The Rock Star's Christmas Reunion: contemporary holiday romance (A Charisma series novel, The Connollys Book 1) (24 page)

“It’s a songwriting thing. I like my feet to be in tune with the floor when I’m composing.”

She opened the van’s rear doors. “What were you writing?”

“Something for you.”

“You wrote me a song?” she asked as she pulled out a cooler full of dinner for two and handed it to him. Then she grabbed a canvas sack full of extras and closed the doors.

“Sure. The working title is “Dreamin’,” but who knows what it will end up being.”

She followed him back into the house. “Are you going to sing it for me?”

“Sure,” he said. “Do you want to eat first?”

“No, I want to hear my song,” she decided. If Bax Connolly writes a song for someone, they should drop everything to listen.

“Will the food keep?”

“Yes.”

He crooked a finger at her. “Come upstairs, little girl.”

“It’s hard not to remember what happened the last time I did that.”

He grinned, that naughty rock star look that made the girls so crazy. And she, for one, knew he could back it up with the best lovemaking a girl could imagine. Stepping up to him, she wrapped her hands around his waist and tucked her head into his shoulder. This man had chosen her. So cool.

He two-stepped his way with her over to the number pad by the kitchen door and turned on the alarm. “There, we’re all tucked in for the night. You don’t have anywhere to be, right?”

“No.”

He took her hand and twirled her around, then pulled her out of the kitchen into the front hall, and up the stairs. She glanced out of the window on the landing and stopped.

“Look!” she pointed. “It’s snowing.”

“It’s December twenty-second. Do you think we’re going to have a white Christmas?”

“It’s a little too soon to know, but the odds are good. Maybe I’ll just have to stay here for the next few days.”

He circled her waist from behind and rested his head on hers as they stared out of the window. “I’d like that.”

They watched the fluffy flakes stream down from the sky. “It’s almost like tiny angels are flying toward us. It’s rare to see flakes that large here.”

“You give me the best song ideas,” he murmured. “Angels from the sky. It’s another song title. The Dealys will have another album-full of songs ready in no time.”

“Are you going to offer the song you wrote for me to them?”

“Don’t know yet. It has to settle, get past first draft.”

The snow showers diminished. She closed her eyes and let her head relax against his chest. He smelled delicious as always. She could breathe him in for the rest of her life.

“You’re painfully easy to fall in love with, you know,” she whispered.

“Am I?”

She nodded, her hair rasping against his shirt. He kissed the crown of her head.

“I love you, too, Yakima. I shouldn’t have told Haldana before I told you, but I guess she made me realize it. I’m a lucky man, to have you around.”

“Despite everything?”

“Despite nothing. You’re perfect, and I know you’re too good for me.” He squeezed her. “I’m just selfish enough to let that go.”

She smiled. He let go of her waist and slid his fingers through one of her hands, turning her away from the window.

“I should get a plush easy chair and set it in this spot. We could curl up right here.”

“You should. I even have the perfect chair. I bought it for my apartment just before my aunt needed me to move in and it’s been wrapped up in the garage ever since.”

“We’ll load it into the van tomorrow and bring it over, move you in before you even realize what I’ve done.”

“What?”

“Haldana wants your house,” he confided. “I kind of promised I’d deliver it to her.”

She chuckled as they went up the stairs. “Such schemers, you Connollys.”

He sang a song she recognized called “Old Toy Trains” as they walked down the hall into the room that had a lot of music equipment. “Have you ever played guitar?”

“No. I had a recorder in seventh grade. That’s about it for music.”

He picked up a case that was leaning against the wall.

“That has a big red bow on it,” she said suspiciously.

“Yep. Merry Christmas. This is your first gift, an early one.”

“You bought me a guitar?”

“Yes, just a starter one. You don’t have to like it, but I thought it would be fun to teach you.”

“Do I get to teach you how to cook?”

“No, I don’t want you to destroy the mystery, but you can teach me something else.” She grinned at him and he faked a shudder. “Nothing too girly.”

“I’ll have to think about it. Maybe I’ll teach you how to coil a basket.” Gingerly, she took the case from him and opened it. She paid close attention as he showed her how to hold it.

“We’ll start with a really simple chord and strumming pattern,” he said. “I’ll play my guitar and sing you your song, okay?”

“While I’m trying to do it?”

He nodded. “See, just hold that string down with your left hand and then strum with your right. 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4”

She tried to follow along. “I was really bad at the recorder.”

“It takes practice, even the strumming. And your fingers will hurt at first, too.”

“Why does anyone even last long enough to learn?”

“Because it’s cool,” he said instantly.

She practiced about five minutes, getting heartily sick of the chord, but she had to admit it sounded better after she learned how to hold her fingers properly.

“Okay, are you ready for accompaniment?”

“I won’t get any readier,” she said.

“I’ll let you take a break while I run down and get my guitar. Be back in a second.”

He disappeared while she shook out her hands. Could she really just move in? The funny thing was, this room felt cozy, womblike, and the entire house could be made to feel like that, more than where she lived now. Bax’s house was much more of a blank palette than her aunt’s former home. She could make it theirs without feeling guilty, and if Haldana could make the rent with a roommate in the second bedroom of her aunt’s house she wouldn’t have to sell it. Everything could change and she’d still have investment property.

