by Tina Leonard
“It matters,” Capri said, amazed that Seagal wouldn’t know this.
“That matters, and Daisy kissing me doesn’t?”
She nodded.
“I was just sitting there, Capri. Oh, you think I was staking out your shop.”
She didn’t say anything.
“You’re mad about this case, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am. No matter how many times I try to tell you that there’s no way drugs ever went through my store, you don’t believe me.” Capri got more upset just thinking about it. “And I did see the squad car go by several times, by the way. I know that was your doing. But you weren’t going to tell me that, either.”
He shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re mad about the case, and not Daisy.”
“I might be tomorrow. Give me time. It’s just that all this other stuff crowds it out. I think I’d rather deal with Daisy than with you not believing me.”
“Capri, you don’t know how the drugs are being transported or where they’re being hidden.”
“They are not in my store,” Capri said.
“Maybe you’re right,” Seagal said, “but they were in your arrangements. That means someone was keeping an eye on you, at least enough to know when you’d be making your deliveries.”
“It’s dumb, Seagal,” Capri said. “The whole thing was a coincidence.”
He considered that. “Possibly. But not usually with drugs. People generally aren’t very coincidental about where they hide stuff that’s worth five thousand dollars.”
Capri blinked. “That much?”
He nodded. “Why do you think I’m here? Because somebody stuffed a few joints in a flowerpot?”
“I don’t know. I thought…I thought you were just being your typical overanalytical, overprotective self.”
Seagal stared at her. “Are you saying I’m no fun?”
“Fun is not a word I would use to describe you.”
“You think our marriage wasn’t fun?”
He sounded either perplexed or astounded. “Not when you were being super-cop,” Capri said. “I understand it’s your job, but you could be a bit overbearing. I loved you, in spite of it, but then I began to realize your life was all about something that had nothing to do with me. And it’s the reason you’re here. You wouldn’t have come back to me if there hadn’t been a case in my shop.”
Seagal stared as his wife exited the room. He turned to look at the Christmas tree and the pretty colored lights. There was a gold star on top, and tons of silvery beads twining through the branches. He’d spent hours trying to get the tree right to surprise Capri when she came home from the hospital.
But she thought she was just a case to him.
* * *
CHRISTMAS EVE FOR the floral business—at least in Capri’s shop in Bridesmaids Creek—was busy until at least noon, every year. People wanted last-minute gifts to take to the in-laws, and last-minute deliveries of arrangements, especially if someone hadn’t gotten to the end of their shopping list.
She’d dumped most of the work over the holidays on Jade and Kelly, but, wanting to make certain that every last detail was seen to before the shop closed for Christmas, Capri decided to ask Mathilda Penny to watch the babies for a couple of hours while she went to see if there was anything she could do to help.
That meant slipping out past Jack, the ever-present bodyguard. After she’d told Seagal he was overbearing, she’d found him gone this morning. Jack sat in her kitchen, munching on a bagel and sipping hot coffee.
She hadn’t batted an eye. She’d said good-morning and gone to check on the babies.
Now Jack sat outside in the cold, keeping an eye on things, probably bored stiff. Seagal was carrying this whole thing too far, in her opinion, but that was Seagal. He carried cop work past the point where normal people would give up.
“Jack,” Capri said, “I’m going to the shop. If you follow me or tell Seagal, I will tell Kelly that you snore and that you have a fetish for garlic.”
He blinked. “Seagal will kill me.”
She nodded. “That sounds like a personal problem to me, to use one of Seagal’s favorite and irritating expressions.”
“Capri, I just don’t think this is a good idea. Something tells me it’s not. I get these tickles—”
“You’ll really get a tickle if you rat me out.”
He appeared to consider his options. “Can you be gone for only an hour? And keep your cell phone on you so I can text you if Seagal’s coming back? I don’t think I have to tell you that Seagal will be mad at both of us.”
“The good part about that is that I’m getting a divorce from Seagal in two days, and you’re not, partner.”
“I don’t think you really want a divorce, Capri.”
She thought about Daisy kissing Seagal, felt a flashing knife stab her heart. “Maybe I don’t, but I know it’s for the best. Seagal married me before he really had a chance to think it through.”
“Yeah, because he couldn’t believe the hottest girl he’d ever laid eyes on had asked him out,” Jack said. “And after he saw you at the annual Bridesmaids Creek swim, he was determined to have you. It was the bikini. Seagal said he’d never realized how fast a red bikini could blow his mind. He was talking about the bikini, but he fell for the lady wearing it, that much was obvious.”
She hesitated. “Did he really say that?”
“I’m his partner. I hear everything. I don’t have to make stuff up, Capri.”
It was almost too good to be true. Her heart wanted to hear all this so badly. “Seagal never said he thought I was hot.”
Jack laughed. “Capri, do you really think Seagal would settle for a chick who wasn’t hot?”
