He smiled at her. God, he had a killer smile. It was enough to make any woman weak in the knees. “My whole family’s flying in tomorrow for Christmas. My folks, my sister, and five brothers. They haven’t seen the new place yet, and it seemed like a good time for them to make the trip.”
She waited patiently for him to get to the point.
“My mother, she’s been worried since I got here that I might fall in with the wrong crowd, and—”
“Blue,” Jess interrupted. “You’re thirty-one years old, and your mother is worried that you might fall in with the wrong crowd?”
He shrugged his shoulders slightly. “You know how it is.”
She didn’t, actually, but she didn’t say so. Her own mother had openly rejoiced as each Lennox child—three of them—left the nest.
“She kept asking me about the dancers in the “Legs” video, wanting to know if they were sweet girls from good families and if any of them were married. I told her I don’t know how many times that I didn’t know those girls at all, but she wouldn’t let up. Every week she wanted to know if I had a girlfriend, if I’d met any nice girls...”
“Your mother takes quite an interest in your love life,” Jess said dryly.
Jimmy raised his eyebrows slightly and leaned closer. “She wants me to get married. She wants grandchildren.”
“Why is she picking on you, Blue? You have five brothers and a sister.”
“All younger, and not a one of them married. Luke and Ginny are still in high school, John and Robbie are in college, and Frank and Will are working the ranch with Dad. As the oldest, I get harassed.”
He looked genuinely distressed.
“I hate to ask where I come in.”
“I told my mother that I had a girlfriend, a really sweet girl I met at the studio.” Jimmy smiled. “She wants to meet her.”
Jess couldn’t squelch the sudden horror that rose within her at the very idea of facing Jimmy’s large family, but she hid her reaction well, she thought. It didn’t make a bit of sense to avoid her own dysfunctional family, only to get caught up with someone else’s. “No way, Blue, am I giving up my chocolate chip cookies and
Miracle on 34th Street
to pretend to be your girlfriend so your mother will get off your back.”
He glanced down at her calendar, and ran his fingers over the scribbled appointments there. “If you’d ever agree to go out with me again maybe you wouldn’t have to pretend.”
“I don’t date—”
“Musicians,” he finished for her. “I know, I know. This is a familiar tune, Jess. I don’t get it. We went out once, and I had a good time. I thought you did, too.”
“That wasn’t a date, it was just two friends going out for dinner and a movie.”
Jimmy had still been new in town, and he’d hit her with that deceptive aw-shucks voice and killer smile, and to be honest... she liked him. What was there not to like? He was sweet and funny and talented and gorgeous, so she’d broken her rule just that once. She’d had no idea how popular he would become almost overnight. The odds of that kind of success were slim, as anyone who tried to break into this business knew. Just her luck.
“Look, Blue, there are probably a thousand girls in the Nashville area who would be thrilled to pose as your girlfriend for a day. A dozen of them are in the outer office right now, listening to Dean butcher the King’s memory.” A thousand girls, maybe more. And that was the problem.
“Well, you see, that won’t work.”
“Why not?”
“My mother loves details. Facts. You can’t be vague with her. So I told her that my girlfriend’s name is Jess, and that she has curly dark blond hair and green eyes.” He reached out and slipped a finger under her chin and forced her to look up. “I told her this Jess is twenty-six years old, comes from Pensacola, Florida, and works in A&R right here at Vandiver Records.”
“Why didn’t you just send her a picture?” Jess snapped.
At least he had the good manners to look sheepish. “I did. You remember that party they threw when the Christmas album was released? The picture Dean took of us standing by the cover artwork? He said ‘Smile,’ I threw my arm around your shoulder... It’s a really good picture.”
“Jimmy!”
“I e-mailed it to her. I also told her that this was the woman I wrote “Legs” for, my very first night in Nashville.”
Why did her heart skip a beat? “Liar.”
He shook his head slowly. “Nope. It’s the truth. Dean brought me in here to show me around and introduce me to everybody. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I was going to stay in Nashville. I like to sing, I like to play guitar, but I never really planned to make it a career. And there you were, leaning up against Lorraine’s desk. Your skirt had hiked up, just a little...”
Her face grew warm, and Jess knew she was blushing beet red.
