Rabbit Creek Santa (5 page)

He resisted temptati
on and quietly closed her door.

Lindy rolled onto her back, stretched and yawned, saw the sun streaming through the window, and almost fell to her knees in her haste to get out of bed. What time was it? A quick glance at the clock told her it was almost nine. Joey!

She flew through the door, surprised to find it closed. Joey wasn't in his crib. Oh God, oh God, she'd be one of those mothers you saw on the news who slept while the
ir babies drowned in the toilet or smothered in a laundry bin. She flew down the stairs.

"Joey!"

"In here."

She was already in the kitchen before she remembered Travis.

The man was lying on his back, wedged under her sink. Joey, next to him on hands and knees, peered up at whatever Travis was doing.

"Pass me the wrench, buddy." Travis pointed to the tool on the floor.

Joey picked it up with two hands, saw his mother, and grinned. "Piyo!" he laughed and slammed the heavy wrench onto Travis' crotch.

"Arghh!" Travis's knees came up as he groaned. "Damn it, son, that's not a pillow."

Lindy couldn't help herself. She laughed. "That's what you get for using my son as a plumber's assistant. Come here, Joey. You're in his way."

Joey ignored her and stuck his head back under the sink.

"He's okay," Travis told her, his voice a little strained. "We got the job done, didn't we, Joey. Back up now, son, and let me get out of here."

Lindy might have kept laughing
if she hadn't been confronted with such glorious muscle definition. Travis was well built. She knew that by the way his jeans and t-shirt fit, but seeing it revealed was different from knowing it was there. She swallowed hard.

"Well, will you look at that, Joey? Mama looks as pretty waking up as she does going to bed. Course, you already knew that, didn't you?" Travis stared at her with an odd look on his face.

Lindy was suddenly aware of who she was with and what she was wearing. She clutched the vee of the buttoned top closed. Her other hand went to her hair.

"Joey's had his breakfast, but I'll bet he could do with a snack. Why don't you put him in
his chair while I wash my hands? Bacon's cooked and eggs are ready to scramble. Is scrambled okay?" Travis asked as an afterthought. He was acting as if her standing there in bare feet and ugly old PJs was the most normal thing in the world. "It better be," he continued, "because that's the extent of my cooking abilities. The Dizzy Dish Café has become my second home.

Lindy's mind was still on what she looked like.
"I-I woke up late and Joey wasn't there. I didn't think…"

"Yeah, sorry abou
t that. I kept you up late and thought maybe it would be a treat for you to sleep in for a change. Joey and I have been messing around in here because I thought you'd want to be there when he saw the tree." He wiped his hands on the towel and turned to the stove.

"Here," she said, "Let me get the eggs."

Travis only moved far enough back for her to slide in front of him. "Don't trust me, huh?"

She
wanted to trust him, but that would mean opening her heart to the possibility of pain. She didn't think she'd ever be ready for that, but her wolf and her body were saying something quite different. Lindy felt the heat of Travis' body behind her and it… it felt good. Giving in to her body and wolf, she tilted her head back until it rested on his chest and looked up at him.

"Not with my eggs, I don't. Sit. You and Joey have do
ne enough work this morning."

S
traightening, she gave the eggs a last stir and poured them into the pan. Her wolf was dancing, urging Lindy to playfulness by turning in circles. Lindy picked up the spatula and stabbed at the eggs in the pan to keep from turning in a circle, too.

"What if I don't want to sit?" Travis
' voice was deep and barely above a whisper. He stepped a little closer, right up against her back. "What if I want to stay here while you scramble my eggs?"

Lindy
stuck her rear end out and wiggled against him in the exact spot where Joey had hit him with the wrench. She didn't know why she did it. It had to be her damn wolf, because she wouldn't have done it on her own. Nevertheless, she did it and it, too, felt good.

"You eggs have already been scrambled,"
she said and laughed.

Slower, and with a lot more pressure, Travis wiggled back and said in that low, husky voice. "Yeah, but it feels better when you do it.
"

Joey banged his plastic bowl on his tray either because he was hungry or because he wanted someone's attention. It didn't matter. It was enough to bring them both back to the reality of bacon and eggs.

Travis thought he might be developing a fetish for flannel PJ's. They'd never appealed to him before, but on Lindy they were the sexiest thing he could imagine. The
plaid pajamas covered everything and yet offered him enticing hints of what lay beneath the soft cotton. They covered her skin, but not her form.

