I’ll Be Home for Christmas_An Out of Line Novella

by Jen McLaughlin

  “Of course I did,” he whispered, his voice deep. “I always will, Ginger.”

  I nodded, closing my eyes.

  He took the hint and crushed my mouth under his, his tongue expertly finding mine within seconds of me parting my lips. Someone cleared his throat, and we broke apart, laughing.

  My dad stood there, looking sheepish. “Guess it’s too late to say surprise?”

  “Yeah, a little bit.” I stood, still trembling but for a different reason. “I’m so happy to see you.”

  He looked surprised. “Really?”

  “Apparently they thought we were dead,” Finn said dryly.

  “What?” Mom exclaimed from behind him. “Why?”

  I laughed again, dragging Finn along with me by the hand. “It doesn’t matter. You’re not, and we’re all here, together, safe and sound for Christmas.”

  Finn put his arm around me. “Of course we are, because we’re family.”

  “Yes, we are,” Dad said, pulling Mom close. We all smiled at one another like a sappy Hallmark movie, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was that we were here. “Who wants some hot chocolate?”

  Susan called out from the kitchen, “Me!”

  “Already making it,” Marie called out.

  Finn laughed, and my parents followed their granddaughter’s voice. We hung back a bit, hand in hand, and he looked down at me with the same heat in his eyes that had stolen my breath all those years ago, and continued to do so daily. “I love you, Ginger.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Leaning down, he pressed his mouth to my ear. “I can’t wait to give you my present tonight.”

  Smirking, I winked at him. “Baby, you have no idea how lucky you’re going to be. Santa is definitely visiting you.”

  His eyes widened. “Oh really?”

  “Really.”

  He whistled through his teeth. “Is it time for him to come yet?”

  “Soon, my love.” I patted his arm. “Soon.”

  We headed into the kitchen, hand in hand, and I knew, in that moment, that I’d gotten a true Christmas miracle today. Even as I reveled in that fact, I thought of the people who didn’t get so lucky on that plane, and their families. I made a mental note to find a way to help them. As he tightened his grip on mine, we walked into the warmth of our family (Riley, Noelle, Marie, Hernandez, Ben, my parents, Riley’s parents) all huddled around the island with mugs in their hands, and I swore in the distance I heard bells ringing as Finn leaned down and kissed me under the mistletoe. “Merry Christmas, Ginger.”

  “Merry Christmas, my love.”

  Coming Next…

  Coming home…

  I’ve hated Ben Rollins ever since he broke my heart in high school. I’ve never fully recovered from it…even though I ran away as far as I could. Now I’ve returned home, fleeing something worse than I could have ever imagined. When our Captain partners us up together, I’m forced to realize that what I feel for him isn’t hate at all. It’s far worse.

  Second chances…

  Sarah’s the one who got away. She never really explained her abrupt departure from my life, but to be honest, I no longer give a damn. What we’d once had was dead, and now I’m stuck with her at my side permanently, no matter how I feel about it. But when the truth comes out, and old secrets are unburied, being thrown together becomes so much more than a second chance…it becomes life or death.

  And we have no intention of losing.

  Turn the page for an exciting look at the next Out of Line novel…

  On the Line

  Sarah

  The bloated, distorted features of the women's face were almost unrecognizable. The sun shone off the waters of the bay, casting a cheery glow upon the otherwise dismal scene. Birds sang in the distance, as a seagull sat on the hot sand staring at me, almost as if it knew that I felt as unqualified for this job as the man who had drove drunk and put this woman into the bay two nights ago.

  Swallowing hard, I glanced at the picture in my hand, then back at the pale, swollen face that had already become a meal for some hungry fish. Though it was almost impossible to distinguish one feature from the next, I had no doubt as to who lay on the shore. “It’s definitely Mary Hendricks.”

  Behind me, my male partner (who took the role of overbearing alpha male to a whole new level) shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet and scoffed. “Just like that?”

  “Just like that,” I said, tilting my head back to stare at the man who Captain had paired me with—more than likely, on purpose. Just to torture me. “Is there a problem, Rollins?”

  “Yeah. I don’t know how you did it in North Carolina, but in California? We usually wait for DNA or dental records to state who our victims are.”

  If I heard that phrase one more time, I was going to explode.

  Ever since I’d come back to California, everyone had been throwing my abrupt departure for college in my face, as if it had been a bad thing to spread my wings and go elsewhere for a few years. Everyone might not know it, but I had a pretty good reason for doing so, and if anyone should know that reason…it was my partner. I’d had a damn good reason for fleeing, and he knew it. Just like I had a damn good reason for coming back, after all this time.

  “We did the same in North Carolina, but in this case?” I gestured at the victim’s arm, pointing at the tattoo that said Girl Power. “I was with Mary when she got this tattoo, as well as the one below it.” This time, I pointed at the tattoo that had MLH in fancy scrawl. “Which literally has her initials on it, so, yeah, I’m going to go ahead and say that this is Mary Hendricks.”

  Rollins flexed his jaw, staring down at me. “Still, no official word will be spread until we get the results back from forensics.”

