Finding Christmas (5 page)

“Ha! Awesome. Thanks. I’ll let you know when we’re going to practice again.”

“Here’s your beer, Maggie. It’s on the house.” Cooper Sammis, the owner of the bar and a former classmate, flashed a cheeky grin and pushed the bottle to her side of the bar.

“What? Don’t be silly.”

“Vets drink on me, babe.” Cooper was a good guy. That he was still single was both a miracle and a tragedy. He belonged to one of Holly Point’s founding families. “You want a beer, buddy?” he asked Will. “The burger you ordered should be out soon.”

“No thanks, Coop. I’m driving.”

“Hey!” Will, Coop, and Maggie trained their eyes at the end of the bar where an older man, whom she didn’t recognize, had parked himself. “Are you the lady pilot everyone’s been talking about?”

Lady Pilot. Fabulous
. Too bad she didn’t wear her pink flight suit.

Walking in his direction, she tilted her head to get a sense of what was going on. The guy was definitely drunk. She could see his overly relaxed posture, bloodshot eyes, and that brought back what her first C.O. told her about dealing with drunks: they were always unpredictable.

“I’m Maggie Benson,” she said as she extended her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Coop had followed her to the end of the bar, and she could feel Will hovering close behind.

“Behave yourself, Stan,” Coop said with a hint of warning.

“So did you really crash that jet, Miss Lady Pilot?

Great. They were going to have that conversation.

“That’s
Lieutenant
Lady Pilot, and a surface to air missile had more to do with the plane going into the water than I did,” Maggie said lightly. She was trying to be funny, but she could see Stan wasn’t having it. Great.

She had been one of the best in the navy. Maggie hadn’t had so much as a hiccup at any time during her career. No one ever expected her to go down. But just like drunks, life was unpredictable.

“Oh, excuse me.
Lieutenant
. That rank didn’t help you save a fifty million dollar plane. I guess women drivers are women drivers whatever the vehicle.” He looked at the people around him, chuckling, and obviously enjoying the audience.

“Have a nice evening, sir,” Maggie stepped back. She wasn’t going to engage this guy. No point. “Make sure you have Coop call you a cab. You don’t want to drive in your condition.”

“My condition?” he shouted after her. “I bet I could fly that plane better than you, honey. Why they’re letting a woman do a man’s job is beyond me. Your folks should have kept you in your place.”

Maggie froze and drew a deep breath. Her place? She could take the shots herself, but not her parents. They always told her there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do. Her family was off limits.

Going back to the man, she made a point to get right in his face. By this point, half the people in the bar had their eyes trained on the confrontation. Maggie didn’t give a shit. “Sir, my place is where I decide it is. You’d do well to keep your opinions to yourself, especially about my family.”

“Heh. Who’s going to make me, sweetheart? You?”

Maggie could drop the guy with one elbow to the face or a knee to the balls. It wouldn’t take much, but she would never throw the first punch. And no matter how big an ass this guy was, he didn’t seem like the type who’d take a swipe at a woman in a bar.

“You know what?” she said, patting the man’s shoulder. “You never know.”

“The only thing I know about you,
Lieutenant
, is that you probably screwed your way into the cockpit. How many admirals did you sleep with the get through flight school?” He took a long pull on his beer and smiled, baring a dingy set of yellow teeth. “I’m guessing no one wants you now that you’re missing a leg. No one is interested in doing a cripple.”

A hush dropped over the bar, and Maggie shot one last look at the old bastard, having no way to respond to what he said. It burned way down deep—hurting her on the most basic level. She blinked hard because she was not going to cry. Stan didn’t deserve the satisfaction, so before she lost it, Maggie pushed her way past Will, and out the door of the bar.

The cold night air slapped her in the face as the reality of what just happened sank in. The man was a nasty excuse for a human, cruel, mean, and Maggie couldn’t let him get to her. She couldn’t.

Walking away from the bar, she wrapped her arms around herself to shield her body from the sharp winds off the harbor. She left everything inside, her jacket, her purse, her friends… great. That meant she had to go back.

There was a commotion behind her and when she looked back she saw Stan being pushed up into the passenger side of a pick-up truck by Cooper, who she could see was furious. The driver couldn’t get into his side of the truck fast enough. “Don’t come back here, old man. You can go drink someplace else.”

Coop stormed back into his bar, the truck pulled away, and she dropped onto the bench that sat in front of the Harbor Deli. Maggie worked here the summer between her junior and senior year of high school, taking orders, stocking shelves and helping customers. She didn’t work a lot, just enough to have some walking around money so she wasn’t constantly asking her parents for cash.

At that moment, she was tempted to ask for her job back. At least it would be something to do.

“Hey.” Taking the seat next to her was Will.

“Hi.” She could barely look at him she was so embarrassed.

It was a tight squeeze, but it was nice, his warmth was comforting. There were no words exchanged as Will draped his jacket over her shoulders, and adjusted his big body on the small bench.

It was a simple, lovely gesture that showed what a good man he was, and after what had just happened, his kindness proved to be too much for her emotions to handle. Maggie broke, crying for the second time that day.

“Oh, God… I… thank you. I…” That was the last thing she said before Will’s arm wrapped around her shoulder and pulled her into the strong, solid wall of his chest.

Once that happened, Maggie gave into the sadness and despair that had been hovering just beneath the surface for the past few months, and let it go.

*     *     *

Crying women and
babies were two things Will never knew how to handle. He liked both, women and babies, but when tears were part of the deal, he tended to step back.

Not this time, though. This time he knew exactly what to do, so he pulled Maggie close, holding her tight against his body as the tears swamped her. Never in his life had he felt someone else’s sadness, but listening to Maggie’s quiet sobs, feeling her body tremble in his arms, made his heart hurt for her. And it brought out every protective instinct in him.

