Moonlight and Mistletoe

by Dawn Temple

  By the time Tommy’s turn came around, Shayna was fighting back tears. She, too, wanted all these kids to get new families for Christmas, but that wasn’t possible. For now, she’d have to settle for giving them the simple, normal memory of sitting on Santa’s lap.

  Mustering a happy smile, she gestured to Tommy. “Climb on up, my lord. I want a shot of the two elf kings.”

  He wrinkled his freckled nose. “No thanks, Miz Shayna. Santa’s for babies.”

  A call from the children’s caseworkers saved Shayna from making a response, not that she could’ve. Her heart broke further as she listened to the group singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” as they made their exit.

  With the last note still ringing in the nearly empty room, Shayna sniffed back her tears and headed over to thank Kyle for service above and beyond the call of duty. As she approached the oversized thronelike chair, she noticed Jolene Murdoch bearing down on them.

  “Oh my! Don’t you two make a darling couple. I must get a picture for the paper.” Jolene, a recent addition to their community, managed the twice-weekly Land’s Cross Gazette, and as far as Shayna could tell, the tall, energetic redhead ran the paper single-handedly.

  “Jolene, you’ve already taken dozens of pictures of me with the contestants. How about if I e-mail you a photo of one of the county kids sitting on Kyle’s lap?”

  “Kids on Santa’s lap? That’s been done to death.” She shook her head. “A couple of young, attractive holiday icons? That’s news!” She chuckled and waved her hand, motioning Shayna onto Kyle’s lap. “Climb on up.”

  The idea of plunking herself across Kyle’s thighs like the dozens of foolish women she’d watched earlier held no appeal. “I’m sure Kyle’s too tired to pose for any more pictures.” She hoped he’d play along with the excuse, but when his brows wiggled conspiratorially, she knew he intended to make her suffer the embarrassment of a cheesecake photo.

  “Nonsense,” he insisted, pulling down his beard and flashing his sexy smile at Jolene. “Any man who turns down the opportunity to have a pretty woman sit in his lap isn’t tired. He’s dead.” His hand struck with the speed of a snake, snapping her into his lap. “I’m most definitely not dead,” he whispered against her ear.

  During the quick tumble, her skirt flared, settling indecently high on her thighs. “You’re not dead yet,” she warned through gritted teeth. Concerned about exposing any more skin, Shayna lifted first one hip then the other, smoothing her skirt more demurely over her legs.

  “Will you please settle down?”

  “Not until I’m decently covered.” She faced him only to find his focus trained below her chin. Following his gaze, she realized her fidgeting had lowered the gown’s bodice.

  “Okay, look over here and smile!” Jolene called.

  “Wait!” Shayna twisted her shoulders away from the camera. “Don’t look,” she ordered Kyle, reaching between their bodies to pull the fabric back up over her breasts. When she felt properly covered once more, she angled her shoulders forward as she shifted her legs closer together.

  Kyle cursed under his breath. The hand at her waist tightened, pulling her body snug against his, pressing her hips into the solid ridge of his arousal. She gasped and froze.

  “Ready?” Jolene called. “Smile.”

  The first flicker from the camera’s flash had Shayna’s lips curling upward, more from habit than happiness. Kyle’s arms wound around her, his fingers settling possessively at her waist. A wave of desire swamped her. She felt the heat sear her cheeks.

  As Jolene snapped several more pictures, Shayna did her best to keep a pleasant, G-rated smile on her face, all the while praying that the camera captured only their images and none of the sparks flying between Ms. Noel and Santa.

  Chapter Ten

  The next morning Shayna arrived for brunch at Lindy’s with zero appetite. How could she possibly put food in a stomach still reeling from last night’s up close and personal encounter with Kyle?

  She could only imagine the facial expressions Jolene Murdoch’s camera had captured last night. If she ran one of those pictures in the paper, the gossips would be hard-pressed to believe nothing improper had happened between her and Kyle during their confinement.

