Holiday with a Twist

by Shannon Stacey

  Since they were already hurting and he didn’t see more time making it hurt any less, he let her walk out the door.

  * * *

  Leigh managed to keep it together long enough to get in the house and make a few minutes of small talk with her parents. But she could feel the tears coming, so she claimed a headache and went up to her room, climbed into bed and pulled the blanket up over her head.

  She didn’t know what had gone wrong. There was so much to think about—so much on her mind—and she’d hoped he would tell her he wanted her to consider staying. She wanted him to say what they had was real. But she’d been so anxious, she’d made a mess of it.

  And she’d forgotten her candy cane martini glass, so she wouldn’t even have that to remember him by.

  A little while later, a moist, raspy gurgle interrupted her pity party, and she rolled to look over the edge of her bed. Atticus was looking up at her, and she wished his natural expression didn’t make it look like he was shocked and horrified by her appearance.

  Leigh sat up so she could bend over and pick up the little dog. He hopped from her arms onto the bed, curling into the warm spot where she’d been lying. When she stretched out beside him, her butt almost hanging over the edge because he hogged a lot of bed for such a small dog, Atticus stared at her, his breathing strangely soothing, as if Darth Vader during allergy season was a setting on a white noise machine.

  Then he licked her face and she fell a little bit in love with her sister’s dog. “You’re such a good boy, Atticus.”

  She finally fell asleep, a restless and unsatisfying nap that only made her feel worse. But when she woke up, it was to find Atticus curled up against her. When she stirred, he licked her face again. It made her feel better enough to drag herself out of bed and into the bathroom to wash her face, the little guy trotting along beside her until he heard TJ fussing downstairs. Then he waddled off, like a weird little superhero taking care of family members who needed a little raspy love.

  Once she’d cleaned herself up, the need for food overcame her reluctance to face her family and she went downstairs. Hope was in the living room, rocking an almost-asleep TJ while Atticus watched. Wincing when she hit a creaky spot in the floor and the baby stirred, Leigh gave her sister a little wave and kept going to the kitchen.

  The day after Christmas was a leftovers day, so her mom wasn’t cooking but she was in the process of setting out the cold ham and other leftovers. Her dad wasn’t there, so he was probably out in the shed.

  “I was going to check on you in a few minutes,” her mom said, giving her an appraising look.

  “I screwed up, Mom.” Fresh tears threatened and she swiped angrily at her eyes. She was sick of crying. “I was too scared to ask him if he wanted me to stay and now it’s a mess.”

  “It’s not up to him if you stay or not. It’s up to you.”

  Her mom waved to a chair and then set her own coffee mug in front of her on the table. It was half gone and probably cold, but Leigh didn’t care. She took a sip. “I know that, but he’s the reason I want to stay. Not that I don’t love being here with you, but I don’t want to...mess everything up.”

  “You staying would not mess everything up. And you can take your father and me out of the equation entirely. No matter what you girls do, we’re moving into our condo. You and your sister can rent this place from us if you have to, but we’re out of here. As a matter of fact, we want you and your sister to go with us to sign the papers tomorrow morning because the title company called and had an unexpected opening, and then we’re going to have a celebratory lunch out. You know how your father hates restaurants, so it’s a big deal.”

  “Of course I’ll go.” Despite her own misery, Leigh smiled because she was happy for them.

  “So the bottom line, honey, is whether you want to stay in Houston or move back here and you’re the only one who can make that decision.”

  “It’s scary.” And that was the real bottom line. She wanted Croy. She’d fallen in love with him and it was turning her life upside down.

  But they were both scared. She’d gone over and over it in her mind, and she was pretty sure he felt the same. He wanted her to stay but hadn’t been able to bring himself to say it.

  “Of course it’s scary,” her mom said. “But is it worth it?

  Croy was worth it. The chance of a future with him was worth the uncertainty of leaving Houston and making a new life in her hometown because if that new life included him, nothing else really mattered.

