Black Flame

by Ruby Laska

  She shoved the coffee cup at him, sloshing it on his hand, but he took it politely and sipped. “Oh, that’s heaven,” he sighed. “Thank you.”

  “And Merry Christmas,” she added.

  “Is that your handiwork?” Cal asked, gesturing at the table with his mug. “Because as talented as Jimmy is, I can’t really picture him making frosting roses in that crazy madman lair of his.”

  “Oh! I, um, yes.” Deneen couldn’t help a small smile. The cake did look nice, she had to admit, with its sprinkling of crystalline sugar mimicking snow, and the sculpted vines and berries. Maybe she should take a picture—a sideline in custom cakes might help keep her afloat back in Arkansas while she figured out what to try next.

  “Please, please tell me you’re cooking the rest of Christmas dinner,” Cal said with mock desperation. “If I eat one more of Jimmy’s meals, I’m afraid I’ll develop a fatal bowel obstruction. Which would be a civic disaster, because we’re pretty understaffed at the moment.”

  “Er, yes, sure,” Deneen said. Jimmy tightened his arm around her, pulling her closer. What must Cal be thinking? He had to know that they hadn’t met until yesterday. Did he think she was the sort of girl who jumped into relationships at a moment’s notice? Well, actually, she kind of was—or had been, at any rate, but it was suddenly important to her that Cal not know that about her.

  She wanted Cal to like her. And not just because he was her sister’s roommate.

  “Any word from your sister?” Cal asked easily, sipping more coffee, as though she wasn’t a babbling fool and he hadn’t just caught her practically making love to Jimmy with her clothes on. “They said they’d call today.”

  “There has been no call from Matthew or Jayne,” Jimmy said gravely. “If you will excuse me, I must finish a project.”

  Then he bent and kissed Deneen calmly on her forehead, gave her hand a squeeze, and walked out of the room.

  She couldn’t believe it—he was leaving her here with a perfect stranger. A stranger who’d witnessed her primal clinch.

  “Well!” she exclaimed, grabbing the nearest kitchen implement from the crock on the stove—a heavy meat pounder, as it turned out—and forcing a cheery smile on her face. “How was work?”

  He looked at her oddly, and Deneen wanted to sink into the floor for the second time in a half hour. “Oh God, I can’t believe I said that,” she mumbled. “You’ve probably been breaking up fights and stopping burglaries and tracking down murderers, and all I’ve done is tag along after Jimmy to the Family Circle brunch. I’m, um, well, I’m not entirely myself at the moment. Please forgive me.”

  “No apology needed,” Cal said, laughing. “Mostly we’ve been taking calls on the road, helping with directing traffic, making sure the ambulances could get through in a few cases. No murders this shift.”

  He winked at her, and Deneen relaxed fractionally. “Well, that is very good news,” she said. “It would be downright rude to murder someone on Christmas, don’t you think?”

  “I never looked at it that way, but I suppose it would.” He drained the rest of his coffee and gave her a mock salute. “I’m looking forward to getting better acquainted after I get a little sleep. We’re glad to have you here, Deneen, and Roan’s going to be happy to have another woman at the table tonight. Especially if you can keep Jimmy out of the kitchen.”

  She heard his footsteps down the hall. In another minute, she heard his door close, and the house was silent.

  Deneen took a deep breath and let it out slowly, suddenly aware that she was trembling. Her legs felt weak, both from the embarrassment of the unexpected introduction, and from…well, whatever magical moves Jimmy had been practicing on her. God, those hands! Maybe all that training in physics and physiology and…whatever one needed to know about a woman’s body, to get a reaction like that—well, it had certainly paid off.

  Deneen padded to the refrigerator with a dazed smile on her face, remembering the way he had cupped her ass, moving her against him, and the way he had nipped along the edge of her jaw, causing a flurry of electric sensations to rocket through her body. She started humming as she opened the refrigerator door—“Santa Baby,” the first tune to come into her head—and surveyed the bounty of ingredients: a turkey thawing in a roasting pan, the stuffing Jimmy had made, a host of fresh vegetables, as well as speckled brown eggs and butter and cream. At least Jimmy had gotten the shopping right—it looked like he’d stocked up on local dairy and the best produce he could find.

