Sleeping With Santa (4 page)

Last night, when the batteries died during a make-believe play-date with her dream-lover, she wound up polishing off a bottle of champagne to drown the disappointment. She made a mental note to stop at the drugstore and pick up a value pack of D-batteries…

The doorbell jingled, and Lily nearly jumped out of her skin, hoping it might be Nick. But it was just the deliveryman dropping off packages.

“Did it come?” Bob pointed shears at his wife.

Sophia glanced over her reading glasses. “Did what come?”

“The
whatsitcalled
? The heart attack machine.”

“AED machine.” Lily untied her apron and tossed it into the hamper with a swish.

Bob gave her a curious look. “If you’re so smart, where’s your certificate?”

Lily clammed up wishing she hadn’t said anything at all. She’d fled the classroom to avoid confronting Nick. Consequently, she’d neglected to take her certificate.

“Maybe she didn’t pass,” Sophia chimed in with a smug smile.

“Of course I passed. Maybe it’s lost in the mail. I dunno. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you call the firehouse?”

The bell jingled once more as the deliveryman stepped out, and in came another burst of cold air along with two last-minute customers.

“Well, well, well, now we can straighten this out,” Bob said. “We’re wondering where Lily’s CPR certificate could be.”

“I dunno,” Chief Maresca’s familiar voice boomed. “But you can ask him.”

Lily’s eyes nearly popped out of the sockets when she saw the six-foot incubus of her dreams.
Stay cool, just stay cool
.

“This is Nick Knight. He’s my new guy.” The chief made the round of introductions. “Lily, you remember Nick, dontcha?”

Lily nodded; it was all she could do. Her mouth went dry, and her coolness melted away into a pool of liquid heat between her thighs. Her rapid-fire pulse resonated like a faraway hollow drumbeat in her head. The world rushed at her face in a disorienting red hot and blue time warp. Blinking hard, her vision turned gray before shrinking to the size of a suffocating pinhole.

Then.

Everything.

Went.

Black—

Chapter Four

With the department SUV’s siren blaring and lights flashing, Nick and Maresca followed the ambulance with Sophia and Bob in the backseat.

“Stick around, will ya. We’re gonna check on Lily.”

“You got it, Chief.” Nick took a seat in the emergency room lobby that reeked of disinfectant and looked just as sterile and uninteresting as the one in Star Harbor. He grabbed the first magazine from a stack on the end table and flipped mindlessly through the glossy pages.

At first, Lily’s fainting spell seemed like a good act. If he was sure of one thing, it was women were mental terrorists capable of anything. They could play the damsel in distress at the drop of dime whenever the mood struck. Sometimes for effect. Sometimes for real. Something about stress levels short-circuiting the nervous system like a defense mechanism—the fight or flight reflex at its primordial best.

He’d been married to the best of the best when it came to drama queens. And he’d responded to enough 911 calls to know when to worry and when to walk away from a false alarm.

Lily looked like a pretty healthy female. However, when she went down, he sprang to her side. Her usual fair complexion was whiter than the pale moon. Even her pink lips had lost their hue.

Thank God, she didn’t need CPR. But being unconscious wasn’t a good sign.

A couple of hours and a dozen magazines later, Nick was restless for Maresca to emerge with news regarding Lily’s condition. With nothing else to do, he reviewed his list of to-dos.

A few fire alarms to test.

A couple of chimneys to inspect.

Then there was the whole Santa-gig.

Overall, it wasn’t a lot to handle, and it certainly wasn’t rocket science. The hardest part of the job was keeping up with Maresca’s ad-hoc requests—until now. This sitting and waiting for an update on her was torturous.

Nervous energy urged Nick to his feet. Pacing gave him something to do. And when he got tired of pacing, he went back to sitting.

Planted in a plastic chair, he watched the clock on the wall. Stifling a yawn, he fought the need to shut his eyes and ran his hands through his hair, pulling at the root to wake up.

The assortment of wounds parading through the door provided better entertainment than any reality TV program and reminded him of his own myriad of trips to the ER.

Besides the routine check-ups from the neck-up from firefighting injuries, most of his visits had been from drunken bar fighting. A few fractured bones. A couple of concussions. And a broken nose, twice. The garden variety of idiotic injuries that went along with binge drinking.

