by Brenda Novak
“Depends.”
“On...”
“A couple of things.”
“Are you being purposely evasive?” she asked.
He chuckled. “No. I’ll go to Maddox and Jada’s house, if Jada’s mother isn’t going to be there.”
“And if she is?”
“I’ll stay here.”
“Why’s that?”
He hesitated. This was dangerous territory, which was why he’d tried to avoid getting into a conversation on the topic. “She’s...difficult. Hanging around with her isn’t exactly fun, especially at Christmas.” That was a euphemistic explanation, but it was true—Susan was difficult—so he figured he could leave it at that and still feel as though he was being somewhat honest.
“But if you stay here, won’t you be alone? Because Maddox will have to be with his wife and daughter, won’t he?”
“He will, but I’ll just buy a turkey dinner and have my mother over.”
“Your mother wouldn’t do a dinner herself?”
“My mother isn’t the homemaker type.”
“What type is she?”
His eyelids were feeling heavy. “She’s the meth-addict type.”
Silence. “Oh. I see. That’s why you said you and Maddox had to raise yourselves.”
“Sadly, she’s more of a child than we ever were.”
“Do you even know how to roast a turkey?” she asked.
She was lying so close to him her lips nearly brushed his when she spoke. He loved that. “I didn’t say anything about roasting it. I said I’d buy a turkey dinner.”
“From where?”
“I’ve heard the larger grocery stores sell them. Uriah mentioned it once. I’ll have him over, too, if Carl’s gone by then.”
“So you’ll have a store-bought turkey dinner with your mother and your landlord.”
“Maybe.” He wasn’t sure why she was still talking about this.
“And then?”
“I don’t know. I’ll go on a hike, I guess.”
“You really like being outdoors.”
“I do.” After being cooped up in a six-by-eight-foot cell with only one hour of yard time a day, he couldn’t be outside enough. That was part of the reason he liked his job. He was never stuck behind a desk; he was always moving, always busy.
When she fell silent again, he started to drift off—until she asked, “What happened to Atticus? Why’s he in a wheelchair?”
A shot of adrenaline brought Tobias back to full consciousness. His heart was pounding again, but this time it had nothing to do with being aroused. This was the question he’d been dreading.
“Tobias?” she said, but he didn’t answer. He pretended to be asleep.
* * *
Tobias woke up to the sensation of Harper kissing his chest and neck. “Are you too tired to wake up?” she whispered.
“Too tired for this? Are you kidding?” he mumbled and proved it by moving her hand a little lower.
“Impressive. I guess we won’t have any trouble.”
“None at all.”
“I just hope you don’t have to get up early.”
“No. But what about you? You’ve got children.”
“They’re not that little anymore, so it’s not a problem if they roll out of bed before I do. Besides, my brother-in-law will be there. He always gets up and makes breakfast on Saturday. Everything will be fine, as long as they don’t catch me sneaking back in. Then I might have some explaining to do.”
He ran his fingertips down the length of her arm. “I don’t like the idea of you driving home alone when it’s so late. I’ll follow you to make sure you get there safely.”
“I’ll be okay. There’s no need to make you leave this nice warm bed. But I could maybe delay a few more minutes...”
He grinned at her. “It’s my lucky night.”
16
Even after she’d made love with Tobias again, Harper had no desire to leave. She wished she could sleep in his arms and then wake up and have breakfast with him.
“How was that?” he asked, nuzzling her neck.
She knew what he was referring to. “Now you’re just being cocky,” she joked.
He gave her a sexy grin. “It was good, right?”
She laughed. He wanted to hear her say it. “It was good,” she agreed.
He raised his head to catch her eye. “Does that mean you’ll be coming back?”
She tensed. She wasn’t sure she could make that commitment.
“Never mind,” he said before she could come up with an answer and, pulling away from her without so much as a final peck, climbed out of bed.
“It’s a possibility,” she said. “There’s just...a lot going on in my life.”
“And you’re leaving town in a couple of weeks never to return. No worries. I got the memo. Consider me notified.”
Cold and strangely bereft without him against her, she squinted at the sudden brightness when he snapped on the light so they could find their clothes. “Are you upset?”
“Of course not,” he said. “You don’t owe me anything.”
That had been the wrong question to ask. She didn’t really sense that he was upset. It was more that his defenses had come up. From the beginning he’d been so open with her she wasn’t expecting that. “I’ll text you,” she said.
“You don’t have to,” he responded. “I wasn’t asking for anything. I just thought since you had a couple more weeks here we might see each other again. But there’s no pressure.”
He let go of the idea so quickly and easily, she got the impression he felt he should’ve known better than to ask.
With a sigh, she slid out of bed. “Don’t bother getting dressed,” she said when he picked up his boxers. “You don’t have to walk me out.”
“It’s four thirty in the morning. I’m going to walk you out and I’m going to follow you home.”
Oddly enough, she wanted to touch him again. Already. Put her hand on his warm chest to see if she could feel the thump of his heart. What was that all about? “There’s no need. Really.”
