“Well that’s good. You were too thin when you got here. I’ve been trying to fatten you up, young lady. You ready to come out and start your day? Traci and Troy are going to be here any minute.”
Oh goodie. Just what she needs, the man himself here to confuse her more than he already has.
Hallie answers truthfully. “Well, I could use coffee, that’s for sure.”
The ladies join Adam and they spend time chatting over coffee and rolls, meant to tide them over until they eat the full brunch in a couple of hours. Hallie is just finished helping her aunt by putting the large ham in the oven when the doorbell rings. While Uncle Adam heads to receive their guests, Hallie takes the stick of lip-gloss out of her front jeans pocket. She’d done it subconsciously and quickly shoves it back in her pocket when she realizes what she’d done, angry with herself for feeling nervous.
She takes a deep breath, hoping to calm herself so her guests never suspect how nervous she is to see the tall, handsome spanker. Yes, that is how she vows to think of Troy from now on in an attempt to remind her body how much she doesn’t want to be attracted to a barbarian who thinks it’s okay to light up a perfectly good ass.
Her resolve crumbles the second she turns to see him walking confidently into the room. His presence commands her full attention, his eyes trained on her as if to assess how she is doing this morning. He must approve because his face lights into a broad smile that has her knees feeling weak. She’s luckily close enough to the island to nonchalantly reach for the counter to hold herself steady.
Had he kept his distance, all would have been fine, but he circles the end of the island stopping first to hand a bottle of wine to Aunt Gina, hugging her back when she throws her arms around him to deliver a big hug. Their eyes meet over her aunt’s turned back, proving she has his full attention. The second he is out of Aunt Gina’s hug, he continues forward to scoop a panicking Hallie into his arms for a similar greeting, although Hallie is pretty sure he hadn’t allowed his hands to rest against Aunt Gina’s ass during their brief hug.
Hallie pulls back far enough to look up into his mischievous eyes. He’s in no hurry to release her. “Good morning, sunshine. How did you sleep?” Did he have a camera in her room or is it just her own worry making her feel as if he knew exactly how she’d slept?
“Oh, I slept like a baby. How about you?” Two can play at this game as Hallie lifts her right leg until her knee presses up against the package between his legs. She knows she struck gold when she hears his sharp intake of his breath followed by a long, quiet groan. She smiles up at him sweetly.
After a long exhale, he answers her quietly. “Honestly, I didn’t sleep all that well. I felt a bit like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning so he could see what presents he might find under the tree.” Was it her imagination or did he squeeze her ass on the word present?
“Well, sorry. I didn’t have time to go out to get you the new bike you asked for.”
The look on his face is playful. “How did you know I wanted a bike? Oh well, I’m sure we can come up with an alternate gift.”
She’s thrown off by his bantering and even more flustered by the fact that while he’s moved his hand to her back, he continues to hold her against his body, forcing her to crane her neck to look up into this playful eyes. Troy had been dangerous last night. This playful Troy is lethal.
Hallie is saved by Uncle Adam stepping into the kitchen. Troy releases Hallie quickly, stepping back trying to put distance between them.
“Merry Christmas again, Traci and Troy. We’re so glad you could make it.” Uncle Adam has moved to hug Traci before shaking Troy’s outstretched hand. “Who’s ready for some eggnog?”
“Now, Adam, isn’t it too early for eggnog? It’s not even noon yet.”
“It’s never too early for your eggnog, Gina.”
Memories of wonderful Christmases past flood Hallie. “Is it Nana’s recipe? She used to make the best eggnog.”
Gina smiles sadly. “Of course. Mom always did have the best recipes. You know what else I remember?” Gina has moved to the entertainment center in the alcove and a few minutes later Christmas music fills the space. Songs Hallie remembers listening to as she baked Christmas cookies with her Nana and mom in Baton Rouge what seems like a lifetime ago. She loses herself in her memories until she senses Troy nearby again.
“Everything okay?”
