Josh shook his head. “No, that’s over for good. Rose said she hasn’t really figured out what she’s doing next yet, but that she sounds happier.”
“That’s good. She deserves it.”
Something about the way Drew said it sounded like more than polite conversation, but before he could dig any deeper, he heard Katie’s laugher and he couldn’t stop himself from turning to see her.
Her smile. Her hair. The eyes. That dress. It almost hurt to breathe when he looked at her, and he imagined he could still taste her on his lips. He wanted to kiss her again, preferably when the family wasn’t gathered around, chanting like spectators at a blood sport.
She was standing at the table and he wanted to step up behind her. Run his hands over that shiny fabric, then under it. Bend her over the…
Damn it! He took a deep breath, forcing himself to look back at Drew. “I’ve gotta check something. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
He escaped out the back door without bothering to grab his coat. It was cold as hell on the porch. Not as effective as a cold shower, but at least the air chilled his skin a little.
He was so screwed.
How was he supposed to keep on going as though nothing had changed between them? Maybe she hadn’t noticed, but he was having a serious problem staying in bounds as far as their relationship went. And the last thing he wanted to do was screw things up with her.
He had his brothers. And there were a lot of guys he counted as friends, with a few he’d call good ones. But Katie was his pal. His buddy. His best damn friend. He needed her to keep being that in his life.
There wasn’t an official rule book that he knew of, but he was pretty sure a guy didn’t bend his best damn friend over the kitchen table. And who would he ask about it? His best friend? Hey, Katie, is it bad form for me to want to make you my own personal brunch buffet?
Maybe it was just some weird phase brought on by watching his brothers fall in love. First Mitch and Paige, then Ryan and Lauren. Maybe it was catching, like the flu, and all he had to do was ride it out and the symptoms would pass.
He hoped it was a fast-moving bug, though, because he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold out without doing something really stupid he could never take back.
* * *
Nothing made Rose happier than the sound of family laughter ringing through the lodge. There had been too long a dry spell before Josh broke his leg and the other boys came home. The resentment he’d felt toward the lodge and his family had made him bitter, and he’d started going through more beer than she liked.
She’d just resigned herself to the fact she was going to have to interfere and call Mitch, which would have made Josh so angry he might never forgive her, when fate intervened in the form of a tree that needed limbing. To save money on a tree service, Josh had footed a ladder against the toolbox in the bed of his pickup and it had all come to a head with an ambulance ride and a cast.
Now their home was filled with love and laughter and, even if all the kids hadn’t made it for Christmas Eve, this was the best night Rose had had in a very long time.
“Are those tears sparkling in your eyes, Rose?” Andy had slipped up beside her without her even noticing.
“Happy tears. Definitely happy.”
“I thought maybe you were sad because you’re standing under the mistletoe and nobody’s kissed you yet.”
She looked up and damn if she wasn’t. Her skin suddenly felt tingly and she glanced around, but everybody was involved in their food and conversations and nobody was paying the slightest bit of attention to the fact that her face had to be as red as a Christmas stocking.
“I want you to know,” Andy said, “that you forgiving me and making me welcome here has made me a very happy man. And I’d really like to kiss you.”
Good lord, she hadn’t been kissed by a man in fourteen years. And by nobody but Earle for decades before that. She wasn’t sure she even remembered how it was done, but she found herself tipping her face up to his and leaning a little closer.
“Just a quick one,” she whispered. “All the kids are in the room, you know.”
He chuckled softly, and then his lips met hers and she clenched her hands to keep from touching him. Just as her body seemed to say, “oh, yes, we remember this,” it was over. She sighed, wishing it could have gone on just a little longer.
“Maybe you should leave that mistletoe up there for a while.” He winked and she giggled like a smitten schoolgirl. “Now, I’m going to go get me a slice of that banana cream pie before Lauren and Paige eat it all.”
That was fine with Rose because she could use a minute alone to compose herself. Andy Miller, all of people. Who would ever have guessed that?
Once she was fairly confident she no longer looked like a girl who’d just been kissed by a boy she had a crush on under the mistletoe, Rose went in search of dessert. Something chocolate would be good. Chocolate and gooey and sinful.
She was spooning chocolate truffle into a paper bowl when Katie nudged up beside her. “I saw you kissing Andy Miller under the mistletoe.”
Prickly heat crawled up Rose’s neck as she mentally flailed for something to say. Was she upset? “I didn’t kiss him. He kissed me.”
“Wait until Fran hears about this.”
“Katherine Rose Davis, don’t you dare!”
Her daughter just grinned and walked away, sticking her tongue out at her over her shoulder.
“Whoa!” Mitch said, very loudly. “Katie just got middle named!”
“On Christmas Eve?” Ryan shook his head. “Hell of a time to end up on the naughty list.”
“Speaking of naughty and nice lists, we need to open up the presents so Nick can get to his dad’s before his little brother and sister go to bed,” Rose said in a voice everybody could hear.
As she’d hoped—and expected—the excited rush toward the tree distracted them from wanting details on Katie’s transgression, which was a relief.
