Sleigh Belles

by Beth Albright

  But Cal didn’t need to be bribed. He liked her. Maybe she had never stopped her hectic career-driven life long enough to see what a man could give her when he actually liked her, not just the idea of getting into her lacy panties. Oh, of course Cal was totally turned on by her. He was a man, after all. But he had a way she wasn’t used to, and she became hungry for his way as the night wore on.

  Dallas had never been slowly devoured. She had to learn how to allow herself to be loved like this: to be free in her mind. Most important, to relax and stop trying to impress him. It was hard for her, but little by little she let go.

  “Are you scared?” Cal asked, stopping once again to look at her. “You’re trembling.”

  “I am?”

  “Listen, honey, we don’t have to do anything if you’re not ready.”

  “No, it’s not that. I just, well...I’ve never done it this way before.”

  “Whadya mean?”

  Dallas exhaled her breath into his neck as she snuggled into him. “I mean, I’ve never gone this slow, never had someone pay so much attention to how things felt to me.”

  “Well, making you feel good is my main goal here,” he said softly into her skin.

  “Well, you do know how to pay attention to all the details. I do like your way.” She smiled, trying to shake off the insecurities.

  “I just want you to relax and know I’m happy, too,” he said, kissing her. “Trust me, there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than taking my time to explore every inch of your beautiful body.”

  Cal picked up where he’d left off, tasting her breasts just as Wilhelmina jumped up onto the small of his back and began kneading the waistband of his jeans.

  They both let out a laugh, and it worked as a relief to the tension building between them.

  “Wilhelmina! Get off him. He’s mine,” Dallas said, giggling and shooing her off her lover.

  “It’s okay. I love cats,” he said, reaching over to pet the kitty as she stepped off his back.

  “Really? Me, too. I’m more of a cat person than a dog person, but I just love all animals,” she said.

  “We always had several pets when I was growing up.” He paused and moved to her side to lie next to her. “Did you have pets when you were little?” he asked.

  Dallas stiffened. It was automatic reflex when anyone ever asked her about her past.

  “Um, no. My mom was allergic.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  “Hey, it’s okay.” He comforted her, pressing her into him tightly, somehow sensing that she needed it. “You know you can tell me anything. And I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk. I can tell something’s bothering you more than your mom’s allergy.”

  She gave him a small smile and exhaled quickly. She had never ever told anyone the whole sordid story of her family. Sure, her husbands and a few others over the years knew she was estranged from her mother. The closer few even knew she had a brother and was estranged from him, too. But no one ever knew of the intense pain she felt at the loss of him. She guarded that bit of information. If anyone knew, she might look vulnerable, and she didn’t want anyone to interpret that as weakness.

  She sat up and reached for her sweater. The mood was broken as the ghosts of her lost family hovered overhead. The fire crackled in the fireplace, but suddenly Dallas was cold. She pushed her hair from her face. Cal sat up, stroking her shoulder. She could tell he was nervous she was pushing him away, that he had taken it too far.

  Dallas swallowed hard. She looked into the fire, then at the twinkling lights on her Christmas tree. Then she looked into Cal’s gorgeous eyes. He looked so open and so lovingly concerned. She knew it was time to finally tear down the last of the bricks in the firewall.

  22

  “What is it, babe?” Cal asked, trying to soothe her. “I don’t wanna upset you, sweetheart. Really, we can just drop it.”

  “No, Cal. It’s okay. There are some things I want to tell you. It’s just...”

  “If you’re not ready, I understand.” He moved around her to be in front of her. He wanted to make sure she could see his sincerity. He looked right into her eyes, which were beginning to brim with tears. He wanted to make her pain go away, but without knowing what was causing it, he had no idea where to begin.

  “No, Cal, I am ready. It’s just really hard, that’s all. I want you to know. I need you to know everything.”

  He sat cross-legged in front of her, grabbing his dark green crew neck sweater and white T-shirt and slipping them back on, ready to catch whatever was coming his way.

  With the fire blazing behind his back, Dallas began her story.

  Cal held her trembling hands as she went through all the details. He could see how tough this was for her, how raw her feelings were, though it had been so many years since everything had fallen apart. She had never told her painful story before. She had never trusted anyone with her most intimate secrets, the ones she kept buried and hidden so deeply. She had never trusted anyone with all of her pain, and Cal felt both honored and humbled. When she finished, she inhaled a fresh breath and looked into Cal’s eyes.

  “I tried for a really long time to get Houston to talk to me, to make him see my letters so he would know I just missed him so much. Nothing else mattered to me but to just have him back. It was all I wanted for so long. But the years went by, and he never wrote to me or tried to contact me, and I guess I just let the anger and hurt feelings consume me.”

  “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. But I get it. I understand you so much more now.”

  “I’ve...just missed him so much. I needed him so much growing up, and suddenly he wasn’t there anymore. I would need to ask his advice, and I would have to remember he wasn’t around to give it. He was my biggest cheerleader, my support, my very best friend. How could he just throw me away? Didn’t he miss me, too?” She laid her head over on Cal’s shoulder, weeping.

