Swept Away for Christmas

by M. J. Fredrick

  “Came over to see if anyone wanted refreshments. Soda only,” he said, shooting Amy a mock-stern look. “No trying to drink us under the table like last night.”

  It was a joke. Jake and Wyatt had made a game of stealing sips of her drinks as often as possible. They’d had the courtesy to buy her replacements, but then the vicious cycle just started all over again.

  “The captain’s got a cooler with a bunch of beverages and snacks,” he said, pointing them in the right direction.

  “Snacks?” Miranda looked horrified. “I’m still stuffed from that giant bear claw. I could go for a bottle of water, though.”

  “Me, too,” Amy said, standing. “How about I bring back three?”

  Shelby nodded in thanks, then shaded her eyes as she stared out at the waves. In the distance, she saw the silver flash of a dolphin leaping into the air. “Guess we’re getting closer to our destination,” she said.

  Finn leaned against the railing, watching along with her. “I hope the weather’s like this when we go parasailing tomorrow.”

  “You boys and your bizarre ideas of fun,” Miranda drawled.

  He gave her a curious look over his shoulder. “I was surprised you didn’t want to join us, adventurous gal that you are.”

  She grimaced. “Adventurous on land. I don’t do heights. Just promise me none of you will fall and break your fool necks. It would cast a serious pall on my Big Day.”

  Chuckling, Finn bumped his hip against Shelby’s. “Would you mourn me if I broke my fool neck? I bet you’d cry buckets.” He’d always made fun of her when she cried at the end of movies, which was often.

  “Not even a little,” she denied. “In fact, I’d wear bright yellow to your funeral.”

  “But you’d come to my funeral. At least that’s a step in the right direction.” To Miranda, he said, “I’m convincing Shelby to be my friend. It’s a process.”

  Miranda laughed. “And you breaking your neck to gain sympathy is part of the process? You might need to rethink your strategy.”

  “You’re probably right. But thinking of any sort is going to require more caffeine.” He ambled toward the cooler, and Shelby found herself tracking his progress. The fit of his jeans was extremely flattering, not that he needed help from clothes to look good. The man had one fine backside.

  A happy squeal from Amy drew everyone’s attention. Two dolphins were rolling through the waves near the back of the boat. Everyone drifted that way, but Miranda stopped Shelby with a hand on her arm.

  “You seem weirdly relaxed,” Miranda said under her breath.

  “No, it would be weird if I wasn’t relaxed,” Shelby countered. “It’s a gorgeous day, the water’s not too choppy. Dolphins are a ‘heartwarming combination of majestic grace and playfulness.’” She quoted the brochure she’d been handed when she boarded the boat. “To top it all off, I’m here with my BFF. What reason would I have for not being serenely happy?”

  “Um…the worst breakup of your life is only a few yards away?”

  Shelby followed her friend’s gaze to Finn, who lounged against the rail. Noticing their attention, he grinned and toasted them with his can of soda.

  She returned the smile.

  “What happened between my getting off the phone with you last night and all of us getting coffee and pastries this morning?” Miranda demanded, her hands on her slim hips. “If you texted him for a late night booty call, you’d tell me wouldn’t you?”

  “Of course. According to you, I’m legally required.”

  “Damn skippy.”

  “We went for a walk together. It—”

  “Ha!”

  Everyone on deck turned in Miranda’s direction, their expressions ranging from amusement to confusion.

  The captain cupped his hands around his mouth, calling out, “Dolphins aren’t known as shy animals, but still, we do try not to scare them away.”

  “Sorry,” Miranda muttered, her fair skin blushing furiously. But as soon as everyone was preoccupied with the dolphins again, she tugged on a lock of Shelby’s hair. “I knew something was up. Details!”

  “He was going for a walk on the beach, asked me to join him. He said he’d like it if we could become friends, I agreed to consider it. The talk helped us clear the air, and you’re right—I am more relaxed. Or I was, until you started interrogating me,” she said pointedly. “Can we go enjoy the dolphins now?”

  “Deal.”

