Hating Christmas (Holiday Series)

by Carol Rose

  “My father tends to jump into things before he thinks about what he’s doing,” Levi said heavily. He hated to say it out loud, but reality was reality. “He’s been married twice before this.”

  Cocking an eyebrow, she took another bite of cake. “So? What are you suggesting?”

  “Just this,” he braced both hands against the island and met her gaze. “I think we should put aside our own conflict and use our influence to get our parents to end this mistake. Talk to them about stepping back, calling it a day, getting with a divorce lawyer, whatever.”

  Holly nodded, putting her fork down. “Getting married so quickly—it was rash and unconsidered, but what do you think we can do about it? I mean, specifically what can we do?”

  “If you worked your mother and I handled my dad—“

  “We might get them to see reason,” she finished for him.

  Levi nodded. “It’s not that we want to make trouble—“

  “Just the reverse,” Holly stuck in. “I love my mom. I don’t want her hurt by this impulsive, rash marriage.”

  “And my dad doesn’t need any more relationship drama,” he concluded.

  Holly had put down her fork, devil’s cake forgotten, as they talked about the mess their parents had gotten themselves into.

  “So we agree—on this anyway—that they just need to walk away?”

  He reached a hand across the island to shake hers, knowing he shouldn’t be thinking about her looking so hot sitting there.

  “Agreed.” She shook his hand. “Let’s break up this marriage.”

  * * * * * * * * *

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Levi inched along the spine of the snow-covered roof the next morning, swearing under his breath.

  “What?” Holly called from her perch on the ladder that leaned against the roof’s edge.

  “Nothing.” He grabbed the industrial extension cord and jammed the end of the light strand into it. “Doesn’t your mother have enough Christmas lights on this house?”

  “Apparently not.” She grinned at him over the edge of the roof, her red curls peeping from under a white knit hat. “I’m not sure Audrey Fitzgerald has ever had enough Christmas lights on her house.”

  Pulling the strand of lights toward him, his fingers numb from the cold snow, Levi braced himself in the crevice of the roof, trying to ignore the wet cold seeping through his jeans. “So, she does know its twenty degrees out here and falling?”

  “Again. Not sure this factors into her reality. She keeps all the decorations and the trees up well into January.” Holly hefted another coil of the light strand up to him.

  He brushed more cold flakes off the shingles, so he could attach the lights.

  “I should have made my regrets,” he muttered under his breath, thinking of the Palm trees and beautiful sunshine back in California—if one got away from the freeways, that was.

  “What did you say?” she climbed up another rung, throwing the rest of the string of lights onto the roof.

  “I said that I should have been ‘too busy’ to come.” He grimaced at her. “You do realize that more snow is falling. I didn’t know there was this much snow on the planet.”

  Holly made a face back at him before breaking into laughter. “Well, you’re stuck here now—having accepted your father’s holiday invitation—and yes, I do know it’s snowing again. Let’s get these damn lights fastened in place so we can go inside for a hot toddy.”

  His fingers fumbled, too numb with the cold to clip the light hangers easily on the shingles.

  “Hey, count your blessings, Harper. I got dragged here for every holiday, when we lived in Florida. My mom should never have moved back. You have no idea of the torture.”

  Levi shoved another twinkle light socket into the holder. “Oh, yeah? I think I do.”

  “My mother delights in Christmas with her friends and family. I got volunteered to set up all their decorations from the time I was fourteen. You haven’t really suffered until you’ve crawled over the icy roofs of a dozen different homes. Every time we came to visit someone for the holidays, I was always sent to hang the lights on the roof…and it’s always colder than a witch’s behind. Is that the last one?”

  He clipped the final light of the strand on the spine of the roof.

  “That’s it. Can we quit having fun now?” he asked, referring to Holly’s mother’s insistence that they’d enjoy themselves putting on the final string of lights she’d purchased.

  “I’m ready if you are.” She disappeared down the ladder.

