“I’m giving him a biscuit. He’s a good lad. He protects you. That’s his job.”
He put the key in the ignition. When she opened her mouth to speak again he turned the radio on loud enough that she would have to shout to be heard above the music.
Something inside of her snapped and she reached down to his thigh to pinch him as hard as she could. He simultaneously yelped and growled.
“What the fuck did you do that for?”
This time it was she who didn’t answer. She just changed the station, turned the radio up louder, and sat back in her seat.
* * *
The rest of the two-minute car ride to Cherri’s house was spent in silence. He was being a wanker, he knew it, but he just couldn’t help it. He knew Sean Brightworth. At forty-two years old he was eight years older than Colin, and even though they never went to school together Colin knew Sean well. They frequented the same parties while Colin was at Durant University. Sean had no business being there even then. He was the guy who never wanted to grow up, the guy who never seemed to want to leave college. Colin never liked him. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about Sean just wasn’t genuine. Or maybe it was the fact that he’d never lost his taste for coeds. He just knew he didn’t want the man around Cherri.
He pulled up to her house and stepped out of the truck, Rufus at his heels.
“If you can’t be bothered to speak to me, then you shouldn’t bother coming into my house,” Cherri said from behind him.
“Trust me, I’m not here to see you. I want to say hello to your gran and then I’m out of here.” He walked ahead of her and opened the front door. “Don’t you bloody women ever lock the damn door? Somebody is going to ransack the place one day.”
“Baba said locks don’t keep people out, but her knife does.”
He thought back to his first meeting with the old woman. The nutter had a point. “Baba, lass. Where are you?”
Baba appeared at the end of the short hallway that led to the bedrooms. “My boyfriend is here.” She smiled at him. Even at seventy-five he could see the earthy beauty in her. Cherri was lucky to have such genes. “What’s in the box?”
“Red velvet whoopie pies.”
Baba groaned. “Bring them here.”
“Baba, you shouldn’t eat those. You already had a Danish this morning. The doctor said only one sweet a day.”
Baba cocked one of her gray brows at Cherri, staring her down. “You were supposed to bring me a cupcake. You just don’t want to let me have fun with my boyfriend. Leave us alone.”
“Fine. You want to eat them, go ahead. I don’t care! You’re impossible. He’s a jackass. You deserve each other.”
She stomped away. For a moment Baba and Colin grinned at each other. “She’s quite cute when she’s mad,” he said to Baba.
“Yes, come talk to me.”
They closed themselves in her bedroom. He hadn’t planned it but somehow he had gotten in the habit of visiting Baba. He liked her. He liked to talk to her. Mike’s mother had been there for him, but after a serious health scare and years of caring for everybody else she was taking time for herself. He couldn’t begrudge her that. Still, he missed her. Baba provided him the something motherly that he was missing in his life.
“She’s mad at you,” she said once she settled into her chair.
“Why do you assume she’s mad at me?”
“You are a man, no? What’s going on with you and my pixie? Have you seen her panties?”
“What? No. Of course not.”
“Of course not? What is wrong with Cherri? She is beautiful. You should be lucky to see her panties.”
“Baba!”
“Go. Make her un-mad and leave me alone with my red velvet.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t. You never told me your doctor said one sweet a day.”
This time Baba cocked her brow at him. He got up. He knew better than to argue with the old woman.
Cherri was in the kitchen. Her back was turned, but Rufus was by her side, just sitting there watching her. Cherri claimed that Rufus belonged to Baba, but he was her boy. She fed him and walked him and took care of him. He might have been a pain in the ass but he was her pain in the ass.
“What the hell happened in the park this afternoon?” she asked without turning around. “If I didn’t know any better I would think you were trying to chase Dr. Brightworth away from me.”
“It wasn’t clear that I was doing so?”
At that comment she turned around.
“What? Why?”
He wondered if he should tell her what he knew about Sean. The stories he had heard over the years. The things he had seen. Sean Brightworth wasn’t a bad guy, but he was a guy who liked to party as hard as he worked. He was way too much for Cherri.
“I’ve known him for years. He’s just not somebody you should be getting involved with.”
“He’s a good man and a good vet. Who the hell said I was getting involved with him? We were just talking.”
Just talking? No it was more than that. He stood too close to her. He touched her. He was so focused on Cherri that he didn’t notice Colin approaching. He almost couldn’t blame the man. Cherri had that kind of effect on him, too. “What were you talking about? Even fifty feet away I could tell he just wasn’t being social. What did he say to you?”
“It’s none of your business.”
The way she said it. The way she crossed her arms across her chest. He knew. “He asked you out, didn’t he?”
“So what if he did?”
“So what? He’s twenty years older than you.”
“Just because you think I’m a child doesn’t mean the rest of the world does.”
“This is not about that.”
“But it is! You just made it a point to mention how much older he is than me.”
“He is twenty years older than you. It’s just a fact. He’s never been married. He’s never had a serious relationship. There’s a reason for that.”
“Really? He sounds just like you.”
That hit a nerve. He may have had his share of women but he never mistreated them. Sean was going to discard Cherri like a used tissue. “All he wants to do is fuck you and forget you.”
