Wicked Wonderland (11 page)

“Chloe,” Claire said, relieved that it was her sister calling instead of her frantic mother.

“Where in the hell are you?”

Okay, maybe she wasn’t relieved. “Whisper, Colorado.”

“What?”

“Chloe, calm down.”

“Calm down? I arrived at the train station a little while ago to pick you up, and all that arrived was your suitcases!”

“Have you told Mom and Dad?”

“No! But I was very close to calling the police! Claire! Dear God, my heart is hammering out of my chest! If you hadn’t answered . . .”

“Chloe, I’m sorry. I forgot that I had asked you to pick me up.”

“And you apparently forgot how to use a cell phone! What in the world is going on?”

“You have to promise not to say anything to anyone about this.”

“Claire!”

“Promise, Chloe.You cannot blab this to a soul!”

“Are you in trouble?”

Claire snorted. “No! I’m the good one.You’re the trouble-maker, remember?”

“Blah, blah, blah. Now spill.”

“I’m serious.”

“You’re never serious.”

“I am this time,” she insisted, and when her voice cracked, her sister finally remained quiet.

“Oh, Sis, tell me what’s going on. I promise not to leak a word to anyone.”

“Not even your current dude?”

“I don’t have a current dude.”

“But what about—”

“Stop! Just tell me why you’re in Whisper,Wyoming.”

“Colorado.”

“Whatever!”

Claire knew she had stalled long enough.“I missed the train.” “What!” Chloe shrieked.

“I was shopping,” she explained.

“Oh,” Chloe commented in a lower tone and with a bit more understanding. Shopping was in her blood also.“Go on.”

“I am going to tell you everything because I want your advice.Try not to interject too much and just listen, okay?”

“I won’t,” Chloe promised even though she was the queen of interrupters.

Claire settled back against the pillows. She started with the Santa statue and ended with the mug of tea, leaving out the details of their lovemaking but letting Chloe know that she had been intimate with a man she barely knew . . . but that it still somehow seemed a healing process that they both needed.

“Claire, you can’t let Jesse slip through your fingers. This is like a holiday love story. Hallmark . . . no, wait, Fa-la-la-la Lifetime.Those are steamier.”

Claire laughed without real humor. “More like a Nicholas Sparks novel . . . no happy ending.”

“But, Claire, you’re in charge of this ending.”

Claire closed her eyes and blew out a sigh. “If only it were that easy. We live so far away from each other and have totally different lifestyles.This is silly. I need to just give it up.”

“What, people don’t need their hair cut in . . . where are you again?”

“Whisper.”

“Why?”

“No, that’s where I’m at.”

“Gotcha.” Chloe laughed.

Claire smiled in spite of herself.“I miss you. How could I ever move away from my family? My work? And why am I even talking about this? He made it clear that this was just a holiday fling.”

“Duh, because he’s as scared and confused as you are.”

“Don’t ever say ‘duh’ again.”

“Duh,” Chloe repeated just as Claire knew she would. “Look, I love you, too, but if the man of my dreams comes along, I will live anywhere and you’ll just have to visit. And you’ve always disliked the stress of a high-end salon. What you’ve really enjoyed about cutting hair is interacting with the people. And you sound as if you love the cabin.”

“It’s all a moot point.”

“You don’t know that for sure. I just want to point out that this has the potential to work if you give it a chance.”

“No . . . seriously we’ve both been watching too many holiday movies. Listen, thanks for letting me bend your ear. Please let Mom and Dad know I’m stuck here.Tell them I have bad cell reception. I don’t have the energy to talk to them right now and I know I’ll start crying and then Mom will start crying and Dad will have a mess on his hands.”

“I’ll take care of it, sweetie. Call me if anything changes, okay?”

“I will, and thanks again. I love you.”

“Me, too.”

Claire ended up taking a long, hot, steamy bath after all. When she was toweling dry, she noticed several pink abrasions on her skin from Jesse’s stubble. She closed her eyes and felt a hot shiver at the memory but then pushed it aside and slipped beneath the covers. She felt a bit hungry but heard movement downstairs as if he was moving things around . . . probably packing, and so she opted to stay upstairs and after a few moments fell fast asleep.

O
h, it just wasn’t fair. Claire had dreamed about Jesse off and on all night long, and this one was so realistic that she could actually feel his smooth skin and the cozy warmth of his body. In fact, she could even smell his woodsy, spicy scent....

Oh boy . . .

Claire’s heart hammered in her chest, and sure enough, when she opened her eyes a mere slit, she encountered wide shoulders and dark wavy hair. She had managed to hook one leg across his hips and one arm over his waist. She frowned while trying to figure out just how Jesse had ended up asleep next to her. She peeked beneath the covers. She was wearing his flannel shirt, and he was shirtless but in his sweatpants, and since there wasn’t any eggnog involved, she would surely remember....

Oh God.
He shifted and her hand slipped lower, but she didn’t want to move and wake him until she remembered how in the world he ended up in her bed! The last thing she recalled was talking to Chloe. Frowning, Claire eased up just a tiny bit to sneak a peek over his shoulder at the digital clock on the nightstand. It was ten o’clock! What about the train? Should she shake him awake?

Claire inhaled a deep breath and blinked in confusion when she smelled cinnamon, coffee . . . and
pine
? Oh . . . she caught her bottom lip between her teeth when she spotted several pine needles caught in Jesse’s hair. Nothing was adding up, and when curiosity got the best of her, she whispered, “Jesse?”

He mumbled something and rolled to his back, causing the cover to slide. Her hand rested just beneath his belly button and she got an eyeful of his bare chest. Sexy dark stubble shaded his jaw, and damn if she didn’t have the urge to lean in and kiss him.