  “Obviously,” I said dryly, standing and swiping my free hand on my pencil skirt. I’d worn a light khaki colored one today, along with a checkered blouse. Every day I dressed, I spent way too long agonizing over what outfit would represent the woman I was now—strong, empowered, independent, responsible—as opposed to the girl I’d been—irresponsible, reckless, wild. The girl who had gotten her heart broken, and run away instead of facing the pain.

  I wasn’t that girl anymore.

  Too bad no one else saw that.

  Rollins gestured to CSI. “It’s all yours.”

  “Thank you,” I said, smiling at them.

  None of them met my eyes. Typical.

  Rollins started toward our waiting car without waiting for me. I followed him, studying his broad biceps and even broader arms. Once upon a time, I’d clung to those shoulders as he kissed me sweetly and told me he loved me, but that had been years ago, when I’d been another person. I wasn’t that naive girl anymore, no matter what anyone else thought.

  Sliding into the passenger seat, I opened the file I’d placed on hold and set the photos inside it, scribbling my thoughts down on the legal pad. As I wrote, I could feel Rollins’ eyes on me.

  “What?” I asked, not lifting my head.

  “Why are you writing on paper? You’ll just have to do it again later.”

  “Because I don’t want to forget anything.”

  He started the car, shaking his head. “Okay.”

  I bit my tongue, refusing to rise to the bait. He’d been trying to get under my skin from the moment we’d been assigned as partners, and I wasn’t about to let him succeed. “I remember things better when they’re fresh in my mind.”

  “As I recall it, you never forget anything.”

  The sarcasm in his tone was impossible to miss. “I don’t forget things that are important to me, no.”

  “So, your job isn’t?” he immediately shot back.

  “I didn’t say that.” I set the pen down and looked at him. “Don’t put words in my mouth, Rollins.”

  He rolled his eyes at my use of his last name. In my opinion, just because we’d seen each other naked years ago didn’t mean we needed to be on a first name basis on the job. Not to mention that had b
een a lifetime ago, and I’d never make that mistake again. “As I recall, you hate it when I do that, too.”

  “Then don’t do it.”

  He shrugged. “What would be the fun in that?”

  The sun gleamed through his driver’s window, shining off his blond hair and almost blinding me. His jaw was hard, chiseled from stone, and he pressed his mouth into a tight line, like he usually did around me. His green eyes currently hid behind shades, but more than likely he’d narrowed them on the road. He wore a black suit with a white button up shirt and a sensible tie, like usual, and he gripped the wheel so tight his knuckles showed white.

  It annoyed me how handsome he was, mostly because he annoyed me so much.

  “Do you get off on picking on me?” I asked, unable to help myself.

  So much for not rising to the bait.

  His lips quirked into a smirk. “You know what gets me off.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  The smirk widened. “Oh, right. That’s one of the reasons we broke up—you never gave a damn about what I wanted out of life.”

  And just like that, I lost my cool. Damn him. “As I recall it, we broke up because you—” I cut myself off. Not doing this. Not fighting with my ex. Nope.

  He slammed his breaks at the red light, swiveling to face me with flared nostrils. “Because I did what, Sarah?”

  “Light’s green,” I said dryly, arching my brows, refusing to answer him.

  He knew what he did. He just thought I didn’t know.

  He muttered a few choice words and stepped on the gas, his knuckles even tighter on the wheel now than they were before. It was a miracle it didn’t break under pressure. “This is a horrible idea.”

  “What is?”

  “Us, together again.” He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “You need to ask for reassignment.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You can ask for reassignment.”

  “Why me?” he demanded.

  “Why me?”

  He pulled into the parking spot and slammed the car into park. “Because you’re the one who waltzed back into town, thrusting yourself into my life uninvited, and—”

  “I didn’t thrust into anything of yours.”

  Yanking his keys out of the ignition, he pressed his lips together. “I know. I remember that, too.”

  I closed my eyes and counted to three. It did nothing to calm me down. “I swear to God, Rollins—”

  “What?” He blinked at me innocently. “Too much?”

  I glared at him, saying nothing.

  “There’s an easy fix to this.”

  Gripping the door handle, I unbuckled and hugged my file to my chest. My heart beat hard against it, faster than usual. Probably because of him, which only made me angrier. He took his shades off, and the force of his eyes locking on mine almost made me hold my breath. Almost.

  “Oh yeah? And what’s that?” I managed to ask.

  “Do what you do best. Give up and walk away.” With that, he took his own advice, opened his car door, and walked away.

  If only it was as easy for me to do.

  See How It All Started…

  Read the first chapter of Out of Line right now.

  Out of Line

  Carrie

  I leaned against the wall and surveyed the crowded room. All around me, people were in pursuit of the three majors of college: getting drunk, getting laid, and then getting even drunker. They were shouting in each other’s ears to be heard over the deafening music, sucking on each other’s body parts, or throwing up in a corner. The overachievers would do all three by the time the night ended.

  It was freshman year at its finest—and I was the only freshman not fitting in.

