Swept Away for Christmas

by M. J. Fredrick

  “You haven’t heard anything from Tony?”

  “Not today, but he’s never been a morning person.”

  “I wonder if there’s a way to find out if he’s left town or not.”

  “Probably, but I don’t want to worry about it.” She stood and dusted the sand off her ass, realizing belatedly that the action drew his gaze there. “Come on, I’ll buy you breakfast.”

  Again she noted that he avoided Brenda’s. They went to a sit-down place that had an outdoor deck overlooking the bay, so Mia could sit at their feet. He ordered a full stack of pancakes, then smothered it with syrup.

  “You didn’t run that far,” she teased, gesturing to the calories on his plate before digging into her own eggs.

  “I run so I can eat like this.”

  “So anything up with you and Brenda? I noticed she’s been in a few times this week, but you’re not hitting her place.”

  “Ah, well.” He took a big mouthful and chewed, buying time. “I may have mentioned that I wasn’t interested in dating her, and she may have gotten her feelings hurt.”

  “Oh, Liam. She’s a nice girl.”

  “She is. We don’t have much in common.”

  “What? She bakes, you eat.”

  He smiled. “There’s that. She doesn’t like boats, though, or dogs. She has to be up crazy early, pretty much the time I’m going to bed.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t worth the effort.”

  “Well, I’m hardly one to give advice on relationships, seeing as I’ve only been in one and he turned out to be an asshole.”

  “So he’s the only guy you’ve ever been in love with?”

  “Yeah.” She stabbed at her eggs. “I thought I was lucky, meeting ‘The One’ so young. Turns out I was just stupid.”

  “Trusting, maybe. Not stupid.”

  “Liam. You’ve met him. What I can’t figure out is was he always like that and I was just blind to it? I mean, Sam and my parents never liked him. I thought it was just that no one was good enough for me, or that he was taking me away from home to follow his dream, but I guess they saw something I didn’t want to see.”

  “He’s the kind of guy who knows how to hide that well. And you were young.”

  “And then I was stuck in the thinking, ‘well, I’ve invested this much time.’ I honestly don’t know what hurts more, my pride or my heart.” She picked up a piece of bacon and bit into it viciously. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore. How’s Alabama doing in the playoffs?”

  He grinned. “You couldn’t care less.”

  “I’d rather talk about something that I don’t have an emotional investment in.”

  “Big playoff game tomorrow. The bar will be packed. So make sure you wear your running shoes.”

  ***

  At his insistence, she kept Mia another night, though nothing happened. Tony hadn’t shown up at the bar Friday night, so he was probably gone, off to find another sucker.

  Liam wasn’t lying about the playoff game. The Pit opened at lunchtime, and everyone in town, it seemed, crowded around the bar to place their orders before kickoff. Liam had borrowed two more flatscreen TVs and placed them around the edge of the deck, out of the glare of the sun, so people could sit and watch the game. He’d also hired two temporary bartenders to help keep up with the demand. By the time the game had started, Harley had made enough in tips to match her usual daily amount.

  Once the game started, a hush fell over the crowd as they watched the plays, then there were either choruses of groans or choruses of cheers. She never had understood the personal investments people made in games where they had no power over the outcome. Even Liam, who’d played for the team, wasn’t as invested as some of the spectators.

  “What would you have done there, Liam?” she heard someone ask when she approached the bar to place an order.

  “Ah, well, he didn’t have many options there, with those guys bearing down on him. He was hauling ass. I don’t think he had a choice but to go out of bounds. I did it myself a time or two.”

  “But he was so close to the goal.”

  “And if he’d gotten clobbered, he could have fumbled it. He didn’t want to risk the turnover. Better to reset. Look. There you go.” Liam pointed as the same player scored.

  Then he looked over the critic’s head and smiled at her. Harley felt her heart turn over in her chest.

  Oh, no no no no no no no. She was not falling in love with this guy. She had too much to figure out, too much to discover about herself before giving another guy that power.