  Cal felt closer to her. He could feel her pain within his own body, a pain she had never been able to let go. Until now, he hoped.

  “I thought he loved me as much as I loved him, but I realized I was wrong.”

  Dallas wept in his arms. She wept for the family that she lost, the teenage years that had been destroyed by loneliness and self-doubt. For the guilt that consumed her for thinking it was all her fault: that somehow she had run her brother off and was being punished for the rest of her life because of it.

  But her secret had fallen into capable, strong and gentle hands. For the first time in her life, he would give her a safe place to fall. He held her, rocking her, kissing her head and caressing her hair.

  “I didn’t want to burden you with any of this,” she apologized. “I mean it’s my family, my life, and I’ve been strong and pushed right through it. I don’t know what it was about you, about tonight, that just broke the dam. But I guess I’m happy you know now. You’re the only one that knows everything,” she told him as he continued to hold her in front of the fire.

  “Oh, baby, I’m so glad you trusted me.” Cal reached over and placed his fingers underneath her hair, behind her ear and his thumb on her cheek, wiping her tears away. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, then pressed his lips to her quivering mouth.

  “It’s okay. You’re with me. I feel like I understand every single thing about you now. All of it makes sense. I’m just so sad that you even went through any of this. It’s so awful.”

  “It’s okay, really. It was a long time ago.”

  But Cal didn’t buy the tough-girl act. Clearly it wasn’t okay; that was obvious from how emotional even talking about her family made her. “Have either of them tried to contact you since? I mean I’m sure you’d have a thing or two to say to them.”

  “Neither of them ever tried to contact me. Ever. It’s been like twenty years or so and I haven’t even
heard a peep. Graduations, pageants—they didn’t show up to a single event. Didn’t even send a card.” Dallas sat up and wiped her face with her sleeves. “Until last week.”

  “What happened last week?” Cal asked.

  “My mother called me, and then she showed up here. I told her I was too busy right now with the play, but that was just because I had no idea how I was supposed to even begin to talk to her after all this time.”

  “Oh, my God,” Cal said, shocked. “You’re right, though. I mean, what do you say to a mother who walks in after twenty years of silence?”

  “I had nothing to say. It took my breath away. I was so angry and I just wanted to yell at her. I’m not ready to have any kind of productive conversation.”

  “Well, it should be all on your terms, that’s for sure.”

  “Right now, I just want to lie here a little longer with you if that’s okay.”

  “That’s what I’m here for, baby. I want to be here for you, to hold you.”

  Dallas snuggled into Cal’s chest, both of them lying back on the pillows until she fell asleep. In the wee hours, Cal slipped from under her and knelt down next to her. He scooped her up and carried her in his strong arms to her bed. He thought about leaving a note for her, but decided it might make her think he’d gotten too wary to carry the burdens she’d let go of last night. Then he thought he would lie next to her in bed, but she hadn’t actually invited him to stay the night, and he didn’t want her to assume he’d take advantage of her when she was this vulnerable. Cal valued the trust she had placed in him too much. He would protect that, no matter what.

  So in true Cal form, he made a sleepy wobble back to her couch, covered himself with a crimson plaid blanket and fell asleep. He simply wanted to be there for her when she woke up.

  23

  Dallas woke with the sunlight streaming across her face. It took her a minute to put all the fragments of memories together from the night before. She knew she hadn’t fallen asleep in bed. She stretched her legs out, realizing she was still in her clothes. She rubbed her puffy eyes, her makeup all but gone. Wilhelmina stretched across the pillow next to her, where she almost always spent the night.

  She realized Cal must have carried her to her bed.

  He was nowhere in sight, and from the look of the bed, he hadn’t climbed in with her. She swung her feet around and touched her polished toes to the wooden floor and stumbled to the kitchen, still in a haze. She made her way down the short hallway. And there he was, still asleep on the couch. He was bunched up, his long body not quite fitting end to end.

  Cal looked adorable, his messy hair hanging over his eyes. The blanket scrunched up under his whiskery chin. She had to stop to let this moment sink in. He wasn’t in her bed. He hadn’t left a note. He hadn’t tried to sleep with her when the moment hadn’t been right. He’d simply taken care of her.

  She seriously couldn’t remember a single moment like this in her entire life. She stepped quietly over to him and leaned down and kissed his cheek. He stirred only a little, then opened his sleepy eyes.

  “Hey, sleepyhead,” she whispered as he turned over.

  “Hey, you sleep okay? How are you feeling this morning?” He sat up, letting the blanket drop as he rubbed his eyes. Dallas sat down next to him and snuggled up against his shoulder.

  “I’m good,” she said. “I’m actually really good.” She was smiling up at him. “But I’m sure you didn’t sleep very well out here.”

  “Oh, it was fine. I can sleep anywhere. I used to bunk with a bunch of sweaty football players, remember? I can literally sleep standing up.” He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “Don’t you have to work today?”

  “Yeah. It’s a big day, too, so I gotta get in the shower.”

  “Okay, why don’t you go get ready so you’re not late, and I’ll fix us something quick for breakfast? Got any oatmeal?”

