Wedding Bells in Christmas

by Debbie Mason

  “Careful? You don’t know what the word means. You’re a hothead. It wasn’t enough that you waved a red flag at the Drugstore Bandits, you called Earl Skully out in your op-ed piece.”

  “The car he sold me wouldn’t have passed a safety test. It nearly blew up with me in it.”

  “You paid five hundred dollars for the car. What did you expect?”

  She lifted her chin. “If a business in town rips off a customer and puts them in danger, which Earl did, I’m going to make sure people know about it. I consider it a community service.”

  “Community service… is that what you call your Around the Town column? Because let me tell you, Slick, your cutesy names aren’t fooling—”

  “Wait, Around the Town? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Give me a break. It’s on page fifteen, right below your Dear Vivi column.” He took the rolled newspaper out of his back pocket and handed it to her. “Now, thanks to you, everyone knows Gil Sands is having an affair with Lisa Flowers, including Gil’s wife.” He stabbed the page.

  And there it was in black and white. She shook her head. “I don’t understand. I didn’t…” She briefly closed her eyes on a groan, then poked him in the chest. “This is your aunt’s doing, McBride. I never should have let her work with me.” She knew it was a bad idea right from the get-go, but she’d been slightly overwhelmed the first couple of days and had welcomed Nell, Evelyn, and Stella’s help.

  Help? Ha! They were probably going to get her run out of town with their little addition. Actually, that was the least of her worries. She’d have to call Ethan and find out the legal ramifications of her using “Dear Vivi.” She wasn’t sure if the Spectator held the rights to the moniker. It’s why she’d told Nell she couldn’t run a Dear Vivi column until she’d spoken to Ethan. But Nell had wanted to start the paper off with a bang. Oh, it had started off with a bang, all right.

  “I swear to God, I’m going to wring her neck,” Vivi said, slapping the newspaper against her thigh as she headed down the path at a jog.

  Chance caught her by the hand and hauled her to a stop. “Slow down. Don’t go off half-cocked.”

  “This was supposed to be a great day for me, McBride. I was happy, really happy, for the first time in a long time. I felt like maybe this was what I was meant to do all along. Like Skye’s silly platitude ‘everything for a reason’ actually held some merit. And now, thanks to you and your aunt, it’s ruined.”

  His expression softened. “I’m sorry, Slick. I didn’t mean to ruin your day. I’m worried about you, that’s all.”

  “Maybe you should be worrying about your aunt instead. Because when I get ahold of—”

  “Okay, how about you knock off the threats. I don’t want to have to throw you in jail on your special day.” He dipped his head, looking her in the eyes. “Let me make it up to you. I’ll take you to the diner for a burger. I’m off at six. We can celebrate.”

  That was sweet, and she didn’t want him to be sweet. She was gearing up for a good, long rant, and he’d stolen her thunder. She sighed. “Thank you. I appreciate the offer, but I have a meeting tonight.” She’d rather go to bed.

  At the thought, an image of her and Chance naked and sweaty in rumpled sheets popped into her head. Sheesh, her brain mustn’t have gotten the memo that they were friends now—and not that kind of friends. Now her body was on the same page as her brain because her neglected lady parts warmed with anticipation. Sorry to disappoint you girls, not going to happen. It was better this way: no drama, no angst.

  “I don’t mind eating late,” he said.

  “I’ve seen the agenda. The meeting will probably go until midnight.”

  “I’ll take you out tomorrow, then.” He tapped a finger on her nose. “Behave yourself. No more poking your stick in the hornets’ nest, okay?”

  “I’ll look after my stick, you look after yours.” She rolled her eyes when his lips quirked at the corner. “You’ve got a dirty mind.”

  He laughed, putting up his hands as he walked backward. “Didn’t say a thing. Catch you later, Slick,” he said, all nice and friendly.

  Nice and friendly would be fine if he didn’t look so damn good walking to his truck parked on Main Street. She needed a shower, a cold one.

  * * *

  Vivi locked the door to the Chronicle. She could use another cold shower, and this one had nothing to do with the Chance effect. She needed to wake the hell up. Her day had been brutal. Nell, Stella, and Evelyn had made themselves scarce, leaving Vivi to deal with Gil, his wife, Gil’s mistress, and Earl Skully. If this was a sign of things to come, Vivi needed to up her liability insurance.

