Holiday Sparks (6 page)

“I guess that’s it.”

Chloe’s stomach tightened as Scott’s words sank in. The rewiring was done, which was good. But that was it for their holiday fling too. He’d go have Christmas with his family and she’d have Christmas with hers before heading back to Boston. Time to go their separate ways.

She’d known it was coming. He’d said he’d finish up the last of the wiring today—hopefully before her parents got home—and she’d felt the goodbye in their lovemaking last night.

But, like all good things, a fling had to end, so she kept her voice deliberately light. “I don’t know if my parents will be thrilled or not, but I’ll sleep better knowing their house won’t burn down if Dad tries to make toast while Mom’s watching TV.”

Since he’d known how many hours it would take to finish up and given her the amount, she’d already written the final check. She handed it to him and watched him fold it and slip it into his back pocket.

“So…” He hesitated a moment, then shrugged. “I guess I’ll carry my tool bucket out to the truck and then get out of your way before John and Anna come home.”

She wanted to call him back, but she didn’t know what to say. She could ask him to hold her one more time—maybe make a joke about one for the road—but that would only make it harder. And her parents were on their way home.

The tears threatened when Kojak, who knew Scott picking up his tools was usually followed by a trip home to his kibble bowl, ran to her for his goodbye belly rub.

“You’re a good dog, Kojak,” she told him and he didn’t seem to mind that her voice cracked a little. He even licked away the stray tear she didn’t blink back in time.

“Are you okay?”

She forced herself to let go of Kojak and smile. “I’m really going to miss this guy. Guess you won’t let me keep him, though.”

“Sorry, we’re a package deal.”

It hung there in the air for a few long, awkward seconds…seconds of
is he serious
and
yes, I want the whole package but
…and then the moment was gone.

“Next time you’re up to see your parents, give me a call. Maybe we can have dinner or something.”

She nodded, focusing all her willpower on not crying. “Make sure you look me up if you’re ever in Boston.”

“I will. So…” He shrugged and snapped his fingers for Kojak. “I guess I’ll see you around, then.”

She could only nod again because her throat was so tight she wasn’t sure she could speak. He started toward the door, then turned back. Maybe he was going to kiss her goodbye after all, she thought. And she desperately wanted that, but was afraid if he touched her right now, she wouldn’t let him go.

“Goodbye, Chloe.”

She managed to wait until she couldn’t hear his truck anymore. Then she walked slowly up her bedroom stairs, like a woman climbing the gallows, and threw herself onto her bed for a good cry.

Or what should have been a good cry. Fifteen minutes later her cellphone rang and her stomach twisted into a knot when she saw the name on the screen. “Hi, Mom.”

“Chloe?”

“Yes, it’s me. As far as I know I’m the only person who calls you mom.”

“Are you sick? You sound terrible.”

No, her heart was broken. “I was watching
Steel Magnolias
.”

“I don’t know why you watch that movie. It always makes you cry. I’m afraid I have some bad news, honey. We made it into Logan airport, but everything’s shut down because of the storm. We’ve tried everything, but we can’t get home unless we rent a car and drive.”

“No, you can’t drive.” The last thing she wanted was her parents being the lead story on the eleven o’clock news. “I think they’re closing the highway, anyway.”

She could hear her mom sniffling on the other end of the line and hoped she didn’t go for a full sob. Chloe was on the ragged edge as it was.

“You have your key to my condo, right?” she asked before they both started crying.

“Yes. We’ll just stay there until we can get home. If the flights into Portland are a nightmare, we might rent a car.”

“Wait until they’ve got the roads cleaned up, Mom. I’ll miss you, but I’d rather have Christmas a couple days late than get a phone call from the State Police.”

They talked for a few more minutes and then she talked to her dad, but eventually she had to let them go so they could go out into the storm and settle in at the condo.

The lonely hours stretched out in front of her. No parents. No Scott. No Kojak to keep her feet warm. Just her and cheery holiday movies on the television she wasn’t sure she had the heart to watch.

It definitely wasn’t going to be one of the better Christmases of her life.

* * *

Scott missed Chloe.

