Navy Christmas (Whidbey Island)

by Geri Krotow

  “It hasn’t and it won’t. Dottie wanted that land to go to me and Pepé. Pepé is what’s at stake here, Jonas. It’s his legacy as much as mine. You’ve got a lot to learn if you think getting between me and my son’s future is going to be a winning proposition for you.”

  As she stared at him, she saw frustration in his eyes and in the way he pursed his lips as if he was biting his tongue. His jaw was clenched and she shifted her gaze to his neck, his chest.

  But that wasn’t smart, because Jonas’s body was her idea of ideal masculinity, which only made her more frustrated with herself. Where was the woman who used to be able to manage her life, control where it was going?

  That woman died with Phil.

  Serena lifted her eyes to meet Jonas’s, bracing herself for his intensity. His gaze was intense, yes, but they also reflected her own frustration, and a good measure of...compassion.

  “Oh, no. We’re not doing this. Don’t feel sorry for me, Jonas.”

  She’d survived a lot in her life—young widowhood, single motherhood and Dottie’s murder. One man was not going to keep her from putting down new roots here.

  “Pity? You think that’s what I’m feeling?” His brows drew together and he looked away, drawing her eyes to his proud, strong profile against the late-afternoon sky. Her fingers tingled to reach up and smooth the short hair on his forehead, mussed by the wind. His hands were in his jacket pockets and his jeans fit him perfectly. The fading light bathed his face in a golden glow.

  He turned back to her—she didn’t remember seeing him like this before. His military bearing was nowhere in sight. This was Jonas straight-up, with his unique combination of integrity, strength and drive all aimed at her.

  “I’d never try to hurt you or Pepé, Serena.” Jonas’s voice vibrated with sincerity. “I want you to be able to trust me. I’ve never hidden my desire to get the house back. But I don’t want to do it in a way that causes you any stress.”

  “That leaves us at an impasse, Jonas. Pepé and I have made a home here—at the farmhouse.”

  She cursed the emotions roiling in her gut. Especially the one labeled “Jonas deserves the house.”

  “I never expected us to get along so well.” His statement pulled her back from her despair. She smiled—she couldn’t help it.

  “You call this ‘getting along’?”

  The compassion she’d seen in his eyes became something more potent, even dangerous.

  “No, this is what I call it.” She watched his lips form the words and that instant connection she’d felt before he kissed her the last time zipped through her, igniting her baffling need for him.

  He was going to kiss her and she was going to let him. It was broad daylight, without the dark of night they’d enjoyed on the Fords’ deck. This wasn’t a surprise meeting of their lips.

  They both knew what they were doing. They both wanted to do it.

  He hesitated before he leaned in, leaving a tiny gap between them. She dragged her gaze from his lips and looked back up at him. He watched her, waiting. He wasn’t going to make this easy for her. It had to be her choice, too.

  “Kiss me, Jonas.”

  He moved in, and her entire body reacted when his lips touched hers. The kiss was at once familiar and new and she thrilled to every nuance. When he teased her by sucking on her lower lip, she gave up trying to keep her hands at her sides and wrapped one around his neck, the other around his waist—still holding Ronald’s leash.

  She wanted to blame the way she felt on the fact that she hadn’t had sex in a long, long time. Or to assume it was because she’d been so focused on Pepé’s well-being over the past two years. She wished she could convince herself that this would feel as good with any man.

  Her heart knew better.

  Jonas moved his lips to her neck and she felt the soft bite of his teeth as he gently nipped at her and kissed her and made her dizzy with lust.

  Her reaction had everything to do with Jonas.

  She reached up and kissed his neck, as much as she could with his thermal shirt and pullover sweater in the way. The feel of his skin, its slightly salty taste and his distinctly male scent only served as a catalyst to her arousal.

  She groaned when he lifted his head from hers. His chest heaved as he allowed a few inches between them.

  “I’d say we get along well.”

  They laughed together and it was almost more intimate than their kiss had been.

  As they stood quietly together for a few more moments Serena used every tool she knew to keep her hands off Jonas, to keep from insisting he make love to her right here in the trees outside his brother’s house.

  Paul’s house. Her almost-boss’s home.

  “Crap, Jonas. Did we really just, um, almost lose it?”

  Jonas flashed her a grim smile. “Yes, we did.”

  “Not the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

  “There’s nothing smart or stupid about physical attraction. It just is.” Jonas’s statement did what thinking about a cold shower couldn’t. He doused her desire with a single sentence.

  That was all it was for him. Physical attraction.

  “We need to cool it. We still have no idea how we’re going to work this out, Jonas. I don’t want to give up the house. You don’t want to believe I won’t change my mind. I’m not thrilled about the idea of you building a house so close to my land, even though you own that land now. And then your family— Pepé and I shouldn’t have accepted your invitation today. It’s just going to make it harder in the end.”

  Ronald barked and brought Serena back to the reason she’d come out here. She walked away from Jonas, half expecting him to return to the house, but he fell in step with her.

  “I’ve screwed this up, Serena, and I’m sorry. I’d really like a chance to be a friend to you and Pepé. No ulterior motives, no talk about the house.”