  Her mind was already working on ideas for what she could create from the bounty, a Christmas dinner that would, hopefully, distract Cal and his girlfriend and Zane from her undignified arrival, when a stray thought caused her to pause, a bunch of celery in hand.

  Jimmy had kissed her.

  But Jimmy had gone to visit a woman yesterday.

  Maybe the thing he and his girlfriend had was casual, a no-strings, in-it-for-the-fun kind of thing. Deneen had had her share of those, and she knew how they worked: either party could back out graciously if they met someone they wanted to date for real. And maybe, just maybe, that’s what this was—or what it might turn into.

  “Really, Deneen?” she whispered to herself. She set the celery down on the cutting board, feeling deflated. Because who starts a real relationship with someone who’s just in town for a few days? On the contrary, that was the setup for a classic fling, a no-commitments affair. It was much more likely that the other woman was the real girlfriend, though if Jimmy were cheating on her, then…but no, Jimmy wouldn’t cheat. He wouldn’t—somehow, Deneen just knew.

  Then why had he been kissing her?

  Deneen picked up the largest knife in the block and brought it down on the celery, severing the stalks in half. No more thinking. No more fretting. Instead, she would just concentrate on cooking.

  She might be hopeless at love, but by God, she knew how to put on a holiday dinner.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  At four o’clock in the afternoon, the sun had finally emerged to make the snow sparkle on every tree branch and rooftop and mailbox. The fields were an unbroken field of white, and the family of cardinals that were making their winter home in the tree house out back were feasting on the birdseed Roan had set out for them. Cal was awake and up from his nap, but Deneen had gone back to bed for her own nap first, so he hadn’t spoken with her yet. Zane had arrived home, and Roan had come bearing a huge platter of antipasti. The three of them had set up an ancient Monopoly game while Jimmy, his project finally finished, changed clothes and prepared to cook Christmas dinner.

  He ventured into the kitchen and stopped short. The kitchen table, which he had left clean and scrubbed this morning before leaving for the brunch, was now elaborately set with what looked like all the plates and cutlery and glassware in the house, as well as decorations that he instantly recognized as the handiwork of his houseguest. Fresh cut pine boughs were arranged in the center of the table along with berries and pine cones and silk flowers Jimmy recognized from an arrangement that had graced Jayne’s bedside table. Deneen had plundered Mrs. Osterhaus’s boxes of decorations for ornaments and ribbons that now festooned the rustic iron chandelier. Candle holders had been fashioned from oranges, their skins studded with fragrant cloves.

  Jimmy wandered out to the family room, wiping away the water dripping from his hair into his eyes, since he hadn’t taken the time to dry his hair after his shower. “Is Deneen still sleeping?”

  “Yep, cowboy,” Cal said, smirking at him. Jimmy wasn’t sure why his roommates had given him that nickname, since he wasn’t involved in any ranching activities, but it seemed to have stuck. “Guess you must have tired her out. You know, with all that kissing.”

  Roan shrieked. “What? You didn’t tell me?”

  “Slipped my mind,” Cal said, winking at her. Jimmy felt that was improbable. More likely, they were teasing him again. Because he understood this to be a display of affection, he didn’t mind.

  “You?” Zane said,
pointing at Jimmy, then down the hall to the closed door of Chase’s bedroom. “And her?”

  “But didn’t she just get here yesterday?” Roan asked.

  “Way to go,” Zane said, tossing an almond into the air and catching it expertly with his mouth. “But no, since you’re asking, we haven’t heard a sound from her. Hey, maybe you better go back there and, you know, check on her.”

  A chorus of laughter followed. Jimmy looked at his roommates and Roan and wished he could join in their merriment, but he was feeling unsettled. And it wasn’t just his usual holiday gloom, either. While he’d been busy in the workshop, his mind kept wandering back to Deneen: the way her face shone with delight as she served pancakes to the kids. The shy smile when he’d opened her gifts. The look of dismay when he’d stumbled through his inadequate thanks.

  Most of all, the way she had felt in his arms, the taste of her kiss, the scent of her perfume.