  They joined Amy at the railing, laughing and snapping pictures on their phones. But it didn’t escape Shelby’s notice that Finn was not watching the dolphins’ antics. He was watching her.

  ***

  Nothing mellowed a girl out better than great company and terrific food. Still, there was a limit to the amount of food Shelby could eat.

  “Are you sure I can’t get you another grilled shrimp kabob or more pasta salad?” Debbie Donavan asked, hovering at the end of the picnic bench where Shelby sat. The fifty-eight-year-old Mrs. Donavan looked like a miniaturized version of her daughter. They had the same coloring and identical friendly smiles, but where Miranda was taller than Shelby, Mrs. Donavan only reached Shelby’s shoulder. Miranda and her brothers had inherited their height from their dad.

  “How can I eat any more dinner when I filled up on those mini-quiches and strawberry tarts at the bridal shower?” Shelby asked. It had been a small, ladies-only affair but lots of fun. The men had gone to play golf before meeting them here for dinner in the Donavans’ back yard where Miranda’s parents had hung lights and lit candles. They’d also rented space heaters and picnic tables.

  Propping her elbows on the wooden table, Shelby smiled fondly. “You were always trying to feed me back in high school, too, as I recall.”

  “In keeping with tradition, what are you doing on Monday? If you’re not otherwise booked, you should come here and let me feed you Christmas dinner.”

  The wedding was on Saturday, the twenty-third, and Shelby had planned to drive home on Sunday, after the happy couple had departed for their honeymoon. “I don’t want to impose. But thank you so much for the offer.”

  “What imposition? It will be the first Christmas since Miranda was born that I haven’t spent the holiday with her—and she told me about that trip your parents are taking. You’ve always been like part of the family anyway, hon. Come be my adopted daughter for the day, and I can be your substitute mom. Steve will be spending Christmas with his in-laws, but Jake and Wyatt will both be here.”

  The twinkle in Debbie’s eye was unmistakable. She was no more subtle than her daughter was.

  “Mrs. Donavan, you’re not by any chance trying to set me up with one of your sons?”

  “I’ll admit, Jake does seem taken with you, but that’s not why I invited you for Christmas. You don’t go back to school until after New Year, right? Please consider staying the extra day. Don’t abandon me to be the only female in the house with all that testosterone.”

  Shelby laughed. “All right, all right. You’re as hard to say no to as Miranda.”

  “Where do you think she got it from?” Having accomplished her goal, Mrs. Donavan aimed her cheerfully bossy nature at someone else. “Steven Donavan, you bring that beautiful baby girl over here so I can hold her. You know I need snuggle time with my granddaughter!”

  ***

  Finnegan, you dumbass. Try as he might to follow along with Amy’s fast-paced patter about college, he kept losing his place in the conversation, transfixed by the sight on the other side of the modest lawn. A few minutes ago, Mrs. Donavan had rushed into the house to answer the ringing phone, and Shelby had offered to hold the baby so Steve and his wife could eat. Steve had joked that, since his daughter was born, he’d had to learn to do everything one-handed.

  “The other hand’s always occupied,” he’d said. “Holding her, feeding her, rocking her, patting her back.” He hadn’t seemed to mind, though.

  And Shelby certainly seemed pleased to be cuddling the pink bundle against her shoulder.
From his vantage point, Finn couldn’t see much of the baby other than a pink hat and a surrounding blanket. He had a clear view of Shelby, though, and her beatific expression as she stood, swaying in place, murmuring quietly to the infant. She glowed with contentment. Since she’d been handed the baby, she hadn’t glanced up once. Which left him free to watch her.

  He’d been shocked to find himself thinking I could have had that. Years ago, he’d recoiled from the idea of marriage and kids. Shelby had wanted roots, but he’d wanted freedom. During their rather intense summer together, he’d actually found himself wondering if she could be happy traveling with him but a childhood living out of a suitcase seemed to have quelled her need to explore. Besides, his philosophy was to work as long and hard as he could in order to get ahead; relationships could slow him down. A baby would have stopped him dead in his tracks.