  She had instant oatmeal that mixed with water and popped into the microwave. She hoped that would be okay. “Yeah, in the cabinet, left of the fridge. Are you sure? I mean, I don’t want to keep you either,” she said.

  “I’m out for winter break, remember? I’ve already turned in all the final grades, so I’m a free man till January.”

  “Okay, if you’re sure.”

  “Positive.” He started to stand up when Dallas grabbed his arm.

  “Cal?”

  “Yes, baby?”

  “I wanted to say thanks....”

  “I haven’t even made the oatmeal yet.” He winked at her.

  “No, for last night,” she said. “I hope it wasn’t too much for you. I mean, I know it wasn’t really where the night was heading but... Anyway, just thanks.”

  “No one made me stay,” he said, looking deeply into her eyes. “I wanted to be here. I needed to know everything if we’re gonna take this any deeper.”

  Were they? The thought made her heart jump.

  “We have to totally trust each other, right?” Cal continued. “We can’t possibly be each other’s person if we don’t. When I said I was here for you last night, I meant it. Nobody tied me up...although we can think about that for later.” He laughed and put his head to hers. “Now, go get dressed.”

  Dallas smiled and kissed him before getting up and making her way to the shower. She suddenly wanted to tell him she loved him. Did she? She couldn’t bring herself to say it. Not yet. But he had certainly proven himself beyond any shadow of a doubt to her.

  I must’ve fallen down the rabbit hole and this is all a dream, she thought, turning on the hot water. Where had he been all her life? Then she remembered. He had always been right there, looking at her from across the high school cafeteria, then from across the quad at the university. But she had been too busy running from him. Running from anything that might hurt her again.

  Maybe it was time to stop all the running.

  24

  It was coming down to the wire at the station, and the announcement about the new anchor position was on everyone’s lips. Dallas tossed her coat across her chair and walked up the corridor to find Daniel when she saw Mike talking and laughing with Courtney James, and she immediately felt that twinge of insecurity.

  Courtney was newer to the team, an outsider from somewhere in north Alabama. Barely out of college. She was smart and pretty, and she was also in the running for the anchor position. Dallas had way more experience, and she certainly knew her hometown of Tuscaloosa better than this new girl, but seeing Courtney on such good terms with Mike still made her feel uncomfortable. Oh, she certainly didn’t mind a little competition—as long as she stayed on top.

  “Hey, Mike. Hey, Courtney,” she said greeting both of them as she approached. “What’s on tap for today?”

  “Morning, Dallas. Good job last night,” Mike said. She felt a boost of confidence at being complimented in front of her competition. And she was certainly dressed the part in her bright Christmassy red lipstick and her pearls.

  “Oh, thanks. It was hilarious out there with all those birds running crazy.” She brushed off the compliment as if it was nothing, as though she pulled off lead stories with ease all the time.

  “Yes, that was one of the funnier stories last night,” Courtney said smugly. “So now, about that story on the crime spree near Skyland,” Courtney continued, turning to face Mike. “Did you want me to take that today?” She tossed Dallas a quick smirk, then returned her attention to Mike.

  This was like an episode of The Bachelor—all the girls trying to impress one man.

  “Sure, that sounds like a good one. It’ll be the lead, so be on time,” he said.

  “Of course.” Courtney swung her long dark locks and prissed away.

  Ugh, that witch. She’s trying to slip in and get what should be mine, Dallas thought. As she stood there, fuming, i
t occurred to her that she hadn’t yet been given a story about anything near as serious as a crime spree. Even the leads she had taken seemed fluff stories in comparison, and she was really starting to get sick of it. Her anxiety about staying on top was getting to her—again.

  “Mike, I was thinking...” she began, searching her mind for bits of news that had been floating around the station. “You know that robbery suspect from the Piggly Wiggly case? I think I can get an angle on him.”

  “No, that’s okay, we got Dave Harley out on that one already,” Mike replied distractedly. He had a clipboard and pen in hand, and was paying more attention to his notes than to Dallas.

  “Well how ’bout that woman who murdered her husband? Isn’t her trial coming up?” she pushed.

  “Yep, covered. Look, you got a really full plate already, and you’re helping us tremendously with the constant coverage from our charity partners, the theater and the radio station. So don’t worry about taking on even more, Dallas. I’m tellin’ ya, it’s fine.”

  “Okay, thanks.” She pasted on her best fake smile and headed to the edit bays to find Daniel.

  What is wrong with me? she thought. I just had the best night of my life, finally finding someone who I can totally trust, maybe even love, and then I come here and feel crazy again.

  She decided to try and focus on the good. Today she was covering the preparation for the annual Tuscaloosa Christmas parade. All the floats were being decorated, and the lineup and particulars were being put in order. Dallas would be riding in this parade herself on the station’s float, right behind the mayor’s float. The parade was set for Friday night, just a few days away.

  Dallas and Daniel went straight to work when they hit the parade site, interviewing both workers and bystanders, watching the whole thing take shape. People were saying this might be the best parade on record. With a ton of excellent footage and some great interview material, they packed up and headed to Taco Casa for a quick drive-through lunch.