  She was without a doubt the most memorable, as well as confusing, woman he had ever met.

  “I will begin preparing dinner,” he said, aware that he wasn’t participating in the cheery repartee.

  “Aww, do you have to, man?” Zane asked. “We could just eat what Roan brought and drink the rest of our dinner.”

  “There’s always that cake,” Cal said. “Think Deneen would mind if we had it for dinner?”

  “She left a note,” Zane said, taking pity on him. “With instructions for the turkey. I just put it in the oven a half hour ago.”

  “The table looks very nice,” Roan said diplomatically. “Jayne was right—Deneen is incredibly creative.”

  Jimmy mumbled his assent and went back to the kitchen. Delicious smells were beginning to waft from the oven. He opened the refrigerator, only to be confronted with half a dozen pans and pots covered in foil.

  The phone rang. It hung from a wall in the kitchen, so Jimmy answered it.

  “Hello, Jarret-Burgess-Warner-Dixon-Olivo-Mason residence, Jimmy speaking.”

  “Jimmy? It’s Jayne!”

  “Merry Christmas, Jayne. Your sister has arrived safely. She is anxious to talk to you.”

  “Well, put her on! She left me like twenty messages, but we didn’t have service until just now.”

  “I’m afraid that Deneen is sleeping at the moment.” Jimmy knew that he ought to offer to wake her, but the thought of interrupting her—warm, her hair tousled, tucked under the covers just a few yards away—was too unsettling.

  “Sleeping? But it’s Christmas!”

  “She woke early to assist me at the recreation center.”

  “Aw, that’s sweet. But tell her to call me back the minute she gets this. But we won’t be here long. We only drove into town to see the lights, and we’re headed back to the cabin soon, and there’s no service there.” She hesitated, then added, “I have some big news to share, but I want to tell her first.”

  “News?”

  “You don’t sound very excited.”

  “Oh.” It would be breaking a confidence to confide that Deneen had planned to surprise them not just with a visit but with a wedding, and from the sounds of it, she had been right: big news probably meant that the couple had eloped. “I’m, um, just trying to get Christmas dinner on the table. Roan is here, and everyone is hungry.”

  “Oh, no. Please tell me you took my advice and ordered dinner from the grocery.”

  “I am perfectly capable of preparing a meal,” Jimmy reminded her. “Besides, your sister has decorated the table, so it is quite festive.”

  Jayne laughed. She did sound especially cheerful, further evidence that they had gotten married. Things were not looking good for poor Deneen.

  “Text me a picture,” Jayne asked. “We miss you guys.”

  “We do,” Matthew’s voice chimed in.

  “We’re going to get an early start tomorrow,” Jayne said. “We want to get on the road before dawn, so we’ll be back by midday. I can’t wait to see Neener!”

  “Please use extreme caution. Snow and ice are making the roads hazardous.”

  “We will,” Jayne promised. “And Jimmy?”

  “Yes?”

  “Take care of my baby sister, okay? She can get a little…fragile.”

  “I will,” Jimmy promised, even though he found himself bristling at Jayne’s words as he hung up.

  Jayne thought Deneen was fragile. To hear her talk, her parents and employers thought she was incompetent. And sometimes it seemed as though she believed it herself.

  But none of those adjectives were what Jimmy saw when he looked at her. A woman who could create a festive occasion from an ordinary day, beautiful decorations from odds and ends, smiles on children’s faces—a woman who could make a man like him feel like he wasn’t just capable of the same emotions as everyone else, but like he was bursting with them—was neither fragile nor incompetent.

  She was—because Jimmy was having trouble thinking of any other word for it—downright magical.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  A chorus of angels, all of them dressed in white robes, surrounded Deneen and sang encouragingly, their fluffy white wings fluttering. She was enjoying their rendition of “Angels We Have Heard On High” very much until one of them broke ranks and shouted, “You landed on Pennsylvania Avenue, sucker, and I’ve got a hotel!”

  Deneen’s eyes flew open in the darkness, her heart pounding. It took a moment for her to remember where she was: in a stranger’s bed, fourteen hundred miles from home, on possibly the most upsetting Christmas she’d ever had.

