Holding Her Breath (Indigo) (10 page)

Whitney grinned as she answered him. “I loved yours, too. Thanks. And yes, you did.” He’d gotten her a couple of audio books he’d recommended to her, but that she hadn’t gotten around to picking up for herself, and he’d made her a shirt with finger paints that said “Politics Are Sexy” since she was a political news junkie.

He owned a T-shirt design company that made screen tees, usually with clever phrases on them. Her favorite was still “Have You Hugged A Socially Awkward Person Today?” He’d had it framed for her birthday one year, and it currently hung in her spare bedroom, which she used as a study. Whenever she got too stressed, she could look at it and break the tension.

“How was your Christmas?” She turned on her side and looked at the posters from her high school and college days that were still on the wall.

“You know, the usual. The folks ragging on me for dropping out of ‘G dub’ even though it was a million years ago, the girl throwing a fit about me not going to her house for Christmas. I should have since Mom was all about throwing bro’s degree in my face. You know he graduates this May.” Rob’s company was really successful so far, especially with the high school and college kids around town. That didn’t make his parents like it any better, though. They hadn’t liked much of anything he’d done since he dropped out of George Washington University. He was still working out of his trunk and online only, but his sales numbers were growing every quarter. His dream was to open a physical store, and he was trying his hardest to make it happen. He was almost there. “Anyways, glad that’s over. How was yours?” he said.

“Another Jones family Christmas.”

“Your aunt behave herself?”

“Of course not.”

Rob laughed.

“So, I have what might be the weirdest question in the world for you.”

“Shoot.”

“What if I said I found a roommate for you, but I only just met him Christmas night? He seems like a normal guy, not an ax murderer or anything.”

“What?” Rob stretched out the word longer than Whitney had ever heard anybody do it.

“It’s a long story, but I met this guy, he wants to move to D.C., and I told him you’re looking for a roommate—”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute. Let’s go back to you met a guy. Whitney Jones met a guy? We know this does not happen every day.”

“What? I meet guys.”

“Correction. You scare guys off. And you haven’t even done that for about a year now.”

“Anyway, what do you think?”

“Give me his number. I’ll give him a call. We’ll chat. He can’t be worse than Scary Feet Sam. And this rent is a biotch for one person. I need somebody, and Craigslist is failing me. I keep getting these sketchy people who ask me things like if I’ve ever narked on anybody or if the cops come by my place a lot. This one guy asked me if I think our government’s conspiring against us via Twitter. I ended the convo not too long after that.”

Whitney laughed. “Okay, I’ll give you his number and we’ll see what happens.”

“I still want the full story.”

“And you’ll get it. When I get back to D.C.”

“Not fair.”

“It’s a long one, and I have to get out of here soon for after-Christmas shopping fun.”

“Ugh. The nightmares. I think I still have PTSD from Thanksgiving. I’m not ready.”

“Has Delaney dragged you out for any of it yet?”

“We’re supposed to go to Potomac Mills today. I’ve spent the morning hiding from her, but I think she’s coming over to the apartment soon, so I won’t be able to get out of it.”

“You know you love it.” Whitney grinned, waiting for his reaction.

“Yeah, whatevs. Gimme that number if you’re not going to let me in on your I-met-a-man story.”

“Okay.” Whitney gave him Chace’s number. Then she said, “Oh, and he’s probably coming out with us for New Year’s.”

“You can’t tell me things like this and then leave me hanging. What makes you think you can do that?”

“It’s seriously not a big deal. I couldn’t just leave him alone in the city on New Year’s. He won’t know anyone. He’s just going to be part of our group.”

“Is he?”

“Well, I kind of said he could be my date. But it doesn’t mean anything. You know it’ll be a whole group of us like it always is.”

“Yeah, well, most everyone’s going to be paired up this year. Erika won’t, though.”

“What?”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“No.”

“Really? This is big news. I’m surprised.”

“Well, maybe I forgot to call her back or something. Spill. Now.”

“See, it doesn’t feel good, does it?”

“Rob!”

“Okay, okay. A.J. says he’s not going.”

“You’re kidding.”

“He’s getting worse by the day. Did she tell you he didn’t even get her a present this year?”

“What? Really?” Whitney couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Yeah. He basically tried to make it look like her fault that she didn’t get one. You know how he is.”

“Unfortunately, I do.” He was being a jerk, like always. And Erika just kept putting up with it.

They talked for a little while longer about Erika and her questionable taste in men and then Rob had to go because Delaney was there.

Whitney, her mom, and the others left for the mall a little after Whitney got off the phone with Rob. Whitney put on the warmest coat and gloves she’d brought to River Run—her black leather ones—because it was freezing out there. Aunt Brenda had gone home the day after Christmas. They were meeting her at the mall since she lived closer to it than she did to River Run. The closest mall was an hour’s drive away, and, surprisingly, Alicia was the one pushing them out of the door. She’d gotten up early. She couldn’t wait to spend all her Christmas money, so she wanted as much time in Fredericksburg as possible.

Melinda sat in the backseat with Whitney. She started up her one-person interrogation squad as soon as they got in the car and Jo and Alicia immediately began squabbling over the station and volume of the radio.

Melinda leaned in close. “So you were gone all day yesterday.”

“Yeah.” She fiddled with her gloves.

“You were with him, weren’t you?”

“Who?”

Melinda’s eyes sparkled with the anticipation of learning juicy gossip. “Don’t play dumb. That guy. The drunk one we helped home.”

She couldn’t stop the smile from playing at the edges of her lips. “Maybe.”

Melinda shook her head. “You backed out of after-Christmas shopping. Which you love. You were gone all day, and there ain’t that much to do in this town. You were with him. Now, dish before I tell your mama what you been up to.”