She feels a tear trekking down her cheek and swipes it away, hoping not to bring the mood down. Troy moves closer, replacing her own fingers on her cheek, taking on the job of tear swiper. She wants to be angry with him for overstepping his bounds. They barely know each other, yet she can’t be angry because it just feels too good to have someone actually giving a shit about how she feels.
He is still waiting for her answer. “I’m fine. It’s just this music. It’s special. My Nana, Aunt Gina, Mom and I used to bake Christmas cookies every year. We called it ‘cookie day’ and we would bake non-stop from sun-up to sundown, drinking eggnog, singing these same Christmas carols over and over and making treats we would pass out to neighbors and friends. I just haven’t thought about cookie day in a long time.”
Aunt Gina is there, scooping her into her arms and the two women spend a few minutes hugging, grateful they have each other again, but mourning the loss of their Nana and Gina’s older sister. It’s Traci, not Troy, who joins the women in the kitchen and Troy eventually heads out to the living room with Uncle Adam, eggnog in hand.
Troy is disgusted with his own lack of self-discipline. He hadn’t slept well the night before, running over in his brain the twenty reasons why being attracted to Hallie Boudreaux was a bad idea. He had coached himself endlessly as he took his shower, resorting to lecturing his reflection in the mirror as he shaved about how he was going to keep his distance from her today. He’d had to lie to Traci and tell her he’d been on a cell call when she’d asked whom he had been talking to in the bathroom this morning.
He’s relieved his sister finally stopped trying to psychoanalyze him last night when they returned to her house after taking Hallie home. Traci had tried to pump him for what he was thinking… what he was feeling… It was the first time he had ever been personally aware that his sister was indeed a therapist. Now today, he doesn’t like the way she keeps looking at him as if she can read into the depth of his internal struggle where Hallie is concerned. The fact that she is smiling like the cat who ate the canary when the women join Troy and Adam in the living room tells Troy she is enjoying watching him torture himself.
Troy had wanted to exchange gifts quietly with his sister at her house before coming to the Newberry’s, but Traci had put her foot down, insisting they open their gifts as a group. Luckily, Troy does have an awesome gift for Hallie, something he is pretty sure she might have had to leave behind on her escape to Colorado and is most likely missing. He wishes now he had brought more than a bottle of wine as a gift for Gina and Adam as it feels rude to be sitting around to open gifts empty handed for the hosts.
Adam takes charge. “It’s time for opening gifts. I’ll go first. Gina, I’ve been dying to give this to you. It took all of my self control to keep it a secret.” Adam hands a small box to his wife who looks surprised.
“Another gift? I thought… well… you gave me a gift last night.” Troy can see Gina blushing pink and he can only imagine what kind of a gift Adam had given his wife in private that elicits a blush like that. At least that explains why Adam had been anxious to pawn Hallie off on Troy and Traci so they could have the house to themselves.
“Now, just get opening this, will you woman?”
Gina opens the box and must look at the contents for thirty seconds before letting out a wail of a cry. “Oh Adam, you didn’t? New York, really? You know I’ve been wanting to get back east for a visit. And you’ve already bought the plane tickets and everything?” Gina is so happy she has launched herself into her husband’s beefy arms.
Troy and Hallie’s eyes meet across the c
offee table between their couches, and he can see happiness in her eyes for her aunt and uncle.
Troy decides to jump in with the next gift giving opportunity. “I’ll go next. I hope you like what I got you, Traci.” He gets up to hand her the rectangular box wrapped in silver paper. Everyone watches with interest as Traci opens the box and squeals.
“Troy, this is awesome, but you spent too much!” She pulls the Macbook Air out of the box, showing the slim laptop off to everyone in the room. Her eyes seek out his own. “Seriously. You need to take this back. This is too much.”
“Trace, I know your old laptop died and you’ve been getting by with an old desktop, but that’s crazy. You need this for your work. I know you’re still working on the paper to present at next year’s conference and going to the library in Denver for research. You need a laptop.”
