Sweet Tidings

by Jean C. Gordon

  “What do you think, Eric?” Lucille asked.

  “Hmm?” He had no idea what the women had been talking about.

  “Ah, young love. No matter,” Lucille said.

  Eric worked at stifling a choke. He hadn’t felt young in a while. At least not since the start of his last movie with the 24-year-old Maya as his co-star and the suggestion by his co-producer that he do fewer of his own stunts.

  Princess whined at Lucille’s feet. “We have to get going,” she said. “Care to escort me?”

  “Sure.” About as much as the bath in boiling oil his character had escaped in one of his early films. “I’ll see you later, Lisa. And thanks again.”

  Amanda’s mother nodded and went inside.

  “So,” Lucille said when they reached the front sidewalk. “I hope this isn’t a rebound fling you’re planning with our Amanda.”

  “I’m not sure I follow.” Neither what she said or the possessive “our Amanda.” He wasn’t up on small-town peculiarities. Did people other than Lucille think their mayor personally belonged to them? He’d have to run that by Jeff.

  “You can be honest with me. I’ll keep my lips sealed. A rebound romance from Maya London’s breakup? The latest tabloid headlines,” she prompted.

  He rubbed the back of his neck and reminded himself that it would be rude for him to break into a jog. “What are the magazines saying?”

  “Not too much, but she’s been photographed out with an unidentified…” Lucille hesitated. “Younger man.”

  He touched her shoulder. “You’ve made my day.”

  “You’re welcome. I think.”

  They’d reached the city hall parking lot. “It was nice meeting you and Princess,” he said, petting the dog before he strode off toward the bike Jeff had lent him. He glanced at the window he’d determined was Amanda’s office. His PR people would be proud of him. They were always telling him to keep people guessing about his so-called private life. He had Lucille guessing, and Amanda, too, he hoped. Keep her interested.

  “Hey,” Sonja said from the front desk when he walked into the B&B a couple minutes later. “All your city hall business taken care of?”

  Eric didn’t remember saying anything about city hall when he’d left earlier. “Business, and I had the pleasure of meeting Lucille and Princess at Amanda’s mother’s place. She’s a fan—Lucille, not Princess.”

  “You don’t know. Princess could be, too. You didn’t ask?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m surprised you haven’t met her when you’ve visited before.”

  “Just lucky, I guess.”

  Sonja laughed.

  “Is Jeff around? I need to borrow his truck to drive my stuff over to Lisa Strickland’s house.”

  “I’m glad she agreed. It’ll be good for her to have some life in that place. It was Amanda’s father’s place, and I don’t think Lisa has changed a thing since she moved in.”

  “She took me up on an offer to do some work around the place.”

  “Even better.” Sonja pulled a set of keys from behind the counter. “Take my car. Jeff is working with the plumber in the basement right now, and I’m not sure you—or anyone—wants to interrupt that.”

  She tossed him the keys. “Hopefully, you’ll be able to clear out your things before they come up.”

  “Thanks, on both counts.” Eric was well aware of the dangers of working with Jeff when something wasn’t going according to plans, as he suspected the plumbing job wasn’t.

  Upstairs, he decided to grab all his stuff, since he hadn’t really unpacked it last night. A thud and a yell echoed from below as he stepped down into the front room again. And who knew how long he might be staying at Lisa’s?

  “What are you doing for lunch?” Sonja asked, following a metal against metal bang this time.

  “Lisa invited me. I’m not sure I know her well enough yet to bring a plus one.”

  “That’s okay. My escaping here until Jeff and the plumber are done is only wishful thinking. Someone has to cover the desk. Maybe, I can get him over to the motorcycle shop this afternoon. Weren’t the two of you going to work on something there?”

  “Yeah, he has an old Harley and the scooter he’s helping a guy fix up for some Christmas giveaway lined up.” His phone pinged. He read the text. “That was Guaranteed Delivery. My bike is arriving this afternoon. I’m having it delivered to the shop. I assume someone is there who can sign for it.”

  “No problem. The shop is open.”

