Stranded: A Winter Romance Duet

by Samantha Chase

  Despite the fact that she was still half-crying, it was a pretty good kiss. It was about to overwhelm her when she accidently put weight on her ankle.

  She jerked and gave a little cry at the jolt of pain. She had to cling to David’s shirt to steady herself.

  The kiss broken, he reached out to support her. “Okay?”

  “Yeah. Pretty good.” She was grinning. Couldn’t seem to stop.

  “Me too.”

  “So…so what now?” she asked. The spiral of emotions was finally leveling off, leaving as many questions as answers.

  “I guess Brad and your mom will show up soo—”

  “I meant what now with us, you idiot.” There was no way he could miss the soft affection in her eyes.

  His face softened too. “I guess we should maybe start with a date. Do you happen to be free Saturday night?”

  She snickered. “Yes. I can probably fit you. But why wait so long? Why don’t you join us for Christmas Eve tonight?”

  His eyes were dark and rich and mesmerizing. “That’s a family thing, isn’t it?”

  “You’ve always been almost family, and I’m inviting you.”

  “Then I accept, but I’m still taking you out on Saturday night.”

  She stretched up to kiss him, so that distracted them for a minute. As they were pulling away, she said, “Two dates in one week. My social life is picking up. I’ll have to reorganize all of my other boyfriends to make room for you.”

  She was joking, and he evidently knew it. He lifted a hand to cup her cheek and gently wiped one tear from her skin with his thumb.

  “You better not tell me the names of those other boyfriends or their cars and houses will be suddenly struck with a deluge of inexplicable catastrophes.”

  She giggled helplessly.

  “You understand, don’t you?” David continued, his expression and tone growing sober. “I’m not going to pressure you into anything you’re not ready for, but I don’t just want to date you. I don’t want you to date anyone else. I’m serious about this. I’m serious about you.”

  She reached up to grab his face the way he’d grabbed hers. “I’m serious about you too. I don’t want to see anyone but you.”

  “Really? I was trying not to scare you by moving too fast. I know we’ve just had the one night.”

  She gave a huff of objection. “One night? I’ve been crazy about you since I was ten years old.”

  He smiled. “That’s good to know. I know we’ll have to work a lot out, with us living in different parts of the state. But I’ll do whatever I need to do to make it work.”

  “Me too.”

  “I just want you to know—if you want to stay in Richmond, I’d even be willing to move. I know that’s in the future. I’m not trying to scare you.”

  She actually laughed at the idea of her being scared by his passionate sincerity. She thought she might melt away in pure joy.

  “I’m not sure I’ll want to live in Richmond the rest of my life, but that’s something we can figure out down the road. But, seriously, David, nothing you say is going to scare me.”

  He turned his head and pressed a kiss into her palm. It was the sweetest thing. “So if I said I love you…”

  “I’d say I love you too.”

  He stifled a moan of joy or pleasure or exhaustion or relief, and then he pulled her into another kiss.

  They were just getting into it when Rachel heard a car turn into the long driveway.

  They pulled apart, almost sheepishly, and were standing together in the living room when Rachel’s mother walked in.

  “There you are. Are you all right, baby? You’ve been crying. And what happened to your ankle?”

  “I just twisted it,” Rachel explained, returning her mother’s hug and kiss.

  “Sprained it,” David corrected.

  “Twisted it.” She slanted him an annoyed glance at his interference, but he looked so adorably rumpled with his hair sticking out in all directions—and he looked so transformed with what could only be happiness—that she couldn’t hold onto her annoyance for more than a couple of seconds.

  Instinctively, she reached out to put a hand on his chest—wanting to touch him, to know he was hers. He pulled her to his side, sliding one arm around her.

  Rachel’s mother didn’t appear even remotely surprised by their sudden closeness.

  “It’s good to see you too, dear, although I’d advise you to shave just as soon as you can. And thank you for helping Rachel out in the storm.” She reached up to give David a sound kiss on the cheek. “Now that you’ve gotten things worked out between you, do you think that you might be able to convince her to move home soon?”

  “Mom!” Rachel wailed.

  Brad laughed from the doorway of the room.

  David laughed too. “We can talk about it. It will be up to her, but I’ll at least give her options.”

  Rachel smiled at David rather sappily.

  “Well, baby,” her mother said, turning her attention back to Rachel, “I was talking to Missy Roberson—you know she owns the gift shop in town. That place is the shambles. I’ve never seen so many tacky, useless items assembled in one place. But she’s going to be moving to North Carolina to live with her daughter.”

  Rachel frowned, trying to keep up with her mother’s rambles, which were often difficult to follow.

  “Anyway,” her mother continued, “I suggested to Missy that you should take over the business. You could do flowers like you’ve always wanted and combine it with the gift shop. Maybe showcase local art. Lots of people come through looking for antiques and country cooking. David could sell his furniture and you could—“

  “Mom,” Rachel interrupted. “Let’s not get carried away.”

  Her mother leaned over to kiss her cheek again. “Okay. Just think about it. Now Brad’s shower was just not up to par, so I desperately need another shower and to get out of these clothes before I start to get ready for tonight. You need to sit down and elevate your ankle.” She patted David’s chest. “David, dear, you’re joining us this evening, aren’t you?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  While her mother bustled out of the room, Brad came in all the way.

