Kristin Hardy Read online

  “It doesn’t matter. I just need some time, can you understand that?” She paced away and swung back to face him. “The last time I kissed an Alexander, it didn’t turn out well. I’m not in a hurry to dive back in.”

  Lex opened his mouth to say something and then shut it.

  “What?” Keely asked.

  “Nothing.” Long seconds went by while he stared at the ground, hands on his hips. Then he raised his head. “You’re right,” he repeated. “You’re right. Come on, it’s getting dark and it’s supposed to snow tonight. Let’s get out of here while we can see.”

  The ride back to Chilton was mostly silent, though not awkwardly so, Keely realized in surprise. Lex had an ability to let things be, it seemed, unlike Bradley. And she was grateful for it. She couldn’t even understand herself, let alone explain what was going on to him.

  When they crossed the outskirts of town, he stirred. “I’ll take another look around my mom’s house, see if I can find anything resembling a key.”

  “I should probably go in and give my apartment a run through,” Keely said with a sigh. “Assuming I could find anything in the mess they left. Bradley kept some clothes at my place. Maybe it’s there somewhere.”

  “Couldn’t hurt to check.” Lex pulled into a slot in front of Jeannie’s shop.

  “You don’t need to park,” Keely said quickly, but he was already turning off the key and getting out.

  “I figured I’d come in, look around.”

  She frowned. “Somehow you don’t strike me as a guy who’s got a thing for flowers.”

  He gave her the same grin that had turned Lynette into putty. “I want to find something for my mom. She’s had a tough time lately with all of this. I figure some flowers or a doodad might cheer her up.”

  “A doodad?”

  “Technical term.” He pulled open the door to Jeannie’s. “After you, please.”

  Perfect. What she needed more than anything was time and space to think, to figure out what the heck was going on with her. Bad enough she’d promised to work the evening shift. The last thing she needed was Lex Alexander wandering around the shop, scrambling her emotions.

  But only a complete Grinch would begrudge a guy who wanted to buy his mother a present.

  “Hi, Keely.” Lydia waved from where she was helping a customer behind the counter.

  Keely waved back and turned her attention again to Lex. The quicker she took care of him, the quicker she could send him on his way. That was what she wanted, wasn’t it?

  “So what are you looking for, flowers or a gift? We have some nice calla lilies. I think it’s Olivia’s favorite flower.”

  It was like a déjà vu, except that it wasn’t Bradley coming in, begging her to choose a flower arrangement to make up for missing his mother’s birthday, and it wasn’t six years before. It was Lex and it was now. It was Lex and she hadn’t a clue what she was feeling for him.

  “I’m not sure what I’m looking for,” he said easily. “Something she’ll like.” His hair flowed thick and dark down to his collar. Keely knew how soft it was.

  She remembered the feel of it beneath her fingers.

  She shook her head to banish the thought. The gift shop part of the store was where Jeannie indulged her love of design and whimsy. Handmade stationery and sculptured candles stood by Japanese porcelain sake carafes and French incense. Tapas cookbooks and lavender soap sat on embroidered Irish linen handkercheifs. “What about that?”

  “Soap?” He looked at her. “This is Olivia we’re talking about.”

  “Okay, so no soap.”

  “Let’s skip these glass doodads, too,” he said, passing the snowflake-cut sun catchers.

  Keely’s lips twitched. “I thought you wanted a doodad.”

  “I do want a doodad, just not those doodads.”

  “Picky,” she said.

  He flicked a glance at her. “Generally. Now, this…” He stopped to look at a tiny sculpture of pale pink glass blossoms set on copper wires in a crystal vase, touching one with a fingertip.

  “Nice choice,” Keely said, biting back a sigh. “It’s by one of our local artists. If you get it in the right light, the petals look almost real.” It was also her favorite, but she’d resisted the urge to buy it. She needed to hold on to every penny just then in case she needed to pay for a lawyer.

  The jingling of the door heralded the arrival of several customers at once, who pressed both Lydia and her into service. The next few minutes were a flurry of activity. Finally, though, the last bag was packed and the group was headed out the door.

  Keely bent to get a new roll of cash register tape.

  “Whoops, I’ve got to go get those vases ready for tomorrow,” Lydia blurted. “I’ll be in the back if you need me.”

  Keely rose just in time to see her bolting for the back.

  And to see Lex approaching the counter.

  She took a long, slow breath. “Find everything you were looking for?” she asked brightly.

  “Just about.” He set the little flower sculpture on the counter, as well as a cut crystal Baccarat vase that was sophisticated and traditional, just Olivia’s taste.

  “I see your definition of doodads ends on the large side,” she said, wrapping the vase in layers of tissue paper and putting it into a carrier bag. She glanced at the glass flowers and ignored a twinge of regret. “We’ve got a box for that one in the back. Give me just a minute.” She started to turn.

