Mistletoe and Montana (5 page)

           
“Good night, Jellybean.”

           
“Good night, Benny.”

           
She smiled, even though she knew he couldn’t see it. But somehow she knew he
was smiling, too.

Chapter 7

           
Sometime in the night, Molly must have gone to her own bed, because Joely was
vaguely aware of rolling into the warm spot the little girl vacated. Ben’s arms
folded around her, and she snuggled into his side, not caring if it was the
right thing to do. It felt right, and that’s all that mattered.

           
His deep, even breaths matched hers, and she settled more comfortably on his
shoulder, where he’d tucked her head. He’d removed his flannel shirt and wore
only his t-shirt, so his body heat quickly penetrated through her clothes. His
heartbeat vibrated against her ear, and she drowsily lifted her arm to cross
his chest, lying beside him the way she used to, what seemed forever ago.

           
She’d thought she’d forget what it was like to share a bed with Ben once she’d
met Matt Rivers. Matt was sexy and charming, and his posters adorned the walls
of teenage girls from sea to shining sea. Everywhere they went mobs of
screaming girls and paparazzi followed them. At first, it was exhilarating
knowing that everyone wanted her handsome new boyfriend. As time wore on, it
was quickly apparent that he was more interested in his popularity than her or
her kids.

           
Breaking up with Matt was probably the best thing that could have happened.
Molly and Ian needed stability in their lives, and Matt was certainly not ready
to offer that. She wondered if he even liked her kids. Probably, since he was
mostly a kid himself.

           
“What are you thinking?” Ben’s voice was a lazy murmur.

           
“Nothing.”

           
“It’s something, because I can almost hear the wheels in your brain turning.”

           
Talking about Matt with Ben didn’t seem like a good idea, so she shrugged as
best as she could, pinned as she was against him. “I was thinking that it felt
nice, lying here with you.”

           
She regretted speaking a second later. Wasn’t this every cliché in the book?
Hooking up with one’s ex at the holidays was practically a requirement in the
lives of the divorcees she knew. To have a whirlwind winter fling was nothing
new to them.

           
She shouldn’t have worried. He ran his fingers through her hair, all the way
down its length. “I don’t know what it is, babe, but I’m glad for it. I’ve
missed you.” His bicep flexed for a second while he gave her a squeeze.

           
“I’ve missed you, too.” Her voice was a strangled whisper. She closed her eyes
and nearly held her breath as he shifted his position to face her. His knee
nudged hers, and she lifted her leg over his a second later, laughing when he
did. A thousand tingles sprang up beneath her clothes when he trailed his hand
down her back and then to her leg, caressing her over her jeans. His breath was
teasingly close on her face. If she moved just an inch, her lips would brush
his.

           
“I can’t make any promises…” he began, then stopped.

           
“Me neither.”

           
“For all I know,” his lips skimmed hers, “the airport will reopen and you’ll
fly out of here and never look back.”

           
She slid her hand up his heavily muscled arm, relishing the feel of the bulk of
him. Her fingers locked behind his head.

           
“You have to admit,” she murmured, her lips vibrating against his, “this is a
whole lot better than fighting.”

           
If he was going to reply, his words were drowned out by a deep and passionate
kiss. She clung to him, her arms wrapped so tightly around his neck he gasped
for air. She blinked in the dim glow of the approaching sunrise, staring at his
face while the shadows lightened and they remained motionless.

           
“I want to make love to you,” he said.

           
“Same here.” She smiled tremulously, enjoying the quivery sensation in her legs
that spread to her middle.

           
“But I don’t want us to be some once a year fling.” His throat moved as he
gulped. “And I sure as hell don’t want to read about some new guy once you go
back to Hollywood.”

           
“I don’t want that, either.”

           
“Which part? The fling, or the new guy?”

           
She brushed a strand of her hair from his face, where it had caught in his
shadowy whiskers. “Maybe both.” What a scary, wonderful thing it was to finally
know what she wanted.

           
“We’ll see what happens, Joely. I…I don’t know what’s going on. This is the
last thing I expected….”

           
She dropped her leg from his and returned to her position with her head on his
shoulder. “I know.” It was amazing how fast her desire dropped from sizzling to
fizzling. She sighed and gave his chest a little pat. “I hope it’s more than
just a Christmas thing, too.”

           
“Me, too.”

He resumed stroking her hair until he
fell asleep. She was careful not to waken him as she crept out of bed and went
down the hall to her room before the kids woke up. It was enough that she and
Ben were confused. She didn’t have to throw Molly and Ian into the mix.

Chapter 8

           
The landscape rolled by in a whirl of white snow and green pine trees. Joely
squeezed her eyes shut and stifled a scream as Ben jumped the snowmobile over a
little hill. The motion slammed her against his back, to which she clung for
dear life.

           
“Had enough?” he called over his shoulder, and she shook her head as adrenaline
coursed through her. Tensing her thighs as another hill approached, she leaned
into him, settling her arms tighter around his waist.