Troy doesn’t miss the look of panic on his sister’s face before she replaces it with a strained smile. He’ll have to ask more about that later when they are alone.
“I’m not taking it back, sis. It’s all yours.”
She launches herself up and into his lap, hugging her brother tightly. “You really didn’t need to do that, Troy, but thank you. It is an awesome gift.”
When his sister heads back to her own love seat, Troy gets up and walks to Hallie to give her the gift he had wrapped for her in the same silver paper. He had briefly considered taking it back this morning because after last night, it seems a bit much, but he knows it is the perfect gift for her and he just can’t miss seeing her face light up like he knows it will when she opens it.
She looks confused when he holds out the gift to her. She looks up at him from her perch below. “What is this? You never should have gotten me a gift… I mean… I didn’t have time…”
“Hallie, it’s okay. I didn’t expect to get a gift from you. I just saw this while I was out shopping for Traci, and I knew the second I saw this that I had to get it for you.” She still hasn’t reached to take the gift so he leans down to place the package in her lap before returning to his own seat on his couch to watch her open his gift.
It takes her Uncle Adam urging her on to get her to pick up the package and gingerly start to unwrap it. He knows the second she realizes what she holds because her eyes fly up to meet his own. As if she had been mistaken, she peeks under the wrapping again, before raising her surprised eyes to his.
All she can say is “No way.”
Troy smiles broadly. “Yes, way.”
Traci is curious. “What is it Hallie? He wouldn’t tell me what he got you.”
She repeats with an extra flare. “No. Fucking. Way.”
It’s Uncle Adam’s turn to inject. “Hallie Marie Boudreaux. I am not going to have that kind of talk in this house. I’m about at the end of my patience, young lady.”
“Sorry, Uncle Adam.” But Troy doesn’t think she looks very sorry. A quick vision of draping Hallie across his knee to make her sorry invades, but he tamps it down quickly. The fact that can never happen is reason number one on the list of twenty reasons why Hallie is off-limits for him.
Aunt Gina prods her, trying to smooth over the unwelcome tension in the room. “Show us what it is, honey. We all want to see.”
Hallie opens the box in her hands and takes out the iPad tablet. Troy had made sure it was charged and he can see her slide to unlock the front screen. She sits there silently flipping through apps and screens for a few minutes, telling Troy she’s obviously used one before. He wishes he could see what she is looking at on the tablet, because when she finally does look up, he can see tears streaming down her face. He smiles a supportive smile.
“How? I mean…” A true sob escapes while Gina gets up to get a tissue for her niece, delivering it to her and sitting next to her to look over Hallie’s shoulder.
It’s Gina who looks up with tears in her eyes next. “Oh Troy. This is a priceless gift. When you called and asked me if I had any old photos of my sister and mother, and of Hallie when she was a little girl, I had no idea what you were going to do with them. What a thoughtful gift.”
Troy had spent hours tracking down photos of Hallie’s life, converting them to digital photos for the iPad. Other photos he had downloaded from her old school on-line yearbooks and against his better judgment, The Kings official website which had many photos of the band. He had intentionally left off any photos that included Eddie the Asshole as he likes to think of him, but considering managing the band had been such a major part of her life, he didn’t feel it was right to leave those photos off completely.
She had gone back to playing with her new toy when her eyes fly to meet his again, total surprise. “Troy, there is even music already loaded on here. How the hell did you do that? Please tell me you didn’t buy all of that music.”
“There’s not all that much, but since we both attended the Matchbox 20 concert together, I’m taking a guess that we might share the same taste in music. I just thought I’d give you something to get you started. There are a couple books on there too, but I’m not sure if we share the same tastes in those.” Glancing at his sister, he teases her. “I know Traci wouldn’t really care for the books I read.”
His sister gives him a threatening glare to keep his mouth shut about her addiction to erotic romances.
Hallie has gone back to looking at her new gift, but when he sees her shoulders shaking, he feels bad because he can see his gift has upset her. He is just about to get up to go to her, when she launches out of her seat, rushing around the coffee table and throwing herself into his lap, burying her head against his chest.
