Pretty In Pink (9 page)

“Yeah, let’s party!” came Clarice’s
muffled voice. When he eyed her in the rearview mirror her cheeks bulged with
fries.

“Hey, missy that is cheating.”

“Clarice!” Janette said.

Clarice looked away with wide innocent
eyes and mimicked whistling nonchalantly. Charlie grinned at her. The kid was
too much. She swallowed as he guided the truck back into his driveway. “So, you
string the lights and we’ll hang all the ornaments? Since we’re sharing this
tree and stuff.”

Charlie had made it a group tree as
Janette’s place was too small for anything beyond a table top tree. Next year,
when they were in their own house he’d help them get a monster of a tree.

“We’ll all have to hang the ornaments.
I don’t think I have lights. I think I left them with…” he didn’t finish the
sentence and Janette piped in.

“They got busted," she said for
Clarice's benefit. "We can make do without lights.”

Clarice was shaking her head as
Charlie opened the door to help her out. “No way, no way. Ask Kimber. I bet she
has lights.”

Chapter 7

“So you went over there to talk to him
and got the number for this guy?” Sarah had left and returned only to find
Kimber holding a business card and drinking coffee.

“Yep. I called. They’re coming in a
few hours. Said it might be hard since it’s still snowing. But that the snow we
got, though heavy and cumulative, wasn’t really enough to cave something in
unless there were structural issues to begin with yar, yar, yar,” she sighed.

“Year, yar. And you didn’t talk to him
because
?”

“Because Clarice was there and his
sister. And it was awkward. He looked maybe hurt?”

“Gee, ya think? He seems like a good
guy so you sneaking out like he was some Average Joe from a bar probably stuck
in his craw a bit. Craw? Crawl? That always gets me.”

Kimber shrugged. “I have no clue. Who
cares! The point is they were watching us and when Clarice started talking to
me about Christmas trees and stuff I just kind of…froze. I failed. So shoot me.”

Sarah made a faux gun with her fingers
and pulled the trigger. “Oh, cry me a river. But I have to say, that kid cracks
me up.” She laughed and opened the fridge. She pulled out some lettuce, ham,
and hot peppers. “Lettuce wrap?”

“Sure, just one.”

“Oooh, one
whole
lettuce wrap?
Let’s not over do it, shall we?”

“Not very hungry. And yes, Clarice is
a cutie. Charlie’s home,” she said, wistfully as she saw his big black truck
back into the driveway. The bed was stuffed with a giant evergreen and she felt
a stab of sadness in the center of herself. She really liked him. Maybe too
much and maybe too fast, but instinct said he was a good guy. She'd felt the
attraction to him every time they'd met since she moved in, she'd simply pushed
that feeling away. But maybe, just maybe, the more she thought about it, Sarah
was right about him being straight as an arrow and her wanting him to be gay, so
he’d be safe to like.

But was she really that damaged?

Probably.

“Go over and kiss him,” Sarah laughed
and started to assemble some lettuce wraps.

“Okay.” Kimber set her mug down and
marched past Sarah.

“Kimber!”

She held her hand up.
Do not think.
Do not analyze. It will all work out. He may be safe, he may not. But if you
can sleep with him twice in one night, you should be able to talk to him. And
kiss him. And be brave.

She barely felt her boots hitting the
walk or the cold snow on her face. Kimber felt barely tethered to her own body.
She came up on them and almost backed up and ran. Charlie turned and smiled,
Clarice waved, Janette grinned, and Kimber swallowed hard.

“Hi, Kimber!” Clarice said.

Kimber couldn’t find her voice, but
she waved at the little girl.

Charlie looked confused. “You okay?”

She nodded, ran forward three steps,
stood on tiptoe, and kissed him. Somewhere far away she heard Clarice giggle to
her mother. “They are smooching.”

“So I see.”

Charlie’s hands came up and he held
her waist, kissing her back, his mouth gentle and soft on hers.

