Getting to the Church On Time (8 page)

“Evening,” Levi greeted him.

“Gotta say, this is pretty interesting,” Jim said.

Levi grinned and glanced over his shoulder at his friends getting out of the trucks. “That’s one word.”

“So they’re just shopping?”

“Yep,” Levi said. “I don’t even know what all they need. We need to stop down at Anderson’s Hardware too.”

Jim shook his head with a chuckle. “Can’t wait to see how this turns out.”

“Yeah.” Not for the first time Levi wished that Kate was here to see this. She’d be getting a huge kick out of it.

Everyone crowded into the store but Levi held them back near the door. “Okay, when I say ‘go’ you’ll have—”

“Hang on,” TJ said. “What are you talking about?”

“I have to make you all start at the same time,” Levi said. “To keep things fair.” Actually, it was to keep things interesting, but he wasn’t going to tell TJ that.

“Come on, TJ,” Tucker said, smacking his brother in the chest. “You worried about getting beat?”

“I didn’t realize this was going to be a race,” TJ said, his opinion of the idea clear in his tone. “Why can’t we just go in and get what we need?”

“What if you all need the same thing?” Levi asked. There was actually no reason to make this a race, but he thought it would be funny.

TJ sighed. “Seriously?”

“Ever seen
Supermarket Sweep
?” Levi asked of the TV game show.

TJ cocked an eyebrow. “Did you really just ask me that?”

Okay, so TJ Bennett wasn’t really the TV game show type of guy. Levi grinned. “How it works…you all start here. When I say go, you head into the store. You have five minutes to gather what you need—or as much of it as you can—then come back here to check out.”

TJ rolled his eyes. The truth was, the store was small. It wouldn’t take them five minutes to locate their items. Levi knew that. He just wanted to see Tucker, TJ and Ty racing.

Ty shrugged out of his coat and handed it to Hailey. “Let’s go.” He got into a starting position much like he used for the road races he ran.

TJ took his place next to Ty, still in his coat.

Tucker took his off too and handed it to Delaney. “Ready.”

Delaney leaned in and whispered in his ear. He nodded. “Got it.”

“Ready, set, go!” Levi said.

Tucker and Ty took off at a jog, Tucker toward the refrigerated section and Ty to the right, where the cereal and bread was. TJ grabbed a cart and walked toward aisle five.

Two minutes later, Tucker, with his arms full of things including cream cheese, whipped topping and a graham cracker crust, came back to the front, frowning.

“Where are all your candy canes, Jim?” he asked the store owner.

“Aisle five. With the other candy.”

“I checked there.”

Jim shrugged. “I had a bunch.”

Tucker swung in that direction—just in time to see TJ wheeling his cart back to the front full of boxes of candy canes.

“Hey,” Tucker said. “I need one of those boxes.”

“Sorry,” TJ said with a shrug. “Guess I won this race.”

Tucker turned to Levi. “He can’t have
all
the candy canes.”

Levi couldn’t wait to see what TJ and Hope were making. He was very fond of candy canes. He shrugged at Tucker. “You’ll have to figure it out with your brother.”

Tucker handed all his stuff to Delaney, who managed to balance it on top of Tucker’s coat.

“Dammit, TJ, give me one of those boxes,” Tucker said, planting his hands on his hips.

“Um.” TJ pretended to think about it. “No.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“It’s not just this race,” TJ said. “Seems to me that if you need candy canes and I have them all, then we have an advantage in the contest in general.”

Ty came strolling back up to the front, whistling “Jingle Bells”. He carried a pack of gum. He tossed it on the conveyor belt next to the register and then dug out a dollar that he laid down too. “I’m ready to check out.”

“You didn’t get anything,” TJ said with a frown.

“I got gum.”

“You need gum for your stuff for Levi?” TJ asked.

“No,” Ty said. “We already have everything we need back at the house. In fact, we’re done with our project.”

“You’re
done
?” Delaney asked Hailey.

The blond grinned. “Yep.”

Levi wasn’t sure if he was impressed or dreading what he’d see from Ty and Hailey the next day.

“Then why are you here?” Tucker asked.

Ty grinned and peeled the top of his packet of gum open. “Just wanted to watch you two make asses of yourselves.”

TJ growled and Tucker flipped Ty off.

“You don’t win anything for being first done,” Tucker said.

“I have the personal satisfaction of being done first,” Ty told him. “I
love
to be first.”

“We’ll see about that tomorrow,” Tucker told him. He turned to TJ. “I need
one
box. You have like ten there.”

“I think I need ten,” TJ said.

“And that’s
all
you need here?” Tucker said.

“Yep.”

Tucker looked at Delaney. She shrugged. He sighed.

“Fine. What do you want for it?” Tucker asked TJ.

TJ grinned as if he’d just been waiting for that question. “Twenty bucks,” he said.

“For
one box
of candy canes?” Tucker demanded.

“
And
,” TJ said. “You have to scoop out my driveway after the storm.”

Tucker groaned. There were going to be nearly eight inches by the time the snow was done and, like all of them, TJ’s driveway from the road up to his house was half a mile long. Tucker, of course, had a scoop on the front of his truck but it was the principle of the thing.

He glanced at Delaney again and nodded. “Fine.”

He dug out a twenty and handed it over. TJ gave him one of the boxes.

“You were totally gambling on one of us needing candy canes, you know,” Tucker told him. “What if, like Ty, I already had what I needed?”

TJ shrugged. “It’s Kate and Levi—I figured we weren’t the only ones thinking about candy canes.”

