Mistletoe Kisses
Page 5
In that moment, she resolved that she was going to find a way to make him smile more this week. It wouldn’t be that hard, she reasoned. After all, what was Christmas if not the happiest and most wonderful time of the year—even with an elf costume that left little to the imagination and came with sparkly high-heeled shoes? Justin needed to be reminded that Christmas could be merry and bright, even though he’d suffered loss, that was all.
…
The next morning at roll call, Justin sat at one of the tables in the back of the squad room. It was early, and most of the shift hadn’t arrived yet, but it wasn’t long before O’Rourke fell into the chair beside his.
Justin started counting to himself. One, two, three, four—
“Good morning, Santa Baby!”
“Four seconds. That’s all it took for you to open your mouth.” He turned to take in O’Rourke’s delighted expression. Holy moly. Whatever Justin had done, it had his partner wired.
“Are you feeling okay? Your pupils are dilated. Are you high?”
Kevin grinned. Of course. “High on life. Bro, you are so over your head with that one.”
“Excuse me? Dude, if you took some intoxicants from the evidence room, I’ll arrest your ass. You know I will.” He paused. “I’ve got a Breathalyzer in my locker.”
“Oh, shut up.” O’Rourke made a face at him. “I’m talking about your elf, you idiot. She is hot. For you.”
“Right. And you’re the Easter Bunny.” Or will be. He pulled a pencil from his pocket and started doodling in the margins of the memo he’d picked up on the way into the room. Big ears, big floppy feet, and cute cotton tail. “You know she’s my sister’s best friend. We grew up together. So what you think you saw, you didn’t.” Justin glared at O’Rourke.
But O’Rourke just smiled.
Justin wasn’t surprised. Nothing stopped his partner. Ever. It’s what made him the biggest badass cop and the best guy to have beside you in a crisis. Except for right now, when he was a pain in the ass.
“What I saw is you, all goo-goo-eyed for your sister’s BFF. Face it. You got it baaad.”
“You sound like a sheep.” Justin knew it was a lame stab at deflection. O’Rourke didn’t even flinch. “And as far as jumping her bones, well, you’re just wrong.”
His pencil snapped in two. Or maybe he’d broken it in two. But then O’Rourke just looked over Justin’s head and called out, “Hey, Smitty! C’mere and tell Santa what you saw on the news.”
Oh crap. Justin swept the pencil bits into his palm and tucked them into his shirt pocket. It was never good when O’Rourke involved others. With a hard, stinging clap on his shoulder, Smitty leaned over him to peer into his face with a wide grin and crazy, blue eyes. “Duuude. The elf!”
“Get off me. She’s my little sister’s friend,” Justin said, leaning away from Smitty. “We’ve known each other forever. Being with her would be”—amazing. Except it’s—“wrong. Just wrong.”
O’Rourke and Smitty looked at each other over Justin’s head. Then Smitty leaned back and tucked his hands into his back pockets. “If you feel that way, I might go after that little elf myself.”
Justin was on his feet before he realized what he was doing; he only caught himself as he peered down, an inch from Smitty’s face, and heard himself saying, “No one touches Lilly. Got that? No one.” Oh geez. He did have it baaad.
“Hey. Cut it out.” O’Rourke grabbed his elbow and pulled him back down into his seat. He mumbled into his ear, “Right. You don’t have it bad for the elf. You keep telling yourself that, Santa.”
“Everything all right back there?” the shift commander called from his seat by the tall desk, giving a stare of his own to Justin and Smitty.
“Fine, sir. All under control,” O’Rourke responded. “Weave’s just denying the obvious. He’s in love with his elf.”
There was a general chuckle from the rest of the squad. While he and Smitty had been tussling over Lilly, most of the shift had arrived to watch.
“The only thing that’s obvious to me is that you guys are idiots,” Justin muttered.
“Did you even watch the newscast last night?” O’Rourke asked.
Smitty leaned over and whispered in his ear. “Or maybe you were dreaming about sugarplums and candy canes.”