  “Guess I’m too late,” Zach Callahan said as he sauntered toward her with an aw-shucks smile.

  What now? was Vivi’s first reaction. Instead, she said, “Hey, Zach. Too late for what?”

  He inclined his head at the pale yellow wood front of the Chronicle. “I thought you might be hiring. I worked at the high school newspaper. I’m good—”

  “I wish I could, Zach, but I really don’t have the funds in my budget to hire anyone.”

  “I’ve got my own truck. I can do deliveries.”

  “Sorry, buddy. Seniors are doing the deliveries for free.” Which went in the Reason to Keep Nell column. Vivi took in the disheartened expression on Zach’s face as he kicked a stone off the sidewalk with the toe of his black high-tops and had a flash of insight. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Chance asking what you do for a living, does it?”

  He shrugged. “He made me feel like a loser. I want him to know I can take care of Nat.”

  Vivi felt a twinge of sympathy for the kid and patted his shoulder. “It’s not you, Zach.” Well, it kind of was, or at least it was who he was related to. But there was nothing Zach could do about his family, and he obviously felt bad enough. “Chance would be the same with anyone Natalee dated. It’s a big-brother thing. He’s just trying to protect her.”

  “She doesn’t need protection from me, and she doesn’t need him looking out for her,” he said, his voice low and rough.

  He lost some of her initial sympathy with the tough-guy attitude. “Doesn’t matter what you think. That’s the way it is. Look, I’ve got a meeting. I’ll keep you in mind if something comes up.”

  “Thanks. Appreciate it.”

  “No problem.” She went to walk away, then remembered the list she’d made for Natalee. Vivi turned to find Zach’s intent gaze on her. Weird. He smoothed away whatever she thought she’d seen on his face. “I almost forgot.” She dug in her messenger bag and pulled out a pad of paper, ripping off the top sheet. “Chance mentioned Natalee was looking into colleges. He said she wanted to major in English. I found a couple of schools she might be interested in. Would you mind giving her this?”

  He took the paper and scanned the list. “You’re wasting your time. She won’t go.”

  The way he said it made Vivi think he wouldn’t let her go. She was afraid Chance might have Zach’s number after all. “Doesn’t hurt to try.”

  “Whatever. I won’t tell her this is from you.” He held Vivi’s gaze. “She doesn’t like you, you know. She doesn’t want you and Chance together.” There was a warning note in his voice.

  “Chance and I aren’t together, so she doesn’t have anything to worry about.”

  “Good. I mean, that’s good for you. She can be…” He shrugged, leaving the implied threat hanging in the air. “Better let you go to your meeting.”

  “Yeah. Take care.” She walked away, feeling his eyes on her back.

  “You take care, too, Vivi.”

  Something in his voice made her turn around. This time she held his gaze, making sure he got the message. “Always do, Zach. I’m real good at taking care of myself.” If the little jerk was trying to scare her, he’d have to do better than that.

  From the pot into the fire, she thought as she walked into the conference room at the town hall. Zach had nothing on Nell Mc
Bride. Vivi dropped her messenger bag onto the table and took the seat across from Nell, Evelyn, and Stella. She stabbed a finger at the three of them. “You’re all fired.”

  Nell, looking sheepish, doodled on the pad of paper in front her and grumbled, “You can’t fire us. We’re volunteers.”

  Evelyn Tate nudged Nell, then said to Vivi, “We’re sorry, dear. We didn’t mean to cause you trouble.”

  “Like we told Chance, it wasn’t our fault, but we should have told you what Nell did. So I suppose we’re guilty by omission. Sorry, Vivi. We’d like to keep working at the paper. And we’ve come up with some ideas to make it up to you,” Stella said with a tentative smile.

  Well, good. It’s about time someone took the old meddler to task. She ignored the warm and fuzzies at the thought that Chance had done so on her behalf. That’s what friends do, she reminded herself.

  Nell sighed. “All right. Maybe I took it too far.”

