Harmony for Christmas (Dansboro Crossing #4)

Chapter 8

eight

HARMONY

I can’t believe we were interrupted by the kitchen timer. This was the first make-out session I’ve had since I was a teenager. Based on the hard chub pressing against me, Beau was enjoying it as much as I was.

We’ve been cockblocked by simmering chicken. He suggested we let it burn, but I’m pretty sure catching the house on fire is not the best option in a snowstorm.

“I don’t think anything else will fit,” Beau says, patting his stomach.

“Not even some gingerbread I made for dessert?”

“Jesus, Harmony. Later? After this settles?”

“Fine.”

“I’m going to gain twenty pounds while you’re here.”

“I said fine, don’t keep nagging.” I stand from the table to take our dishes to the sink.

His words make me sad. While I’m here. That’s just it, I’ll have to go home soon, and all of this will just be a wonderful memory of how I spent Christmas. I’ll have to leave Beau and Reacher to return to reality. Reality is overrated. Reality truly does bite.

“I’m not nagging,” Beau says, kissing my neck. I didn’t hear him walk up behind me. At first, I’m startled, but then he wraps his strong arms around me, and I settle against his chest. “And I don’t really mind putting on weight if it’s because of your cooking.”

“I think you’re making that up. I don’t feel anything but hard abs and tight glutes,” I say, running my hands under his shirt. They graze across his stomach before copping a handful of his ass. Quickly, they return to his back. That ass is lethal.

“Thanks for noticing,” he teases. “You know, you’re getting much better at the flirting thing.” I’m pushing up on my toes to kiss him when we’re suddenly plunged into darkness.

“Shit. Wait right here.” He moves away from me, and I hear a drawer open. A light from a flashlight illuminates the floor in front of me. “Let me find the lanterns.” He leaves the kitchen but returns a few minutes later carrying several battery-operated lanterns.

“What happened?” I ask. “I mean, obviously the electricity has gone off. But why?”

“The weather earlier said to expect ice.” He moves into the living room. I find him looking through the panes in the front door. “Everything is coated in ice. It’s really howling out there. I’m sure it’s wiped out the lines.”

“Oh my gosh,” I whisper, staring out the only window not blocked by the Christmas tree. Everything glistens in the beam of Beau’s flashlight. He’s pulled open the door to look around. The room quickly chills in the cold air. Stepping back inside, he closes the door and jogs toward the back of the house.

“Beau?” I call, following him. He’s pulling on his boots and a coat in the mudroom.

“Wait inside. I need to check the generator. It powers the fridge and freezer when the electricity goes out.” He doesn’t wait for me to answer before hurrying outside.

Picking up a couple of pieces of firewood, I return to the living room to wait. Reacher paces the house waiting for him to reappear too. I’m not sure which of us is more worried.

“Let’s see if we can take the chill out of the air.” Reacher watches me as I place the logs on the fire. “Getting toastier already.” The back door slams. I jump up and hurry with Reacher by my side into the hallway.

“Here,” Beau says, thrusting a space heater into my hands. “Put that one in front of the sink in the kitchen with the cabinet door open. I’ll put the other one in the bathroom. Although, I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t freeze anyway.”

I walk quickly into the kitchen. Opening the cabinet door under the sink, I set the space heater on the floor and turn it on. Doors close down the hall.

“Everything okay?” I call.

“The bedrooms have no heat. We’ll have to sleep out here tonight,” he says, walking into the kitchen. “The generator is about maxed out. I think we have enough wood for tonight. I’ll bring some more into the living room. The mudroom is going to be freezing. The couch pulls out.” He stops speaking, seeming to notice for the first time that we’re now reduced to one room. “I can sleep on the floor.”

“You’ll freeze.”

“The chair then.”

“You said it pulls out?” I ask, ignoring him. We’re adults, surely, we can share a pull-out couch. No one needs to freeze on a cold hard floor tonight. I pull out the cushions and grab the handle.

“Here, let me do it. It weighs a ton.” He pulls the bed out and unfolds it. “I’ll go grab some sheets. Get anything out of your room you need.” I follow him down the hallway to my room. There are not many clothes left in my bag. I keep meaning to do a load of laundry. Pulling off my comforter, I haul it back into the living room.

“Do you have some sweats I can borrow? I’m about out of clothes,” I ask.

“Yeah.” He stops pulling the fitted sheet onto the mattress and walks back down the hallway. By the time he returns with an armload of clothes, I have the bed made. “You might want to take a quick shower one last time while there’s hot water,” he adds. “It’s a gas tank, but the ignition is electric.”

“I’ll hurry, so you have hot water too.” I take a quick shower, foregoing the shampoo so Beau has some hot water. I braid my hair, pull on a pair of his sweats, and head back into the living room. “I left you a little.” He looks up from the fire and freezes. “What?”

“Nothing.” His gaze shifts back to the fire.

“I know. I look like a mess.”

“Don’t say that,” he snarls, looking back up. “I was just thinking about how beautiful you look.” My heart begins to pound. “I don’t think it’s possible for me to see you as anything else.”

Now my heart is going at it so hard I don’t know how he can’t see it. I don’t know how to respond to a statement like that. Simply saying thanks sounds so lacking.

Beau doesn’t seem to be expecting an answer, though. He turns back to the fire and adds another log. I’ve also never had a man say something so sweet and not wait for an answering compliment. I can feel the smile warming my entire body. He’s made me feel like his words were nothing more than a statement of fact. He’s made me feel like I can be okay with who I am.