  Seeing him in that Santa getup and fake beard had turned her on as much as the sight of him wearing nothing but a towel. How twisted was that? For her, last night’s sexiness had transcended mere physical attraction. The glimpse inside his personality, the chance to experience the real Kyle, had stirred feelings in her much deeper than mere lust. And that connection scared the bejesus out of her.

  Even more distressing, last night, as she’d flopped around restlessly in bed, she’d finally arrived at the conclusion she’d been working toward since Thursday night. She’d overreacted. To the kiss. To Patty’s phone call. To everything.

  In hindsight, she’d been forced to face facts and admit that she and Kyle had been equally at fault in that incredible kiss. He hadn’t been trying to seduce her into changing her mind any more than she’d been trying to get him to forget about Walker’s agreement. They’d simply been two healthy adults caught up in a wild, mutual attraction. The setting and proximity had overwhelmed both their good intentions.

  Not that she was in any way excusing their behavior. Any kind of intimacy between them was a very bad idea. As fabulous as kissing Kyle had been, it couldn’t happen again. While she no longer thought of him as one of the bad guys, he did represent them. That made him off-limits by association.

  She grabbed the envelope holding Walker’s agreement and stepped out of her car. Rufus, Lindy’s ancient bloodhound, waddled out from under the front porch and howled once, but they both knew it was just for show. After lavishing some love on the old dog, she scaled the porch, and with a single knock of announcement, she let herself in.

  “Good morning, gang.”

  “Morning, Shayna. In the kitchen.”

  As comfortable here as she was in her own home, Shayna strolled down the long hallway to the back of the house. The mouthwatering smells of coffee and bacon greeted her. Okay, so maybe she could stomach a bite. Or two.

  “Where’s that good-looking husband of yours?” she asked Lindy as she kissed her cheek.

  “I sent him out to gather fresh eggs.”

  “Amazing how well you’ve managed to train that city boy.”

  “Hey,” Travis called out from the mudroom. “I heard that.”

  “Did I lie?” Shayna challenged him.

  “Nope. I just wanted to make sure you girls knew I was here so you wouldn’t talk about me in front of my back.” Travis deposited the fresh eggs in the sink and stole a kiss from his wife, who was busy rolling out biscuits.

  Who would have thought two years ago, when a secret provision in Lindy’s grandfather’s will had forced these two to work on their troubled marriage, that they’d ever be this blissfully—and enviably—happy?

  After popping her biscuits in the oven, Lindy wagged a motherly finger in Shayna’s face. “Enough stalling. Tell us what’s going on.”

  Assuming that Lindy—who knew all there was to know about Shayna’s background—had already brought Travis up to speed, Shayna jumped right in. “Dr. Walker intends to counter Patty’s blackmail threats by going public with my existence. He’s offering me a million-dollar settlement in exchange for appearing on his talk show so he can play father of the year and compensate me for all my years of poverty and suffering.”

  “‘Poverty and suffering’? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “Oh, wait. It gets better. In exchange for his compensation, I have to support his bogus claim that he never knew about me and promise to never say anything negative about him, publicly or privately.”

  “Are you saying he’s known about you all along?” Travis asked.

  “According to Patty, Walker’s talk about having recently learned about me is total fiction. She swears he knew, from the very beginning. And now that
she’s threatened to tell the world, he suddenly wants to recognize my existence and ‘make amends’? I don’t think so.”

  “Do you have any legal proof that he’s known about you all along?”

  “What would it matter?” Her hands started twirling through the tail of her braid. “Digging up proof and fighting his claim would just drag this out, and I certainly don’t want that. I just want them all to leave me—and Daddy—out of this.”

  “What does James have to do with this?”

  “If I go on national television and make nice with that jerk, it will stir up lots questions, and I don’t have good legal answers for all of them. I’m afraid that when the story gets out, people will persecute Daddy for the decisions that saved my life and made us a family.” How could she possibly betray his love and loyalty by casting suspicions on his actions, by going back on her vow to be his daughter for the rest of her life?

  “Shayna,” Travis said gently, leaning forward in his chair. “I won’t deny that when people first learn the facts about your history, James might initially come off looking bad. But,” he stressed as she attempted to interrupt, “those same facts, along with his impeccable reputation, will also exonerate him.”