  “Sorry, man,” he said, stretching his hand out to David. “I know I promised not to say anything. But she wouldn’t stop crying, and there’s only so much of that a man can take.”

  “Brad!” Rachel exclaimed, much as she had reproached her mother earlier. She looked up at David. “I wasn’t crying.”

  David chuckled. “Not even a little bit?”

  “Well, maybe a little. But not when I was talking to Brad.”

  “You didn’t cry when he accidentally locked you in that closet either and then couldn’t get the door opened for hours.”

  Rachel shuddered at that horrible memory from when she was nine years old.

  David leaned down and said against her ear, “I thought you were the bravest girl I’d ever known. That might have been the day I realized there was no other girl for me.”

  There was no other man for Rachel. That much had always been true. And she still couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that David was actually hers.

  But he was. She knew it because he had told her, and she knew it because she could see the truth in his eyes.

  The story of her life had been retold—truth casting light onto all of the shadows and melting all of the ice.

  And it had happened in only one night.

  Excerpt from Roommating

  If you enjoyed these stories, you might enjoy Roommating, which is co-written by both Noelle Adams and Samantha Chase and comes out on September 7. You can find an excerpt from Roommating below.

  ***

  “Fine by me.” Then he paused. “We’re not joined at the hip. We may have to work together and live together, but we have separate lives. If we want to ride to work together and save on gas, great. But it’s not a requirement.”

  “Agreed.”

&n
bsp; And as much as he tried to think, they seemed to cover all the basics. “If either of us comes up with something else, we’ll talk about it. No lists. No dictating, deal?”

  “Deal.”

  “Do we uh…do we need to shake on it?”

  Heather seemed to consider her options and held out a hand to him. “Sure. Why not?”

  Taking her hand in his, Chris immediately realized his mistake. Her hand was small and soft and he got a little jolt of awareness at the contact. He quickly pulled his hand away and took a step back.

  “So…um…it looks like you got a lot done here today. It looks good.”

  She beamed at his praise. “Thanks. And you’ll notice that your chair is exactly where you left it.”

  “I did and thank you.” Okay, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad. They were capable of having nice conversations without animosity it seemed. Maybe clearing the air was the way to go.

  “It’s certainly an eclectic look – more so than I’m used to, but I think it will work. And like you said earlier, it’s only for six months.”

  She smiled at him – a genuine smile – and Chris felt himself relax. There was a time when they’d been friends and although the last time they’d been together – three years ago – they’d been screaming at one another, this was the girl he remembered.

  Only…prettier.

  Softer.

  With great legs.

  Down boy…you need to get comfortable in the friend-zone here, he thought to himself. They had six months of living and working in close proximity to one another and he could not afford to let himself think about her as anything but a business partner and roommate. This was too important. He refused to let Tom down.

  Again.

  Clearing his throat, he walked over to the refrigerator and opened it. “I only grabbed a few things from the grocery store yesterday so I think I’m going to order a pizza for dinner. I was driving around today and saw that Tony’s was still there.”

  She nodded. “Still the best pizza in town too. Maybe we could split a pizza?”

  Her voice and her expression were hopeful and Chris readily agreed. “Pepperoni?”

  “Like there’s anything else,” she said with a laugh and Chris definitely felt more relaxed. He called in the order and made arrangements for it to be delivered. “How long?” she asked.

  “Thirty minutes. I think I’m just gonna go and…” A small jingling sound had him stopping in his tracks and looking around.

  “Is something wrong?” Heather asked and he noted a small smirk on her face.

  “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  Waiting, he held up a hand when the jingling sound happened again. “That! I heard a jingling sound. What do you think it was? It’s not a sound you’d hear from the plumbing and these walls are fairly thick and well-insulated so we shouldn’t be hearing anything from the neighbors…”

  The jingling got louder and when he saw exactly where it was coming from, he was mildly horrified. “What…what the…? Where the hell did that come from?”

  Heather’s smile grew as she bent down and scooped the tiny…well, it looked like a dog but it could have been some sort of rodent too. She walked over with…it…in her arms. “This is Little Miss Lucy,” she cooed.

  “Uh…what?”

  She rolled her eyes and snuggled the…thing…closer. “Little Miss Lucy. She’s my dog.”

  “Are you sure she’s a dog, because she looks like a rat.”

  “No she doesn’t!” Heather cried. “And that’s just mean.” She stroked the dog’s back and kissed her on the head. “Don’t pay any attention to him, my little miss.”

  He studied the dog and had to fight the urge to cringe. It was tiny – maybe five pounds – and it had pink bows in its hair and some sort of sparkly collar on. It looked completely ridiculous. “So…Lucy,” he said.

  Heather met his gaze. “Little Miss Lucy.”

  “Yeah, I’m not calling her that.”

  “But it’s her name.”

  He raked a hand through his hair as he sighed with frustration. “I might call her Lucy but…honestly, I’ll probably just call her dog.”

