A Puppy for Christmas Page 13

  “Ella...”

  “Don’t say it like that. I’m happy. I really am happy. I fit here in Eagleton. I belong.” And if he kept looking at her the way he was looking at her now...if he kissed her again...he might know that she had lied. A little. She still had feelings for him. She wasn’t at all happy about that. And, oh, she wanted him to kiss her.

  That thought stopped her cold. “I’d better take the cookies home. Fizz needs his beauty sleep.”

  “Is that right, buddy?” Trey asked.

  The little dog woofed and licked Trey’s finger again.

  “Are you sure you’re not a dog person?”

  “Never going to happen. You come from the perfect couple. I failed the family test twice. Not going there again. No wife, no kids, no pets. But, Ella?”

  She had collected her box of cookies, had Fizz in tow and was turning to go. “What?”

  “If I’d known what you tasted like I would have kissed you years ago.”

  There was a dangerous look in his eyes, an I dare you to put down those cookies and kiss me again look. Ella fought to keep from moaning, from going over there, taking his face between her palms and kissing him the way she’d always wanted to.

  “You’re just trying to sweet-talk me into giving you another chocolate chip cookie. Or excusing you from tomorrow’s event. That’s just not happening. I’ll see you there, Trey. And there will be no more kissing.”

  He smiled.

  She smiled back.

  And then she walked out the door. She and Fizz stepped into her house and she shut the door behind them.

  “That ‘no more kissing’ thing I said? That was a warning for me, sweetie. And if I ever decide to do something stupid like kiss Trey again, I want you to start barking, or nip me good. Anything to keep me from doing something totally stupid. You got that, Fizz?”

  But Fizz was already playing with his red ball. His back was to her as if he didn’t want to discuss the matter.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE NEXT DAY looked like Christmas personified. There was snow on the ground, the sun was shining, and there was just enough of a breeze to set the Christmas bells in the trees outside City Hall to jingling.

  After last night’s confessions and kiss Trey was determined to be on his best behavior. He had embarrassed Ella, forced a confession from her, and this time when he left town he intended to leave on good terms with her. He was closing the door on his past, and that meant making peace with sweet, undeniably domestic Ella Delancey. And then putting her out of his mind forever.

  But that was proving hard to do. She looked delectable in her red coat and white mittens, her long hair streaming down her back as she stood with him in the doorway outside City Hall. The big red-brick building was located right in the center of town, with shops flanking it and marching away down one block on each side. Today’s Christmas Walk had been a rousing success, with the shops staying open later than usual and each shop serving treats to the steady stream of townspeople who oohed and aahed over the decorations and performers, the string quartets, guitarists, soloists and carolers dressed up as if they had just stepped out of A Christmas Carol.

  “Ella, you’ve turned Eagleton’s Christmas into a joyful one again. The town is smiling and shining, and we all know it’s due to your hard work,” said Bert Kilstrom, the pharmacist.

  “And I know you were the wonderful secret Santa who contributed the lights,” she said, kissing the man on his wrinkled cheek.

  “And look at this young man.” Bert slapped Trey on the back. “He’s brought excitement to the town and has proven that he didn’t forget us the way so many of the young ones do when they move away. We’re proud of you, son,” Bert declared. “Nice Christmas tree cookies, too. I hear you had a hand in making them.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Trey said with a smile. “I’m happy you’ve forgiven me for the candy bar I filched.”

  “Well, you worked it off, didn’t you, Trey? You’re a fine one. You made us proud when you enlisted, and you made good in business, too.”

  He shook Trey’s hand, then moved on as more people took his place. Trey smiled until his teeth hurt and struggled to remember names.

  When the crowd finally dissipated, he turned to Ella. “Why are they all so proud of me?” he asked. “At least half a dozen people have told me that. I don’t get it,” he told her. “It has to be more than having been a soldier. There are other men in town who have served, and I mostly joined up just to tick off my father, because I knew he had no respect for anyone who ranked less than a general. That’s nothing to be proud of.”

  Ella gave him a patient look. She sighed.

  “What?”

  “You’re not going to like it.”

  “All the more reason to tell me.”

  “They’re proud of you because they knew your father. You may have thought they didn’t know what went on at your house, but anyone who met Darren McFadden knew what you went home to every night, and they knew that it took guts to defy him, to become a foot soldier and then to make a success of yourself with no help from him. How can anyone not admire that?”

  “I was a screwup when I was here, a cocky jerk. Angry.”

  “So what? Who wouldn’t be under those circumstances?”

  He smiled down at her.

  “What?” she asked. “Why are you looking at me that way?”

  “If I told you my name was Lucifer and I was here to steal souls, I believe you’d find some way to make a positive out of that.”

  “I’m not a Pollyanna. I understand reality.”

  “Do you, now? What’s reality, pretty Ella?”

  She stared up into his eyes. “Reality is that I’m not all that pretty and that this is just a brief moment in time. You and I have made peace with a bad moment in our past, which is good, and soon you’ll go on your way. I’ll take Fizz back to the shelter, and some lovely family will give him a home. You’ll go on to continued success and I’ll have a lovely life here working for Stu.”

