She looked up at him, and emotion clogged his throat as she sat there, smiling at him.
“The house. You got it,” she whispered, standing up. He reached for her hand and tugged her into him and suddenly she was wrapped in his arms, and everything felt right. He remembered everything about holding her. Even though he hated thinking of that time in their lives, he remembered how she felt, how she smelled, how she fit him so perfectly.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice sounding hoarse to his own ears.
She cleared her throat and slowly pulled back. His hands dropped to his sides and he saw the fear in her eyes, the reservation.
“You’re welcome,” she said and sat down, quickly grabbing her coffee. She grabbed the file. “I’m so happy for you, and for Maggie. This will be the best Christmas present ever,” she whispered, glancing out the hallway.
He reached for his coffee and settled back into the cushions with a sigh. He couldn’t push Julia. He didn’t want to scare her. He forced himself to focus on the reason she came by—not on his own feelings. “How did you manage to get Marlene to agree to all our terms?”
She lifted a brow and gave him a little smirk that he found incredibly adorable as she flipped open the file. “I called her on the fact that there was no interest in the place. I may have also suggested you were too busy for going back and forth and that if we couldn’t close this deal in the next twenty-four hours you were going to stay put in this house and not move at all.”
He grinned. “That’s brilliant.”
“Thanks. I thought so. I just really, really wanted this for you and Maggie. That house is perfect.”
“I think so.”
“So, they agreed to everything?”
She eyed him over the rim of her mug and took a sip. “Yup. Since there’s no financing conditions, this can move really quickly. If you can get that building inspection done in the next day or two, that’s all we need.”
Julia flipped through the offer agreement and then presented him with three sheets that had sticky notes attached to the sides. “I need your signature and initials on these pages.” She slid the papers over to him and he took the pen from her, feeling the slight tremor in her hand as it brushed against his. Once finished, she took the papers and efficiently lined them up and placed them neatly back in her file.
“We’re done. I’ll fax this over to Marlene tonight.”
“Thanks, Jules.” He took a sip of coffee and crossed his ankle over the other. He didn’t want her to leave yet.
“So, when are you going to tell Maggie?” Julia whispered, glancing over her shoulder before speaking.
He grinned. “Maybe tomorrow morning. If I tell her now she’ll never go to sleep,” he said with a low chuckle. “When can we list this place?”
“I can get the sign on your lawn tomorrow afternoon. I think it’ll go quickly despite the season. It’s right downtown, updated, and affordable.”
He was nodding as she spoke. “Do you have listing papers for this house?”
“I come prepared,” she said, flipping through her briefcase and then pulling out a fresh listing agreement.
She worked in silence until it was time to discuss numbers. He knew enough about the local real estate market that agreeing on a price was quick and painless.
“So you’re good with this listing price?”
He nodded. It was exactly what he’d thought it was worth. He’d known how to manage money from an early age. Growing up with nothing forced a person to learn how to be frugal, and he had been when he was starting out. He’d worked two jobs before Maggie had been born. He’d used the money from the one job and put it directly into savings. The other went to living expenses. Of course after Maggie everything had changed, but he’d already had a solid amount of savings. Since Sandy had walked out on him, he wasn’t paying her a dime, which was fine with him, since he was the one providing for their kid. He was in a decent financial position. That filled him with pride when he thought back to what he came from. He was able to provide his little girl with a comfortable life, and now a nice house with a big yard to play in. He wanted to give her the childhood he never had.
By the time they finished, their coffees were done and it was late.
“I can’t wait for her to find out.”
“Find out what?”
She jumped in her seat. Maggie was standing in the doorway, hands on her hips, mischievous grin on her face.
“You know Christmas isn’t a time for being nosy and asking questions,” Chase said, trying to keep a straight face.
She rolled her eyes and shrugged. “It was worth a try.”
“Are you finished with your homework?”
She threw her arms in the air. “Done!”
“I should probably check it over,” he said, rising.
