Home for the Holidays: A Contemporary Romance Anthology

by Christine Bell

  “The way you’re looking at me. I was under the impression that we were going to be having hot cocoa together.”

  She shook her head, trying not to make hot cocoa and chocolaty melted marshmallows dirty. And failing. “What’s that mean?”

  “Hot cocoa is warm and comforting and sweet.”

  “Okay,” she said slowly, not following.

  “The way you’re looking at me is like spiked hot apple cider.”

  Kate felt herself grin at the comparison. And he wasn’t wrong. There wasn’t anything particularly comforting or sweet about the things she was feeling.

  Damn, she was ruining this. She was the one who wanted sweet and comforting. If she wanted hot sex and white wine, she could have stayed in San Francisco. She knew a number of guys who would have gone for that. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry.” There was a gruffness to his voice that made those goose bumps pop up again.

  She leaned back. She was sending the wrong message. Phoebe knew she wanted a date. She wanted to spend time with a nice guy who was willing to indulge her need for some Christmas nostalgia. And now she was looking at him like she’d like to cover him in eggnog and then lick it all up.

  Kate squeezed her thighs together. Don’t be the frisky city girl who comes to town for a quickie, she told herself. Be nice, be sweet, let him romance you. That’s what you want.

  “Do you have a tree up yet at your place?” she asked. Sure, she kind of wanted to get naughty under the evergreen branches, but she also really loved Christmas trees. Her family had never had Christmas trees. For a while, she’d put one up in her apartment, but she’d consciously forgone that tradition last year, and it hadn’t even occurred to her this year.

  Tucker studied her for a long moment and then leaned back. “Not yet,” he admitted. “But if you want a Christmas tree, I can find you a Christmas tree. What do you say to some cocoa after all?”

  She nodded. “I’d like that.” Cocoa. Not spiked hot cider. She was here for cocoa.

  He stepped back and offered his hand to help her off the stool. She took it and felt all of her girl parts swoon.

  Crap, she was in trouble.

  Maybe Phoebe didn’t realize Tucker was this potent, but he was not what Kate had been expecting. Or wanting. She wanted a nice guy. Someone who could make her laugh, someone who would hold her hand. Not someone who made her feel itchy and hot.

  They stepped outside a moment later and Kate sucked in a quick breath. She was grateful for the heat he generated now. It was chilly. More than chilly. It was fricking cold. Especially compared to California.

  Phoebe had left a long coat draped over one of the dining room chairs with a note that said Kate was to wear it, along with the scarf, gloves and hat in the pockets. She known that the California girl wouldn’t have any winter clothes.

  Kate pulled the long white coat closed in front and buttoned it up, then looped the bright red scarf around her neck and pulled the matching hat and gloves on. She was glad the coat hung to her ankles, but it didn’t cover her feet. Her heels weren’t open-toed, thank God, but otherwise her feet weren’t covered by much.

  She looked up at Tucker to find him watching her with a small smile.

  “What?” she asked, matching his smile.

  “Thinking there are more fun ways to warm up and then thinking I shouldn’t be thinking that.”

  Kate felt the warmth rush through her and she wanted more. And not just because she felt like her nose might be freezing off.

  “Cocoa, right?” she asked.

  “Warm, sweet and comfortable,” he agreed.

  He tucked her arm in his, which should have been all of those things but was much more.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  The simple mantra did nothing to change how she was feeling though.

  They crossed the bar parking lot and followed a sidewalk that led between the city hall and another building and put them on one of the main streets around the square. She was glad he had a hold of her. Heels were not ideal for gravel parking lots or sidewalks with random patches of snow. After this, she was buying some thick fuzzy socks somewhere and not taking them off until she was back in California.

  Still, walking through the crisp winter air toward the bright town square with this guy felt…not completely nice. It felt a little naughty, which was completely ridiculous. The most he’d said that was flirtatious was that he could think of better ways to warm up. That was pretty mild as far as sexual innuendos went. But pressing up against him, her body filled with a strange combination of awareness, desire and anticipation.

