The Rock Star's Christmas Reunion: contemporary holiday romance (A Charisma series novel, The Connollys Book 1) (23 page)

“Good. She’s awfully busy.”

“I know. It’s been great.” Haldana sucked in a huge breath and blew it out. “Okay. You grab the pie, I’ll grab the meat and then we’ll get gift baskets.”

He poked her shoulder. “What am I going to get Yakima for Christmas?”

She poked him back. “They have a great jewelry section here at this time of year. You can hunt through it while I get the baskets. And find me a boyfriend too, okay?”

After she’d stowed the meat in the cart, she pushed it toward the gift baskets while he went to the Jewelry section. He glanced through the offerings quickly, knowing he needed something good and didn’t have much time to find anything else so close to Christmas. Why hadn’t he planned better? Maybe because he hadn’t been taking their relationship seriously enough. He’d let himself become too distracted with chasing after the affection of the town.

The saleswoman talked him to their nicest heart necklace, just thirteen hundred dollars, and then he chose a five thousand dollar gold and diamond bracelet as well. In this county, he didn’t think he could find anything nicer. He’d give her the necklace as soon as he saw her again, and save the bracelet for Christmas proper.

After he tucked everything away, he found Haldana wrestling with the gift baskets. “That’s a lot. Maybe you should just do those mug sets?”

She glanced at where he was pointing and shook her head. “No, these are in the budget.”

“Then we’d better get a flatbed cart. I’ll have to go outside and come in again.”

“We’re going to be here for hours,” Haldana groused.

“I know, but you’re getting paid, right?”

Her eyes snapped up. “You aren’t going to desert me, are you?”

“Of course not. But you are going to tell Yakima how helpful I was and what a great boyfriend I’m going to be, right?”

She stuck out her tongue at him. “Cousin manipulation? Really?”

He winked at her. “You bet.” He parked their cart next to her and went to the registers, hoping to find a spot where he could squeeze back out of the crowded store. As he walked by the spiraling line at the food counter behind the check-out area, a beautiful twenty-something in a slim-fitted suit and four-inch-heels caught his eye.

She mouthed his name, not in a shocked fan kind of way, but in sexy recognition. How many times over the years had he taken a moment like this, with a girl who was obviously pretty cool, and gone up to her? He knew the scenario. They’d flirt, go somewhere for coffee, have a great date and an even better night of sex. There was that line between fan and admirer that led to spectacular one-off evenings.

She took a step toward him, losing her spot in line. With only a twinge of regret, he shook his head slightly and went for the door. Haldana needed him to get the cart back to her, and he didn’t need Sexy Suit Girl’s phone number. Even a fight with Yakima had more meaning than yet another first date that he’d never follow up on with a hot chick who recognized him.

~

A few hours later, the sun was low in a surprisingly clear sky as Bax pulled into the car lot in his SUV, Blue in his kennel in the back seat. He jumped down to the gravel, then opened Blue’s kennel and attached his leash, feeling like a proper local with a dog in tow.

The first person he saw was Niall, his knees digging into the gravel as he placed a boot around the tire of a decade-old sedan.

“Whatcha doin’?” Bax asked, bending down.

“We had a Honda Accord stolen last night. We should have known better than to stock it.”

“Why?”

“One of the most popular vehicles to steal,” Niall said. “We were asking for it. So Dare went out and bought a bunch of these at Walmart this morning.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Niall glanced up and saw the dog just as Dare came toward them with a middle-aged woman in a puffy coat and her teenage son. “Who’s this handsome fellow?”

“Can you take them for a test drive?” Dare asked, nodding at them.

“This one?” Niall pointed at the freshly-attached boot.

Dare nodded. Niall rolled his eyes in Bax’s direction and knelt down again to remove the boot while Dare extolled the virtues of the sedan.

Bax stepped back, pulling Blue away from something mysterious he was sniffing, when Niall opened the car doors. The teenager slid behind the wheel, looking surly. Bax suspected the battle over safe versus cool first car had been won by the mother.

“The radio sucks,” the kid reported, as his mother climbed into the back seat. Dare helped her tuck in the corner of her coat and shut the door, then Niall climbed into the passenger side.

As the car reversed, Bax was left staring at Dare across the parking space. His free hand flexed at his side. “We should be drawing pistols at dawn or something.”

“It’s dusk,” Dare said.

Bax stared at his brother, love filling his heart to bursting. Dare and Yakima were the same age, but she still had a dewy look of youth to her, whereas Dare was showing some weather beating around those typical Connolly eyes. His dark brown hair stood up all over, no sign of recession there. It needed a trim, and he had a four-day beard. “So, listen.”

Dare folded his arms over his chest.

“This is about me, not you.”

“Not surprising.”

“Yeah, well.” Bax trailed off, tightening his fist on the leash. “Yakima introduced me to Blue here, and I adopted him or rescued him or whatever from Tony Wright.”

“He’s okay,” Dare said.

“Yeah, so I don’t want to take him back, because Tony already filled Blue’s spot in his kennel.”

“Something wrong with him? Looks like a great dog.” Dare closed the distance between them, work boots crunching on the gravel, and crouched at Blue’s side. He held up his fist for Blue to sniff, then patted his shoulder.

“He is a great dog, but he’s a nipper. Scared the bejesus out of her this morning and she stormed out of my house.”

“She got bit pretty bad when we were kids,” Dare said. “She’s probably afraid of dogs.”

“Yeah.” So Dare remembered. He’d really been lost in his own world back then.

“Must be nuts about you to find you a dog.”

“Yeah.”

“She’s cool.” Dare stroked Blue as the dog head-butted him gently. “But not a dog person.”

“Yeah. I wanted a dog because of the break-ins, but I guess they switched over to robbing businesses, huh.”

