Last Chance Christmas

by Hope Ramsay

  Her greedy fingers unzipped his fly. She freed him. And when her hand found him in the dark, she spiraled right out of control. He was perfect. He was a fantasy. She wanted him. He wanted her.

  Now.

  She kicked off her jeans and wrapped her legs around him. She gave herself to him in the cold and the dark, with people all around them who were not paying attention to the naughty, sexy, crazy thing they were doing.

  Oh, thank God, he didn’t stop to think. He’d packed away his provincial streak, and he just forged ahead, taking her in a mindless, deep, almost fated way. He filled her up, he completed her, he spoke with his body in a way that was utterly magic and so incredibly hot.

  When the climax overtook Lark, and he tried to smother her urgent, mindless cries with his mouth, she understood the earth-shattering truth.

  What she’d just shared with Stone Rhodes was hot and crazy. But it was also deep and mysterious. There was nothing casual about it.

  Stone wanted to take her home. He wanted to sleep with her. He wanted to hold her and show her that he was not a big horny idiot who screwed women in public without any thought about protection or any other rational, adult consideration.

  Damn. He needed to remember that this was supposed to be casual and temporary.

  He buried his nose into the warm place at the nape of her neck and took a deep breath. His heart was still pounding, and the musky scent of sex filled his head.

  How could he have behaved in such a rash, crazy, unforgivable way? He’d just had the most amazing sex in his life, but the guilt was starting to creep in from every side. It was truly annoying to discover that Lark had been right last night. He was old-fashioned.

  What if he got her pregnant? He already had a terrible track record on that score. All of his children had been unplanned.

  “Uh,” he said. “That was…”

  She gave him a dozen kisses across his cheek and down his chin. “It was amazing.”

  “It was…”

  “Unplanned and hot as hell. And you loved every minute of it.” He heard the amusement in her voice. Was she teasing him?

  “Uh, well, but, I’m—”

  “Don’t.” She pressed her fingers across his lips. “Don’t apologize. You have nothing to apologize for. You were horny. And even so, you gave me incredible pleasure. It was really good.”

  He didn’t respond to that. Taking a woman upside the trunk of a live oak didn’t square with his notion of what it took to be a great lover. Although thinking about the noises Lark made when she climaxed sent a ripple of heat right through him.

  He let her go, placing her back on her own two feet.

  She ran her hands down over his still-trembling shoulders. “We better get our clothes in order before we get caught with our pants down,” she said. “Although the risk of getting caught is part of what makes it so much fun.”

  “It would be embarrassing to get caught. I could lose my job,” Stone muttered as he took a step back and started arranging himself and tucking in his shirttail. Damn. He’d just had some great sex without actually taking off all his clothes. That was a first.

  He watched as Lark put herself back together. She leaned up against the tree and began to sort out pant legs and panties. There was just enough light to get a glimpse of creamy skin on well-toned thighs. God, she must be freezing out here. He hadn’t even thought about that.

  Another wave of guilt rumbled through him.

  When they were both presentable, Lark wrapped her arms around his middle and gave him a big hug. “Don’t beat yourself up about this, Stone. It was fun. Just accept it for what it was.” She got up on tiptoes and kissed his chin.

  “It’s getting late, and you must be cold,” he found himself saying. That wasn’t exactly what he wanted to say.

  He wanted to take her someplace private. He wanted to get entirely naked with her. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to do a lot of other things, too.

  But he couldn’t invite himself up to the Cut ’n Curl, and he wasn’t going to take her to the Peach Blossom Motor Court or the Magnolia Inn over in Allenberg. He’d already acted like a complete idiot, and he’d taken the worst kind of advantage of her.

  He also understood the price they would both pay if anyone saw his truck parked someplace late at night where it wasn’t supposed to be. And besides, Momma had taken the girls Christmas shopping, and they would be home by ten-thirty at the very latest. Momma would expect him home. Having kids at home made what he’d just done impossibly complicated.