Lindy's body matched her pretty round face.
She was round all over; round hips, round ass, and a sweet pair of full, round breasts. In the kitchen, standing behind her while she scrambled his eggs, he'd almost lost it. Feeling her grind that lush ass into his cock almost sent him over the edge. He wanted that little wolver in a way he'd never wanted any woman before. If she could do that to him in a pair of red plaid pajamas, he didn't want to think about what she could do to him naked in bed. And yet, here he was thinking about that very thing.

Joey was opening packages. His squeals of delight were more for the tearing paper than for what the torn paper revealed. Lindy was on hands and knees, trying to interest him in his presents
by stalking him with the tiger from a wild animal set. All Travis could think about was the way the flannel clung and moved with that fine ass as she crawled across the floor.

It didn't help any that the top
of her pajamas was hanging free which meant her breasts were, too. He kept shifting back and forth in an attempt to sneak a peek, but the damn woman's legs were in the way. Travis wished she was stalking him the same way. Then the view would be perfect. He closed his eyes and sighed in contemplation of the possibilities.

"
Shame on you."

Travis' eyes snapped open
. Had he been thinking aloud?

"You know better," Lindy continued, "We don't throw toys."

Travis' sigh turned to one of relief. Lindy caught it but thought it was a yawn.

"I'm not the only one
who was up late last night and I didn't shovel the drive. I owe you a big time thanks for that. Joey and I have been invited to Christmas dinner and I'd never have been able to get my car out."

"You don't owe me anything. It needed to be done
, and I had the time." Take that, GW. "Speaking of, what time is your dinner?"

"T
hree o'clock," she said and looked up at the clock. "As a matter of fact, Joey needs to go down for a nap or he'll be a beast this afternoon and I need to shower and get ready. You need a nap, too."

Travis was hoping that was an invitation, but the look on her face told him it wasn't.

"You planning on driving?" he asked and was relieved when she nodded. "Then I'll be back at two thirty to take you wherever you need to go."

If she was having dinner with GW, at least the bastard would see her arrive
safely in another wolver's truck.

"You don't have to do that."

"Yeah, I do. The roads are shit and that little car of yours is gonna be worth shit on them."

"Sit," Joey said firmly.

Travis laughed. "You tell her, buddy."

Lindy slapped Travis' arm. She was trying very hard not to laugh. "If he says that at dinne
r, I'm giving you full credit."

"I'll take credit for that little wolver any day of the week.
"

"
See ya later, buddy. Bye-bye." he made the sign all babies understand.

Joe face went from happiness to sorrow in an instant. He arms came up and he started to cry. "Piyo!"

"Told you. Naptime," Lindy picked Joey up. "Travis, you don't have to…"

"
Two thirty. Don't argue." Travis could be firm, too.

Lindy
raised her eyebrows in surprise when, promptly at two thirty, Travis knocked on her door dressed in a navy sport coat and new looking jeans. His workboots were gone, replaced by a pair of polished western boots and he'd traded his flannel shirt for an oxford.

"Hey, you're not the only one w
ho's been invited out," he said at her unspoken question. "You ready?"

She was wearing a bright red sweater with sparkly bits around the neck and a pair of black slacks that molded to her ass, but fell freely over her legs. The outfit looked good with her dark, curly hair
, but Travis wished she'd worn a skirt. He could only see the tips of her black shoes and the tall, thin heel at the back and he would definitely like to see more.

"Sure," she
answered him with false brightness as she turned away, "Just have to get Joey in his snowsuit and his seat in the truck. I'll put the seat in if you'll watch Joey."

He had a date. Lindy hoped he
didn't see the disappointment in her face. She'd allowed her hopes to rise after their morning together, but he was what she originally thought; a nice guy who was being kind to a widow and her son. In his life, little flirtations like the one in the kitchen probably meant nothing at all and the little box of candy under the tree was a kindness, not a gift. He was used to pretty young things in fancy jeans who weren't encumbered with babies and bills.

"Lindy? Something wrong?"

"No. No, of course not," she said and reached for the car seat he held in his hand. "I'll get that. It's complicated."

"
I break down and rebuild old machines for a living," he laughed. "I think I can handle a car seat. You get Joey stuffed into that contraption," he pointed to the suit, "and I'll get the seat. These going, too?" He picked up a plastic container and hefted the diaper bag. "Geez, buddy, you going for the weekend or what?"

