Starlight Hill: Complete collection 1-8

by Heatherly Bell

  Fallon turned up the radio when a Bruno Mars song played, and Jack tried to concentrate on the road. Not on the beautiful woman sitting beside him, who seemed to have good rhythm given by the way she bounced in perfect time. Fallon was unfortunately turning out to be far more complicated than he’d initially thought. She had a body like a centerfold’s but had her heart in her eyes when she talked about her son. He had hoped she’d be a woman with little on her mind but getting to a wedding and having a good time. No such luck. She was real and genuine, and he couldn’t figure out why that bothered the hell out of him.

  Because you’re not ready for someone like her, genius. Bad timing.

  He pulled his mental focus back to the road. A mid-sized pickup truck switched lanes in front of him, carrying a load of Christmas trees. The trees jostled about in the back and didn’t look to be tied down properly. Worried him a little. Again, not his problem. He put a little more distance between him and the truck and just as he did several Christmas trees spilled out on to the road. The truck swerved to the left, and Jack briefly wondered why he seemed destined to attract trouble wherever he went. He swerved to the right just as a large fir rolled on to his dashboard with a loud thunk. He tried to avoid the inevitable.

  But he still ran over a Christmas tree.

  Fallon had been right in the middle of getting down with her semi-bad self when a plunk drew her attention away from the funk. A Christmas tree landed on the hood of their car, and then several more spilled out on to the road. She froze. Jack reacted quickly and swerved presumably to avoid the attack of the Christmas trees. No such luck as he ran over one. Or two. Instead of the smell of road kill, a lovely pine-scented fragrance surrounded her. And probably plenty of tree sap too.

  “Are you okay?” Jack’s hand curled around her thigh and squeezed.

  “I’m all right.” She shook off the daze and stared at the hood of the car. “But your car doesn’t look so good.”

  “Yeah.”

  Steam rose from underneath the hood of the Mustang, meaning that it probably didn’t appreciate being hit by a tree. The truck’s driver, a man dressed in a floppy Santa hat and candy-stripe red suspenders, ran around the highway waving his arms around and screaming like a lunatic while he picked up Christmas trees. This had all created a commotion and stopped traffic in the lane behind them while cars slowed to a crawl in the passing lane. Some drivers honked, laughed, and asked where they might find the seventy-five percent off sale.

  Jack helped her out of the passenger side door and walked her to the side of the highway, and over the guard rail. “Stay here. I’m going to secure the scene.”

  The man who wasn’t going to be a cop anymore sprang into action while Fallon tried hard not to notice that he was sex personified, even while yelling at people to stop staring and move along, or bending to pick up trees.

  She fished her phone out and dialed Kailey. “Running a little late here.”

  “Where are you? Sounds like you’re in a tunnel.” One of her little boys yelled in the background and Kailey shushed him. “What’s going on?”

  “I was hit by a Christmas tree.”

  Dead silence for a beat. “No really. What happened?”

  “Really!” Fallon sighed. “We were following this truck overloaded with trees and then a few of them rolled out on to the highway.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “We’re fine, but the car isn’t. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  She’d lost her job, almost been the victim of a crime, and now she’d had an accident with a Christmas tree. Difficult to believe she wasn’t stuck under a dark cloud of bad luck lately.

  “I still can’t believe you got him to agree to come to the wedding with you and pretend to be your fake boyfriend.”

  “I suspect the man has a hero complex. All that Latin machismo.”

  He was now helping the police set up cones on the highway while another cop directed all other vehicles around the truck. She was beginning to think that maybe machismo had received a bad rap for too many years. It wasn’t half bad from this angle.

  “What’s he like? Tell me more.”

  “My god he’s pretty.”

  “Hmmm,” Kailey said. “So you want to date him for real?”

  “Uh-uh. Not a good idea.”

  He was now under the hood of the car and from where she stood, not looking too happy. He scowled and ran a hand down his face.

