I m Your Santa

by Lori Foster, Karen Kelley

  It was Noah’s turn to drop back in his seat. “Help you?”

  “That’s right.” Levi leaned forward. “For starters, I’d appreciate it if you’d keep her from running off again.”

  “For starters?” Kent asked. “I gather there’s more?”

  “Yeah. I wouldn’t mind being alone in a room with her for a while, too.” And before any of them could start grumbling about that, Levi added, “To talk. To work through things.”

  “The changes?”

  “That’s right.” It wasn’t every day a woman found her fiancé cheating, broke an engagement, and realized she loved someone else anyway.

  Kent nodded slowly. “You know, I believe you.”

  “Thank you. I give you my word that Beth has nothing to fear from me. I love her. I would never do anything to hurt her.”

  “That’s good,” Ben told him. “Because if you do anything—”

  “Yeah, I’ve got it. You don’t need to finish that thought.”

  “Good.”

  “If one of you would go park my truck, I’d really appreciate it. I left it idling in the lot, blocking Beth’s car.”

  All three of them looked toward the diner door, but none of them made a move toward it.

  Levi settled back in the booth and lifted his mug of coffee. “Or someone can steal the damn thing. I don’t give a shit. I just want to talk to Beth without being interrupted and without her sneaking away.”

  The gazes all transferred to him.

  Levi felt his shoulders go rigid. If they thought to stop him, they’d be sorely disappointed. “So where is she? I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to have this much time away from me.”

  Kent tapped his fingertips together. “You could be right.”

  Taking their clues from him, Ben and Noah made sounds of reluctant agreement.

  “But I won’t send you off to a room alone with her, unless Beth decides that’s what she wants. I remember being young and in love.”

  Ben snorted. “You’re old and in love and no better now than you probably were then.”

  Kent just smiled. “Ben, can you tell Levi of someplace he can talk to Beth without interruption? Someplace that’s not too private, though?”

  “Someplace,” Noah interjected with a narrow-eyed look at Levi, “where we can hear her if she calls out.”

  Ben thought about it a moment. “Sure, I know just the place. If Beth presents herself. Because right now, I have no idea where the women are. Sierra knows every hiding place in this joint. If Beth doesn’t want you to talk to her tonight, then you won’t be talking to her.”

  “We’ll talk,” Levi assured him with confidence. “She won’t trust me alone with the three of you for too long. I’ll give her fifteen minutes, tops. Then she’ll be out here again, giving me the perfect opportunity I need.”

  Her head in her hands and her shoulders slumped, Beth sat on a stool between her sisters-in-law with her stepmother pacing in front of her. So far, they’d tried to make her eat, encouraged her to drink, smothered her with hugs, and very impatiently waited for explanations.

  She had to tell them something.

  The truth seemed her only option.

  Forcing herself to straighten, Beth faced her family. “Brandon cheated on me with a female colleague of his.”

  “That bastard,” was followed by a heated, “Miserable jerk,” and finally, “Oh honey, I’m so sorry.”

  Beth nodded in acknowledgment of each sentiment. “He claimed it was a mistake, that it just happened. He said he was sorry and that he still loved me.” She gulped back her humiliation. “He said he’d make it up to me in our marriage.”

  All three women made sounds of disgust and disbelief.

  “All I really wanted,” Beth confided, “was to get even, to maybe make him as miserable as he’d made me. I wanted him to know what he’d thrown away and to regret what he’d done.”

  Sierra asked, “So you ended the engagement?”

  “Yes.”

  “I hope you threw the ring at him,” Grace said.

  “I did.”

  “And?” Brooke asked.

  Drawing a deep breath, Beth whispered, “I gave him tit for tat by sleeping with his best friend.”

  Mouths dropped open in shock, only to snap shut in realization. Beth could almost hear the blinking of their wide eyes and feel the burn of their condemnation.

  Brooke recovered first. She looked back at the closed kitchen door, and for some reason, she spoke in a whisper. “That young man out there?”

  “Yes.” Hiding her face in her hands again, Beth wailed, “That’s him.”

