A Texas Christmas Homecoming

by Nancy Robards Thompson

  Just a few more minutes and this awkward ending to their unexpected reunion would be over. Eli could go his way and she could go hers.

  The sleet and snow were coming down hard now. Eli was concentrating on the road and had his wipers on high speed, scraping and whosh-whoshing as they labored to keep his windshield clear, but the wet mess was starting to freeze. He turned up the defroster and used his hand to wipe the condensation off the windshield.

  Even with the dashboard heater on, she could still feel the cold radiating in through the passenger-side window.

  She shivered and wondered if she’d said too much about her daughter and her own unrequited dreams. If Eli was content living the unencumbered single life, all that family talk hadn’t seemed to freak him out.

  But for the next stretch of the drive, they were silent.

  As they approached downtown, they saw flashing red and blue lights. A deputy sheriff’s car was pulled diagonally across the road. As Eli slowed and drew nearer, the deputy stepped out of his car and held up a hand for him to stop. Eli complied and rolled down his window.

  “What’s the problem, officer?” Eli asked.

  “Are y’all headed home?” the deputy asked.

  “I’m dropping her off and then I’m headed back north.”

  “No, you’re not. There’s an ice storm and all the roads are closed. It’s too dangerous to drive. I’ll let you through, but no one is getting out until morning. Maybe even later.”

  Eli swore under his breath, but the deputy was already heading back to his car. He got in and moved it just enough to allow them to pass and waved them through.

  “Oh, no, I need to text Avery and Savannah and let them know the roads are closed,” said Rachel. “I’m glad we left when we did. Otherwise, we would’ve been stuck.”

  “I’m stuck,” Eli said. “I don’t know how I’m going to get back to Logan’s place if the roads are closed.”

  After she sent the text and exchanged a few panicked messages with her friends, she and Eli were silent except for the directions that Rachel measured out during their last couple of minutes en route to her apartment above the cookie shop on the square.

  The big elephant in the car was that Eli was stuck. He had no place to go. It was a good thirty-minute drive back to Harwood House and he had to go even farther past it to get to Logan’s place. The deputy had said it wasn’t safe for him to drive. He’d been so good to get her home to Katie; she couldn’t leave him out in the cold. But if Katie was sick, the last thing she needed was a strange man in the house.

  “I’d love to ask you stay,” Rachel said after she’d directed him to park in her space behind her apartment. “But I have a daughter now. I can’t have men sleep over.”

  “That’s good to know.”

  She ignored the comment. “The Stargazer might have a room.”

  He didn’t say anything. He took out his phone, looked up the number, and called.

  “No vacancy,” he said after he finished the call. “I guess that means I’ll have to sleep in my truck.”

  Rachel turned away and rested her forehead on the passenger-side window. “You can’t stay out here, Eli. You’ll freeze to death or die of carbon monoxide poisoning if you leave the engine running.”

  “Don’t worry about me.” He sounded irritated. She couldn’t blame him. She was irritated by the situation, too. She never brought men home, much less let them spend the night. But desperate times called for making an exception just this once.

  “You can sleep in the spare bedroom,” she said. “But I need you to do me a favor. Katie is at my neighbor’s, across the hall. While I get Katie, I need you to go into the bedroom and stay there until I get her settled. She can’t know you’re in the apartment.”

  Eli nodded. She wished he would stop looking at her like that. Because here in the shadows, he looked exactly the same as he had all those years ago. And that caused a barrage of conflicting emotions to flood through her.

  “I’d really rather my neighbor not see you either,” she added.

  “Rachel, it’s an ice storm, and you’re a grown woman. Why do you care what your neighbor thinks?”

  “Because she’s an older woman and she’s also my landlady as well as Katie’s regular babysitter. I would feel like I was disappointing her.” As soon as the words left her lips, she felt dumb. She was a grown woman. She didn’t have to answer to anyone. If she wanted to have a man stay over it was her prerogative. Or if she didn’t want a man in her space, that was her call, too. “Eli, don’t question my reasons. I have a daughter now. I can’t have strange men staying over. End of discussion.”

  To her surprise, he smiled.

  “You always did have a will of steel and a mind of your own.” He reached out and traced her jawline with his thumb. “It’s comforting to know some things never change. I’ll figure something out. I may even see if I can’t take a back road home or scoot past the sheriff’s roadblock when no one is looking.”

  “Speaking of things never changing.” She leaned in to his touch, resting her cheek on his hand. They stayed that way for a few beats too long.

  She lifted her head, reclaiming her personal space. “All you need on your first night back in Whiskey River is to get arrested for trying to outrun the sheriff.”

  He shrugged. She melted a little at the way the light caught the mischievous glint in his dark eyes, danced across the slash of his cheekbones, and accentuated the Grecian sweep of his nose.

  “You know what they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. It would get people talking about the vineyard.”

  “The vineyard isn’t even planted yet,” she said. “And you’re already stirring it up, Lane. You’d better come inside. Because if I leave you to your own devices, there’s no telling where you’ll end up.”