“Yep.”

“Sorry about the stolen car.”

“Me too, but we’ve got insurance.”

“Good.” He watched his brother love up his dog. They looked good together. Some of the tension seemed to have left Dare’s shoulders.

“A lot of the times it’s just joyriding and the cars will show up again.”

“The boots were a smart idea.”

Dare nodded as he fingered Blue’s collar. “What are you going to do with this bad boy?”

“Might do better with a guy that’s more single than I am,” Bax said slowly.

Dare lifted his head. “You want me to take him off your hands?”

“I’d consider it a favor. Yakima bought out the dog section of Walmart last night. He’s set for weeks.”

“Huh.”

Bax realized he didn’t know where Dare lived. How had that happened? “You’re not back home with Dad, are you?”

“No, my ex moved out of our place. I got her name taken off the lease.”

“Will they take dogs?”

“Yeah, the owners like pets.” Dare scratched behind Blue’s ears. “He’ll need training.”

“I already made an appointment for after the holidays. And prepaid.”

“Is he your dog or mine?” Dare looked up.

Bax could see pain in his brother’s eyes. “Did your ex take a pet with her?”

“Our cat.”

Bax nodded. “Blue is all yours, bro. I won’t interfere and the training is the last thing on my dime.”

Dare stood up and nodded. “Fine. Maybe it will turn out that he doesn’t like women.”

The brothers shared a smirk. “I wouldn’t let him run free in the lot. What if he attacks the female customers?”

“I’m not an idiot,” Dare said. “You got his water and food bowls? I’ll set them out in our hut for now.”

“I’ve got a dog house. You want it here?”

“That one that matches your house? Nah. Save it for the next dog.” Dare snorted. “If Yakima lets you have one. Her mother is a real ball buster. I always steered clear because of that.”

“Jay’s great, from what I remember.”

“Except he hated our parents.”

“I don’t remember Yakima being bit at all,” Bax admitted. “But I guess the Wannassays had reason to hate us.”

“I think Mom boned Yakima’s dad,” Dare said.

Bax’s face slackened in shock. “What?”

“You know what she was like. I’m thinking she actually scored with him. They’ve been neighbors for seventeen years and never talk, Wannassay and Dad.”

“Why didn’t one of them move?”

“Too stubborn.” Dare glanced up from Blue as another car drove into the lot. “Customers.”

“I’ll get Blue settled,” Bax said. “Maybe you’ll invite me over in a couple of days so I can see your house?”

“Sure,” Dare said.

Bax held out his hand and, after hesitating, his brother took it.

“So you’re really going to stay around, huh?”

“Can’t say goodbye to Yakima.”

Dare stared down at Blue. “Guess not. Good luck, man.” He forced a smile and handed the leash back to Bax before heading over to the new customers.

Chapter Fourteen

Yakima could hear music sliding under the door as she opened her van door in Bax’s garage on Thursday night. Her feet were still sore from long hours on her feet the day before. She’d cleaned the client’s kitchen until after midnight. It had all been worth it since her hard work had been rewarded with a bonus and a booking for a January birthday party three weeks from now.

She decided to go into the house and do a kitchen check before she brought in containers of leftovers. If Blue was in the kitchen she might drop something. When she opened the door, she found only Bax, sitting at the table in jeans and his usual Henley, barefoot, playing a singsongy kind of tune on his guitar. He sang something, but so low she couldn’t really hear it.

“Hey you.” He grinned at her and leaned the guitar on a chair before standing.

“Hi. I have the food in the van. Where did you want me to set up? Do you have another visitor from Nashville or Los Angeles?”

He shook his head. “Just you and me, darlin’.”

She drank in the sight of him, trying to decide if she should be irritated or flattered that he’d asked her to bring a fancy dinner. He’d given her his credit card number over the phone. She’d already charged him, not realizing this was his way of getting her over for dinner. “You could have simply asked.”

“Would you have said yes?”

“Depends on where Blue was at the time.”

“Haldana told me to act like nothing happened, but I don’t like the idea of shoving things under the proverbial rug.” He folded his arms over his chest, then unfolded them and tucked his thumbs into his low-slung pockets. “I don’t want resentments to build between us.”

“I wasn’t mad at you.” She was mad at herself. “I brought you the dog. But I was scared.”

“I have to admit I have no memory of what happened when you were hurt by my mom’s dog back in the day. Haldana had to tell me.”

“Really.” She considered that. “I don’t think you were around.”

He frowned. “I was pretty checked out, even if I was.” He picked up the athletic sock snowman decoration that had appeared on the dining room table.

“It was a long time ago.”

“I know, but it obviously left scars. Anyway, I don’t think this is the best time for me to have a dog. And besides, unless there are two sets of Christmas thieves, they’ve moved over to Dollar’s Corner. Dare lost a car a couple of nights ago.”

She suspected he was right. “I was at the Kroger and heard one of those dead ends with three houses tucked behind the trees had break-ins at each place,” she said.

“In Dollar’s Corner?”

She nodded.

He set the snowman down. “I guess I’m out of the risk zone for now, then, and I’m being better about the alarm.”

She could see the figure still had a price tag. He must have picked it up at one of the bazaars. “Good. Did you take Blue back to Tony?”

“No, I gave him to Dare, along with all of his stuff. He seemed pretty happy, something to focus on other than his breakup.”

She smiled. “That’s a great idea. He looked just awful when I saw him.”

“I agree.”

She wanted to ask him if he’d given up the dog for her, but decided the answer was obvious. He had liked Blue, so obviously he wouldn’t have given the dog up otherwise. Flashing him a bright smile, she said, “I’ll bring in the food.”

“I’ll help.” He stood up and followed her out.

“I just don’t get the bare feet thing,” she admitted.