by Jamie Pope
“Buildings. Homes, later in his career. He was an architect.”
“Your father was Hal Roberts?”
“You know of him?”
“Your father is a legend, Hallie. He designed that children’s museum to look like a medieval castle with a moat and a drawbridge. And the seashell house and the building that looked like a basket and the library that looked like a bunch of giant books. It was brilliant. My mother took us to see some of them.”
“But those places are all around the world.”
“Yeah. My parents didn’t believe in waterparks or arcades. If we were going on vacation, we were going to learn something.”
“I’m jealous of you, Asa. I never got to see his work.”
“He never took you?”
“No. My father was quite a bit older than my mother. People probably thought she was an opportunist or that he was a dirty old man, but they loved each other in a deep, deep way. My father was a kid at heart and my mother is an old soul. They balanced each other out and when my father retired, he never wanted to leave home. My hometown is so peaceful. He was just so incredibly happy living out his days in the home he built.”
“That’s a very nice thing.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and dropped a kiss on her forehead as they continued to walk through the park.
She didn’t know where they were going. She didn’t bother to ask. She was sure she hated New York, and the cold, and the snow. But right then she was feeling very generous to all three, because she couldn’t think of anyplace else she’d rather be in that moment, than with this warm man, in this cold weather with their feet crunching in the snow as they walked to an unknown destination.
They were silent for a long while. Not needing to speak. There was no awkwardness. No rush to fill up the space with noise. She thought the beach was the only peaceful place she could be, but maybe there was something real to her father’s love about this neighborhood and this park.
“This is what I wanted you to see.” They had stopped in front of that famous arch and in the center of it was a beautiful large evergreen decorated in red lights. “Everyone makes such a big deal about the one at Rockefeller Center, but this is my favorite.”
She could see why. There was no one else there, just them, with the snow falling around them in one of the most picturesque places in New York. Not everyone got to see this, especially with a man who was as good as the one she was huddled next to.
* * *
It had been a very good day, Asa thought as they turned back onto their street. It was after four. The sun was just starting to go down, blanketing the city in an orangey-red sunset. They had spent all day together. The walk in the park, the long lunch in the little hidden café. He took her to a bakery that his friend owned where they got a tray of holiday desserts that they shared. And they talked some more, while she drank a huge mug of hot chocolate. When they walked back to their apartment building he knew he didn’t want the day to end yet.
“Let’s get a tree,” he said to her.
“What?” She looked up at him, her pretty eyes going wide. Her curls sticking out from under her hat. She was so damn cute. He never thought he had had a type before, but Hallie wasn’t the type of woman he usually dated; maybe that was why he was finding himself so incredibly attracted to her. Maybe the fact that she was different was the reason he never wanted his time with her to come to an end.
“There’s a lot around the corner. We should get a Christmas tree.”
“Right now?” She blinked at him.
“Yeah, right now.”
“I don’t have any space to put a tree. I can barely fit myself in my apartment.”
“We’ll put it in my place.”
“We don’t have any ornaments.”
“We’ll get some.”
“And a tree stand?”
“I’m sure we can buy one of those, too.” He took her hand and squeezed it. “Let’s get a tree.”
“Okay.” She smiled at him.
Luckily, the guy at the lot sold stands and there was a little dollar store that sold cheap plastic ornaments. Hallie made Asa wait outside of the corner market with the tree while she ran inside.
“What did you get?” he asked her when she came out.
“Cranberries and eggnog of course. If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right. My father used to make us warm chocolate eggnog with a healthy shot of liquor. We don’t have any rum, but it will still be good.”
“Baby, we are in luck, because I have a full bar in my place. I’ve even got whipped cream for the chocolate eggnog.”
“I don’t want to know why a single, good-looking man has whipped cream in his refrigerator.” She gave him a sexy grin. “Maybe I do.”
“You’ll find out later. Come on. Let’s go home.”
It was after 9:00 p.m. and they only had half the tree decorated. Hallie was lying on the floor beneath it. She was smiling. Just smiling for no particular reason at all, but Asa was pretty sure it had something to do with the rum they had in their chocolate eggnogs. She’d only had a mug and a half in the few hours they’d been back. But it was enough to make her go all liquidy and giggly.
It made him want to get closer to her. He got on the floor next to her and she reached for his hand, linking her fingers with his. He probably hadn’t just held hands with a girl since middle school, but today he found himself reaching for hers a lot.
“What are you doing, Hallie?”
“Just looking up. We’ve got to get presents to put under this tree, you know. What good is a tree without presents?”
“Did you have lots of presents as a kid?”
“My father used to make me things. Beautiful handmade dollhouses with all the furniture. My favorite was the old Victorian mansion he built for me. It had a little white door and cute little flower boxes in all the windows. They were too nice to play with. He always wanted me to play with them. He told me he would make me as many as I wanted. He said toys were meant to be played with. But they weren’t just toys to me, they were works of art. I always knew he was special. He never acted like he was, but I had grown up knowing that my father was one of the most extraordinary people God had ever given to the earth.”