  Their gazes snagged and held. She knew letting him come up was tantamount to letting him back into her life. It wasn’t a good idea. Yet here he was killing the ignition and getting out of his truck, and she was allowing him put a strong arm around her to shield her from the sleet that was raining down so hard it felt like hundreds of tiny needles hitting her skin.

  What other choice did she have? This was an emergency. Not some sneaky, clandestine sleepover. Even if she was hiding him away. Turning him away in this weather could end in catastrophe. She couldn’t have that on her head.

  That’s what she was going to keep telling herself.

  Her apartment was located above the Cookies and S’more(s) shop on the square. Betty Claus owned the building and rented the shop and three-bedroom apartment to Rachel.

  Betty was a dear, caring woman who was more of a grandmother to Katie than Donna was. Rachel had already come to terms with that a long time ago. Betty never tried to tell Rachel what to do, was never bossy, overbearing, or judgmental, but Rachel couldn’t help but worry what her friend would think if she knew she was letting a man spend the night in the apartment with Katie there.

  That’s why Rachel decided to get Eli settled in the third bedroom that she used as an office.

  Getting right to the heart of the matter, even if Betty didn’t give a flying flip about Rachel’s personal business, Rachel would not allow a man to spend the night when Katie was in the apartment. That’s just the way her life was now.

  Of course, just when she thought she had life figured out, it always threw her a curveball.

  “I’m sorry I don’t have an extra bed,” she said as she led him towards the first open door off the hall. “I can pull the cushions off the couch for you, to give you something softer to sleep on, on the floor.”

  “You said your daughter is three. Wouldn’t she notice something was amiss? The couch is the first thing you see when you enter the apartment.”

  He was probably right. And she appreciated that he was giving Katie credit for being an astute little girl. It was true—even at three years old not much got by her.

  “I’ll tell you what, stay here. I’m going to change
clothes and I’ll go get you some blankets and a pillow. As soon as I get Katie from across the hall and get her settled, you can move the cushions. But you’ll have to stay in here and I don’t know how long it will take me to get back to you.”

  She traded the sexy green dress for decidedly unsexy yoga pants and an oversized Blake Shelton concert T-shirt. As an afterthought, she piled her hair on top of her head and secured it with an elastic band and slid on fuzzy socks. Her ensemble was strategically planned to send a message that this impromptu sleepover was sponsored by the word emergency; this was no time for being sexy. As if having Blake Shelton’s face on her mid-section wasn’t enough of a deterrent. As she gathered the bedding, her phone pinged. It was Betty. For a split second, she felt like a teenager who’d been caught doing something wrong. But then she saw her neighbor’s text.

  Betty: Sorry to text rather than call. Katie Bug is sleeping soundly. If you haven’t left the party, please stay. When you get home, please let her sleep over here. If we wake her, I’m afraid it will be hard to get her back to sleep.

  Rachel: Are you sure, Betty?

  Betty: I wouldn’t have it any other way. Poor baby cried herself out. No fever, just out of sorts.

  Rachel: If she wakes up call me and I’ll come and get her.

  Betty: Sounds like a plan.

  Rachel set the pillow and quilt on the couch, suddenly feeling like the universe had just conspired to get her alone with Eli. The ripple of sexual awareness that rolled through her took her breath away.

  She closed her eyes and gave her body a moment to work through the feelings.

  I will not sleep with him.

  I will not sleep with him.

  I will not sleep with him.

  At least not tonight—

  No! I will not sleep with him.

  The best way to ensure that was to proceed with the original plan, except now, he could sleep on the couch. He would leave at daybreak or whenever she had to get Katie from Betty’s apartment. Whichever came first.

  She made up the couch and then went into the office where he was waiting.

  His back was to her as he looked at the framed photos on the shelf above her desk.

  “Slight change of plans,” she announced. “Katie is sound asleep at Betty’s. She’s going to stay there tonight because we don’t want to wake her. So, that means you can sleep on the couch.”

  She braced herself for him to have some sort of adverse reaction to her getup, but he didn’t miss a beat.

  “I love this picture of you.” He held up a photo of her taken when she was about three years old. Then he held up one of Katie. “She looks like you.”

  She walked over and looked at the picture with him.

  “Katie insisted that I put a picture of myself at her age in a frame and set it next to hers.”

  It had been difficult to find a picture since Donna hadn’t been much for taking photos. She used the reasoning that she’d rather be in the moment than hiding behind a camera. Rachel made a point of documenting every occasion—big or small. In Donna’s defense, it was before the era of smartphone cameras. Digital cameras were expensive and so was film.

  “She sounds like a girl with a mind of her own. Just like her mama.”

  “She is and I will consider myself a success if I raise her to be a strong young woman.”

  “And I have no doubt that you will.”

  “On that note,” she said, “your bed is ready.”

  He smiled at her. The way he was looking at her turned her insides to mush. She hated herself for being so weak. So much for the earlier strong woman talk.

  “What?” she said, trying to regain her equilibrium. “What’s so funny about this?”

  He ran a hand over the shadow of beard that appeared on his angular face, and that, along with the way that he had undone the tux bow tie and let it hang there in his open shirt collar wasn’t making the situation any better or him any easier to resist.

  She’d never been able to resist him. What made her think she could start now?