  “Not necessary.”

  “It’s too fragile to carry out,” she objected. “It’ll get broken.”

  “It’s not going anywhere,” he said. “It’s for you.”

  It stopped her entirely. For a moment, she could only stare. “For me?”

  Lex set it in front of her. “For you. My mom’s not the only one having a tough time. I figured maybe you could use a doodad, too.” He leaned over and pressed a kiss on her forehead. “Be well, Keely,” he said, and walked out.

  Chapter Seven

  There were a variety of forms of hell on Earth. Living in a house while it was being renovated, for example. Chaperoning an overnight school trip of eleven-year-olds.

  And being in a shopping mall a week and a half before Christmas.

  “Who decided this was a good idea?” Keely demanded as they threaded their way through a department store.

  Lydia stepped nimbly around a woman pushing two strollers. “You did. I believe you said something about having done zero Christmas shopping and needing to buy for everyone or you were going to be excommunicated from your family. True or false?”

  “True,” Keely sighed.

  “Where do you want to start?”

  “By making a run for the exits?”

  “Not a chance. It took us forty-five minutes just to drive here. Now, who are you buying for?”

  Keely jumped and shook her head hastily as a white coated sales clerk offered her a spritz of cologne. “Let’s start with your shopping, first.”

  “Already done,” Lydia said happily. “Target had a sale on Hello Kitty so I’ve got Melly’s presents for the next ten years. Roy is happy with anything that has Nintendo on the label and the electronics store was offering two for one. I figure a quick pass through the lingerie store will take care of everyone else on my list.”

  “Everyone else you know needs lingerie?” Keely asked.

  “Don’t we all? Now, who are you buying for?”

  Keely pondered. One thing she could say for the Bradley fiasco, her shopping list had abruptly gotten shorter. No work colleagues, no fiancé, no New York friends who’d proven not to be friends at all.

  She looked at Lydia, loyal down to her last breath, the sister Keely had never had. They’d known each other since Jeannie’s store first opened nearly eight years before. In the initial quiet days before the clientele had become steady, the two of them had had plenty of time to talk about everything under the sun. And talk, they had. It was a bond that never weakened, even when Keely moved away.
No matter how busy she was whenever she visited Chilton, she always squeezed in lunch or coffee with Lydia.

  “I need something for my Mom and Dad, of course,” Keely said now, threading her way around a display of pre-wrapped moisturizer. “Darlene. And then I should shop for something that has absolutely nothing to do with you.”

  Lydia grinned and pointed to the jewelry department. “In that case, you should look over there by the purple sign. They’ve got a whole rack of absolutely nothing I would ever want to wear with my green satin dress when Roy and I go out for New Year’s.” She winked.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Of course, it probably has absolutely nothing you’d want to wear if you wind up doing New Year’s with Hunkzilla.”

  Keely frowned. “Hunkzilla?”

  “You know, the hot guy who’s been hanging around and giving you goodies?” Lydia prompted.

  “Oh. Lex.”

  “Exactly. Bradley’s brother, right? Looks like a much better substitution to me.”

  “Don’t get any ideas. We’re just trying to find a way out of this whole legal mess Bradley left.”

  “Two for one,” Lydia nodded. “I can dig it.”

  “Lydia.” Keely glowered at her.

  “What? You can’t tell me there’s not any chemistry there.”

  “I’m not telling you anything,” Keely replied. “I’m here to shop, not talk.”

  “You know,” Lydia interrupted as they exited the department store into the mall, “I’m kinda hungry now that I think about it. Maybe we should start at the food court.”

  What was going on with her? Keely wondered as she sat on a hard red plastic chair and picked salt off her pretzel. Why was her brain so scrambled when it came to Lex?

  “Look, I don’t know why you’re bugging me about him,” she told Lydia. “After what went on with Bradley, I’d be out of my mind to get involved with any guy. Let alone another Alexander.”

  “They say after you fall off a horse you have to get right back on.” Lydia forked up a bite of bourbon chicken.

  “I don’t even like him,” Keely protested. Except that she knew it was a lie the minute she said it. The more she was around Lex, the more she got to know who he really was, the more she realized she like him quite a lot.

  And then there were the butterflies.

  “This is stupid.” She scowled down at her Diet Coke. “It doesn’t make any sense. I know it doesn’t make any sense. But he touches me and I got nuts. And I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t want any part of this. So why do I?”

  “He’s your rebound guy,” Lydia said matter-of-factly. “Your transitional man. Bradley sucked in the sack, big brother knows how it’s done.”

  “We haven’t been in the sack.”

  “Kissed you, whatever. The point is, Lex rows your boat.”

  “I don’t need anyone to row my boat,” Keely muttered.

  “Sure you do, everyone does.”