“... and I said ‘Damn, those are the finest legs I’ve ever seen.’ Dean advised me to keep my opinion to myself, said you wouldn’t appreciate the compliment, and I took his advice. I sure as hell didn’t want to scare you off my first day in Nashville, so I kept my mouth shut. But when I got back to the hotel I wrote “Legs” on hotel stationery.”
Jess was tempted to look down. Her legs were okay, but she’d never thought of them as
great
, and she’d surely never thought them to be inspirational.
“But you’re telling me now,” she said, and her voice remained amazingly calm.
Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I’ve asked you a hundred times to go out with me, and except for that first time, which you claim wasn’t even a date, you turn me down flat. You won’t go out with me, it looks like you won’t even pretend to be my girlfriend for one day, so what have I got to lose by coming clean now?”
Dean had launched a new number—“Blue Suede Shoes”—and Jess decided then and there that whoever had invented karaoke should be shot. Jimmy was leaning over her desk, waiting expectantly for some kind of answer. Beyond the door the party was in full swing.
“I don’t date—”
“Musicians,” he finished dully. “One of these days you’re going to say that and I’m going to believe you.”
She wanted him to believe her. More than that, she wanted him to stop looking at her this way. Expectantly, intimately. Like there was something between them.
Lorraine threw the door open, knocking as she swung the door in. “Hey, you two, you’re missing all the fun.”
Lorraine evidently wasn’t surprised to see Jimmy perched on Jess’s desk. Of course, observant friend and wannabe matchmaker that she was, she’d probably seen them slip into the office and close the door.
Vandiver Records’ office manager was wearing a Santa hat and dangly reindeer earrings. Her sweater was red and green with just a touch of sparkling gold. Five foot nothing with a shock of red hair and weighing in at maybe a hundred pounds, she looked remarkably like a Christmas elf.
“Business,” Jess said sharply. Lorraine wasn’t put off by the biting tone of voice. She knew Jess too well.
“On Christmas Eve?” Lorraine moaned. “Shame on you both. Now, get out here and have fun.”
Jimmy smiled. “Sounds like an order to me.”
Lorraine turned her back, and Jimmy started to follow. When he reached the door he turned to Jess. “So, what about tomorrow?”
“No way.” Jess stepped around the desk, but stopped well short of Jimmy.
“Think about it,” he said. “You know where the house is, don’t you?”
“Yeah, there was that barbecue in October.”
“You didn’t come.”
“I think I still have the map somewhere.” It was in her glove compartment, to be exact, under an ice scraper that was rarely needed here in Nashville, Tennessee, and a half-empty bottle of Tums. “But I won’t need it.”
Jimmy left her office; she was close behind him. Dean was, thankfully, silent. He’d left his “stage” and was milling about the large outer office in full Elvis regalia, bestowing grand King-like
thank-you
s to his admirers. The crowd had spread out, and it looked as if a few had left to head home to their families.
Jess stopped in her office doorway and leaned against the doorjamb. Everyone was happy. Beyond happy, they were jubilant. True, it had been a wonderful year for Vandiver Records—thanks in large part to Jimmy Blue—but this was ridiculous. It was just another day, and tomorrow would be just another day, and after the first of the year they’d be busting their butts to make up for the time they’d wasted.
She tried not to begrudge the other employees their obvious joy. They’d never spent Christmas with her family, so maybe their holiday memories were not as traumatic as hers. A yearly crisis was required in the Lennox household. Peter’s divorce one year. Another year, Uncle Emmitt showing up on Christmas Eve in full Santa costume rip-roaring drunk, his wife, Aunt Debra, moving in the next morning. Sometimes the crisis was small. The turkey wouldn’t defrost or else was cooked to a huge blob of charcoal, or the cakes fell, or the pies exploded. It didn’t take much to send her mother running from the room in tears.
Every year as she kissed her mother and said good-bye, Jess swore
that
Christmas at home was her last. Last year, she’d meant it.
Lorraine poked playfully at Jimmy’s chest, and then Dean spun him around so he was facing Jess again. It was quite a picture, Jimmy Blue effectively trapped between the King and a redheaded elf.
Lorraine pointed a wicked red fingernail to a place above Jess’s head, and Jimmy smiled.
Knowing what she would see, Jess tilted her head back slowly.
Mistletoe.