  “What’s funny is that we haven’t schemed like this since the night you managed to sneak me past Donna into your bedroom after your prom.”

  Oh, wow.

  She hadn’t thought about that in ages.

  After the dance, most of the kids had taken the after-party to the river. They stayed in hotels. It was a rite of passage. But back then, Eli didn’t have money for a room, and Donna had issued a strict curfew that had Rachel home by midnight. She hadn’t been happy that Rachel was going to prom with Eli. So, the midnight curfew had been a meeting in the middle.

  “We managed to pull one over on her, didn’t we?” Rachel smiled at the memory.

  “Did we have a death wish, or what?” Eli said. “If she would’ve caught us…I probably wouldn’t have been alive right now.”

  “Did you see her tonight?” Rachel asked.

  Eli shook his head.

  Rachel laughed. “Don’t feel bad; I only saw her for a moment. Just long enough for her to tell me my dress was too tight.”

  Eli frowned. “That dress was not too tight.” His gaze dipped and took a slow meander down the length of her. “It was pretty damn perfect.”

  The compliment made her smile.

  “You haven’t changed a bit, Rach.” His voice was low and sexy. “After more than ten years, you still look as good as you did at eighteen. Maybe even better, if that’s possible.”

  “I’ve lost thirty pounds since the last time I saw you, Eli.” The words escaped before she could reel them back in and she wished she wouldn’t have said them.

  “How could you lose thirty pounds? You did not have thirty pounds to lose.”

  She laughed, desperate to change the subject. “You’re just being nice so I won’t throw you out in the cold, aren’t you?”

  He shook his head. “No, I never say things I don’t mean just to be nice. I call it like I see it. All I see when I look at you is beautiful.”

  Shockwaves of need went off inside her. He always did know the right thing to say to her. But it was always genuine. Eli was right. He was blunt to a fault and called things as he saw them. He was never one for opportunistic bullshit.

  Rachel was suddenly aware of how close they were standing. But she couldn’t bring herself to move away from him. She could smell his cologne, a heady mix of warm and woodsy notes with a hint of something fresh, like citrus…and a hint of…lavender?

  Was she was smelling lavender again?

  Maybe it was just her imagination, activated by the quip about the Harwood House legend…and a little subconscious wishful thinking.

  But she wasn’t imagining the way Eli was toying with a strand of hair that had fallen out of her bun. Or the way he was stroking her cheek with the pad of his thumb. When he moved it across her lower lip, she knew what was going to happen, even before he slipped his hand behind her neck and lowered his head, claiming her mouth with his.

  The kiss started slow and soft, then the whole world disappeared as their joining ignited into hunger that exploded into ravenous greed. He pulled her tighter, staking his claim. Unspoken feelings, bottled up all these years, spilled out in a wordless confession of everything she had wanted—needed—to say to him. It had her parting her lips to deepen the kiss and fisting her hands into the stiff, starched cotton of his tuxedo shirt to pull him closer. She leaned in to him as if her next breath depended on him.

  He tasted like red wine, dark cherries with a hint of pepper, and history. It was a little taste of magic that held familiar hints of yesteryear, mixed with the possibility of now. This registered in the part of her brain that was barely conscious of the world outside of his kiss.

  For the past ten years, she’d been hung up on him leaving without saying goodbye and vowing she wouldn’t let him hurt her that way again, and now he was kissing her so thoroughly feelings inside her were awakening, blossoming into a passion that threatened to consume her, threatening to make her vow she never
wanted to say goodbye again.

  So much for the once-logical rationale for protecting her heart. The reasons were shifting and bridging the gap of years connecting the present with the past. Making it feel like they hadn’t led separate lives for the past decade, tricking her body into wanting, hoping that they could pick up like they’d never been apart.

  Rachel had no idea how much time had passed as they held each other and kissed each other. It was even better than she remembered. Because they were no longer kids, hiding out, stealing moments. This was Eli, holding her close, kissing her lips, rendering the years they’d been apart irrelevant.

  Eli held her face between his hands and rested his forehead against hers. His lips were a whisper away. “There is so much between us we left undone. What are we going to do about that?”

  That was the burning question.

  She knew what she wanted right now, but things weren’t that simple anymore. Her life was full. She had Katie and her business. Katie was her priority and work took the rest of her time. Something would have to give if she made room to let Eli back into her life.

  Obviously, she couldn’t trust herself around Eli. The magnetic pull was too strong. If she couldn’t control herself, she needed to remove herself and keep her distance.

  She pulled away from him and stood up. “We shouldn’t have done that, Eli.”

  “Rachel, I’m sorry.” He stepped back, too, and raked his hand through his dark hair. “Actually, no I’m not. I’m not sorry I kissed you, and I don’t think you’re sorry either.”

  She shook her head as if the action could erase his words, erase the feel of his lips on hers. She could still taste him, still feel him and even though she knew better, she still wanted him. But wanting and having were two entirely different things.

  “You can’t just come back in here like nothing’s changed,” she said. “Everything has changed. Everything is different, Eli.”

  She took another step back, away from him. “You can sleep on the couch. But I need you to leave first thing in the morning. You can’t be here when I bring Katie home.”