Justin tensed. Smitty’s tone made it clear that sugarplums meant something else. Something he had no right to leer about, because it was about Lilly’s sugarplums, and Lilly wasn’t for anyone to leer at.
He thought about grabbing Smitty by the neck, but instead he flicked the end of the man’s nose. “Get off me, jerk. And in answer to your question, I took a shower and went to bed.” He hadn’t been able to get the scent of candy canes to go away. It had hung over him in a dream-inducing cloud all night.
And his dreams weren’t sweet or innocent at all. He had been dreaming about candy canes. Oh no…this is baaad.
“Watch it, bro,” Smitty said.
“Right.” O’Rourke elbowed him in the side.
Had the camera really caught evidence of him making goo-goo eyes at Lilly? More importantly, had she noticed? And if she had, what was he going to tell her?
What if Hannah noticed? And Mom?
That was all kinds of awkward that he didn’t have the stomach for. What a nightmare. He’d rather be pepper-sprayed.
So much worse than bad. Now his ears weren’t the only thing on fire—his whole body felt scarlet. He turned to O’Rourke and said the only thing he could think of to say to him. “Elbow me again, and I’m going to pepper-spray you.”
O’Rourke grinned, his eyes twinkling. “Awww…my boy’s in luuuv.”
What had been aired last night that had everyone all in his face about Lilly? He’d have to see if he could stream it at the Channel 10 website after his shift—
“Oh! She’s here.” Smitty lifted his chin to peer out the windows overlooking the parking lot. “She’s carrying something. A tray, covered with tinfoil. I think she’s got cookies.”
“Cookies!” Some of the others joined him at the window.
Cookies? A sudden memory rose to mind: Lilly, flour dusting her cheek, her fingertips stained by food color, and the sweet scent of frosting in the air. The tip of her tongue tucked in the corner of her mouth as she leaned over a reindeer-shaped cookie and swirled a ribbon of frosting around its neck…and him, reaching across the countertop to snatch a freshly finished cookie from the tray. Justin! Don’t eat all of them—they’re for Christmas Eve!
It had been that last Christmas, when Dad was still alive and Justin had still been a normal seventeen-year-old boy. When it was fun to steal cookies from the sixteen-year-old redhead helping to decorate the sweet treats in your mom’s kitchen, only to get her to scold you so her green eyes snapped and sparkled at you.
Plus, Lilly made the best cookies ever. Because she made them with love, Mom had said. And real butter.
Not for these animals, Justin thought, and started to shoulder his way through the crowd of cookie-hungry cops. Those cookies are mine.
“Officer Weaver,” Captain Carruthers called from his desk. “You’re out of uniform.”
Justin froze, his heart sinking. Oh no. He turned on his heel to face his captain. “Sir?”
“Suit up, Santa,” said the captain.
“Aww, c’mon, Captain. I thought the suit was just for the parade.” He’d never questioned an order from a superior before. “Yes, sir.”
“And you’re taking your sleigh. The guys in the motor pool worked overtime to fix it—Frosty’s reattached and everything. We want the public to see the kinder, gentler, more festive side of the force. We don’t want the public to think you’re like Scrooge.”
Justin sighed. He felt about as festive as the muddy piles of snow at the edges of the parking lot, or a Christmas tree on the curb after New Year’s. And apparently, now he looked lovesick as well. “Bah humbug,” he muttered, and went to change.
Chapter Five
Li
lly interviewed, Cisco filmed, and the cops ate the cookies in a jolly cluster. Lilly didn’t realize she was looking for Justin until she saw him emerge from a hallway dressed in his Santa suit. Her heart leaped, and her pulse began to race.
It’s only because he’s your subject, she told herself. There’s no other reason to get excited.
Her fluttering stomach, shaking knees, and racing heart disagreed.
Nonsense, she insisted. It’s just Justin. You’ve known him forever.
He pushed his way through his fellow officers, his dark, intense gaze focused on her, and she shivered. Of course I’m shivering. He’s staring at me like he’s about to arrest me.
But that wasn’t the truth, and she knew it. His eyes seemed to bore into her somehow, making all of her body tingle and her mind race. Just as his must have when he was at the lectern the night before.