  “If you need to get him out of the house tomorrow, I want Jeff to help with a tune-up and a few other things on my bike. I’ll talk with him later about it.”

  “Good. Maybe the plumber will be done by then. Or even today if I can get Jeff to let the man do his job.”

  “I’ll bring your car back as soon as I can.”

  “Whenever. I’m not going anywhere. Will we see you for supper?”

  “I’m leaving myself open. I’ll let you know.”

  Sonja smiled. “More city hall business?”

  Eric just grinned and waved bye. He whistled his way to the car. Sonja already had suspicions about him and Amanda. He was quite sure Lucille wouldn’t be keeping as quiet as she’d said. If he could get a picture of him and Amanda, he could send it anonymously to the president of his fan club…

  This was even easier than he’d thought it would be.

  “Need a lift?” The question pulled Amanda out of her mental list of things for the holiday festivities that she hadn’t gotten to today. She glanced at Sonja’s car rolling along beside her. But it hadn’t been Sonja’s voice. Nor was it Sonja driving. She stopped. The car stopped.

  She walked to the open passenger side window. “I’m just going to my other office.” She pointed at the building behind her. “I need to make a couple of calls. I don’t like to mix private business with mayoral business.”

  “Will it take long? I have a favor to ask.”

  She’d spent a good part of the morning with him. She shouldn’t give him her afternoon, too. She had to establish some limits to their charade. “Not more than a half hour.” Evidently her mouth hadn’t checked with her brain. “What’s the favor?”

  “I need to pick my bike up. I had it shipped to Jeff’s shop. If you could drive Sonja’s car back to the B&B, you’d save her or Jeff having to drive me later to pick it up.”

  “As if you couldn’t walk back and get the bike.” Her attempt at a stern face didn’t last long before she broke into a smile.

  “Maybe I’m trying to impress you. Get you on my bike, arms wrapped around me for a ride to city hall afterwards to pick up your car. Isn’t that what men do to woo women?”

  She laughed. “I’m still wrapping my mind around your shipping your motorcycle from California for vacation.” And recovering full strength in my knees after the thought of my arms wrapped around you. Her dating life had definitely been in far too long of a dry spell if Eric’s words had affected her that much.

  “What do you say?” Eric assumed a puppy dog look.

  “Yes, if it will put an end to the bad acting. I’ll meet you at Jeff’s shop when I’m done.”

  “Great, I’ll hang out there and wait for you.” He checked his mirror and took off faster than necessary, but at least he didn’t make the tires squeal.

  Amanda unlocked her office. She was going to have to talk with him about toning down the teen crush behavior. That wasn’t how she pictured their holiday charade. She saw something more elegant, with the gala, and more sedate. Something like walking Seaside Boulevard and the board walk in the moonlight taking in the stores’ and businesses’ Christmas decorations. Maybe a little holiday shopping together. Quiet dinners in the places they’d be most likely to be seen. Eric standing with her at the traditional Indigo Bay Christmas lighting.

  She sat at her desk. That reminded her. She should tell him about the other tradition of hanging an ornament on the tree before the lighting. And she should get her calls made. Amanda picked up he
r phone. After playing a little telephone tag, it was almost an hour before she left for Seaside Cycles.

  Her steps quickened the closer she got and not just because she was later than she’d said. She had to admit that she was also anxious to step into her role as Eric Slade’s holiday romance.

  “Hi, Ms. Strickland,” Liam, the college student who worked for Jeff said.

  “Hi, I’m supposed to meet Eric… Eric Slade here.” Shish, what other Eric could she be meeting?

  “He’s in the back. Through the red door,” Liam finished with an almost smirk.

  “Thanks.” A qualm traveled from her chest to her stomach and back. Was that how people were going to react to her and Eric? As if she didn’t know what she was getting into? No. Liam was barely out of his teens. Not representative of Indigo Bay’s electorate at large.

  When she entered the back room, Eric was crouched beside a motorcycle so engrossed in what he was doing that he didn’t notice her. She took the opportunity to study him. His classic profile, nicely muscled arm wielding a wrench, broad shoulders, and still narrow waist—despite the hint of love handles. He moved, and she stopped her perusal.