"Sit," Joey said with a smile a
nd held up a small molded wolf that came with the set of wild animal figures. "Piyo."

Lindy sighed. "You see what you've started.
He's like a parrot. He'll be saying it all afternoon."

"Saying what? Sit?" Travis leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "Quit worrying, Mama, and get the pup in his suit or you'll be late."

It was a brotherly gesture, nothing more, but Lindy wished he hadn't done it, because it was also the kind of casual affection shared between mates… and it hurt. Her wolf whined.

"Go back to sleep," Lindy muttered.
She and her wolf were both better off playing dead.

"Mama's being silly," she told Joey
when he looked at her oddly. "You're fine. We're fine. I'm fine. That's all that matters. Right?"

"Piyo," he answered
, bobbing his head as if that said it all.

Lindy understood her son. He wasn't saying pillow. Piyo was his name for Travis, the wolver he'd become so quickly attached to. That hurt, too. Joey was usually shy around men. His world was populated by women and he wasn't sure how to react
when men picked him up and tossed him around in the way that men do when they play with a pup. He liked it when Travis tossed him in the air or rolled with him on the floor. He giggled and bounced, asking for more.

Oh, well. The holidays would be over soon. Everyone would be back to work and things would get back to normal. Funny, but normal didn't sound so comforting.

"You don't have to worry about picking me up," she said when they were settled in the truck. "I can find someone to bring us home."

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that you go home with the wolver who brought you? I'll be taking
you home. You just tell me what time."

"No, really,
it's okay. I don't want to take you away from your date."

"Don't worry about that. I only said yes to this because I couldn't say no. The Mate roped me into it." Having dinner with old folks no matter how nice they were, wasn't where he wanted to be.

"Like she roped you into the Santa suit?"

"Pretty much." He glanced over at her and smiled.

And there it was. Travis was under orders from the Mate to be nice to the widow and pup. Lindy's jaw hardened. Just how nice had she ordered him to be? Delivering gifts for Joey was one thing. Ordering him to cozy up to Joey's mother was something else. Poor, lonely widow. Give her some Christmas comfort. Was that it?

Elizabeth had been after Lindy the last few months to get out more and see people. She'd volunteered to babysit and had even accepted invitations on Lindy's behalf which Lindy always begged off on later. It was hard enough to take the pack's
assistance. She didn't need their pity, too.

"Roy will take me home," Lindy said flatly.

"Roy? As in Roy Cramer?" Travis grinned when she nodded. "I'm taking you home. We can leave together." His grin widened. "My dinner date just got a whole lot better. I'm going to Cramer's, too. I think it was a pity-the-poor-newcomer invite."

If it was a pity invite, there were quite a few members of the Rabbit Creek pack to be pitied. The Cramer's drive was lined with cars and trucks
. Travis parked at the end.

"This is a little more than I expected," Travis said.

It was a lot more than Lindy expected. She shrank down in her seat. "I thought it was a quiet Christmas dinner with Maggie and Roy with maybe Ruby and Burt. They're like surrogate grandparents to Joey and I didn't want to say no."

"Too late to back out now. We've been spotted. Besides, Miz Elizabeth…"

"I know." Lindy undid her seatbelt. "She's going to think we came together."

"Didn't we?" he asked.

"Only because you wouldn't let me drive," she said, "Come on, Joey, let's make our appearance and then find someone to take us home."

"What the hell's the matter with you?
" Travis asked her as he came around the truck. He reached for Joey, but Lindy held the pup away.

"Nothing's the matter with me. I'm fine. Joey's fine." She reached for the diaper bag. "We're fine." She huffed. "I'll get the seat later."

"Stop, Lindy. What the hell happened? When I left this morning, you were fine. What the hell happened in between?"

When he reached for the diaper bag, she held it away, too. Joey, who'd had his arms around his Mama's neck, let go and reached for Travis.

"Piyo!"

"His name's Travis, Joey. Stop it." Lindy tried to right him in her arms, but Joey was having none of it. He threw himself in Travis' direction.

Travis caught the cub by the shoulders. "Let him go, Lindy. It's not going to hurt him to let me carry him to the house."

"
You don't know what will hurt him," Lindy snapped, hanging on to the pup's legs. "You don't know what he's afraid of. You don't know him."