She wasn’t sure how she felt yet about Andy wanting to kiss her, but she knew her feelings weren’t going to be clarified any by getting everybody else’s opinion on the matter. This was something she was going to have sort out for herself.
Chapter Nine
Katie, acting as official hostess in Rose’s place, was in charge of passing out the gifts. Mostly, though, she was just trying not to pass out.
Josh had kissed her. Andy had kissed her mom. This whole mistletoe thing was out of hand and, if she could, she’d kick Mitch in the junk for hanging it. He had to have done it for his own twisted amusement, since Josh had made a good point about hanging mistletoe at a family party.
It had happened so fast, she barely had a memory of it to savor later. Just a fleeting impression. Everybody had been chanting and then his mouth touched hers, lingered for far too few seconds, and then was gone. She’d always imagined her and Josh’s first kiss, if it ever really happened, would be some earth-shaking, soul-shattering event, not free party entertainment.
But she pasted on a grin, put on the Santa’s helper elf hat Josh thought would be a cute gimmick, and handed out gifts. She, Josh and her mom would exchange theirs in the morning, but there were plenty under the tree to pass around.
Being the elf kept her so busy she only caught fleeting glimpses of the opened gifts. Her mom had knit a scarf and hat in Bruins colors for Nick, and Katie knew she’d knit Andy and Drew each a pair of fisherman’s mittens. Mitch gave Josh a new splitting maul, which made both men laugh. They wouldn’t let anybody else in on the joke, but Katie suspected her mother knew by her smile and made a mental note to ask her about it later.
She collected a small pile of her own, too. A really cute barber tree ornament from Mitch and Paige made her smile but, surprisingly, it was Andy’s gift that made her teary-eyed. It was a really ol
d photo of her father enlarged to fit a new five-by-seven frame, obviously taken by Andy on one of their pre-fallout sledding trips. Her dad was standing next to his snowmobile at the top of a steep, icy-looking hill, with his arms raised in victory and a huge grin on his face. She’d never seen the photo, so she assumed he didn’t get a chance to give her dad a copy before her mom cut him out of their lives.
It was such a joyful picture the tears just blurred her vision for a couple of minutes without falling, and then she hugged him on impulse. “Thank you.”
“Merry Christmas, Katie.”
She set the photo on the mantel near the picture of Josh’s parents to keep it safe, swiped at her eyes and went back to being the elf.
When she handed Paige a big box, everybody stopped what they were doing to watch her open her gift. They all knew Mitch had made it himself, but nobody knew what it was. When she’d asked him earlier why he wasn’t giving it to her on Christmas morning, he’d told Katie he wanted her to open it surrounded by family.
Of course, Paige took her time opening it. Slitting the tape with her fingernail. Slowly and ever so carefully folding back the wrapping paper. Lifting the lid on the box as if she was afraid whatever was inside might jump out at her. Although, that one Katie could understand. These were Kowalskis, after all.
Then, after all that, Paige burst into tears before she took whatever it was out of the box so they could all see it.
“What is it?” Lauren asked, straining to see.
Mitch, who’d looked startled at first by his wife’s emotional outburst but moved in quickly to comfort her, lifted the gift out of the box. It was a sign—the kind that got mounted on a post outside a house or hung by the front door. Mitch had used a router to cut in letters, and then painted the recesses in colors that matched their new house.
In large letters, it read Welcome to Our Home. And then, in smaller letters at the bottom, The Kowalskis, Est. 2012.
Josh had to scramble for a box of tissues because there wasn’t a dry female eye in the house. Even Katie got a little choked up. Paige had spent her entire life looking for a sense of home, family and community. She certainly had one now.
“Too much crying on Christmas Eve,” Ryan grumbled. “I say next year we have a gag-gift rule.”
It took almost half an hour to clean up the wrapping paper, but Katie didn’t mind. Their Christmases had been a lot smaller in past years, and she was so thankful to have more of the people she considered family around her, she didn’t mind the extra mess.
“I found out the other day,” Josh said when he came to take the full trash bag of paper from her, “that Max’s job involves shipping boxes more often than the average person does. And Miranda thinks I’m adorable.”
Miranda had worked at the post office for as long as Katie could remember. Maybe even for as long as anybody in Whitford could remember. “Miranda is also like ninety years old. And no wiles.”
“No, the condition was no feminine wiles. That’s not an issue for me.”
She laughed. “Go ahead, then. You seduce Miranda into letting you peek inside one of Max’s packages. Just do me a favor and make sure it’s caught on the security camera. I’ll give Drew a heads-up and, as police chief, he can request the footage. I bet posting that on the lodge’s Facebook page would really increase business with the elderly demographic.”
“Maybe I can get you side work washing trucks for our guests after they see what a nice job you do on mine.”
“Hey, you two,” Rosie called. “Ryan, Lauren and Nick are getting ready to leave. Come say goodbye.”
But Josh had one last parting remark. He looked at Katie, making no effort to disguise the heat in his eyes. “It’s a good thing Max can’t see you in that dress. There’s not a man alive who could deny you anything tonight.”