Levi grinned. He hadn’t told anyone about the fun he and Kate had had last Christmas with the candy canes, but apparently Kate had told the other girls, who had told the guys. He didn’t mind being associated with peppermint and red and white stripes in everyone’s minds.

Tucker and TJ moved to the register and Jim rang them up.

Then they all headed down the sidewalk to the hardware store. Eli Anderson, the son of the shop’s primary owner, opened the door for them. Eli had been a few years behind Ty in high school and the two were good friends.

“Hey guys,” Eli said. “What’s up?”

“Thanks for doing this.” Levi shook Eli’s hand. “Just making the snowstorm a little more fun.”

Like Jim, the Andersons didn’t live far from their store. Of course, no one in Sapphire Falls lived far from the stores on Main.

Again, Ty simply strolled around the store, annoying his brothers with the whistling and the smugness over having his stuff done. Tucker and Delaney headed for the aisle with the glue first and ended up back at the front with a glue gun, glue sticks, and a can of shellac. Delaney dumped her stuff onto the counter by the register and Eli rang them up as TJ joined them with a small glass jar and some red-and-white striped ribbon.

Levi decided that he was brilliantly creative. This was definitely making being apart from Kate tolerable. Then his chest ached with missing her.

With their Anderson’s Hardware bags in hand, everyone headed back for the trucks.

They congregated on the front porch of Ty’s house a few minutes later.

“So how do we decide who gets the kitchen first?” Tucker asked.

“We’re done,” Ty pointed out again.

Tucker glared at him. “Yeah, we got it. I meant between us and TJ and Hope.”

“Well, we could use Hailey’s kitchen,” Delaney said. “And TJ and Hope can have this one.”

“We don’t need a kitchen,” TJ said, pushing the door open. “Hope’s probably already done with our recipe.”

Tucker let out a heavy sigh. “Awesome.”

Levi & Kate (kind of)

Everyone retired to their rooms, including Levi.

As he shut the door behind him, the loneliness washed over him. He didn’t begrudge his friends their loves and happiness one bit and all of this was turning out to be a good time. Of course, he’d known that messing with the Bennett brothers would be fun. It was taking his mind off of everything.

Until he was alone.

His phone dinged with a text message as he was shedding his clothes and preparing to go to bed and call his fiancée.

Please be Kate, please be Kate.

He dug his phone from his pocket. It was Kate. With a huge grin he swiped to open the text.

But there were no words.

Not that the message needed words.

It was a photo of a pair of panties.

Black silk bikini-cut panties, to be specific. On a woman. With a candy cane tucked into the top.

God, he loved this woman.

Things are heating up in Sapphire Falls
, he typed to her.

Well, I’m supposed to be getting married tomorrow and instead I’m alone in a hotel room and bored.

He grinned. They’d had phone sex before, of course. They’d texted sexy messages like
I’m imagining you in that hot-pink teddy I got you
. But she’d never sent pictures before.

Bring it on
he sent back.

The next thing to come through was an image of Kate sliding the candy cane into her mouth and then dragging it up and down her tongue.

So not just pictures then.
Video
.

What if I was having dinner with the guys right now?
he asked her.

You’d find a way to excuse yourself.

You’re right.

Are you alone?

Yes.

Naked?

He gave a choked laugh.
Give me ten seconds.

Because all I have on are the panties.

Levi froze with one leg still in his jeans and one out. Kate scanned the camera down her body, showing she was indeed naked from the panties down. And up.

He quickly recovered and shoved the jeans the rest of the way to the floor, kicking them into the corner. He’d already pulled his shirt off, so he sent his boxers and socks flying in the same direction as the jeans, then crawled onto the bed.

He quickly typed.
Done.

Oh, you’re not done yet
was her reply to that.

His phone dinged again and when he opened the message, another video began playing. Kate licked the candy cane again and then dragged it down her throat and chest to one breast. She circled her nipple with the end of it and Levi knew there would be a delicious sticky trail he could follow with his tongue.

He’d always loved watching Kate tease him and this was no different. He gripped the phone tightly.

Gorgeous
was all he typed back.

She wet the candy cane again and swirled it over her other breast and then teased the tip.

Levi had made love to his woman many, many times and now he was able to perfectly conjure the feel of her breasts in his hands and her nipples against his tongue.

She licked the candy cane again and said, “I wish I could drag this all over your cock and then lick it clean.”

Said cock pulsed at that and Levi wrapped one hand around the aching length. “Me too.”

Then he remembered they weren’t on Skype or anything and he had to type it in. Difficult with only one hand.

She responded with,
Think about my tongue and stroke yourself.

Two steps ahead of you.

He was then treated to a short video of her dragging the candy cane over her belly and lower but it ended just as she slid it into the top of her panties.

Levi groaned.

Do you have things firmly in hand?
she texted.

He shook his head. He’d been without her for several days now, having been in Vegas for two days before they’d been separated by the storm. Now he was facing at least two more long nights without her, one of which was supposed to be their wedding night.

Stop teasing and show me something good. I think we both know how to do this,
he sent back.

The next thing he saw was a video of her lying back on the bed, panties still on, the candy cane hidden by the black silk. But moving. The candy cane was definitely moving.

She was in trouble when he saw her next.

I can’t get a video of my whole body. My arm isn’t long enough.

Yes, there were limitations to selfies, he supposed.
I can picture your entire gorgeous body
he typed and sent. Then he sent,
And I know exactly how your face looks when you’re turned on and when you come.