Christmas Love

by Hazel Gower

  “And you…” She stood and poked the guy in the chest. “How could you just take my kids like that? You had no right. No right.” Luna dug her finger into him with each word and then turned back to her kids and kneeled down in front of them. “Don’t you ever leave the house like that without me, Nanny, or Poppy leaving with you.” She kissed each of them all over their faces.

  “Mummy, stop.” Rex pushed at her, but Luna wasn’t letting him go. “Wes with Derick. He’s policeman. Yous said policemen are good.”

  “Yeahs, Mummy,” Layla added.

  Luna stopped smothering them with kisses and finally looked at the man her son called Derick. He was taller than her, which wasn’t hard as she was only five feet tall; he had to be at least five-ten maybe five-eleven. He had dirty blond hair cut short on the sides but long enough on the top that it came over his eyes. For some strange reason Luna wanted to reach up and brush his hair to the side so she could see his eyes better. She could see they were blue, you couldn’t miss them—they were so light it reminded her of crystal blue water from a tropical island. His jaw was square and there was a day or so of stubble on it. He had high, manly cheekbones, and as her gaze traveled down she could tell he was in shape. He didn’t have a bodybuilder body, but instead a stocky, muscle build. He was very handsome, and her cheeks heated as she noticed he was checking her out too.

  Standing again, she gripped her children to her side and stared at Derick. “You took my kids?”

  He held his hands up. “I didn’t take them. They came to me. I’ve just been planting my garden with them while you had a nap.”

  At the mention of the nap Luna took, her stomach sank and she felt like her heart was going to beat right out of her chest. Oh God, she was the worst mother ever. Tears slid down her cheeks. “I’m a good mum. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” A sob slipped out of her mouth, and as soon as the noise left her Luna’s babies squeezed her.

  “Mummy, I loves you sooooo much.” Layla’s cute little voice had her heart soaring.

  “Yeahs,” Rex added. “I loves you lots.”

  Layla held her children tight against her and absorbed their love.

  “I didn’t say you aren’t a good mum. I understand you’re a single mother, and I know it’s hard being a single parent. I’m sorry I didn’t leave a note for you when the kids stayed with me.”

  Luna looked over at the man as he ran his fingers through his hair and then held it out to her.

  “Look, let’s start over. I’m Derick Bishop. I bought my house and moved in not long ago. I’m a policeman.”

  Luna shook Derick’s hand. “Hi. I’m Luna Brickton. You’ve met my two kids, Rex and Layla. I’m a secretary, and a couple of nights a week I work at a bar too. Speaking of, my mother should be here soon to look after Rex and Layla.” She had no idea why she told him so much, but there was something about him. His grip was firm. He didn’t have sweaty hands and they weren’t soft, but they weren’t rough hands filled with calluses.

  He smiled at her and two dimples popped out. Luna backstepped at how he went from handsome to absolutely movie star gorgeous. Her mind conjured up images of women throwing themselves at him in his uniform, confessing to crimes they didn’t even commit because of that smile with the dimples.

  “I’m sorry for letting the kids stay with me. I should have woken you. Please accept my apology, but know too that they have been no trouble. It’s been fun. They’ve helped me plant my lavender trees and flowers. I’m happy to have them help me again.”

  Luna’s stomach sank and she knew she shouldn’t have blasted him the way she did, especially when Layla and Rex where the ones who left the house. He was a stranger and she’d told her children never to talk to them, but as soon as he’d said he was a cop, Luna knew why her kids had felt safe. It was her own fault. She’d told them that police were the exception to the no-talking-to-strangers rule.

  Adrenaline worn off now that she’d found her children and they were safe, she sighed, closed her eyes, and gathered herself together before opening them. “Thanks for the offer, but we must…” Luna trailed off as her mother pulled up in her hybrid car and parked on the curb. “That’s my mum. I better go.”

  Luna didn’t wait for his reply but held both her children’s hands and guided them toward her house, but once they saw her mother, they run to her. Luna resisted the urge to turn around and look at Derick, but her heart thudded faster and she felt her palms get sweaty. Luna had a feeling that she would be seeing more of Derick.

