A Marine for Christmas (Hearts Ablaze: Men in Uniform) (5 page)

The phone rang the next morning as Amy was pulling on her jogging clothes.  She glanced at her alarm clock and saw that it was only 8:30 a.m.  That seemed a little early for anyone to call on a Sunday, but she dug her phone out of her purse to see who it was.  Beth’s name flashed across the screen.

“Hey,
Everything okay?”

“Hey—I’m so sorry, but I’ve got your keys.”

“My keys?!  I spent an hour looking for them last night.  Where were they?”

“I’m sorry—I must have picked them up off the table or something as we were getting ready to leave.  I didn’t even realize that I had them until this morning.
  They were in my coat pocket of all places.  I’ll bring them by in a little while.  How did you get home?  Did Melissa or Kara give you a ride?”

“I ran into my neighbor in the parking lot.  Luckily he spotted me
, or I would’ve needed to call one of you to come back and get me.  Another neighbor had a spare key to my house, but Jason had to drive me home.”

“
Ugh, I feel terrible.  How about I pick you up in a little while?  I’ll treat you to brunch, and then we can swing by the restaurant to get your car.”

“That sounds great, actually.  I’m just heading out on a run.  Does an hour from now work?”

“Sounds perfect.”

“Great, see you then.”

***

An hour later the girls were happily ensconced in a cozy booth at the local coffee shop.  Sipping skim lattes and enjoying their chocolate croissants,
they were catching up on a little girl talk.  Beth was telling Amy about a sci-fi marathon her boyfriend had wanted to watch last night.  Beth and Nick had lived together for the past year and would probably be the next in their group of friends to walk down the aisle.  Or the first, as the case may now be.  Melissa and Michael’s relationship didn’t seem destined to make a miraculous comeback.

“I mean seriously, I could not get the guy to turn off the TV,” Beth continued.  “I get that we live together, but seriously?
  I had to put on some lingerie and prance around in front of him to get the guy to come to bed.”

Amy laughed, certain that her friend was exaggerating.
  “I seriously doubt that.”

“All right, so I concede that there was no prancing involved.”

Amy raised her eyebrows, looking doubtfully at her friend.

“There was lingerie. 
Black lace.”

“We should all have your problems.  A gorgeous boyfriend—and likely soon-to-be fiancé—who lives with you, a kickass lawyer job where you make the big bucks, a sweet condo that’s like a million square feet—”

“You have a house!” Beth said, looking at Amy disbelievingly.  “And I know you’re upset about Ben still—I get it.  But
you
broke up with
him. 
There had to be a reason behind that other than just being scared, am I right?  He obviously wasn’t the guy for you.”

“No, I guess he wasn’t,” Amy
thoughtfully agreed.

“That’s it?” Beth asked, raising her eyebrows.  “No argument from you, no pining for the one who got away?”

Amy laughed and downed the last few sips of her latte.  “Was I really that bad?”

“
Noooo.  Of course not.  Not nearly as bad as Melissa is going to be.  I just expected a little more of the ‘I miss Ben’ talk.”

Amy laughed.  “No more Ben talk today.”

“Hmmm…so Kara is married, I’ve got Nick.  Now we just need to get the two of you fixed up.”

“No, no, no,” Amy quickly disagreed.  “I have sworn off men for a while. 
And Melissa does not need a rebound guy at this moment.  I’m all about work, painting, and friends right now…and of course our girl’s trip coming up.”

“About that…,” Beth said hesitatingly.

“Oh no, not you, too,” Amy groaned.

“Kara told you?”

“Yes!  She’s not ready to leave the babies.  And I totally get that.  But I thought the rest of us could still hang out and have a fun weekend getaway.”

“I’m sorry.  I really, really want to go. 
And a trip right before Thanksgiving sounds amazing.  But now that Nick and I are living together, I can’t just leave him the weekend before our first Thanksgiving.  We want to go shopping together, pick out the food, start buying Christmas decorations….Sappy, I know.  And our tickets to the spa are refundable.  Remember I insisted we get that travel insurance?  Plus it was supposed to be a last trip before Melissa’s big day, and now she’s kind of down about it….”

“Yeah, I get it,” Amy said with a sigh.  “I was just looking forward to a
weekend away.  I can’t go home for Thanksgiving this year—my parents are taking that month-long cruise around Europe, my sister has a million things to do for her residency….”  Amy trailed off, thinking that for once the rest of her family had more hectic lives than she did.  In the past they’d practically been scheduling family events around her.  She’d had to stay on a stricter schedule that followed the school calendar.  And she’d never been without a boyfriend.  First there was Mark, all throughout college.  Then that dreamy guy Frank that she’d only briefly dated, but
yum.
  He was rebound all the way.  She’d dated her next serious boyfriend Craig for a couple of years before ending up with Ben.