  She exhaled in relief. That had been her hope, but hearing a man with Travis’s experience say the words calmed her lingering fears.

  “However,” Travis continued cautiously, not allowing her time to savor his consensus. “You have to know that if you don’t cooperate, Walker will likely escalate this issue until every piece of your life has been made public. A man in his position doesn’t take defeat or disobedience well.”

  “Kyle implied that Walker wouldn’t react kindly if I refused his offer. He said the legal agreement was designed to be a win-win compromise and my only good shot of putting this behind me with any kind of speed and moving on with life.”

  “I’m inclined to agree.” Travis hefted the legal documents. “This looks like the closest you’ll come to a victory.”

  “How? The only winners I see are Walker, who gets to keep his sterling reputation, and Kyle, who earns his partnership. What do I get?” Her shoulders slumped under the weight of her worries.

  “A million dollars?”

  She shook her head, pulling her hair free from her nervous fingers. “I can get by fine without his guilt money.”

  “But with it you can do so much better than merely get by.”

  She sat up and stared into his baffled expression. Guess it was difficult for someone with Travis’s background to understand why anyone would choose to live without gobs of money.

  “Whether he knew about me all along or not, Walker sees my birth as a huge mistake he can fix by throwing money at me. If I take anything from him, he wins. It’ll be like agreeing that my existence is meaningless.”

  Lindy cupped her hands over Shayna’s. “Sweetie, you’re giving that man way too much credit. He can’t change who you are or belittle your life unless you allow it.”

  “Lindy’s right.” Travis seconded his wife’s opinion. “I never had the pleasure of meeting your dad, Shayna, but from everything I’ve heard, seeing you so eaten up with ugly, negative feelings would have broken his heart.”

  Shayna’s shoulders straightened slightly. “He never believed in holding grudges. He used to tell me all the time that hatred could destroy a person’s soul and that if you kept it inside long enough, it would poison you.”

  “He was big on forgive and forget, wasn’t he?” Lindy remembered softly.

  Shayna sighed. “Yeah, but some wrongs are too cruel to be forgiven.”

  Late Sunday afternoon, Kyle walked the half mile separating the boarding house from the giant discount store that was hosting the Noel Festival Toy Drive. A large white tent had been erected in the parking lot. Shayna, looking as scrumptious as she had last night, stood under the awning, charming the crowds as Ms. Noel.

  Last night, she had jumped out of his lap and disappeared faster than the camera’s flash. He’d scoured the nearly deserted hall as well as the dwindling carnival for an hour but hadn’t found her. In the end, he’d taken his borrowed costume and returned to the boarding house. If nothing else, it gave him a great excuse to seek her out again.

  Turned out he didn’t have to wait long. Or look far.

  Closer to the tent, he saw a huge load of donated toys had already been loaded up in the back of a shiny red truck parked beneath the tent. A festively decorated table held a metal bucket overflowing with cash donations. He slipped a handful of bills in as he passed.

  When Shayna noticed his arrival, she broke away from the couple she’d been chatting with and strolled over. “I was wondering if you were going to put in an appearance.”

  “Missing me?”

  Her skin turned rosy, but she didn’t give him a direct answer. “I wanted to thank you for your help last night. You really saved the day. Thanks.”

  “No problem. In fact, I enjoyed myself.”

  “I could tell, but I must admit, you don’t come across as the kid-friendly type.”

  Thinking of all the other neglected kids he’d hung out with on the streets, as well as the ones he’d lived with in group homes and foster care, Kyle shrugged. “You’re not the only one who drew a raw deal in the parent lottery, Shayna. It can leave a hole you never outgrow. Guess that gives me an edge when it comes to relating to kids.”

  “Yeah, it helps to understand that childhood isn’t all about baseball games and birthday parties, especially when dealing with the kids who are stuck in the system.” At the tentative touch of her fingers against the back of his hand, he nearly jumped out of his new boots. He’d never experienced chemistry this intense.