  She pulled out her phone and typed out a text message. Are you busy right now? I’d like to talk.

  It was almost ten minutes before she got a response, and they felt like the longest ten minutes of her life. Sipping cold coffee and listening to her mother talk about where they’d go to lunch to celebrate didn’t distract her enough to keep her from staring at the phone screen until it finally chimed.

  Sorry, I was driving. Just got to the city because Dad talked me into a movie. Can we talk in the morning?

  Parents signing on condo and they want us to go and then do lunch. As much as the wait would kill her, she kept typing. Next morning? Or I can stop at the pub.

  Not at work. We’ll figure it out but don’t leave. Don’t go back to Houston until I see you, okay?

  I won’t. See you soon.

  As soon as we can.

  Leigh smiled at her mom, who was trying to pretend she wasn’t anxiously awaiting an update. “We’re going to talk, as soon as we can, but he asked me not to go until we do.”

  “And that’s enough for now, honey. Now you have time to think about what you really want before you see him, and relax in the meantime.”

  Twenty-four hours later, Leigh was convinced her mom had no concept of having time to think or relaxing. The signing being scheduled for sooner than anticipated kicked her mom into high gear and the only thing that saved Hope and Leigh from being run ragged was having a baby in the house. They were having a dumpster delivered to the front yard and anything Hope wouldn’t need until she got her own place was put in a trash pile, a donate pile or in a box.

  The signing itself was boring, but Leigh didn’t mind being there to witness the happiness on her parents’ faces. And the lunch was fun. Jenna couldn’t make the signing, but she met them at the restaurant and the five of them laughed and talked while playing pass the baby. Then it was piles and boxes time again.

  The entire time, though, Leigh was aware of the time ticking away on the clock and a little while after the pub closed, she sent Croy a text. Can I stop by tomorrow morning before you go to work? I really want to see you.

  Can you come to the pub? I know it’s late, but everybody’s gone now and I won’t sleep tonight. She wondered why he didn’t ask her to meet him at home, but maybe it was for the best. They needed to talk, not fall into his bed. Please.

  I’ll be there in a few minutes.

  The door’s unlocked, but lock it behind you.

  With no idea of what to expect, Leigh bundled up against the cold and walked up Center Street again. There was no sense in warming up a vehicle for the short distance, and it gave her time to settle her nerves. She wasn’t going to let fear keep her from saying what needed to be said this time.

  When Leigh saw him behind the bar, her emotions almost slipped their leash. She loved him and she should have told him that straight-out. He smiled when he saw her, but he looked as tired and emotionally wrung out as she’d felt for the last two days.

  Then she saw that the glass he’d given her for Christmas was sitting on the bar, and it wasn’t empty.

  “It’s a candy cane martini, with a twist,” he said.

  “You don’t put a twist in a candy cane martini. I mean, you can put an actual candy cane in it, which has a twist pattern, but—”

  “Hey, I’m the bartender,” he
reminded her with a hoarse chuckle. “And it’s not that kind of twist. It’s more like a plot twist than a literal twist.”

  Intrigued, she sat down on the bar stool in front of it. “Should I ask what the twist is before I take the first sip?”

  “No, go ahead. No strings attached.”

  She lifted the glass and took a sip. Then she closed her eyes briefly and sighed. “It’s perfect.”

  “I did a little research. Practiced on some customers who don’t refuse free drinks, no matter what’s in the glass.”

  “All to make me a perfect candy cane martini?”

  “It’s part apology and part... I don’t know. I just wanted to make it for you, I guess. I owed you one.”

  Her heart broke a little more with every word he said that weren’t the words that would make her throw everything away for a life with him. “That’s not what you were going to say.”

  He looked at her, his dark eyes sad and tired, but then he smiled. “You don’t miss a thing, do you?”

  “I’ve missed you. Even though it hasn’t been very long, I’ve missed you already. I missed us because it was real and I was happy and I was scared to admit it in case you didn’t feel the same way.”