  Levi inched his way back across the snowy roof, trying to remember the icy patches. When he finally reached the ladder, he swung his snow-damped leg over and descended. Reaching the ground, Levi brushed loose snow off his jeans.

  “I should have made you do the roof-work. You’re experienced and you owe me something for your nefarious behavior with Mac Toledo.”

  “I don’t owe you anything,” she shot back, stopping her attempts to brush the clumped snow off his back.

  “Oh, I think you do,” he said to her retreating figure.

  “No, I don’t!” She stopped walking toward the door to sing out her disagreement.

  “Yes, you do!” He bent to brush more flakes off his jeans and straightened—

  “Ffluump!”

  --and got a kisser full of snow.

  “What the—“ This time Levi saw the snowball coming and he dodged behind a tree trunk. “You terror, you! This means war!”

  Holly had taken cover around the corner of the porch. “Nanny nanny boo boo,” she yelled, taunting him.

  Scooping up snow for a snowball, he swiftly formed the crystals and rifled it at her before he jumped back behind the tree trunk’s cover. Just as he retreated, a spray of snow shot out from the other side of the tree as Holly’s retaliation splattered against the tree.

  “Ha! Missed me!” Scraping up another ball, it occurred to him that this wasn’t the most eloquent response.

  “You’re a sissy, Harper,” she yelled. “No wonder Mac didn’t call you about my project!”

  This brought Levi’s head around and he squatted before lunging around the tree again to throw a snowball from this lower vantage.

  “Hey!” Holly sputtered as the snowball hit the corner of the house in front of her.

  “Now who’s the sissy?” he taunted, his determination to best her. He considered his position. Here behind the tree, all he could do was respond in a defensive manner. This didn’t seem tremendously effective. Levi thought about it. What was called for was a brilliant—or at least better—plan.

  From her spot by the corner of the house, Holly continued to scoff and mock him. “What’s the matter, Harper? Scared of a little snow? Thrown by a girl?”

  He needed her to move from her safe zone. If he was quiet here and didn’t respond to her teasing—and the occasional snow ball that whizzed past—she might think it was safe to close in for the kill. It always worked in his favor to be under-estimated. Ignoring her catcalls, Levi bent to make several really tight snowballs. Despite his hands freezing, he used them to grip several snowballs so tightly that they melted a little. He stuck his hands back into his pockets and waited.

  “Whoo hoo! Harper, did you die of the cold? Or are you just a big chicken?” She made chicken sounds.

  He could tell that she’d come from the corner of the house and was moving closer to his tree. Without any real plan, he just waited. Closer was better. He was bigger and he’d learned in his business to use any advantage.

  “Did you fall asleep?” She was right behind the tree now.

  Grabbing up the two now-frozen snowballs he’d set beside him, he lunged from behind the tree and fired them at her, one after the other.

  Caught full in the chest with the first snowball, Holly shrieked and turned to flee back to her spot by the house. The second snowball hit her lower back, splattering on impact. Levi charged after her, his longer legs helping him catch hold of her next to the prickly he
dge beside the front porch. Grasping her arm, he tugged as she resisted him, pulling this way and that.

  “No-No-No!!!” She tried to writhe away.

  Levi laughed, hanging on to her as she leaned away from him and when she slipped—a combination of her angle and the snow beneath their feet—he fell to his knees beside her, pinning her to the snow. Holly thrashed and squirmed, shrieking as he held her down with one hand and scooped snow with the other.

  “Now I have you! I’ll teach you to make fun of your betters.” Fingers-outstretched on her upper chest, he braced her to the snow, kneeling next to where she lay prone on the snow.

  “No! Don’t! Let me go, you gorilla!” She grasped ineffectually at the snow, flinging it up in sprays.

  Her laughter mingled with Levi’s and he felt his breathing slow and his body quicken. She was beautiful, her cheeks pink from the cold and their tussle. Her cap had come off in the struggle and her flame-dark hair now splayed out around her face.