Even sitting at the dining room table with his parents, his sister and her husband and little Bethany, he felt alone. Sure, it was his family, but when they all went home, he’d go alone. And he’d wake up alone the next day. Except for Kojak, of course.

He could always spend the night at his parents’ and spend Christmas morning with them, but it wasn’t the same. He wanted to wake up beside his wife and listen for the pitter-patter of little feet sneaking down the stairs to see what Santa left under the tree.

After three weeks, it seemed crazy to think Chloe might be the woman he wanted to wake up to, but hers was the face he saw when he let himself imagine it.

And it had hurt like hell to walk out of her house and not look back. He’d wanted to kiss her, just one last time, but he knew if he’d gotten that close to her, he wouldn’t have been able to walk away. He would have made a fool out of himself, confessing to all sorts of feelings she hadn’t signed up for. And, once again, rather than risk her rejection, he’d kept on walking.

“Too bad about the Burkes, huh?” his mother said.

Scott’s head snapped around so fast his neck cracked and Kojak leapt to his feet next to his chair. “What about the Burkes? What happened?”

“I heard the storm shut everything down, so they’re snowed in at Logan. Even the buses aren’t running. It’s ironic, really. After all this time, Chloe finally came home for Christmas and they’ll be stuck at her condo in Boston without her.”

At least they were okay, but Chloe would be alone for Christmas and that wasn’t right. So maybe their fling was over. They were still friends and a friend wouldn’t let another friend be alone on Christmas Day.

An hour later, after Scott and Lanie had washed and dried the dishes just because they were the “kids”, the family gathered around the Christmas tree to exchange gifts. Most of them were for Bethany, of course, but each of the adults had a couple too.

Watching Lanie and his mom, as well as the two guys, open gifts Chloe had helped him pick out made his stomach hurt. He’d been such a grump that day. He hated shopping, but she’d patiently dragged him to store after store until everybody was crossed off his list.

“Uncle Scott, open these, please!”

Bethany dumped her pile of gifts in his lap. After watching Lanie struggle with those gray twisty wires used by the dozen to hold toys in packaging, he’d started bringing his small wire snips to Christmas Eve dinner. Now it was officially his job.

Once his niece’s gifts had been liberated and the wrapping paper cleared away, his father snuck out to the garage for his after-dinner cigar and, because dressing dolls wasn’t one of his finer skills, Scott escaped with him. He didn’t smoke, but he popped open a beer and took a seat on the riding mower.

“Good dinner,” his dad said, rubbing his hand over his stomach.

“Yup.”

“What’s going on with you, son? Your mother says you’re too quiet so something must be bothering you because you usually never shut up.”

Might as well spill the beans. Since he obviously wasn’t as decent an actor as he’d thought, they’d keep after him, trying to find out what was wrong. And, since it was after the fact, it’s not like they’d go getting their hopes up.

“I wasn’t totally honest with you and Ma about Chloe Burke,” he confessed.

“We figured that out about two weeks ago.”

“Oh.” So much for keeping secrets. “The thing is, it was just supposed to be a fling, you know? A little fun between consenting adults and then we’d go our separate ways.”

“But you fell for her.”

“Hard.”

“Did you tell her that?”

“No.”

“I’m pretty sure if Chloe Burke was one of those psychic people, your mother would have heard about it by now.”

“She lives in Boston and she likes it there. And I…I don’t want to move to Boston, Dad. Maybe I’d make more money, but I work for myself here and, because I set a fair price for people, work’s steady. And this is home. I’d go nuts in a city like that.”

“Doesn’t she work on that internet stuff? Maybe you should ask her if she’d consider moving back. You don’t know if you don’t ask.”

“It’s only been three weeks.”

“Sometimes you just know, son.”

The words echoed through his mind hours later when he was stretched out on his back, alone in the middle of his king-sized bed, with his hands tucked under his head.

What was the worst that could happen if he knocked on her door, wished her a Merry Christmas and asked her to stick around? Maybe she’d tell him she was just in it for the sex and thanks, but no thanks. And if he didn’t knock on her door? Would the time they’d spent together become nothing more than a fond memory of a hot winter romance?