  Grace cleared her throat. “I take it he wants a repeat performance?”

  “But I don’t.” She lifted her shoulders. “Only now he won’t go away.”

  No one had any suggestions.

  “Do you really want him to go away?” Brooke finally asked.

  “I…I think so.” Beth gulped, and wondered where to start. “It had seemed like such a simple plan in the beginning.” She looked at Sierra and Grace and almost laughed at their identical expressions of disbelief. “It did, really.”

  “What was the plan?”

  Saying it aloud made it sound even dumber, but Beth forced herself to honesty. “Brandon had cheated, so I would cheat. It was just supposed to be sex, and it was just supposed to be one time.”

  Sierra scooted closer. “It was more than once?”

  Boy, was it ever. Beth nodded miserably, and her voice dipped to a mere whisper. “I went to his place on a Friday after work. I figured I’d be there an hour and be back home before dinner so I could call Brandon and tell him what I did. He’d be heartbroken and full of regret, I’d be avenged, and that’d be that.”

  “How long were you there?” Grace wanted to know.

  “The entire weekend.” To Beth’s amazement, no one looked shocked. They didn’t even look surprised. They just…looked curious to hear more. “Actually,” Beth added, so they’d be sure to understand, “we both missed work on Monday, too.”

  Grace scooted in closer. “You’re saying that you lost track of time?”

  “I lost track of everything. The plan. Propriety. I lost track of me.” And that was the hardest part of all. “I don’t know what happened. I was a…a…”

  “A what?” Sierra asked.

  “A deviant,” Beth blurted. “A sex freak. A…I don’t know. Inexhaustible, I guess.”

  Brooke cleared her throat. “And that concerns you?”

  “Well, of course it does.” How could Brooke look so cavalier over her confession?

  Grace grinned. “Nothing wrong with a little deviation now and then, as long as you’re both willing.”

  “Yeah,” Sierra agreed. Then she leaned closer. “So what exactly did you do that was so freaky?”

  Brooke said, “Now Sierra. I don’t know that we should be discussing this.”

  “Oh, come on,” Sierra said. “Everyone sees how you look at Kent. And everyone sees Kent, so they all know why you look at him like that. You’re not fooling anyone.”

  Pretending affront, Brooke said, “Young lady, that’s entirely…” her stern expression broke into a grin, “…accurate.”

  Sierra and Grace chuckled. “We know.”

  “And that’s probably something else that we shouldn’t talk about.”

  Leaning in close again, Grace whispered, “You should see how Brooke watches your dad when he’s working on landscaping.”

  “Now stop,” Brooke insisted, but everyone could see that she didn’t mean it.

  Suffering a different kind of uneasiness now, Beth looked at Brooke.

  “All right, it’s true,” Brooke admitted. “Kent looks incredible when he gets all sweaty and he takes off his shirt and his muscles are bulging.” She shivered. “He’s such a hunk. I’m so glad I met him.”

  Beth blinked. Her father was a hunk?

  “Noah is very inventive,” Grace confided without a single ounce
of discomfort. “I can always trust him to keep things interesting.”

  “Ben’s a nut.” Sierra looked at her mother-in-law. “Don’t listen to this part, Brooke.”

  After rolling her eyes, Brooke put her hands over her ears and paced to the other side of the room.

  Sierra smiled. “Since Brooke is Ben’s mother, she doesn’t really like to hear about how sexy he is. She just wants him to be happy.”

  “And he is,” Grace noted.

  “So am I. But when I first met him, I thought he was a complete perv. And that he made me into a perv, too. It was really unnerving. I wasn’t me anymore.”

  Because that was exactly how she felt, Beth nodded. “What did you do?”

  “Well, whatever else Ben might be, he’s incredible. And considerate. And I love him more every day. So naturally, I just gave in and enjoyed it.” She gave Beth a certain look. “Trust me, I’ve never regretted that decision.”

  Brooke looked back at them, lowered her hands, and asked, “All clear?”

  “Yes.” Sierra stood. “So Beth, if you had a good time, there’s no reason to be so upset.”

