The Corner of Holly and Ivy--A feel-good Christmas romance

by Debbie Mason

  From behind her came the smooth rumble of a powerful engine, its halogen lights cutting through the fog ahead of her. “Arianna,” a deep voice called out to her.

  She turned to see a black Porsche pull up along the sidewalk. The door opened, and Connor got out.

  She sagged in relief. “I think I know—”

  He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “What were you thinking? Do you have any idea—” He swore and then crushed her against him, holding her so tight she could barely breathe.

  She tipped her head back. “Connor, why are you—”

  His mouth came down on hers in a punishing kiss, stealing her words and what was left of her breath. It had been years since he’d kissed her, but she still remembered the feel of his mouth on hers. His full, beautiful lips ravaged her, devoured her. He was bigger, stronger, more experienced than when they were together, yet there was something familiar about this kiss. It reminded her of the last one they’d shared. A kiss of desperation and pain.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. She’d been hurting so badly that night that his pain had barely registered. It did now. She didn’t know why he was hurting or desperate or both right now, but she kissed him back. As though her response broke through to him, she felt his tension ease. He raised his hands, cupping the back of her head. His lips softened, gentled, lingered. Then, after one last touch of his mouth to hers, he slowly lifted his head, searching her eyes before stepping back. He took the flashlight from her and then took her hand, leading her to the other side of his car. He opened the passenger door.

  She stared at him, dazed. “What was that about?”

  Chapter Six

  Connor had thought he’d lost her. He’d been driving the streets of Harmony Harbor for more than an hour, searching for her. Other than the night at her hospital bedside, he’d never felt as helpless or as desperate as he had only moments ago.

  His gaze moved from her hair plastered to her pale, wet face to her lips swollen from his kiss. They’d been pink seconds ago; now they were turning blue. He went to raise his fingers to gently rub his thumb over her mouth. Instead, he curled them around the doorframe.

  He owed her an apology. He never should have grabbed her or kissed her like he had. There was no excuse. He didn’t know how to explain what had come over him. Seeing her walking down the sidewalk, alive when he’d been picturing her dead…

  There was a part of him that was furious at her for making him feel so deeply, so completely, while the other part of him was just so damn glad she was okay he’d wanted to pick her up and spin her around and shout it to the world. Instead he’d kissed the hell out of her.

  Jaw clenched, he looked away. “The other day you told me you wished they would have let you die. I know how you feel about your grandmother. She’s missing. I thought—” He returned his gaze to her. “Jenna said you were in bad shape. That you were blaming yourself. You said the same to me.”

  Her eyes widened. She knew what he’d been about to say. He didn’t need to say the words out loud. She touched his arm. “I’m sorry I worried you. I should have waited until you got there. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

  “Yeah, you should have waited,” he said, anger winning out over relief. “Your lips are blue, and your teeth are chattering. Get in the car.”

  “I think Glamma might be at Tie the Knot,” she said as she got inside, letting out a small moan of pleasure.

  She’d made the same sound when he’d kissed her. She probably didn’t remember. No doubt in shock. He still needed to apologize.

  “Will you take me?” she asked.

  If she only knew how much he wanted to. When he finally got past the innuendo, the context in which she asked the question managed to penetrate his desire and his anger. He silently cursed himself, nodded, and then closed the door.

  He pulled out his phone from the pocket of his leather jacket as he rounded the car. Jenna picked up on the first ring. “I’ve got her. She’s cold and wet but otherwise okay. She thinks Helen is at Tie the Knot. Can you pass me to my uncle? Thanks.”

  Within seconds, his uncle was on the line. “Hey, Uncle Colin, has anyone searched the area around Tie the Knot? Arianna thinks Helen might be there. Yeah, I thought you would have. I think it’d be a good idea if they searched it again though.” He opened the driver’s door. “Okay. Good. Thanks. We’ll be there within ten minutes,” he said as he slid behind the wheel.

  He took one look at Arianna and turned up the heat. “They’ve searched Main Street, but they’re going back to take another look. There’s a search party one block over, so they’re sending them there now.” He leaned over to adjust the vent so the hot air would blow directly on her.

  “Thank you,” she said, her teeth chattering uncontrollably now.

  Anger whipped through him, and it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms. “Ten minutes. I got there ten minutes after you left,” he gritted out.

  She leaned her head back against the seat. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t stand around there doing nothing. I was going crazy.”

  “Ten. Minutes,” he repeated, unable to help himself. He’d broken every posted speed limit to get to her only to find her gone and her sister as worried as he was. He pushed away the memory, wishing he could erase it, then reached for the bag on the back seat. “You’re soaked through. I’ve got a thermal blanket and another jacket. Hot tea too.”

  Her chin went up. “Stop saying ‘ten minutes’ like it was seconds. Every minute feels like an hour right now. You have no idea what it felt like—”

  “Yeah, I do.” He placed the bag on his lap and pulled out the thermos of tea first. He handed it to her. “Drink some. Then we’ll get you out of the raincoat.”

  “The tea’s fine. I’ll be okay. Let’s just go now.”