And then he smiled. At her.
Lilly almost dropped the platter of cookies. At the last second, she gripped it tightly. But there was nothing to say. She just swallowed, hard. “Hi. Justin.”
His smile—had he smiled?—had been a quick flash of white, a pair of dimples. His old smile, just like Hannah had said. It was overwhelming, just like the scowl that had dropped into place immediately after, the one she’d come to recognize as his usual face. Still, that smile—the ghost of it—was seared into her mind.
“Hey,” he said, his voice a silky, dark timbre. Again, her skin seemed to tingle. “You ready?”
“Ready for what?” she breathed at him, her entire body perking up at the thought of being ready for something—or anything—with Justin.
He crinkled his nose and tilted an eyebrow. “To get going. We have toys to pick up. Let’s get this show on the road, huh?” And he turned away, just like that.
Lilly’s feet hit the ground with a thud. She’d been floating on clouds, and now she was back on earth, in the police station, staring after Justin and wondering what had just happened to her. Had she really just been ready to do anything with her best friend’s brother?
“Stunning, isn’t it? He’s so not jolly.” Kevin appeared at her side. He reached for the plate she held to snatch up the last cookie. “Good piece last night. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with today.” He moved off, and Lilly was left standing alone with an empty plate and a still-pounding heart.
…
“Where are we going today?”
“Straight to ho-ho-hell. But first, coffee.”
Lilly sighed. “Come on, Justin. You gotta work with me here. What’s our first stop?”
“The fire station.” He furrowed his brow and wrinkled his cute nose. “You know, you still smell.”
“Excuse me?” She grabbed a hank of her own hair and sniffed, but all she could smell was mint. Is it my skin? She tried to be inconspicuous as she sniffed at herself.
Justin pulled his car into the coffee shop drive-through line behind four or five other cars. Then he turned to look at her. “Look, it’s distracting. I can’t do my job if I’m distracted because of how you smell.”
“I’m distracting you? The way I…smell? It’s distracting?” She couldn’t smell anything, but then again, most people who smelled had no idea they were offensive. “I don’t understand. I showered. My clothes are clean—”
“It’s not your clothes,” Justin said. “It’s you. You smell like candy canes. You’re stinking up my car.”
“Stinking up— Are you serious?” A ripple of annoyance swept over her, replacing the panicked embarrassment she’d felt. “Stinking? Stinking!” She turned to the back seat. “Cisco! Are you hearing this? Do I smell?”
“Don’t look at me, chica. I like candy canes, but I’m staying out of this conversation. I’m just the All-Seeing Eye.” He lifted his camera to his shoulder. “Ignore me.”
Lilly clicked her tongue and looked back at Justin. “Stinking?” she repeated. She was so upset, she couldn’t formulate another way to say it, and didn’t care. “Stinking.”
“That’s what I said. I got home last night, and all I could smell was you. Messed up my sleep. Every time I rolled over, I smelled candy canes and woke up.”
She wasn’t sure how to interpret this. “Why would that wake you up?”
He shrugged; his ears turned as scarlet as his Santa hat. Oh. A clue. The annoyance faded, leaving her with a sense of wonder and bewilderment. His ears only turned red if he was embarrassed.
Was that why he was being so grouchy?
“Don’t you like candy canes?” She blinked up at him.
He drew his brows down low and turned away to scowl out the windshield. “It doesn’t matter why it woke me up. The point is, it did.”
“So you’d rather I smelled like…what?” She relaxed into her seat as her heart gave a little leap and her stomach fluttered with butterflies. She’d kept him awake because…he was thinking about her, maybe? Why else would he be embarrassed to admit to being kept awake?
Could he be crushing on her? Hannah thought so…
“I dunno.” Justin pulled up to the menu sign. “What do you want?”
I want to investigate this. Us. She looked at the board and made a split decision. Was he acting all growly and miserable just to scare her away when in fact he felt completely different? She really wanted to know, because she was crushing on him a little bit, too. “Peppermint hot chocolate and a candy-cane doughnut.”
Justin narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re not getting that.”