“I’m going to make sure you arrive safely, Harper,” he said as though he couldn’t be talked out of it.
She remembered seeing Carl standing in the shadows when she arrived and felt reassured that she’d have Tobias with her on the way out. She didn’t like Uriah’s son any more than Tobias did, didn’t want to have him standing there, watching her leave. “Okay. Thank you.”
“What’d you drive over?” he asked.
“Terrance’s little car. With all the boxes that held the Christmas decorations out of the attic now, he can’t park in the garage, so it’s the easiest car to take without waking anyone.”
“How’d you get the keys? Don’t tell me he leaves them in the ignition.”
“No. Karoline and Terrance both keep their keys in the kitchen.” Their cars were too new to have an ignition like the kind he meant, anyway. All you had to do was press a button on the fob. But she didn’t say that. She didn’t want the disparity between their lifestyles to be an issue.
“That’s convenient, at least.” He started to go into the bathroom, but she stopped him.
“What’s that from?” she asked, eyeing the scar she’d been able to feel as her hands roved over him in the dark last night. It was so big she thought maybe he’d had a kidney transplant or something.
He turned in surprise. “What’s what from?”
“That scar on your lower back.”
His expression grew shuttered as he touched the raised flesh. “Oh, that. I got it in a fight when I was younger,” he said, sounding somewhat noncommittal.
She managed to find her panties, which had been kicked under the bed. “A fight? Must’ve been a bad one.”
He gave her an enigmatic smile. “Not too bad,
” he said and closed the door.
Harper hesitated before she finished dressing. She didn’t want the night to end like this, hated the physical and emotional distance that had come between them, especially after having such a wonderful time together. But one glance at the clock on her phone and she knew she had to forget everything else and get back. Terrance woke up as early as six some mornings. If she didn’t want to be busted, she needed to sneak in before he was even beginning to stir.
* * *
Uriah knocked bright and early. After only three hours of sleep, Tobias was bleary-eyed when he let his landlord in.
“Rough night?” Uriah grinned the second he saw him looking so disheveled and tired.
Tobias couldn’t help smiling in return, even though he wasn’t happy about being rousted out of bed. “Not what I’d consider rough, no.” He didn’t like the fact that Harper hadn’t been willing to say she’d see him again, but having her over was probably more than he should’ve expected anyway, given the circumstances. Most guys with his kind of background never had the chance to touch a woman like Harper, let alone make love to her several times.
Tobias motioned to a chair. “Want to sit down?”
“No, I’m only going to be a minute.”
“What’s up?”
He took off his cap and twisted it in his large, calloused hands. “Who came over last night?”
“Harper. The girl you met.”
“Does that mean it’s getting serious between you two?”
“Not at all,” he replied.
Uriah scratched the back of his neck. “You’re just like your brother.”
“In what way?”
“Jada used to sneak over here late at night, too.”
“It’s hard to get away with anything these days, what with places like Home Depot selling security systems for only a few hundred bucks,” Tobias joked.
“Unless something’s damaged or missing, I don’t pay much attention to the security feeds. Who you have over, and when, is none of my business. I was just hoping you might be able to tell me what happened to Carl.”
“What happened to Carl?” Tobias repeated.
“He was at the house when I went to bed but was gone this morning. That’s why I checked the security feeds—to see when he left. But the only thing I could make out was a car that didn’t belong to him. It drove in, and a woman hurried to your house. Several hours later, she backed down the drive, and you followed her in your truck before returning after twenty minutes or so.”
Tobias skipped over the part about Harper. “Carl knows you have a security system as well as I do. I’m guessing he purposely parked outside the range of the camera on that side of the house, so you wouldn’t realize he ever left.”
“That’s what I think, too. He was probably planning to be back before now, so that I’d never find out. But that’s part of the reason I’m worried. He’s not back. Why would he let himself get busted?”
Because he doesn’t give a shit. Tobias was tempted to say it, but he bit his tongue and tried to recall if Carl’s vehicle had been parked to one side, near the rows of tangerine trees, when he followed Harper home.
He’d been so focused on her he hadn’t thought to check. “I didn’t see it when I went out—or when I came back, for that matter. Unless I overlooked it. That’s entirely possible. I wasn’t thinking about Carl.”
Uriah clicked his tongue and shook his head. “That boy just won’t listen.”
Tobias shoved his hands in the pockets of the soft, worn jeans he’d yanked on when he’d heard someone at his door. “Are you going to call the police?”
“If he doesn’t get home soon, I’ll have to,” Uriah said. “I can’t let him run around without a license, doing God knows what.”
In that moment they both heard the sound of an engine.
Uriah stepped out onto the stoop and peered around the edge of the house.
“That him?” Tobias asked, leaning on the doorframe.
The old man cursed under his breath. “Sure is.”
“Should I grab a shirt so I can be there when you talk to him?” It was too cold to go outside without one.
“No, I can handle it.” With another disgusted shake of his head, Uriah stepped off the stoop and went to confront his son.