  It was the Christmas trees. It had to be.

  This side of the square, the corner south of the reindeer petting area, there was a narrow white wooden building with an open window at the front. They approached and she could see they were selling cocoa, coffee and, sure enough, cider. The non-spiked variety though, she assumed. Of course, it wouldn’t surprise her if a few people had a flask in their coat pocket and doctored their cup after it was served.

  They got in line behind a few other people and Kate took her hand from Tucker’s arm and put both hands in her coat pocket. That was safer.

  “This is the kissing booth in the summer,” he said.

  She looked up at him. “What?” All she knew for sure was he’d said the word kissing.

  He pointed toward the little wooden structure. Propped against the back wall was a wooden sign that said Kissing Booth in big red letters. The wooden sign that hung over the window now read Hot Drinks.

  “I guess it’s good they’re getting year-round use out of the building,” she said with a chuckle. “Though it seems kissing should be a year-round event too.”

  And why had she said that?

  He chuckled and the sound was warm and rich and made her sigh. Like a big swallow of hot cocoa.

  She mentally rolled her eyes. Phoebe had said there was something in the air and water in Sapphire Falls, but Kate didn’t know that it was Christmas spirit so much as it was horniness.

  “But the drinks are for a good cause,” he said.

  There was also a sign propped up against the front of the wooden booth that said the proceeds from the drinks were going toward Christmas gifts at the nursing home.

  Kate found herself incredibly touched by that. It wasn’t that people where she was from weren’t charitable, but here it had to be a lot more personal. Likely every single person who lived at the nursing home had family and life-long friends and neighbors here in Sapphire Falls.

  “I want an extra-large then,” she said with a smile.

  He grinned. “Marshmallows too, I hope?”

  “Of course.”

  “How about caramel or peppermint syrup?” he asked, reading the menu board.

  She shook her head. “I think straight up and simple is the way to go.”

  She really wanted peppermint syrup. A lot. That sounded perfect. Peppermint hot cocoa would be very Christmassy. Perfectly Christmassy even. But maybe that was a bad idea. Maybe she was putting too much pressure on all of this being perfect. Maybe she had her expectations too high. She shouldn’t have scripted it all out in her head. She shouldn’t have imagined holding hands and walking through a light flurry under the stars.

  She should keep things simple. Straight forward. She should look at Tucker as nothing more than a nice guy who was willing to take a total stranger to the formal.

  They moved up in the line.

  “Oh yeah, I love this damned town.” Tucker turned to look at her.

  Kate felt her eyes widen at the playful and pleased look in his eyes. “What?”

  He pointed at the top of the drink station. A sprig of mistletoe hung directly above the window where people were picking up their cups.

  “Oh.”

  Oh boy.

  She’d hoped for a Christmas kiss. She’d hoped for mistletoe. She’d imagined the whole thing.

  And now she was panicking.

  It could n
ever measure up. She needed to keep this simple too, like the hot cocoa.

  No romantic kisses, no romantic dreams and fantasies. A nice guy, a formal, a few dances, maybe some eggnog—not poured all over his body—and a nice, simple, sweet Christmas in a nice, simple, sweet small town.

  “I was thinking—”

  She abruptly stopped thinking about anything at all the second he took her by her upper arms, pulled her up onto her tiptoes and touched his lips to hers.

  It was…everything. Everything she’d imagined and then some.

  Like hot cocoa with peppermint syrup.

  She tasted like Christmas cookies.

  That was Levi’s first thought.

  Not like she’d been eating them, but like she was a soft, sweet, delicious melt-in-his mouth cookie. And that was pretty whimsical for a guy who was used to women tasting like tequila.

  Her lips should have been cold. The crisp air of the afternoon had turned downright icy as darkness fell, but her mouth was anything but. She was hot. And sweet. And he could happily spend the rest of December right here doing this.

  Then she clutched the front of his coat, trying to get closer, opened her mouth and sighed.