He should regret making her cry, but he can’t. She feels too perfect in his arms. So small… fragile in so many ways, and yet oddly strong in others. She is different than any other woman he has met, and twenty reasons or not, the bottom line is he wants her… and bad. He wants to comfort her… protect her… spank her until she moans with desire and then… fuck her long and hard until they are both spent.
“Sh. Don’t cry, Hallie. I never wanted to upset you. It was supposed to make you happy, not sad.”
Her face is mashed against his chest so her reply is muffled. “I am happy.”
Troy chuckles. “Well you could have fooled me. I’d hate to see you if you were sad.”
He holds her tight against him, stroking her back lightly to try to help calm her. He looks up over Hallie’s head that is tucked neatly beneath his chin and sees three pairs of eyes taking in the picture of Hallie and Troy in this intimate embrace. If he was worried Uncle Adam was going to kick his ass, he would have been dead wrong. When his eyes meet the older uncle’s, Troy sees nothing but approval from Hallie’s uncle. Shifting his gaze to his sister, he sees approving tears in her eyes, too.
He might be in a little trouble here.
Hallie stays in his arms for a few more heavenly minutes while the rest of the room visits. When she pulls away from him to finally look into his eyes, the depth of emotion in her eyes would have knocked him on his ass were he standing. He has to remind himself they are not alone.
“Are you feeling better now?”
She nods her head, afraid to speak. Her eyes are red rimmed from crying. He can smell her lip-gloss and longs to capture her lips in another kiss like the night before, but suspects that is best not done with an audience.
Traci breaks into their private connection by shoving cards in envelopes into both Troy and Hallie’s laps. “All right you two. Time for you to open my gift to each of you. I had already planned on getting this for Troy, but then Hallie started talking about this too last week so I thought it would actually be a great gift to give to both of you.”
That hint confuses Troy. “Well, you have my attention now. I can’t wait to see what you have cooked up here, Trace. You open yours first, Hallie.”
Traci replies. “No! You both need to open at the same time.”
Hallie and Troy’s eyes meet and they silently communicate the plan. Together, they open their envelopes and pul
l out the thick packet of information. Troy recognizes it immediately. Hallie is taking longer to figure it out. The gift itself is awesome, but the fact that his sister has given Hallie the same gift is the best part in Troy’s humble opinion.
Hallie finally asks. “What is it?” She turns her eyes to Troy and not Traci.
“I love to ski. We grew up in Colorado and I was on a ski team for several years. Unless I’m mistaken, Traci got me a weekend package at one of my favorite ski resorts, Copper Mountain. She knows how much I missed skiing when I lived out east.”
He looks at is sister. “This is awesome, Trace. Thank you so much. This is the perfect gift to get me back in the groove being home in Colorado.”
Hallie is looking at Traci now. “But why did you get me this too? You obviously weren’t listening. The story I told you about skiing was about how much I suck at it and how the one and only time I’d gone, my friends who promised to teach me had taken me to the top of a big mountain and then left me there to figure out how to get myself down the mountain. I hated every single minute of skiing. I would never go again. Not in a million years.”
Troy can hear real panic in her voice and tries to calm her. He’s glad she’s stayed on his lap so he can rub her back lightly. “Hey… it’s okay. It sounds like you just went with the wrong people is all. If they left you at the top to fend for yourself with no training, then they’re not real friends.”
“Still…”
Hallie is looking down at the packet in her hands and he can feel real fear as she trembles. He tries to reassure her. “I bet if you’d take some lessons and start out on the bunny slopes until you got your confidence up, you’d learn to like it. It’s awesome being out in the mountains, close to nature. Just you against the mountain.”
Troy suspects Hallie is holding it together, trying not to make Traci feel bad about not liking her gift, but looking up to see Traci’s face, Troy knows immediately his sister did this on purpose. While Hallie sits oblivious to the others in the room, Troy scans the room to find Adam and Gina smiling knowingly.
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