by LuAnn McLane
“A battery pack. The ornaments flash when I move.” She wiggled her shoulders, making the abundance of bells jingle and jangle.
“That sweater has got to go.”
“It’s the newest addition to my growing collection. Never mind about the sweater from hell—tell me what happened.”
Betsy started telling her tale, pausing now and then to take a bite of her ham salad sandwich. With each addition to the story, Susan’s eyes widened.
“Are you kidding me?”
“You’ve said that five times now.”
“I’m just … blown away.”
“How do you think I feel?”
“I don’t know, Betsy, how do you feel?”
Betsy picked up her spork. “These don’t really work as a fork, but they’re kinda funny.” She opened the lid on the plastic cup and wrinkled her nose. “I don’t even like potato salad.”
“No problem.” Susan handed her the potato pancake. “We’ll trade. When you grow up on a farm you pretty much learn to like everything. But I’m not talking about the food and you’re avoiding the question. I’m talking about you being spoonfed chocolate mousse by John Clark. Did you bring any of it with you, by the way?”
“No, but I think there’s peach cobbler in there.”
“Excellent. Wait, this means we have dessert at our disposal every day. Maybe not so excellent. We must use our willpower or we will both start to waddle.”
“Um, hello, I obviously have no willpower.” Betsy moaned. “Oh, damn it all to hell and back! How in the world did I allow this to happen? I want to throw myself on the floor and have a total cussing-up-a-storm toddler kind of meltdown.”
“I’m pretty sure toddlers don’t curse,” Susan said.
“I bet I did.”
“Please don’t throw a tantrum.” Susan wasn’t sure if Betsy was serious but she wasn’t taking any chances. “Now, back to the discussion.”
“I went over there with the intention of throwing John off, not throwing myself at him!” She cradled her head in her hands. “Ugh!”
“Sounds to me like he’s totally into you, just like I said from the very beginning.”
“And he’s totally wrong for me, just like I said from the very beginning. So this has to end. Now.”
“You can’t know that!”
“That’s what John said.”
“And?” Susan asked.
“I said if he hurt me I’d snap him like a twig.”
“No you did not.”
“I did, and I meant it.”
Susan opened wide and took a bite of her double decker. “Wow, the mayonnaise on here is delicious. I bet John makes his own.” She took a sporkful of the potato salad. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“Are you talking about the potato salad?”
Susan put her spork down. “Listen, we made a toast not to be scaredy-cats.”
“Yeah well, I think I’m winning that challenge.”
“You are winning, so why stop now?”
“I’m not going to dinner with him, Susan. What would be the point?”
“Um, to get to know him.”
“I don’t even have anything to wear!”
“That’s easy enough to remedy. We can head over to Violet’s Vintage Clothing and hook you up.”
“No.” Betsy flapped her potato pancake back and forth.
“Yes! You must be thinking about it or you wouldn’t have been wondering what to wear.”
“I don’t know why you’re getting so high and mighty with me. I don’t see you announcing your date with Danny Mayfield.”
Susan put her stacked sandwich down and tilted her head to the side.
“I don’t like that look on your face.”
“What look?” Susan tried for innocence.
“It’s that look of challenge. You get me to do things I didn’t know I wanted to do all the time. When I said I was considering going red you told me to go for it.” She pointed to her head. “Now look.”
“It suits you. And now I’m challenging you to go shopping with me and get a kick-ass outfit.”
“Ha, coming from someone wearing a blinking Christmas tree that jingles all the way. That thing looks like a walking fire hazard.”
Susan lifted her chin. “I’ve been thinking about updating my closet too.”
“To impress anyone in particular?”
“No … I’m just ready for a little change here and there. And we do have the holiday season upon us. Let’s close a little bit early and go shopping. Then we can walk to Wine and Diner tomorrow for wine down Wednesday and half-price wine and flatbread wearing new outfits. I haven’t been out in ages and I hear customers talking about the wine bar there all the time. What do you say?”
“The last time we drank it got us into loads of trouble.”
Susan shook her head. “We’ll be sensible this time,” she said, although she was getting damned tired of being sensible. Thoughts of Danny would not leave her head and it was getting on her nerves. “Maybe if we get all dressed up we might, you know …” She leaned one shoulder forward.
“Get hit on?”
“Yeah. The best way to get Danny and John out of our heads is to get interest from someone else.” She took a bite of the potato salad and then licked the spork.
“Look, Susan, I have good reasons not to go to dinner with John. He’s totally wrong for me in a million different ways. But you and Danny would make such a cute couple. You’re frustrating the hell out of me by not giving the boy a chance.”
“You know I have my reasons.”
“Yeah, stupid reasons, so they don’t count.”
Susan opened up the container of peach cobbler and took a bite. “Oh this is wonderful. The crust melts in my mouth. Okay, let’s just get the shopping out of the way and go out and have some fun tomorrow. Deal?”
“Deal. Anything to get you out of those doggone sweaters. Now give me some of that cobbler.”
Susan took another bite of the dessert and passed the rest over to Betsy. “Oh, would you do me a favor and drive down to Whisper’s Edge and pick up some handmade ornaments? The proceeds will go to the Toys for Tots and Teens.”