Sh
e’d known Ben since high school.  He was always way out of her league—captain of the football team with a parade of cheerleaders around him.  They’d gone their separate ways for college, but when he’d moved back to town six months after she got out of her last relationship, she’d practically jumped at the chance when he’d asked her out.  Now she’d gone and ruined that, too.  It was hard to believe that for the first time in years, she’d be without a boyfriend around the holidays.  And now her family had all made separate plans as well?  The year was definitely not ending how she thought it would.

“
Let’s have Thanksgiving together,” Beth suggested.  “We’ll do it at my place. 
Our
place,” she quickly corrected, referring to Nick.  “And after the Thanksgiving stuff, we’ll do a girl’s day out on Friday or something.  We could grab lunch.  Shopping!” she added, eyes brightening as she began to organize a new plan.  “For Christmas.”

“That would be fun,” Amy mused, remember
ing their earlier years of marathon shopping sessions during the holidays.  Times had changed as they’d gotten older and been busy with work, boyfriends, and other commitments.  But if they couldn’t get away for a girl’s weekend, there was certainly no reason they couldn’t all spend Thanksgiving together.

“So it’s okay if I text Melissa and tell her we’re cancelling the girl’s trip?” Beth hedged.

“I guess so,” Amy said with a shrug. “When were you guys talking about it anyway?  No one said anything last night.”

“Oh, right after we left.  Remember how we parked around back?  Kara pulled me aside to ask what I thought.  Melissa overheard us….”

Amy laughed.  “Sounds like there was no reason to talk to me then if everyone else was already out.  Thanksgiving will be fun though.”

“Definitely.
  I’ll let the others know the trip is off.  And invite them over for Thanksgiving.”

They finished up their breakfast, and Beth drove Amy back to get her car at the restaurant.  Thankfully it hadn’t been towed, but she’d told the
restaurant manager last night that she’d lost her keys and couldn’t drive it home.  She probably wasn’t the first one to leave her car here—surely others had either had too much to drink or not gone home alone.  Her SUV was the lone vehicle sitting in the lot this morning though.

The girls said their goodbyes and Amy stopped by the grocery store on her way home.  She still had cookies and
apple pies to bake for the school bake sale tomorrow, not to mention countless little projects to finish for her preschool classes.  She was slightly saddened to realize she wouldn’t have any time to paint this weekend.  That seemed to always fall on the back burner these days, but if her choice was between dinner out with her friends last night or staying in alone to get lost in her artwork, she was happy to trade in free time at home for some much needed time with her girlfriends.  There was always winter vacation to get back into her painting.

Amy retrieved a shopping cart from the array in front of the store and
pushed it inside.  She picked up a few basics like apples, milk, and butter, but then headed over to the baking aisle.  Selecting a couple bags of flour, sugar, brown sugar, and chocolate chips, she quickly filled up her cart.  Eyeing a brownie mix, she decided to toss that in her cart as well.  Consulting her list, she grabbed a few more items before making her way to the checkout line.  The store was pretty empty this time of morning, and she’d be out in a breeze.  As she stood in line unloading everything onto the conveyor belt, a masculine voice beside her suddenly caught her attention.  “You’re not opening a bakery, are you?”

Amy turned and was surprised to see Jason standing there.  He had on dark grey sweatpants and a black Marine Corps tee shirt that nicely hugged his masculine frame. 
The short sleeves revealed the hint of a tattoo peeking out from beneath his left sleeve, and Amy was a little surprised.  He hadn’t seemed like the tattoo type of guy from what she had seen before.  She imagined guys covered in tattoos to be rough, rocker types, not clean-cut military men.  What did she know anyway, though?  Besides, it was just one tattoo; it’s not like his whole arm was covered in ink.  Amy guessed he must be on his way to the gym or something—he certainly wasn’t just coming from it as she detected the clean scent of soap and aftershave as he leaned closer to inspect the contents of her cart.

“Right, in all my spare time.
  Preschool bake sale,” she explained with a smile.

“So it’s safe to assume you got your car back?  Unless you’re planning to wheel all
this home in your shopping cart….”  Jason grinned down at her, his blue eyes gleaming, and Amy laughed.

“My friend Beth had my keys in her
pocket!  She called me this morning.  Unbelievable, right?  I think she accidentally grabbed them off the table when we were leaving the restaurant.”

“That’s crazy. 
I’m glad you found them—or glad she found them.”

“It would have been nice if she found them last night.  Oh well,” she added with a shrug.
  “At least I’ve got my car back now.”

“True.  Well, let me know if you need a taste-tester for all
your baking.  I’m going to go lift for a while, but I’m sure I’ll work up an appetite,” he added with grin.