  Chapter 2

  Derick

  Derick couldn’t get his neighbor and her children out of his mind. Luna...her name was unusual, but it suited her. When she came storming toward him after finding her kids with him, her jet-black, curly hair flowing wild behind her, he’d discovered that her eyes, which he hadn’t seen because they’d been shut, were not brown like her children’s, but black. Her skin looked luminous, and as she came roaring toward him, he thought she was the most stunning woman he’d ever seen.

  Derick’s shift was ending and he just wanted to get home, shower, and hibernate until his next shift. It was early hours in the morning—four AM on a Sunday—and he’d been on night shift for the past week. Today was his last one before he switched back to days, after a three-day weekend.

  Four blocks from his street he was behind a little red Ford Festiva, and it was crawling along. He wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere, but the speed the car was doing was dangerous. The streets were only back streets with houses along them, but the car was crawling. Was there something wrong with the car or the person inside? He turned on his police light to show the person to pull over, but didn’t turn on the siren as it was late and he wanted to avoid waking residents. He radioed dispatch to tell them what he was doing.

  The driver of the car didn’t notice him at first, and they moved another street closer to his own. The car pulled over just a street from his house. Derick opened his door, eased out of his seat, and slowly walked to the driver’s side. The window was down and he came upon the object of his thoughts for the last couple of days. She didn’t look too good; the bags under her eyes were huge, and her skin was a deathly pale color.

  “Luna?” Derick probably shouldn’t be so familiar with her, but his heartrate picked up at the sight of her and his body became tight. Even looking like death, she was beautiful. His stomach flipped, and he felt like a teenage boy with his first crush. Derick’s gut told him that this woman was special and she could be something to him.

  “Derick,” she mumbled before she burped and vomited all over the window and herself.

  He opened her car door just as she moaned and went limp. Checking her pulse, he noticed straight away that she was hot and sweating. Her pulse was weak and her breathing was heavy. Derick debated calling for an ambulance, but he knew he could get her to the hospital quicker. Making sure her car was off, and taking the keys out of the ignition, he pocketed them, then undid her seatbelt and carefully lifted her out of the vehicle. She groaned and turned into his embrace.

  “Luna, Luna, Luna, you’re going to give me trouble, aren’t you?” He maneuvered her with one hand so he could open his passenger door and gently placed her in the seat. After fastening her seatbelt, he shut the door, then went back to her car and grabbed her bag and locked it.

  Returning to his vehicle, he got in the driver’s side and radioed dispatch, telling them that it wasn’t anything and he was done. Checking to make sure Luna was okay, he started the car and drove to the hospital.

  Parking in an emergency bay, he carefully got her out of the car. She didn’t make a peep, and his stomach sank at the bad sign. Happy he was still in his uniform, he ran in and a nurse spotted him straight away and came running.

  “Her name is Luna Brickton. She’s twenty-four.” He was grateful he’d looked into the residents surrounding his property, so he knew more about Luna than he should have. “Her pulse is weak, and ten minutes ago she vomited and passed out.”

 
A hospital bed on wheels met him as the nurse guided him to where she wanted. He gently placed Luna on the bed and took a step back as she became swarmed with doctors and nurses.

  “Officer?” The nurse who first saw Derick patted his arm.

  “Derick Bishop. Um…” He knew what would happen now—he would be told to move away and not hear or be told anything else. Derick couldn’t let that happen. “Luna is my girlfriend. I found her like this when I came home and I knew I could get her here before the ambulance.” He shouldn’t lie, but Derick couldn’t be left out of the loop. He knew they wouldn’t tell him much as he was only a boyfriend, but at least they’d tell him the basics until he could get her family here.

  “Officer Derick. If you could call her next of kin, that would be great. I’ll keep you in loop as much as I’m allowed, but I’m sure you know the rules. I have to ask you to leave and go to the waiting room please.”