“It’s on the table. I’m sure it’s perfect. I’m going to get my pajamas on so Auntie Julia can tuck me in and read me a Christmas book. Call me if there’s a problem,” she said before walking out of the room.
Julia burst out laughing. “Wow. That’s totally your daughter. She’s good at giving orders, but her charm keeps her from sounding bossy.”
“So you’re saying I’m charming and bossy, but I hide it well.”
She stood, picking up her empty mug. The look in her eyes beckoned him. She was fighting the attraction. He knew she was scared. Hell, he couldn’t blame her. But he also knew that if she left Shadow Creek without knowing how he really felt about her, he’d regret it. He’d never been one to run scared. He took a step closer to her, and he watched the emotions play across her expressive eyes. She didn’t move back, but she didn’t move forward either.
“Chase,” she whispered.
“Yeah?” he said, swallowing the last bit of air between them. He lifted his hands to her hair, slowly moving his hand to cup the nape of her neck.
“We shouldn’t be doing any of this,” she whispered, raising her eyes to his.
He stilled. “Why not?”
She licked her lips. “Because I’m going home after Christmas. We can’t start something that will go nowhere. I can’t leave here with a broken heart twice.”
“Then don’t leave,” he whispered gruffly.
She closed her eyes for a moment and he leaned down to kiss her lids. The softest, sexiest whimper came from her parted lips and she clutched his arms. He slowly pulled back and she opened her eyes and God, when her gaze went from his eyes to his lips he knew he had to kiss her. He could see the pulse at the base of her throat beating rapidly and her lips were parted, her breath hitched.
It wasn’t the first time tonight he’d noticed her lips. They always looked so damn kissable, with that lower one larger than the top. He’d fantasized about tugging on it, kissing it, her, until both of them forgot everything they were both afraid of.
“I can’t do that. I have to leave. This isn’t my home anymore.”
“You can try again.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t risk it all again. For anyone,” she said, taking a step back from him. It was only a step, but it felt as though she’d just put up a massive stone wall between them.
“I’m not going to tell you what you should be feeling or what you should be doing, but I can tell you that sometimes it’s worse to try and bury what you’re feeling because sometimes what you feel becomes so strong and powerful it becomes impossible to ignore. Sometimes it can be all-encompassing. All you think about. All you want, day and night.”
Everything in her eyes told him she felt every ounce of desire he did, and it humbled him. It affected him profoundly because this was the woman he’d wanted for a lifetime and everything he felt for her was staring him back in the eyes. Except for the fear, which was why he didn’t move.
He didn’t take it personally. He knew she was afraid. He shoved his hands in his back pockets. Her mouth parted again, and the heat and longing in her eyes was almost enough to make him want to walk across and kiss her until he
convinced her with his mouth that he was worth the risk, but he wasn’t going to do that. Julia would have to come to him. It was his job to make her want to take the risk. If it took a few more weeks then that was fine.
They stood in silence, the glow from the fireplace highlighting the rugged lines of his face, the emotion, the desire in his eyes.
“Auntie Julia! I’m all done!”
Julia jumped at the sound of Maggie. “On my way, Maggie.” Julia scrambled, bumping into the sofa.
“I’ll go check her homework and then be up to say good night,” he said, as she left the room.
“Okay,” she said. Her voice sounded squeaky as she practically flew out of the room.
He wasn’t going to grin, but he was pretty damn happy that he could make her that flustered.
…
Julia closed Rudolph and glanced over at Maggie. Maggie was smiling, at her, looking so much like her father.
“I love that book, don’t you?”
Julia nodded. “It was one of my favorites when I was little.” Sometimes she wondered how she could remember pieces of her childhood so vividly and at the same time have trouble remembering life in Shadow Creek. She wondered if it was her mind’s way of protecting her. She remembered Matthew with great detail, but sometimes she thought she felt more than she actually remembered. Matthew evoked feeling.