Thank God he gave up booze and found salvation in sobriety.

He was glad not to be the patient this time.

However, Lily was, and that bothered him. A lot.

He didn’t have any good reason to care so much, but he did. That bothered him even more.

For the first time in a while, a little itch inside him begged for scratching, and it had him on his feet ready to find the closest pub for a little comfort in a shot of Southern…

Better make it a double…

A triple if he wanted to get Lily off his mind.

He sat back down.
No thanks. Been there. Done that. Blacked out. Passed out. Rinse, repeat.
Those days were over. He’d thank his conscience in the morning.

If he had such good self-control, then why did his moral compass keep pointing at Lily?

Nick recalled all the things the Star Harbor chief had said about using the transfer to get a fresh start in a new place. Maybe she was the reason destiny brought him to this one traffic-light town. At least that’s what he’d thought up until the point when she collapsed.

He got up again to stretch his legs, tempted to march behind the ER doors to find Maresca—and Lily—but went out to find some air instead.

There seemed to be a lot more stars hanging in the inky sky over Scenic View than he ever noticed in Star Harbor. He tried thinking more about the sliver of moonlight peeking between the tall bare trees, and less about the slip of a girl laid up in a hospital bed.

He ought to wait in the SUV—at least he could
meditate
behind the steering wheel parked in the dark. A little hand-solo action would take the edge off, killing the need for a drink and sexual release in one shot.

Knowing Lily wasn’t well made him feel guilty for having a rock-hard reaction right now. Ever since the moment he laid eyes on the sweet, young thing, all he wanted to do was bury himself inside her. That smoking-hot body and hair like flames. She came off a little shy. He liked shy. Shy made the most interesting challenge.

“Maybe she just thinks I’m some creepy old dude. I’m not
that
old, am I?” He consulted with the universe as a great gust of wet wind rolled off the Long Island Sound, rattling the branches, churning the leaves on the ground. “I take that as a yes.” He sighed in defeat and hunkered down, pulling up the leather collar.

He didn’t feel like a creepy old guy for being attracted to her. Didn’t feel like a jerk while he was
meditating
about her. He felt pretty good, actually.

The question was—what did she feel?

Maybe he misread her vibes. Who knows? There’s a first time for everything.

Unsettled and overtired, he went inside, sat in the same stiff chair to wait some more.

Minutes felt like hours.

Hours felt like eternity.

“Hey, Nick, wake up.” He heard the voice in a dream before realizing it was for real. It took him a moment to gather his wits before reflexively socking the guy shaking his shoulder. It was a good thing he opened his eyes to see it was Maresca. “Are ya sleeping?”

“Just resting my eyes.” He rubbed them with the heels of his hands.

“You mind sticking around here a little longer while I take the Barbieris home?”

“No problem. How’s Lily?” Nick kept the desire out of his voice.

“She says she wants to go home, but they’re gonna keep her overnight for observation. Once they have her room ready, they’ll let you know. Call me and I’ll pick you up.”

“Is her next of kin coming down?”

“Her parents are deceased. And I don’t think she’s seeing anyone.”

Bob concurred.

Bingo!
Fireworks went off behind Nick’s bleary eyes.

“Well…” Sophia chimed in. “If you count my nephew in California—I’m setting her up with him. He’ll be coming to town for Christmas. He owns
three
beauty salons. He’s perfect for her...”

“Sophia,” Maresca said gently, “we’re not talking about potential first dates.”

“Don’t listen to her.” Bob grunted, taking Sophia by the elbow. “We’ll meet you outside, Chief.”

“Why dontcha go sit back there with her?” Maresca jutted his jaw in the direction of the ER doors. “The chairs are more comfortable.”

“I’m fine right here.” Nick slumped against the hard molded plastic and jammed his fists in his jacket pockets.

“Suit yourself.” Maresca disappeared out the automatic doors.

Another eternal hour passed until a nurse emerged to confirm Lily had been assigned a room.

Finally, Nick could leave.

But his boots wouldn’t budge over the threshold.

Instead, he headed for the double doors to the ER, using his fire department ID-card to bypass security bells and whistle, and peeked into room 314.

