by Traci Hall
And then she mentioned coming home instead of Europe. He recognized her hat and elf ears, and heard her mention a nerdy music teacher and the pageant.
His ears burned.
The bedroom door slammed.
Teagan, tousled hair, pajama pants and a t-shirt, stared at him. “How long have you been watching that?”
“The beginning.”
Riley got up, angry. Not what he’d thought he’d be on seeing Teagan come out of his room, his bed.
“And? I’ve been standing here for five minutes and you never budged.”
“It’s pretty personal.” He poured a cup of cold coffee.
“It’s supposed to be.” She stayed by the door, her auburn hair tangled around her face.
“It’s like a damn diary. An expose of your life.” He sipped the coffee then spit it out into the sink. Opened the fridge and grabbed a beer.
“That’s who I am.” Her eyes narrowed.
“Yeah, well, you drag other people into the spotlight.” He drank, the cold hops soothing his parched throat. “Nerdy music teacher?”
She blushed hot and red. “How was I supposed to know I’d see you again?”
“You came to the pageant.”
“Yes.” Teagan rubbed the flush at her throat. “But I wasn’t sure about it, when I posed the question.”
“And just what did your viewers say? Did they tell you to come? Is that why you graced Watkins Elementary with your presence?”
“Hey, Riley, come on. It wasn’t like that. I thought you were cute. I wanted to make sure you didn’t have an elf fetish.”
“What?” He slammed the beer on the counter.
“Kidding!” Teagan held up one hand in a stop motion. “I’m sorry.”
Riley wasn’t sure he was ready to forgive her. He gave her his back and stared out the window at the small swimming pool. She’d told a lot of freaking people he was a nerd. And he hadn’t finished watching the other episodes. “What else did you say about me?”
She came up next to him and put her hand on his back. “Nothing derogatory.”
“You didn’t think that was bad?”
“I make fun of myself all of the time.”
“I’m not you.”
“No,” she agreed. “Want me to watch them with you?”
“God, no.” He couldn’t imagine anything more embarrassing.
She sat at the kitchen table and looked up at him. “Do you want to take me home?”
“No.” He pulled his gaze from the empty lounge chair by the pool and joined Teagan. He closed his laptop. “I wanted to understand you better.”
She exhaled and crossed her legs, the green and blue plaid pajama bottoms so long they covered her bare feet. “Now you do, but it’s not necessarily for the better. That’s all right, Riley. Won’t be the first time my snark has cost me.”
He didn’t like the way she casually dismissed the incident. They’d shared something amazing and intimate, and she was willing to walk away?
Riley nodded, swallowing his angry response. She’d been very clear about leaving South Florida. She hadn’t changed.
Maybe this was a sign, a reminder, not to let his heart get involved.
Was it too late? Had it been too late from the moment her candy cane button popped?
“I need some time to process.” He gestured to the pool out back. “Want to swim?”
She sat up in surprise. “You’re not going to go all cave-man and erupt? Verbally spew?”
Riley scooted his chair back, extending his legs in front of him. “Maybe the benefit of sleeping with a mature but nerdy music teacher is that I’ve grown up. No temper tantrums.”
Teagan tucked her hair behind her ear and met his gaze. “I’m sorry. Really. I had no idea that I would like you as much as I do.”
Her words mollified him, a little. He wouldn’t completely release the sting. It was better for him to remember that she was not someone he could keep.
She got to her feet, the bottom of her pants like socks except for the red toes poking out. “I’m not big on swimming.”
“Oh yeah. I forgot about the sun.”
Teagan tapped her chest. “You’ve seen for yourself how pale I am. It’s miserable to get a bad burn.”
Riley avoided looking at where her hand rested, because then he just wanted to forgive everything and go back to bed. To unwrap the gift of Teagan. Porcelain skin, delicate features, lovely curves.
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat and searched for his phone. What if the cops had called? Her friend Colin seemed chummy. “So, anything special you want to do?”
“I have to talk to my parents. You?”
“I’ll call my mom later.” Much later. Riley’s mind was on overload.
“What were you going to do today? Before coming to my rescue.”
“Hang at the beach with Carrie and some of the other people that live in the complex. Nothing fancy.”
She nibbled her lower lip. “You could still do that. I can go home.”
“I don’t want you to go home.” As mad as he was, as embarrassed as he was, he knew that for a fact. They stood next to one another in the tiny kitchen.
“We could watch movies,” she suggested. “I don’t get to do that very often.”
Movies? Unless they were the naked people variety he didn’t want to sit next to Teagan and do anything but touch her. Kiss her. Be inside her.
“You don’t like movies?”
“Not really.”
“What do you do for fun?”
“It’s not like I hate movies.”
She touched his arm. “Fun. You do have that, right?”
“I run.”
Teagan gave his ass a pat. “I could tell.”
His temper eased a smidge more. “I play guitar.”
“You do? Where is it?”
“In my closet.”
“So you don’t do it very often,” she said.
