Oklahoma Christmas Blues

by Maggie Shayne

Chapter Five

  “So?” she asked later, picking up a chair and putting it upside down on top of a round table. “How did you know I was from New York?”

  
The bar was empty and she’d taken pity on Darryl and left the juke box unplugged after the last customers had gone home. He was manning a big mop and bucket and humming something unfamiliar, but he stopped to answer her question. “I saw the plates on your car.”

  “How’d you know which car was mine? The lot must’ve been full last night.”

  “Saw it earlier when I was here for the interview. Three states were represented in the lot then. And I was pretty damn sure you weren’t from Texas or Oklahoma.”

  “I am actually.” He sent her a questioning look. “From Oklahoma. Just haven’t been back in a while.” Before he could ask why not, she went on. “So why did you ask me where I was from if you already knew?”
“Wondered if you’d tell me.”

  “What made you wonder that?” The chairs were all up and the floor swept. She moved behind the bar, but she’d already washed the glasses, and the guys had emptied the register before going to bed. Jason was renting a place just outside of town, but the other two kept rooms upstairs. There wasn’t a lot left to do.

  “Because you’re hiding something.”

  She lifted her brows and stared at him. “Is it that obvious?”

  “To a guy who’s been in law enforcement for fifteen years, yeah. Probably not to the general public though. But I gotta tell you, you’ve got me curious.” He swung the mop around the last dry bit of floor, bucketed it, and rolled the whole thing back toward the kitchen.

  “I’m not hiding,” she said. “Just avoiding.”

  “But you don’t want anyone to know where you are.”

  “What makes you think that?”


  He shrugged. “Cop sense?”

  “Is that a real thing?”


  “You tell me,” he said.

  Then she smiled, because he was pretty good at this game, and looked him dead in the eyes. “I’ll tell you what…you tell me why you hate Christmas so much and I’ll tell you what made me come down here.”

  He blinked.

  “I mean, you would think a guy who won a CMA for a country Christmas song would be just about the biggest fan Santa could have, wouldn’t you?”

  He walked right up to her, stood real close and looked her in the eye.

  She shrugged and smiled a smug little smile. “See? You’re not the only one with cop sense.”

  “At least not the only one with access to the internet,” he said. “But I’m flattered you were checking me out, ma’am.”

  “I wasn’t checking you out!”

  “Yeah, you were.”


  “Yeah, I was.” She lowered her head. God, was she blushing?

  “How long you in town for, Sophie?”

  “A few more weeks. Not long.”

  “There now, that’s something we have in common. I’m not here for long either.”

  “How long?” she asked.

  “A few weeks.”

  “Isn’t that coincidental?” she asked, but her throat was going dry.

  “I’d call it more…convenient.”

  “Convenient?”

  He nodded. “Very. I mean, I like you. You’re easy on the eyes, smart, funny, and kind of fascinating. And uh…while I’m not looking for anything…complicated, I think I’d enjoy spending a little time with you. While I’m here. And you….”

  He didn’t finish. Leaving it up to her. She said, “Well, I’m definitely not looking for anything complicated, either. Or anything at all, really.”

  “But…?”

  “But, you may or may not be aware of this, but you’re kind of a hottie. And you just about melted me with all those compliments, and I got the feeling they were sincere.”

  “They were. Are.”

  “And uh…you know, since we’re both only here a short time…yeah, maybe we could…hang out.” She shrugged. “Beats being alone for the holidays.”

  He was quiet for a beat too long, then said, “You know, it just might at that.”

  “I’d like to know your story, though,” she said.

  “I’d like to know yours, too. So why don’t you let me walk you home, and …we’ll see how it goes?”

  She smiled wide, and said, “I’m all the way out on the other side of town. It’s too far to walk. You?”

  “Guys rented me a room upstairs,” he said. He sounded disappointed, and she thought he might’ve been hoping to get lucky and hoped this was more to him than a holiday fling. And yet, not too much more, because she wasn’t ready for that.

  “How about breakfast?” she asked. “We can meet at the diner downtown. Say eight?”

  
“Say nine,” he said.

  “All right. Nine it is.”