Claustrophobic Christmas (4 page)

She didn’t have babies to keep warm. She shut off the motor and thought of James again. Thanks to him, she hadn't had a drop to drink since the rest area. She was doing well on that front. Yet as soon as she thought of it, the need to wet her whistle smacked into her like the need to admire James’s backside earlier, too fierce to ignore.

An hour of blasting the heater into her face came to a crux, and she could swear she felt her lips crack. Droplets of melt water trickled down the windshield. All that icy goodness going to waste. Darcy licked her lips and gazed at the tasty rivulets. The cola she'd purchased at the rest area beckoned from the small cooler in the floor of the passenger's seat.

Candy. James had said to suck on hard candy. Her homemade peppermint bark was in the trunk, but if she were parked here in five, no, ten minutes, she'd open the jelly beans she’d purchased for Pop’s stocking. She could always claim Santa got noshy.

Two arid minutes later, she flicked on the interior light and leaned through the bucket seats to paw through the gifts in back. Jelly beans, jelly beans, jelly beans.
Gotcha!
She unwrapped the flat box, saving the paper, and opened the lid. A smorgasbord of colors and flavors met her eyes.

Cantaloupe. Kiwi fruit. Cappuccino. She squinted at the tiny labels. Was there a water flavor? How about a wide open spaces flavor? Doors slammed nearby, but the jellies were more compelling than whoever had braved the blizzard to pee.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Something rapped her window, and it wasn’t ice.

Darcy shrieked and tossed the box into the air. Candies flew all over the car; a few stuck in her frizzy hair and rolled down the front of her raggedy sweatshirt.

It was James Jones, bending down to peer into the window at Darcy and her lapful of jelly beans.

Chapter Four

This time it wasn’t a coincidence at all. When Darcy had gotten on the interstate, James had too, keeping far enough behind there was no chance she’d see him. The traffic was heavy, and she didn’t know his truck. Still, it hadn’t been easy. She drove like her car might explode if she exceeded sixty. It was only when he’d heard the weather report that he’d sped ahead, checking for a nearby exit.

No luck. Now they were all stuck, but good. He set out after half an hour of idling, first checking the road ahead and then backtracking on a hunt for her car.

Bingo. Right where he’d figured she was, about a tenth of a mile behind.

No Heath.

James, with a weird sensation in his stomach he wrote off as hunger, illuminated himself with his flashlight so she could see it was him and not some ax murderer. He tapped on her window.

She screamed loud enough that people in the closest vehicle could hear it. An SUV. The lady in the passenger seat of the SUV glared at him, but he motioned for Darcy to roll down her window anyway.

She blinked those big, soft eyes for a minute before she started her engine and hit the electronic window button.

“Howdy, neighbor,” he said, as if ice and snow weren’t pelting him.

“Wow. This is a surprise.” Wind whistled through the gap above the window glass, poofing the hair on top of her head. She stuck her nose next to the crack and inhaled like she was huffing oxygen on a plane. “What in the world are you doing?”

“Checking to see how far ahead we’re jammed.” He gestured with the light. “I couldn’t see over that hill.”

“It’s cold out there.”

How long was she going to ignore the fact there was no boyfriend in her car?

“It’s dropped into the twenties.” He’d bought his parka before Nome and hadn’t expected to need it in the South, but it was coming in handy. “This ice isn’t going anywhere. You doing okay?”

“Sure.” She cranked the window down a couple more inches and leaned on her door, but he didn’t get the impression she wanted to be closer to him. Her cheek pressed the glass. It was more like she was trying to get out of the car without actually getting out.

“And Heath?” he finally asked.

“Oh. Oh God.” She buried her face in her hands.

“Did you have a fight and kick him out?”

“There is no Heath,” she said in a creaky voice. “James, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right,” he lied. At least it was out in the open.

“I don’t know what came over me,” she said. “You put me on the spot. I don’t do well on the spot.”

“Seriously? You’re always coming up with hilarious stuff when we talk.”

“That’s not a spot, that’s a conversation.”

“True.” Nita had told him to warn Darcy before showing up, but he’d wanted Darcy to be impressed with his chivalry, offering to drive her to and from Tennessee so they could share an otherwise boring trip. Never mind that there’d been no reason for him to make the drive except to sweep her off her feet and all that crap.