  But now that his restaurant was a success, he felt differently. The ambitions that had driven him for so long occasionally faltered in the face of loneliness and regret. Would he find time for a relationship, given the chance? His gaze tracked Shelby as she crossed the grass to hand the baby to Mrs. Donavan.

  For the right woman, he’d make the time.

  The subject of children was trickier, but he wasn’t filled with his usual contempt for the idea. When had that changed? His default mode was to compare life to food. He tried to use that now as a guide for sorting through his tangled feelings. Considering how much his palate had matured over the years—he no longer considered hot dogs sliced up in macaroni and cheese to be fine dining—why had it never occurred to him that his beliefs and needs might also evolve? Sure, he’d been dead set against fatherhood at twenty-three…but was that relevant to the almost thirty-year-old man he was today?

  Not that he necessarily wanted to run right out and make babies—

  Shelby’s eyes met his, and heat shot to his groin as he visualized exactly what making babies entailed. Shelby James had not been his first lover, but she’d been his longest steady relationship. They’d had an intimacy he’d never found with anyone else, because he’d known her body better than anyone else’s. Did she still like to be kissed the same way? Were her breasts still as sensitive as he remembered?

  Oh, hell. Now he couldn't think of anything but sex.

  “Finn, are you listening to me?” Amy demanded from the other side of the table. “I was asking if your sister’s in a dorm at UF.”

  “Sister?” he echoed dumbly. Right, he had a couple of those. “Will you excuse me a sec?” He wanted to give her some kind of reason for rudely abandoning her to be closer to Shelby, but nothing came to mind.

  He reached Shelby’s side just as Bruce and Miranda walked up to her, Miranda groaning about the too-numerous dessert options.

  “It’s like my mom doesn’t want me to fit into my dress! And you know I’m going to eat a ton on the honeymoon, too.”

  Finn’s eyebrows rose. “You guys are going to a theme park. I wasn’t aware you were such big fans of nachos and funnel cakes.”

  “Clearly you’ve never been to Disney,” Miranda said, her expression pitying. “More specifically, Epcot where a bunch of different countries are represented. I could gain ten pounds in the French section alone! Even a food snob like you would be happy there.”

  “I’m not a snob,” he objected.

  “No, you’re a connoisseur,” Shelby said. He couldn’t help grinning at her prompt defense of him. “I think you’d really enjoy Epcot. Exactly your kind of thing—international travel and dining.”

  “With China and Mexico located within convenient walking distance of each other,” Bruce joked. “Good luck convincing him to take a trip to Orlando, though. When I told him where we were honeymooning, he said he couldn’t think of a worse way to spend the week than surrounded by other people’s annoying ankle-biters.”

  Finn flinched, darting a glance at Shelby. “I don’t think I put it quite that way, although I guess I did call it unromantic.” He socked Bruce companionably in the arm. “As long as you’ve been in love with this woman, I was expecting you to whisk her away somewhere remote but lovely. If I were planning to take a woman on a honeymoon…”

  But he was having trouble thinking in the abstract. Instead, he could only visualize being that serious about one woman. Unfortunately, that woman’s gaze had darkened the second she heard the word “ankle-biters” and the happy glow she’d had while holding the baby had dimmed.

  “Excuse me,” she said suddenly. “Jake’s motioning me over. He wanted my opinion of something he saw on-line for his mom.”

  She walked away without a backward glance, and Finn realized he was seriously starting to dislike Jake Donavan.

  Miranda snorted. “If we wanted a woman’s opinion on potential Christmas gifts, he could have asked me.”

  Bruce chuckled. “I don’t think that’s all he wants. You always said you and Shelby were like sisters. Maybe someday she’ll be your sister-in-law.”

  Finn’s earlier optimistic, contemplative mood mutated into something dark and ugly. Shelby, settle for Miranda’s affable lunkhead of a brother? She deserved better than that.

  And you should know. Because she deserved far better than Finn, too.

  Chapter Seven

  “The third musketeer has arrived!” Charli announced in her usual head-cheerleader volume.