“Excuse me?” She rounded on him, jabbing her finger into his chest. “You are not my father or my brother. Hell, sometimes I wonder if we are even friends. I do not need you or Mike or anybody else interfering with my life. I can see who I want. So what if he just wants to fuck me. Maybe I want that. Maybe that’s just what I need.”
“Don’t say that.” He couldn’t see his sweet Cherri with Sean. It made his stomach churn.
“Don’t tell me what to do. I know exactly what I’m getting myself into.”
“Do you?” He grabbed her by the waist, his control snapping. Her soft body slammed against his and for a moment she struggled but he held firm. “Have you ever had a boyfriend? Not some green lad, but a real man?” He slid his hands up the back of her shirt, and she stopped moving. Her eyes widened. Her face went flush. It was as if his hands had developed a mind of their own. They brought her closer. They wanted him to smell her scent, and feel her skin, and have every inch of her long beautiful body against his. “Do you know what it’s like to be with man?” he whispered roughly in her ear. “To have one on top of you? Inside of you? Can you handle it, lass? Would you even know what to do?”
“Stop it.” Tears flashed in her eyes. “You’re being cruel.”
“Cruel?” The word was like a bucket of ice water to his face. “Oh no, love.”
“You know I don’t get asked out. You know how hard it was for me to grow up being this tall, looking like this. And when somebody does asks me out, when somebody does finally like me, you try to take it away. You try to make me feel ashamed of the way I am.”
“No, Cherri.” He palmed the back of her neck in his hand and kissed her cheeks. “No. No.” He smothered kisses across her forehead, down the bridge of her nose. “That
’s not what I meant.” He should tell her the truth. He should tell her that she made his damn heart beat faster. That he thought about her more often than he should. That seeing her with another man, knowing that somebody out there wanted what he did, was too much for him. But he didn’t say that. Because he couldn’t. In a way she was right. For a year after Serena, and his entire adult life before her, it had been woman after woman. Party after party. He had lived his life. He had had his freedom. But she was just starting out. She didn’t need the likes of him or Sean Brightworth in her life. “You’re so beautiful, love. Why can’t you see that? Why don’t you know I would never try to hurt you like that?”
“You should go,” she said softly.
“No. Not yet. Not until I convince you that I would never hurt you so.” He pushed his fingers deep into her hair, and she rested her head on his shoulder. “I can’t leave here until you’ve forgiven me.”
“Pixie?” Colin turned slightly at the sound of Baba’s voice but he didn’t let go of her. And when he locked eyes with the old woman he knew she knew how he felt. “Are you still angry?”
“Yes. Colin is going to take us to a very expensive dinner one of these days to make up for it. When’s the last time you had a good steak?”
“Get your coats,” he said. Cherri had it right. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to make it up to her. “I know a great little place about an hour away. We can have an early supper.”
CHAPTER 7
The trouble with love is …
The house phone rang as soon as Cherri got home two days later. The sound barely registered. The phone was always for Baba, who had a surprisingly active social life. Cherri grinned as she shed her coat, hat, gloves, and scarf.
My grandmother has more friends than I do.
She blew into her icy hands in a vain attempt to bring feeling back to them. It was still bitterly cold, and the walk home from work had been brutal. She’d thought about taking the car this morning when she’d heard it was going to be four degrees but decided against it. The old girl was on her last legs and she didn’t want to risk her breaking down in the middle of the road. She kept telling herself the walk was good for her.
“Cherri,” Baba yelled from the back of the house. “The phone is for you.”
For a split second she thought about not answering her grandmother. The old woman couldn’t hear her television but she knew exactly when Cherri stepped foot through the door. She just wanted to warm up and relax for a few minutes. She hadn’t slept much last night and the store had been extremely busy that day, leaving Cherri barely enough time for a break. There were a lot of men there, rushing to find last-minute Christmas presents for their wives. Hopefully her check would be nice and fat next week so she could pay the taxes on the house, which were a few months overdue.
It was why she had taken yesterday morning off from work to go on that interview for the teaching position. The school was beautiful. The staff was kind and welcoming. Plus they told her she could have a hand in planning the curriculum. The job was hers. All she had to do was accept.
It was a dream job.
But she wasn’t sure if she wanted it. It wasn’t just the commute. It wasn’t just that she didn’t want to be so far away from Baba. She really didn’t know what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
Colin had it right. He owned his own business and he made things beautiful again. He had his own schedule. He was his own boss. She envied him. Why couldn’t she have it like that?
“Pixie! I’m calling you.”
“Coming,” Cherri responded, holding back a sigh. When she finally made her way to the phone her grandmother was tapping her foot, annoyed as if Cherri made her wait three years instead of thirty seconds. “I’ll take it in the other room.”
“Don’t be on the phone too long. You need to help me finish cooking.”
She nodded and walked into the living room, realizing she’d forgotten to ask who called. “Hello?”
“Hello, Cherri. It’s Sean.”
“Oh,” was all she said. She was surprised to hear from him after Colin chased him away in the park. “Hi. You’re calling me at home?”