“Really?”
His smile was slow and sizzling. “Really.”
* * *
Josh was having one hell of an argument with himself. Everybody had gone home, Rose had gone to bed, and he should politely help Katie clean up before following suit.
Or he could not so politely push her up against the wall, kiss her until their legs gave out and then take her right there on the floor with that killer dress shoved up around her hips.
He could almost imagine cartoon versions of himself, good and not so good, perched on each shoulder.
“She’s your friend and you shouldn’t mess with that,” the polite him would say, while the not polite him would counter with, “Look at those legs and think about what they’d feel like wrapped around you while she begs for more….”
The real Josh was feeling less polite with every passing second.
“I’m so glad that’s over,” Katie said, drawing his attention away from his internal debate and back to her body in that dress. It was a good thing her regular clothes didn’t show it off like that, or he’d spend every football game in a drooling stupor. “But I think everybody had a good time.”
“We did good,” he agreed. “Hey, let me help you with that.”
She was trying to move half a chocolate cake from its fancy serving plate into the plastic cake container and it was going to end up on the floor. When he moved closer to her so he could slide a spatula under one end of the cake while she did the same on the other, he could smell her shampoo and her soap. He knew it was French vanilla, because she’d left her shower stuff on the shelf in the bathroom, but they didn’t smell as good in the bottle as they did on her.
He’d never really been a vanilla kind of guy, but right then he wanted nothing more than to lick every inch of her.
“You paying attention?”
He realized she was waiting to lift the cake, and he nodded. They managed to get it into the container without mangling the frosting too badly, but then he had to suffer through watching her laugh and suck chocolate frosting off her finger.
Josh could imagine the polite cartoon version of himself throwing up his hands in defeat and toppling off his shoulder into oblivion.
Katie looked at the food and dishes still left to deal with. “I should go change before I spill something on this dress.”
“Don’t.”
He wasn’t surprised when she looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. He had. That was the only explanation for why he’d known this woman his entire life, but now, all of a sudden, he was going to die if he didn’t touch her. Insanity.
“Don’t what? Change my dress?”
“I like that dress. A lot.”
Her face flushed and his body heated in response. “Me, too. Which is why I’d rather not get cranberry stains on it.”
He swallowed hard. “The dress makes me want to cross the line.”
“What line?”
“The line between friends and taking you right here on the kitchen floor.” He watched her face intently, waiting for shock. Maybe anger or laughter. There was no predicting how she’d respond and that scared the hell out of him.
Because he was looking, he saw the flare of heat, and the smile, when it came, wasn’t mocking but one of invitation. “Does this look like a sex-on-the-floor kind of dress to you?”
“That looks like the kind of dress that demands champagne and silk sheets, but I don’t have either.”
She took a step closer to him. “I’m not really a champagne and silk sheets kind of girl, so don’t let it fool you. Under this dress, I’m still just me.”
“I’d like to find out what’s under the dress for myself.”
When he reached out his hand and she took it, curling her fingers through his, some part of him was aware he was stepping across that line and he could never take it back.
Tugging gently on her hand, Josh pulled Katie close and used his free hand to cup the back of her neck. He felt her sigh against his lips as he pressed
his mouth to hers. This time, he was thorough, sweeping his tongue over hers as he claimed the kiss he’d wanted under the mistletoe and couldn’t have. He tasted the chocolate on her lips and felt her tremble under his touch.
“I’ve wanted to do that since that night in the kitchen,” he confessed, releasing her hand so he could stroke her back.
“But instead of kissing me, you told me to put some clothes on and went to bed. Interesting technique.”
“I panicked.”
She tipped her head back and closed the small gap left between them so her breasts brushed his chest. “Am I that scary?”
“Terrifying. I scared the hell out of myself, actually. I had no clue what to do.”
“I can show you,” she said, her lips curving into a smile. Not a regular old friendly smile, but a naughty smile that made his body tighten in response.
She took his hand and led him into the living room. For a second he thought she was taking him upstairs and almost balked, but she walked to the Christmas tree. It was still plugged in, the lights twinkling in the otherwise dim room.
“Lay down,” she whispered.
He wasn’t sure exactly what she was up to, but he hadn’t been kidding when he’d told her earlier no man could deny her anything in that dress. Stretching out on the floor with his head almost under the tree, he waited.
* * *
Katie knelt next to the Christmas present she was giving herself, her heart hammering in her chest. There was no turning back now, even if she wanted to. And she definitely didn’t want to.
One by one, she slowly undid each of the buttons on his shirt. His eyes never left her face and she felt the heat of his gaze. “You’re killing me, Katie.”
Oh, she could do better than that. She threw her leg over his, so when she sat back she was straddling his thighs, before she undid the next button. “I’m unwrapping you.”
She had to pull the shirt out of his jeans to get the last two buttons, and then she parted the fabric. He sucked in a breath when she ran her hands over his chest and down the taut muscles of his stomach.
All He Ever Dreamed (The Kowalskis) Page 10