Chapter Two
It took a gentle shove from Dean/Elvis to get Jimmy moving forward. Jess waited, mortified to find herself the center of attention, terrified by the realization that in a matter of seconds Jimmy would be standing expectantly before her. She didn’t move. Dammit, that mistletoe had not been there just a few minutes ago! Her eyes cut briefly to a too-smug Lorraine.
“Tradition,” Jimmy said in a low voice as he reached the doorway. His eyes flickered briefly to the mistletoe above her head, and then he lowered his lips to hers.
His arms stayed at his sides, and so did hers. The kiss, when it came, was soft and easy. It began as the kind of kiss friends might share. But his lips lingered just a little bit too long, learning the curve of her mouth, tasting and testing, and there was nothing
friendly
in the tongue that briefly teased her lower lip.
This was so not fair.
“I could give up music,” Jimmy said as he pulled his mouth reluctantly from hers.
Jess couldn’t answer him immediately. Her heart was pounding, her knees were weak, and every primitive instinct within her demanded that she reach out, grab Jimmy by the front of his denim shirt, and pull him in so she could kiss him again. Hard, this time.
She didn’t, of course.
Before she could come up with a sufficiently flippant answer, Jimmy reached above her head and snatched the mistletoe from the door frame. “You’d better put this somewhere safe, before the boys start to line up for their Christmas kiss. I might be a patient man, honey, but that’s one sight I couldn’t take.”
He sounded almost... jealous.
“Tomorrow?” he whispered as he placed the mistletoe in her hand.
She shook her head slightly. “No way, Blue.” Her voice wasn’t as strong as she would have liked, but it didn’t tremble, either. Considering how her heart was pounding, that was a wonder.
“Merry Christmas, Jess.” Jimmy spun on his boot heel and walked away. With a soft smile on his face he wished each and every person he passed a Merry Christmas. Everybody liked Jimmy, male and female, old and young. He was one of those people who appealed to everyone. And why not? He was, attractive, friendly, talented, and beneath it all he was a truly great guy.
He shook hands and kissed uplifted cheeks as he made his way to the door, and when he reached it he snatched his black cowboy hat from the nearly full hat rack and placed it on his head. A heavy denim jacket hung nearby, on a peg by the hat rack, and as he slipped it on he turned to face her.
That was when Jess realized that she hadn’t moved since Jimmy had kissed her. She hadn’t even exhaled.
As he left she stepped back into her office. Retreating like a coward, denying everything she felt. Before she could close the door, Lorraine was there. “Was it wonderful?” she asked as she closed the door behind her. Jess did her best to glare at Lorraine. Facing that wide grin and holiday getup, it was difficult.
“You ambushed me,” Jess accused as she took her purse from the bottom desk drawer and slapped it on the desk.
Lorraine’s smile faded, but not much. “I don’t get it, girl. If Jimmy Blue had the hots for me, I sure wouldn’t be running as fast as I could in the other direction.”
Jess gave her friend a warm smile. “Now, what would Felix say if he heard you say that?”
“Okay,” Lorraine conceded. “If I wasn’t married, and Jimmy Blue had the hots for me...”
“Good night, Lorraine.” Jess grabbed her coat from the coatrack at the corner by the window, and slipped it on. Three floors below, in the parking lot, Jimmy was making his way to his pickup truck. His shoulders were hunched and his head was down against the cold wind and rain that would probably turn to sleet and maybe even snow before the night was over.
Lorraine was right on the money. He had the hots for Jess, probably because she was the only woman in Nashville who didn’t offer to have his children when he smiled at her. Physical attraction, a chemical reaction, that was all it was.
True, he was a nice guy, but nice guys didn’t make it in this business, and Jimmy Blue was here to stay. Something had to give. She’d seen it happen to “nice guys” before.
She wasn’t going to fall into that trap again.
“What’s it like out there?” Lorraine asked.
Jess glanced over her shoulder. “Cold and wet. I’m going to head for home before it gets any worse.”
Home, for a pleasant, quiet, crisis-free holiday.
When she reached for her purse she realized she was still holding the mistletoe Jimmy had placed in her hand. Without another thought, she slipped it into her coat pocket.
She liked the people she worked with at Vandiver Records. They were, for the most part, hardworking and friendly. There were get-togethers for most every holiday, wedding and baby showers, and summer picnics. It was like having a second, albeit slightly more normal, family than her own.