  “Rosie wants me to tell you that she’ll beg the landlord not to raise the lease if you’ll take over the Curl Up and Dye,” Kailey said.

  An old-fashioned throwback to the seventies hair salon was not what Fallon had in mind for her storefront. She wanted modern and cutting edge.

  “Still not interested. I’ve got to go and figure out what we’re going to do about the car.”

  Fallon hung up with Kailey and went to meet Jack under the hood. “How bad is it?”

  He squinted above a puff of smoke. “Thought I told you to wait over there. It’s not safe here.”

  “Excuse me if I’m not the little woman. I want to know what’s up.”

  “I called a tow truck. We’ll know more when we get it to a shop.”

  “A shop!” It was difficult not to clutch her heart.

  “Yeah.”

  Her experience with auto repair shops involved days waiting to hear how bad the damage would be, followed by a quote that made her want to throw up and give up driving for public transportation, followed by another week of waiting for said work to be complete. Surprising herself, Fallon felt genuine disappointment when she realized this road trip had probably come to an untimely end.

  5

  They had the Mustang towed to an auto shop in Pismo Beach. Fallon stood by Jack and listened as the mechanic rattled off lingo she couldn’t quite grasp. But she clearly heard the word ‘tomorrow.’ It would mean she’d miss the welcome breakfast her mother had planned. Fallon didn’t much mind, though she knew Mom would be pissed. She’d use it as one more reason to demonstrate that Fallon was still too flighty and irresponsible. As if it was her fault that she’d nearly been impaled by a tree. Mom would just suggest, and maybe rightfully so, that Fallon shouldn’t have been driving up in the first place.

  After speaking with the mechanic, Jack pulled her aside. “Look, I’ll buy you a plane ticket so you don’t have to wait. You fly up and I’ll wait for the car. I’ll get up there as soon as I can.”

  “You would do that?”

  “I checked. There are a few regional airports not too far. You could go see what’s available.” He pulled out his wallet and handed her his credit card.

  “No, Jack. I said I’d paid for everything.” She tried to hand it back to him.

  “The road trip was my idea. Take the card.”

  She stared at it in her hands. “But what are you going to do?”

  He took a seat on a red-covered vinyl chair in the waiting area of the shop and stretched his long legs out. “Guess I’ll go find a motel room for the night. I’m looking at this as an adventure. Someday, believe me, this will actually be funny.”

  And today is not that day were his unspoken words. She felt bad for him, but she had to get to Starlight Hill.

  “Okay, then. I’ll see you tomorrow, or whenever you get there. Call me when you’re in town and I’ll give you directions. I can always make up some excuse, like you had to work late at your super important job.”

  He shoved hands in his pockets. “This gives us less time to get our stories straight, but maybe we’ll just make it up on the fly.”

  “More fun anyway.”

  She tried to smile but the thought worried her. If Jack made up something about their non-existent six-month relationship, she had a feeling it would be pretty wild and outlandish and she’d find herself going along with it to keep up the farce. Later, she’d have to live it down and he’d have moved on to…whatever he was moving on to.

  Fallon ordered an Uber and walked outside with Jac
k to move her luggage.

  “I’m sorry your road trip ended like this,” she said.

  When the Uber driver came, a kid who looked to be twenty-something, Jack loaded the suitcases in the trunk of the sedan without any assistance. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Make sure you talk me up real good with all my fake future in-laws.”

  “Okay, Jack. And thank you for an…interesting time.”

  Should she hug him? Give him a peck on the cheek? Lips? He inspired far more than a peck, so true, but this wasn’t really the time or the place standing right in front of Sam’s Auto Repair, under the watchful eyes of a fresh-faced college age kid who was already staring. But Jack made the decision for her, tugging her into a hug that didn’t feel at all awkward. She found herself crushed against his hard chest and enveloped in his heat. He smelled like pine and salt air and sand and one hundred percent male. She closed her eyes and wondered why someone like Jack would have no plan. But she had enough of her own problems to work out for now. One of them getting to this wedding.