  But at least no one had been paid to hang out with me at this party. When I was twelve, my father had thrown me a huge birthday party. The turnout had been particularly surprising to me, considering the people who came were the same girls who told me what a loser I was while in school. Of course, as soon as my parents left the room to get cake, the girls had backed me in a corner and pulled at my hair and dress. They had told me that I was such a loser my father had to pay their parents to make them come. Susie had gotten an iPod. Mary received a phone. Chrissie—a pony.

  I had gotten a cold, hard dose of reality.

  A tall guy bumped into me, hauling me out of memory lane. His beer tipped and spilled all over my open-toed sandals. The cool liquid was almost a welcome change from the stifling hotness.

  “Oh, shit. I’m sorry.” He dropped to his knees and started patting at my feet with the closest object he could get his hands on. It looked like a shirt. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

  I laughed and shook my head, dropping a hand on his shoulder. He felt a tiny bit sweaty, but who could blame him? It was freaking hot. “Don’t worry about it. Seriously. It’s fine.”

  “No, it’s not.” He lifted his head and his eyes went wide. “Oh, fuck. Do I know you?”

  My smile slipped a little bit, but I forced it back into place. He wouldn’t recognize me. I had been out of the public eye for well over a year, and I’d made sure to change my appearance quite a bit. I also had much longer hair, and my body finally grew into itself. My braces were gone, and I outgrew those god-awful bangs, too. I liked to think I didn’t look anything like the gawky girl I’d once been.

  Please, God.

  “No, I don’t think so. But don’t worry about my feet. It’s not a big deal. I was just leaving anyway.”

  He stood up. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.” I smiled at him, hoping my sincerity showed. “Thank you, though.”

  He gave me one more smile and headed back toward the bar. I watched him go before I worked my way across the room. I needed to get out and breathe some fresh air. Somehow I even managed to make it through the crush without spilling my Coke. As I pushed through the door, the ocean breeze washed over me, immediately calming my pounding heart.

  One thing I hadn’t managed to change about myself in my big transformation: I still didn’t do well in crowds. I never should have listened to my new roommate, Marie. I had only been at the University of California in San Diego for two days and had already been invited to four parties. I’d turned down all but this one. It wasn’t because I was a prude or anything. I just didn’t like the craziness that parties entailed.

  After all, I had ultimately picked this campus because the occupational therapy program was excellent—not because of the parties. It also had the added bonus of being on the beach and as far away from my parents as I could possibly manage without leaving the country. They were great, and I loved them, but man, they liked to smother me.

  The “hold me down kicking and screaming as I tried to break free” type of smothering. That was the last thing I needed at this point in my life. I needed to try to be on my own. To try to make my own place in the world. And for once I was really, truly on my own...outside of a raging party that I didn’t belong in, hiding in dark shadows that hid only God knew what.

  But still. Awesome.

  I kicked off my sandals and trudged down the sandy hill to the dark beach, sinking my toes into the chilly sand. Probably not the best combination with the beer bath I had just taken, but whatever. My mom and dad had never let me walk barefoot in the sand. It was too unclean, and syringes might be buried deep down—plus other unmentionable items Mom blushed just thinking about. She couldn’t even say the word condom for cripes sake.

  I was convinced I must have been conceived via subliminal messaging or something. My parents were far too proper to do the down and nasty. Too proper to walk barefoot on a dark, scary beach. And I was supposed to be the same.

  Grinning, I dug in even deeper, loving the way the sand felt between my toes. I scanned the shadows and found a bench a few feet away. When I sat down, I swung both of my bare feet in the air and let out a deep sigh. There was probably a homeless guy sleeping a few feet away from me in the darkness, but I didn’t give a hoot. I
was alone, in front of the ocean, listening to the waves crash on the sand.

  For the first time since coming here, I felt at peace. Maybe I could fit in. There had to be some people here who were like me—a little bit dorky and a lot awkward. The door opened behind me, and the sound of heels clacking on the pavement interrupted my thoughts. “Carrie? Are you out here?”

  “Yeah. Over here,” I called out.

  “Are you trying to get mugged?”

  “No. Just trying to find a homeless guy to fall in love with,” I replied, keeping my voice light. “So far, no one wants me.”

  “Whatever,” Marie said, snorting. After a few moments, she stood in front of me, heels in hand and hands on hips. Marie frowned at me from behind a veil of perfectly arranged blonde hair, which blew in the ocean breeze. “You totally bailed on me.”

  I flinched. Yeah. I kind of had. “Sorry. In my defense, I did tell you parties aren’t my thing.”

  “That’s something girls say when they don’t want to seem like sluts.” Marie waved a hand and shoved her hair out of her face. Within seconds, it was back. “I didn’t think you actually meant it meant it.”

  “Well, I did.” I swung my legs some more, trying to distract myself from the righteous anger being thrown my way. “You can go back in. I just needed some air.”

  “Will you be back?”

  “Maybe.” I blew out a breath. “No.”

  Marie’s light blue eyes pierced into me. “Are you going to be like this all year long? I like you and all, but you’re kinda lame.”

  “I’ll try not to be,” I said as honestly as I possibly could. Because I would try to be sociable and outgoing and not so lame. I would probably fail. “But it will be a while till I’m there.”