  “That sounds nice, Jonas, but every time you and I are together and Pepé’s not with us, we end up getting into trouble.”

  “Whoa, you’re calling my kisses trouble?”

  “You know what I mean.” She refrained from nudging him with her hip. Despite everything, she felt an easy comfort with Jonas. Even when he infuriated her.

  “Pepé isn’t an adult. He won’t understand when you stop being our friend and he doesn’t see you anymore.”

  “Friendship doesn’t end like a romance, Serena. It can last a lifetime.”

  Jonas might as well have shot a lightning bolt through her. She wasn’t looking for a lifetime anything, not with anyone and especially not with the man who wanted her house.

  “I think we’re better off being acquaintances, don’t you?”

  “We’re past that. If you think about it, we’ve always had the Dottie connection.” His eyes were serious and full of determination. Serena had seen the same look in Dottie’s eyes. Jonas might not have been her biological son but for all practical purposes she’d made him hers.

  “You have me there.” She sighed. “I wish we knew why Dottie did this. Why didn’t she give me and Pepé something else, if she was so driven to give us anything?”

  “We might never find out. But Dottie had a reason—maybe to teach us to fight for what we want?”

  “For you that makes sense. You want your boyhood home back.”

  “And you want to keep your biological legacy.”

  She didn’t reply. They were nearing the house and Serena was ready to go home. Jonas’s hand on her arm made her stop.

  “I’m not your blood relative or Pepé’s, but I’m a link for Pepé, for him to know about his grandfather. For you to know about your father.”

  “I don’t need to know about my father. I found out what I had to from Dottie, for medical history purposes.” She wasn’t about to explain her sense
of anger and loss when her mother had told her about the man who’d left before she was born.

  “Uncle Todd wasn’t the friendliest guy by far. But he did his best. Now that I know he had a child that he never claimed or supported, I understand his bitterness. It was with himself. I still don’t understand why Dottie didn’t urge him to go back and at least meet you and get to know you.”

  “What I figured out from Dottie is that he didn’t tell her until right before he died. By then he thought it was too late. He gave her my mother’s name. It took Dottie a while as my mom doesn’t use her maiden name, but she found us. Dottie told my mother she planned to contact me within the month if she didn’t hear from me first. That’s what forced my mother’s hand—she had to tell me or face my anger when I found out from a stranger.”

  She shook her head, closed her eyes and focused on the cold wind flowing through her hair. The wind lifted it away from her face and she breathed in the clean air that was Whidbey’s trademark. Ronald stood next to her, leaning against her leg as if to indicate he was taking it all in, too.

  “Your husband was killed at the same time?”

  “The same week.”

  Jonas quietly whistled. “That’s harsh.”

  “Life often is.” She opened her eyes and met his. “I don’t plan on making it any more chaotic than it needs to be, though. There’s not a hell of a lot I have control over, but I have the ability to choose where and how I’ll raise my child.”

  “I admire that about you.”

  “Do you? Really? Because it’s why I’m not budging on the house, Jonas. It’s mine, and it’s Pepé’s. He’ll have the chance to decide whether he wants to raise his own family here.”

  He looked away from her and out toward the sinking sun as it disappeared in slices over the mainland. Serena knew she could come to care for this man.

  Too much.

  * * *

  “THANKS FOR A nice afternoon, Jonas. Even with our...forest interlude.” She offered him her best lawyer smile. He stood on the porch and she deliberately didn’t invite him inside. Pepé was already in the house and Ronald contentedly sniffed the perimeter of their yard, happy to be back on his own turf.

  “It was my pleasure. I only hope I didn’t make it harder on you than it should’ve been. My family likes both you and Pepé, you know.”

  She did know that. She also knew that their opinion of her, while favorable, didn’t matter as much as she’d once believed it did.

  “It’s been a long day, Jonas. Pepé needs me—it’s bath time.”

  “Friends hug goodbye.” He held his arms open, waiting.

  “Of course.”

  She took a step toward him so she could give him a quick, friendly hug. Ignoring her lips and the fact that they wanted to do a lot more than smile at Jonas wasn’t easy, but she was an adult. She could do this.

  He offered her a similarly light, nonsexual hug.

  I am not disappointed.

  Well, maybe she was a little bit bummed. Maybe a lot. Maybe she still needed that cold shower.

  “Bye, Jonas.”

  “Good night, Serena.”

  She shut the door and because it had beveled glass windows in the frame she stood back and waited until she heard his vehicle start up and drive away. Then she fell against the door and sank to the ground.

  Life on Whidbey was supposed to be her gateway to the simple life. Not the complicated, heart-twisting adventure she was on at the moment.

  “Mom! Can we read Captain Underpants after my bath?” Pepé skidded into the hall in front of her, in his socks.

  “How about something else tonight? What about one of your Christmas books?”

  “Can we read The Smallest Christmas Tree?”

  She nodded; the book by Linda Cardillo had become one of their favorites. “Sure. Why don’t you go get your pajamas and I’ll bring Ronald inside. Then we’ll draw your bath.”