“You’ve got to stop saying chick,” Capri said, “before some woman slaps you silly.”
“I’ve heard that,” Jack said. “I’ll wait until it happens. I like living dangerously.” He looked at her with a curious expression. “Didn’t Seagal ever tell you that your red bikini sent the flag up his flagpole?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Well, it’s Seagal. He’s…like John Wayne. I’ve been his partner for a long time, until he got into the Rangers. You sit in a car with someone for a few years, several hours a day, you know what they’re thinking before they say it.” He thought for a minute. “In fact, I knew he loved you before he even told me. Or you. It’s probably a toss-up if he told me or you first that he loved you, but I knew it before he figured it out himself. He’s a bit slow where women are concerned, don’t you think?”
Capri’s breath stilled. “I never thought so.”
“Yeah. Pretty much he’s slow. That’s why he dated Daisy. She was willing to do the work as far as asking him out and stuff.”
“I asked him out on our first date.”
“Yeah,” Jack said, “and the shock made him giddy as a boy at the State Fair. He never saw that coming. He couldn’t talk about anything else for three days. Believe me,” Jack said, “trapped in a cruiser with Seagal yakking about the hottest chick in the county is not pleasant.” He sighed. “In fact, now that I think about it, Seagal’s focus is exactly what makes him perfect for the Rangers. God, he’s a pain in the butt.”
That much Jack had right. The rest of it she couldn’t say. How much was Jack building Seagal up to her, and how much was truth? “I’m going now. Do not tell Seagal I’ve left.”
“I’m going to have to leave Bridesmaids Cree
k,” Jack said. “I’ll drop you a line from whatever outback I have to hide in.”
She smiled. “Your aunt came in the back door. She’s busy with the babies. You don’t have to sit out here, Jack.”
“I think I saw someone had put some cupcakes under a glass dome in the kitchen,” Jack said hopefully.
“And your darling aunt just brought over a half turkey breast and all the sides for Christmas Eve dinner. Help yourself.” She walked down the steps.
“Isn’t that for your and Seagal’s Christmas dinner?”
She waved a hand at Jack and kept walking. He was the partner—he ought to know better than anyone that there was no need to pretend that there was going to be a Christmas for her and Seagal.
* * *
SEAGAL COULDN’T BELIEVE his eyes when he saw his delicate wife go into her store. Today of all days he’d needed her to stay put. “Darn, Jack,” he muttered. He put the binoculars back up to his eyes, watching the loading area. Nothing seemed out of place. Yet the department had been tipped off that today was the day for a “delivery”—something that had been mentioned directly by Taylor Kinsler to an undercover cop posing as a buyer.
According to Kinsler, Capri’s shop was perfect because the fragrance of the flowers covered up the smell of something more pungent.
And the fact that Capri’s husband was a Ranger was even better, Kinsler had said. No one would suspect them of running any drugs through a shop owned by a cop’s wife.
It made Seagal’s blood boil.
No one knew better than he did how hard Capri had worked in her shop, wanting it to be a place her grandmother would be proud of. Capri had loved her grandmother with all her heart, and when she’d been left the business, Capri had taken it over with appreciative enthusiasm. In some ways, working there made her feel close to her grandmother.
Capri knew that the business had kept their family going through the hard times. Capri had gone to college, thanks to the shop. Capri’s mother had worked there, too, but she hadn’t loved it like Capri. His wife had so much talent with making things beautiful.
She made his life beautiful.
And those babies just knocked him to his knees. In his mind, Capri’s beauty went all the way down to her soul.
It tore him up that her shop was being used for illegal purposes. She’d be heartbroken.
He’d save her that if he could.
It was going to take vigilance to stamp out this operation. Seagal moved the binocs to his eyes again, watching every movement behind the plate-glass windows beneath the cheery awning. No one would think the charming store hid contraband. Customers went inside, wrapped in their warm coats to ward off the chilly temperature outside, and came out with smiles on their faces, carrying armfuls of flowers or pots of poinsettias.
He wished Capri hadn’t decided to work today. But he should have figured she would—her customers meant too much to her to leave them without her careful eye on their Christmas arrangements and gifts.
He loved that about her.
In fact, he loved everything about his wife.
Suddenly, screams erupted from the flower shop. It sounded as if they were coming from the loading area. Seagal took off running, his heart in his throat.
Chapter Nine
Capri held the broom over the stranger’s head, prepared to whack him to kingdom come if he so much as moved. The man lay on the shop floor, looking as though he was going to have a pretty good headache from Jade whacking him with a big glass vase.
“Call the police, Jade,” Capri said.
“Wouldn’t it be faster to call your husband?”
“Call 911!” Capri said. “If Seagal comes, he might kill this unfortunate thug, especially if he finds out he threatened me.”
She searched the man’s pockets, pulling out a knife, and a small gun. “I know what this is,” she said. “It’s cop-issue. This isn’t good.”
