Christmas in a Small Town

by Kristina Knight

  Levi looked to Adam, who sat quietly at one of the tables the ten of them had commandeered when they arrived at the grandstand. “You have anything to add?” he asked.

  Adam shook his head. “I like her.”

  “Good for you,” Levi said sarcastically.

  “She doesn’t seem like your type, though,” he added.

  “I don’t have a type,” Levi groused. He liked all women. Tall, short, curvy, skinny, long hair, short hair, white, brown or any other color.

  The other four burst out laughing.

  “You’ve had a type since we were teenagers desperate to get to first base,” Collin said.

  Levi folded his arms over his chest. “And just what is my type?”

  “Unavailable,” his friends said in a chorus.

  That was patently ridiculous. He didn’t date unavailable women; Levi Walters went out of his way to date only available women. Women who had no expectations where love and romance were concerned and who weren’t involved with other men.

  “The four of you have lost your minds since you settled down,” he said, pointing his bottle of Corona toward the group. Aiden, Collin and James sat with Adam at the table. The dog, Sheba, lay at Adam’s feet, taking in the conversation as if she understood it. What was it with all the people in his life bringing dogs into things? First Camden with her unruly Six. Adam with Sheba. Although Adam had a prescription or something for his service dog. He looked around for Camden or the other women, but all he saw were couples in jeans and jingle bells swaying to the music.

  “You don’t see it because you don’t want to, but that doesn’t make it untrue. You don’t want to be involved with a woman, not in a long-term way, so you pick women who aren’t available. They live in other towns, they’re groupies from your football days or they’ve been hurt in the past.” Collin’s voice was reasonable, and that only annoyed Levi more.

  He didn’t prey on women like some kind of stalker. Having plans and refusing to let anyone distract him from those plans only made him focused. He’d settle down once he had accomplished the dairy expansion.

  “It’s called having a life and a business that needs my attention. And, you know, cleaning up our town after that tornado tore through it took up a little time, too.”

  “It didn’t slow me down on the romance front,” James offered. He finished his bottle of water.

  “Me, either,” Collin added.

  Levi narrowed his eyes. “That’s my sister you’re not slowing down with,” he warned.

  “I already proposed. Get over it.”

  “It slowed me down a little, but I’m catching up fast,” Adam chimed in.

  Aiden remained silent, watching Levi as if he saw something the other guys didn’t. Hopefully he wasn’t seeing how hung up on Camden Levi was becoming. Having the guys rag on him about being unavailable was one thing. Their knowing he was having illicit thoughts about a woman who was openly using him was something else entirely.

  “What?” Levi asked after a long moment.

  “Just wondering what it is about this one that has you smitten,” Aiden said.

  “I’m not smitten,” Levi insisted. He was part of a bargain, and yeah, he was having trouble keeping his hands off the pretty brunette wearing leather knee boots, skinny jeans and a flowing sequined top under her denim jacket, but that didn’t mean he was smitten.

  “Definitely smitten,” Collin said.

  Before Levi could dig into those comments, he caught sight of Jenny leading the other women back to the table and lost his train of thought. Camden was laughing at something Julia said. It was the first real laugh he’d witnessed since he got back, and it transformed her face from girl next door to siren, making her skin glow and her eyes light up.

  They five of them arrived at the table, and Mara checked her watch. Her face clouded.

  “Your fifteen minutes are up,” she said, putting her arms around James and kissing him. “And if I’m not home in about twenty, Zeke is going to turn into the bedtime monster and we’ll never get Amanda to babysit again.”

  “I’ll stop by the house, make sure he’s down. You stay.”

  Mara yawned. “I’m tired anyway.” She waved at the group and then pulled Camden, who had been hanging at the perimeter, into a hug. “We’re having lunch when you get back from the Tulsa trip,” she said when she released her from the hug. “Come on, Sheriff, get your old woman home for the night.” Mara paused when she reached Levi, caught his gaze and winked. “I always knew something might be going on between the two of you,” she said.

  James put his hands at her waist, propelling her forward. “We’re not supposed to say things like that, because he isn’t smitten,” James said in a faux whisper. Levi gritted his teeth.

  God, sometimes having friends sucked. He wasn’t smitten with Camden Harris any more than she was smitten with him. This was a scheming relationship, which was one step below the clichéd working relationship.

  Now if he could just get his mind off the woman for enough minutes to convince his body it didn’t want her, things would be just fine.

  * * *

  CAMDEN COULDN’T KEEP this up.

  “It’s all an act, you know.”

  Camden swung around at Mara Tyler Calhoun’s words. She vaguely remembered the other woman from her childhood. It would be hard to forget the nearly white-blond hair, the clear blue eyes. She looked like some kind of cross between an angel and a Swedish nanny. She continued talking while the five of them—Camden, Mara, Savannah Walters, Jenny Buchanan and Julia Colson—checked their makeup in the harsh fluorescent lights of the ladies’ room at the grandstand.