  “But…” Beth didn’t know what to think. “It’s like I went into this fog and I didn’t want anything to stop, ever.” Desperate to make them understand, Beth turned to Brooke as she rejoined their little circle. “It was never like that with Brandon. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t…”

  “Overwhelming?” Grace asked.

  “Mind-blowing?” Sierra added.

  “Stupendous?” Brooke offered.

  “All that.” Beth slumped in her seat.

  “I’d say it’s a good thing you didn’t marry Brandon.”

  Sierra agreed with Grace. “For sure.” She patted Beth’s hand. “You did the right thing.”

  “I don’t know.” In for a penny, in for a pound, Beth decided. “For those few days, I was shameless—and I loved every second. But now that I’m myself again, my behavior seems horrifying.”

  “You were a virgin when you met Brandon, weren’t you?”

  There were times, Beth thought, when Grace proved very astute. “Yes.”

  “When I met Noah, I was, too. But I just thought it was all really exciting.”

  Sierra gave Beth a sympathetic look. “Did you think it was exciting with Brandon?”

  Beth started to say yes, but she hesitated. “I don’t know. Cementing our relationship was exciting. And the sex was pleasant—”

  Grace made a face. “Pleasant?”

  Agreeing with her, Sierra said, “Brandon must’ve been a putz.”

  Brooke sympathized. “I’m so sorry, honey. Before Levi, you probably didn’t even realize that sex could and should be more.”

  Beth decided that the conversation had veered too far off course. “The problem is that now I can barely look at Levi, but he won’t give me any space. To hear him talk, you’d think we were engaged or something.”

  “Ah.” Brooke pulled up a chair. “How so?”

  Relieved to finally have someone to talk to, Beth blurted, “He says he always wanted me.”

  Brooke’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

  “He claims that he never said anything because he and Brandon have been friends since grade school. He didn’t want to interfere between us.”

  “Wow.” Grace let out a long sigh. “He put your feelings before his own. That’s so romantic.”

  “Levi sounds like a great guy,” Sierra agreed.

  It struck Beth that he did sort of sound terrific—in an infuriating, devastating kind of way.

  Sierra tilted her head. “So I’m dying to know—how did Brandon take it when you told him about Levi? Did you get your revenge?”

  “I never told him.” Beth winced with that admission. “I couldn’t tell him. Not because I care about Brandon still. I really don’t. And isn’t that weird? I mean, obviously I wouldn’t marry a cheater, but shouldn’t I still be a little brokenhearted or something?” She didn’t give anyone a chance to reply. “I’m not. I’m too busy dealing with this new situation to barely give Brandon a thought. And what happened with Levi…well, it feels very private now. I don’t want anyone to know, not even Brandon.”

  Brooke smiled and took her hand. “Are Levi and Brandon still friends?”

  “I don’t know.” That was another worry keeping her awake at night. “Since I’ve been trying to avoid Levi, and I haven’t answered Brandon’s calls, I don’t know what’s happening between the two of them.”

  “So,” Grace said, “Levi might have lost a longtime friend for you.”

  “Maybe.” Guilt nudged at her. Had Levi been motivated by caring, and not just lust?

  Sierra stood. “You know, I think you just need to face up to things.”

  “Things?”

  “How you feel about Levi. You have to decide that first, and then you can consider everything else.”

  “I almost lost your father,” Brooke said, “because I didn’t want to own up to my feelings for him.”

  “Same here,” Sierra admitted. “I fought the idea of falling for Ben.”

  Grace looked at them both and shrugged. “Not me. I wanted Noah, and that was that.”

  Brooke grinned. “Beth should take a lesson from you, then.”

  “It did work out in the most awesome ways,” Grace told her. “I say if you want Levi, then go for it.”

  “But…what about Brandon?” What about her reputation and her life and her sanity?

  Sierra snorted. “Forget Brandon. He had his chance and he blew it.”

  And the rest? How did she forget the person she’d always thought herself to be, and just accept this new overly-sensual woman who threw caution to the wind?