“I’m going to go run through the shower,” he says, pushing up to his full height.

“Don’t get hurt.”

“What?”

“You know…running…through the shower. Never mind,” I mumble. I slump down into the chair and pull one of the blankets around me. Any minute now he should wander off down the cold hallway. Instead, he stares at me for a moment before walking over. Leaning down, he places a hand on each side of the chair.

“I love how your mind works,” he says quietly into my ear. Then his lips brush against mine before he stands back up. With a wink, he turns for the bathroom.

“Your flirting game is getting really good you know,” I yell.

He responds with a chuckle from down the hall. Holy smokes! The shower turns on, and I try to force the vision of water sliding over his hard body from my mind.

“This is proving harder than I thought,” I tell Reacher as I massage his ears with my toes. He’s lying on the floor at my feet. He puffs a breath in response.

“Maybe we need something to keep us distracted until bedtime. Whenever that is.” I push up from the chair and cross to the bookshelves. There has to be something to do in this house that doesn’t require electricity. Except for the obvious of course.

There’s not enough light to read. I don’t want to spend hours in silence doing that anyway. I’ve finally got him talking. I don’t want to lose any ground.

Lowering to my knees, I dig around in the cabinets under the bookshelves. Why does he not have any board games? Not even Candy Land left over from childhood. I find the deck of cards from yesterday. There has to be something else under here.

I continue to dig around. There are the usual storage items—serving dishes, a few more movies, a box of CDs, and a stack of scrapbooks. Pulling one out, I lean back against the cabinet to look through it.

“Find anything good?” I jump at Beau’s words only a few feet from me. I didn’t hear him coming back down the hall. My gaze makes a slow perusal up his bare feet, sweatpants, and T-shirt until it lands on his face. He slides to the floor next to me. He smells so good I have to fight the urge to lean in to him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to snoop. I was just looking for some way to kill time until bed.”

“There’s nothing in this house you can’t see.” He takes the scrapbook from me and begins leafing through the pages. “These pictures are from when my parents were dating.” He flips through a few more pages. “Here we go. Mom was already pregnant with me in this one. Shh,” he says, bumping against me. “Scandalous.” He smiles. There’s a mix of wistfulness and sadness in it.

“She was beautiful,” I whisper.

“She was.” He seems to shake himself out of wherever his memories have taken him. He flips the book closed and returns it under the cabinet. “I’m afraid with the electricity out our choices are books or cards.”

“Cards it is then. I have an idea.” I take the cards and flop onto the pull-out bed. With my legs crossed, I motion for him to join me. Reacher thinks I’m talking to him and joins me on the bed. Beau sits on the other side with his long legs stretched out in front of him. “We’re going to play gin, but for every game I win I get to ask you a question and vice versa. Sort of like a cross between an icebreaker and strip poker.”

“This sounds like a horrible idea.”

“It’ll be fun. I promise not to ask anything too crazy.”

He looks at me like he doesn’t believe me, but he nods. I take the cards out of the pack, shuffle them, and deal them out. He wins the cut. I organize my cards and wait for him to begin. It doesn’t take long for him to win the first hand. He gathers up the cards and turns his gaze on me.

“Why did you want to spend Christmas with Travis instead of your family?” he asks.

“I told you my parents are on a cruise, and I don’t really want to visit my sister for the holidays.” I shrug. “Travis asked, so it sounded like the best choice. Being on your own for Christmas isn’t the best choice in my opinion.”

“Yeah, it’s not.”

“I mean,” I stammer, realizing too late that being alone is how Beau spends most of his time. “It’s fine if that’s what you like.”

“I’m not sure anyone likes it, it just is. Sometimes circumstances don’t include a big happy family.” He deals the cards. Since he won, I get to go first this time. Reacher stretches and moves his head to my lap. I stroke his ears as I study my cards. “You’re spoiling him rotten.”

“But look how happy he is.” Reacher sighs. I’m choosing to believe it’s a happy one. “I think you’re just jealous.”

“Probably,” he admits. “I can guarantee, though, if I put my head in your lap you’ll do more than rub my ears.”

My eyes feel like they’re about to pop out of my head. I’m sure the shock on my face is Oscar-worthy. Beau looks over at me and laughs. Is he just trying to knock me off my game, or is he making promises? It’s giving me whiplash. I toss a card on the discard pile keeping my head down. Reacher snorts and shakes his head.

“Sorry,” I tell him. I guess the death grip I had on his ear wasn’t working for him. So much for my ally in this. Beau chuckles again and throws a card. “It’s not going to work you know. You’re not going distract me from winning.”

“What? Me?” he says, acting offended. “Surely not.” What’s frustrating is, he wins anyway.

“Who was your first?” he asks.

“Wow, going straight for the jugular. How do you know there’s even a first?” I ask. His eyes fire for a second with something I can’t quite place. Lust? Jealousy? Hunger? “Let’s see. I was seventeen. It was prom night with Chase Hansen. Cliché, right?”

“Not cliché. Not very exciting either.” He shuffles the cards and deals them.

“Well, he was a senior, so I thought it was exciting at the time.”

“Was he your boyfriend.”

“For about two minutes. He was a nice guy though. Could have been worse.” I pick up my cards. Not too bad a hand. This time I can win. I can’t be the only one in this room sharing her darkest secrets. I need to even the score.