She whispered so only he could hear. “I
shouldn't have left that way. And the note was a bad idea.”

“Don't worry about it.” His bright
eyes flashed and he said, “We were just about to ask you if you have a spare
strand—”

“Or more!” Clarice interrupted.

“Of lights for the tree. I realized I
don’t have any.” Charlie kissed her hair, an oddly familiar and sweet gesture
and Kimber remembered vividly why she had felt drawn to him. Handsome, kind,
warm, and good in bed to boot. Protective, gentle but firm…she could go on.
“And there will be hot cocoa and cookies and even some spiked eggnog later,
possibly.”

“And there will be singing, and dancing,
and Elvis Christmas songs!” Clarice chimed in, twirling in the snow.

Janette rolled her eyes, but her
shoulders shook with laughter. “She has a thing for Elvis Christmas songs.”

“Who doesn’t?” asked Kimber.

“So what do you say, Miss Kimber?” His
hand was warm and comforting against the small of her back. He ran slow circles
with his thumb that no one could see but she could feel. They made her warm and
flushed. Hell, they made her want to spend another night in bed with him.

“I’ll go look for those lights and
tell Sarah that I’m playing hooky today.” She ran off through the snow, her
belly buzzing from excitement. This could totally tank on her, but she sure as
hell hoped not.

* * * *

“What. You go off all half-cocked,
finally find your nerve, believe
yours truly
about his sexual
orientation and then you’re leaving me here to be Cinderella for the day? That
blows.”

“All you have to do is be here until
they come. Then call me and I’ll come over and get them set up. It’s no big deal.”
Kimber brushed her hair out and then twisted it into a messy knot at the top of
her head. She artfully messed up her long bangs and put on a little rose
colored lipstick.

“And you get to go to the ball,
step-sister.” Sarah shook her head. “Hmph.”

“You’re being a bit dramatic aren't
you? You’re the one who kept telling me to go after him, do this, do that, and
now I do and you want to balk at me asking for one little favor.”

“You asking me to quit my job to start
a business with you was a little favor. This is huge. This is a Christmas tree,
hot chocolate, and
Elvis
.” She snorted. “You Grinch.”

“Woman, please,” Kimber laughed. “I’ll
come over as soon as they come.”

“Are you gonna kiss him again?” Sarah
winked lasciviously.

“Hope so.”

“How about bang him?”

“Sarah!”

“Diddle? Hump? Fuck? Screw? And a
partridge in a pear treeeeeeee!”

“You are just nasty.”

“I try. You didn’t answer me.” Sarah
turned on her laptop and launched her web browser.

“Gosh, I hope so. But obviously with
his sister and his niece there, we’re kind of limited in the bedroom area.”

“Bummer.” Sarah shooed her with her
hand. “Go on. I’m going to do some work and look at some logos, and you are
going to go rock out to
Blue Christmas
while I sit here and scrub the
kitchen floor with a toothbrush and whatnot.”

“Great. Don’t forget the grout.”
Kimber grabbed the strands of lights she’d managed to scrounge from her moving
boxes. She really needed to decorate her own house, too, come to think of it.
But she’d worry about that later.

When she turned to wave, Sarah gave
her the finger.

It was still windy as hell and snowing
in gorgeous white fluffs when she cut across the lawn to Charlie's. Clarice
opened the door and yelled, “And we have lights.” causing Kimber to beam at
her.

Charlie rushed in, steaming cocoa in
each hand. “How about,
come in, Kimber
, kiddo.”

Clarice said, “Oops, do come in,
Kimber.” Then she bowed.

Charlie shook his head and smiled. He
waved her in while Clarice pulled the strands of lights from her hands.

“I only had one white, one small
colored, and one colored strand with the big fat bulbs. It’s going to be sort
of a mishmash of lights.”

“That’s okay,” Clarice shrugged. “Mish
mash is good. It makes it interesting.” She ran off yelling for her mother.