“Sure,” Betsy said.
“Thanks. We seem to be a bit slow today so I can handle the showroom myself for a little while.” She wrapped up the second half of her huge sandwich and put it in the small fridge in the corner.
“Okay, I’ll get on over there. Anything else you need while I’m out?”
“I don’t think so.” Susan dusted off her hands. “I’m going to get back out there and get a tree ready for the ornaments. I have one in the storeroom. I think I’ll string some lights around the windows too.”
Betsy stood up. “That would be a nice touch.” She put on her peacoat but then frowned. “Hmm, I wonder where I left my scarf.” She looked at Susan. “Oh no …”
“Let me guess, you left it at the deli?”
Betsy nodded slowly and then groaned. “Oh, why did I let the man spoon-feed me chocolate mousse? And kiss me?”
“Maybe because you wanted him to.”
Betsy buttoned up her coat. “You are not helping.”
“I think I am. So are you heading over there to get your scarf?”
“No way. I’ll just buy another one. I am never going into that deli again as long as I live.”
“Suit yourself,” Susan said, but she was pretty sure John would return the scarf anyway.
“I intend to!” Betsy hurried out the door in a huff.
Susan waited on a few customers browsing for Christmas gifts and then went into the storeroom for the artificial tree that she’d put together last week. Of course the tree was more cumbersome than she’d realized and she struggled to get it through the door of the storeroom. “Why did I put this together in here? Silly me.” She gave the tree a hefty push but the fat bottom branches got snagged on the doorframe and she was pretty much stuck.
“Well, there’s more than one way to skin a cat,”
she muttered, then wondered where in the world that saying came from in the first place. She hoped it didn’t have anything to do with actually skinning a poor cat. It was her nature to ponder such things and she decided she’d have to do some research later. “Or get a life,” she muttered while she pushed. Getting nowhere, she decided she should crawl beneath the branches and pull from the other direction, or perhaps put the tree on its side and slide it through on the floor. “Maybe if I give it one last shove,” she said, thinking she should have waited for Betsy to help.
Turning her head to the side, Susan reached inside the branches for the trunk and gave the tree a hard push. To her delight, the tree gave way, but much quicker than she’d anticipated. “Oh my gosh!” She stumbled through the doorway and fell forward, landing in a heap of prickly branches.
“Eeeek!” Susan let out a shriek of surprised pain, and with a lot of blinking and jingling she rolled sideways, taking the tree with her. “Ouch, ouch … ouch!” She wiggled, trying to dislodge her arms, but she was somehow stuck. “Great. Just great.”
“Oh my God, what are you doing?” shouted a deep male voice. “Susan, are you hurt?”
“I’ve been attacked by a tree.” Susan tried to disengage herself but the plastic pine needles clung to the bells and lights on her crazy Christmas sweater. She looked sideways to see Danny hovering over her. “I think I’ve gotten myself in a bit of a sticky s-situation. Please don’t p-post this on Facebook.”
“Seriously, are you hurt?”
“I don’t think so, but it’s rather uncomfortable to say the least. I’m being poked everywhere. Even my shoelaces are stuck.”
“How did this even happen?”
“I tried to force the tree through the doorway. Unfortunately, I succeeded.”
10
Pretty in Pink
“Okay, I’m going to get you out of this sticky situation you’ve managed to get yourself in. Just hold still.”
“This feels like déjà vu. Sort of.”
“I’ll have you out of there in no time.” He hoped, anyway.
“Thank you,” she answered in a pitiful tone that tugged at his heart. “You’ve made it a habit of coming to my rescue.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I feel so s-silly s-stuck to a tree.”
“Here we go.” Danny put his hands around her waist, thinking he could simply lift her up, but she remained tangled in the tree. “What in the world …”
“My bells are stuck,” she said. “That’s the whole p-problem.”
“Your bells?”
“They’re kind of big.”
“Um, what are we talking about here?” Danny wondered if bells was some kind of girl-parts slang he hadn’t heard of, but he’d never heard his sister refer to her bells.
“On m-my sw-sweater.” She moved her shoulders and they jingled. “They’re everywhere, even on my sleeves.”
“Oh, bells …”
“That’s what I said. There’s also fringe and lights … it’s a tangled-up mess.”
“Okay, well I’m going to reach around you and try to untangle the mess.”
“Please don’t mention this to anyone.”
“What, that you’ve taken tree hugging to a new level? My lips are sealed,” he said, trying not to cop a feel while setting the bells free. She went very still. “I’m not trying to … you know.”
Susan nodded her head.
“So if I do …”
“It’s okay.”
Danny worked for a couple of minutes, not getting very far. Of course his fingers fumbled a little bit and he was trying not to touch her breasts, making the task nearly impossible.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but what are you wearing under the sweater? One of those cami things?”
“Only a b-bra.”
“Well, if I can’t get you untangled I’ll have to tug the sweater over your head. Or maybe you can try to do it.”
“The b-bells on the cuffs of the sweater are preventing me from moving much.”