  And he amended the thought to the rest of the winter.

  They didn’t use tongues. It was lip to lip only. Open lip to open lip, but that softened the kiss, made it more of an exploration.

  The moment he’d seen her on the bar stool, his hands had itched with the need to touch the red dress, and the curves it covered. He’d immediately imagined her long blonde hair spread out on the maroon and navy quilt in the farm’s guest room. And he’d instantly started making a list of thank you gifts he could get for Phoebe and Joe.

  But then she’d swiveled to look at him and everything hot and urgent and pulsing in his gut had risen to a soft, warm ball in his chest. He’d wanted to run his hand over her cheek instead of her ass. He’d wanted to make her laugh rather than scream with an orgasm. He’d wanted to know how she drank her cocoa rather than how she took her martinis.

  It was the craziest fucking thing that had ever happened to him.

  And he’d embraced it.

  This was it. This was how it was supposed to feel when sweet, normal, happy things happened to someone. When liquor and money and sex were not part of the equation. When two people met for the first time and connected.

  Maybe it was Sapphire Falls. Maybe it was the concussion. Maybe it was that he was dressed in denim. Maybe denim made people instantly normal. Or maybe it was her. Maybe this woman really did have the power to cure him of the selfish, superficial, ego-driven crap he had bottled up inside.

  He cupped her cheek, simply tasting her. The kiss wasn’t about arousal or a step toward sex. It was only a kiss.

  And he fucking loved it.

  “Ahem.”

  The sound of someone clearing their throat pulled them apart.

  She stood staring up at him, her eyes wide, her lips pink. And he grinned. He couldn’t help that—he really did love having an obvious effect on women.

  But again, this was different. Rather than wanting to see her nipples get hard and her panties get wet, he wanted a faint blush on her cheeks and a sparkle in her eye.

  It had to be the concussion.

  But he was going to go with it.

  Hear that, ghosts? I don’t need any midnight hauntings. I’m good here.

  “What are you having?” the guy in the window asked.

  “Two hot chocolates, extra-large, with marshmallows,” Levi told him. Those words sounded so foreign, like he was speaking another language. That also made him grin.

  There were four guys inside the booth working to make drinks, taking orders and money.

  Two got to work on their drinks as the one at the window said, “That’ll be four fifty.”

  Levi handed him a hundred-dollar bill.

  The guy stared at it. “Dude, I can’t make change for that.”

  “Keep it.” Levi pushed the money across the counter.

  “You want to pay me a hundred dollars for two cups of cocoa,” the guy clarified.

  “It’s a fundraiser, right?” Levi said. “That’s my donation.”

  The guy was still looking at him strangely, but he took the money. “Well, then you can have free refills. Forever.”

  Levi grinned and accepted the two cups. “Deal.”

  He offered one to Hailey.

  Hailey Conner. She was the mayor here. He wondered how people would feel about their mayor getting kissed by the stranger in the town square.

  “You okay?” he asked when he realized she was staring at him.

  “Stunned, actually.”

  He smiled and sipped. The hot chocolate was delicious. Practically perfect. But it would never beat the taste of this woman’s lips. “That was a hell of a kiss.”

  She nodded. “And that was a lot to pay for hot chocolate.”

  “I have a feeling this will be the best hot chocolate of my life.”

  Her eyes widened at that. “Have you had a lot of hot chocolate over the years?”

  And just like that it was clear they weren’t talking about hot chocolate. He grinned. “Probably more than my share.”

  She gave a little snort like that didn’t surprise her. Levi had been told before that he gave off a womanizing vibe. Whatever that meant. He didn’t know any other way to be. None of the men in his family knew any other way to be. They loved women and women loved them, and Levi hadn’t been raised to see that as anything other than awesome.

  They walked toward the middle of the square. Around the gazebo, there were several benches and a surprising number of them were occupied. There were actually a number of people in the square. Families with kids at the gingerbread house and petting the reindeer. Couples walking hand in hand or cuddling on the benches, cups of various hot drinks in hand. Clearly, the people in Sapphire Falls were used to the brisk temperatures.

