by Candis Terry
“A little more to the left.”
“That’s not what you said last night.”
“Parker Kincade, you have a one track mind.”
“Guilty. Because if I’m going to be tangled up in tinsel, it’s going to be with you. Even those yoga pants and Kermit the Frog colored slippers you’re wearing won’t deter me.”
“Awww. You say the nicest things.”
On the radio, as “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” slipped into “Blue Christmas,” Gabi poured the popcorn into a large bowl and carried it over to the sofa. The gas fireplace didn’t snap and crackle, but it did add to the ambience in the room. She’d never celebrated the holiday with a man she was dating, but she was glad her first time was with Parker.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
For him? Always.
She looked up from the bowl of popcorn and found him with one hand on the string of lights and the other holding the extension cord. He looked a little like Clark Griswold and she was just a bit miffed that he didn’t ask her to perform a drumroll.
“I’m ready.”
A second later the entire tree lit up in the colors of the rainbow. She hadn’t been sure they’d even work after being stuck in a closet for so many years. “Oh, it’s beautiful.”
He stood back and admired it. Then he turned toward her. “You’re beautiful. The tree is nice.”
“You keep talking like that and this popcorn is never going to get strung.”
“Is that an invitation?” He pounced and they both fell back on the sofa with him landing on top of her.
Gabi was positive she’d never giggled in her entire life until that very moment. But the laughter stopped when he pressed his mouth to hers and kissed her.
She’d spent so many holidays alone; spending this one with Parker would be nice. More than nice. Spending time with Parker could get addictive.
When they came up for air, she told him, “If we keep this up we’re never going to get the tree done.”
“See, there you go talking dirty again.” He kissed her quick then moved off of her. “What am I going to do with you?”
“If I answer that, I will be talking dirty.”
The sound of his laughter filled an empty space in her heart.
“Let’s put on the ornaments, and then we can get to the popcorn and cranberries.”
“There aren’t really that many ornaments.” She reached into the box and unwrapped a Santa flying in a red and green biplane. “I wasn’t ever planning on having a big tree. I don’t even remember what’s in here.”
“Discovery is the best part.” He sat down beside her, pulled another ornament from the box, and unwrapped a gingerbread man in a chef’s hat. “Cute.”
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” played while they continued to unwrap each ornament. By the time they were done, they’d uncovered a sweater-wearing reindeer with long spaghetti legs, a girl elf holding a giant peppermint candy, a colorful glittered owl wearing earmuffs, and a snow couple sipping hot chocolate inside a teacup, just to name a few.
“You know . . .” Parker held up a miniature house made of candy. “I think I’m learning a lot about you just by looking at all these ornaments.”
Uh-oh. “How so?”
“I’m discovering you have a far more whimsical side than you’re willing to let out.”
At one time in her life she’d had whimsy down to an art. She’d lived a life full of color. She’d believed in fairies and fairytales too. She’d had an understanding that all things were possible and that they should be explored with a great deal of laughter and fun. But like Humpty Dumpty, her world had come crashing down and the color had disappeared until she’d walked into a half-built restaurant and met Parker.
Now her life seemed to swim in the depths of his blue eyes and the brightness of his smile. Her past had taught her to be wary. That the other shoe would fall. And that anything that brought her happiness could be swept away as easily as it had fallen into her hands.
But looking at this man as he grinned and held up a silly plastic house, her life illuminated. And she dared to hope.
“Whimsical, huh?”
He nodded.
“You know what I’ve always wanted to do?” she asked.
“Tell me.”
“I’d rather show you.” She took him by the hand and helped him to his feet. Then she began to unbutton the long-sleeved flannel shirt he’d put on when they came home. When his chest was bare, she slipped her fingers down his tight rippled abdomen to the button on his jeans.
A naughty grin curved his lips. “Where are we going with this?”
“Under the tree.”
“Naked?”
She nodded. “Naked.”
He flashed another grin. “Naked under the tree sex?”
“Naked under the tree sex.”
“What about the popcorn?”
“Mmmm.” She pressed her lips to his bare chest and flicked her tongue over his pebbled nipple. “We can eat it later.”
“Now you’re talking.”
They never did get to the popcorn, but after they made love they did manage to place all the ornaments on the tree. When they finished, they stood back to appreciate their work—naked—with their arms around each other. As all the red, blue, green, yellow, and purple lights glowed against his skin she leaned in and kissed his cheek.
“Thank you.”
He smiled. “For what?”
“For putting whimsy and color back into my life.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Right back atcha.”
Lucy Diamond’s house looked like something you’d find on Pinterest under shabby chic or fairytale cottages. It was picture perfect on the outside and the inside, and Gabriella couldn’t imagine ever wanting to move away. But that was Lucy’s plan after she and Jordan were married the following week. And then Nicole Kincade would move in. Gabi briefly wondered if Nicole might be in the market for a roommate.
Not only was the sweet little home decorated from top to bottom with a gorgeous Christmas tree and twinkling white fairy lights everywhere you looked, but it had also been decked out with an English tea party theme for Lucy’s evening bridal shower.