Danny might have found the situation funny if he didn’t know how uncomfortable and embarrassed she was feeling. Her stutter was becoming more pronounced and while he found it completely endearing, he knew that she did not.
Being pressed against her was stirring up desire, and if he wasn’t careful she would figure that out and he’d be pretty damned embarrassed too. Danny inhaled deeply, trying to clear his head from thoughts he shouldn’t be thinking, but the coconut scent of her shampoo and the softness of her dark curls in his face only made his situation worse.
“How is it ccoming?” Susan asked in a small voice.
“I set three bells free. I think one fell off. Some of the branches on the tree are missing so you’re stuck on some exposed hooks.”
“Well, this was a thrift shop find. I knew some of the branches were missing. Oh boy …”
Danny felt her shoulders move and she started to shake. At first he thought she was crying but he realized she’d started to laugh.
“Do things like this happen to you often?” God, he wanted to bury his face in her hair.
“All the t-time, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, there goes another bell. How many are tangled?”
Susan shook her head. “I have no idea. The tree is full of bells. I’m stuck like Velcro. We could be here a while. Or I could stand up and walk around with a tree stuck to me. That would really be in the Christmas spirit.”
Danny laughed while he set one of her arms free. “Where’s Betsy?”
“On an errand. Was anybody in the shop when you came in?”
“No.”
“Thank goodness.” She let out a sigh of relief but it sounded so sexy that he wanted to brush her hair aside and start kissing her neck. To his horror he was becoming increasingly aroused. He moved his fingers faster, freeing the bells as quickly as he could.
“Your sweater is flashing.”
“Don’t tell anyone I flashed you,” Susan said and laughed.
“I promise.” Danny joined her laughter. He remembered how sweet and funny she’d been on their prom date. Her sense of humor had been as unexpected as the undeniable attraction he’d had to her. He’d never been around a girl who’d made him laugh so hard. In his teenage experience, girls had mainly been worried about how they looked and what they said rather than just having a good time, but Susan had been so … real.
Danny unhooked another bell from a tiny bent branch. “I think we’re getting there.”
“I’m going to miss you, O Christmas tree.”
“Really? I could stop and put a star on your head.”
“No!”
“Thought so.” Chuckling, Danny freed the last bell and scooted away.
“Oh, that was rather horrible.” Susan sat up and pulled plastic pine needles from her sweater. “A few of the bells bit the dust.” She gave him a shy glance. “Thank you.”
“Maybe you should have me on speed dial.”
“I think you’d soon grow weary of my mishaps.” She winced. “Just ask Betsy. It’s kind of a daily occurrence.”
“I can assure you that I would not.” Danny shook his head. “Here … you missed a few.” Scooting closer to her, he reached over and gently pulled a few pine needles from her dark curls. His knuckles grazed her cheek. She had very soft skin and damn if he didn’t want to dip his head and kiss her.
“Thank you,” she said breathlessly. “I must look a fright.”
“You’d look pretty no matter what.” He smiled. “Even wearing a Christmas tree.”
Susan frowned slightly and remained silent, as if she didn’t know how to take his compliment. “You’re such a nice guy, Danny.”
“Well thank you, but do you think I’m just being nice?”
“Well …”
“I came over here with the excuse that I needed the recipe for the cookie mix in the jar, but really I just wanted to see you and ask if you’ll go out to dinner with me tonight.”
She
answered with a small, rapid shake of her head without meeting his eyes.
“Why? Is there something about me that you don’t like? Am I being too forward?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then help me understand why you seem to want to avoid me.”
“B-because I … know.” She looked at him with a distraught expression.
“Know what?” Danny racked his brain for something he could have possibly done for her to look at him that way. “Hey, I know I had a reputation for being on the wild side but I’ve calmed down. I haven’t broken a bone in a long time,” he added with a slight grin, but she remained serious.
Susan sucked in her bottom lip, looking so sweet and vulnerable that Danny ached to draw her into his arms. She somehow managed to look gorgeous with tousled hair and wearing that silly sweater. When she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, he noticed her elf hat earrings and would have smiled had she not been so upset.
“Please tell me. I think it’s only fair that I know what it is about me that bothers you. Because I’ll tell you this much. I had a great time with you at the prom. I wanted to ask you out again but you always headed in the opposite direction when I walked your way, so I eventually gave up.”
Susan’s eyes widened. “Oh …”
“How can you be so surprised? Susan, I still remember that goodnight kiss—it blew me away.”
She tilted her head to the side as if in surprise. “I … oh …”
Danny shoved his fingers through his hair. “If this attraction is only one-sided, let me know and I’ll back off.”
“No.” She tugged at one of the bells and her sweater started to blink as if in response to his statement. “It’s … not.”
Danny felt relief wash over him. “Then what’s the problem with me?”
“Nothing. I didn’t know that you liked me.”
“I thought I was pretty clear about that.”
“Danny, I know that you only t-took me to the prom because your mother asked you to. I overheard my mom talking to your mom on the phone. I was a p-pity date.”
“Aw, man.” Danny scrubbed his hand down his face.
Susan gave him a small smile. “I was horrified. There was no way I could look you in the eye after I found out.” She lifted one shoulder. “But I did have a really nice time.”