  Jack let her go and opened the back passenger door for her. “Seat belt.”

  “Of course.” She took her seat and gave him one last smile before the door shut.

  “Dude! Where you going with all that luggage? Are you moving?” Her Man-Child driver asked.

  “No. I’m going to a wedding. Take me to the closest airport.”

  The driver pulled away from the curb, and she glanced behind her to see Jack walk back into the shop.

  “Right on. I love weddings. Free food and drinks. I wish I got invited to more weddings.”

  “Don’t worry, you’re still young. The invites are coming.”

  The thought seemed to cheer him. “Airport, here we come!”

  Her young driver chatted about school finals, traffic, and pizza, but Fallon barely heard him. She thought about Jack sitting alone in the auto shop. Thought of him getting a hotel room for the night. Alone. What a damn waste. She thought about a man who would restrain a criminal even while dressed in a Santa suit. Who worried about her overgrown Oleander bushes and offered to trim them. Who would drop whatever he’d been not planning to do to help her ridiculous situation just because she’d asked. A man who would buy her son a t-shirt when he’d never even met him. A man who would give her his credit card to book a flight home because he’d inconvenienced her by being behind the wrong truck.

  “Turn around.”

  “Did ya forget something?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  So she’d be a day late. No big deal. She wasn’t going to have Jack drive the rest of his road trip alone. Not when she was getting used to the big Alpha guy. Back at the auto shop, her driver pissed and moaned about cancelling the ride until she told him to charge her anyway. And then, more happily, he unloaded all her luggage and left her at the curbside with one last cheerful wave.

  She left the luggage curbside, and found Jack in front of the vending machine. His hands were shoved in his pockets as he stared at the ground.

  “You have to promise me one thing, Jack Cooper,” Fallon said from the entrance.

  Jack turned and a hint of a smile curved his lips as he squinted. “What happened? Don’t tell me you got run over by a reindeer.”

  “I changed my mind, that’s what happened. You’re a lot more fun than I thought you would be, and I’m in. I just want this last leg of the road trip to be a little less dangerous and a lot more stimulating. Can you think of a way to do that?”

  His easy smile changed the geography of his face from gloomy to downright boyish. He had a killer smile.

  “I can think of a few things.”

  Damn, she was a sight.

  She stood in front of him, hands on her hips, flashing him a gift-wrapped smile. He’d never been quite so pleased or genuinely surprised to see anyone. And he’d had plenty of surprises in his life, although to be fair most of them were not positive ones. He’d already resigned himself to the rest of his road trip on his own, which although would still be worthwhile, wouldn’t be quite the same without his sassy companion.

  It was good to know she’d felt the same way.

  He accepted his credit card when she handed it over. “We should probably get dinner and find a nearby hotel.”

  “I’ll call another car. We might even get the same guy. He can’t have gone far.”

  Sure enough, the same kid was back three minutes later. “Dude, you aren’t going to change your mind again?”

  “Not this time,” Fallon said and she helped get the luggage back in the car.

  “Where to?” their driver asked. “Airport?”

  Jack glanced at Fallon. “With all your luggage, we’ll need to get a hotel room before we have dinner.”

  “Take us to the closest hotel,” Fallon said.

  “And for dinner, you gotta try Three Amigos!” While their driver sang the praises of their Godzilla-like steak burrito, Jack kept his eyes on Fallon.

  Her left hand rested between them and kept bumping into his thigh. When she noticed him studying her, she smiled and folded her hands into her lap as though caught in the middle of some unscrupulous act. But he wanted her touching him. A year ago, after Alicia had left him, he’d been done with women. It had been one long dry spell while he threw himself into work. He’d never cared for casual sex and nothing had changed in that regard. Other than the fact that he wondered whether one night with his pretend girlfriend would count as casual sex. He wondered that so loudly he half worried she might hear him.