Now, in Chase and Maggie’s home, those feelings returned. They rose to a surface she wasn’t sure she was capable of holding down.
Chase had made it clear downstairs that he had feelings for her. She couldn’t deny hers. She knew it was more than attraction, because she’d been around attractive men. Okay, maybe none as attractive as him, but still. He got her on another level, one that scared her, one that no one had ever really understood her on. The emotions were the problem now, because they were winning over logic. She wanted everything he was offering. She wanted to walk right into his arms and she wanted him to hold her and touch her without an ounce of sympathy, only desire. She wanted to remember what it felt like to be loved. She wanted to know what it felt like to be loved by Chase.
“Julia?”
She focused her attention back on the little girl who was staring at her with an intensity that matched her father’s. “Yes, sweetie?”
“Do you know what Daddy’s surprise is?”
She smiled as she rose from the bed, tucking the pastel quilt around Maggie. “I do.”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
She laughed at the disgruntled look on her face. “Sorry. Your dad would kill me. This is his surprise. But I will tell you this, I think you’re going to love it.”
Maggie gave a nod and then a wide-mouthed yawn. “You’re still coming to the pageant, aren’t you?”
“Of course! I wouldn’t miss that for anything.”
Maggie smiled. “I’m glad. We’ve been rehearsing every day after school.”
“Well, not much longer now. Five days?”
Maggie nodded. “I think this is going to be the best Christmas ever, Julia.”
Julia’s heart squeezed and then she leaned down and kissed Maggie’s forehead. She had trouble holding on to her tears, the emotion that coursed through her, enveloping her in a cloud of warmth, want for this life that Chase and Maggie had. All her years of being away, protecting herself from emotion, only to be led here, right in the center of it all. She didn’t know what was scarier—the thought of staying in it, exposing herself, or leaving.
Chapter Seven
Julia took off her red glove and knocked on the front door. She could have sworn she heard crying, but she couldn’t be sure. Chase and Maggie were supposed to pick her up, but after a series of tense-sounding texts from Chase, she had volunteered to come over to their place. He’d hinted at some sort of imminent meltdown. From Maggie, not him.
The door swung open and she tried to hide her laugh at the image in front of her. Chase was standing there, in his go-to, hot, low-slung jeans and a T-shirt that seemed to hug the clearly defined lean, muscular lines of his shoulders and torso. And he was holding a curling iron. There was also panic in his eyes.
“Thank God you got here,” he said, ushering her inside.
“What’s this? Our calm, cool sheriff looking frazzled?”
He put the barrel of the curling iron to his temple as somewhat theatrical crying from upstairs trailed down the hallway. “Do you know how to use one of these things?”
“For suicide attempts or hairstyling?”
“You’re cute when you’re mocking me,” he said, an unmistakable glint in his eyes.
She wasn’t going to blush like a school girl because he’d called her cute. Seriously, because she was old. Well, old-ish for blushing like that. She handed him her coat and was self-conscious in her red sweater dress and knee-high black boots. It wasn’t that the dress was overly revealing, it was the way he looked at her. Not that he was ogling, because a man like Chase didn’t need to ogle. No, he just needed to do a sweeping glance with those gorgeous blue eyes of his, a subtle clenching of that perfect, hard jaw and she was a wreck. This mutual attraction thing was not going to make her life easier. The fact that she’d been self-conscious of the weight she’d put on since being back in Shadow Creek was immediately erased by the obvious praise in his eyes.
“Daddy! We need to call and cancel! I can’t be seen like this. I look like the Abominable Snowman in Rudolph!”
“Uh oh, what have you done?” Julia whispered to him.
Chase dragged his hands down his face and she could have sworn she heard him mutter, “May God help me” but she couldn’t be sure.
She stifled her laugh. “Can I help?”
“Auntie Julia, is that you?”
