One Snowy Night Before Christmas (14 page)

“That’s Sheriff Adams,” she told Tom when she saw him across
the room. The big man saw them and motioned her over. He smiled as they entered
his office. “I’m going to pretend you were
supposed
to go into Walt’s,”
he said with a wink.

“Elmer still uses his office there. He gave me his key.”

His eyebrows wriggled up his forehead. Clearly the sheriff
was feeling more forgiving in the spirit of the holidays.

Her face grew hot. “Well…he told me where to find the one
Walt buried.”

“Good job, Jeffries.”

“You’ll let him go, then?”

“We already have. Portland PD apprehended two suspects
trying to fence the stolen jewelry at a pawnshop that was involved in a sting.
Ralph Chandler drove up and identified the stolen jewelry.”

The energy she’d been buzzing with all morning fizzed out.
“So you didn’t need the video, after all.”

“It was the icing on the cake. It proved he wasn’t involved
with the two, so yes, we did.”

“Is he still here?” Tom asked.

Sheriff Adams shook his head. “He left about twenty minutes
ago.”

As simple as that. “Did he know about the video?”

“Yes,” Adams nodded. “We told him.”

We told him
. Simple as that. No “he was immensely
relieved,” or, “he said thanks a million.”

Jessie stood. “Well. We’re done here, then.”

Adams stood with her. “We’re reviewing the video and
evidence will make a copy of the hard drive.” He smiled, but Jessie didn’t
smile with him. “I just got off the phone. Walt was more than happy to
surrender his hard drive when we explained how his cameras were responsible for
alibiing a man.”

“Great. Thanks.”

Tom followed her out of the office. “That had a happy
ending,” he said, hurrying to keep up with her. Amy trotted alongside.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Do we get to see Santa now?” the little girl asked.

“Jessie, wait up.”

She stepped outside into a gray afternoon. Ever-thickening
clouds had blocked out the thin rays of sun. A storm was definitely on its way.
Cold wind slipped into her open jacket and all the way through her sweater.

“Can you believe that? Not even an utterance of thanks. We
risked arrest to get that video, and he just takes off like we owed it to him
or something.”

“I’m sure that’s not the case.” Tom settled on his heels,
wearing a slightly disapproving look.

Jessie glanced away. She wouldn’t be made feel like she was
being despicable. “It was a stroke of outrageous luck those guys were caught.
If they hadn’t been, we would have been what saved that old man from a prison
sentence. He could have stuck around to say thanks.”

“Did you expect him to sit at the police station and wait
for you to come back? Especially after…”

“After the way I bitched him out?” She blasted an angry sigh
through her nostrils. “No, I guess not.”

“Look, he was probably just some crazy homeless man in a
hurry to get back to his transient ways. Those guys don’t sit in one place for
long and they certainly don’t like being watched by the authorities.”

“Are we gonna see Santa?” Amy repeated.

Tom picked her up. “Not now, hon. He had to hurry back to
the North Pole to get ready to deliver presents.”

Jessie ground her teeth. She didn’t want to argue about it.
She felt she was owed the opportunity to apologize for her statements, at the
very least. Well if he didn’t want that, she didn’t want him, either.

She glanced at his rental. “You’ll give me a ride home
before you head out?”

Tom’s features settled and he nodded. “Amy’s suitcases are
still at your place.”

“All right. Thanks.” She turned and tromped through the snow
to the car.

The trip back to her townhouse was made in silence, and
Jessie stared out the window as much as she could to keep from looking at Tom.
Once back at her townhouse, she stepped inside and removed her jacket, staring
into the coat closet without meeting his eyes.

In mere minutes she’d be alone again, and all this would
seem like a sappy holiday movie.

“Go on up and make sure you didn’t leave anything behind,”
Tom said to Amy. His voice was low and deep.

“Are you coming with us, Jessie?” Amy asked.

She turned around and forced a smile. “No. This is where I
live. Maybe I’ll come and visit you sometime, though.”

“Is Port-end far away?”

Jessie forced a smile. “Not too far.”

“Yay!” Amy scampered up the stairs.

Tom eased nearer. “Listen, Jessie, I’d love it if you spent
Christmas with us.”

