by Maine, Miley
“Well there was a reason he didn’t come by. I walked over, and he didn’t answer the door. So I went inside. I was worried, because his parents had gone out of town, and he wasn’t answering his phone. I walked into his bedroom…”
How in the heck do I tell my mother about this? I did not want to break down on the phone with her. She would be on the first available flight, or she’d hop in her Lexus SUV and start driving this direction.
“What happened honey?”
“He was with another girl. They were… in the middle of being intimate.”
“Oh honey! I am so sorry. I had no idea. Why didn't you tell me?”
“I wanted to. But you were already asleep and Emma and Mia insisted that we leave for a trip. They said it would make me feel better.”
“That little shit. I'm going to go over there right now,” my dad said.
“Dad. No.”
My dad’s voice was low. “What the hell is wrong with him? Does he know how lucky he was to be dating you?”
I always appreciated my dad's rants about how lucky everyone was to be in our presence. If our self confidence was based solely on his opinion of us, my siblings and I would be the most egotistical people in the world.
I heard my mom shushing my dad. She was probably trying to put her hand over his mouth.
“Dad, seriously. Don't say anything.”
My dad muttered a few more curse words under his breath. My mother spent several minutes making sure he was just pacing the living room and was not busting out of the house to go and confront Winston and his family.
Winston's father was our financial planner, he was on the board of directors at the hospital where my dad worked, and he and my father played golf together at the Little Rock Country Club. My father did not need to alienate him over my failed relationship.
My dad would disagree.
It's not like I wanted Winston back. Now that I'd seen what a real man was like, I most definitely did not want him back.
My mother brought the conversation back on track. “I'm so glad you have such sweet friends. Did the trip help?”
I thought about the hunky man that had driven my friends to the airport. The man who was standoffish and rude at times, but insisted on making sure my friends were safe. The man who was giving us his own holiday to take care of me after my own mistakes. The man who had taken my virginity and rocked my world.
“Yes the trip helped very much.”
“I'm so glad sweetheart, I can't wait to see you.”
“Well that's the reason I'm calling, Mom. I'm going to stay here for Christmas. I've met a friend, she's in a similar situation and she has a cabin at Gray Sky Resort. We're going to spend the holidays together. There's no way I can leave her alone here.”
“Bethany! You're going to miss Christmas?”
“I'll be back soon Mom. I'm in my last year of college anyway, and most people my age miss a Christmas or two. We can stage a makeup Christmas once I’m back.” My voice cracked just a little, and I was talking way too fast. “Besides it would be easier for me if I don't have to see Winston or his house.”
Now my dad was back on the line. “I'd like to wring that boy's neck. I can't believe he deceived all of us.”
He didn’t really deceive us. He deceived me. But I didn’t need to point that out to my father.
“Are you sure you don't want us to come up? Your dad, I, your brother and sister could leave right now. We could be there tomorrow.”
I had anticipated they’d offer to come. “No, it would be too dangerous. If you drove, it would take twenty hours and there's a snow storm coming. There are no flights out. Mia and Emma are on their way back. I asked the airline about other flights, but there are no more for several days.”
“Oh honey I just hate for you to spend Christmas away from us if you're heartbroken.”
Heartbreak? What I felt for Winston could now be classified as only irritation. My heartbreak had not lasted very long. I wasn’t sure what that said about me, that I’d been planning on marrying a man I didn’t really give a shit about. “I'm going to miss you but it's actually kind of nice to be with someone in the same boat.”
It was somewhat weird that I didn't feel like I was lying to my mom about spending time with someone in the same boat. Logan did seem heartbroken, but not about a relationship.
“I'm going to put your dad on the phone again. He’s been stomping around. He's going to be harder to convince than I am. I love you sweetheart.”
She was right. My father insisted that they would come up, no matter how bad the weather. It took me fifteen minutes to talk him out of it. Even then I had to pull up the weather radar and talk about road conditions, but then I was speaking his language, and he responded by pulling up his own radar, talking about the forecast and the probability of a snowstorm.
“Mom, can you handle my obligations? I know it’s a lot, but I don’t want to leave any of our charities in the lurch.”
“Of course, I can. You just concentrate on getting Winston out of your mind, and I’ll handle all the interviews.”
Just as I said that, Logan walked by in his fitted shirt and his sexy jeans. This time my eyes caught on his broad shoulders. I wanted to put my hands on them again, and maybe run my tongue over his collar bone.
Whew. I fanned myself, thankful my mom wasn’t on a video chat to see my sweating.
Oh, Winston was definitely no longer in my mind.
Before we were done speaking, Jason, my little brother, grabbed the phone. “What about your presents, Bethy?” He giggled. “Are they mine now?”
“You better not open them, you little stinker.”
I heard a rustling sound and then something shaking. “Do you hear that? That's me opening your present.”
I could always count on my little brother to make me laugh. “Do me a favor and give mom and dad a hug from me okay?”
“I can do that,” he said. He was always affectionate. He never shied away from our hugs. “What about your sister? She's such a butt.”