  “If you let me help you, it’ll take less than a minute to get you out of your raincoat and into a warm jacket.”

  “I can do it by myself.” She nodded at the steering wheel. “Drive.”

  “Fine.” He put the car into gear and pulled away from the sidewalk. He felt her eyes on him. “I’m sorry I kissed you.”

  “Why did you?”

  “I don’t know, Arianna. Maybe because I thought we’d be pulling your dead body out of the ocean and was so damn glad to find you alive I kissed you to make sure you were real.”

  “I really am sorry, Connor.”

  Now she was just making him feel pathetic. “I wasn’t the only one who was worried about you. So were Jenna and your friends. There are a lot of people in town who care about you, Arianna.”

  “Do you think you could maybe stop with the guilt trip? My grandmother is the one who is missing, not me. And whether you agree with what I did or not, I did something.”

  Now that his worry and anger had begun to subside, he could see her point. After weeks of hiding away in her room, it was actually a big deal that she’d gotten out there to search for her grandmother. He didn’t realize how big a deal until he noticed she’d removed her sling. Head bent, she tugged on the snaps of her raincoat, muttering her frustration when they failed to open.

  “You sure you don’t want my help?”

  “I’m not an invalid. I’m perfectly capable of undoing a couple of snaps, Connor,” she said, sounding a little like the stubborn woman he remembered.

  “No one would ever mistake you for anything other than capable, babe,” he said, unable to keep the smile from his voice.

  “Now you’re just being condescending. And annoying.” She made a ticked-off sound in her throat when she once again failed to open the snap.

  He glanced at her with a grin. “Who’s annoying, me or the snaps?” Then, keeping an eye on the road, he reached over and curled his fingers around the wet vinyl. “Hold the other side,” he said, and then gave a firm pull. There was a satisfying click, click, click as the row of snaps opened…to reveal another raincoat underneath.

  “Creative thinking,” he said. “Too bad it didn’t d
o a better job keeping you warm.”

  “It was for Glamma when I found her. All she has on is a silk blouse and a blazer. She’ll be—”

  He cut her off with a firm “okay,” though he was beginning to worry that might not be the case. A couple hundred people had been searching for more than three hours with no sign of the woman. It was like she had vanished. “We’re going to find her, Arianna.”

  “I thought I had,” she said, holding up her good arm to him. “Can you pull, please?”

  “What do you mean, you thought you’d found her?” he asked as he helped her out of the raincoat.

  “You’re my lawyer now, so anything I say falls under attorney-client privilege, doesn’t it?”

  “Seriously? You ask me not to say something, I keep it to myself. Whether I’m your lawyer or not.” There might have been an edge to his voice. He didn’t like that she didn’t trust him not to say anything. There was also a possibility that he didn’t want her thinking of him as only her lawyer. A really faint possibility, he told himself.

  “I know, but you are a representative of the court. Doesn’t that mean you have to report it if you hear about something illegal? Unless it somehow involves your client.”

  “We’re all required to say something if we hear or see illegal activity. I’m not held to a higher standard just because I have a law degree.”

  “Oh, okay,” she said, and then almost immediately shook her head. “It’s probably best I don’t tell you given your involvement in your uncle’s campaign.”

  “My mother is my uncle’s campaign manager, not me. She just uses me to do stuff that no one else wants to, like putting up the signs.” He grinned at her. “Or replacing them when someone beats them up.”

  She made a face. “Or gets creative with red spray paint?”

  “Yeah, how did you…?” He glanced at her. “Helen’s the one who’s been turning my uncle into the devil?”

  She nodded. “I had a feeling it was her handiwork. Glamma always refers to your uncle as a blue-eyed devil, so I followed the signs. At the house just down from where you picked me up, the mustache and goatee were missing, and I found a can of red spray paint.” She told him what happened when she knocked on the door. Connor planned to pay the guy a visit tomorrow.

  “What made you think she’d go from there to Tie the Knot?” he asked as he turned onto Main Street. He felt Arianna stiffen beside him. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. I just—” He caught a glimpse of her profile and immediately pulled into an empty parking spot alongside the curb. “I’m sorry. I should have warned you we were close. You haven’t been on Main Street since the fire, have you?” Stupid question. Up until a couple days ago the woman hadn’t been out of her house since she got home from the hospital.

  “No. It’s okay. I’ll be okay. I just need a minute.” She swallowed and then forced a tight smile that looked more like a grimace.

  He lifted the blanket from his lap. “Lean forward.” She did as he asked, and he wrapped it around her. “Drink the tea too. The sugar should help with the shakes.”

  Taking her in his arms and sharing his body heat would work better, but he didn’t dare do so or even suggest it. He’d bulldozed through her boundaries when he’d pulled her into his arms and kissed her earlier. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. For her sake and for his own.

  Over the years he’d found himself thinking about their time together, especially when he’d see Arianna here in town or at an event in Boston. They’d traveled in the same social circle when she was married to Summers. She’d always been the most beautiful woman in the room, and he’d find himself remembering she’d once been his and how she’d felt in his arms and how her lips had felt under his. His memories hadn’t done her justice. Her kiss had ignited a fiery flame, one that still burned bright inside him and showed no sign of dying down.