He wanted to fucking pummel the asshole who had been so damn cruel.

Feeling her soft hair in his hands, he pressed her head into his chest, and rocked her gently as he held her. “Let it out. It’s okay, just let it out.”

“I’m sorry, I… I hate crying, but… dammit. Why do the crazies always find me? Why? Just when I’m starting to feel better, someone says something that… I don’t know. It just stings. I did everything I was supposed to do. He wasn’t in the blasted plane. He doesn’t know me.” She wiped her eyes. “I hate this. I wish I knew what I was supposed to do.”

“Guys like that are assholes. They have nothing going for them, and it becomes everyone else’s fault. The only thing a guy like that can do is take cheap shots. As far as the other stuff, maybe being home will help you figure things out.”

“Like what?” She sniffled and wiped her nose with her sleeve before looking up at him with tear filled eyes. She was a mess. Her hair was mussed, her make-up was blotchy, and her eyes were red and swollen. Maggie cried ugly… but he’d never seen anyone more beautiful in his life.

“What comes next? You’re young. What are you, thirty? There’s a whole life ahead of you.”

She nodded, but her lip trembled as she spoke. “I thought that life would include a husband and kids. That’s not going to happen now. Stan was crude, but he’s right, who would want me?”

Hearing that made him want to hit Stan even harder. Will wished he could tell Maggie that men would line up to be with her. She had the face of an angel, but beyond that he’d seen a brilliance, an inner fire, that identified her as a special soul. So when that line formed, and it would definitely form, he’d fight to be first. She was extraordinary.

“I don’t think that’s something you have to worry about.” He brushed a strand of hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear. “You’re really very…” He hesitated, then looked right in Maggie Benson’s big brown eyes and spoke the only truth he knew. “You’re beautiful.”

Her eyes stayed on his, searching, questioning. “You really think so?” she finally whispered.

“Oh, yeah. I really do.”

Maggie’s arms slipped around his waist and she hugged him, resting her head on his chest where it fit perfectly. Will held on, knowing this could be opening them up to a whole slew of problems, but he didn’t care. She needed him, this felt right. That was the only thing that mattered.

Moving slowly, she glanced up and he lost himself in her face—the creamy skin, the rosy, full lips, the eyes that held all her pain—it all grabbed his long quiet heart and made it beat stronger. When her fingers brushed his cheek, Will was in more trouble than he ever imagined.

“You’re a very nice man, Will Fitzgerald.”

“I’ll tell my mother you said so.”

He was trying to put her at ease, to make light of a tough situation, but each minute that passed revealed a truth Will wasn’t prepared for. Given half a chance, Maggie would own him, and he’d be okay with that.

“I’m scared,” she choked out.

“Of what?”

“I don’t know. Everything. Life. I mean, what’s going to happen to me?” With all the changes in her life, she had good reason to wonder. He wished he could help her, but the answers Maggie was looking for had to come from inside.

“
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek
.” It was one of his favorite quotes. When his basketball career ended without warning, and his marriage went south almost as quickly, Will was facing a new future and he was completely unprepared for the changes. On some level, he could relate to what Maggie was feeling.

He smiled as she tilted her head to one side, thinking about what he’d just said. “Interesting advice.”

“Joseph Campbell. He understood the mysteries of the ancients, I think that gives him some credibility.”

“So, I should face what scares me?” Maggie had faced so much already, she had to be getting tired of facing her demons. But he also knew the woman was made of very tough stuff, and it was time to leave the past firmly in her rearview mirror.

“Sometimes I think it’s the only way. Our fears often define us, and I don’t think we should let them. You might find what you’re looking for when you get past whatever is holding you back, and more than that, you have to look for your happiness.”

Biting down on her lower lip, she looked away, and Will wished he could read her mind. When she tilted her face to his, everything about her moved him—from her bright eyes, to the questions he saw lurking beneath the surface.

“I don’t know if I believe that completely,” she responded.

“It’s true. Face it, and move on. You’re doing that with the kids we’re going to be working with. Right?”

“It’s not the same.”

“Fears are fears. They hold us back from what we really want.”

“So I should go after what I want. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Absolutely.” He believed that was true for everyone. Especially for someone like her, who had so much to give.

She was quiet for a bit, thoughtful, but when her glinting eyes softened to a smolder, Will took notice.

“Don’t hate me for this,” she said quietly, struggling a bit, but finally kneeling up so they were face to face. “Okay?”

“Hate you? For what? I don’t…” He got his answer when she leaned in and kissed him.

It was gentle, tentative, just a light brush of her lips against his.

And it changed everything.

He saw a spark, a question in the chocolate depths of her eyes, and now it was his turn to answer. Cupping her face in his hands, feeling the incredible softness of her skin, Will didn’t hesitate as he covered her mouth with his. Immediately, heat shot through him, and if the first kiss between them was a whisper, this one exploded.

There was no shyness on her part either; Maggie went all in. Pressing against him, her mouth opened slightly, allowing him to explore, to taste, and to get completely lost in the feel of her. Her arms were around his neck now, her fingers in his hair, and they were so physically close there was no way she wouldn’t feel his erection and know how much he wanted her.

But he also knew she was vulnerable, hurting from the harsh words, scared of the future she was facing, and he didn’t want to take advantage of a woman who was walking such a fine line. He wasn’t that guy. Pulling back a little, Maggie nipped at Will’s neck and he let out a long breath, praying for some self-control. “Maggie.”

“God, you feel so good, Will. So good.” Overcome, she dropped her head on his shoulder while Will pulled her arms from around his neck and held her hands. He knew they had to put the brakes on, but he didn’t want to let her go just yet.