She stepped around him and went to the kitchen. “You should
spend it with your daughter.” She started unloading the dishwasher. “Besides, I
have to work. Geoffrey can’t cover for me tonight.”

“You could ask.”

She heard the caution in his voice. She shook her head, unloading
glasses into the cabinet above the dishwasher. Jessie flashed him a quick
smile, all she could muster at the moment. “Maybe we could try New Year’s. Or
something.”

She wished that hadn’t come out sounding so vague.

“Okay, forget Christmas. Forget holidays.” He moved up
behind her. Jessie turned around and let him put his hands on her hips.
“Listen, I know I’ve only known you two days, but I’m pretty sure I’m crazy
about you. I know that sounds nuts, but I’ve never met anyone like you. So if
Christmas isn’t your thing I’m willing to wait for something that is.”

“Tom…”

He lifted his hands. “No pressure. But you can’t deny you
don’t also want to see if this goes somewhere.”

She stared at his chest while her heart pounded in her own.
She remembered lying beneath him, beside him, and on top of him last night. The
hundreds of ways his fingertips had played a symphony across her skin, the
thousands of ways his lips had made sensations come to life inside her. It had
felt damn good. His smile made a little zing race through her chest, and his
hands…his hands made her whole body melt.

She couldn’t think straight. “I don’t know what I want right
now. I’m always so out of whack in December.”

“Don’t blame Christmas—”

“Tom!” She’d had enough. “Please don’t try to change me.”

Upstairs, Amy called for help with her suitcase.

Jessie eased back as much as she could, trapped between him
and the open dishwasher. Tom sensed her need for space and took a step backward
too.

“Daaddddy!”

“You better go,” she whispered.

She watched him turn and head upstairs. Something lurched in
her chest. Was she making a mistake? Or was her head all screwed up because of
this damned holiday?

She felt numb as she slotted the last of the dishes away and
swiped at her already clean counters with a sponge. Amy’s cheerful voice
preceded them down the stairs, and Jessie had a few seconds to force an
improvement to her expression.

She knelt and reached for Amy. “Come here, kiddo.”

Amy ran into her arms and gave her a bear hug. “You’ll come
visit soon, won’t you?”

Jessie squeezed her back. “Of course I will.”

She stood and faced Tom.

“Jessie, I…” He glanced at Amy. “Thank you. You showed the
true meaning of Christmas with your generosity toward us.”

Her cheeks burned. She shrugged, hoping he couldn’t see it.
“I was glad to do it.”

He dropped Amy’s two small suitcases and eased closer. His
eyes turned sultry. She almost withered right there. “It meant more than you’ll
ever know.”

He took a pen from the breakfast bar separating the kitchen
from her living room and flipped the page up on the message pad. He scribbled
out his address and phone number.

“You know where to reach me,” he said with finality in his
tone. Inside, Jessie started to crumble.

He suddenly grabbed her around the waist and hauled her close,
crushing his mouth against hers. She kissed him back while a seizure of pain
inside her chest made her heart kick two irregular thumps before returning to
normal.

Amy giggled. “Daddy!”

His lips went still and for a long moment he pressed his
forehead to hers. Then he turned away and picked up Amy’s suitcases, and left.

Jessie used a paper towel to wipe a circle in the inside of
the windshield. Damn Christmas Eve. Unable to get warm, she had the heater running
on high and it was fogging the windows. She’d been over the pass to Mineral
Springs twice and hadn’t seen another car on the road, much less a broken down
vehicle. It was eleven-thirty. Everyone was cozy in pine and cinnamon-scented
houses with their families, glowing lights on their trees and crackling fires
in the hearth. The children were asleep, the adults sipping their “adult”
drinks as they slipped brightly wrapped Christmas presents for the kids under
their gaily decorated trees.

Barf
.

She was nauseated, and it wasn’t from the glass of wine that
had turned sour in her stomach hours ago.

Had sending Tom away been a colossal mistake? She didn’t
remember the last time she felt so comfortable around someone—someone she’d had
mind-blowing sex with, anyway. Not that she’d had any mind-blowing sex since
Mike’s impromptu departure…or
before
, for that matter. Mike had always
been…fast and anticlimactic.