  “That’s how you see the future, is it?”

  “It’s how the future will be. See? I’m a total realist.”

  “Hmm, I used to think you were a dreamer.”

  “I used to be a dreamer. But then, every young girl is. This one simply grew up.”

  A flash of anger slipped through Trey, followed by an intense sadness. Ella deserved so much more than she was going to allow herself. It was all wrong. But he had no right to say that. A man who had once accused her of sticking her nose in where it didn’t belong had no right to interfere in her life or to lecture her on what he thought she should do. Especially because right now he was thinking that she should...

  Kiss me, he thought.

  He scowled at that, then caught himself. “Are we almost done here?”

  “Yes. We’re done.”

  The finality of those words reminded him how quickly time was passing.

  “Last cookie?” she asked, indicating one lone tree on the plate.

  “We’ll save it for the puppy. He’s going to be miffed that you left him with Bernadette today. She doesn’t seem like the puppy type.”

  “She was the only person I could find who wasn’t coming into town. Maybe...maybe he won her over.”

  “It could happen. He can be a wily one.”

  She shook her head. “He’s just a puppy. An adorable little puppy. Not sneaky, not wily.”

  He winked at her. “You keep believing that,” he teased. “That pup has wicked intentions where you and I are concerned. He warned me about the smoke. He moved aside so I could kiss you.”

  “Well, will you look at that?” said Alex Staunton, the owner of the grocery store, walking toward them. “Someone hung some mistletoe right over the doorway of City Hall. And the two of you have
been standing there for hours. What have you been doing?”

  “Alex!” Ella said. “You know what we’ve been doing, and it wasn’t kissing.”

  But a crowd was forming now. Stuart was with Alex, and he always attracted a crowd of people with questions for the mayor. He gave Trey a questioning, not very happy look. Trey shook his head.

  “But now you have to kiss her, Trey,” Alex said. “It’s the right thing to do beneath the mistletoe. It’s Christmas, man.”

  Trey looked at the mistletoe. He looked at Ella. And he knew that if he kissed her again it wouldn’t be like last time. It wouldn’t be gentle or sweet. He’d been staring at her all day and he was wild to taste her lips.

  But they had an audience. It just wasn’t going to happen.

  “Sorry, Alex, everyone,” he said, smiling at them. “But Ella and I can’t be your Christmas entertainment now. We have to get home to a baby.”

  “A baby?” someone called.

  “It’s a dog,” someone else explained.

  “Oh, do not tell Fizz he’s a dog,” Trey told them. “I’m pretty sure he thinks he’s a person. Or a Christmas elf. There’s just something about that puppy. Something special.”

  He held out his arm. “Ella?”

  She rolled her eyes. When they were out of sight of everyone, she elbowed him. “Are you trying to make them think that you’re insane?”

  Trey shook his head. “I’m not quite sure what I was trying to do. I think I was trying to distract them from the fact that I had the chance to kiss a lovely woman and I turned down the opportunity.”

  “That just shows that you’re smart. You’re practical.”

  Trey was pretty sure that it didn’t mean either of those things. It most assuredly meant that he was a coward who didn’t trust himself around Ella.

  * * *

  BERNADETTE ONLY LIVED two blocks away from Ella and Trey, so after they’d collected Fizz from the woman, who declared that Fizz was “too active,” they turned toward home with Fizz leading the way.

  “I wonder what he did to her,” Trey said.

  “He probably didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. He’s a puppy. Bernadette likes things tidy and neat. She doesn’t like noises or messes.”

  As if he knew they were discussing him, Fizz backtracked and ran up to them.

  “Poor boy. Women just don’t understand the mess thing, do they?” Trey asked. “Always with the neatness and the quiet. ‘Pick up your shoes...’ ‘If you didn’t listen to such loud music you might concentrate more and earn an A instead of an A minus on your paper.’ ‘Try to be a normal person and not a disgusting pig.’ ‘Don’t leave your chew toys around,’” he said, mixing together things his mother had undoubtedly told him with what he was guessing Bernadette would have told Fizz.

  “Was your mother...?”

  “She wasn’t so bad. Mostly I think she took her cues from my dad. I was kidding about the neatness thing, you know. I didn’t get that any more than any other kid, I don’t think. She only got really verbally abusive when my dad was angry. Then I think she needed to appease him by coming down doubly hard on me. But, Ella, I only told you that stuff so I could apologize. It’s long gone—done—and I’ve got a great life now. No complaints.”

  “I know.”

  He smiled to reassure her.

  “Do you think Bernadette was mean to Fizz? Maybe I shouldn’t have left him with her.”

  “Only one way to find out if he’s irreparably scarred. Hey, Fizz?”

  The puppy looked up.

  “Want a cookie, Fizz?”

  As if he already knew the word cookie, Fizz started jumping around. He ran back and forth. He ran in happy circles. Soon his leash was tangled around Trey and Ella’s legs.

  “Fizz, no!” Ella said.

  She was up against Trey and in danger of falling. He wrapped an arm around her to steady her and himself. And now his body was planted against hers.