“Wow. I hope I’m as wise as her when I
grow up,” Kimber said.

“You and me both,” Charlie said. He
put the cups down and took her hand. She felt a bizarre mixture of fear and
excitement. Her main fear, Kimber realized, was that she would ending up liking
Charlie even more than she already did—which seemed impossible—and then she’d
fuck it all up. “Come here and give us a kiss,” he said in a horrible British
accent.

“That was really, really bad,” she
said as his lips touched hers. He kissed her softly, so softly that heat rushed
like an internal brush fire through all of her limbs.

“I know,” he said. “It was beyond just
bad.” His hands found her waist and he pulled her in. His arms wrapped around
her and he squeezed her tight. “Why’d you leave that way?”

“I don't know. I guess I panicked.”

“I get that, but that’s not really an
answer.”

In another room Clarice was belting
out Elvis and Janette was laughing at her daughter.

“I freaked out a little? I like you. I
like so much I feel reckless and I liked you fast.”

“I’m familiar with that feeling. And
it feels dangerous, yeah?” His lips found her throat, and her pulse slamming
against his mouth. Her head was light and floaty, but in a good way.

“It does. And scary. We are
neighbors.”

Charlie pulled the clip out of her
hair. Long locks fell around her face and tickled her cheeks. “That we are,” he
said.

“And if we mess up and suddenly hate
each other, we are still neighbors.”

“It’s risky,” he said.

“And you seem like you’ve just been
through some stuff.”

Charlie nodded, making agreeable
sounds and cupped her ass softly in his big hands. “I have and you have too,
judging by your skittishness.”

“I have,” she sighed. She kissed his
cheek and then his neck. He groaned. “And I’m scared that we’ll date or
whatever it is you do after you’ve already slept together and been rescued by a
handsome man and helped decorate his Christmas tree with his family…”

Charlie caught her hands up behind her
back in one of his. Her arms pinned back that way–gently, but firmly–he had
full access to her clavicle. He kissed her on the delicate skin. Her nipples
peaked and she shivered from head to toe. “We are sort of going backwards,
aren’t we?”

“Yes, yes, we are. It’s bizarre and it
could all just blow up in our faces.”

“True. But nothing ventured, nothing
gained.” He put his hands in her hair and tugged her face toward his. His mouth
was hot and soft and sweet on hers.

“Gosh, are you two kissing again?”

They both turned, guilty and rushed,
to find Clarice waving a red stocking ornament at them. “Can you come help or
what?” she demanded.

“Clarice!” Janette yelled from the
living room.

“I’m in here. Getting them. They were
smooching again!” she yelled back and marched out of the room.

Charlie blew out a sigh and ran a hand
through his hair. “We’d better move it. The boss has spoken.” He took Kimber’s
hand and she squeezed.

God, when she got him alone it was
going to be that much better.

She was hanging an ornament shaped
like a police dog on the tree and helping Clarice with a fake tuft of berries
when the phone rang. She was standing right next to it and didn’t give it a
second thought. “I told Sarah to call when the roof guys came. I bet it’s her.”

Charlie waved his hand indicating she
should go on and answer. Janette mixed a pitcher of something pink and fizzy
and festive. Kimber let herself feel a warm happy glow for the first time in
quite a while as she grabbed up the ringing phone.

‘Santa’s work village.” she joked.

There was an utter lack of sound for a
moment and then a gruff voice. “Charlie there?”

“Um…sure. Yeah."

“Well do you think you can go get him
for me? Just tell him it’s his partner.”

"Sure…I'll…" Her feet didn't
want to move.

“Maybe today?” the man barked.

Kimber’s eyes stung with sudden tears
and she bit her lip. She would not cry. She simply would not allow herself to
cry. She set the phone down without another word. She walked up to Charlie who
was untangling ornaments that looked like icicles. “It’s for you. It’s your
partner,” she said softly and turned before he could see her face.