Not that it mattered. The important thing was whether or not she wanted to wake up with Bax every morning. The mere thought had her hugging her new guitar to her chest. Yes, she did. Oh yes, she wanted to wake up with her new lover on Christmas morning, her teenage crush, her best friend’s cousin. He was everything she’d ever wanted.

“You’re beaming,” Bax said when he came through the door.

“We’re going to do this,” she said. “I don’t want to be apart. With being so busy, if this rush keeps up, living with you is the only way to spend time together.”

“Time together? Is that a real thing?”

“So I hear, especially at the start of something. I’m sure we’ll slow down in January, but we’re already getting bookings. It’s like the area was waiting for me to go into business.”

“Maybe they were. Everyone loves you around here. I wish I’d been paying attention when I was younger.”

“You needed to go and follow your dreams. So did I. But this is home. I’m happy here. And I know you won’t be here every minute, but it can be home base.”

“Sure, with a girlfriend to greet me every time I arrive home. I suggest you keep those red panties in the special box. Save them for when I come into town from work trips.” He plopped down next to her, denting the cushions hard enough that she rolled toward him a little.

“You like those, huh.”

He grinned. “Those panties plus your hips equal a three-alarm fire. Now don’t get me started or I’ll be writing another country song.”

She nodded solemnly.

“You ready?” he asked.

She formed the shapes he’d shown her with her fingers again. “As ready as I’m going to get.”

“Okay.” He began to play a melody. She fumbled a couple of times, trying to do what he taught her. After a couple of minutes, he said, “Ready for the lyrics?”

She nodded. And he sang, in a husky voice that sounded like him, but also a little country:

I’m dreamin’, I’m schemin’

I’m missing you, my love.

I’m hurting, I’m wanting.

First you liked me, next you

Hated me. Walked away

You hurt me, you beat me.

You cast me aside. Now

Sorry. I was cryin’.

I couldn’t walk away.

“Wow,” she said, when he was done.

“Those were verses. Ready for the chorus?”

“That was kind of sad,” she told him.

“You were a family friend for a long time. How I missed that you were the perfect girl for me all those years ago I can’t imagine.”

“It was time to come home,” she suggested. “I wasn’t the perfect girl for you then, but I am now.”

He set his guitar down and pushed his hands through her hair. “Never cut your hair,” he said against her mouth, then kissed her. Powerful emotion surged through her veins. She felt his kiss in a way she never had before. Eventually, his lips softened. He nibbled at the corner of her mouth then pulled away. “There’s more.”

“Sing to me,” she whispered, licking the minty taste of him from her lips.

He nodded, and sang:

That sparkle is a diamond

It’s a holiday night

The snow dazzles my eyes

You unfreeze my heart

My love will last long past this

Christmastime.

“Beautiful,” she whispered. “I love you.”

He smiled. “Love you too. Back to a verse.”

So I begged you to stay

Here and love me for real

It’s Christmas. So bright now.

That sparkle is a diamond

It’s a holiday night

The snow dazzles my eyes

You unfreeze my heart

My love will last long past this

Christmastime.

When he stopped playing after repeating the verse, she had tears in her eyes. He set down his guitar and plucked hers from her hands, then set it aside, too. She crawled into his lap and breathed him in, her breasts against his chest, her jeans rubbing against his. When she came up for air, ready to rip all the barriers between them away, he was dangling a necklace with a fancy diamond heart in front of her nose.

“Oh, Bax,” she whispered, stroking a finger down the heart. “You really planned this.”

“Diamonds tonight, house keys tomorrow,” he promised.

“You make it sound so easy.”

“I think it is, between us,” he said. “Once we took care of the details.”

“What are we going to do about that broken heart tattoo?”

“We’ll figure out how to weave it into a larger design. It doesn’t make sense on my body anymore.”

She put her fingers to his cheeks and leaned her forehead against his. Never, ever, would she get enough of this man. “I love you, and this is the best Christmas ever.”

“The best everything,” he promised. “I’ve never been happy like this. I’m so glad to be home.”

Her lips touched his. She joined with him in the perfect kiss. Somewhere, she thought she could hear a carol being sung distantly. Maybe there really were angels out there, ringing the music of the spheres, or maybe tunes always surrounded her Bax. Either way, she had found her forever home, with her crush next door.

~

December 26
th

Haldana parked her old truck in Bax’s driveway the day after Christmas. When she opened the door, her boots hit packed snow covering the dirt bed on the side. She’d parked too close to the edge. She had been paying more attention to the thick, almost blue cloud cover overhead, than the driveway. The sky seemed lower than usual, as if she could touch it if she was just a little taller.

Yakima had asked her to bring the leftovers from the brunch they’d catered late that morning directly to her cousin’s house. Most of the relatives were already there, enjoying the French toast casserole Yakima had made the night before and left in the refrigerator with directions for Bax to cook. He’d also been in charge of sausages, and Haldana wondered how her cousin had fared in the kitchen.

Her breath puffed white as she pulled a box of assorted muffins and a plastic container of leftover fruit from the backseat and trudged through the snow. She trusted the lawn more than the driveway, which had been cleared but could be harboring ice patches. Yakima was so completely happy right now that she might have sucked all the good luck in Battlefield into Bax’s house.

No two people had ever looked more in love, than her cousin and his new girlfriend under the Christmas tree the previous afternoon. She had cried over the bracelet he’d given her. Haldana had shed a few tears in the bathroom herself, wiggling her wrist with her own, less ostentatious bracelet that Bax had given her. It had diamonds too, but also her birthstone, garnets.