The only thing—person—who looked a bit out of place was Aunt Pippy and her hot pink bell-bottom pants matched with a vibrant green and blue top with bell-bottom sleeves. Dangling from her ears were big circular earrings that vaguely resembled watermelons. Apparently no one had told the elderly woman that hot pink clashed with her fire orange hair. Or maybe they had and she just didn’t care. At any rate, Gabi just counted it all up as adding more color to her once bland life.
Light and fluffy pumpkin spice cupcakes with champagne icing were served in pristine white laser-cut wraps. Crystal flutes of bubbly were also served. It was all so elegant. Until they got down to the gifts. Gabi was sure Lucy blushed at least ten times with each carefully wrapped present she opened. She also knew Jordan was going to be a very happy man when his new bride modeled all the pretty lace and flimsy-material pieces of lingerie for him.
The company was fun and everyone accepted Gabi as one of their own. They talked about girl things, and dreams, and Gabi realized that she wasn’t the only one who thought in terms of fairytales coming true.
It was all going perfectly proper and well until toward the end Aunt Pippy stood up and said to Lili, Brooke, and Nicole, “You girls did a lovely job with the shower. Lucy, you’re going to be a gorgeous bride, and Jordan is a lucky man to have you. And while all of this has been fun . . . who’s ready to go hit the bar?”
Lucy’s married friend Claudia was the first to jump up and head for the door. “Come on, ladies. Let’s get moving. I’ve only got a babysitter until ten o’clock.”
Everyone looked at Nicole, the only one in the room under the age of twenty-one. Knowing she couldn’t go to the bar, she crossed her arms and pouted. But when Lucy told everyone it wouldn’t be right for them to go and leave Nicole after she
helped plan the shower, Nicole started to laugh.
“I’ll stay here and clean up,” she said. “But someone better take pictures, because I want to see everything.” She gave Lili and Brooke a wink that made Gabi think they had something up their sleeve.
Like male strippers.
Hoo boy.
“Yep.” Aunt Pippy rubbed her hands together and was on the move like she knew too. “Let’s get going.”
The Mother Lode could never hope to be classified as a refined place of business. Plain and simple, it was a dive bar, and the red and yellow flashing sign claimed it to be the best karaoke joint in the Pacific Northwest.
Doubtful.
While the exterior resembled a garage where badass biker dudes might hang out, the interior was worse. Most of the neon beer signs had a letter or two burned out. The top of the bar was coated with a sticky substance that seriously needed to be investigated by the team from CSI: Miami. Bowls of beer nuts lined the top of the bar too, but Gabi would have to be close to dead of starvation to even think about sampling them. The karaoke stage—a small circle of weathered wood—was surrounded by tables and chairs with torn vinyl seats. Red and green metallic garlands had been draped across the paneled walls and a fake Christmas tree with red lights listed to one side in the corner like it had consumed too many alcoholic beverages.
This was going to be interesting.
“No body shots till later,” Aunt Pippy announced as she pounded her fist on the bar to get the bartender’s attention.
Body shots?
Gabi looked around the busy, crowded room.
With who?
An old guy with a grizzled beard and a missing front tooth gave Gabi a wink and a nod. She shook her head and turned away.
Yep.
Going to be very interesting.
How or why they’d ended up here was anyone’s guess. But it seemed like the rest of them knew what they were doing so Gabi decided to go with the flow.
The bridal shower partiers had crowded together at the bar, where Aunt Pippy had Fireball shooters lined up for everyone.
Was she serious?
“Nobody pusses out,” Pippy said. “Glasses up.”
The group of women all looked at each other as though they were trying to figure a way out before they slammed the spicy cinnamon whiskey down their throats.
Over a boisterous and drunken karaoke version of “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” Aunt Pippy started the countdown. “Ready. Set. Drink ’em down, ladies. The bridal shower is officially over. Let the bachelorette party commence!”
With a round of woohoos from the girls, they counted down and simultaneously slammed the shooters.
Parker balanced his boots on the ladder as he screwed the last of the flame tip lightbulbs into a chandelier over one of the booths. The restaurant was almost done, and in Parker’s mind, it was perfect. From selecting the furnishings to the lights to the serving dishes, he couldn’t have managed it all without Gabriella’s help and her constantly pushing him in the right direction.
In the beginning he’d thought he didn’t have time for anything extra, let alone anyone else, in his life. Somehow, instead of becoming an attachment to his life, she’d merged into it. Like she’d always been there. Like she should always be there.
Each day she became more and more important to him, and he’d finally realized that trying to keep things casual between them was a joke. They’d moved way past casual.
For the most part, she spent more time at his houseboat than her own apartment because Parker kept finding reasons to keep her there. Whether it was because he was sexually exhausted or not, he found he slept better with her curled up against him. He liked having her there. He liked the way she curled up in a corner of his sofa and furrowed her brow as she read a book. He liked the way she sipped a cup of tea or nibbled on a piece of cheese. He liked the way she was concerned that his brother’s wedding reception be as perfect as Jordan and Lucy imagined. He liked the way she fit so well into his family. And he liked the way she gave him a soft place to land after a tough day.