  Brooke squeezed her hand. “You said you didn’t want anyone to know about you and Levi.”

  “No, I don’t.” And that was part of the problem. She could just imagine the gossip when everyone found out she’d jumped between best friends.

  After glancing at the other women, Brooke gave her an apologetic smile that Beth didn’t quite understand. “But you just told us.”

  “That’s because it was eating me up inside. And Levi did follow me here, so I had to explain somehow.”

  Sierra caught on to Brooke’s meaning. “You know, Levi could feel as conflicted as you do. Maybe he didn’t mean for the one time to turn into a weekend marathon, either.”

  Grace followed their insinuations. “Yeah, and he’s sitting out there with Noah and Ben and Kent. And like you said, his appearance and behavior need to be explained somehow.”

  Brooke nodded. “The same way that you told us, he could be telling them—”

  “Oh my God.” Beth shot out of her seat. “He wouldn’t.” She looked at the other women in a desperate bid for reassurance. “Please tell me he wouldn’t.”

  Brooke lifted her shoulders. “I’m sorry, honey, but your father loves you an awful lot. He’ll want to know what has you upset. I’m not sure he’d let Levi get by without an explanation.”

  “And,” Grace pointed out, “you did tell them to hurt him. He might not have a choice but to explain.”

  “Oh. My. God.” Beth spun around and raced from the kitchen. Surely, the men wouldn’t hurt Levi. They had to know sarcasm when they heard it. They had to have some concepts of the working of the female mind. After all, her sisters-in-law and stepmother had just confessed to being very, very happy women.

  With her heart in her throat, Beth plunged through the double dining doors, charged into the dining room—and slid to a frozen halt at the sight of the men in close, amicable conversation.

  They were drinking coffee.

  They were smiling.

  Sierra, Grace, and Brooke almost plowed into Beth, and still she couldn’t unglue her feet.

  Had Levi told them everything? Had he blurted out about her awful, wanton behavior to her family?

  Heat flooded into Beth’s face so quickly, it made her lightheaded.

  She’d pay the men t
o beat him up.

  She’d beat him up herself.

  She’d—

  Levi looked up and saw her. “Finally.” Walking away from the male conversation, he strode toward her. As if he’d had his hands in it multiple times, his brown hair looked disheveled. Determination glowed in his green eyes. And that sensual mouth of his was set in a firm line.

  When he reached her, Beth prepared to blast him with her ire.

  But because he didn’t stop before her, he didn’t give her a chance. No, he just caught her wrist and kept right on going, towing her along with him.

  “Levi!” She tried digging in her heels. “What are you doing?”

  Without pausing in his exodus, he glanced over his shoulder and said, “Come along, Beth. Your brothers and father are curious enough without us putting on another show.”

  If they were still curious, then did that mean…In a squeaky whisper, she asked, “You didn’t tell them anything?”

  He stopped, turned to stare down at her in what looked like anger, then leaned close so she’d hear his whisper. “Of course I didn’t.”

  Beth glanced around, saw they had the undivided attention of one and all, but she didn’t think anyone could hear them. “Well, how was I to know? You’re always trying to talk to me about it.”

  “There’s nothing that you and I can’t talk about. But what’s between us is just that—between us. It’s private.” His eyes narrowed. “You should know better than to think I’d do anything to deliberately embarrass you.”

  “I…” Beth closed her mouth and swallowed. Face up to things, Brooke had said. She nodded. “You’re right. I should have realized that. I’m sorry.”

  His eyes darkened even more, as if he didn’t quite know what to make of any giving on her end.

  “So.” Beth took another quick glance at their rapt audience, and smiled an apology to them. She’d put on more spectacles tonight than anyone should share in a lifetime. Hoping to make amends for doubting him, she asked Levi, “If you didn’t tell my Dad the truth, what did you say to him?”

  “Only that I’m going to marry you.”

  Only what? New heat radiated through her. The world tilted. On a thin breath, she gasped out, “You didn’t.”

  “I did.” He smiled. “Because I am.”