Maggie appeared at the top of the stairs and Julia covered her mouth in order to muffle her gasp. The poor child looked as though she’d been electrocuted, her hair was standing at odd ends, her eyes wide and brimming with tears. “Oh dear God, Chase, don’t tell me you’re responsible for this,” she hissed at him, torn between laughing and crying.
He gave her a level stare. “Can you fix it?”
“Give me half an hour,” she said, holding out her hand.
He placed the curling iron in it and she marched up the stairs, filled with purpose. “Maggie, honey, don’t worry. I’m going to help you. We’ll get that hair all smoothed out and into shiny curls in no time, okay, sweetie?”
Maggie went from almost crying to beaming by the time she reached her at the top of the stairs. She gasped when she entered the washroom and saw the disaster zone that used to be a countertop.
“I feel really bad for getting mad at Daddy. I know he was trying his best, but this head is the type of thing nightmares are made of.”
Julia laughed as she began combing Maggie’s dark hair. She stood behind her while Maggie sat in a chair positioned in front of the mirror. “Well, it was pretty nice of him to try, wasn’t it?”
Maggie nodded vigorously, her expression changing as Julia made eye contact with her in the mirror. “It was. He knows nothing about hair or fashion, but it’s not his fault. He tries really hard to help me. He brushes my hair every night and every morning before school. Once in grade one I asked him if he could do a braid for me and he said he didn’t know how. And I begged and begged because my best friend always had the nicest braids. The next morning he brought his laptop to the kitchen table and told me to sit down. He googled ‘braid’ and then tried to do one!”
Julia’s heart squeezed at the image of Chase trying to make his little girl happy. “What happened?”
Maggie lowered her voice, but a few giggles escaped and Julia had to pause brushing her hair. “Well, he didn’t think I heard, but he kept swearing under his breath because he ended up tying my hair in giant knots and still couldn’t figure it out, even with all the pictures!”
They both burst out laughing. An amused noise startled her and she caught Chase’s reflection in the mirror. He was leaning agai
nst the doorjamb, arms crossed over his wide chest, a smile across his face. “You couldn’t possibly be laughing at me, could you?”
“No, Daddy. We love you so much, but don’t quit your day job!”
Julia thought she was going to die of laughter and the sound of Chase’s deep laugh filled her with a peace she hadn’t felt in a long time. The three of them, laughing and being together, made her remember what that sense of belonging, that easy feeling of being comfortable, felt like. It had been a long time.
“Thanks for the advice,” Chase said, pushing off the door. “I guess I should get ready. I’ll meet you two downstairs in ten minutes.”
Julia nodded, grasping a small section of Maggie’s fine hair and placing it in the iron.
Chase was watching intently and she wrapped it around the barrel. “Huh.”
“It’s okay, Sheriff, I got this,” she said with a wink.
The look he gave her stole her breath away. She remembered him when they were young; his smile was exactly the same. There were glimpses she’d had of him, clues that had told her he’d be someone someday, but never this. Never a man this good.
As they’d grown up and each gotten married, he’d never ceased to impress her. And of course, she’d have to be blind to not notice that he was an extremely attractive man. Maybe on some level she’d always felt something for him, but she’d never allowed herself to go there. She had never been fond of Sandy; she’d always seemed immature, spoiled. But she was gone. Michael was gone.
It was just the two of them left. There had been so many times in the last five years that she mourned the man that she had thought loved her. She mourned the end of their marriage by herself. She had to face his betrayal on her own, without ever getting answers from Michael. She didn’t want his parents to know, it would devastate them and they’d been through enough. Her in-laws had lost all of them five years ago. Little Matthew had been their pride and joy and they’d doted on him, taking him out to dinner, having him over for sleepovers, and they had treated her like a daughter. No, it wasn’t fair to burden them. She had dealt with it.
Julia finished the last section of hair and then smoothed out a few flyaway pieces. She placed her hands on Maggie’s shoulders and looked at her in the mirror and smiled. “What do you think?”
Christmas with the Sheriff Page 7