  So he didn’t say what was on his mind. Instead he took her by the hand and walked her back into the light.

  He delivered her safe and sound to the Cut ’n Curl twenty minutes later. And by the time Haley and Lizzy got home, their arms filled with shopping bags, he’d had enough time to throw his dirty jeans and stained shirt in the washer. He’d also taken a long, cold shower.

  CHAPTER

  17

  David screwed up his courage and headed toward the kitchen. It was barely six in the morning, and he was starving. He’d been hiding out in his room for the last twelve hours, ever since Mom had unleashed World War III right in their living room last night.

  Mom was furious at David for lying about being sick. She was even angrier about his black eyes and swollen nose, and the fact that he refused to tell her how he had acquired them.

  She was sure that David had been lured out somewhere by Lizzy and beaten up by a bunch of anti-Semites. She was almost right.

  She wanted to call the cops, except that the only cop in town just happened to be the father of the girl she disapproved of. David might have appreciated the irony of that, if he’d not been terrified by the way his family seemed to be unraveling. How could Mom think Lizzy and her father were anti-Semites? Somehow Mom’s concern transformed itself into resentment about everything. Mom was furious at Dad for having lost his job in Michigan. She was furious about having to move to South Carolina. And she was furious about a lot of other stuff that David didn’t even understand.

  His parents had argued all night.

  They had argued so intently that they had forgotten that David’s defiance had triggered the crisis, and they’d let him slink off to his room where he’d tossed and turned all night, listening to Robbie cry.

  His life was a nightmare. But at least Lizzy Rhodes thought he was brave. That was something.

  He crept around the corner of the dining room and headed toward the kitchen. And skidded to a stop.

  Mom and Dad were sitting at the kitchen table. They looked horrible. They were drinking coffee. Dad looked up from his cup.

  “David,” he said in a hoarse voice, “go wake up your brothers. Tell them they’ve got half an hour to pack their things.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Pack what you need in the way of clothes and any must-have toys. I’ll ship the rest when I get time.”

  “We’re going back to Michigan,” Mom said.

  “We are?”

  “Well, you and Mom and your brothers are,” Dad said.

  David stood there looking at his parents. This was not happening. Mom was not going to break up this family over something stupid like Michael Bennett. If she did that, then the bullies like Michael would win.

  He turned away, his stomach churning, and his head pounding, and his nose hurting. What could he do? He was just a kid.

  He headed back up the hallway and found Robbie standing there, his eyes round and bright. He’d obviously overheard. David put his arm around his little brother, and they both woke up Jonathan.

  “We’ve got to do something,” Jonathan said. “Maybe if you told them where you were yesterday.”

  David shook his head. “I don’t think that will change anything.”

  “We could run away,” Robbie said.

  “No, Robbie, that won’t work. It’s cold outside,” Jonathan said.

  David stared at his littlest brother. “Well, maybe so, but it would delay things.”r />
  “What?” Jonathan said.

  “If I disappeared for the rest of the day, Mom couldn’t pack up the car and go back to Michigan. She’d have to stay. And maybe she and Dad would talk some more. And maybe they’d realize that we don’t want them to split up over something stupid like the fact that the synagogue is thirty miles away.”

  “You’re going to run away?” Jonathan asked.

  “No. I’m just going to disappear. You guys go back to bed and pretend to sleep. Give me fifteen minutes to get out of here.”

  Jonathan looked at Robbie. “David, Robbie isn’t going to keep a secret.”

  “Once I’m gone, I don’t care if Mom and Dad know that you guys were in on it.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m not going to tell you that. But I’ll be back. If no one finds me, I’ll be back by tomorrow.”

  “You’re crazy. This isn’t going to stop Mom from moving back to Michigan.”

  “Maybe not. But it’s the only thing I can think of on short notice.”

  Lark woke up lonely.