  Don’t be an idiot. Liam was nothing like Tony. He’d never make her give up her life to follow what he wanted to do.

  Or was she just fooling herself? No, best to just be friends and then when she figured out what she wanted to do, move right along, no strings.

  ***

  “I told you we had enough lights for the tree.” Liam stepped back to admire the finished product, and picked up a bottle of beer from the end table.

  Another tradition tossed out the window. Harley took a drink from her own beer and looked at the twinkling lights reflected against the window that looked onto Starfish Shores at three-thirty in the morning. Never had she stayed up all night to decorate a tree, and never had she done it while drinking beer. But Liam was determined to get it done, so she’d gone with him to get Mia, and they’d walked back to the bungalow. Mia had long since decided she didn’t want anything to do with the insane humans and was snoring on the kitchen floor.

  “It looks good,” she conceded. “You were right.”

  He chuckled. “That’s something I can never hear enough.”

  She rolled her eyes and reached for the first box of ornaments. He picked up the second box and moved to the other side of the tree.

  “I thought we could alternate the different kinds of ornaments,” she said, hoping he didn’t think she was nuts.

  He looked around the tree at her, a glass Santa ornament hanging from his fingers. “Like a pattern?”

  “Like, not all the Santas on your side and all the balls on my side.”

  His eyebrows twitched up.

  “Oh, grow up. You know what I mean.”

  “Sure, okay.” He held out his box to her. “Take some Santas and give me some balls.”

  She narrowed her eyes at his smirk, knowing he was waiting for her to say something snide. Instead, she plucked two Santa ornaments from his box and gave him four ball ornaments from hers.

  “I wouldn’t have pegged you for OCD,” he said, hanging the ornaments.

  “I’m...not. I just have a picture in my head of what the tree should look like.”

  “Maybe you should be a designer,” he said helpfully.

  She blew out a breath. “I am not detail-oriented enough for that.”

  He shrugged and reached for another box of ornaments before she’d finished hers. “Just trying to think of ideas.”

  She craned her head to look at his side of the tree. “Are you already done?”

  “No, I’m just adding a different kind of ornament to the mix.” He held up a snowman. “Does that meet with your approval?”

  He didn’t wait for her to answer, but hooked it on the tree.

  “What do you see me as?”

  It was his turn to look around the tree at her, speculatively. “I don’t know. A flight attendant, maybe, or a nurse.”

  Her eyebrows snapped together. “You mean, not a French maid or a sexy cat?”

  That startled a laugh out of him. “What?”

  “It just sounds like you’re basing your career choices on smutty Halloween costumes.”

  “Now that you mention it.” His eyes glinted. “Let’s add cheerleader and maybe sexy cop to the list.”

  She reached around the tree to swat him, which made the ornaments shake on the branches. “I’m serious.”

  “So was I. I thought the flight attendant might be fun, since you haven’t been a lot of places, and I just remembered you were a good nurse.” />
  “What? Me? When?”

  “Don’t you remember when Sam had his appendix out and you were always bringing magazines to the hospital room and taking care of him?”

  She rolled her eyes, glad he couldn’t see her. She couldn’t exactly tell him she’d spent so much time in the hospital room because Liam had been there. She’d wanted him to notice her...and he had.

  “I’m thinking, though, you probably don’t want a guy telling you his idea of you, after Tony. I mean, the whole point of you coming here is to find yourself, right? Not to have me tell you, or your parents, or Sam.” He set the box of ornaments on the coffee table and headed for the kitchen. “Want another beer?”

  She shook her head. “It’s weird, right, not to have ambition?”

  “I don’t know.” He returned with another bottle. “I think it might be kind of peaceful. Not to be stressing about making a success, not to be stressing about competition.”

  “Oh, there’s plenty of stressing, believe me.”

  “It’ll come to you.”

  “And if it doesn’t?”