  “Do you still think Fizz doesn’t have ulterior motives where we’re concerned?”

  She gave him a you have to be kidding look. “You teased him with a cookie.”

  “I did not.” He pulled the last cookie out of his pocket and gave it to the puppy. Fizz settled down to eat. He went at it voraciously, slobbering, throwing crumbs everywhere. “I guess that answers our question about his mental state. He looks ecstatic.”

  “And we’re tangled up until he’s done with his cookie.”

  Trey looked into her eyes. “You know how we didn’t kiss under the mistletoe...?”

  She took a deep breath. Her eyelids fluttered just a bit, but then she looked directly into his eyes. “Because you were being smart.”

  “Because I didn’t want an audience.”

  She nodded as if she was agreeing.

  “Well, we’re alone now. There’s no one on the street, and Fizz is otherwise occupied. He’s holding us hostage. I’m going to kiss you now, Ella, as long as you don’t mind.”

  Her answer was to rise up on her toes, cup his face in her palms and kiss him—long and hard.

  Heat rushed through Trey. His mind and sanity disappeared. Reality ceased to exist. When they came up for air, he was breathing hard. “Ella, if I’d known you kissed like that... We should have done this years ago.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “No, we shouldn’t—and we shouldn’t be doing it now, either. But this is a moment out of time. Christmas is two days away and then you’ll return to San Diego. Once you’re gone, I’d like to be able to say that I’m no longer the only woman in Eagleton you haven’t kissed properly.”

  He’d like to think that some other man wasn’t going to be experiencing her kisses, but he had no right to say that.

  Looking down, he saw that Fizz was finished with the cookie and staring at them as if he knew just what had been going on. And maybe he did. He’d taken just long enough to eat his treat to make sure that Trey had his chance to kiss Ella. And now, like a good chaperone, he was putting an end to things.

  “Plans for tonight?” Trey asked.

  “I’m wrapping the presents you and Santa will be giving to the underprivileged children at the preschool tomorrow.”

  “Okay. My place.”

  “Trey...”

  “You want me to hand out presents without even knowing what’s inside? How can I play my part convincingly?”

  “It’s not a part. You just stand there and smile and that’s it.”

  “Nope. I agreed to come here and help, and I’m not going to make little kids think I’m some large and forbidding authority figure standing silent like a statue. If I’m going to do it, I’m doing it right. There will be conversations.”

  She opened her mouth.

  “Don’t object or lecture,” he said.

  Her laugh was soft and silvery. “I was merely going to say thank you. Is that allowed?”

  “Yes. And now I feel like a judgmental ass.”

  “You’ll never be that in your whole life.”

  He stopped cold. “How can you be so sure of that?”

  “Simple. That was your father’s role, and you’ve rejected everything he was and all he stood for. In a way, he gave you a present. He taught you how to be the opposite of him.”

  And with that she trudged off with Fizz, leaving Trey to stare after her. Until Fizz gave a Come on woof.

  Trey did as he was told.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  TREY HAD NEVER wrapped a present in his life. That was apparent to Ella after less than five minutes. He was eyeing the wrapping paper from all angles as if it were a major engineering project.

  “What exactly does your company do again?” she asked.

  “We produce green building materials and search for new ways to
use recycled materials.”

  “Sounds like a good idea. Is that what you’re doing with that wrapping paper? Studying it to find a new way to use it?”

  He gave her a sheepish smile. “I’m waiting for you to show me how, so I don’t have to admit that this is outside my realm of experience.”

  “Like cookies?”

  “Exactly. Now, if you’d like me to demonstrate how a turbine works, or how to make the most of a limited water supply, I’m your man. Wrapping a child’s present with—” he eyed the paper “—penguins wearing Santa hats... Outside my comfort zone.”

  “Well, then, you’re in for a treat. There’s a process here.”

  “I’m assuming you’re going to explain that process?”

  “Absolutely. First we put on some Christmas music. Do you have some?”

  He looked at her as if she were crazy.

  “No? I thought not. That’s why I came prepared.” She pulled a CD out of the kangaroo-style center pocket of the royal blue hoodie she was wearing.

  “You brought your own music? Was that necessary?” he teased.

  She shrugged. “Only if we want to do this right. And I do.”

  “What else do you have in there?” He looked at the deep pocket. “A Christmas tree? More music?”

  “I might have one more CD. But first this one. It’s one of my favorites.” She put it in the player and soon “Silver Bells” was wafting through the house.

  “That’s nice. Now what?”

  His deep voice sent a shiver of awareness through her. She looked around. “We...I think we light a fire.”

  “You think?”

  “My family always wrapped Christmas presents at the same time in different rooms of the house. We had traditions. Music. Cocoa. Christmas lights. Candles. But we didn’t have a fireplace. If we had, I’m sure we would have lit a fire.”

  Trey had moved to the fireplace as she spoke. He was already stacking the wood he’d brought in a couple of days ago. “There are emergency candles and matches in the drawer next to the stove in the kitchen,” he said. “Probably no cocoa, though.”