Linley was fifteen. She was in a perpetual bad mood. Jason had not taken well to that, because they’d been buddies before her descent into hormonal madness. He’d taken to calling her ‘your sister’ instead of Linley.
“She's not a butt. Why don't you try using a little holiday spirit when you talk to her?”
Before he could answer I heard a loud scream and then my sister was on the phone. “I can't believe you're not coming home,” she said. “How do you always get away with everything? Mom and dad would never let me skip Christmas.”
“Linley, I am twenty-two years old.” Maybe Jason was onto something. Maybe Linley was a butt. My fifteen year old sister played the role of the middle child perfectly. Over the last year she’d become rude and demanding much of the time, but sometimes she could be really sweet.
It just took one of us making the first move toward kindness, and it was never her. “I’m going to miss you,” I said.
She scoffed, but then she said in a low voice, “I’m going to miss you too. It won’t be the same without you here.”
“I won’t be gone too long. We’ll have a secret Christmas when I get back, just the two of us, how does that sound?”
“Can we go to YaYa’s?”
Yaya’s was a Mediterranean restaurant. It was her favorite hands down, and she always wanted to order their creme brulee. “Of course we can. I’ll let you order whatever you want.”
“Will you let me drive?”
She had her learner’s permit now, but she was only permitted to drive with an adult in the car. Now that I was over twenty-one, I counted as an adult. The roads were curvy and narrow near our neighborhood, and usually packed with cars, but out toward Yaya’s they were wider and straighter and traffic was lighter. Maybe I could stomach it. “If traffic’s not too heavy, and if mom and dad say it’s okay.”
She sighed. “Fine. As long as Jason doesn’t come, then it will be fun.”
Ther
e was no way in hell I’d take both of them somewhere at the same time. “Hey. Since I’m not there to play referee between the two of you, can you cut him some slack?”
“Slack? He put superglue in my doorknob last night so I can’t lock it!”
I pressed my hand to my mouth. Now that was a funny prank, although I wouldn’t have been amused at all. When I was Linley’s age, Jason had been an adorable toddler. I’d never had to live with him while he was capable of wreaking this kind of havoc.
“He’s ten. I’m not suggesting you cater to him, just see him for what he is. A goofy little kid who wants your attention. You’re the mature one here,” I reminded her.
“I guess so,” she grumbled. But I could tell it was working, at least a little. She liked being thought of as grown up. My parents had always thought having large age gaps would cut down on fighting, but so far they’d been proven wrong. “There’s a gift under the tree from me. It’s wrapped in Star Wars paper. Tell him it’s from you.”
“But that’s not true.”
“It’s a harmless lie. And it might actually help the two of you get home. So then it would be worth it.”
“If you say so.”
“I do say so. He adores you. If you give him the chance he would love to hang out and spend time with you.”
“What’s in the package? So I can pull off the secret?”
I smiled. Now she was coming around. This was the little sister I remembered, one who was my partner in crime, and willing to pull off a few surprises with me.
“It’s a slime making kit.”
“Oh wow. Mom is going to go nuts if it’s got glitter in it.”
Our mom wasn’t nearly as upright about our house getting messed up as some of the neighbors, but she was not a fan of slime or glitter. Maybe because there was still a stain from Lineley’s slime on the kitchen ceiling. “No glitter. But the glue is green, and it’s got food dye. Just make sure he makes it outside.”
“I can do that.” Linley lowered her voice to a whisper. “Thank you. He’ll love it.”
I was starting to feel a little loopy. I was going to have to get off the phone before I started saying stuff that revealed that I was taking powerful narcotics.
“Hey. My battery is low. You know how it is up here in the mountains.”
My sister had been skiing many times and only laughed. “Okay. I’ll see you soon. Thank you for the heads up on the gift.” My sister cackled. “Bye Beth!”
I wanted to tell my sister that I loved her. But we didn’t say that to each other, not often. I said it to my parents, and to my brother, but not to my sister, because my sister usually rolled her eyes. If I blurted it out now, my sister might be suspicious. But I was feeling overly sentimental, and I had to bite down on my tongue to keep the words from spilling out.
Apparently all it took was a little morphine to make me want to gush.
Then my mother was back on the phone. “We love you sweetheart! Let’s Facetime for Christmas Eve!” Oh hell. I hadn’t considered that. I’d have to figure out how that was going to work later. My parents would demand that I be on the phone while they opened gifts. Maybe I could lock myself in the bathroom at Logan’s and find a way to hide my cast too.
I had a feeling he was not going to want to subject himself to a rowdy Christmas Eve with my family. And the next day… Lord. My extended family would be coming in. They’d want to do a video chat as well.
I tried to picture telling Logan that I’d need to use his computer to watch my cousins fight over their Secret Santa gifts.
I wouldn’t do that to my worst enemy. And Logan was definitely not my enemy. In fact, I had several ideas of what they could do instead of watching my cousins open gifts, and all of them ended with me back in his bed.
16
Logan
What the hell was this woman doing to me?