  “Connor, I need to know if they found her,” she whispered, focused on the thermos in her hand instead of the burned-out shells of the four businesses that had been caught up in Lorenzo Romano’s madness. If it weren’t for Connor’s uncle and the men and women of the Harmony Harbor Fire Department, they might have lost an entire block. His cousin Liam, a firefighter with HHFD, had been the one to carry Arianna from the burning building.

  “Stay here. No sense in you getting wet. I’ll go talk to them,” he said, even though he was fairly certain his uncle would have called by now if they’d found Helen.

  Her bottom lip caught between her teeth, Arianna nodded. It was obvious her first sight of the blackened remains of Tie the Knot was doing a number on her.

  “Hey”—he smoothed her damp hair from her face—“I can move the car to the side street if it would be easier for you.”

  “No. I need to do this. It’s j-j-just—” She was shaking so hard her teeth were chattering.

  “Okay, honey, I’ve got you.” He drew her into his arms. “Nobody says you have to do this now. You’ve got enough going on without dealing with this too.”

  With her forehead pressed to his chest and her good hand clutching his shoulder, she shook her head. “I have to. I know she’s here. I have to be here when they find her.”

  “I know you think she is, but she might not be. It doesn’t mean anything if she isn’t. It just means we keep looking.”

  “I do know. This is where I’d come. I need to do this now before I lose my nerve.” She raised her gaze to his. “Don’t let me go though. I don’t think I can do it alone.” She made a face. “I feel so weak asking you that.”

  “Join the club. How do you think I feel? What I went through was nothing compared to you, and look how I—”

  “What do you mean?”

  “About five minutes ago, when I grabbed you on the sidewalk and ravaged you with a kiss.”

  The corner of her mouth ticked up. “Ravaged?”

  “Devoured you. Practically kissed your face off.”

  “Did it help?”

  “God, yeah,” he said without thinking, then looked down at her. “I still feel bad about it though. Weak, too.”

  “Maybe I should ravage you.”

  “If you think it will help, feel free to ravage me anytime.”

  All of a sudden her expression shuttered. “I’m sorry. I forgot you had a girlfriend.” She drew away from him. “Apparently you forgot too.”

  “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. Brooklyn and I aren’t seeing each other anymore.”

  “But I thought you were having dinner with her this evening.”

  “We did. We officially ended it tonight.” It made it easier that his brothers had correctly guessed Brooklyn’s reaction to him being unemployed. It had kind of surprised him, but he supposed it shouldn’t have. She’d always liked the social perks and the status that came with his job, even more than he did. Still, it wasn’t easy saying goodbye. For the most part, he’d really enjoyed being with her. Though he wouldn’t miss their weekly dinner dates with Lyndsey and Tiff.

  “So, do you think you can let me hold you without feeling guilty now?” He didn’t add “kiss you.” But the moment had passed, tension once more filling the Porsche as she glanced to where people milled around a police car.

  “She’s here. I know she is.”

  The scene told a different story. But he wasn’t going to correct her. Even though it would be better if she saw the charred remains of what had been to her, her life, when she was better able to cope. Not on a night when someone she loved was missing.

  “Why don’t you let me go and check things out first?” He handed her the red plaid jacket she was struggling to grab from the backseat and then dug his phone from his pocket, handing it to her. “Call Jenna. She can fill you in on what’s happening with the search while you wait. Hit last call,” he said, knowing she’d have a hard time pressing the keys with one hand. “I won’t be long.”

  She nodded without looking at him and brought the phone to her ear. He waited until she had Jenna on the other end before he
closed the door. At least Arianna wouldn’t feel like she was sitting in the car alone. She’d be able to avoid looking at the burned-out building for only so long.

  He jogged across the rain-slicked street, spotting his cousin Aidan, a detective with the Harmony Harbor Police Department, in the middle of an angry mob. “There’s nothing I can do about it, folks. It’s for your own safety,” his cousin told the crowd.

  Now that he stood a few yards away from the burned-out buildings, Connor understood their frustration. The area was cordoned off with portable fencing to keep people out.

  “Excuse me,” Connor said as he made his way through the frustrated and muttering crowd to his cousin.

  “Okay, don’t you start yelling at me too,” Aidan said when he reached him. “We can’t let anyone in to search, Con. It wasn’t safe before the rain, and it’s less so now.”

  “What about search and rescue and the dogs? They’re trained to work in less-than-ideal conditions.”

  His cousin looked around and then lowered his voice. “They’re at the marina.”

  “That’s not the news I wanted to hear,” Connor said, glancing toward his car.

  “They don’t have anything definitive. An eyewitness thought they saw Helen trying to get in one of the boats docked at the marina.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Within two hours of her going missing, I think.”

  “Doesn’t fit.” He told Aidan about the signs and the idiot who’d threatened to call the police.

  “You’re right. Timeline doesn’t work, unless—”

  “The older woman defacing the signs wasn’t Helen after all,” Connor said.