She kept one eye on their prisoner while Jade talked to a dispatcher. But she wasn’t shocked when Seagal practically tore the glass door off its hinges. In fact, she’d have been more shocked if he hadn’t materialized like Super Ranger. “What took you so long?”
Seagal grunted, turned the guy over with his boot. “Nice goose egg. Your work?”
“Jade’s.” She decided to leave out the detail that Jade had snuck up behind the man while he was threatening Capri.
Seagal cuffed the man, then radioed for an ambulance and backup. “Just in case,” he told Capri.
“Of course. I guess you’ll want me to close the shop?”
He looked at his wife. “I asked you not to move from the house, even had a bodyguard posted on you, and here you are. Would you close the shop if I asked you to?”
“I just figured,” Capri said stiffly, “that the little men with the yellow caution tape and chalk outlines might show up sooner than later. I figured they work best in a non-crowded environment, and that they like their crime area kept sacrosanct from Christmas shoppers spreading yuletide cheer.”
He didn’t smile, even though he wanted to. “Do you know where the drugs are?”
“He didn’t say anything about drugs,” Capri said. “He told me to close the store early. Apparently I did last year, and since I wasn’t closing early today, it was messing up his schedule. I didn’t close the store early last year, did I, Seagal?”
He smiled. “I think we might have closed it about thirty minutes or so early.”
She frowned for a moment, thinking, which he thought was darling. “Ohh. That’s right. I did close early.”
“We thought it was best not to scandalize the shoppers,” Seagal reminded her.
She blushed the color of Christmas punch. “They’ve been planning this caper for a year?”
He shrugged. “We’ll know when big boy wakes up.” He gave the prone man another nudge with his boot just as the ambulance and backup arrived. “After you give your statement, could I talk you into going home? I’ll sweep and lock up. I’m sure Jack’s about to have a nervous breakdown. What did you bribe him with?”
“Not much,” Capri said. “Just some food.”
Seagal sighed. “And his aunt is there, watching the babies? She brought goodies, I’m sure?”
Capri nodded. “He’s probably eating our Christmas dinner right now.”
He wasn’t surprised. Local cops filled the store, working the crime scene, taking Jade’s statement, looking for contraband.
“Check this out, Seagal,” someone said, dragging a huge pot decorated with ghosts and pumpkins and bats from under the counter.
“Not Christmas-friendly,” Seagal said to Capri. “That I didn’t expect.”
She stared at the pot. “I never looked twice at that.”
“Because it’s not Halloween. No one would be looking at fall decor.”
“Decor, even,” Capri said. “You’re picking up some decorating lingo.”
“That’s right,” Seagal said, his tone slightly amused. “Take her statement so she can go,” he told an officer. “Her children called. They want their mother to come home to read them The Night Before Christmas.”
“I believe that’s the father’s job,” Capri said.
“Really?” Seagal stepped a bit closer. “Am I being invited?”
Capri met his eyes. She glanced at the thug being taken off on a stretcher, and the uniforms crowding her small shop. “Consider yourself invited.”
He nodded, his heart liftin
g with hope. “Tell the twins Daddy will be there after he finishes with the holiday mischief. I have a few details to wrap up.”
Capri went to Jade, offering to drive her home. Jade said she was fine, and Capri told her to get her coat. She hung a Closed for the Holidays wreath on the front door, then handed Seagal the key to the shop. “Lock up, please. Should I send Jack home?”
Seagal nodded. “Tell him I said to go live it up on my dime. Early Christmas gift.”
Capri nodded, and as he watched her leave the store to walk Jade to her car, Seagal thought how lucky he was to be married to the hottest woman he’d ever laid eyes on.
She’s all I want for Christmas, Santa. Sexy mama and my two little blessings—what more could a man ask for?
* * *
CAPRI LIT SOME CANDLES—not enough to be overtly romantic, but enough to lend an air of home and comfort.
She’d been so relieved when Seagal had burst into the shop. In that moment, she’d known everything was going to be all right. She hadn’t realized how frightened she was until the relief hit her at the sight of her big, strong husband appearing with fire in his eyes.
Jack’s words had stayed with her. Maybe he’d said everything Seagal never had, or never could. Perhaps he’d merely been trying to help his partner out by tossing some guy talk over the troubled waters.
She intended to find out. It mattered so much to her, and as Mathilda had said, what she and Seagal did would matter greatly to the babies.
The babies wanted to eat, so she fed them and put them to bed. She sat down to calm her nerves, telling herself that Christmas was a time to be happy. To be thankful.
She was thankful for Seagal.
She loved Seagal. She’d fallen in love with him before she’d ever asked him out. She owed it to her children to find out if she and their father could make their marriage work.
Seagal came in the door at eight o’clock, looking weary—but carrying a huge bouquet of white lilies and red roses. “There’s only one flower shop in town, so I stopped by and picked these up for you.”