  “It is real, Leigh. Don’t leave. Stay here, with me, even though I have a red barn hanging in my house and we’ll bicker about it for decades. Maybe you can work for a company remotely because I guess that’s a thing people do now. I’ll drive you to the city as often as you want to go. Whatever it is you think you want from that life in Houston, I’ll find a way to make it happen for you here.”

  “I just want you, Croy.” She watched the tension seep out of his features and realized he’d just wanted the same reassurance she had. “I was clinging to Houston because I was scared, but I’m more scared of losing you. My friends aren’t going anywhere. We’ll talk on the phone and visit when we get the chance. I can work anywhere. Maybe help Lucas with marketing in my free time. It’ll all work out as long as we’re together. You’re the only thing I can’t do without.”

  He walked around the end of the bar and she slid off the stool so she could step into his arms. When he held her so tightly she could hear his heartbeat, she closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. This was right. Croy’s arms around her was the life she wanted.

  “When you came to my house and started talking about going back to Houston, I blew it,” he said. “I panicked because you were talking about leaving me and it hurt. I handled it really badly. What I should have said is that I love you and I want you to stay. That’s it. I should have said I love you.”

  “I love you, too, and I wish I’d said it then.”

  “I’m sorry I reacted badly and hurt you.”

  “I’m sorry, too, because you weren’t totally wrong. Maybe I was using having to keep our relationship a secret as a way of making it seem less real so I wouldn’t be hurt if you thought it was just a fling. And I listened to my fear instead of listening to you.”

  He walked around the bar and she stood when he got close so he could slide his arms around her waist and pull her close. “From now on, we listen to each other. And kiss a lot.”

  “I like kissing,” she whispered.

  “There is never going to be a day I don’t crave kissing you,” he said just before his mouth closed over hers.

  He kissed her until she couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t think straight, but she still stretched up on her tiptoes because she’d never stop wanting more.

  * * * * *

  Get ready for the return of the Kowalskis in a reunion novel featuring all your favorite Kowalskis plus a brand-new romance!

  WHAT IT TAKES

  Coming March 2017 in print, ebook and audio

  From Shannon Stacey and Carina Press.

  Fall in love with the Kowalksi family and see where it all started...

  EXCLUSIVELY YOURS

  Available now from Shannon Stacey and Carina Press

  Wherever ebooks are sold.

  When Keri Daniels’ editor finds out she has previous carnal knowledge of reclusive bestselling author Joe Kowalski, she gives Keri a choice: get an interview or get a new job.

  Joe’s never forgotten the first girl to break his heart, so he’s intrigued to hear Keri’s back in town—and looking for him. Despite his intense need for privacy, he’ll grant Keri an interview if it means a chance to finish what they started in high school.

  He proposes an outrageous plan—for every day she survives with his family on their annual camping and four-wheeling trip, Keri can ask one question. Keri agrees; she’s worked too hard to walk away from her career.

  But the chemistry between them is still as potent as the bug spray, Joe’s sister is out to avenge his broken heart and Keri hasn’t ridden an ATV since she was ten. Who knew a little blackmail, a whole lot of family and some sizzling romantic interludes could make Keri reconsider the old dream of Keri & Joe 2gether 4ever.

  Chapter One

  “You got busy in the backseat of a ’78 Ford Granada with Joseph Kowalski—only the most reclusive bestselling author since J. D. Salinger—and you don’t think to tell me about it?”

  Keri Daniels sucked the last dregs of her too-fruity smoothie through her straw and shrugged at her boss. “Would you want anybody to know?”

  “That I had sex with Joseph Kowalski?”

  “No, that you had sex in the backseat of a ‘78 Granada.” Keri had no idea how Tina Deschanel had gotten the dirt on her high school indiscretions, but she knew she was in trouble.

  An exceptionally well-paid reporter for a glossy, weekly entertainment magazine did not withhold carnal knowledge of a celebrity on the editor in chief’s most wanted list. And having kept that juicy little detail to herself wouldn’t get her any closer to parking her butt in an editorial chair.