  But wait. When she lay down to take a nap, just a short one to recover from the flurry of cooking and decorating, it had been barely three o’clock. She’d meant to get up after half an hour or so, so she could change and fix up before guests arrived for Christmas dinner.

  But now they were here. All of them, from the sound of it. She grabbed her phone off the bedside table to check the time.

  “Dang it!”

  Not only was it almost six o’clock—how had she managed to sleep for three entire hours?—but her sister had left her two voicemails and a whole stream of text messages.

  Pick up! I can’t believe you’re at the ranch!

  Seriously Neener call me I have big news!!

  We’re heading back to the cabin. Sorry I missed u Sleeping Beauty. Thank you for coming to visit me, LOL. Will try u tomorrow. Coming home in two days. DON’T LEAVE BEFORE I GET THERE. Xoxo Merry Christmas

  “Big news?” Deneen’s heart sank like a rock. So, it was true; her sister had eloped, and now she was spending Christmas with her brand new husband while Deneen was marooned here, the laughingstock of the ranch, the girl who couldn’t even manage a surprise visit.

  Well…maybe laughingstock was too strong a word. Cal had been perfectly nice when she talked to him on the phone. The rest of them probably were, too. Listen to them, out there playing Monopoly, as wholesome as…well, very wholesome indeed.

  And they were probably holding dinner for her. Deneen jumped out of bed and turned on the lamp. She pulled the covers hastily into place, and ransacked her suitcase. What was she supposed to wear for dinner? Did they dress up for holidays? Or was everything casual up here? Jayne had said that the dress code all over town was laid back, and Deneen knew for a fact that Jayne had left nearly all her formal clothes back in Arkansas, since she regularly raided her sister’s closet back home. Okay then, casual it would be.

  But then Deneen paused, a pair of red and green argyle socks in hand. Cal’s girlfriend was going to be here tonight. And while it wasn’t a competition, of course, what if she had dressed up, and Deneen didn't? She wasn’t a girlfriend, of course, a fact that made her heart kind of squeeze a little, but it wouldn’t do to have Jimmy—not that she was holding out hope for any sort of relationship there, that steamy kiss was going to be as far as it went—she wasn’t about to have Jimmy seeing her looking anything less than her best when she served up the turkey she’d brined and rubbed and basted.

  In fact…it woul
dn’t be the worst thing in the world if he got to see exactly what he was missing, would it?

  Deneen stuffed the socks back into her suitcase and dug out the silky scarlet blouse and tight black skirt she’d packed just in case a dressy occasion arose. She found her sky-high patent pumps and patterned black stockings, and quickly changed, stuffing the clothes she was wearing under the bed. She could tidy up later; right now she needed to get out there and join the party before anyone could accuse her of hiding from the guests, as she had last year when a bevy of her slightly drunken relatives had grilled her about when she was finally going to get a real job.

  Once dressed, Deneen dug into her cosmetic bag and did some hasty repairs in her hand mirror. No way was she risking making a dash for the bathroom, not when there was no telling who she might run into this time. She fluffed her hair upside down and sprayed it into a puffy cloud around her face, and to finish things off, she spritzed a bit of her favorite perfume between her breasts.

  Then she took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and flung open the door. She walked confidently down the hall before she could lose her nerve, paused at the living room, and smiled graciously. All eyes turned to her, and Deneen had just enough time to notice that every last one of them was wearing jeans before her stiletto heel caught on the ancient shag carpet.

  She went down.

  She put out her hands to try to break her fall, but there were two carpeted steps down to the sunken living room, and she landed hard on her knees and wrists. Worse, in the shocked silence of the assembled friends, the sound of ripping fabric could be heard—the skirt, which had been tight to begin with, had given way against the strain of the fall.

  “Ow,” she mumbled, eyes downcast, afraid to get to her feet lest she flash everyone a view of her reindeer-patterned panties.

  Jimmy was at her side in a flash. “Are you all right?” he demanded, kneeling in front of her. Something cold and wet bumped against her arm and she turned to see a large brown dog wagging its tail furiously, its pink snout inches away.