He was silent for a long moment. “I’m sorry. Maybe I overstepped. I just wanted to talk to you. You never did officially turn me down. I thought I’d call and get my heart broken.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say to you.”
Colin had gotten to her. She kept thinking back to two days ago in her kitchen. She played the scene over and over in her head, but she couldn’t make sense of what transpired between them. She should hate him. She should be mad at him, but she knew he wasn’t trying to hurt her. He was trying to protect her, even if that was the last thing she wanted.
She also wondered if maybe he was right about Sean. That maybe he only wanted to sleep with her. But when she thought about it, the idea was ridiculous. Even though Cherri was freakishly tall and the opposite of petite, she knew she wasn’t ugly. Some days she even felt quite pretty but it seemed that it would take more than a passing prettiness to attract a man like Sean. He had to be interested in her as a person. The fact that he’d called again made her sure of that.
“Say you’ll go out with me.”
“You treated my dog’s anal gland infection. Somehow it just doesn’t seem right.”
“If you go out with me I’ll treat the next infection for free,” he laughed. “Come on, Cherri. I like you. I just want to get to know you. But … I realize that I’m probably coming on a little strong. I’ll back off. If you want to go out with me, call me. I promise to show you a good time.”
“Okay, Sean. I will.”
“Cherri! Come help me.”
“My grandmother’s calling me. I’ve got to go.”
“Good-bye, Cherri.”
“Good-bye, Sean.” She disconnected. “Coming, Baba.”
She got up, stretching out her sore muscles, and made her way to the kitchen wondering how her grandmother could have so much energy after the hard night they’d had last night. Baba’s memory had been fine since the change in medication but last night she was anxious, terrified that somebody was trying to break into the house. That wasn’t like the woman she had grown up with, who once punched a man in the face for mistreating his dog. She wouldn’t calm down even after Cherri had checked all the doors and windows twice. Eventually she settled but only after Cherri climbed into bed with her. It reminded her of the times when she was a little girl, after her mother had gone for good, when the nighttime was terrifying. Baba used to climb in bed with her and soothe her until she fell asleep. Things were the same now, just reversed. The only difference was Baba hadn’t slept at all last night. She was quiet, but the vise-like grip she kept on Cherri’s hand caused that tight little ball of worry in Cherri’s belly to return. It was the news, she tried to tell herself to explain away Baba’s behavior. There had been break-ins a few towns over. That had to be it. From now on she was going to have to monitor what Baba watched before she went to bed. Cherri didn’t think her body could handle many more nights like the last.
And she knew she couldn’t take that job.
* * *
Colin shifted on his couch in a fit of restlessness. It’s a Wonderful Life was playing. Again. Every time he turned on the television it seemed to be on. Or A Christmas Carol. Or Miracle on 34th Street. Or Elf. Even those damn Peanuts kids were on constantly. Every movie, every television show, every damn commercial had the same message: If you don’t have a family then your life is meaningless. No wonder people got depressed around the holidays. He was pretty sure it was a conspiracy created by the drug companies to boost their sales of antidepressants.
“You’re madder than a sack of cats,” he mumbled to himself as he reached for the remote. There had to be something else on. Ah, Pawn Stars. He tried to pay attention to the guy who clearly had no idea that the Civil War–era knife he was trying to sell was a fake, but his thoughts drifted.
Christ
mas was never his favorite holiday, even as a kid. There was no Santa Claus for him, no funny little cartoons. It wasn’t as commercialized in Ireland as it was in America. Most people gathered together as families, went to midnight mass, had a big meal, and exchanged a few small presents. His experience was a little different. If Magnus had a woman at the time, he would drag Colin to her house to dine with her family. If he didn’t, they’d go to Molly’s, the only place open in their town, and afterward spend the evening the way they spent every evening: fixing other people’s things. It was the way Magnus supported them. Unlike most people, Christmas didn’t mean much to Colin. It was just another day.
“Colin!” A voice called his name, starling him from his memories. “It’s cold out here.”
Who the hell was bothering him on Christmas Eve? He got to his feet and opened the door to find a heavyset older woman whose hair was covered in a scarf and hands were full of aluminum-foil-wrapped pans.
“Let us in, Irish,” she said in her thick accent and pushed past him. “I’m freezing my breasts off out here.”
“Baba, it’s freezing my ass off. Not breasts,” Cherri called after the old lady.
“Are you telling me what is freezing on my body? Come look at them and you will see!” She then said something in a language he didn’t understand and disappeared farther into the house.
“Hi,” Cherri said softly, her face a pretty shade of embarrassed pink. “She wants to know where your kitchen is. Oh, and we’re here for Christmas.”
Seeing her here caused a funny warm feeling to spread through his belly. He thought she was still angry with him over Sean. But she was here. The corners of his mouth tugged upward. “Are you?” He wanted to throw his head back and shout with laughter. She looked so adorable wrapped up in countless layers, but he didn’t laugh because she looked so … unsure of herself.
“Is it okay that we’re here? You said you weren’t doing anything that day in the park and I … we wanted to feed you.”
She was sweet, and the urge to kiss the uncertainty off her lips overwhelmed him. Instead he squeezed her arm and invited her in.
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