california christmas dreams (17 page)

She pushed away from him and stood, holding out her hands. “Come on. I love the fire and this rug as much as anything, but I know a place where we can be a lot more comfortable.”

“You were reading my mind.”

“Definitely.” A mischievous twinkle showed in her brown eyes.

He let her draw him to his feet and followed her into the bedroom.

* * *

Merry sat in a lawn chair, her legs tucked up under her, a cup of coffee cradled in her hands. She wore white capri pants and a blue silk top with little white Ferragamo sandals she’d found at one of the designer outlet stores in Cabazon last summer. Noelle sat across from her, her laptop open. She tapped away, the keys making little clicking sounds as Noelle typed.

Noelle was dressed in a forest-green silk pantsuit with a cream silk blouse. A briefcase lay on the concrete next to her. She looked very professional with her black hair pulled back from her face in a sleek bob. She wore diamond earrings and an elegant glass hummingbird pin from her jewelry line on one lapel. She had only stopped in on her way to the airport before a flight to San Francisco to get the gossip and a bit of breakfast. Fortunately, Jake had just left.

The late-morning sun slanted across the pool and the water sparkled. A hot, dusty breeze rustled the leaves overhead. A squirrel sat on a branch watching them, tilting its head back and forth as though trying to decide if they were dangerous or not.

Behind the lattice fence, obscured by the thick wisteria, Merry could hear her neighbor’s children laughing and talking as they played in their pool. Though it was the first week of November and the days were cooling off, it was still warm enough to swim if the pool was heated. The kids next door were enjoying their last moment of heat before the winter cold settled in across the Los Angeles basin.

“Two fires,” Noelle said with a frown. “Just when I thought we’d get through fire season without any.”

Merry said nothing as she sipped her coffee, thinking about Jake and wondering what was going to happen next with him.

“And here you are,” Noelle cried. “Look who made the Who Worked the Red Carpet list.” She turned the laptop toward Merry.

Merry saw herself posed against the backdrop of other celebrities. She looked a little uncomfortable with Jake’s arm around her. The camera was pointed at her, and only a bit of Jake’s chin could be seen to one side.

She leaned forward to read the caption.
Meredith Alcott, long missing from the red carpet, put in a special appearance last night at the Music Awards. She wowed the crowd in a hot little Emilio Pucci number and reminded us of how much we’ve missed her. Her shoes were Louboutin and perfectly matched to her dress. We’re definitely hoping to see more of Merry Alcott.

“That’s nice,” Merry said, her voice flat, wondering if Maddie was looking at the same photo. Maddie hated being eclipsed.

“Nice. Only nice,” Noelle said. “Sweetie, nice is for puppies. You look fabulous. Do this right, you could have a career again.”

Merry didn’t think she wanted that. Last night had been marvelous and fun. But behind all the glamour, she could hear the backbiting, the competition, the anger, the snark and the sniping.

The constant need to look young, to be on the edge, was a lot of work, and she didn’t want that for herself anymore. She didn’t want to think about losing a role to some twenty-year-old who was cuter, with perkier breasts, a firmer butt and was willing to do what she needed to get where she wanted. Merry was done with that life. She’d had a good run and enjoyed the journey, but her life was so much more sane now. Maddie had always told her she was too nice. Merry always preferred nice over snarky.

“I like what I have. You know how I feel about crazy. Seven years with Maddie was crazy enough.”

“I’m just testing you,” Noelle said with a sigh. She sipped her coffee, then finished her croissant. “I don’t want you back in that life, either. But my spidey senses are telling me that something else happened last night.” She tilted her head, her expression amused.

Merry closed her eyes, the image of Jake kissing every part of her body sending a thrill of desire through her. “I slept with him last night.”

Noelle’s coffee cup dropped to the table to clatter on the glass. “You...what?” She grabbed a pile of napkins to mop up the spilled coffee. Fortunately, the cup hadn’t broken.

“I had sex with Jake last night,” Merry repeated, feeling a hot blush creep up her cheeks. Every nerve in her body relived the memory of his hot kisses, his warm body against hers, his hands stroking her skin and... She covered her face with her hand.