  “I also wanted to apologize for overreacting after Patty’s phone call and for being so harsh Friday morning.”

  At the moment, they were alone, but standing in the middle of the Noel Festival Toy Drive. He didn’t figure that would last. Cupping her elbow, he steered her to the tent’s far corner. “Shayna, I don’t know what your mother said to you, but I swear I never laid a hand on her.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve never thought you were scuzzy enough to be involved with Patty.”

  The humorous twinkle in her eyes lifted a weight from Kyle’s shoulders. He couldn’t stomach the idea of Shayna thinking he’d be interested in someone as false and manipulative as Patty Hoyt. “And for the record, kissing you had nothing to do with my job.”

  “I know that. Now.” Her fingers tapped her shoulder, but not finding her braid there to toy with, she dropped her hand and worried the fur at her wrist. “The truth is, I freaked out. I’m powerfully attracted to you, Kyle, and I’m not happy about it. I tried very hard to ignore my feelings. When that didn’t work, I blamed you and that wasn’t fair. I’m sorry.”

  “You weren’t the only one who lost control.”

  “I noticed.” Her low, sultry laugh hit him below the belt.

  Before he could respond, a mother and daughter called Shayna’s name from across the tent, reminding them of their public exposure. She moved back toward the red truck and returned the mother’s wave.

  Ready for a safer topic, Kyle followed her and gestured toward the clusters of people donating cash and toys. “Impressive turnout. I wouldn’t have guessed there were this many people living in a town as small as Land’s Cross.”

  She smiled cheekily in response to his obvious subject change. “Not all these folks live in town. In a big city, if you travel twenty miles to visit a particular shop or restaurant, you’re likely to pass dozens of similar businesses on the way. Around here, people drive twenty or thirty miles to get to Land’s Cross because it’s the only option.”

  “A monopoly, of sorts.”

  “Ooh, I love that game.” Shayna looked over her shoulder, where a scrawny boy in need of a haircut sat in the truck bed, sorting through the donated toys. Kyle recognized him from last night as the little boy who’d refused to sit in his or, rather, Santa’s lap. “Tommy, add Mon
opoly to the wish list.”

  “Miz Shayna, how do you spell it?”

  A pack of elderly ladies approached the table before she could answer. “I’ll help him,” Kyle volunteered.

  “Are you sure? It can wait, if you’ve got something else you need to be doing.”

  “Nope. The only thing on my agenda between now and my return flight Tuesday afternoon is waiting for you to speak with your attorney.”

  “Ahh, so you’ve been forced to take a vacation.”

  “Guess so.” He scowled at the idea. He was a man with a plan. He didn’t have time for a vacation.

  “Poor baby,” she purred. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll survive. In fact, you might accidentally enjoy yourself.” Shayna chuckled and patted his bicep. Even that brief friendly gesture snapped his desire to life. Enjoying himself—naked, with her—was exactly what he feared if he had to spend time in Land’s Cross without the barrier of his job.

  He had to stick his hands in his pocket to keep from grabbing and kissing her. “Accidents do happen.” Aware of all the people watching them, he forced a lazy grin. “I’ll go help the kid.”

  “Thanks,” she whispered as he passed, then raised her voice in greeting. “Hello, ladies. You look lovely this afternoon.”

  Her lilting voice faded as he approached the truck. Seasoned brown eyes in a freckled face looked him over, sizing him up. When the kid raised his pencil over the legal pad in his lap, Kyle figured he’d passed muster.

  As Kyle began slowly calling out the proper spelling, he noticed scraps of the same yellow paper taped to the boxed toys. Each piece held a different name, all written in the same scratchy lettering. Not a single package was tagged “Tommy.”

  “Lotta good loot here.”

  The boy looked up, squinting from beneath the shaggy hair coating his forehead. “You’re that fake Santa from last night,” he accused. “I don’t believe in Santa Claus.”

  “You don’t?”

  “Nope.” Arms crossed over his chest, the boy wore a battle-ready look Kyle remembered well from his own childhood.