  Outside, the band was riffing through the final chorus of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

  “Levi likes to pretend he’s all about football and dairy farming, but he’s more than that,” Mara said. “Last summer, he and Collin practically led the volunteer crew from project to project as they rebuilt downtown, and he started an amazing charity for underprivileged athletes in his football days.”

  “Don’t forget, he’s helping me with the zoo part of the camp I’m developing,” Savannah added.

  “Saint Levi of the Plans,” Jenny said, her voice husky, as if she might be getting over a cold. “Only I don’t think you were part of his plans. Not that you shouldn’t be,” she said quickly.

  Camden shook her head. “It’s okay. I...”

  But she didn’t know how to finish the sentence. Camden was nowhere in Levi’s master plan, whatever that master plan was. And he was most definitely not in her master plan, not that she had an actual plan in place. She’d mostly been winging her life since landing back in Slippery Rock. “Levi has plans?” she said, hoping to keep the conversation on Levi and off her.

  “Are you kidding me?” It was Mara. She leaned lightly on the counter as she reapplied lip gloss. “Levi has had plans for as long as I’ve known him. First it was the How to Win State plan, then How to Get a Football Scholarship.”

  “Don’t forget the First-Round Draft Day plan,” Jenny put in.

  “And the Rebuild Slippery Rock plan,” Savannah added.

  The three of them looked to Julia. “I’ve been here a month, I don’t know the plans,” she said, and the other women burst out laughing.

  “The Expand the Dairy Because Ice Cream Is the Best Medicine plan,” they said in unison.

  “He doesn’t actually think ice cream is a cure for cancer or something, does he?” Camden asked. She couldn’t imagine that was true, but then again, she couldn’t imagine Levi expanding the dairy because he had a sweet tooth, either.

  Savannah nodded. “Nah, not really. But he does believe the old adage that money can’t buy happiness.”

  “But it can buy cows,” Mara added.

  “And cows make milk,” said J
enny.

  “And milk makes ice cream,” Julia added.

  Then all three of them said, laughing, “And ice cream makes you happy.”

  The three of them looked expectantly at her, but Camden had no idea what to say.

  “So?” Savannah asked.

  Camden racked her brain, trying to remember every quote about money and happiness she’d ever heard. None of them mentioned anything about cows or milk or ice cream, though. Was there another part to the saying or was her supposed connection to Levi supposed to fill in this blank?

  “So,” she said, drawing out the word and hoping against hope that inspiration would strike. The four of them were watching her expectantly, and they’d been so nice since she walked in with Levi, and she didn’t want to let them down. Or let him down. She might be trying to get rid of Grant, but Levi had something riding on this, too—the lease agreement. Camden repeated the quote in her mind.

  Money can’t buy happiness.

  Of course, money did make it a lot easier to be happy.

  But it could buy cows, and cows made milk, and milk made ice cream and ice cream made you happy.

  Now is not the time to mention your lactose intolerance, Cam.

  “So money can buy happiness?” she said, hating the hesitation in her voice. If this truly was Levi’s saying, and if she and Levi were truly dating, she would know it. Only she wasn’t dating Levi, she was dumping Grant. Again.

  “Exactly,” Mara said. “We’d better get back out there before the boys go off to play darts again.”

  “At least we always know where to find them,” Jenny said as they strode back to the arena.

  The crowd seemed to have grown since the five of them went into the ladies’ room. The dance floor was crowded with couples wearing jeans, flannel shirts and the odd sweater. One older lady wore a full square-dancing outfit in vibrant red and white, complete with a least a dozen layers of crinolines in the skirt. Little bells hung from the skirt, making jingling noises as she danced with her partner.

  This night was perfection, Camden thought as Julia linked arms with her. It was as if she’d had a real conversation with real friends.

  If Grant hadn’t shown up when he had, she wouldn’t even be here tonight, hearing about Saint Levi. Camden was torn between feeling guilty about lying to these women who had been so very nice to her since the two of them had arrived at the dance and feeling grateful to Levi for going along with her plan so that she had the chance to meet them.

  Most of Camden’s interactions with women in the past had been from the pageant circuit, where girls would bludgeon one another for the last spray of swimsuit glue. She’d been prepared for backhanded cattiness and even straight-up accusations tonight. What she hadn’t been prepared for was the welcome from these four women or the quick acceptance of the men.

  Especially since they were all aware of her less-than-graceful Slippery Rock reentry in the wedding dress.

  God, they must think she was desperate.

  It had been only a few hours since Levi had picked her up for their first fake date, and already it was hard to remember they weren’t really dating. That they were barely friends. His chocolate-brown gaze met hers as Mara and James left their little group. She couldn’t hear what either of them said to Levi, but whatever it was set the amber flecks dancing. In annoyance? Excitement? She only knew that the fire in his eyes made her stomach go all wobbly again.

  Like it had a dozen times since she’d climbed into his truck.

  The band started singing the classic “Tennessee Christmas,” and then one by one the couples at their tables separated to hit the dance floor, leaving Camden with Levi.