“I’m busy. Especially with the pageant. I’d come home and chill by the pool. Run on the beach. Compose music. Watch the stars. Have you ever gone sea turtle watching?”
“During high school,” she said. “Part of science class.”
Silence stretched between them.
“So, say you have a friend with a sun allergy. What would you do for fun, then?”
He crossed his arms. “Does this friend have the most incredible breasts I’ve ever seen in my life?”
Teagan’s eyes widened and she pressed her hand to her collarbone. “Riley!”
“What?”
He waited for her to stop looking like she wanted to die and then said, “I guess I’d take her back to bed.”
*****
Teagan did not fall asleep after making love a third time. Instead, Riley’s snores shook the mattress, making another nap impossible. She got up, showered, dressed and contemplated the dreaded Merry Christmas, you’ve been robbed, phone call to her parents in Germany.
No messages from Colin or the police. Tons of texts from friends. An invite to dinner tomorrow night from her old high school boyfriend.
How had Lars known she was in town? They did not stay in touch.
She slipped outside to Riley’s shaded back patio. A white plastic bistro set was situated right outside the door, and planters with bromeliads and orchids thrived in the sub-tropic weather. They were very different, she and Riley. It was good that their affair was short term.
You could let a lot of things go, knowing the time together had an expiration date. For example, his love of the beach. The stars were all right, but she wasn’t crazy about them.
Teagan really wanted to hear him on his guitar. He’d wanted to be a rock star once, which meant that he wasn’t all work and no play. Had his mother thumped that dream right out of him?
She perched on the white seat, her mini dress hiking up to mid-thigh. In the spirit of Christmas, it was red, to match her fingernails.
She dialed, listening to the crackle of the line. Then, �
��Merry Christmas, schatzi,” her dad sang. In an aside to her mom, “It’s our Teagan.” Her mother shrieked in joy as if they hadn’t talked for a half an hour yesterday.
“Merry Christmas!” Teagan fought back the rise of tears. Had the stupid holiday meant more than she’d realized?
“Let me put you on speaker,” her dad said.
“No.” Teagan’s words came in a rush. “Dad, hang on a minute. Can you go into the other room or something?”
His voice turned gruff. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s uh…” She couldn’t find the words.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes. Everything is mostly fine.”
She heard her dad murmur something to her mom and then he came on the line, clear but concerned. “Tell me.”
“Daddy, we were robbed.”
“Sheisse. The house? The bakery?” His tone lowered. “Are you okay? That matters most.”
“I’m fine, I swear.” She sniffed. “They took the TV. Mom’s jewelry.”
“Pah. She brought the good stuff with her. How did they get in?”
“Broke the slider door. The lock, not the glass. The police barricaded it with a broom stick. I’ll call the locksmith tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’re coming home.”
She’d been afraid of that. “You’re not coming home!”
“I need to be there. File the insurance paperwork.”
“That can be done later, Dad.” She studied the ornate swirls on the white bistro table top. “There’s nothing else for you to do. We don’t want Mom upset, right?”
“She’s upset. It’s too late. She’s fighting non-stop with her cousins. She wants to come home. Maybe she’s right.”
“Dad, you went to a lot of trouble to make this trip happen. If you don’t want to visit with the cousins, rent a car. See the country.” There were castles and vineyards and gorgeous countryside—she couldn’t wait to widen her horizons.
“I’ve seen it already.”
She didn’t understand how her parents could be so content to do nothing in Europe. “You can’t come home early.”
“We bought travel insurance. It won’t be that much money to change flights.”
“Listen, Dad, what are the chances that you’ll go back to Germany again?”
“After this misery? Null.”
“So stay. Find something positive. We’re talking a week and a half.”
She heard her mother pounding on a door, then, “Frank, what are you doing in the bathroom with the phone? I want to talk to our daughter, too.”
“Don’t tell your mother,” he said. “About the robbery.”
“Okay.”
“What are you two conspiring about?” Her mother’s tones demanded answers.
“It’s Christmas, isn’t it? That means you don’t get to know everything, Greta.” Her dad handed over the phone. “I love you, Teagan,” he called.
“I want to come home,” her mother said, crying.
The sound broke her heart and Teagan cried too. “You can’t, Ma. You just need to stay there and enjoy your family.”
“I hate them. I remember now why I was so eager to leave for the United States.”
“Ma!”
“It’s true. But wait until you see what I got for you, Teagan.”
“What is it?”
“You think you and your dad are the only ones to have secrets? Pah.”
Teagan smiled through her tears. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too. It was a hare-brained scheme for me to spend the holiday in Germany instead of home with you and your father.”
“It was important, Ma, Mom. If you would have stayed, you would have worked. I’m exhausted and I’m a lot younger than you. No offense.”
“Getting older isn’t easy.” Her mom sniffed, her tears slowing. “But it’s better than dead.”
“Definitely.”
“How are you spending the holiday? I told Maria that you were home alone.”
Ah, that explained why Lars had called. His mom made him. “Don’t set me up— you know I never really liked him.”
“Such a good-looking boy.”