At night they cooked together, and together they came up with some pretty creative meals. She’d even worked with him in the food truck a couple of times when he’d been hired for a special event and needed extra help. Hell, they’d even put up a Christmas tree together.
Keep it casual?
No strings?
No way.
Maybe it was time they talked. Maybe it was time he asked her about her feelings and where she wanted to go from here. Maybe it was time he just flat out admitted that he was pretty much in love with her and now he had to figure out a way to keep her in his life on a permanent basis.
The truth set him back on his heels and he laughed.
He’d thought falling in love would be a big deal that would force him to change his life. In reality falling in love with Gabriella was like slipping into a big warm bed and sighing because it just felt so damned good.
From his jeans pocket his cell phone played “Earned It” by The Weeknd, the song he’d attached to Gabriella’s name in his contacts. A sexy song for a sexy woman.
He smiled as he tapped answer. “I was just thinking about you.”
Instead of a reply, he heard music too loud to decipher the song and conversation too muffled to pick out any words.
“Hello? Gabriella?”
Female laughter burst through the phone.
Not just laughter; hysterical giggling.
“Gabriella?”
Still nothing but an inaudible exchange.
“Hello?”
Then . . . “Welcome to the Mother Lode!”
Deafening whoops and hollers burst through the speaker and Parker jerked the phone away from his ear.
“Damn it.”
What the hell was she doing at the Mother Lode?
In a heartbeat, worry set in.
Was she calling him because she needed him? Was she in trouble? Anything could and did happen at the Mother Lode on a regular basis and it wasn’t always pretty.
Only one way to find out.
He snatched up his keys off the table near the front door and locked the place up tight.
When the police came through the door at the Mother Lode, Aunt Pippy was onstage warbling a raunchy version of the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe.” Apparently one of the bar-goers who’d been kicked out due to the bridal shower turned bachelorette party hadn’t been too happy about happy hour ending so soon.
After several sets of Fireball shooters and a heavy-handed round of Angry Balls cocktails, Lucy’s proper bridal shower had exploded into a naughty top this version of karaoke.
Watching Parker’s elderly aunt use some burlesque moves to the Spice Girls tune was a little bit like watching Minnie Mouse perform a striptease. It was comical, but the old gal was really into it and the bar crowd was cheering her on.
The cop who suddenly walked through the door and grabbed the attention of every female in sight couldn’t be the real deal. He was way too handsome and his uniform fit like a glove. Although Gabi had to admit the gun, baton, and radio transmitter attached to his shoulder looked genuine. Even so, in her mildly inebriated state of mind, she just knew the man had to be a male stripper. Though why whoever hired him would choose a cop persona instead of a hockey player for Lucy was anyone’s guess when the groom’s previous career had been spent on the ice. Then again, Gabi figured that to Lucy, no one in a hockey uniform could ever be as smokin’ hot as her fiancé.
The very tall, very muscular cop had short hand-combed light brown hair, a chiseled jaw, sexy masculine lips, broad shoulders, and a set of abs so rippled they could be appreciated through the fabric of his shirt.
From the moment he’d walked through the door his eyes had gone directly to Lili, who was dancing on top of the bar in a sexy LBD and wicked red stilettos.
Aware the hot cop stripper was headed in her direction, Lili—who’d clearly consumed way more than enough whiskey—got down on her kne
es and crooked her finger at him.
“Ma’am. Could you please come down from there?” hot cop asked.
“What if I say no? Will you frisk me . . .” Lili flashed him a man-eating grin while she checked out the name badge pinned to his shirt. “Deputy Harley?”
With the exception of Aunt Pippy, who was still working her bump-and-grind on the karaoke stage, all the women at the bar oooooohed.
Completely entertained, Gabi stood back and waited for hot cop to start his strip routine.
“I think I can pretty much see you’re not concealing a weapon, ma’am,” Deputy Harley replied with the hint of a smile in appreciation of Lili’s tight black dress. “But I’d be grateful if you’d come down off that bar so you don’t get hurt.”
Parker’s sister maneuvered around so that she was sitting on the bar when she held out her arms. “Then can you help me down?” she asked, putting Marilyn Monroe’s breathy voice to shame. “So I don’t hurt myself, of course.”
If he was the real deal, standard police procedure would probably require the deputy to nix the whole touchy feely thing with a potential perp. He gave another indication that his uniform had most likely come from a costume shop when he wrapped his hands around Lili’s small waist and helped her down off the bar.
All eyes in the room were glued to the action, sure that any second “Bad Boys” would come over the sound system and Deputy Harley would single out the bride-to-be and start stripping off that tight tan shirt.
“So where are you from?” Lili flashed him another flirtatious grin as she fingered the middle button on his shirt. “Other than dropping straight out of heaven.”
He captured her finger in his large hand, held on, and chuckled. “Born and raised in Deer Lick, Montana. Took after my big brother and decided to become an officer of the law after college.”
“So . . .” Lili looked all the way up into his laughing eyes. “You’re a real deputy?”
“Last time I checked.”
The crowd watching the flirty exchange groaned with disappointment. When they realized no clothes would be coming off that big muscular body, they went back to drinking and watching the fiasco on the stage.