Asa rolled on to his side and wrapped his arm around her, bringing them closer. “I hope my kids love me at least a quarter as much as you love your father.”
“They will.” She sat her hand on his cheek. “Especially if you love their mother.”
“I wouldn’t make a baby with anyone I didn’t love.” He slid his hand up her shirt, resting his hand on her side, just so he could feel her skin.
“Easier said than done.”
It was true. He had a friend who had gotten a woman that he barely knew pregnant. They weren’t compatible. Raising a child with a near stranger was hard for him. So Asa, probably unconsciously, had decided that he was no longer going to sleep with women just to satisfy his need. He was only going to make that step with someone whom he could see raising his children with, that he could see being linked to for the rest of his life.
And yet there was this beautiful woman in his arms, a woman he barely knew and he knew with every fiber in his being that if she wanted to go to bed with him, he would take her and make love to her all night and not think about anything else but making her feel good. “Tell me more about your family.”
“It’s just my mother’s side left, which is big enough. My cousin is my best friend. He’s the mayor of our town.”
“The mayor?”
“Youngest one we’ve ever had. He’s a do-gooder, too. Donates his salary back to the town. Volunteers at the community center, and when there’s a storm he personally goes around town boarding people’s windows up. He makes me sick.”
Asa laughed and rubbed his nose
against her cheek. There was a faint smell of something sweet that he couldn’t name, but he found it slightly addictive and buried his nose in the seam of her neck to inhale more of her scent. “I thought he was your best friend.”
“He is. But one finds oneself lacking when comparing oneself to such goodness.”
“You’re being dramatic.”
“A little. He’s not preachy or sanctimonious about how good he is, either, which makes him even more annoying. He doesn’t guilt anyone else. He doesn’t ask anyone else to do anything. He just does.”
“I think I would like him.”
“You would. You’re similar men. But Derek has flaws. He’s so into giving to everyone else he can’t give enough to a woman. Every single woman on the island has thrown herself at him, but he barely seems to notice. He likes divorcées who don’t want any commitment from him.”
“Why is that a bad thing?”
“Because he deserves someone to love him. I want that for him.”
“Maybe he just hasn’t found the right woman yet.” He lifted his head to look down at her. “Give him time.” He rubbed one of her curls between his fingers. “These things kind of sneak up on a man.”
“I like the tree,” she said, looking up at it. “I know it’s not done but it looks pretty with white lights. Am I talking too much? I think it might be the chocolate eggnog.”
“No, it would be the rum in the chocolate eggnog.”
She grinned up at him. “You might be right about that. Did you like it?”
“It was good.”
“We ate so much today, but I don’t care. There’s nothing better than being warm, happy and full.”
“Are you happy? I was beginning to think you hated being here in New York.”
“Spending the day with you made it more tolerable.”
“I think that might have been a compliment.”
“It was. I can’t remember the last time I had a day this good. Thank you for spending it with me.”
“Don’t thank me.” He lowered his mouth to her lips and just rubbed his across her soft, full ones. Her eyes drifted closed. Her body went slack beneath him and he knew there was no stopping what he was going to do next. He kissed her. Beneath the Christmas tree. She tasted like chocolate and spiced rum. That combined with the flavor of her lips made her delicious. It made him greedy and he couldn’t stop himself from going back for more and deepening the kiss. She responded by opening her mouth beneath his and welcoming in his tongue.
He didn’t need alcohol tonight. He could happily get drunk off her.
She broke the kiss and set her lips on his jawline, sliding them across it and leaving behind little sweet kisses.
He didn’t ever think he had been kissed so sweetly in his life. He didn’t ever think he had been this turned on, especially by a woman who was wearing so many clothes.
“You’re not supposed to be kissing me, Asa Andersen.” Her voice was breathy. Sexy. She had no idea how crazy she was driving him. The sweet little schoolteacher made him want to burst out of his skin.
“You’re not supposed to be kissing me back.”
“I know. I think you make my brain go to mush when you kiss me and I forget who and where I am.”
“You think?”
She grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer to her. “You should kiss me again so I can make sure.”
He couldn’t describe what he felt when his lips touched hers for the second time that night. A shift? His world being rocked? It was something big, though. Big and exciting. He had jumped out of planes and helped rescue people from collapsed buildings but there was no rush as big as kissing an English teacher underneath a Christmas tree.
She pushed him away. “Yeah.” Her eyes were still closed, her lips plump and kiss-swollen. “Mushy brain.” She stood up. “We need to finish decorating this tree. It’s getting late.”
Asa didn’t follow. He just continued to lie on the floor, willing his arousal to die down, but he knew it would be a losing battle, because as long as he was anywhere near her it would want her.
And he had a feeling that she was the one woman he would always want.