  “Ya think?” Skye said, pulling out the chair beside Vivi to sit down. “Ethan has spent most of the day talking to the lawyers at the Spectator because of what you pulled, Nell.” She patted Vivi’s hand. “He said not to worry. You’re good on all counts. He’ll explain everything to you tomorrow.” She fanned herself. “He’s really hot when he speaks legalese, so prepare yourself.”

  “I’ll try not to faint,” Vivi said dryly, then tilted her head to study Skye. “Sounds like everything’s good on the home front.”

  “Better than good. Richard and Claudia are leaving tomorrow.” She gave Vivi a fist bump.

  “About time,” Nell said. “Maybe now we can get the wedding back on track. Liz…”

  Maddie cleared her throat, widening her eyes and nudging her head at the door as Liz and Cat walked in.

  “Which wedding would that be, Nell? Surely not mine and a certain doctor who can’t keep his zipper—”

  “Mom,” Cat muttered, pulling out a chair for Liz. “Behave or I’m taking you home.”

  “Yes, mother-in-law dearest, behave. We don’t want your blood pressure going up,” Skye said, taking obvious delight in teasing Liz. Last year, Skye had been on the receiving end of those same exact words.

  Liz arched a brow. “You are lucky I love you, dearest daughter-in-law.”

  “Who wouldn’t love my honey bun?” Betty Jean said, coming up behind Skye to put her arms around her chest, rocking her from side to side.

  “All right, lovefest is over. Time to get to work.” Maddie tapped the gavel on the table. “Meeting’s called to order,” she said as Grace, Hailey, and the rest of the business owners quickly took their seats. “Before we get started, I’d like to welcome our newest member to the Christmas Business Association, Vivi Westfield.” Maddie motioned for her to stand.

  Vivi gave a self-conscious shake of her head.

  “Come on now, stand up and be recognized. You did good, girlie. Circulation is already up one hundred percent.” Nell buffed her nails on her Chronicle T-shirt.

  Everyone clapped when Vivi reluctantly got to her feet. Circulation was up, a fact that had Vivi dancing around the office this afternoon when she’d hit the magic number.

  “And you saved the building from being turned into a tittie bar,” Nell finished to resounding groans.

  Vivi wasn’t big on speeches, but she owed several people her thanks. “As all of you well know, without some arm-twisting, I wouldn’t have bought the Chronicle. I also wouldn’t have had the money to do so without my best friends and business partners, Maddie McBride and Skye O’Connor. So thank you, all of you.” She caught Nell’s expectant look. “Especially, Nell, Evelyn, and Stella for everything they’ve done. Even if they nearly got me sued.”

  “You should thank Chance, too. If he hadn’t told me to keep you busy, I wouldn’t have come up with the idea.”

  “What do you mean he told you to—”

  Maddie banged the gavel. “Order. Meeting’s called to order. We don’t want to be here all night, do we?”

  Three hours later, Vivi was beginning to think they would be. And from her copious notes, she wouldn’t be sleeping for the next year. She had pages upon pages of events and promotions to cover: the building of Santa’s Village, Christmas in July, year-round letters to Santa, her Dear Vivi column, Around the Town…

  “I think we’ve just about covered…” Maddie began.

  “No, wait. We’ve saved the best for last. Tell them, Nell,” Evelyn urged her friend.

  “Christmas Cuties.” Nell made a ta-da motion with her hands.

  “Huh, like animals and kids?” Vivi asked.

  “No, we’re going to get the best-looking men in Christmas to pose naked with a Santa hat placed strategically over their junk. We’ll feature one Hot Bod a week.”

  Vivi shot Nell a narrowed-eyed look. Before they’d known who he was, Skye and Maddie referred to Chance as Hot Bod after getting a load of him half-naked via Skype. He was hot, but there was no way she’d put him in her paper for other women to ogle.

  So if that’s who Nell was thinking of, Vivi’d soon set her straight. “Exactly who were you planning to ask to pose, Nell? Not that I’m approving the idea, but—”

  Nell smirked. “My nephew Paul, of course.”

  Before Liz or anyone else had a chance to react, Hot Bod himself strode into the conference room. Chance’s sharp gaze scanned the room until it landed on Vivi. She didn’t like the way his grass-green eyes went from relieved to wary. “What is it?” she asked.