Even as she said the words, she knew it wasn't Joey she was worried about.
It was her own heart. Somewhere between last night and this morning, her heart had started beating again. It had been broken for so long, she hardly recognized the peculiar sensations. This morning, she'd been willing to risk her newly beating heart. Not now.

Travis was following orders, not his heart.

Held in a tug of war between his mother and new friend, Joey started to cry. Lindy was the first to let go. Her hand flew to her mouth.

"Oh, baby, Mama's sorry."

Travis readjusted the pup in his arms, balancing Joey on his forearm so the boy could see where he was going. Joey didn't want to see where he was going.
He threw one arm around Travis' neck and laid his head on Travis' chest and began to gently stroke the lapel of his jacket in a baby gesture of comfort.

"Piyo. Woof," Joey
sobbed.

Could the pup feel his wolf? Travis certainly hoped not. Right now his wolf was angry as hell and Travis was working hard not to let those emotions
get too close to the surface. He rubbed the pup's back.

"You're
okay, buddy. You're not hurt. Stop your crying now. Everything's all right."

Joey stopped crying, but his little hand continued to pat. "Piyo. Woof."

Travis looked over at Lindy. She looked like she'd been slapped. He felt like he should put his arm around her, too, and tell her that everything was all right, but he was too angry, and everything wasn't all right. Not at all.

"Come on," he said to her, "
There's people on the porch waiting for us." He picked up the diaper bag that had fallen to the ground and started for the house. Lindy was a few steps behind him.

Damn it to hell!
What had he done that was so wrong? Why wouldn't she talk to him? She was fine when he left her that morning. She'd been soft and warm. Now she was cold and hard. What could have happened in two hours' time?

"Watch your step," he called over his shoulder as he skirted around a slushy spot on the gravel drive.

"I'm not blind," Lindy snapped.

"Yes she is," Travis told Joey
, who was now content and enjoying the ride. "Blind as a fucking bat."

"Fuck," Joey said clear as day.

"Aw shit," Travis muttered as he winced. That's all he'd need, another reason to piss her off. "You can't say that, buddy okay?"

Joey nodded as if he understood.

"Sit," he said and grinned.

Marshall stood on the porch watching his mate's handiwork trudge up the drive. Neither of the pair looked happy. "Looks like there's trouble in paradise," he said to his mate. "I told you this was asking for trouble. We need Travis at the mill. I don't want him runnin' off to where he came from because of your meddlin'."

Lizzie tucked her hand under Marshall's bicep and pressed her face against it while she squeezed. "They'll be fine."

"I mean it, Lizzie," he warned in his Alpha voice. "Eugene Begley finding someone with that wolver's skills was pure luck. We'll never find another like him. I won't have you jeopardizing the pack with your games."

Lizzie looked up at him with a dangerous look in her eye. "Is that what our courtship was to you? A game? Because let me tell you, Mr
. High and Mighty Alpha, from my perspective there was a whole lot of unsportsmanlike conduct going on." Then she giggled, her anger gone as quick as it came. "And look how well it turned out. The course of true love never did run smooth," she quoted.

"Shakespeare's not gonna get you out of a good hidin', you lose me my machinist."

"Threats, threats," she laughed and nudged him in the ribs, whispering, "If you don't want to lose a machinist, do your part." She turned to the approaching pair. "Hey, Lindy, good to see you. Did you two come together?"

Daggers shooting from her eyes, Lindy answe
red, "Yes, Miz Elizabeth," before she marched into the house.

Lizzie could almost hear the snarl in the girl's voice and no one except the cubs called her by the honorific Miz.
She followed her into the house, calling, "Lindy, wait!"

Marshall raised his eyebrows at Travis.

"All due respect, Alpha, but next time you need a Santa? Ask someone else."

"That bad, huh?"

Travis shrugged.

Joey said, "Fuck."

Marshall closed his eyes and started to laugh. He put his arm around Travis and walked him to the door. "I know that didn't come from her mouth. No wonder you're in deep, ah, stuff."

"She hasn't heard it yet,"
Travis admitted, "But it doesn't matter. After today, I'm done."

"Done with her or done with us?"

"Done with her," Travis said, but then corrected because Marshall was his Alpha, "No, she's done with me."

It was easy to see the man was angry, but Marshall also saw his misery. Lizzie was going to hear about this. She had to know this wasn't 'no harm done'.

"Come on out back, Travis. Let me get you a beer and introduce you around."