  Or maybe it was that he was from Vegas and his hide was too thin for the cold air. By this time next year he’d be adjusted, he thought with a grin. He took in the scene before him and a deep breath of what he could only describe as Christmassy air. It was, admittedly, a cozy scene, and Levi was suddenly a fan of colder weather. What a great reason to get a pretty girl in his arms.

  The square was brightly lit. The four huge trees were completely decked out from tip to trunk in lights and ornaments—some of which also lit up. The street lamp posts were all twisted with tinsel that sparkled and reflected the lights. Then there were the giant lighted candy canes, plastic oversized ornaments, and the gingerbread house that had lights around the eaves like any good home in a Christmassy small town.

  “Want to sit?” he asked, indicating a bench that faced one of the trees. She’d wanted a tree, he’d brought her to the middle of four gigantic ones. That was how Levi did things—big, bright and better.

  He frowned. He might need to squelch those urges a bit. If Phoebe was any indication of the women in Sapphire Falls, they weren’t impressed with overspending and big flashy gestures. Phoebe was down to earth. It stood to reason that a friend of hers would be the same.

  They sat on the wooden bench and Levi stretched his arm along the back behind Hailey’s shoulders. She cuddled up against his side and he felt the heart he’d recently rediscovered expand.

  This was nice.

  This was the freaking epitome of nice.

  He could get used to this.

  They could sit here in the spring and look at the tulips coming up around the gazebo. They could come in the summer and watch the Ferris wheel turn. He knew there was a Ferris wheel from Joe’s photos of the summer festival that went on each June. Hell, they could ride the Ferris wheel. Levi tried to remember the last time he’d been on a carnival ride and came up blank. Had he never ridden a Ferris wheel? Was that possible?

  “I should text Phoebe and let her know that we found each other.”

  “Great. I’ll tell Joe too.” His brother was n
o doubt wondering how things were going.

  “Met Hailey. I OWE YOU.” Levi grinned as he hit send. That would make Joe curious, and Levi meant it.

  She sent her text and then slid closer, cupping her cocoa in both hands. Levi was hit by a combination of scents, including the chocolate from her cup, the scent of evergreen that he wouldn’t be surprised to find that they piped into the square somehow to help with the whole festive feel, and the scent of vanilla that he could have sworn came from her hair.

  This was really, really…nice.

  “So you must love Christmas,” he said. That was dumb. She was the mayor of a town that would put the North Pole to shame.

  “Not really.” She was holding her cup close to her lips as if the steam from the tiny hole in the lid would warm her.

  “No?” He was surprised. “Why not?”

  She looked up at him. Underneath the red knit cap she looked young and suddenly a little sad.

  Did he know her well enough to tell when she was sad?

  “My mom lost her mom and dad in a bad car accident on Christmas Eve when she was seventeen. Ever since then, she hasn’t been able to celebrate Christmas without going into a deep depression. My dad wanted to protect her from that, so they always jet off to Hawaii and avoid the holidays completely.”

  “They have Christmas in Hawaii,” he said, hoping that wasn’t insensitive. Admittedly, his radar for sensitive and appropriate was a bit rusty. If it had ever worked.

  “They do, but it’s easy to avoid if you have a huge house on a private beach on Lanai.”

  Levi processed that. Not just the tragic story, but the fact that this woman hadn’t had a Christmas growing up, that she clearly came from money with the talk of huge houses on private beaches on one of the most secluded of the Hawaiian islands, and that she’d told him all of this.

  “So no Christmas trees, no Santa, nothing?” he asked.

  His childhood had been unconventional in almost every way, but they’d put milk and cookies out for the big guy and they had presents under the tree every year.

  “Nothing,” she said. “When I got older, I started trying to do things myself. Stockings and Christmas parties and stuff but…Christmas has kind of fallen apart on me over the last few years.”