Blazing Midsummer Nights (Harlequin Blaze)

by Leslie Kelly

  “I told you my parents died last year,” he finally said, reaching for the soap and gently rubbing it over her bare shoulders.

  “Yes.” Her wide eyes looked moist, and not just from the steam. “That must have been so painful.”

  “It fucking sucked,” he told her. There was no other way to put it. “I missed them, of course.” He swallowed, hard. “It was bad with my mom, but somehow even worse with my dad, who actually moved in with me when he got really sick. So I was with him almost nonstop at the end.”

  “That’s also a blessing, isn’t it?” she asked. “That you had so much time with him?”

  He nodded. It hadn’t felt like much of a blessing then, watching the once proud, strong, virile man—who’d also been a firefighter all his life—succumb to a disease that had eaten him from the inside out in a matter of weeks. Now, though, remembering the moments they’d had, the opportunity Xander had been given to thank his old man for all he’d done for him over the years, he knew Mimi was right.

  He reached for the shampoo bottle and squeezed a dollop of gooey liquid into his hand. Her hair was so beautiful, and the idea of washing it so intimate. He just couldn’t resist, loving the way it glided through his fingers as he smoothed the shampoo over the long tresses.

  “So you were looking for a change, a way to get away from the memories?”

  He nodded, focused on her hair, but also let himself open up in a way he hadn’t expected to. “I was also looking to get away from the future I’d always imagined…but no longer had to look forward to.”

  She gazed up at him, her lips trembling. “You have a future to look forward to,” she insisted.

  “I know that. I just needed to make myself see the alternative one, instead of the one I’d always imagined. And I guess I felt like the only way I was going to stop feeling like crap about losing my entire family in the space of six months was to go far away. Create something new rather than trying to stay and rebuild on the ashes of what was gone.”

  A tear spilled out of the corner of her eye.

  He cleared his throat, uncomfortable. “I wasn’t playing the sympathy card.”

  “I know that.” She took the soap from his hand, rolling it between hers, then lifting the suds to his chest. Washing him gently, she swayed closer, murmuring, “I’m sorry you went through everything you did. But I can’t deny I’m glad you ended up here.”

  “Me, too.”

  She leaned her head back, rinsing out her hair, then moved out of the way for him to do the same. He’d thought they were finished with their previous conversation, but she was apparently still curious.

  “So tell me about your parents. What’s your best memory from childhood?”

  “We always had two Christmases,” he told her, laughing softly, surprising even himself.

  “Lucky!”

  “My mom was Greek Orthodox, my dad Irish Catholic. Double holidays were a standard. And since I was an only kid…”

  “Oh, I know those only-child Christmases,” she said with a laugh. “I’m pretty sure I have a couple thousand Beanie Babies boxed up in my parents’ attic to this day.”

  Their laughter hit Xander right in the heart. The tight, painful squeeze he always felt when talking about his parents eased a bit, thanks to Mimi’s smile and her sweetness. Something seemed to open in him. He found himself remembering special moments and being able to laugh at them again. He also liked listening to her own stories of her rich, pushy father, and her sweet-natured mother, who apparently really ran the house but liked to let her husband think he did.

  Sounded like the secret of all successful marriages; his parents’ had been the same.

  By the time they’d finished showering, he felt almost buoyant, all trace of melancholy gone. Because of her.

  “Ouch—eight-thirty,” he said spying the clock in his bedroom as they got out and dried off. “We’d better hurry.”

  Mimi slipped into her robe. “Do you think I’ll have a better chance getting back into my place unseen if I go by way of your closet, to the patio, to my closet, or if I just dash across the hall between our front doors?”

  He glanced out the window. It was a bright, sunny morning, and he’d already heard Mr. Leadfoot clomping around upstairs. If Tuck were at all like Xander had been at that age, he’d be outside exploring his new neighborhood.

  “I’d go for the front hall. It’s quicker,” he told her. Then he eyed her wet hair, her damp face—beautiful without a drop of makeup—and asked, “This might be the worst question you can ask a woman, but can you be ready in fifteen minutes?”

  She smirked. “You have no idea. I am the queen of oversleeping and racing out the door. Time me.”

  Without another word, she spun around and hurried out of his bedroom. He followed her. “Want me to make sure the coast is clear?” he asked. Xander didn’t care who knew he was involved with Mimi, but he also knew she was very close to Anna and Obi-Wan. She might not want them knowing the truth of their relationship just yet. Whatever that relationship might be.

  Good. That was all he needed to know about it right now. It was good.

  “Thanks,” she said, watching as he opened the door and stuck his head out.

  He glanced up the stairs, down the hallway and out the front. “All clear,” he said once he’d made sure nobody was in sight.

  “Here I go.”

  She slipped out, her robe clutched tightly around her naked body, and darted the few steps to her door.