  Before he realized what he was doing, he bent and kissed her. Her struggles ceased immediately and—lost in the warmth of her soft lips—he kissed her long and thoroughly. She deserved it for the grief she’d given him and he didn’t want to stop. After a startled second, he felt her response, her mouth moving under his for long, slow minutes. She tasted so good—

  And then she caught him completely off guard and pushed him with a sudden thrust that had him on his back in the snow next to her, Holly now pinning him.

  “Gotcha!” she said, her breath fast.

  His chest rising from the excitement that was now centered below his belt, Levi didn’t even try to resist.

  Her brilliant hair making a halo around her grin, Holly said with satisfaction, “That’ll teach you to beware of Fitzgerald women!”

  ***

  Her clothes still dripping snowy water, Holly juggled the mass as she went down the hall from her bedroom. She wished her mom had an upstairs laundry room. Making her way to the staircase, she mused on the startling fact that Levi Harper had kissed her. Really kissed her. Their tussle in the snow had been fun up to that point, but his kiss had turned chilly fun to steamy pleasure. Good grief, the guy could kiss better than he had a right to. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but she’d enjoyed the hell out of it.

  Rounding the corner, her damp clothes in her hands, she was just coming to the room her mother now shared with Michael, when her mom’s upset voice reached her ears. Holly paused.

  “…can’t believe you did this! What were you thinking?”

  Any child learned to recognize the angry, upset sound in a parent’s voice and she knew immediately that her mother was both irritated and distressed.

  Holly knew also that standing beside her mother’s door eavesdropping wasn’t really kosher, but she couldn’t just walk on past and ignore it. What if her mother needed her?

  “I thought you’d be happy! My God, woman! Don’t you girls like surprises?” It was her mother’s new husband’s voice.

  “We just went on a cruise, Michael! The tickets cost a ton of money--”

  Straining her ears, Holly tried to understand her mother’s muffled words.

  “What are you doing?”

  Startled in an act she wasn’t completely comfortable with, she jumped violently.

  Levi lounged against the door jamb of the guest room on the opposite side of the hall. Before she could answer, angry voices were again raised in her mother’s room.

  “Oh!” he said, lowering his words. He stepped into the hall to stand next to her outside the door.

  “Watch out for the wet spot on the floor,” she murmured, glancing down at the puddle from her thawing jeans.

  Her warning had come a second too late. “Thanks.” Levi stepped back, shaking the moisture from where the droplets had fallen on the toe of his elegant shoe.

  “…we can’t just throw money around. You should have asked me…”

  “They’re fighting, huh?” he shifted around the wet spot on the floor to move closer to her mom’s door.

  “Don’t get too close!” Holly hissed urgently. “What if they open the door?”

  Levi shot her a look. “Then we just go on downstairs like we were walking by the door—which you were doing until you stopped.”

  “….I have to ask when I want to buy you a gift? I just wanted to surprise you!” Levi’s dad’s voice rose at the end of the sentence.

  Shifting her wet bundle to her hip, Holly couldn’t help creeping closer. She knew the fight was pretty much inevitable—and she’d hoped that they’d see this marriage was too hasty to work—but she didn’t like her mom being upset.

  The voices inside the bedroom grew more indistinct.

  “I think they’re in the bathroom,” Holly whispered to Levi, creeping to stop right next to him outside the door. He nodded, not saying anything and they went back to listening.

  “I don’t care whether—“

  Holly and Levi jumped back from the door as her mother’s voice sounded clearly without warning on the other side of the door.

  “--we had a good time or not. It makes no sense to go on another cruise so quickly. We have to build a life on dry land. We need to watch our money carefully!”

  “If this marriage is going to work,” Michael said angrily, “I have to be able to spend my money without checking with you first!”

  Beside her, Levi nodded his agreement, making an okay-so-that’s-true face at Holly.

