Build Me Up (16 page)

Kristen lightly pushed at his chest, creating some space between them. Before he could question if she had changed her mind, she was undoing his shirt buttons and sliding her hands over his chest. He closed his eyes and let her explore him as she had so many times before, yet it never got old. He could feel her backing him up and when the back of his legs made contact with the edge of the bed, he obediently sat, spreading his legs so she could step between them.

Ford felt her fingers travel downwards to his fly, and his eyes flew open. “Not yet,” he managed to get out and, at the level he was at, leaned in to capture one of her straining nipples with his lips. She held him to her, encouraging him wordlessly – and, occasionally, not so wordlessly. When she’d had enough of the torture, she pushed at his chest again and this time, he obeyed, scooting back on the bed and letting her climb on top of him.

He murmured more than a few expletives as his hands travelled the smooth curve of her hips and buttocks, and when she leaned over him and let her silky hair tickle his chest while she circled his nipples with her tongue, he just about lost it.

Kristen stroked Ford’s arm, which was holding her to him, with light brushstrokes that she was sure would tickle him to death if he were awake. But he wasn’t. He was sleeping comfortably while she was agonizing over their level of intimacy. Tonight hadn’t been about sex. They’d made love. She wasn’t ready for the repercussions of that clarification, so she tried thinking about other things.

Like how he put
her
needs above his own. Like how he was great with his daughter and continued making the effort, even when their relationship had been strained at best for years. Like how she and Annabelle were getting along like old friends and how she was betraying her friend by sneaking around and sleeping with her friend’s father behind her back.

Okay, so there was a major age difference between her and Annabelle, and she was the adult. Ford and she were both single people. His ex-wife had moved on, so he had every right to do the same. But it couldn’t be with her.

She was leaving. Eight months or so from now, she was quitting this town – well, Greenport – and never looking back. Yes, she might meet up with Annabelle from time to time, as they lived in the same city, but Ford? No. She needed to make a break for it now. The sooner the better.

FOURTEEN

“When is Kristen coming over?” Annabelle asked as they set up the tree in the living room.

“I’m not sure, Annie,” Ford said, rubbing his head.

“Well, can’t you call her? I got her a present.”

“That was really nice of you, Annie. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to hear that.”

“So call her.”

“Okay, I will. Let’s just get this tree sorted first.”

Annabelle muttered something, but didn’t push him, for which Ford was grateful. Since they got back from New York a couple of days ago, Kristen had been avoiding him. She’d moved into a B&B a few miles outside of town, and gotten herself a rental car.

When he’d asked her what was wrong, she’d simply said that he was right about them getting too close, and that they should take a break from each other. He didn’t agree, but arguing about it would be pointless and only push her further away.

The forced separation didn’t get any easier as Annabelle understood it even less than he did and wouldn’t stop talking about Kristen, insisting he convince her to move back in. He’d briefly considered letting his daughter broker the peace, but decided that was not only an underhanded strategy but a cowardly one at that.

He wasn’t going to get out of calling Kristen and inviting her over, though. He knew his daughter well enough to know that once she set her mind to something, there was no derailing her. He had a feeling that was a character trait she shared with Kristen.

“There. Done. Now call Kristen,” Annabelle proclaimed after putting the star on top.

Ford bit back a groan and left the room to make the dreaded call.

Kristen was just replying to yet another email from Quinlan Bankhead when her phone rang. She looked at the display, saw it was Ford calling, and let it go to voicemail. What part of ‘we need a break’ didn’t register with him?

After a minute or so, her phone beeped to alert her she had a new voicemail message. With a deep sigh, she listened to the recording.

“
Kristen. Annabelle wants you to come over tonight. She got you a present. I know you said we needed time apart, but this isn’t about us. Please call me back.”

Kristen listened to the message one more time, then leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temples. She couldn’t disappoint Annabelle. But since she hadn’t planned on spending the holidays with them, she hadn’t gotten the girl anything. And it wasn’t like she would be able to find anything between now and this evening… Kristen bit her lip and pondered. Her gaze went to her suitcase, and then to her purse. Maybe she had the perfect gift right under her nose…

“Kristen!” Annabelle exclaimed when Ford let her in. “You came! Awesome!”

“Hi, Elle,” Kristen said, feeling slightly awkward just standing there. “Thanks for inviting me.”

“Come on in,” Ford said, closing the door behind her.