  She lay on her back in the narrow daybed, her hands behind her head, while she studied the antique tin ceiling above her. Her gaze traced the depressed circles and raised leaf motifs as morning gradually filled the two narrow windows with a watery gray light.

  The room was all monochrome and sepia-colored. It perfectly reflected her mood.

  She had no regrets about what happened last night. But she wasn’t going to kid herself about what it meant. It may not have felt all that casual to her, but she didn’t belong here in Last Chance. And Stone was rooted to this place. He had children and a family and a dead wife he still loved.

  She had nothing, except a Pulitzer Prize, her cameras, and an appointment to be on a flight to Africa the day after tomorrow.

  She squeezed her eyes shut and pushed everything out of her mind except for the memory of Stone’s body sliding against hers. Heat filled her. She wasn’t ever going to forget him. That was for damn sure. But she couldn’t stay here and have him.

  And besides, it would be crazy to want more from a man who had yet to stop loving his wife. She’d given him what he needed. He’d given her a memory. Better to call it quits, and move on. She was good at that kind of thing.

  Only this time it was going to be hard. Stone would be seared into her memory for a long time to come.

  Maybe forever.

  She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling and forced herself to think about Pop. Why had he sent her on this wild goose chase?

  “You brought home memories, too, didn’t you?” she whispered out loud. What had happened on the eighteenth hole?

  And just like that she had the answer. It had been hiding in plain sight all this time.

  She threw the covers back and headed into the shower, where she tried and failed to wash away the memories. It was nine-thirty when she arrived at the Kountry Kitchen for breakfast.

  She ate her toast and drank her coffee and watched Palmetto Avenue out the front windows of the café. People were headed off to church this morning. So if she was going to get to the truth, she would have to wait until services were over.

  She ordered another cup of coffee. Churchgoers were not the only ones up early. The Last Chance Police Department—all two of them—were busy this morning, directing traffic, patrolling the main drag, and keeping everything safe.

  She recognized the man behind the wheel of one of the police cruisers as it made its rounds. With each of his slow circuits she wondered if he was glancing up at her windows, thinking about last night. Was he getting hot thinking about what they’d done together?

  Or was he just feeling guilty?

  At eleven o’clock, she headed back to the Cut ’n Curl and got into Pop’s SUV to drive the short distance to Nita Wills’s house.

  Stone had seen Lark through the front windows of the Kountry Kitchen as she ate her leisurely breakfast. Every cell in his body wanted to stop the cruiser and head into the café for his usual Sunday-morning coffee.

  But not if he had to come face-to-face with Lark in a public place. He needed to talk with her, but not out in the open. And besides, he wasn’t sure he could keep his hands off her. The memory of what they’d done in the cornfield had haunted him last night. He felt groggy and confused and as randy as a double-peckered billy goat.

  When Lark left the café and headed toward the south side of town, he tried to be subtle about following her, but it was impossible, especially since she didn’t go very far—just down Palmetto to Julia and over to Maple, where she pulled to the curb in front of Nita Wills’s house.

  He pulled in behind her. He understood her motives for wanting to speak with Nita, but he also had very clear orders from Nita’s daughter, the mayor-elect. He knew good and well that Kamaria would not approve of Lark staking out Nita’s home.

  He squared his uniform Stetson on his head and left his cruiser. He approached Lark from the driver’s side of the SUV. When she saw him, she rolled down the window and looked up at him out of those big, vulnerable doe eyes. Her face was so pale, the skin beneath her eyes bruised, as if she hadn’t slept well either.

  He wanted to rip open the door, pull her up into his arms, and hold her. It was all he could do not to act on the urge.

  He leaned against the door frame. “Are you okay?” he asked. All thought of confronting her about Nita fled his mind.

  She gifted him with a sweet smile. “I’m fine. How about you?” A sudden spark of mischief lit up her eyes.

  He honestly didn’t know the answer to that question. “I’m… confused.”

  “That’s good. Just so long as you aren’t feeling guilty.”