  “I, ah, think it’s going well,” she said after a long moment. Why the realization that their fake date was fooling people she barely knew should make her feel like a phony Camden couldn’t explain. But it did. The only person at their table that she could claim to know, aside from Levi, was Julia, and the two of them hadn’t been close in years. Not since that last pageant. Like most people who weren’t in her mother’s circle, Julia had drifted out of Camden’s life. It had been nice spending time with her when the shop opened on Thanksgiving.

  Maybe she should make a point to call Julia while she was here. Strike their friendship back up, or at least explain why she hadn’t made more of an effort to stay in touch.

  “Yeah, our performance is top-notch,” Levi said, and something in his voice made her turn away from watching the couples on the dance floor sway in time to the music. Had she done something wrong? Before their trip to the ladies’ room, he’d been talkative, making it hard for her to remember that this wasn’t a real date. He was only honoring their agreement, she knew. Still, the Levi from before the powder room run and the Levi now were two very different people. Before she could ask what was wrong, Levi said, “We should dance.”

  Camden felt like a teenager at her first dance when Levi pulled her into his arms as the band hit the bridge of the song. Being this close to Levi left her off balance, like she was hearing the echo of the music and not the music itself.

  “You want to make this good, don’t you?” he asked, settling her closer to his hard body.

  Camden barely resisted the involuntary urge to curl her fingers against her palms. Levi didn’t need to know how his nearness affected her, not when this was all about the performance. She had yet to see Grant, but he had to be here somewhere. Watching. Waiting for her to slip up so he could debate her back to Kansas City and resume their engagement, just as he’d debated that Yalie into believing the forward pass belonged solely to Knute Rockne.

  The band segued into the slightly faster “Last Christmas,” but Levi continued to hold her close, swaying slowly.

  His hand at the small of her back soothed away the worry that somewhere in the crowd Grant was watching. Levi pulled her a little closer to him, the flannel of his shirt warm and soft and comforting under her hands, and Camden felt herself relax for the first time since she’d heard his truck coming down the driveway several hours earlier. She rested her head against his chest, and the steady thump, thump seemed to beat in time to the music. It was dark on the dance floor, couples swaying to the music, talking quietly about whatever couples talked about, and Camden let herself drift.

  This might not be a real date, but she could pretend, for as long as this song lasted, that it was. That Levi wasn’t her pretend date, that they weren’t running a con on Grant, on Levi’s friends, on her family. All that mattered was the man holding her close, swaying with her in time to the music.

  He wasn’t her real boyfriend, but did it matter? For just a little while, Camden was not going to feel guilty for walking out on Grant, for avoiding her mother’s calls, for making all of Slippery Rock believe the two of them had fallen in love at first sight.

  For just a little while, Camden would pretend that the miracle of Christmas was alive in this small town. And that a man like Levi Walters, patron saint of planners, could fall for an improviser like her.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  LEVI DIDN’T LIKE to lie, especially not to people he cared about. Pretending for an evening with his friends was one thing, but actually going on this potential buying trip with the Harrises felt...dirty.

  Which made the attraction for Camden he couldn’t fight feel even more twisted.

  The waitress at the small diner near the arena where the stock-dog show was being held brought the dinner check—hamburgers for Calvin and Bonita, breakfast for dinner for Camden, and a steak for Levi—and before Calvin could pick it up, Levi grabbed it and handed it back with his credit card.

  Since he couldn’t apologize to them for making them think he was dating their granddaughter, the least he could do was pick up the tab for dinner.

  The fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about their granddaughter, that part of him
wondered what would happen if they were really dating, didn’t escape Levi. Nor did his ambivalence on the matter. Just three days ago, he’d been against actually dating her and pretend dating her. Now he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Hell, for most of the drive over to Tulsa this afternoon, all he’d been thinking about was how her body had melted into his at the dance on Saturday night, and how hard it had been not to follow her inside the farmhouse when he took her home.

  And none of that mattered, because Camden wasn’t interested in him. She’d chatted breezily about every subject under the sun, seemingly unaware that she shared the front seat of what felt like a very small truck cab—one he’d sat in before with three of his football buddies and never had a problem—with Levi Walters, who couldn’t stop stealing glances at her.

  “Those dogs know their stuff, don’t they?” Calvin asked.

  Camden’s thigh brushed his under the table, and Levi forgot the question Calvin had just posed. Camden rescued him.

  “Definitely impressive, and today was all about the show dogs. Do you see what I meant, Granddad? They take this very seriously. What did you think of the breeder you visited on the way out yesterday?”

  Calvin and Bonita began their drive Tuesday—they’d said it would make their trip feel less rushed, but Levi wondered if they had other reasons. Such as giving him and Camden more time alone. It would be like the two of them to give another couple space.

  Except you aren’t a real couple. You’re a pretend couple, don’t forget that.

  “Nice selection. I have a business card. Once we have the runs renovated, and you’ve shown Six a few times, the breeder will be our first contact,” Calvin told his granddaughter.

  Camden looked at Levi, and the excitement on her face was nearly his undoing. He had to touch her, kiss her, something. She’d said she came back to Slippery Rock to find herself—this had to be a big first step in doing that.

  The waitress returned with Levi’s credit card.