Kristen unzipped her jacket and set her purse down by the door. Ford helped her with the jacket and she thanked him just as she would anyone. She didn’t feel her insides warm up when his fingers accidently brushed against her shoulders, no sirree.

“Come see the tree,” Annabelle said and waved her over to the living room. “Dad made eggnog.”

“Yum,” Kristen smiled and followed Annabelle’s direction. “Wow. Nice tree.”

“I know, right? Mom always hires someone to do it, but Dad said we should decorate it ourselves. We even went out to buy it.”

“Impressive,” Kristen remarked and looked over to where she thought Ford would be, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Mary Crenshaw invited us over for dinner – all three of us,” Annabelle informed Kristen, who felt the awkwardness rise to a whole new level. It was one thing to spend the evening with Ford and Annabelle, a very different thing altogether to spend it with family friends of theirs.

“Oh.”

“She’s a great cook,” Annabelle said, as if that would make all the difference. “Like, seriously, she makes the best Devil’s Food Cake ever.”

“You eat there a lot?”

“I work for her – oh, you already knew that, that’s where we met – at the Food Shopper. She always has leftovers for employee lunch and dinner.”

“Cool boss.”

“Yeah. What’s your boss like?”

Kristen laughed. “Pretty awful. But I’m more of my own boss, actually. I only have temporary bosses.”

“Did your parents ever make you work in a shop or something like that?”

“My parents? No. I don’t think they cared enough to teach me about stuff like managing money.”

“What was your first job?”

“Um… home staging. You know, for people who want to sell their homes? I had a couple of friends that were moving, so I helped them out.”

“Cool.”

“Eggnog?” Ford appeared with two glasses. One he handed to Annabelle and the other to Kristen. “This one has alcohol,” he said in a low voice as she took the glass from him.

“Thanks,” Kristen said and tipped her glass to Annabelle’s. “To good friends and good food.”

After returning from the Crenshaws’, where they had indeed been treated to some excellent cooking, Annabelle insisted Kristen open her present. She watched with mixed excitement and worry as Kristen carefully unwrapped the gift.

“It’s lame,” Annabelle cautioned right before the last piece of paper fell away, “you can return it if you want.”

Kristen smiled as she saw the picture on the box. A ceramic hair straightener. “It’s perfect.”

“Your hair looked so great after the salon visit, so I just thought…”

“I love it, Elle,” Kristen said and hugged Annabelle. “Really, I do. It’s an awesome gift.”

“Cool,” Annabelle said, attempting to mask her delight.

“I have something for you, too. I hope you don’t mind that it’s second-hand…” Kristen said and handed over her gift.

Annabelle quickly tore the paper off, then just stared. First at the wallet, then at Kristen, then back at the wallet. “For real?”

Kristen couldn’t help smiling. “For real.”

“Thank you!” Annabelle practically squealed and threw her arms around Kristen’s neck.

“You’re welcome,” Kristen chuckled. She was happy
Monsieur
Vuitton
would go to someone who’d appreciate him as much as she had.

“It’s a wallet,” Ford said, sounding puzzled.

“Dad!” Annabelle exclaimed, frustrated with his lack of understanding.

“It’s a woman thing,” Kristen said, still chuckling.

“I have to text my friends,” Annabelle said and ran upstairs.

Ford got up and started clearing the wrapping paper, no doubt occupying himself so he wouldn’t have to talk to her.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get you anything,” Kristen said as she watched him clean up.

“I wasn’t expecting anything,” he said. “We’re not together, are we?”

“No. We’re not.”

“So we’re cool, then.”

“I should probably get going…”

“You okay to drive?”

“It’s been hours since I had that eggnog. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay. Have a good night, Kristen.”

“You too.”

“You are so lame, Dad! It’s just a party!” Annabelle was wearing her voice out trying to get Ford to allow her to go to a New Year’s Eve party with Donny Preston and he was steadfastly denying her permission.

“You’re only 15, Annie. I don’t want you out alone at night.”

“This is
Greenport
, Dad. Nothing ever happens in Greenport.”

“And how many horror movies have you seen where people said just that before they got cut down by an ax murderer?”

“Dad! Gross!”

“Tom and Hallie are throwing a party at the Sea Shack. Everyone’s going to be there.”

“Not Donny.”

“Okay, let me rephrase – everyone who’s worth your time in this town is going to be there.”

“You mean all the old folks? No, thanks.”

“Hallie’s like eight years older than you.”