  Only to get there, lift a hand to the knob, then drop it and turn around with a definite eye-roll. “I don’t have my keys.”

  Snickering, he muttered, “Foiled again. Some supersleuth you are.”

  “Don’t make fun of me or you’ll lose your date for the pancake breakfast.”

  “Come on, you know you’re dying to taste my bacon.”

  She wagged her eyebrows. “Or your sausage.”

  “As long as you remember it’s thick kielbasa and not Vienna,” he retorted, laughing as she walked back to him, directly into his arms, as if she knew that’s where she belonged.

  She opened her mouth to reply, but a noise from above distracted her. They both looked up, just in time to see a curly-haired brunette begin to descend the stairs from above. With her was Tuck, the cat-lover, who was saucer-eyeing them.

  No wonder. Mimi had on a skimpy robe. Xander had a towel slung around his hips and nothing else. And they were embracing in the public hallway.

  “Oh, sorry,” the woman whispered, immediately turning and trying to turn her son, as well.

  The boy resisted, bouncing on his toes to try to look over his petite mother’s shoulder when she blocked him with her body.

  Mimi’s face erupted in flames. “I locked myself out,” she said. She hadn’t lied…but she didn’t elaborate, either. Of course, considering the way they were dressed, and that she had been wrapped in his arms until a second ago, when she’d quickly stepped away from him before they scarred the six-year-old for life, the woman had to know the truth.

  “Do you need me to get my father to bring you a spare key?” she asked.

  “I bet I could pick the lock!” said Tuck, who was still trying to peek around at them.

  “Uh, no, thank you,” Mimi said, edging closer to Xander’s open doorway. “I’m going to go through the screen porch to the secret door. I’ll be fine.”

  The brunette smiled a little, and a twinkle appeared in her pretty eyes. “Are you sure your other door is unlocked?”

  Mimi chewed a hole in her lip as she slowly nodded. “Pretty sure.”

  “Okay then. Talk to you later,” she said. “Come on, Tuck, I forgot something.”

  “What’d you forget?”

  “My big bag of none’ya.”

  “Aww, Mom…”

  “It’s none’ya business, now let’s go.”

  Mimi and Xander went back inside, both of them chuckling at how the young mother dealt with her inquisitive son.

  “That
was pretty embarrassing,” he said. “Thank goodness I remembered the towel.”

  “And thank goodness I had the robe,” she replied with a sigh, already heading for his room, so she could make use of the secret exit. “Imagine if I’d tried to make a naked dash!”

  “That was Anna and Obi-Wan’s daughter, right?”

  “Yes, Helen, we met last night, after you’d left,” she said. Then she stopped, midstep. “Oh, wow, she’s going to think I’m a total skank-ho.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “She saw me with Dimitri last night, and I know she figured he was my…”

  “But he’s not,” he interjected.

  She didn’t look consoled. “As far as she knows, we could have be seriously involved.”

  “But you aren’t.” He put his hands on her waist, squeezing tight. “Stop beating yourself up, all right? You and I know the truth about how nonserious you really were, and Dimitri knows it, too. You didn’t break any hearts when you broke up with him…and we all know that.”

  She looked away, still obviously uncomfortable.

  “It’ll be fine. I promise.”

  She took a deep breath, then finally nodded. But instead of leaving right away, she tilted her head to the side, as if she’d just remembered something. “It was kind of kind of interesting last night when Helen arrived. Dimitri and my father were still here.”

  She quickly told him about the way Plastic Man had reacted to seeing Helen. Sounded to him like Mr. Smooth had a few secrets in his past. “I’m sorry, I can’t picture him with someone like that. She’s so…sweet.”

  “And I’m not?” she asked, not sounding at all offended. She liked being naughty—spicy—for him. And he liked indulging her naughtiness.

  “You’re sweet, babe. You’re very sweet.”

  “Oh…so you can picture him with me?” she asked, looking coy, as if trying to make him jealous.

  It worked. Big-time. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close. “Don’t even think about it.”

  “I haven’t,” she promised, twining her arms around his neck. “Not since the night you fell out of my closet like the world’s biggest, hottest jack-in-the-box.”

  “And you were the world’s sexiest pantiless home invader.”

  “My home,” she reminded him again.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Glancing at the clock, and seeing how little time they had left, he pushed her toward the closet. “Okay, wow me. You’ve got five minutes.”

  “A lot can happen in five minutes,” she said suggestively.

  “Like you maybe getting some clothes on?”

  “If you insist,” she said.

  Then, with another quick kiss on his lips and a smile that exuded happiness, she ducked into the closet and disappeared.