“I should have called first,” he admitted. Stupid move now that he thought about it with his big head instead of his little one.

“It’s all right.” She echoed his words, and he wondered if hers were a lie too. “On your advice, I was about to break out the hard candy. Want a jelly bean?”

His feet, even in his pricey hiking boots, were starting to feel like blocks of wood. He’d checked on her. She was warm, dry and safe, more than he could say for himself. “I just had a mint, thanks. You’re getting really iced over, Darcy. You got a scraper?” He started scrubbing her windshield with his thick gloves, shining his light so he could see what he was doing.

She protested. “You don’t have to do that.”

“No sense in you getting cold and wet.”

“James, really.” She dropped the window further, sticking her whole head into the not-so-great outdoors. “The defrost will take care of it when the time comes. Please don’t go to the trouble.”

“All right, but I don’t mind,” he said with a shrug. His cheeks and nose had numbed in the time he’d been outside, so he leaned down to block the wind from her head. This put his face near enough that he could see snowflakes clinging to her heavy lashes.

Her eyes widened, and he heard her inhale over the hiss of precipitation. The growing racket of car doors and people stretching their legs faded as he sensed the heat from her skin soak into him. Thaw him like the sun.

She closed her eyes and her lips parted. Her soft, pink lips that needed to be kissed—by him. Instead she shrank into the car, brushing pellets from her hair. Her cheeks were as red as apples. “I can’t believe we were so close on the interstate.”

He didn’t want her to know he’d tailed her. He shone the light toward the ground so it wouldn’t blind her. “Traffic was heavy. I’m sure we both went with the flow.”

“I guess so.” She pulled out a tissue and dabbed her nose. “I was going to say it was fate, but your explanation sounds smarter.”

When he smiled, it felt like ice was cracking on his jaw. “Could be that too.”

He didn’t believe in fate. Fate would have tied him to Tallwood his whole life, teaching school or running a bank or something. Fine jobs, but not for him. He made his own fate, and he didn’t call ahead and warn it, either.

Surely Darcy was the same? She’d escaped the pull of Tallwood like he had. She lived in Texas and traveled all over. She lived for travel. It was one of the many traits they shared. They’d discussed their feelings about Tallwood thoroughly.

Too bad they hadn’t discussed their feelings about each other thoroughly.

“If you’re ahead of me,” she asked, “why did you walk back this way?”

“I saw your car.” He shut off his flashlight so she couldn’t read any guilt in his expression. He couldn’t see her car from his or from the top of the hill.

“How did you know it was my car?”

James held a gloved hand beside his face, blocking the wind. “I saw it yesterday. There’s no mistaking that antenna topper.” The foam sunshine glittered in the meager light of the snowy Arkansas evening. It put him in mind of summery climes and Darcy in a bikini.

She twisted in the seat, craned her neck to look at it, and suddenly clapped a hand to her chest. “Oooh.”

He’d be impressed if he could grab her boobs too. “What is it?”

“Jellybean. Jeez, how did it get there?”

“Where?” He squinted into the darkness of the car, focusing on her ghostly form.

She started doing something brisk near her chest, and he realized she was flapping her sweatshirt like she was trying to cool herself. He was hot for her, but he didn’t think that was the problem. With the car’s window down, the interior had to be as frosty as James was, standing here like an idiot.

“What are you doing, Darce? It can’t be hot in there.”

She halted. “Nothing.”

James needed to say goodbye or invite himself into Darcy’s car before he froze his balls off. “Since I’ve come all this way—” he began.

A door of the SUV next to them opened, and a man hopped out. His shoes crunched on the ice and snow as he rounded the front of his vehicle. James turned his flashlight back on.

“Hey, man,” the guy said to him. “What’s going on up the road?”

James flicked the flashlight toward the east, the direction they all wanted to travel. “I didn’t go far, but if I recall correctly, in a couple miles there’s a bridge. I’m guessing it iced over.”

Darcy widened her window. “The radio station mentioned bridges and overpasses.”

“The station out of Tarnington?” the guy asked. “All I can find is Christmas music.”

“I’m not sure, it was mostly static.” She shook her head. As James watched, something tiny sprang out of her bushy hair to the ground, disappearing into the snow.