  “Great!” He scooted back down the hall toward his room. Tears welled up as Serena allowed herself to embrace the reality of Pepé’s life. He was a happy six-year-old. No more emotional angst over his daddy’s passing, no missing his family in Texas, since he’d been so young when she’d moved them out here.

  She was about to accept her dream position at the top firm on island. They had no financial worries, and a house that was truly their home.

  It was everything she’d dared to hope for.

  She would not let any regrets over what Jonas Scott wanted interfere with their happiness.

  * * *

  SERENA WOKE TO the sound of the gale-force winds rocking the house. The eaves and roof shingles made a constant rippling noise that reminded her of dominoes falling in perfect cadence.

  “Ronald?”

  Ronald lay at the foot of her bed, curled up into a ball—the way he preferred to sleep during cold weather—but his head was erect and his ears were pricked. It was still a week before Christmas and not officially winter yet, but the arctic air that was dipping down into the Northwest made it feel like they lived in Alaska.

  The house shuddered and sighed in the wind. It wasn’t the first gale-force storm they’d had since she’d moved here, but it appeared to be the worst to date. According to the weather reports, it might last through tomorrow afternoon at least.

  Pepé hadn’t run into her room, so she sent up a silent prayer of thanks that he was sleeping soundly.

  Still, she went through the checklist in her head for the house prep needed for subzero temperatures. She’d unfastened the two garden hoses, left the kitchen cabinet doors under the sink open for the pipes to stay warm and moved her SUV into the garage.

  Ronald issued a low growl and Serena blinked.

  The alpacas! She’d forgotten to make sure that Snowball and Cami were okay in their small barn.

  “We’ve got some quick work to do, Ronald.”

  Ronald jumped off the bed and she made short work of shoving on her fleece warm-up suit. She peeked in on Pepé to see him snoring softly under his Frozen comforter, his arm above his head in total repose.

  Once she was at the back kitchen door, she jammed her feet into her work boots, grateful for the wool socks she’d stocked up on at an end-of-season sale last year.

  Ronald alerted her. His low-throated growl and raised hackles as he looked at the back door unnerved her.

  “It’s the wind, puppy. You stay here and protect Pepé. Got it?”

  Ronald stilled, but continued his warning noises, no doubt expecting to go outside with her.

  Serena felt completely safe on the island, and especially in their small area of Whidbey, which was protected from the major highway by acres of trees and meadows. It would take an intruder extra effort to come out here, and she’d have ample warning with her long drive the only way up to the house.

  But she knew that strange things could happen, so she grabbed the baseball bat she kept near her bed.

  The alpacas had to be checked and she wasn’t going to go out there and leave Pepé alone in the house, even though it was only a couple of hundred yards away, unless Ronald stayed with Pepé. In the house. Still, she felt a twinge as she made the quick walk to the new barn.

  Inside she was relieved to find her two alpacas huddled near each other, blinking at her with their cartoonishly large eyes as she interrupted their humming. Pepé loved to hear them hum at night, but no way was she waking him now. Besides, school hadn’t been canceled for tomorrow. Not yet.

  Confident the alpacas were comfortably settled, she shut off the light and left the barn. She locked the main door and turned around to see a large male figure not two feet away from her.

  Serena screamed.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Whidbey Island

  Nine days before Christmas

 
JONAS TOSSED AND turned like a teenager with his first crush on a girl. He wanted to blame it on the storm but couldn’t muster the energy to try to fool himself.

  Serena was the reason he was awake. There was more to her, more to his attraction to her, than the damn house.

  He wasn’t ready for a major involvement with anyone. She’d made it clear she wasn’t the casual-sex type, which he’d known from the minute she and Pepé walked into the clinic a month ago.

  Was it only a month ago? Barely. Was it possible to fall for someone after such a short time? The woman had a child, for Pete’s sake. And the kicker was that Jonas liked Pepé. A lot. He was a good kid. He deserved all the love Serena gave him and more.

  The kid deserved a dad.

  Jonas groaned. He was not father material. He loved his nieces and was happy to see how much joy the girls brought Paul and Mary. Jonas had been mobile for too long, always going to the next crisis on the globe for the past two decades. Although he planned to serve out his time on Whidbey until he retired in five years or so, he still didn’t think he was a good candidate for parenthood. Not to mention marriage.

  He groaned and sat up in bed, swinging his feet over the side. What was he, seventeen?

  “Maybe twenty years ago,” he muttered.

  A trip to the shelter in Coupeville next weekend might be in order. A dog would get his mind off things he couldn’t have, shouldn’t entertain.

  Serena.

  When he kissed her she enjoyed it as much as he did. It was in her subtle reactions as well as her boldness—the way her fingers dug into him, the way her tongue fiercely matched his explorations.

  He’d blown it tonight. It had been going well, and she’d been relaxing and even laughing at his stupid jokes. But he couldn’t keep his hands, or his tongue, to himself. The town house shook from the force of the wind and he paused. If it was this bad here in town, it was twice as rough out on the finger of land the farmhouse sat on. When the wind blew, the power always went, and the cold could be unbearable until the woodstove was going.