“You had sex with him last night! Wow!” Noelle held up her hand. “Way to end the dry spell, big sis.”

“Really?” Merry said. “Is that all you can say?”

Noelle giggled. “How do you feel about it?”

Merry stared down into the dark brown depths of her cup. She wasn’t certain what she wanted to tell her sister. “My eyes still haven’t unrolled yet.”

“Wow!” her sister repeated. “What are you going to do?”

“We’re two grown people. We had sex. We didn’t sign a Middle Eastern peace treaty.”

Noelle giggled again. “Are you going to see each other again?”

“That’s a stupid question, Noelle. We work together.”

“You know what I mean.” Noelle refilled her cup from the carafe on the table and lounged back in her chair. She lifted her face to the late-morning sun and closed her eyes. “How did he feel about it?”

“I’m thinking the man had no complaints.” Merry lowered her head so her sister couldn’t see her face or the way her cheeks burned. The memory of Jake Walters in her bed still filled her with excitement. Wonderful didn’t even begin to describe what had happened. “I don’t how to play it. Should I be cool like nothing happened? Lovey-dovey? Nonchalant? I don’t know.”

“You seem to be having a little bit of a conundrum here,” Noelle said. Merry had given her sister a new word-a-day calendar once and one of the words had been conundrum, which had become Noelle’s favorite word.

“I don’t like having those,” Merry admitted. She took a bite of her croissant and chewed it thoroughly.

“What happened this morning?”

“He fed my cat and made me breakfast.”

“Oh, there’s a double entendre there, but I’m not going to touch it,” Noelle said with a half laugh.

“Then he called a cab and left.”

“Was breakfast awkward?” Noelle leaned forward.

“Kind of. But not the way you’re thinking.” The awkwardness had been more on her side than his. He’d acted as though he woke up at her house every day of the week. And the way he’d made himself at home in her kitchen had startled her. She’d never dated a man before who liked to cook, even though he wasn’t very good at it.

Noelle shook her head. “So how was it awkward?”

“He’s not that great a cook.” Merry tried not to think about the eggs on her plate with a lump of unmelted cheese in the center and the too-crisp bacon. Jake’s enthusiasm, and the way he’d used more pans than he needed, had made up for the soggy mess on her plate, which she’d eventually hidden beneath her napkin.

“So you had to fake it, huh?”

“Seriously,” Merry said. “But then again, maybe he was just nervous, too.”

“Are you going to talk to him about his little problem?”

“Other than at work, I don’t know if we’re going to...see each other again.”

“Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” Noelle said, “who did you see last night and who was a train wreck?”

“I ran into Daryl Wicks.”

“Seriously?” Noelle perked up.

“Yes.”

“How did it feel to come face-to-face with your teenage rebellion?” She grinned merrily.

“He’s grown up. A little bit. Kinda.” She’d enjoyed seeing Daryl, even though he had been, as her sister said, her “teenage rebellion.”

“Sleeping with Jake aside, were there any sparks between you and Daryl?”

“Not on my end. His end, I don’t give a crap.”

“He was a bucket full of crazy,” Noelle said. She poured more coffee into her cup from the carafe.

“If I’d known then what I found out later, I would never have dated him.” Even if it had only been three dates. She’d barely escaped from his wildness intact.

“Nora Kennedy was there,” Merry added with a smile, remembering. Nora had looked good. Somehow she’d managed to keep herself unharmed despite the insanity. “And I got a lot of feelers for work. I was approached to do some set designing for a couple of videos.”

“That sounds like fun.”

Merry agreed, but she didn’t know if she should accept or not. She would have to talk it over with John. Once she was done with his park, her job would probably be more part-time than full. If she suddenly left to do some other jobs, Jake’s opinion that she was using his dad as a stepping-stone back into the business would be reinforced. She didn’t want that. She wanted Jake’s good opinion.

Her phone rang and she glanced at the caller ID. It was Jake. Should she answer? She reached out for her phone, her fingers trembling.

“Hello, Jake,” she said, and watched her sister come to attention.

“Would you like to go to lunch? It’s a beautiful day. We could head to Santa Monica pier. Maybe ride the new Ferris wheel.”

Merry didn’t hesitate. She agreed and he said he’d pick her up in an hour.

