We'll Be Home for Christmas (5 page)

Even Lila winced at that one. “Do I want to know what that means?”

“Some people at the nursery heard the fight. All sorts of sex talk and something about swapping.” When Austin swore, Darla pushed a water glass closer to him. “You calm down. It’s all fine. No one is questioning you, Austin. But, honestly, I’ve been hoping Spence here would bring this lady friend around so I could get my own look at her. Because of the delay—”

“The fight just happened this afternoon, so let’s not act like I’ve been hiding Lila for a month,” Spence pointed out.

“—I figured Spence had been doing that thing where he puffs out his chest and orders everyone around. It’s cute but some ladies don’t like that sort of thing.” Darla shook her head. “I’ve been telling you that for years.”

Lila smiled. “Yeah, Spence. Women don’t like it.”

Darla reached across the table and patted his hand as if she were his teacher and not essentially his age. “Spence here is a good guy even though he frequently tries to act otherwise.”

The uncertainty about bringing Lila to such a public place became full-blown regret. “Thanks...I think,” he said.

Lila leaned in, doing that thing women did where they met one minute and shared secrets the next. “What is all this explosion talk?”

“Apparently it was about...” Darla met Lila halfway across the table, nearly shutting the men out. “The One-Night Stand.”

“What?”
Lila didn’t bother to lower her voice. She practically screamed the word.

Yeah, definitely regret the dinner choice
. Spence tried to think of a good way to handle the situation and decided there wasn’t one. He glared at Lila. “I warned you this town had a nickname for everything.”

She grabbed the menu then put it down. She repeated the action twice before settling it in her hands and picking at the frayed upper corner. If she tugged any harder she might rip the thing in half.

“Uh, Lila?” He reached for the menu but she had it in a sleeper hold.

She wasn’t paying any attention to him anyway. “As Spence pointed out, the fight only happened this afternoon. How can everyone know?”

“That’s like ten years in Holloway time.” Austin held up both hands as he spoke, as if they needed a visual aid for the word
ten
.

“I don’t believe this.” The paper ripped under Lila’s fingers.

This time Spence pulled the menu out of her reach and put a hand over hers to keep her from flailing around. “Here’s the good news. Now you don’t have any reason to turn down my offer.”

Lila finally focused on him. “Which one?”

“Yeah, Spence.” Austin said. “Which?”

“What are we talking about?” Darla asked at the same time.

Spence was tempted to ignore all of them, and the rest of the diner. The customers didn’t even pretend to ignore them. They could at least act like they weren’t listening in and mumble or something.

“Is this about the sleeping arrangements?” Darla asked as she looked at Spence then Lila. “Where are you going to stay?”

Lila’s bottom lip disappeared. She nibbled on it for a few seconds before answering. “My thought was the campground.”

“But then you saw it and realized that wasn’t realistic, right?” Austin asked, looking appalled that there might be a different answer.

Lila cleared her throat. “Spence said something about an inn but I hate to spend the money.”

Austin started reaching into his pocket before she finished talking. “There’s no need.”

“What are you about to suggest?” And Spence decided his baby brother had better be careful because Spence’s control was right on the edge. Sitting this close to Lila, talking about sleeping, being frustrated by her stubbornness. A guy could only take so much.

“Still married here.” Austin held up his ring finger but it was clear he wanted to show Spence another. A key clinked against the Formica table a second later. “Lila can stay at Dad’s place. It’s on the nursery property, close to the farmhouse and perfectly safe.”

It was Lila’s turn to look horrified. Her nose wrinkled as she made a face. “I am not kicking an old man out of his house.”

“I would advise you not call him that because he likes to lift and throw things like he’s a teenager, but the point is he’s out of town,” Austin said. “He’s the one running the Christmas tree lot in D.C. He and Mitch are handling it while I’m here doing some paperwork. So, his place is open. A one-bedroom cabin with electricity and food and a cleaning lady who makes sure it’s not a pit.”

Relief crashed into Spence. He didn’t even realize he’d been holding his breath until Austin offered his solution. Leave it to his sensible, always-thinking younger brother to step in and resolve the biggest problem. That would almost make up for all the shit Spence would take over the Lila situation once he and Austin were alone.