“Jesse?” she repeated a little bit louder.

“Mm?”

“What time is the train leaving?”

“Eight,” he mumbled.

“Um, it’s after ten o’clock.”

Claire fully expected him to open his eyes and sit up straight in alarm. But he turned
toward her
and slipped one arm around her waist, drawing her closer. “’So-kay,” he mumbled again. “Go back to sleep.”

“But I smell coffee.Who made coffee?”

“Elves.”

“Jesse . . .”

“Anybody ever tell you that you talk too much?” He kissed her shoulder.

“Yeah, all the time. But—”

“You’re not gonna let me sleep, are you?”

She shifted so she could look at him. “What’s going on?”

He opened his eyes. “Come with me.” He rolled from beneath the covers and held out his hand.

Claire sat up and slipped her hand into his. She was full of questions but didn’t know where to begin, so she simply followed him out of the bedroom to the stairs. “Oh . . .
my
.” She put her hand over her mouth while she gazed at a magnificent Christmas tree decorated from top to bottom. Fingers of sunshine sliced through the window and glinted off the ornaments. “Jesse . . .” She tore her gaze from the tree and looked at him. “It’s breathtaking.You . . . you did this?”

He grinned. “I already told you. Elves. Little guys made all kinds of noise and kept me up all night.”

Claire pressed her lips together and swallowed hard. “Oh, Jesse . . .” When she tried to blink back tears but failed, he cupped her cheeks in his hands and swiped the moisture away with the pads of his thumbs.

He looked at her and said, “Last night when I was clearing the road with my Bobcat, the thought of escaping to the beach suddenly held no appeal. For the first time since the loss of my parents, I suddenly wanted to celebrate Christmas.” He paused to swallow and then said, “And I wanted to celebrate it with you.” He leaned in and kissed her softly.“Claire, you’ve brought joy and laughter back into my life. I have no idea how we’re going to make this work, but if you’re willing, I want to give it a shot.What do you say?”

“Yes,” she managed to answer, and smiled through the tears.

Jesse grinned. “Good, because the train has already departed, so you’re stuck anyway.”

“And you made sure of that?”

“Kinda.”

She arched one eyebrow.

“Okay . . . yes.” When Claire laughed, he tugged on her hand like an excited kid. “Come on. I have something for you.” Claire followed him over to the tree. There was a package wrapped with her name on it. She put a hand to her chest when he handed it to her. “Open it.”

With trembling fingers she fumbled with red ribbon tied around newspaper.

“Sorry, I didn’t have any wrapping paper.”

“Oh . . . ,” she breathed when she revealed an exquisitely carved angel. “Jesse, she is absolutely beautiful.”

He smiled and then shook his head. “I found her on my workbench when I went out to get the Bobcat. It’s funny, because I thought I had sold all of them, and yet there she was. Her face haunted me while I started plowing the road, and before I knew it, I was chopping down a tree.”

Claire was so overwhelmed with emotion that she couldn’t speak.

“I remembered that you collected angels and I wanted you to have her.”

“She is a treasure.Thank you.” Claire carefully set the angel down and then gave Jesse a hug but then pulled back and said, “Ohmigosh. It’s your birthday and Christmas Eve! And I don’t have anything for you!”

Jesse picked up the discarded red ribbon and tied it around her neck. “I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

T
he silver tinsel looked as if it had been ravaged. One spot was crushed, another part stripped bare. A long stretch of the decorative string was twisted, the silver strips fanning out wildly. It was beyond repair.

Maybe no one would notice. Rachel grabbed for a tack from her desk. Once she pinned it back up, she could hide the damage with a few well-placed Christmas cards.

“Whoa, Rachel.” She recognized her friend Nikki’s voice at the doorway. “What happened to your cubicle?”

Shoot. So much for no one noticing. Rachel felt the unfamiliar heat sting her cheeks. Was she blushing? Terrific. She used to think she was physiologically incapable of showing embarrassment. The inability had come in handy many times over the years.

“It was a wild party last night,” Rachel said, keeping her head low and her attention on the denuded tinsel so Nikki couldn’t see her blush.

“The
office
Christmas party?” Nikki asked in disbelief. Rachel heard her friend step into her work space.“Were we at the same party?”

“Pretty sure,” she muttered as she drove the thumbtack into the wall with more force than necessary.

“Really? Because the highlight of my night was getting stuck in the corner with the drunk copy machine guy.”

“He’s cute.” Rachel took a step back and surveyed the repair job. “Did you get very far with him?”

“He talked nonstop about the best way to get copy toner out of clothes. His cuteness factor took a big hit,” Nikki said. “Now, if he had plans of rolling around with me in copy toner, that would have been a different story.”

“Agreed.” Rachel stabbed a strategically placed Christmas card over the worst spot of tinsel.

“Why didn’t you get me away? I looked for you.”

Rachel turned around and faced her friend. Nikki was a short, voluptuous woman who loved to show off her curves in low-cut shirts and tight jeans. She made up for her lack of height with stiletto heels and by piling her long red hair on top of her head.

“Sorry about that. I got . . . distracted.”
Well, that’s one word for it
, she thought
.

Nikki didn’t say anything as her attention was drawn to Rachel’s desk. “What happened to your chair?”

“Uh . . . nothing.” She wanted to wince at the lame answer.

“It’s totally destroyed.” Nikki gave the wheels a kick and watched the lopsided piece of furniture sag.“It looks like there was an orgy in here. . . .”

All of Rachel’s muscles locked. She knew there was no getting out of this. She watched Nikki’s face with dread. She saw her friend’s eyes flicker over the cubicle, indexing every damning piece of evidence.