  Derick knew the drill, and he nodded at the nurse. “I know. I’m going to go move my car and call her family, but I’ll be in the waiting area, eager for news.”

  The nurse sized him up for a moment before she sighed and gave him a slight chin lift. Derick turned and made his way back to the car and moved it to parking. Then he searched Luna’s bag and took out her phone. It was an older one with no code to get into it. He went through her contacts, stopping at the one that said Mum, and dialed it.

  It rang out the first time but a groggy voice answered on the second one. “Luna, why are you calling at this hour?”

  “Hello, this is Derick Bishop. I’m a friend of Luna’s. I’m the cop that lives next door. I pulled her over this morning and she was sick and then passed out. I’m currently at emergency and they’ve asked me to call the next of kin.”

  “Oh my God. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. I just need to wake up the twins.”

  “Ma’am, my parents live about half an hour from you. Let me give them a call and ask them to come over and stay with Rex and Layla. Save waking them.”

  She was quiet on the other end for a while before she made a noise like a popping sound. “Okay. They have forty minutes to get here. Otherwise, I’m waking the kids and coming to my baby.”

  “I’ll call you to let you know they’re on their way.”

  “You better” was the last thing she said before she hung up.

  Getting his own phone out, he dialed his parents, and his dad picked up. “Son, I know we’re early risers, but since retiring I don’t get up until at least six-thirty.”

  “I’m sorry, Dad. I’m ringing ’cause I need a favor.”

  “Is everything okay?” His dad’s voice held an edge of worry now.

  “Yes, I’m fine, but Luna, er, my neighbor—”

  “The pretty one with the cute kids you told us about?” Dad interrupted him.

  “Yes, Dad, her.” He nodded, stopping when he realized that his dad couldn’t see him. Derick was tired too. “She’s in the hospital. I brought her here and her mother is at Luna’s house, watching her twins. I offered up you and Mum to babysit so her mother can come to the hospital and not have to wake up the kids. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Sure, son. This late there won’t be any traffic, so give us about thirty minutes and we’ll be there. Do you want to give me the number to call and tell her we’re on our way?”

  “No, I said I’d call. I’ll do that now. She’ll know to look out for you.”

  “Okay, son.”

  They disconnected the call, and Derick called Luna’s mother back.

  “Hello,” Luna’s mother answered.

  “Hi. My parents will be there in twenty or so minutes. My dad drives a white SUV.”

  “Thanks so much. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She sounded panicked.

  “I’ll be here. I’m not leaving, and I have your daughter’s phone if you need to contact me.” He hoped she could hear the sincerity in his voice.

  “Thank you again. I just knew she shouldn’t have gone into work last night. The cold she’s got has hit her bad. I told her if she kept up her crazy work schedule she’d get sick.” She sighed heavily into the phone. “She won’t take money from us, but Frank isn’t going to take no for an answer now. Frank, her dad, should be there with you in a moment. He said he would leave asap when I spoke to him.”

  “Is his number in Luna’s phone? I’ll call him and tell him what I look like.”

  She laughed—well, more like cackled. “Oh, honey, I already told him what you look like. Luna described you before I had the privilege of catching you coming home from work a couple of times. She told me how the other day, when she fell asleep because she was starting to come down with this cold, you looked after the kids. The way she described you there is no mistaking you’re one smoking hot man meat. She said you were a muscle-clad, devilishly handsome man, even more so than we’d seen from a distance.”

  Derick felt his cheeks heat as the woman spoke. He never thought he was a guy that blushed, but this lady had turned him into a teenager. “Ma’am, I…” He was shocked at what the woman was saying. Derick had a feeling her daughter wouldn’t appreciate what she was telling him either. “I’m not sure how I feel about being blatantly sexualized.”

  Her cackle came again. “Oh, you’ll get used to me. I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot of each other. I’m going to go take a shower and then get ready for your parents.” She hung up before he could say anything.