  Keely’s brows lowered. “Don’t you need dessert? Maybe you should go get a Cinnabon or something.”

  Lydia shook her head. “Got to watch my weight to fit into that New Year’s dress. And you are not getting out of this conversation, missy. Bradley hurt you and he messed your life around. Whether you were done with him by then or not, he still got to you, you can’t deny it. And you can tell yourself all you like that you don’t want anything to do with men, but this Lex isn’t just any guy. He’s what you need. Your body knows it even if your head doesn’t.”

  Keely sulked. “You don’t even know him.”

  “I’ve seen him with you. And Darlene likes him, which is good enough for me. You ever seen her be wrong about anyone?”

  Keely opened her mouth and stopped.

  “I didn’t think so,” Lydia said in satisfaction. “I’m just saying stop thinking about this so much. So what if he’s not the perfect one for you? The guy works in Africa and the North Pole, for God’s sake.”

  “The Middle East.”

  “Uh, yeah, well, you can’t get much more transitional than that. The point is that he makes you feel good. I saw your face last night after he gave you the little vase. And I saw your face after the tree lighting, and don’t say you didn’t kiss him because I know you did. Stop over-thinking the situation. Just go with it.” She rose. “Do you want a Cinnabon?”

  The problem with being in Chilton, Lex thought as he walked around the town common with his camera, was that there was nothing for him to do outside of detecting. Oh, sure, he could check e-mail, he could make a few phone calls, but that burned maybe half an hour out of the day.

  Leaving him way too much time to stare into space and think about Keely.

  Less than a day had passed since they’d kissed in the woods. And there wasn’t a moment of that time that he hadn’t wanted her. It was like a constant hammering in his system, like some essence of her had slipped into him so that she had become a part of his every thought. It didn’t matter about the country club, it didn’t matter than she’d been engaged to Bradley. Everything Lex thought he’d known about her was wrong. She was on the level. And there was someone very different inside her, someone he’d never guessed existed.

  In any other situation, with any other woman, he’d just keep after her until he changed her mind, he thought, pausing to take a couple of shots of the square brick bell tower that rose over Town Hall. And judging by the way she’d responded to that kiss, it wouldn’t have taken much.

  As kisses went, it was pretty damned hard to forget. He did his best not to think about it, to convince his body that it wasn’t happening, at least not now. Because the part after the kiss was also indelibly stamped in his memory—the look on her face, the shadows and confusion in her eyes when she’d pleaded with him. I’m still trying to get over one Alexander. I don’t need to go onto another.

  What the hell was a guy supposed to do with something like that? What he’d done, Lex supposed. With an absent frown, he emptied the coins out of his pocket into the Salvation Army bell ringer’s bucket and walked on toward the common. So now he was stuck waiting around, hoping that Keely would get past whatever his idiot brother had done to her.

  And hoping to God it happened before he got sent back out into the wild blue yonder and they lost their chance forever.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a flick of motion as something arced low across the sky. Adrenaline surged. Before he could think, muscle memory had him ducking behind a bench. An instant later, he rose, shaking his head at himself. And he saw it again—a sphere of white against the blue sky. Snowball fight, he thought. Just a holiday snowball fight.

  And what did it say about his life that his first thought had been that it was incoming?

  He could see them now, a collection of boys maybe ten or eleven, a couple of them socked in behind the Revolutionary War cannon, methodically going through their stocked-up ammo while the opposition fired from behind the fountain. The cannon was the best location, Lex remembered from when he was a kid—better sight lines, higher ground. He and Bradley had defended it more than once, even when they’d been significantly outnumbered.

  Grinning, Lex circled the common, snapping shots rhythmically, capturing the narrow-eyed focus, the strategy, the glee of a direct shot. Christmas vacation in Chilton. Some things never changed.

  He was still grinning an hour later when he walked into the house to see Olivia.

  “What have you been up to?” she asked.

  “Knocking around, taking some shots.”

  “Cub photographer, on the job.” Her smile faded. “I still have the camera Nana bought you. You didn’t take it when you left.”

  “No choice. I couldn’t take everything.” But it had changed his life. From the time he’d gotten the camera at twelve, photography had been all he’d cared about. It had driven Pierce wild. He hadn’t wanted to know about art classes or the awards Lex won, just moved Lex to a school that didn’t deal in that sort of thing. Olivia tried to support him
from behind the scenes but there was little she could do when Pierce got an idea in his head.

  “I’m glad you’re back. I need your help,” she said now, glancing down at the papers in her hands. “Some bills and things have come over the past few days. I’m not sure what to do with them. I always set them aside for Bradley.” She looked up, a hint of pink staining her cheeks. “Can you help?”

  Lex raised his brows. “Are you sure you’re ready to trust another one of your sons with your money?”

  “You’re not Bradley,” she responded tartly and handed him the stack. “I just need to learn how it works.”