“Noelle, you have to go. Jake is on his way over to take me to lunch.”

“Didn’t he just leave?”

“Hours ago.”

“You can’t kick me out. I’m your sister.”

“I’m kicking you out
because
you are my sister. Besides, don’t you have a plane to catch?” Merry jumped to her feet, gathered up the coffeepot and the cups and carried them into the house. She had thirty minutes to shower and change.

* * *

The sun shone through the fronds of the palm trees lining the street as Jake put the Mercedes in Park and sat staring at Merry’s front door. He hadn’t planned on calling her for lunch so soon after... Well, after last night, but his hand had kept straying to his phone and finally he’d given in and called her to see if she had plans for lunch.

How could one woman have turned his life topsy-turvy in so short a time? He prided himself on his logical thinking, his ability to create order out of disorder. Was he just reliving his boyhood crush on her? She’d been his fantasy girl when he’d been in high school. With the reality of the fantasy at his fingertips, he wasn’t certain what he liked more: the fact that he’d had a chance to relive his fantasy crush, or the fact that the living, breathing woman was so much more than his fantasy. Acts of irrationality bothered him since he so seldom had them, but Merry tempted him to throw caution to the wind and go with his instincts.

The curtain in her front window moved slightly, and he imagined her standing on the other side looking at him, wondering what he was doing. He had no answer. He didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t even know why he’d called her on the spur of the moment and asked her out to lunch. He should have just enjoyed the sex and left, but he couldn’t stay away from her. He wasn’t the kind of man who took the sex and ran. The situation had turned uncomfortable, and he didn’t like it.

A knock sounded on his window and he stumbled back to the present, unaware of how far away his thoughts had taken him. Merry peered at him through the glass. “Are you going to sit there all day?”

He opened the door and got out. She looked flushed and excited. She wore white pants and a dark blue top. She’d pulled her hair into a ponytail that curled across one shoulder.

“Sorry. I was just answering a text.”

“With your mind?” she asked, one eyebrow raised. “Come on in. You look hot, and not in the fun way.”

He followed her up the path to the front door. All the way, he couldn’t take his eyes from the graceful line of her neck and the little ringlets of hair at the nape. He wanted to touch her, breathe in the subtle scent of her perfume. Hell, he wanted a repeat of last night. In fact, he wanted a lot of repeats.

The house was cool inside. She led the way to the kitchen and out the back to the patio, where a tray sat on a round patio table with two sweating glasses of iced tea.

“Sit down,” she said. “We have to talk.”

“About what?” he asked, before his mind fell into gear.

“Seriously?” she replied. “Is this really how you want to play it?”

“What about lunch?”

“It’ll be delivered here in ten minutes. What we need to discuss shouldn’t be aired over a restaurant table with strangers listening in.”

She settled gracefully into the lawn chair and picked up her iced tea.

He didn’t want tea. He didn’t want lunch. He wanted her, on the bed, her body open to him. Images of the night before from the moment he’d removed her dress till the moment he’d fallen asleep with her in his arms returned to him so forcefully that heat surged in his groin.

“What happened last night... I mean, afterward...” He stumbled to a halt. He’d never had a problem with words before.

She tilted her head toward him, waiting patiently. “Go on,” she finally said.

“How does one go about telling someone very special that he had a crush on her when she was this cute little actress on this kiddie show without sounding like a stalker?”

“You had a crush on me? You told me you just liked the show, that Chloe was a loyal friend to Maddie.” She looked surprised. “I had no idea that behind those statements was a deeper feeling. Most of the time you’ve acted as though I have the plague or something.”

“I had a crush on Chloe,” he said slowly. Maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut. Nothing he said was going to come out right.

“Oh,” she said, disappointment in her tone. A small frown furrowed her forehead. “You’re one of those. You’d think I’d learn. Usually I can smell a Chloe addict from a mile away.”

“I don’t... I don’t mean...” He felt like he was back in high school, too tongue-tied to ask the girl he liked to the senior prom.

She held up her hand. “Stop. Is that what last night was all about? You were taking Chloe to the awards show so you could walk the red carpet with her and then bring her home and pretty much have a good ole time?”