She was awake under an ivory blanket, with wires connecting her to a monitor. At least her pallor looked a little better.

“Nick?” The beeping of her heart rate escalated. He deciphered the terror in her wide eyes, like he was the Devil or the Big Bad Wolf. “What are you doing here?”

“The chief asked me to check on you.”

Where were his manners? He could have simply asked how she’s feeling. Better yet, he could have started with hello. But her elevated vitals threw off his game, making it impossible to read her vibe with the distraction.

“If you need anything…” His unfinished offer sounded hollow, but he meant it.
Anything.

“I’ll be fine.” Her small voice was crystal-clear.

That’s it?
What did he expect—for her to jump out of bed and throw herself at him?

“Yeah, well…feel better.” He waited a long silent moment to see if she had anything to add, and when she rolled toward the window he recognized his cue to leave.

Chapter Five

Lily climbed into the back of the hay wagon against her better judgment. It was the Barbieri’s idea she chaperone three little kids belonging to a mother too pregnant to take the ride around Brawny’s Farm. Sophia put up a convincing argument, while Bob bribed her with a meal.

“Oh, fine,” Lily said. Maybe they were right. She had nothing against fun. Plus, free food sounded pretty good now that her appetite returned to normal since she no longer pined for
Whatshisface
.

No more clammy palms. No more paralyzed chest. No more worrying he might magically appear around every corner.

Big deal, he showed up at the hospital. Out of departmental duty, no doubt. Had she known from the start he was a fireman, she never would fell for him as hard as she did.

Besides, she hadn’t run into him since. If he was so interested in her, he had plenty of time to say something. He knew where to find her. All that hocus-pocus CPR-vibration must have been nothing but a fluke.

No. Nick Knight wasn’t interested in her any more than she was interested in this wagon ride with these unruly mini-monsters.

The jumping, climbing, screaming, fighting was more than she could handle. When they finished wrestling each other, they tossed tiny fistfuls of hay at Lily. It stuck to her lip-gloss, and she spat it out of her mouth.

“Come on, fellas. You better quit it or else I’ll tell your mother,” she threatened, but none of them listened. “Boys, someone’ll get hurt!” Still, no one obeyed. It was a mystery why their parents wanted more of them. “That’s enough!” She grabbed them by their hoods and parked them on the seat until the party lights in the distance signaled the end was near.

“Aww,” the boys sang in unison.

“Thank God. I’m ready to go home.” Lily jumped to the ground, brushing debris from her bottom.

Rubbing her big belly, the mother asked in earnest, “Would you like to babysit sometime? Ten dollars an hour.”

Shell-shocked, Lily shrugged a potential maybe despite the urge to refuse with a flat-out no. Sure, the money was tempting, but not at the risk of losing her sanity. Without making any promises, she slipped away to find the Barbieris.

They weren’t on the dance floor. Or by the snack shed. Or anywhere else.

The crowd was thinning now that night was coming on, but the lack of light made it harder to tell the shadowy figures apart. She planted herself in a dim corner, watching for Bob’s little lumpy body and Sophia’s big-bottomed pear-shape.

Stuffing cold hands into the pockets of her puffy-coat, she pulled out remnants of hay. Pointy bits and pieces made its way inside her clothes, too. It was everywhere.

“Hello, Lily.” The familiar voice came from behind. Footsteps shuffled closer until his silhouette stood between her and the rest of the world.

She wanted to run, but the blood drained from her limbs, making them feel like cold sand.

Be cool. Just be cool.

She willed the lava leaking in her panties to be arctic glacier-cold. Just when she’d finished agonizing over this person, her treacherous body reacted in the most wicked way all over again.

“Oh. Hi,
Nick
. I didn’t see you standing there. In the dark.” The last time she saw him he was lurking outside her hospital room.

“How’ve you been?” He sat beside her at the picnic table.

A small snort escaped, as if she’d actually fall for another heartfelt conversation with the devil in her dreams. Lifting her chin, she steeled herself against his heat. “I’m fine,” she lied.

“It’s a chilly night. I’d hate to see you get sick.
Again
.”

She wasn’t sure if he was concerned or condescending by his teasing tone.