“I’ll keep you in mind
,” she said with a smile. Amy waved goodbye and finished loading her groceries onto the belt.  It was strange that Jason was never around on the weekends, yet she’d seen him several times over the past few days.  Had they been crossing paths before and she’d just never known it?  After checking out and pushing her cart back to the car, she dismissed those thoughts, focusing instead on the afternoon of work ahead of her.

Melissa hung up the phone with Amy later that afternoon.  Her friend had sounded slightly disappointed about cancelling their girl’s weekend, but she knew Beth had likely smoothed things over this morning.  The weekend getaway was going to be a mini-vacation for all the girls, but also a final fling before her wedding. 
The wedding that wasn’t,
she thought.  The past few days had been such a blur that their weekend trip was literally one of the last things on her mind.  After Kara had gracefully backed out, Melissa had told them that her heart wasn’t in it either. 

She’d been late to girl’s night
yesterday after spending the afternoon with Michael.  He’d offered her the tickets to their honeymoon in Hawaii, and after initially yelling at him, saying of course she didn’t want to go, she’d eventually agreed to keep them. 
Who didn’t get insurance on a huge trip like that,
she wondered.  She couldn’t decide if it was incredibly sad or the perfect revenge to go on their honeymoon without him.  She could bring one of her girlfriends with her.  Or maybe her sister.  They’d live it up and enjoy nice dinners out, long days at the beach, and all the activities she and Michael had already signed up for—snorkeling, a sunset cruise.  Or maybe she should just go alone and hope for the best.  Assuming she was even ready to attempt to move on two months from now.

Melissa sighed, thinking of how differently the year was ending from the way she’d planned it.
  She bit her lip and sank down onto her bed as tears filled her eyes.  She’d tried to put up a good front yesterday—both in front of Michael and later in front of her friends—but despite the façade she’d built up, inside her heart was still breaking.

***

Jason opened the front door and was surprised to see a plate of cookies sitting on his front porch.  He thought he’d heard the doorbell ringing, but when he’d stopped hammering the bookshelf that he was putting together in his office, the house had been completely silent.  It was only after he stopped for a break half an hour later that he remembered someone may have come by.  A smile came to his face as he realized that the plate of cookies was from Amy.  There was no note—she’d probably assumed she’d find him at home since his car was in the driveway.

Carrying the plate into the kitchen, he sampled a bite of one before
walking back to the front door.  He jogged across the street and rang the doorbell at Amy’s house.  As she opened it, the blast of warm air and scent of cookies overwhelmed him.  Her welcoming little home was a far cry from his own.  He’d been there for months and was still assembling his furniture.

Amy appeared from behind the
front door, wearing jeans and a hot pink tee shirt.  Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her cheeks flushed, and her lips a luscious, rosy shade.

“Hi,” she said brightly, a smile coming to her face at the sight of him.

“Sorry I missed you earlier.  I was upstairs putting together some furniture.  I just wanted to say thank you for the cookies.”

“Oh, no problem.
  Thank
you
for coming to my rescue last night.”

“Any
time.  Well, I don’t want to intrude—I’m sure you’re in the middle of baking.  I just thought I’d run over and thank you in person while I had a chance.”

“Yeah, I’ve still got more
baking to do.  Apple pies are up next.  I think I’ll need to do a lot more running after the bake sale tomorrow,” she added with a laugh.

Jason glanced down at her slender frame
with an amused smile.  She certainly looked amazing to him, but if experience had taught him anything, it was that complementing a woman you barely knew about her looks didn’t usually go over that well.  Not the type of women that he seemed to like anyway.  Amy’s friend Red probably wouldn’t have a problem with anyone lavishing her with complements—whether she knew them or not.  He raised his eyes back up, perhaps letting them linger a moment too long on her firm, full breasts, but quickly met her eyes once more.

Amy
hadn’t seemed to notice, and if she did, wasn’t letting on.  “You’ve been around a lot this weekend,” she commented.  “I don’t usually run into you.”

“I travel a lot on the weekends,” he explained.  He didn’t add that he was often going to see his
young son.  He knew Amy loved children, being a preschool teacher, but it seemed too soon to overcomplicate things by bringing Brian up right now.  “I’m hoping to change that in the future, though.”

“Oh, okay,” she said, seeming unsure what exactly he meant. 
And rightfully so,
he thought.  It wasn’t like him to be purposefully vague.

“Well, I’ll let you
get back to it,” he said. “Thanks again!”

“Sure
thing.  Enjoy the cookies!”

She gave a small wave before closing the door.

Jason caught a glimpse of one of Amy’s paintings on the wall as the door closed, and inspiration suddenly struck.  He’d ask her for help buying some artwork.  God knew his place needed it.  If he were ever going to gain partial custody of Brian he needed to decorate his house—make it the least bit more lived-in and homey looking.  Hell, if he were ever even going to have company over he needed to decorate a little bit.  And who better to help him than the stunning artist/preschool teacher who lived directly across the street?