  He stopped before he picked up the box again. “Would it be terrible? Not to be identified by what you do?”

  “Since I never have been, I really couldn’t tell you.”

  “You want to know what I see?” he asked, sitting on the arm of the couch.

  Did she? She shook her head and turned her attention to the tree.

  “I see a woman with a heart as big as the ocean, and the guts to go along with it, a woman who knows what she deserves and takes the steps toward getting it.”

  She laughed. “Boy, do you have me wrong. I’m the world’s biggest coward.”

  “Just telling you what I see.”

  He stood then, and she sensed a shift in the atmosphere. She looked over her shoulder at him to see he’d sobered. He set the bottle down and took two steps toward her.

  “I see a woman who has a sense of humor and a sense of adventure, and while you may not know what you want to be, I think you have a pretty good idea of who you are.”

  “Liam.” Her heart jumped into her throat and beat there like a wild thing when she looked into his blue eyes, saw the same expression in them as she had on the boat. Only this time Mia was sleeping, and wouldn’t interrupt, and she doubted anyone would ring the doorbell at this hour. She was going to have to find the strength in herself to break the connection.

  Only she didn’t want to. Heat flowed through her, her heart to her face, her fingertips to her stomach, and lower. Then his fingers were in her hair, stroking it from her face lightly, and his gaze shifted from her eyes to her lips, making them tingle in anticipation, making her breath hitch.

  She should turn away now, now, but instead she lifted her chin and met him halfway.

  His fingers twisted in a lock of her hair at her shoulder as he angled his mouth across hers, a gentle caress, chaste, one she could almost, almost walk away from, if her senses weren’t wrapped up in the scent of him, the heat of him. And then on his next breath, he parted his lips and fitted his mouth to hers, taking in her breath, giving her his. Despite her better judgment, she curved her hand around the back of his head, holding her to him, savoring the stroke and slide of his lips, the teasing flip of his tongue, the heat of his skin beneath her hand.

  He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. The desire she saw in his face melted her bones, but he stepped back, his hand still in her hair.

  “If I don’t leave now, I’m not going to,” he said, his voice rough.

  He was asking to stay, she understood that, and while everything female in her was fine with that plan, she just wasn’t ready. She released her hold on the back of his neck, letting her fingers drag down his chest just a bit before she put distance between them.

  “Then you’d better go,” she murmured. “Thank you.”

  His grin flashed as he rested his hand on the doorknob. “Any time.”

  ***

  She’d thought working together after that kiss would be awkward, but other than the glint that took up residence in Liam’s eyes, nothing had changed.

  Other than her not being able to sleep because she lay awake wondering what it would have been like if he’d stayed.

  “I don’t need Mia tonight, truly, Liam. Tony’s gone back to Nashville, I’m sure, and Mia would be more comfortable at home.” Harley sagged in the barstool after her shift. She wanted nothing more than to get back to the bungalow and take her shoes off, maybe soak them for a year in a hot bath. Fourteen-hour shifts were not fun, but she had to admit, the time went quickly since they were so busy.

  Liam gritted his teeth, unconvinced. “One more night. Then tomorrow, I’ll make sure he’s not in town and I can rest better.”

  “Fine.”

  As tired as she was, as stiff as her muscles were, she managed to walk to his house and back to Sam’s, where she stopped short on the sidewalk.

  “Oh, no.”

  “Jesus.” Liam tightened his grip on Mia’s leash as they stared at the broken front windows and the Christmas tree hanging out of one. He handed the leash to Harley and pulled his cellphone from his pocket to call the sheriff.

  Harley wanted to go in while they waited, to see the extent of the damage, but Liam held her back.

  “It won’t be long, and we don’t want to mess anything up.”

  She choked a laugh past the tears that threatened. “Too late for that. God, this is all my fault. I didn’t see this coming. I should have.”

  “No, you’re not going to blame yourself for Asshole Tony’s temper tantrum. Sam has insurance, and it will be taken care of.”