“I think you lost a hair barrette,” he told her.

She smoothed her hair, pausing near one ear, and plucked something free. She huffed and flicked it to the ground.

“Nope. Jelly bean,” she said.

He’d ask later. Right now the guy from the SUV was watching them expectantly, and exhaust puffed around them, encouraging James to find cleaner air to breathe. Or at least warmer air. The glacial night was starting to solidify his nose hairs.

“I gotta find something to listen to,” the guy said. “The baby is asleep but my older kids are going stir crazy. The batteries on the DVD player ran out.”

“We might be here a while.” James glanced at the SUV sympathetically. “There was an exit ten miles back, but you can’t make a U-turn here. You folks have enough gas?”

“I think so.” The dad grabbed the SUV’s door when it started to open. “Stay inside, punkin, you’re wasting heat,” he fussed at the kids. James assumed it was the kids and not his wife. Two young faces and one doggy one pressed against the glass. Darcy waved at them.

He heard more doors slam. Several onlookers converged on their little gathering. James had been in enough jams to know people would leap on any excuse to break the monotony, even when it was twenty degrees and snowing sideways. One man slipped, and the lady with him clung to his arm.

Darcy shut her car off, reducing the exhaust odor.

“I saw you walk past earlier.” An older man wearing a ball cap shoved his hands into his overcoat pockets. “What’s to see, buddy?”

“It’s the Big Creek Bridge, I betcha anything,” another guy said. “I’m from Tarnington. The wife sent me out for milk and bread, but I had to go into Heckley to find anything. Now here I am.”

“Bad luck,” everyone agreed.

“There’s hardly anyone on the other side of the interstate,” Darcy pointed out. A few cars whizzed past, headlights gleaming on the snow, but nowhere near as many as earlier. Somewhere in the dark distance, that side was probably blocked too.

It was going to be a long, ugly night for a lot of people, most of them families. With the weather like this, it was more dangerous than James liked. How much extra gas and stuff did he have in the truck?

“Yep, it’s the bridge,” the local guy said. “Anybody got cell phone reception?”

“Naw.”

“Nope.”

James hadn’t checked, but now he did. No bars. He couldn’t tell anyone at home what was happening even if he wanted to. On the bright side, nobody could call him. He wondered if Nita had broken the news about Darcy yet.

Unless…was this his second chance? Darcy hadn’t told him to beat it. While he wasn’t one to try to crack a nut twice, Darcy wasn’t the average nut. Wasn’t she worth the effort?

The object of his pondering slid her hands under her thighs and shivered. He could think of a few ways to heat her up that wouldn’t waste the gasoline in her tank.

After more commiserating, the crowd dispersed. Two guys veered behind the tractor trailer for what he suspected was a bathroom break, and the dad got back into the SUV. James remained beside Darcy’s car.

It shouldn’t be hard to parlay this into more. Company, if nothing else. Darcy was nice, nice enough that it was safe to be nice back without worrying she’d take advantage. She was considerate, remembering what they talked about down to specifics. Sometimes his travel anecdotes even showed up in her newsletter. She had this funny way where she could tell when he was troubled and convince him to spill. The fact she was a fussbudget fit too, like a comfortable chair. He liked Darcy poking into his business a lot more than when Mother did it, and he liked that he wanted to poke back.

He wanted to be all up in Darcy’s business.

All that and they hadn’t been face to face until yesterday. Rapport, dammit. They had it, and he wanted more.

“Shit, it’s cold.” He stamped his feet as ice ricocheted off his nylon parka. “Unlock the passenger door and let me in.”

She bit her lip. “Is that a good idea?”

“It is if you don’t want me to get frostbite.”

They were trapped on this interstate, in this snowstorm, so it wasn’t like he could rip off her clothes and have his way with her. There were people everywhere, and they were obviously watching. Besides, her car had front bucket seats. Screwing in those required major acrobatics, and neither of them was in their twenties anymore.

“Maybe you could… With what happened… And you said…” Darcy hemmed and hawed.

Sometimes begging a woman made her feel like she was in charge, only they called it empowered. The end result was it generally got James laid, and since his lady friend felt powerful, she usually wanted to be on top. That was fine by him. He liked the view from that angle. But he wasn’t going to beg Darcy.