  Shelby winced. She’d forgotten that Charli could make even Miranda seem soft-spoken in comparison. “You’re here at the hotel?” she asked, stifling a yawn. The clock on the nightstand read 7:00 a.m. She wouldn’t get out of bed for just anyone at this time, but Charli merited an exception.

  “Yep! We gave the manager advance warning that we’d be checking in at the butt-crack of dawn, and they’ve already given us our room. Nate’s catching a nap, but I couldn’t wait to see you guys. Get your ass down here and buy me a cup of coffee.”

  Shelby laughed. “Can I put on a bra first? Maybe some shoes?”

  “You go do all that, I’ll give the bride-to-be her wakeup call.”

  Thirty minutes later, all three women were seated in the small coffee-shop tucked into the corner of the lobby, laughing until there were tears streaming down Shelby’s face. Charli had been entertaining them with killer impressions of the some of the big-name stars she’d met on various sets. She and her boyfriend Nate had met while both doing bit parts on a crime procedural.

  “We can’t wait to meet him,” Miranda said, leaning her chair back on two legs to get a better angle on the trash can. She tossed her empty cup. “She shoots, she—”

  “Reminds us all why she didn’t make the high school basketball team,” Charli said wryly.

  Miranda stuck her tongue out, then got up to take care of her unintentional litter. By the time she slid back into her seat, Charli had cued up a picture of her and Nate on her phone.

  “This was taken just last week,” she said, passing Shelby her phone. “See the building behind us?” She paused for dramatic effect, then beamed at them. “Our new apartment! We signed the lease but can’t move in until the first week of January.”

  “Whoa—the two of you are moving in together?” Miranda asked, her face reflecting the same surprise Shelby felt.

  Charli nodded. “Guys, I’ve never said this before but…he may be the one.”

  Shelby was dumbfounded. “I had no idea you guys were that serious.”

  “Right? When do I take anything seriously?” Charli fluffed her shoulder-length pale blonde hair and flashed them a comically ditsy look. “If you’d told me a year ago that I would fall in love—”

  “With a zompire, no less,” Miranda put in. “If he asks you to marry him, you guys should totally do zombie engagement pictures!”

  Charli giggled, so palpably happy that tears pricked Shelby’s eyes. I am happy for my friends, she told herself sternly.

  She wanted them both to be happy, but she was choking on the irony. Charli had never showed any interest in settling down, and Miranda had flitted betwe
en boyfriends with dizzying speed. Shelby was the one who’d always dreamed of being a wife and mother, building a long-term home. When they’d lived together, Charli and Miranda had racked up more boyfriends in three months than Shelby had dated in her entire life.

  Shelby, on the other hand, had taken one long look into Finn’s ice blue eyes, and she’d been lost. Someday, she’d meet another man who made her feel that way, one who made her pulse race and her toes curl. Just because it hadn’t happened a single time in over six years didn’t mean she was doomed to die alone.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Charli and Miranda exchange a look. Were they feeling sorry for her? That was the worst part of all.

  She stood abruptly. “I think I’m going to hit the hotel gym before our spa day,” she said, forcing a smile. “If I don’t, I may not be able to zip my dress for the ceremony tomorrow. You wouldn’t believe the amount of food Miranda’s mom talked us into eating yesterday.”

  Miranda nodded solemnly “It was epic.”

  She waggled her fingers in a cheerful goodbye, managing to blink back the tears until she reached the elevator bank. Making sure she was far enough around the corner that her friends wouldn’t be able to see her, she sagged against the wall, swiping furiously at her eyes while she waited for an elevator. Come on, come on. She’d really like to get to the privacy of her own room before she dissolved into full-blown meltdown.

  The loud ding sounded like a chorus of angels in her ears—until the doors parted and Finn almost walked right into her.

  His forehead creased in concerned frown. “Shel?”

  The tears came in a hot flood then. Screw the elevator. She spun on her heel and bolted for the stairwell.

  ***

  At least when the knock came, she’d had a chance to wash her face and brush her teeth, which helped restore an iota of dignity.

  “Shelby?” Finn called through the door of her hotel room. “Open up, I know you’re in there.”