Tom had taken her to heights unimaginable, and it had been
damn nice going there. And it wasn’t just his absence that provoked this empty
ache in her chest. She’d been wanting him all day, even when she was at her
angriest with “Santa.”

She swirled the paper towel across the windshield again as
her headlights cut an arc around the bend at Deer Creek Road. As if her
thoughts had conjured him, a blob of red appeared in the distance, not quite
illuminated by the beams.

“What the—no way.”

Santa. Hitchhiking.

Of all the crazy, dumb-assed, suicidal stunts…

She had half a mind to leave him out here. The other half
itched to run him over again.

Jessie pulled over some yards back. He wasn’t getting off
the hook that easily, and she had a mouthful for him.

She jumped out and stalked past the truck.

“Jessie, hello.”

She stopped, fists planted on her hips. “What the hell are
you doing out here?”

“Going home, of course. And here you are, working on another
Christmas Eve.” He shook his head as if
he
was frustrated with
her!

“Truck.” She pointed. “Now.”

He beamed a jolly, rosy cheeked grin. “Why thank you very
much, young lady.”

“Don’t thank me, mister,” she growled as he strolled past
her to the truck. She stomped after him, jumped into the driver’s seat and
slammed the door, waiting for him to climb up into the rig. “You’re in for an
ass-whuppin’ and it’s my pleasure to deliver it.”

“Whatever for?” He gawked at her, genuinely bewildered.

“What for? What for!” She glared at him, then dropped the
rig into drive. She aimed her attention toward the snow choked road ahead. “For
stupidly walking out into the mountains at night when it’s supposed to go below
zero. We’ve already seen what kind of trouble you get yourself into walking on
a dark highway at night.”

In her peripheral vision she saw him open his mouth to
speak, but she didn’t let him.

“For taking off without so much as a thank you when Tom and
I risked arrest to retrieve the surveillance video of the robbery.”

“Well of course—”

“But most of all for risking an innocent little girl’s
outlook of Christmas. How could you take advantage of a child like that?”

“Who, Amy? That’s preposterous.”

“Of course Amy!”

“Does she believe Santa doesn’t really exist?”

Jessie glanced at him. “No, but—”

“Is she upset?”

She ground her teeth. “No.”

“Is she going to have a nice Christmas when she awakens
tomorrow?”

Jessie scowled. “You’re missing the point.”

“I don’t think I am, young lady.”

This was getting them both nowhere. “Don’t you understand
what you might have done to that little girl?”

“Don’t you understand what I
did
for that little
girl?”

She sighed. “You think very highly of yourself, don’t you?”

“How about you, Jessie. Did you find your faith?”

She swallowed. Her knuckles were white on the steering
wheel. “You know I did, or I wouldn’t have bothered to look for the video.”

He was beaming again. “And for that I thank you, my dear.”

Better late than never. But she was still seething. “You’re
welcome,” she snapped.

“And how was your Christmas. What you had of it so far,
anyhow?” When she remained silent, he prodded on. “Well, Jessica?”

“Fine.”

“Just fine?”

“Okay, better than fine.” In fact, it had been great. Up
until the part where she sent Tom away—acting like a petulant child who wanted
to feel sorry for herself—it had been better than she remembered in years.

She gritted her teeth, chasing the shame away. She’d done
the right thing, and the misery she felt now was better than the anguish of
another failed Christmas.

“I have to ask, what the hell are you doing out here? For
that matter what were you doing out here on the night…” She couldn’t finish the
sentence. It felt too wretched to say
the night I ran you down
.

“Why, making Tom’s car break down, of course.”

Jessie craned her neck and gave him the “you gotta be
kidding me” look. He really was a fruitcake. “All right, sure you were.” She’d
had enough of his silly games. “Where am I dropping you, old man?”

“Right here will be fine.”

She took her foot off the gas. “You live out here?”

“Oh no, I live very far away. But I’m meeting my ride out
here.”

She flicked a glance at the side mirror. “Where? I don’t see
anyone.”

“They’ll be along shortly.”

He really was suicidal. He’d freeze within the hour.
“Listen, I’m not just letting you out
here
. A snowstorm is coming up.”