  “But it’s not just your money anymore, Michael,” Audrey shot back in a voice that was growing more angry with every minute. “When we got married, our funds became our money, to some degree. I just think it would have been good if you’d thought a little more about this.”

  “You mean check with you like I’m a school boy? I haven’t asked a woman’s permission for the last thirty years and I’m not about to start now!”

  They were roaring at each other, clearly audible through the door and Holly began feeling even more uncomfortable about standing there while the older couple fought.

  “Maybe we should go,” she hissed at Levi.

  “What? And miss the show?” He whispered back, his face was sardonic. “Don’t you want to see what happens next?”

  Before she could answer, his father’s loud, angry voice was heard again. “Do you want to look over my bills, Audrey? Check the balances on my credit cards?”

  “Maybe I should!”

  Holly hadn’t heard that note in her mother’s voice since before her dad died. Even though she’d been young when he fell sick, she had memories of the two of them arguing.

  “How are we going to make this a family, if you just haul off and spend thousands of dollars without talking to me first?” Her mother sounded as if she were trying to be calm, but losing the battle.

  “Audrey,” The angry note in Michael’s voice was clear through the door, “I am a grown man. I don’t need you or anyone else telling me how to spend my money.”

  “Apparently, you do!”

  Holly exchanged a look with Levi. Maybe they didn’t need to do anything. The marriage appeared to be falling apart even before she expected.

  “I guess you don’t want to go on another holiday with me,” Michael raged in huffy tones. “Maybe you’d rather go with your friends. Save your money for another singles cruise!”

  “Don’t be silly—“

  “I’m just a silly, foolish old guy from your past. Well, I beg your pardon! I thought we were building a life together—“

  “We are!”

  “—but apparently you never meant to join your life with mine! You just went through that ceremony, planning to keep living your single life! Well, I’m not going to let any woman keep me on a leash!”

  “Michael, wait a minute—I never said I wanted that.”

  “You probably regret the whole thing!”

  “Michael--!”

  Holly jumped back from the door just in time, but Levi’s father didn’t even seem to notice, sla
mming the bedroom door behind him and storming down the hall without even casting her a look.

  Glancing over to Levi, Holly just raised her eyebrows before heading in to comfort her now-sobbing mother.

  Watching her go, Levi continued on down the staircase. After their big blow-up, his father would certainly be in the mood to reconsider having married so quickly. Reaching the first floor, he looked around for his dad, but didn’t see him. While he went through the first floor rooms, he couldn’t help remembering his father’s first marriage after Levi’s mother left them.

  His mouth firmed into a line, he thought about the years both before and after Rebecca. His mother’s abandonment had been softened for him by his father’s presence. Michael Harper was a devoted dad. He’d attended to his business while still standing by Levi at every school function, attending every Scout meeting and comforting him after every nightmare about his mom having left. Of course, that had only been in the year or so before Rebecca swam into their lives…. Damn her.

  When his dad wasn’t to be found anywhere in the house, Levi shrugged in his coat and looked outside the house.

  He found the older man sitting on the top of a snowy pile of logs out behind the house.

  Sticking his hands under his armpits to shield them from the frigid Minnesota December air, Levi leaned against the wood pile.

  “So….rough day?”

  Michael’s laugh was short and bitter. “You could say that.”

  “Being married isn’t as easy as you’d hoped, huh?”

  His father threw him a disgusted look. “That woman is impossible!”

  This was promising! Levi tried to keep the satisfaction out of his voice. “Audrey and you are fighting.”

  “I bought her a gift!” his dad exploded, the words coming out with force. “What the hell kind of woman doesn’t expect a present at Christmas? But no, not her! She was crazy! Not appreciative, at all.”

  “Mmmmm.” Despite the fact that his ass was freezing against a chunk of snowy wood, Levi tried to look supportive.

  “She thinks she can tell me what to do!”

  His dad started speaking in a falsetto voice that Levi understood was supposed to be Audrey.