I slammed the door to the shed closed, and hefted my axe into the air. She’d made that crack about me lying to my parents, and then she’d smiled. It lit up her whole face. She smiled a lot already, but since she’d been on the pain medicine, her smiles had been bigger.
I went to one of the logs I had saved for bad weather, and I lifted my axe above my head, swinging it down in an arc.
The blade sank deep into the wood, splintering it, and already I felt some relief from my turbulent emotions.
I raised the axe again, and kept going, chopping the wood into the size needed for my fireplace. Eventually, my arms grew numb, and my hands were vibrating, but it felt good. Satisfying.
I looked down, surprised to see I didn’t have on a coat. I hadn’t even noticed. Good. The frigid air would help cool my libido down. The last thing Bethany needed right now was a glimpse of the front of my jeans while I was aroused.
She was an odd woman.
You’d think she’d be unhappy, since she was missing Christmas with her friends and family. The way she talked about them led me to believe she actually liked her family, and wouldn’t want to be separated from them.
I’d heard some of their lively phone conversation. She’d grinned the whole time, clearly happy to talk to them. It sounded like her father had been rather insistent on coming up here.
But no. She had refused him, over and over.
Did she want to be alone with me? Why? Had she formed some sort of attachment to me since I took her virginity?
That didn't really seem to fit the pattern. After we slept together, she had woken up the following morning and hopped out of bed. She had not lingered or even asked for my phone number.
She acted like she never expected to see me again, and didn’t even kiss me goodbye.
In fact she had left rather incensed at my comments. She did not come across as clingy. Or even as a girl who wanted to see me again.
Could it be the sex?
It had been amazing for me. Close to earth-shattering although I didn't want to use such dramatic words. Had it been that way for her? Could she want some more experience in the bedroom, and she figured I was the one to give it to her?
Was I the one to give it to her?
What was the best plan here? Should I deny her, for her own good?
No. Then she’d come up with another asinine scheme to get what she wanted.
At the thought of her naked in another man’s bed, I snarled. I would not let anyone else touch her, at least not until she was fully recovered from her fall in the snow.
Maybe it was selfish, but if she showed interest, I’d have sex with her again. I could show her anything she wanted to know.
It was a good thing Cameron was not a mind reader. I had always teased him in the past about being a secret romantic. He would give me hell if he could hear my thoughts about this young woman. He would laugh so hard, if he could see how much analyzing I was doing in my own head.
I had to stop thinking about her. The cold hadn’t done its job well enough. I was chopping wood with a raging hard on.
At least I had managed to get Bethany’s two friends to the airport without incident. They’d been bouncy and chatty during the plane ride two days ago, but in my truck they were quiet and subdued. I guess watching their friend break her arm and then getting stranded on a mountain would do that to a young person.
I waited until they had texted me that they were boarding and then I left to get back to the hospital.
I’d tried to keep my mind mostly blank as I waited for several more hours until the doctors released Bethany. I wondered what the nurses must have been thinking. I was thirty-four, but I felt like I looked about ten years older. Maybe not physically, but it was there in my eyes if you looked.
Bethany had been a surprisingly good patient. Then I had taken her back to her lodge and collected all of her belongings.
After that task, I got her settled on my couch. She called her parents, and talked to her brother and sister.
The temperature had dropped again and so I built a roaring fire. Not long after we'd been there Bethany fell aslee
p. I couldn't stop myself from staring at her.
She slept in till around 5:00 p.m., and then woke up, stretching. She looked adorable.
She rubbed her eyes. “I really need a shower.”
I wasn't sure that was a good idea. “Do you need some help?”
“I think I can do it on my own.”
I went and got a trash bag and some medical tape. “Let me wrap your cast for you.”
“Oh right. They said not to get it wet.”
She held out her arm and I wrapped it up and secured it so that no water would leak inside.
“You're good at that.
“I've handled more than a few casts.”
“Yours? You didn’t get time off for that?”
“Mine and the other guys in my unit. If the breaks were minor we just kept right on going.” She was probably thinking about the military. CIA agents didn’t always take time off for a simple break. It was easy to keep doing intelligence work with a cast.
I carried her back to my bathroom and put it on the counter. I really didn't want to leave her alone while she was taking pain meds, but I didn't want to make her uncomfortable.
“You can stay, if you want,” she said.
“I can wash your hair.” I could remember all too well how difficult it is to wash my hair with one arm.
“That actually sounds really good.”
She was still just standing there staring into space so I turned the bath water on. I didn't have any bubble bath or any feminine soap. Everything I had smelled like a guy. “Do you have any shampoo with you?”
“No, we packed so quickly that I didn't bring any. I've just been using the lodge’s.”
“You'll have to make do with mine.” I didn't mind the idea of her smelling like me.
She was still just standing there. I wasn't sure if it was modesty or if she couldn't get undressed by herself.
“Do you need some help getting your shirt off?”
“Oh. yes. I think I spaced out.”
“This is why I didn't want to leave you alone. I know what those drugs are like. Especially if you aren't used to them.”
