her ass out in the snow. “Well, I guess I will see you in court after the charges are filed.”

  “You’re not going to press charges on me! You love me, Christian.”

  I rounded on her. “No, Molly. I don’t. I never did. How you ever thought I could love you is beyond me, but there is no way in hell that I will ever love you. Now get the hell out of here.”

  “What’s going on here?” I spun around and found Matt staring at me from the open front door.

  “I always forget how handsome your son is,” Molly cooed. “I hope you treat women better than your father does,” she said to Matt then turned to me again, “no wonder your girlfriend hightailed it out of here the moment I arrived.”

  “Robin’s gone?” Matt blurted out the question.

  I tried not to wince. “Matt, go check on your sister.”

  “Okay, but do you want me to close the front door?” he asked.

  “No, she was just leaving.” I nailed Molly with another sour look. “Weren’t you?”

  She huffed and picked up her boots, shoving her feet into the tops. “You’re going to be sorry about this. I’m going to make sure that you are. Those charges are not going to stick.”

  “Yeah, good luck with that, Molly,” I tossed her way as I went to stand next to the door.

  She picked up her purse and stopped beside me. “What did you do to scare that woman away?”

  “Get out, Molly, or I’m going to call the police and have you arrested right now,” I gritted out between my teeth.

  She sighed dramatically and walked out the door. “I’ll be seeing you, Christian. You can bet on it.”

  The house vibrated as the door slammed shut the moment she was over the threshold. “Bitch.”

  I watched from the side window as she tossed her purse into her car and then entered it and left. I didn’t start to calm down until her car disappeared onto the road.

  “Dad, why was Molly here?” Matt asked as he came down the stairs.

  “To cause trouble. Is your sister alright?”

  “Yeah, but she says she wants Robin. Did she really go?”

  I sighed as I pulled my jacket off. “Yeah, I’m afraid so.”

  “She left without saying goodbye?” The emotion in Matt’s voice threatened to undo me.

  I took him by the shoulders. “Don’t be upset with her. I asked her to do it that way to save us all from having to say goodbye.”

  “Why?” His voice cracked.

  “Matt, see how upset you are right now? If Robin had stayed any longer, it would have torn all of us apart when she left. I told you that the other day.”

  Matt pulled away from me and walked into the kitchen. He went to the counter and picked something up. “She left Geri and me a note.”

  “See, she did say goodbye.” I joined him and picked up the message for Geri, unfolding the note paper.

  Geri – Hey sweetie, I’m sorry I had to go without saying goodbye. I’m gonna miss you. Keep being sweet and take care of Matt and your Daddy for me. XOXO Robin

  I set the note down and glanced at the one Matt was reading. His was much longer and, instead of reading it over his shoulder, I chose to give him privacy. If he wanted to share it with me, he could.

  I went to find Geri curled up in her bed, her jacket still on. “Hey, little guppy, let’s get that jacket off of you.”

  “Did Robin leave?”

  I sighed, “Yeah, sweetie, she had to go. She left you a letter, though; do you want me to read it to you?”

  She nodded, and I read the words that Robin had written in a flourishing print. When I finished, Geri had tears running down her cheeks. “I didn’t want her to go. I wanted her to stay here with us.”

  “I did too, sweetie, but she needed to go.”

  “Why?”

  That’s a good question, Mr. Emotional stated, yet neither of us had an answer.
“I’m not sure how to answer that, Geri. Maybe someday we will see her again and you can ask her yourself.”

  Geri thought for a few moments. “Why were you yelling at Molly?”

  ”Molly is not a very nice person and has done some things that are wrong. I’m upset with her, and I didn’t want her here. She’s having a hard time understanding that.”

  “Did she leave?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good, she wasn’t very nice.”

  I laughed shortly, “Yeah, she’s not very nice.”

  “Robin was nice.”

  “Yes, Robin was nice.”

  “I wish Robin was my mommy.”

  I almost said the words, “I do, too,” but caught myself before I did. “Why don’t you take a nap, and when you get up, we can play a game?”

  “Okay,” Geri curled up on her bed and I had no doubt that by the time I got to the first floor, she would be fast asleep.

  Matt wasn’t around when I arrived on the main floor, so instead of standing there being haunted by the ghost of Robin, I went down to my office. I was sitting in my chair when I noticed a folded letter on my desk with my name in the same flourishing script as Geri’s letter.

  I leaned back in my seat after picking it up and began to read.

  Chris – I can never thank you or the kids enough for all that you did, not only for saving my life, but for allowing me to see what a wonderful family you all are together. It helped me make a decision about my own life, and now I’m going to do something I never dreamed of doing. I’m going to open my own catering business.

  I owe that to you and your family. You gave me a chance to breathe and think for the first time in a long time, and not only that, but you gave me the chance to feel the love of a family that I have not had in many years.

  I too wish we had met earlier. What I wouldn’t do to have a man as wonderful as you in my life. I guess we’re even because you stole my heart and a small piece of my soul, too. I’ll miss you. Love, Robin.

  She hadn’t been sleeping last night when I’d left her room. The thought that she’d heard me and still left today cut deeply, but what was she supposed to have done, pledged her love for me and stayed?