“You seriously think she’s going to hang out at the Sea Shack instead of going to Donny’s party?” Annabelle rolled her eyes at him.

“Hallie’s going to Donny’s party?” Ford questioned.

“Probably.”

“Well, how ‘bout this – you come with me to the Sea Shack and we’ll talk to Hallie. If she agrees, you can go to Donny’s party with her as chaperone.”

“Chaperone? Dad! It’s New Year’s! There’s no way Hallie’s going to agree to babysit me – and I don’t
need
a babysitter.”

“That’s what’s on offer. Take it or leave it,” Ford said, happy with having her right where he wanted her. Until she agreed, which made him question if he’d been so clever after all.

Kristen walked into the Sea Shack, where the party was already in full swing. She had meant to stay in tonight, maybe read a book, but Hallie had gotten a hold of her and insisted she come out. So, here she was, wearing jeans and a sparkly top to a New Year’s party. If her friends back home could see her now…

“Hey! Kristen, you’re here!” Hallie weaved her way through the crowd to greet Kristen, a silvery party tiara in her hands. “Here. It’s mandatory,” she said and placed the crown on Kristen’s head. “You look awesome. Love the hair,” Hallie complimented her and Kristen smiled. She’d put Annabelle’s present to good use before driving over.

“Thanks. So… how does this work?” Kristen asked, looking around and wondering who she was supposed to talk to. She recognized most of them, of course, but she didn’t really have any deep connections with anyone. Except for Ford. Who wasn’t here. Which she was just fine with – happy, even. She could count her blessings that the locals hadn’t chased her out of Greenport with pitchforks yet. After all, she’d been prepared for some sort of battle. Having them all act perfectly normal – if a bit reserved – towards her was… well, frankly a little anticlimactic.

Hallie laughed. “It’s a party. What, they don’t have them in L.A.?” She looped her arm with Kristen’s and led her through the throng and over to the bar. “You’ve met my brother, right?”

Ford walked into the Sea Shack right behind Annabelle. First order of business – talking to Hallie about this supposed ‘cool’ party Donny Preston was throwing. Annabelle was all dressed up in her new clothes, carrying her new wallet as a clutch to show off the brand to anyone around.

He’d considered pointing out to her that the people of Greenport weren’t impressed with designer wear, but that they’d sooner think she was a spoiled, snooty rich kid, but figured she’d have to learn that lesson all on her own. He didn’t want to see her get hurt, but maybe a reality check was in order. Not everyone could be like Kris-

“Hey, there’s Kristen!” Annabelle exclaimed and before he could stop her, she was weaving her way over to where Kristen indeed was sitting, perched on a bar stool and talking to Tom. He followed her, but only because Hallie was sure to be around the bar area, and that’s who he needed to talk to tonight.

He approached as Kristen hugged Annabelle and his daughter hopped up on the chair next to Kristen, relaying some kind of order to Tom, who was looking at Kristen just a little too attentively.

“Hey, Tom!” Ford called out, stepping up to stand next to Annabelle.

“Oh, hey, Ford,” Tom replied, greeting him with a high-five kind of handshake. “What can I get you?”

“Just a beer. I hope you’re checking ID’s tonight,” he said, gesturing to both Annabelle and Kristen, who was now focusing entirely on her drink. She looked up to shoot him a look, then shifted her attention over to Annabelle.

“Hey, is Hallie around?” he asked next, looking around. He thought he caught Kristen staring at him for a split second, but when he looked again she wasn’t.

“Uh…” Tom did a similar sweep of the room. “She was here a minute ago, but I don’t see her. Why?”

“Just need to talk to her about something,” Ford shrugged.

“Dad thinks I need a babysitter,” he heard Annabelle say to Kristen. He could practically feel the eye roll. Kristen looked up at him, uncertainty in her eyes. She wanted to know what to say – what was the right thing to say – but he couldn’t help her with that.

“For what?” she asked Annabelle, who then went on to tell Kristen in great detail of the party she wanted to go to.

Kristen listened attentively, and then leaned in to talk to Annabelle in such a low voice that Ford had no chance of eavesdropping unless he wanted to stick his head right in there. He could watch them, though. Kristen was giving some sort of advice, or at least asking important questions, and Annabelle was listening, nodding at times and shaking her head at others. Then Annabelle took out her cell phone and handed it over to Kristen, who tapped the screen repeatedly until she seemed satisfied with whatever she’d set out to accomplish and handed it back.