  Damn. It was like she could read his mind. “But I am feeling guilty.”

  She looked away, and some of the light left her eyes. “I was afraid of that.”

  “Damn it, how do you expect me to feel? I mean I acted like an idiot last night. I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t use any protection. What if I—”

  She tilted her head back on the head rest and let go of a belly laugh.

  “Are you laughing at me?”

  She shook her head. “No. I’m not. Is that what you’re feeling guilty about?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Oh, that’s a relief.”

  “But—”

  “Look.” She leaned into the window frame. “I’m not worried about STDs. Not with you. I suppose you probably should have some concerns about me. But I can promise you that, as far as I know, I’m clean.”

  “That wasn’t what I was mostly worried about.”

  She grinned up at him. “Stone. I have an IUD.”

  He felt gut-punched. “Oh.”

  “I’m a grown-up responsible woman. I may live on the wild side from time to time, but I’m not entirely stupid.”

  “But that’s the thing, last night I was stupid.”

  “No, last night you were horny. You were a guy. We were consenting adults, and you did what any guy would have done. When are you going to realize that?”

  He frowned.

  “I know. Your male ego is probably crushed by the truth. But that’s what happened. I made a move, and you didn’t stop me. So don’t beat yourself up about it. And besides, I had a really good time.”

  “Uh, well, so did I, actually,” he admitted.

  “I know. So just accept it for what it was and move on. Okay? Don’t feel guilty. You didn’t cheat on your wife last night.”

  He felt the sting of her rebuke. Because the truth was, in addition to being shocked by his own behavior, he had felt a little like a cheating husband. Especially when he got home and started doing the laundry.

  “Okay,” he said, pushing his confusion away and dropping back into police mode. He was way more comfortable when he was behaving like a cop.

  “So now that we’ve dispensed with that, could you explain to me why you’re parked out here staking out Nita’s house?”

  “I’m waiting
for her to get home from church.”

  “I figured as much, but, you know, I think Nita made it clear that she doesn’t want to talk to you. And, well, the truth is the mayor asked me to make sure that you don’t bother her.”

  “So you’re here in an official capacity then?”

  “I guess. Honey, why don’t you just let it be?”

  “Because I can’t. I can’t sweep the sad things under the table and take the difficult photos out of the family album. Pop sent me here for a purpose, and I need to know what it was.”

  “He wanted his ashes scattered.”

  “Yeah, but why here? And what happened at Golfing for God that changed his life? I have some theories, but theories aren’t the truth. Only Nita can tell me the truth.”

  “But she doesn’t want to talk about it.”

  “So, what are you going to do? Run me out of town?” Her voice sounded suddenly strident. “Is that what you want? Are you so embarrassed by this situation that you’d just like me to leave?”

  “No. God, no. What I want is to sleep with you. All night long. I want to hold you and make love to you, and there isn’t anyplace in Last Chance that I can do that without the whole town knowing what I’ve done and gossiping about it.” The words spilled out of him like a river in flood stage.

  “Oh.” Her dark eyes widened. “Well, I’ve got a few ideas. We could always use Hettie’s river house. I still have the keys. Or maybe we could get a sleeping bag and do it on the eighteenth hole.”

  “Uh.” The flood of words dried up in his mouth.

  Nita Wills arrived right at that moment, precluding him from further discussion of this scintillating topic. She pulled her Toyota into the driveway, and Jakob LaFlore pulled in right behind in his Volvo Cross Country. Mayor-Elect LaFlore jumped out of the passenger’s side.

  “Stone, is there something wrong?” Kamaria called from across the street. “Why is that woman here?”

  Stone turned toward Lark. “You stay right where you are. Let me see what I can do to help you, okay?”

  Stone headed toward the visibly furious mayor-elect. But before he was halfway across the street, he heard Lark get out of the SUV. A second later Lark strode right past him, heading in Nita’s direction. Nita had just gotten out of her car and was walking up the path to her front porch, her grandsons with her.