  Derick stared at the phone for a second or two, unsure of what had just happened. He had a feeling though that Luna’s mother was right, because since meeting her daughter he hadn’t thought of anything else. Even seeing her tonight sick and having vomited in front of him, he thought she was beautiful, and his heart stumbled over a beat worried for her. He just knew from the moment he saw her that she was something special to him. She was going to be his.

  * * * *

  Luna

  When Luna opened her eyes, she knew she wasn’t home and she wasn’t in the car. She was in a white room that smelled of strong disinfectant, with a curtain around the hospital bed she was in. Argh, Luna hated hospitals. She’d spent the last three months of her pregnancy with the twins in the hospital.

  Lifting her hands, she groaned when she noticed all the tubes and machines connected to her. Luna wanted answers to how she got here. She’d been sick, but she didn’t think she’d been sick enough to be admitted to a hospital. She needed to talk to a nurse, or doctor. Looking around her for the controls with the nurse button on it, she spotted it by her shoulder. Grabbing the remote, she pressed the button.

  Luna didn’t have to wait long before the curtain was pulled to one side and a nurse came in with a beaming smile. Luna hoped the smile meant she wasn’t dying.

  “Mrs. Brickton, it’s great to see you awake. Your parents have been here and I told them barely five minutes ago to eat, get something to drink, and stretch their legs.” She fiddled with the drip and machines. “The doctor should be around soon.”

  “Do you know how I got here?” Most nights after working at the bar Luna drove home on auto-pilot. Last night—at least she thought it was last night—she was so exhausted and her whole body ached from her head being full of a cold. Really, she shouldn’t have gone to work, but Luna desperately needed the money. Christmas was just weeks away.

  “Yes, Derick brought you in.” A dreamy look covered the nurse’s face for a moment before she looked at Luna and blushed. “I mean, Officer Bishop brought you in.”

  It took Luna a moment to realize who she was talking about, and then an image of her neighbor’s muscular body flashed before her and his gorgeous smile with dimples, and she was sure a dreamy look came over her.

  The nurse giggled like a teenager, not the late-forty-something-year-old woman she was. “Yeah, a lot of nurses, even doctors, get the look you have with Derick. He’s one of the policemen we deal with a lot. He’s good at his job, and we’re all comfortable with him.” She winked at Luna. “His handsome face helps a
lot I think.”

  Luna understood what she meant. She was sure that anyone he smiled at would be willing to do what he said, even criminals. Since he’d helped her with the twins, she couldn’t stop thinking about him and always snooped when she spotted his car or him in his yard. The twins wouldn’t stop asking about him, but she didn’t know him and she’d learned her lesson with her arse of an ex-husband, not to trust so easily. She promised herself she would never rely on a man again. She wouldn’t fall in love, but when she really thought about it, she hadn’t loved Josh, he was just there at the right time. But her silly heart skipped a beat whenever she thought of Derick or she saw him.

  “He’s my neighbor. I don’t really know him, but I’m grateful for his help.”

  “Mmm. Well, he’s barely left your side since he brought you in. He went to go get some food with your parents.” She smirked and winked at Luna. “I think he wants to get to know you as more than just neighbors.”

  Luna felt her cheeks heat at the nurse’s words and thoughts came flashing straight to the forefront of her mind of all the dirty thoughts and dreams she’d had of Derick. She may have been feeling unwell, but her body seemed to know what it wanted. Derick picking her up and capturing her lips in a passionate kiss that ignited both of them as his hands ripped at her clothes and his own and he fucked her against a wall. Derick throwing her over his shoulder and taking her down to her bedroom, stripping her naked, and having his wicked way with her.

  The machines beside Luna started to beep, and the nurse raised her brow. “Your heartrate is spiking.”

  Groaning, Luna mumbled, “Sorry, I was thinking of Derick.”

  The nurse’s laugh was light and airy. “A lot of women react like you when they think of Derick. If you get the chance to live out any of what just crossed your mind, I’d jump at it.”

  Shocked at how she was talking, Luna just nodded and watched her walk to the door and stop at the entrance.