  “Hi, sorry it took me longer than I expected.”

  He rose and rubbed his hands on a cloth he pulled out of his back pocket. “No, perfect timing. It took me longer than I’d expected to get everything in running order. What do you think?”

  What was she supposed to say? “It’s big and shiny.”

  His laughed emphasized the crinkles at the corners of his eyes. “Yes, it is.”

  “Loud, too, I suspect.”

  “No louder than allowed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles regulations. I didn’t check the South Carolina ones.”

  “I think you’re safe, here in Indigo Bay at least. Our police force may be more likely to ask you for your autograph on a ticket than write you one.”

  “Whew!” He made an exaggerated show of wiping his forehead. “I’ll clean up. Then we can go.”

  “Sure.”

  He headed to the storefront.

  Amanda walked around the motorcycle and ran her fingertip over the logo on the gas tank. A name she didn’t recognize. But then, she didn’t know anything about motorcycles.

  “All set.” He came back carrying two helmets. “I know South Carolina doesn’t require them, but I’m used to wearing one and thought you’d want to.”

  “Definitely.” And maybe some body armor. “But I thought I was driving Sonja’s car.”

  “You are. It’s in the municipal parking lot. I’ll drive you to it.”

  Amanda swallowed. “Is this where I tell you I’ve never ridden on a motorcycle before?” Never particularly wanted to, either. The smile on Eric’s face stopped her from adding that.

  “Then, you’re in for a treat.” He looped the motorcycle helmets over the handlebars and started pushing the vehicle toward the door in the back of the garage. “Can you get it?”

  “Sure.” She strode ahead, opened the door, and walked out.

  He stopped next to her, flicked the kickstand down, and lifted one of the helmets from the handlebars.

  Her heart rate ticked up. She wasn’t usually timid about trying new things.

  Eric placed one of the helmets on her head and tucked a strand of her hair back from her cheek with a caress that made her heart skitter.

  “Uh, no one is here to see us together, so you don’t have to pretend.”

  “Right. Force of habit, I guess.” He drew his hand away and walked back to close the garage door.

  Amanda had no explanation for herself as to why his moving away left her somewhat bereft.

  Eric pulled his helmet on, swung his leg over the motorcycle with masculine grace and kicked up the stand, before turning on the vehicle, balancing it with his firmly planted feet. “Climb on. You can use the foot peg and my arm.”

  She did as told. His forearm was firm beneath her fingers.

  “Now scoot closer and wrap your arms around my waist or you can hold the grips on the sides of the seat.”

  Amanda chose to wrap her arms around him to which it sounded like he responded, “Good girl.” Eric adjusted what she assumed was the throttle and pulled around the shop onto the street at a sedate speed that he increased smoothly to match traffic. After a block, she released the breath she’d been holding and was fully relaxed when he signaled to turn into the parking lot.

  She got off and removed her helmet. “That was fun.”

  “Told you.” He pulled the keys for Sonja’s car from his front pocket and handed them to her. “Maybe on the ride back to your place, I can detour up the coast highway and you can get the full effect of riding.”

  Her heart thumped. It was a toss-up whether it was caused by the anticipation of going fast or the thought of having her arms wrapped around him again for a prolonged period.

  Eric waited for Amanda to pull out of the parking lot and get a couple blocks ahead of him before he revved the throttle and shot off significantly faster than he’d take off with Amanda. He slowed down once he got on Seaside Boulevard. He caught up with her at the turn to the B&B. They both pulled around to the back of the building.

  He gazed over the ocean and the B&B’s private beach and an idea took hold. Inviting Amanda to a private evening swim one night. Or was that idea beyond the bounds of public fake romance? She wasn’t his usual dalliance, and although he was attracted to her, he valued her friendship too much to mess that up.

  His cell phone and the closing of the car door cut short any further thoughts of Amanda in a swimsuit. He checked his text. Yes! He would have fist pumped, but if Amanda saw him, she’d wonder why. Even though the romance was a charade, the last thing he wanted was to lie to her, other than the potential lie of omission his text from Liam was about.