  “He’s coming home tomorrow.” Her voice ended on a wail. “I don’t want him to see it like this.”

  “We’ll get it cleaned up in time. Don’t worry.”

  Flashing lights appeared at the end of the street, and Harley tensed. Liam rubbed the base of her neck, but that only seemed to wind her tighter. She broke contact and approached the sheriff’s car.

  The sheriff was maybe mid-thirties, sandy haired and strong jawed, and another confirmation of the fact that Alabama either grew or drew handsome men. He wasn’t wearing a uniform, which meant their call had gotten him out of bed. He got out of the car slowly and grimaced at what he saw. Liam stepped forward for introductions.

  “Sheriff Calhoun, this is Harley Blume, Sam’s sister. She’s been staying here the past few weeks.”

  The sheriff nodded. “I’ve seen you at The Pit. Sorry to meet under these circumstances.” He turned toward the house. “What happened here?”

  “We came up and found it this way,” Liam said. “We didn’t go in.”

  “Good.”

  “Has anything else like this happened in Starfish Shores?” Harley asked, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. She didn’t know if it would be worse for Tony to have done it, or some random person.

  “I haven’t seen any vandalism like this of homes in town. You two wait here.” He petted Mia on the head as he passed. “You two just get off work?”

  Liam and Harley followed him to the door, and Harley stretched to try to see inside.

  “We did.”

  “You spending the night?” he asked Liam, nodding toward the dog.

  “I’ve been letting Harley keep Mia the past few nights. She had an ex who was sniffing around, and I got a bad vibe off of him.”

  “Yeah?” Sheriff Calhoun turned his sharp gaze on Harley. “Any trouble?”

  She shook her head. “No, nothing. I thought he’d probably left town by now.”

  “He have a temper?”

  “Not particularly.”

  “So you don’t think he did this?”

  Aware she looked like she was protecting Tony, she shrugged. “I wouldn’t have thought it in the past, but I can’t be a hundred percent positive he didn’t.”

  Calhoun nodded. “You two wait here.” He ducked inside.

  Harley’s heart was tight as she looked in the open door
and saw the mess there—broken glass, smashed ornaments, the tree through the window. She watched the sheriff turn into her bedroom, then emerge a few moments later.

  “I’d say ex,” he said with a sigh. “The one bedroom is untouched, the other, yours, is torn to hell, clothes ripped up. You sure you never had trouble with this guy before?”

  “I guess I never had a reason to make him mad before.”

  “Well, he’s mad now. Give me everything you have on him.”

  They sat at the kitchen table—clearly he’d used the kitchen door to get in, the same one Mia had barked at the other night, Harley recalled. So she told the sheriff, and Liam scowled.

  “You didn’t tell me that.”

  “I’ve never had a dog. I thought she just wanted to go out. And that may have been all it was. He didn’t come in when I was here, but when I wasn’t. He’s showing me he’s mad, but he didn’t hurt me.”

  “No matter, you’re spending the night at my place tonight.”

  “Liam.” She passed a weary hand over her hair. “That’s just going to make him madder.”

  “I don’t give a damn. You’re not staying here tonight, even if Mia and I both stayed. We’ll go to my place, get some sleep, and come clean up before Sam gets home tomorrow.”

  “It’s a good idea,” Sheriff Calhoun said. “Liam lives in a secure place, and this guy is clearly unhappy with you. I wouldn’t recommend you staying here.”

  “Let me just get some things,” she said on a sigh, rising. “If that’s all?”

  Calhoun snapped his notebook shut. “If I have any more questions I know where to find you. Do you want a ride over?”

  Liam shook his head. “We’ll be okay.”

  She ducked into the bedroom to see the sheriff hadn’t exaggerated. Her room looked like a bomb had gone off, shredding most of her clothes. She choked back her anger and frustration as she tore through her few belongings to find something to wear.

  Liam appeared in the door. “Don’t worry. I’ll let you wear one of my shirts.”