           
“Faster!”

She sounded just like Ian when he and
Ben had streaked by her earlier. Straddling the snowmobile, her arms around
Ben, was something she would never have imagined doing just a week before, when
she stood in her summery kitchen. Then, she dreaded facing Ben when she brought
the kids to his place. Angry words were all they’d shared in the last few
years, but now, this week in Montana had been like something out of a holiday
movie.

           
She looked over his shoulder and got a glimpse of the side of his face. His
exposed cheek and jaw were apple red, and she noted the faint grizzled
appearance of where he hadn’t shaved. He seemed young and carefree, as when
they’d first met. How many times had she kissed his lips, that looked carved
from granite, or gazed into his eyes, as blue as the Montana sky above them?
Sometimes she couldn’t remember why they’d ever split up. Foggy memories
lingered of accusations and rumors when he was on the road, and then that awful
time a paparazzo caught her in a friendly handhold off set with her sexy co-star.

           
By the time they could have salvaged their marriage, they were already used to
long distances. If Ben wasn’t in training or on the road, she was locked in
another whirlwind shooting schedule of
Love My Enemy
. Soon, too soon, it
became easier to forget to call each other or meet every few weekends. Her
assistant began arranging the time for Ben to see the kids. They were living
the divorced lifestyle and they hadn’t even filed.

           
Until the day when a fresh-faced kid who didn’t look as if he were out of high
school knocked on her dressing room door and served her with divorce papers.

           
A tiny piece of ice stung her cheek. She released Ben’s waist with one arm to
snake her gloved fingers beneath her helmet visor. A frozen tear slipped down
her cheek, and was quickly replaced with another.

           
“You okay?” he called above the roar of the engine and the whistling wind.

           
She was about to nod, but shook her head. A moment later, the snowmobile
skidded to a stop. He turned off the engine and helped her off the seat. She
struggled with the helmet strap and he took over, unclipping the strap and
pulling the helmet off her head.

           
“Come on, Jellybean! That didn’t scare you.” His teasing laugh quickly faded.
“What’s wrong?”

           
“Everything!” She dragged her glove beneath her nose. “You were my best friend,
Ben. I could go to you for anything. You were the only man I ever wanted to be
with. The only man I’ve ever loved.” She couldn’t stop the tears if she wanted
to. “I don’t know what happened – how I let it happen. The kids miss us. I miss
us.”

           
He pulled his gloves off and tucked them into his pockets. He’d never looked at
her so intensely before. “What are you saying?”

           
“I don’t know what I’m saying.” She bit her lower lip and drew a cold, shaky
breath. “I mean, I do know, but I don’t know if you….”
            “I miss us,
too, Joely.” He gripped her shoulders. “Hell, don’t you know that I think about
you and the kids every single day?”
            “You do?”

           
“Yeah. I wish those bad years never happened, and we were still living in Apple
Valley in that little house we first bought together.” His eyes crinkled at the
memory. “I remember when we first brought Ian home. Those were the best years
of my life, Joely. If I hadn’t been signed then….” He shrugged and sighed. “Who
knows?”

           
“I let my career get in the way, too. It all happened so fast. We were young
and stupid.”

           
“I know.” His hands chafed her arms beneath her borrowed jacket. Like all of
his clothes, it hung on her, but it felt good being wrapped in something that
he’d worn.

           
“So…” Now was the awkward part. He’d tell her that it was just Christmas blues
upsetting her. That it was normal to feel maudlin about an ex when you’d just
had the hottest guy in Hollywood break up with you in a very public way. That
it was great seeing her, and hey, that kiss was pretty nice, but….

           
“So I love you.”

           
“What?” She’d been prepared for the opposite, and wasn’t sure what to do, even
when he pulled her toward him and lifted her face. For a moment, the sun
dazzled her, but then his shadow blocked the rays. She gazed back into his
eyes, and saw the familiar look of understanding and forgiveness in them. For
everything else she forgot to say or do, she did remember one, little thing.

           
And that was to kiss him back.

Epilogue:

A small notice appeared in
The
Rancher
newsletter:

“Local rancher and former NFL tight end
Benjamin Titus remarried Joely Burbank on New Year’s Day at their ranch on
Silver Fork River. Ms. Burbank is known for her role as the malicious Kirby
White on the long-running daytime show,
Love My Enemy
. Their two children
were in attendance.  The family will divide their time between the ranch
and their home in California.”

           
Joely clipped the article neatly out of the paper and pressed it into her
scrapbook. Her phone buzzed. It was her agent, probably calling to let her know
about a new acting gig she would never make. The airport was open for business,
but she didn’t foresee leaving Montana anytime soon. Outside, the hum of the
snowmobiles grew louder as Ian revved the engine.

           
“Hurry up, Mom!”

           
Molly and Ben soon took up the chant, and Joely snatched her coat before
heading outside into the bright sunshine to play with her family.

The
End