Chapter 6
The next morning a little after nine, Hallie’s cell phone rang. She didn’t look at the caller ID, figuring it was her cousin, Derek, calling her as he drove into work for the once-a-week office hours he kept as mayor.
“Hello, cousin.”
“It’s not your cousin. It’s your mother and I’m guessing that the fact that you answered your phone when I know you should be in third period now means you actually are hurt. I’m coming up there! And we’re packing your things and you’re coming home.”
“Mom, no! I’m fine. Don’t come up here, and how did you find out I got hurt?”
“Derek let it slip when he was at the house booking your flight home for Christmas.”
“He had to book it at your house? What a dummy!”
“He had an alert set up to notify him of a better deal and his phone kept making a god-awful racket. He told me he was looking for flights for you and when I asked him why you weren’t looking for your own flight he told me that you were in too much pain to look at a computer screen. And then he clamped his mouth shut, trying to play it off like you just had a headache, but I knew. A mother always knows. I have been feeling off this whole week—I should have figured out sooner that my baby was in trouble.”
“I’m not in trouble, Mommy. I promise!” There was a knock on her door and she got up to answer it. “I’ll be home soon. You don’t have to come here.”
It was Asa at the door, looking delicious in a beige cable-knit sweater, jeans and boots. She was dressed in leggings and a cranberry-colored tunic sweater, but she felt grubby next to him. He always looked so handsome. It didn’t matter if he had just come home after a twelve-hour shift or was freshly showered and shaved—he was simply gorgeous all the time. He made her feel like a bushel of butterflies was let loose in her stomach. She kept thinking about their kiss beneath the Christmas tree last night. She didn’t know if it was the twinkling lights, or the smell of the tree combined with the warm, fuzzy feeling the eggnog had given her, but when Asa settled his hard body on hers, she couldn’t help but think that it was all kinds of magical.
It could have been the head trauma talking, but still it was one of those memories she would keep and bring out whenever she was sad or cold or lonely.
“Hallie! Mina, what’s the number for 911 in Manhattan?” Her mother, Clara, called to one of her aunts. “Hallie’s gone nonresponsive.”
“Mom, I’m here. There was a knock at my door.”
“Is it a burglar? Do you have your baseball bat?”
“Do you want me to come back later?” Asa asked her.
She shook her head and grabbed Asa’s hand, pulling him inside. “Yes, Mom. The bat never leaves my side.” She covered the receiver and looked up at him. “You might want to make yourself comfortable. It’s going to be a little while.”
“Did you get the pepper spray I sent you?”
“I did, and that wasn’t pepper spray, that was bear spray.” Hallie flopped down on her bed.
“I know. But they told me I couldn’t mail you pepper spray and I know you wouldn’t go out and buy it yourself. You know I worry about you all alone in that big city and I want you to be as protected as possible.”
“I know, Mom. But it comes in a huge canister and is meant to deter an aggressive bear. I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to use it on humans.”
“If you had had the bear spray two months ago, you wouldn’t have been mugged.”
“You were mugged?” Asa came over to the bed and placed half his body on top of hers. There was anger in his face and she found it very sexy. Or it could be the fact that his lower body w
as pressed between her legs. She had to stop herself from wrapping her thighs around him. She couldn’t be thinking these thoughts when her mother was on the phone.
“Who was that?” her mother nearly shouted. “Is there a man in your apartment?”
“No.” She put her hand over Asa’s mouth. “Must be the TV. I’m watching some cop show. But even if there was a man in my apartment, would you care?”
“Of course I would. It’s early in the day, which means he wouldn’t have left last night and in that case I would say tell me more. You’ve been broken up with Brent for a long time.”
“Let’s not talk about him.” She looked up at Asa, who had removed her hand from his mouth and was now lying at her side with one arm draped over her. She had realized why things felt so different with him and it wasn’t because he and Brent were such vastly different men. Asa liked to touch her, sit next to her with their skin touching, get closer to her so that their bodies pressed together. He touched her face and locked his fingers with hers and slid his hand up her shirt, not in a sexual way, but just to stroke her skin. She liked that. She could never go back to being with a man who didn’t take the opportunity to touch her.
“He’s been kind of pathetic, Hallie. I didn’t want to tell you before, because he should be mourning the loss of the best thing that had ever happened to him, but he just looks like a lost puppy without you. Moping around downtown. His eyes dull. I feel for him.”
“Are you sure he’s not just sick?”
“He’s sick in love. I think he finally realizes that you were the best part of him. He can’t keep his life together without you.”
Hallie was getting a little annoyed with this topic. Brent had broken her heart. She didn’t care how he was doing, but her mother always made it a point to tell her. “He should hire a personal assistant. I gave up finishing my doctorate for him. I don’t care if he’s sad, Mom. Please don’t tell me anymore.”
“He’s been asking about you. He called the other day to see if you were coming home for Christmas. He was disappointed not seeing you for Thanksgiving. He said he wants to clear the air with you.”