  Tina slipped a photograph from her purse and slid it across the table. Keri didn’t look down. She was mentally compiling a short list of the people who knew she’d fogged up the windows of one of the ugliest cars in the history of fossil fuels. Her friends. The cop who’d knocked on the fogged-up window with a flashlight at a really inopportune moment. Her parents, since the cop was in a bad mood that night. The approximately six hundred kids attending her high school that year and anybody they told. Maybe short list wasn’t the right term.

  “It was 1989,” Keri pointed out, because her boss clearly expected her to say something. “Not exactly a current event. And you ambushed me with this shopping spree.”

  Actually, their table in the outdoor café was surrounded by enough bags to stagger a pack mule on steroids, but now Keri knew she’d merely been offered the retail therapy before the bad news. It shouldn’t have surprised her. Tina Deschanel was a shark, and any friendly gesture should have been seen as a prelude to getting bitten in the ass.

  “Ambushed?” Tina repeated, loudly enough to distract a pair of Hollywood starlets engaging in some serious public displays of affection in a blatant attempt to attract the cheap tabloid paparazzi. A rabid horde that might include Keri in the near future if she didn’t handle this correctly.

  “How do you think I felt?” Tina went on. “I reached out to a woman who mentioned on her blog she’d gone to high school with Joseph Kowalski. Once there was money on the table, I made her cough up some evidence, and she sent me a few photos. She was even kind enough to caption them for me.”

  Keri recognized a cue when it was shoved down her throat. With one perfectly manicured nail she hooked the 8x10 blowup and pulled it closer.

  A girl smiled at her from the photo. She wore a pink, fuzzy sweater, faded second-skin jeans and pink high heels. Raccoon eyeliner made her dark brown eyes darker, frosty-pink coated her lips and her hair was as big as Wisconsin.

  Keri smiled back at her, remembering those curling iron and aerosol days. If the EP
A had shut down their cheerleading squad back then, global warming might have been a total non-issue today.

  Then she looked at the boy. He was leaning against the hideous brown car, his arms wrapped around young Keri’s waist. Joe’s blue eyes were as dark as the school sweatshirt he wore, and his grin managed to be both innocent and naughty at the same time. And those damn dimples—she’d been a sucker for them. His honey-brown hair was hidden by a Red Sox cap, but she didn’t need to see it to remember how the strands felt sliding through her fingers.

  She never failed to be amazed by how much she still missed him sometimes.

  But who had they been smiling at? For the life of her, Keri couldn’t remember who was standing behind the camera. She tore her gaze away from the happy couple and read the caption typed across the bottom.

  Joe Kowalski and his girlfriend, Keri Daniels, a few hours before a cop busted them making out on a back road and called their parents. Rumor had it when Joe dropped her off, Mr. Daniels chased him all the way home with a golf club.

  Keri snorted. “Dad only chased him to the end of the block. Even a ’78 Granada could outrun a middle-aged fat guy with a five iron.”

  “I fail to see the humor in this.”

  “You didn’t see my old man chasing taillights down the middle of the street in his bathrobe. It wasn’t very funny at the time, though.”

  “Focus, Keri,” Tina snapped. “Do you or do you not walk by the bulletin board in the bull pen every day?”

  “I do.”

  “And have you not seen the sheet marked ‘Spotlight Magazine’s Most Wanted’ every day?”

  “I have.”

  “And did you happen to notice Joseph Kowalski has been number three for several years?” Keri nodded, and Tina leaned across the table. “You are going to get me an exclusive feature interview with the man.”

  “Or...?”

  Tina sat back and folded her arms across her chest. “Don’t take it to that point, Keri. Look, the man’s eleventh bestseller is going to be the summer blockbuster film of the decade. More A-listers lined up to read for that movie than line up on the red carpet for the Oscars. And he’s a total mystery man.”