“You asked what I wanted, and that’s it. Deal with it, Santa.” She tossed her head and wondered if she looked too flirty. But then, wasn’t that the point?
Justin glowered. “I told you not to smell like a candy cane anymore. So that’s what you get?” His forehead wrinkled.
“Don’t do that. You look like a shar-pei.”
“A what?” He wrinkled his nose in addition to his forehead. Her stomach flip-flopped again. He was hot, sexy, and adorably cute all at the same time.
“Can I help you?” the server at the other end of the intercom asked.
On impulse, Lilly leaned over his lap to call out, “There’s not enough help in the world for this guy!” Because that’s what she would have said when they were younger. Or maybe it was just an excuse to touch him, even briefly. She caught her breath and leaned back in her seat, but all she could think about was how the heat of his body had just seared her skin and made goose bumps travel all over her body. Oh, Lilly. This is so not right. What are you doing? What are you trying to achieve?
She couldn’t do this, couldn’t follow her impulses, and especially, she couldn’t follow the urgings of her heart. This piece was her one and only chance. If she didn’t do a great job with it, her chances of getting on full-time with Channel 10 were over. She’d have to relocate, find another job. She didn’t want to leave the only family she’d ever known a second time. Not to mention, that family included Justin, and that was all kinds of awkward and weird.
She sat back and stared out the windshield as she pondered. Her parents had loved her, but they were older and busy with their busy careers and jet-set lifestyles. For example, they’d hired professional decorators to provide a tree and dispose of it immediately after New Year’s Day. They’d bought cookies decorated by a culinary artist at a trendy upscale bakery; the cookies were baked with precision and the best of organic products, but no love or laughter. And no one wanted to scarf down the entire tray in one fell swoop. They were only for show, a nod to nostalgia.
Without Hannah and Mary, her life would have been staid and sterile, and she would have grown up to be a perfectly respectable snob. Thank God for the female Weavers. They had rescued her and made her feel like part of a family, not just a responsibility.
Justin was all that stood in the way of that. Getting involved with him in any way other than as a friend was setting herself up to fail in so many ways…
…
It seemed to take forever until they reached the first donation site.
Justin got out of the car and stood there in his body-hugging, too-tight, ready-to-burst-at-the-seams Santa suit, looking way too muscular and more buff than any Santa should.
No. No, she couldn’t—and she shouldn’t—think that way about him. He was just Santa and her subject. She had a job to win, and that’s all she could, or should, think about. Lilly squared her shoulders. “Look cheerful, Santa,” she ordered as Cisco hoisted the camera to his shoulder. “It’s game time.”
“This beard makes my skin crawl,” he muttered.
“Get over it.” Lilly moved close to Justin and reached up to fluff the wig under his hat. But then she thought better of it and grabbed his collar instead, dragging him down until his face was only about an inch from hers.
It was time to set Justin, and herself, straight.
…
Justin stared at Lilly’s lips. Her sparkly, glossed pink lips. It would be so easy to lean down just a little more and press his mouth to hers. He could blame the mistletoe on the brim of his hat, and no one would be the wiser. Just one kiss. It was a Christmas tradition, and though that meant practically nothing to him—bah, humbug—it was one tradition he could embrace. Right now, anyway.
What could it hurt?
Me, stupid. Are you out of your mind?
The night before, she’d been a sexy elf in a revealing costume. This morning, she was practically virginal in her short green skirt, red tights, and ugly sheepskin boots. But even in a bright red turtleneck, a green-and-red scarf, and that stupid jingle-bell hat over her beautiful, curling auburn hair, she was the prettiest woman he’d ever seen.
O’Rourke had been right. He was head over heels for Lilly, and there was nothing he could do about it, because she was the kind of girl who deserved more than a few kisses and a good night in bed—she deserved a relationship.
Good, he told himself. I’m not a relationship kind of guy.
Beyond that, his career was dangerous. Every day he stepped foot out the door, he walked into a potential shoot-out. He never knew if he was going to survive his shift. With that in mind, he didn’t lean down and kiss her lips even as every fiber of his body told him to go for it. She tightened her fingers on his collar and pulled him slightly closer.