  The look of horror on her face told him that it was the wrong thing to say.

  “Look,” he quickly added. “I’m not a dog person and I’m really not a…tiny dog person. Can’t she just stay in your room?”

  And then that look of horror turned to a look that was maybe just a little bit…evil. Heather stepped in closer as that evil smile grew. “Oh no,” she began. “She can’t stay in my bedroom. She likes having room to roam around and besides…I like to cuddle with her while I sit and watch TV.”

  Then she put the dog down. “I’ll just go and grab some cash for my share of the pizza.”

  And in that moment he knew the battle lines had officially been drawn.

  ***

  The next day, Heather came home after work feeling encouraged. Almost optimistic. Maybe this ridiculous arrangement wouldn’t be as bad as she’d feared.

  Today had gone better than yesterday. Other than looking at each other over coffee mugs in the morning, she’d barely seen Chris all day. He was annoying—no doubt about that. And he didn’t even seem to be sorry for the way he’d treated her father three years ago. But he appeared to agree with her that they should mostly just keep to themselves. If they were able to keep doing that, then they’d make it through these six months without too much trouble.

  Hopefully.

  As she was leaving the office this morning, her father had mentioned that Chris was supervising the crew at a job they were running behind on, so they’d be working until at least seven this evening. That gave her two hours in the apartment alone.

  Another reason to be in a good mood.

  Deciding to take advantage of the privacy, she dropped her purse on the floor in the entry hall, crouched down to greet an ecstatic Lucy, and walked into the bathroom, turning on the water in the tub.

  She’d been looking forward to making use of the soaker tub. Now was the perfect time.

  While the tub filled, she took Lucy outside and made a quick batch of cookies. She’d made a batch yesterday and given them to Estelle Berry, and today she wanted to make a batch for old Mr. Johnson downstairs.

  It just took a few minutes to mix up the dough, and while they were in the oven, she poured herself a glass of Merlot, turned on some music, and lit a few candles in the bathroom. After she’d taken the cookies out of the oven to cook, she pulled off her clothes and got in to soak, leaving the door partly cracked so Lucy could come in and out as she liked.

  Otherwise, she’d scratch at the door insistently It was just barely five-thirty. Chris wouldn’t be home for an hour and a half.

  The tub was amazing—long enough to fit her body and deep enough for a very enjoyable soak. She relaxed, letting her mind drift and occasionally chatting to Lucy when the dog wandered in to investigate the situation.

  After about twenty minutes, Heather opened her eyes when she heard the sound of a door close.

  It was probably just Mrs. Berry or another one of the neighbors. The walls were thicker than a lot of newer builds, but one could still hear a lot of noises from the hallway. She leaned back against the tub and closed her eyes again, wondering what had Lucy all excited.

  Her little claws on the hardwood floor were tapping like crazy.

  “Heather?” The male voice was familiar, but it was also shocking, since it was coming from the doorway to the bathroom.

  The doorway to the bathroom!

  Her eyes shot open, and she squealed when she saw Chris looking in, Lucy dancing ecstatically at his feet.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped, trying to hide under the water until she realized that there were no bubbles to hide beneath. She’d only put in some lavender and honey scented bath salts. “What are you doing here?”

  Chris blinked, his gaze focused decidedly lower than it should be. “I live here.”<
br />
  “But you’re not supposed to be here until after seven!” Her mind shifting quickly into crisis mode, she grabbed her towel, which she’d fortunately placed within arm’s reach, and lifted it to cover herself as she stood up.

  “Was that a rule I missed?” His voice was dry and gruff, as usual, but he was decidedly distracted, his eyes raking over her bare dripping legs and the damp towel.

  She scowled at him and gestured to her face. “Eyes up here.”

  He managed to raise his eyes to meet hers. “You’re the one taking a bath with the door open.”

  “That was for Lucy!” She was flustered and embarrassed and also just a little bit excited, although that last reaction was probably just a fluke.

  “She likes to leer at you while you’re naked?”

  “No! She likes to come in and out. You weren’t supposed to be home until after seven.”

  “Why do you keep saying that?” He seemed amused now, although his eyes did occasionally drift back down to her body. “I didn’t realize you’d given me a schedule.”

  “Dad said that you were working at the Harmon job until after seven.” She managed to say this more lucidly, since she realized squealing wasn’t the best way to express her quite reasonable assumption.

  “The crew is working. But there was no reason for me to stay there the whole time.”

  Typical of him to slack off before the job was done. He was always walking away when things got hard. She decided not to say so, though, since she was genuinely trying to get along with the man. “I didn’t know that.”

  “I can see that.” He frowned as he glanced around at the flickering candles. “Why do you have all these candles lit and the music on? I thought you might have someone here with you.”

  Naturally, his mind would go immediately to her getting it on with some guy in their apartment. She gave him a prim little frown. “There’s no one here with me. I thought, since you weren’t here, I’d have a little private time.”

  “Oh.” Something changed on his face. “Oh.” The second time, he drawled out the word, stretching it out far longer than it should have been.

  It took her a moment to realize what he was implying. When she did, she gasped and hugged the towel to her more closely. “Not like that!”