  They arrived at the Mission Inn Hotel and he unloaded all their bags. An attendant helped carry their luggage inside and Jack tipped him. Inside, the lobby was decked out for the festivities with garland everywhere. Twinkling lights. The haunting melody of Frosty the Snowman piped through speakers. Lit mirrors. Sprigs of holly. Pine boughs.

  “How may I help you, sir?” the young female desk clerk asked.

  Jack was hyper-aware of Fallon standing beside him. She smelled nice. Like a pine tree. Or was that him? “Two rooms.”

  “Two rooms? Really?” the clerk asked, eyeballing him.

  “Yes,” Jack said through gritted teeth.

  “How many nights?” She tapped into her computer.

  “One.”

  She quirked a brow at the luggage around them, enough for a month’s vacation, were they all his bags. “I have one room for one night. Now, if you were staying three nights I could give you two rooms.”

  “How does that make any sense?”

  “It’s a package deal.” She nodded. “Plus, its Christmas and we have the Santas in town.”

  “The Santas?”

  “We call it the Santa Convention around here. If I’m going to give up two rooms that’s less room for the Santas, so I need to make it worth our while. They’re a bunch of old retired mall Santas who go around town just making everyone happy.”

  “Good. As long as they spread all the happiness around, who am I to complain?”

  “Jack—” Fallon said from next to him. “Let me pay for this.”

  “No.”

  “Of course, I can give you both rooms for three nights even if you’re not staying.” She tapped into her computer.

  “So you’ll let me pay for both rooms for three nights and just stay one?”

  “Guess it depends on how badly you need those two rooms.” More tapping.

  Jack fished his wallet out of his back pocket because a fool was born every minute, and he was about to prove it.

  “We’ll take one room for one night,” Fallon said.

  “Now that’s more like it. My grandma says you should never go to bed angry.” The clerk quickly got them checked in. “I just love a happy ending.”

  “Are you sure about this?” Jack asked Fallon on their way to the elevators.

  She simply nodded and smiled. Neither of them had even thought to request a room with two beds. Most of the time, that’s how these rooms came anyway, but every once in a blue moon there was a dream called a King siz
ed bed. As he opened the door to room four hundred and seven, Jack saw two double beds with a nightstand between them.

  Damn it. I can’t seem to catch a break.

  “Perfect,” he said instead.

  6

  Tonight Fallon McQueen, former head cheerleader at Starlight Hill High and not horrible looking by most people’s standards, would share a bedroom with a man who obviously didn’t want to share one with her. He’d been ready to shell out enough cash for three nights rather than share a bedroom with her! She tried to tell herself that he might have been trying to be a gentleman. Knowing Jack and his Latin retro ways, she wouldn’t be at all surprised. But her fake boyfriend had already offered to spend enough on her and this crazy scheme. She wanted to pout when the room had the classic two double beds instead of a cozy King sized bed. Had that been the case, she’d have accepted Jack’s offer to sleep on the floor while she took the bed. Then after a short time, she’d have whispered in her best sex kitten voice: this is silly. Come up here and join me on the bed. I don’t bite.

  And then maybe something would have happened as they lay next to each other. He’d touch her or she’d touch him and they’d be off to the races. But she didn’t know who she was kidding here. All those hot looks she imagined seeing in his dark eyes ever since the moment she’d come back to the auto shop were probably only what she wanted to see. In a way it would be nice if this wasn’t make-believe, but a bad idea. Jack was too unstable. She’d been carefree once and couldn’t go there ever again. She and her son required stability and security. A plan. She wanted a solid relationship and not one with a man who had no idea where he would be in the next month let alone next year.

  Besides that, Fallon hadn’t ever had casual sex, and it probably wasn’t a good idea to start now. She sure wasn’t going to suggest it, even if one night with Jack had genuine appeal. She could argue that it would help make their lie more plausible, and if she were a pathetic person that’s exactly the approach she would take.