Or would he spend the rest of his life hating himself for letting her walk away without at least putting up a fight?

* * *

Seven o’clock was way too early to get out of bed on what was undoubtedly going to be a crappy day, but Chloe was up anyway, slamming the carafe into the coffeemaker and jabbing the
on
button. She leaned against the counter, hugging her warm flannel pajamas to herself, and watched it drip.

It was Scott’s fault. Showing up every day at eight had trained her to be awake by seven, ready to shower and brush her teeth and meet him with a smile. He wasn’t coming today—he wasn’t coming back at all—but she couldn’t force herself back to sleep. Her mother never called before ten because Chloe sometimes kept late hours, so she had at least three hours to kill. Alone.

And she was alone because of a measly hundred miles. Because his life was in Maine and hers was in Boston and somehow that had become an insurmountable obstacle.

She knew in her gut they had more than a holiday fling going on. While she couldn’t say how much, she knew he cared for her. Maybe even enough to pack up and move to Boston. But he’d be unhappy there and she knew it. And so would Kojak.

That left her moving back to Maine, assuming Scott was as interested as she thought he might be. It wouldn’t really affect her work, as long as she could get high-speed internet. And she wouldn’t have to sell the condo, at least not right away. Her parents could use it. She and Scott could spend some weekends there.

So maybe she couldn’t get crab rangoon delivered to her front door at three in the morning, but the Monday night beef stew special was good.

Before she could change her mind or talk herself out of taking the chance, she flipped open her phone and dialed Scott’s number. It rang, but along with the standard ring she heard over the line she could make out the cheesy Christmas melody Bethany had programmed on his end.

Weird. She followed the sound to the front door and saw Scott on the other side of the glass, staring at the display on his phone. Then he looked up and saw her.

He’d come back. That had to mean something, though she tried hard not to let hope run away with her emotions. Her pulse quickened as his gaze held hers through the window, his eyes serious despite the smile he gave her.

She closed her phone and dropped it on the side table, then pulled open the door. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, Chloe,” he told her as Kojak squeezed past them. “I was working up the courage to knock.”

“I don’t look
that
bad in the morning.”

“It’s pretty early. I wasn’t sure you’d be up.”

The frigid morning air wafted over her face and froze her ankles, so she pulled him inside and closed the door. “I made coffee. It should be done by now if you want a cup.”

“Well, first I, uh…I brought you something.” He pulled a small, square package wrapped in Christmas paper from his coat pocket and handed it to her. “It’s…umm…maybe you should just open it.”

She sliced through the paper with her fingernail and peeled it away from the plain white box. When she lifted the lid and unfolded the tissue paper, her breath caught in her chest.

It was a key. Shiny, with well-defined edges, so it was either cut recently or was seldom used.

“It’s a key to my house.” Scott’s voice was a bit tight, as if from nerves, and Kojak made a questioning sound and thumped his tail. “I know we were just supposed to have a holiday fling and I tried but…I think I fell in love with you.”

Chloe’s heart was pounding so quickly she was surprised she didn’t pass out. “You think?”

“I’m pretty sure, actually. I don’t want to let you go, Chloe.”

“I…wow.”

“I know. I wasn’t supposed to. But I think, if you give us a chance, it might be the real thing. I know the distance is an issue, but somehow we can make it work.”

“I was calling you because, even though I said it was only a holiday fling, I think I fell in love with you, too, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t at least tell you.”

“You think you did, huh?”

“I’m pretty sure.”

“I think I’d like to kiss you right now. Pretty damn sure I would, actually.”

He didn’t need to tell her twice. She moved into his embrace, sliding her hands under his jacket so she could wrap her arms around his waist. He hugged her shoulders with one arm while cradling the back of her neck with the other, then lowered his mouth to hers.

It was a sweet kiss—filled with the promise of a new future together—and she sighed in contentment against his mouth, wishing it could go on forever.

Kojak, however, had a different idea and kept headbutting her hip until she reluctantly pulled away from Scott. “Yes, Kojak. Merry Christmas.”