  “Someone broke into the Chronicle. They trashed the place.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chance held the door open, keeping a close eye on Vivi as she took in the damage to the Chronicle. The desks were tossed, computers smashed, filing cabinets and shelves overturned with books and papers strewn from one end of the space to the other. She’d been happy here, happier than she’d been in a long time. Hearing her say that in the park had just about slayed him. He’d give anything to take away the defeated look he now saw on her face.

  “Careful,” he warned when she stepped inside, “there’s glass everywhere.” Whoever had broken in had come through the side window in the alley. Someone had heard the noise and called it in. By the time Jill had gotten there, the damage had been done, the perp nowhere in sight.

  “Okay,” Vivi said, her voice flat.

  He heard the shocked gasps and angry muttering from behind him. Madison, Skye, and the rest of the council had arrived. His aunt, who’d been on her cell phone, shoved it in the pocket of her jeans and went to push past him.

  He held her back. “Nell, you can’t go in until we process the scene. Vivi, honey, don’t touch anything. Have a look around and tell me if anything’s missing.”

  She pushed her palms up her face, leaving them on the top of her head. “How will I know? Everything’s…” She tipped her head back, staring at the ceiling.

  “No one move,” he ordered the women. Papers and glass crunched underfoot as he walked to Vivi. He took her in his arms. “I know it looks bad, but once they’ve dusted for prints, we’ll have the place cleaned up in no time.”

  She wouldn’t meet his eyes, holding herself stiff in his arms, biting on her full bottom lip. He ducked his head to look in her eyes. She turned away and said in a throaty whisper, “Don’t.”

  He lowered his mouth to her ear. “You can cry, you know.”

  “I’m not going to cry,” she scoffed, but her glassy eyes told another story. “I’m just… mad. Who would do…” She released a brittle laugh. “Stupid question, right?”

  Before he could answer her, Cat approached. “If you’re okay with it, Chance, I’ll help Jill out. Knock on a few doors. See if anyone heard or saw anything.”

  “Appreciate it.”

  “No problem.” She rested a hand on Vivi’s shoulder as she scanned the room with a cop’s eyes. Raising a brow, she lifted her gaze to his. “Personal.”

  Yeah, he’d thought the same thing. This was overkill, not a simple break and enter. Damn sham
e Cat was no longer on the force. She was a good cop. “Looks like.”

  “Hang in there, Vivi. We’ll find whoever did this. I’ll be back to give you a hand with the cleanup.”

  “Thanks,” Vivi said, looking up at him as Cat skirted the debris and headed out. “Who do you think did this?”

  “We’ll talk about it in a minute. Right now I need you to check your computer.”

  “All right, but I doubt it’s salvageable.” She eased out of his arms and walked toward the overturned desk on the right.

  “You have anything on there about the Drugstore Bandits?” He glanced at the women milling around on the sidewalk and lowered his voice. “Anything about the leads we were following, the ones not in the paper?”

  “The computers are outdated. I haven’t uploaded the files yet. I have them on my laptop.” Her eyes narrowed. “You think the Drugstore Bandits are behind this?”

  “Yeah, I do. You made them nervous, Slick.” And that made him nervous. Made him wonder how he’d keep her safe. He had some ideas about how he’d do that but doubted she’d agree. He had to give it a shot anyway. “You’re staying with me until things calm down.”

  “No, I’m not. I told you before, McBride, I can take care of myself.” She crouched beside her desk, her hand on the computer. “You and Cat think this is personal. So that rules out the Drugstore Bandits, doesn’t…” She looked up at him. “If the Callahans were involved, it would be personal, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it would.” He turned at the sound of his brother’s voice. Gage spoke to Madison, then walked toward them—followed by a specially trained civilian crime scene investigator Gage contracted on the infrequent times he needed one. Chance had used him, too. The man acknowledged him with a nod and got to work.

  “You okay?” Gage asked Vivi.

  “Been better,” she said, coming to her feet. She nodded at the computer. “They took the hard drive.”

  He waited for his brother’s reaction to the news.

  “We’ll check on Earl’s, Gil’s, his wife’s, and Lisa Flowers’s whereabouts at the time of the break-in.”