  “I’ll just take the keys in to Sonja, unless you want to come in.”

  Eric thought about his earlier visit to get the car. Jeff hadn’t come by the shop, so chances were good he and the plumber were still working. Or at least Jeff still was. “No, I’ll wait out here.”

  A couple minutes later, Amanda returned with Sonja. “Sonja has to pick up a few things at the store, so she’s going to drop me at the city hall for my car. And Mom texted me that she’s making fried chicken for your dinner. 6:00 sharp. Don’t stand her up.”

  “You don’t want to miss Lisa’s fried chicken for anything,” Sonja added.

  He might. For example, for a private dinner for two with Amanda.

  “Okay.” He watched the women climb in the car.

  “Hey, Eric,” Jeff said from the B&B doorway. “Can you give me a hand with something?”

  Just what he didn’t want to get roped into. “Sure.” He walked to the building. He wasn’t used to his plans being thrown over so easily. “The plumber didn’t solve your problem?”

  Jeff led him around the mansion to a half-filled ditch in the front leading to a still-uncovered portion of the B&B’s connecting sewer line. “We caught one thing that I didn’t know was malfunctioning yet, but the problem with the suite appears to be in the city sewer line.”

  Eric eyed the two shovels by the ditch.

  “The mansion was the first seaside home to have public sewer service, so the lines are old. I’ve left a message for Public Works.”

  “I suppose you want me to help you fill in the rest of the ditch.”

  “And who says action adventure movie actors aren’t so bright?”

  “No one. You’re pushing it.”

  “We’ll be done in time for you to make your dinner. Is Amanda going to be there, too?”

  Eric picked up a shovel and shook his head.

  “But you’d like her to be.” Jeff picked up the other shovel.

  “No, I’d rather be somewhere alone with her,” Eric said under his breath. Or so Eric had thought.

  “That’s the way the winds blow, eh?” Jeff dropped a shovel full of dirt in the ditch.

  Eric matched him. “Y
ou have a problem with that?”

  Jeff shook his head. “Not at all.”

  Eric shoved his shovel into the pile of loose dirt so hard he hit the solid ground beneath it. “Good.” He dropped it in the ditch and attacked the pile again.

  It was good. He’d established his and Amanda’s relationship with someone in town other than Liam at the shop. Not that Jeff would tell anyone else but Sonja. He dropped another shovel-full into the ditch and studied his work. Would Amanda tell Sonja about their deal? Should he tell Jeff?

  Nah. Not unless his friend heard it elsewhere and asked him.

  “Chop, chop. Stop daydreaming about Amanda and get back to work or that fried chicken will be cold by the time you get there,” Jeff said.

  Eric tightened his grip on the shovel to keep his fingers from giving Jeff the gesture he wanted to.

  No, he wouldn’t tell him about the charade. But he might ask his friend for advice. For all his prowess at attracting women he wanted and even ones he didn’t want, Jeff had a much better track record in keeping a relationship going.

  Eric went back to work. He’d been known to screw up one in less time than the time frame for his and Amanda’s holiday romance.

  Chapter 4

  Today was definitely a TGIF. Who knew carrying on a fake holiday romance could be so time consuming and tiring? Amanda parked her car next to her beach house, one of the few that hadn’t been decorated for Christmas yet. Maybe tomorrow. She grabbed her things and headed up the steps. Her phone pinged.

  Are you sure you don’t want to come for dinner? Eric is running late, so you’d have time to get here, her mother texted.

  Sorry, she texted back. I have plans.

  No need to tell Mom that her plans were to microwave the couple leftover slices of pizza in the refrigerator, pour herself a goblet of wine, and sit out on her deck watching the waves.

  All right, then. Her mother signed off.

  Inside, she placed her bag and phone on the coffee table and went into the kitchen. Eric hadn’t said anything about plans for the evening. She’d expected he suggest they do something together later when she’d declined the ride up the coast he’d offered. She’d even come up with a reason she couldn’t spend the evening with him, although she’d forgotten it now.