“I haven’t been up to anything. We were just talking.”

“So tell me what you talked about.” Melinda grabbed Whitney’s knee. “You know I don’t let you keep these kind of things from me.”

Warmth spread from her heart out over her entire body as she remembered her day with Chace. “Everything, Melinda. Just…everything and nothing. Our families. Our lives. What we’ve done and what we want to do. Places we’ve been and places we want to go. Big things. Small things. We just talked about…life.”

Melinda shook her head. “Look at you. You can’t be gone over him already. You barely know this guy.” Melinda’s mouth dropped open, and she covered it with one hand and pointed at her with the other. Then she whispered so that Jo and Alicia wouldn’t hear. “But you are. Look at you.”

“I’m not anything. He’s just fun to hang out with, that’s all.” She hoped her expression didn’t betray too much to her cousin.

“Yeah. Well, you better get in all the ‘hanging’ you can now. You’re leaving for D.C. in a few days.”

“Actually, he’s moving to D.C., I think. He’s talking to Rob about being his roommate today.”

“He what?” Melinda exclaimed.

“Shh,” Whitney hissed.

Alicia turned to look into the backseat, and Jo eyed them from the rearview mirror.

“What’s going on back there?” Jo asked.

“Oh, nothing, Aunt Jo. We’re just talking about a…guy we know from high school,” Melinda said.

“Mmm-hmm,” Jo said in a tone connoting she didn’t believe it for one minute. She never pressured Whitney about where she went or what she did. She always let it be known that she knew there was something to know, and then she waited for the guilt of not telling to cripple Whitney until she had to tell. Most of the time, it worked. Whitney hoped it wouldn’t this time. Besides, there was hardly anything to tell.

“C’mon. Let us in on it. This have something to do with where you were all day yesterday?” Alicia said.

“Regardless of where I was all day yesterday, I was home last night,” she said, giving her sneaking-out sister a pointed look. Alicia narrowed her eyes at her and then turned back to the front of the car.

When they stepped out of the car and into the mall parking lot, it was freezing. Her gloves did little to protect against the cold as the wind seemed to slice right through them, turning her fingers into ice. Wind whipped all around them, and it seemed to be trying to cut right through them. They hurried toward the mall, not paying much attention to the wreaths and garlands adorning the light poles in the parking lot.

Whitney had a great life and she needed to remember that. A wonderful—for the most part—family, a great job, and the best friends a person could ask for. Absolutely nothing was missing. Not one thing. Not even a gorgeous brown-haired man with ice blue eyes holding her close the way he had when they’d shared that blazing goodbye hug the night before. Especially not him.

She stepped into the mall and felt her body thawing all over as a sudden rush of heat embraced her. She looked around at the store windows still filled with red, green, and gold holiday cheer. Shoppers bustled up and down the main aisle, packed almost shoulder-to-shoulder, all on missions to get the best after-Christmas deals. Teens walked around in giggling groups, many of them with ear buds in their ears. Even with all the chaos, she loved the mall at the holiday season. Or maybe she loved it because of the chaos.

They split off into groups. Jo and Aunt Brenda went to hit the housewares and discount Christmas decorations for next year’s celebrations. Not even she could think that far in advance. Alicia, Melinda, and Whitney went for the clothing stores. Alicia soon saw some friends of hers in a music store and she branched off to hang out with them, telling Whitney to tell their mom she’d get a ride home with her friends.

Whitney and Melinda wandered in and out of clothing stores, trying a few things on, but not buying anything. Melinda complained about having spent all her money at a giant sale at Barney’s in New York. She just couldn’t concentrate on the clothes enough to look for something she might actually be interested in buying. She flipped through racks of dresses and ran her hands over sweaters and blouses set up on tables in the middle of store floors, but her mind was with Chace.

She kept seeing those eyes—fire and ice. Feeling his knees against hers. That simple touch the day before had nearly caused her to burst into flames. It was still burning up her mind. She imagined that she hadn’t just sat there last night. That instead, she’d moved her hands over his thighs, up to his hips, hooked them into the waist of his jeans. And—

“Whitney.” Melinda was snapping her fingers in front of Whitney’s face. She realized that Melinda must have been trying to get her attention for a while.

“Oh, um, I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“I asked what you think of this?” Melinda held a multi-colored scarf up to her neck.

“Looks nice,” she said, still trying to bring herself back to that store.

Melinda made a face, running her fingers over the fabric. “I dunno. It’s kind of scratchy. Ah, well. I don’t have the money for it. I told you not to let me buy anything anyway.”

She sighed exaggeratedly, but then grinned. “Fine. It’s the most horrible scarf I’ve ever seen.”

They laughed.

“Let’s go get coffee.”

They left the store and headed for the food court.

* * *

Whitney and her mom didn’t want to go see the movie that Aunt Brenda and Melinda were so interested in at the theater across from the mall, so they stayed behind and to hang out until they were picked up afterwards.

Whitney tried to think of things they could do to kill the time since neither of them seemed too excited about going in the stores any longer.

Whitney said, “We could go get something to eat now if you want.”

Her mother looked at Whitney for a moment without answering. After a long pause, she said, “Didn’t you eat?

“I had coffee earlier.”

Her mom shuffled her bags around in her hands. “Oh.”

“Why? Did you eat?”

“I had a snack,” Jo said in a guilt-tinged tone.

Perplexed, and with her lawyer’s brain constantly alert, Whitney asked, “What kind of snack?”

“I had a lunch snack.”

“A what?”

“Well, I went to Ruby Tuesday and had a burger and fries. And then I had dessert.”