Tobias peered out his kitchen window long after he closed the door. He could hear raised voices, could see Uriah and Carl gesticulating. But finally, Uriah pivoted and stalked back into his house, and Carl opened his car door, sat in the driver’s seat and lit a cigarette.
The argument seemed to be over. For now.
Tobias was curious about where Carl had gone last night, but he didn’t want to get involved when tempers were hot—not if he didn’t have to. Uriah would tell him later.
Once he felt somewhat reassured that he wouldn’t need to intervene, he went back to bed. He’d been planning to go on a hike. That conversation with Atticus at the Blue Suede Shoe—where they’d revealed their plans to Maddox and Jada—had motivated him to start his training. But he’d have to wait until Sunday now. He was no good today.
He fell asleep almost immediately and didn’t wake up until Maddox came over to watch the UCLA game. Jada and Maya were helping Susan at Sugar Mama. The cookie store was extra busy because of Christmas, so that left Tobias’s brother with a free afternoon.
“What do you have there?” Tobias indicated the reusable grocery bag Maddox was carrying as he came in.
“Seven-layer dip, tortilla chips, pulled pork and rolls for sandwiches.” He grinned. “I’m hoping you at least have the beer.”
Tobias remembered the six-pack he’d given Uriah to mollify Carl. “I’ve got a couple left.”
“Only a couple?”
“Should be enough.”
Maddox gave him a skeptical eye. “You look like you just rolled out of bed.”
Tobias scowled. “I was up late last night.”
“Doing what? It was only ten thirty when you left the bar.”
He didn’t answer, merely started to help Maddox spread out the food—a welcome sight and something he’d have to thank his sister-in-law for making and sending.
Maddox stopped him. “Are you going to answer me?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then this has to do with a woman.”
Tobias shrugged him off. “Let it go.”
“Don’t tell me Harper came here after she left the bar...”
“Actually, she did. For a few minutes,” he admitted as though it was no big deal.
“A few minutes? Bullshit,” Maddox said and laughed. “From the look of you, she kept you up a lot longer than that.”
Tobias was starving. He used a tortilla chip to scoop some of the dip into his mouth. “Maybe a little longer,” he said with a smile.
Maddox gaped at him.
“What?”
“She stayed the night with you?”
“Not all of it.”
“But some of it. Holy shit! I told you she really likes you.”
“She’s hurt and lonely and confused. It might have no meaning at all.”
Maddox didn’t argue. “How’d you cover for your unfriendly behavior at the bar?”
“I didn’t.”
“So she still doesn’t know about Atticus.”
Tobias was beginning to feel uncomfortable. “No. But she doesn’t need to.”
“You’re getting in deep,” his brother warned.
“She wouldn’t even commit to seeing me again. It’s fine.”
“But there’re plenty of people in town who’d recognize your name if she mentions it. She could easily hear about what happened.”
“No one she’s going to talk to knows me or anything about my past,” he said, reluctant to consider the possibility. “She’ll be here
another two weeks, maybe three. How many people do you think she’ll talk to—other than her family—in that time? When you’re visiting a place, you don’t go around announcing the name of the guy you slept with a few times.”
Maddox pursed his lips. “Hmm. Maybe you’re right,” he said, but he didn’t seem completely convinced that Tobias had no reason to worry.
Eager to be done with the conversation, Tobias went over to turn on the TV. “If we’re not going to end up together—if that isn’t even a possibility—I’d rather let her believe I’m just a regular guy, a good guy, instead of ruining what she feels for me by telling her about Atticus. Besides, she may not ever come back. I was shocked she came last night, never expected it.”
“She didn’t ask what happened to Atticus?” Maddox spoke louder to compensate for the volume of the TV, since the game had come roaring on. “You were so convinced she would.”
“She did ask, for your information,” Tobias said.
Maddox’s gaze grew sharper. “And you...”
Tobias looked away. “Pretended to be asleep.”
“Why not just explain to her?”
“This isn’t the type of girl who would date an ex-con, Maddox.”
His brother set his hands on his hips as though he’d argue, but ultimately dropped them and shrugged. “That was my concern in the first place. Anyway, you know her better than I do,” he said and allowed himself to be distracted by the football game.
* * *
“Who are you going to give your gingerbread house to, Mommy?” Everly asked.
Harper blinked, pulling herself out of the well of her own thoughts. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said as she wiped a bit of frosting from her daughter’s pug nose. “Maybe Aunt Karoline has a neighbor she’d like me to give it to.”
“I’m going to keep mine,” Piper announced.
“That’s fine.” Karoline was adding “snow” to her front yard and had, of course, made the most elaborate creation of the six of them. She’d used melted suckers to form stained-glass windows, which looked beautiful. When the girls saw what she was doing, they’d tried to copy hers, but theirs hadn’t turned out quite so well. Neither had Terrance’s. His was probably the worst. Karoline was forcing him to participate, since this was “family time,” but his heart clearly wasn’t in it.