“Who was into his muscles more than me.” Lars pumped iron and ate his weight in protein shakes. No fun on a date.
“Well, are you going to see him?”
“Nope. I have plans. Don’t worry about me.”
“It isn’t right, for a woman to be alone. And you want to travel by yourself? You could get hurt. Raped.”
She stared at the phone. “Ma!”
“These things happen. You’re very pretty, Teagan. Like your grandmother.”
“The one you hate?”
“I loved my mother!” Her protests came loud and strong over the phone. “She was just too wild.”
“Like me?”
“You need a nice husband.”
“No, I don’t. I might not ever get married.”
“Oh! How can you say such a thing to your own mother?”
“You need to understand, Mom, times have changed.”
“They haven’t changed so much that a woman should be alone. Not on Christmas, not traveling the countryside like a vagrant.”
Teagan’s temper simmered. Would this argument never go away? “I keep telling you, Mom, I’m not backpacking alone. I’ll be with a group of people.” Tours were organized all the time, so even though she’d missed this one, there would be another.
“Do you know them?”
“No, but we’ll be besties by the time I’m done.” She regretted her tone and rubbed her aching temple.
The back door opened, revealing a cute Riley complete with pillow-face. “Hey, there you are. Oops, are you on the phone?”
She nodded.
Her mom, with sharp ears, asked, “Who was that? Not Lars.”
Ugh. “Not Lars.”
“One of your other school friends?”
Riley shrugged and mouthed, “Sorry.”
Grinning, she eyed Riley’s lean form. “Not a school friend.”
“Who?”
“Doesn’t matter, Mom. Just a friend.”
“Well,” her mom said, digesting the information. “Is he German?”
At this, Teagan laughed. “Not German. Black Irish.”
Her mother gasped. “Teagan Becker.”
“What?”
“Does he have a job? You know those people have a history with alcohol. Violence.”
“Mom, sometimes I feel like you got stuck in a time warp about a hundred years ago. He has a job and so far he hasn’t passed out in his dinner.”
Riley’s eyes widened.
She gave an exaggerated shake of her head. “Mom, I have to go. I love you. Merry Christmas. Tell Dad, too. And be nice to your cousins...”
“But Teagan,” she said.
Teagan clicked end. It was not as satisfactory as slamming down a phone.
Chapter Fourteen
“Hanging up on your mother for Christmas?” Riley clucked his tongue behind his teeth in shame.
“Trust me.” She shoved the phone across the table. “It’s better than getting into a fight.”
“So, she doesn’t like the Irish?”
“She likes them just fine. It’s the fact that she’s figured out we slept together that makes you’re being Irish a problem.”
Shirtless and in shorts, he sat across from her, his elbows on the table. “Why?”
“Only good German stock is supposed to cross these thighs,” Teagan explained with a laugh. “But don’t worry. You’re never going to meet her. You’re safe, boyo.”
“Why can’t I meet your parents?” Riley asked.
His hang-dog expression tugged at Teagan’s heartstrings. “Forget it,” she said. “You don’t need to meet them. I’m leaving South Florida. After I buy another backpack.”
“Maybe the cops will find it.” He straightened and she tried not to stare at the line of hair leading below his shorts. She squir
med on her chair. How was it possible to want him again?
“I’m not sure I’d want it back.” It might be bad mojo. Not as personal as her underwear, but along the same line.
“It looked expensive.”
“Over three hundred bucks.” She shrugged. “I’d have to think about it. Riley, it’s Christmas. I want you to play me a song.”
“Okay. So long as you sing along.”
“Nice.” She traced a plastic swirl. “A counter offer.”
“I’m serious.”
What did he have against showing off his talent? Was he shy? He stared at her until she agreed. “Fine.” Maybe he wasn’t very good and he was embarrassed...
Riley went inside, and within minutes returned with a gorgeous acoustic. “Is that a Washburn?” Just her luck to recognize the one brand she knew. Made her sound like she knew her shit.
“The best of the line.” Instead of the chair, he sat on a rock bench. The guitar seemed a natural fit in his hands. “It was my treat for graduating college. I bought it with my first paycheck.”
“I like your style. Forget groceries or rent, I want a guitar.” Just maybe there was hope in finding his inner rock star yet.
He’d put on his glasses and Teagan took a mental picture for her memory bank. Riley McSorley, shirtless, tan and lean, dark curly hair falling forward, his long fingers on the strings. Smokin’ hot.
“How’d you know?” He strummed downward, tuning the chords.
“I had a friend, female, that played. I tried but my fingers are all thumbs.” She waggled them. “I don’t mind. I like being part of the audience. Sometimes we’d harmonize, take over the karaoke bar.”
“You have a beautiful voice. I’d harmonize with you.”
“Let’s see your skills, first,” she challenged.
“What should I play?”
“Just surprise me.”
He took a black notebook from his back pocket and dropped it on the cement pavers. “Covers, or original?”
Over the next hour, he swept her off her feet. Ballads and original riffs, she was mesmerized by his hands, his husky voice. Riley McSorley was loaded with talent.