  9

  OVER THE NEXT few days, Mimi found herself balancing the pressure of her increasingly stressful job with the wonderfully exciting, happy moments to which she was able to escape at night. Not every night, unfortunately—Xander had a couple of double shifts when he’d had to stay at the station. But at least Monday night and Wednesday night she’d been able to go to sleep in his arms again, as she had Saturday. Each morning after, she had woken up to watch him sleeping beside her, once again amazed that she could have found him so suddenly and fallen for him so fast.

  He was becoming an addiction.

  Every minute she spent with him was both a gift and a revelation. For a man who insisted he was nothing special, just a regular guy, he always managed to surprise her. Each time they were together, he would invariably say something that shocked her, made her think or made her laugh. After she’d had a really crappy day on Monday, including a big fight with the manager of the printing company who did all the Burdette Foods sales circulars, he had insisted on rubbing her shoulders. He’d then gone out for pizza and had come back with a bouquet of flowers, probably purchased off the back of a roadside truck, but so pretty and genuine, she’d felt all blubbery.

  There was really only one fly in the ointment, one thing that had kept her from diving headfirst into the bliss of this completely unexpected—and ever-so-welcome—love affair.

  Dimitri.

  She’d headed to work Monday knowing there were quite a lot of things on her to-do list. First was a weekly staff meeting with her employees. Then she had a conference call with some of her out-of-state counterparts. Then a lunch meeting. Then an evaluation of several bids from new printers they were considering using for their in-store circulars, since their current one had been slipping up a little too often lately.

  And somewhere in there, she’d intended to find a minute with Dimitri to make sure he knew they were no longer dating.

  She’d made it fairly clear Saturday evening. She’d come right out and said they were in no way serious, reiterating that they’d only gone out “a couple of times.” He should absolutely have been able to read between the lines. But the words I don’t want to go out with you again hadn’t actually left her mouth, and she’d feel a lot better once they did.

  She hadn’t been lying to Xander Saturday night when she’d told him she wasn’t involved with Dimitri anymore, especially since she’d barely been involved with him to begin with. Because in her mind, she wasn’t involved, not in any way, emotionally or physically. That was absolutely without a doubt.

  But she hadn’t really thought about the need to have the conversation until Xander said something that told her he assumed she already had. When he’d mentioned that she hadn’t broken Dimitri’s heart when she broke up with him—which would be the truth, she knew—she realized Xander believed she’d already had some kind of final scene with the other man.

  Which was exactly what she’d wanted to have on Monday. Only, when she’d arrived at work, she’d learned there had literally been a fire at one of their stores down in Jacksonville, and Dimitri had left suddenly, going down there to put out the proverbial ones that had come after it. So she hadn’t seen him for three days.

  It hadn’t seemed like a conversation to have over the phone, not that they’d spoken more than once, and that mostly about business. So the pressure had mounted. By now, Thursday, she just wanted to get it over with. Which was why she was so relieved when she got to work that morning and found out he was back and in a meeting with her father.

  She dropped off her things at her desk, finished signing a few documents, returned a call, then prepared to go to her dad’s office and join them. She intended to ask Dimitri to lunch, fully expecting to clear the air. Then she could go home to Xander tonight without anything weighing on her mind, her heart or her conscience.

  But before she could do anything, her office door opened, and her assistant, Lauren, popped her head in. “Hey, boss, got a sec?”

  About Mimi’s age, Lauren was bright, quick-thinking, and was Mimi’s right-hand man. If not for the fact that Mimi was her supervisor, she suspected she and Lauren could be very good friends. As it was, they got along perfectly, and did as much as they could socially without crossing any boss/employee lines.

  “Sure, how’s everything going?” Suddenly remembering her assistant’s request for some time off, she asked, “Wait, your high school reunion’s not this weekend, is it?”

  Lauren waved a hand. “No, that’s not until next month. I wanted to talk to you about something else.”

  “What’s up?” she asked, gesturing for the other woman to sit down.

  Lauren dropped to a chair on the opposite side of Mimi’s desk. “God, I hate Thursdays. They’re so close to the weekend…but they always seem to go on forever.”

  “I don’t know, I think Monday has it beat in terms of worst day,” she said with a chuckle. Monday had been particularly hard this week, since she’d had the kind of weekend she’d wanted to go on and on and on.

  After the pancake breakfast, during which she’d met a lot of very friendly firefighters and their families, she and Xander had gone shopping to stock up his new apartment. She’d taken him to
one of her stores, of course, bullying him into using her discount and making him buy more than boxed mac-and-cheese and peanut butter.

  Then they’d gone home, unloaded everything…and gone back to bed. They’d gotten up to eat—peanut butter—and gone back to bed, not arising again until the next morning.

  It had been the most erotic thirty-six hours of her life. There were things she’d already done with Xander that would have made her blush to even consider doing with anyone else. Things she’d done again Monday night. And last night.

  And she wanted to do them again. Soon.

  “I, uh…damn, this probably isn’t any of my business,” Lauren said, sounding uncomfortable.