“You can’t volunteer someone else’s house.” Lila looked at them all again, her eyes narrowing the longer she did. “Right?”

The refusal didn’t have any impact on Darla. She tapped her pen against the table. “Karl is a great guy and would insist. Besides that, it’s the neighborly thing to do.”

“Lila doesn’t get the community concept.” Spence had been trying to explain it for hours now and she wasn’t one step closer to getting it.

Austin waved off the concern. “She will in time. Holloway can be overwhelming at first.”

“It’s like I stepped into another time,” Lila said in a voice that sounded lost and far away even though they sat inches apart.

“You’ll get used to it.” Part of Spence wanted her to like the sensation, to grow accustomed to being around. The other part of him wanted her to run like hell as far away as she could go.

She looked more confused than when they started the conversation. “What am I going to get used to?”

That one was easy, so Spence filled in the blank without thinking. “Not being an outsider.”

Chapter Five

Dressed in old jeans and the thickest sweater she owned that could fit under her ski jacket and still let her arms move, Lila walked into the diner the next morning. People nodded and smiled as she took off her coat and gloves. Rather than hide, during the seemingly endless walk across the black-and-white block tile floor she treated everyone to a welcoming smile and was surprised when she got many in return.

She plopped down on the barstool and watched the blinking red and green lights outlining the big specials menu on the wall. A Christmas carol played in the background and strings of tinsel now sat in the center of every booth. Sometime during the night someone, probably Darla, had decorated the place for the holidays.

Lila liked it. Liked all of it, how warm and safe she felt here. As she balanced on the stool, she even debated getting the sticky doughy thing in the case behind the counter for breakfast rather than her usual boring oatmeal. This was a celebration of sorts, after all. She was starting over. Even though yesterday had been bumpier than expected, she didn’t wake up worrying about the credit calls that would start by eight-oh-six. That already made her life better than the six months that went before.

After one night in Karl Thomas’s massive bed, Lila felt refreshed and ready to work. Spence had dropped her off after dinner and Austin hovered around the entire time. Having a sibling shadow had Spence snapping and cranky, but she’d been grateful for the third-party reinforcement. On top of the campground disappointment and threats of bears, she’d needed a few hours to regroup and sparring with Spence wouldn’t have given her that.

Lounging back on the stack of pillows last night as she held the remote and flipped through what seemed like a thousand satellite channels refueled her. Well, it did after she forced Spence to call his dad and get permission for her to be in his house. He not only agreed, he threatened to “teach his sons some real manners” if she didn’t stay.

With that assurance and a brief tour of the place by Spence, she’d felt safe and warm. Looking out the window she could see the three-story farmhouse on the hill. Minutes after Spence had left, the lights on the middle floor had clicked on. She was miles from her old life, both the happily married one she thought she’d had and the crappy one she really did. Knowing Spence was close swept the rest of her tension away.

“Lila. Welcome back.” Darla didn’t miss a beat. She poured the coffee with one hand and set down silverware wrapped in a napkin with the other. She was a blur of constant motion. Before Lila could ask for it, a plate clanked against the counter with a long twisty doughnut on it. “I saw you eyeing it up.”

Lila tried to ignore the sugary blob but maybe she could pick at the end. “Do you work every shift? I just saw you at dinner yesterday.”

“The Schmidt in Schmidt’s Diner is my grandfather. So, yeah, I’m always here except when I’m home cooking for the husband.” Darla dumped the coffee pot on the warming burner behind her.

Lila ripped off the end of the dough and popped it in her mouth, licking her sticky fingers right after. But, really, that was going to be it. At five-five, her figure went from curvy to chubby pretty fast. She’d always carried what some might consider extra weight because the stick-figure thing didn’t appeal to her. Neither did starving. She had breasts and hips and refused to apologize for being built like a woman.

“I don’t think I could be around food that much,” she said as she pulled another piece off the doughnut.

“Do you cook?”

“Not unless I’m forced or you count instant oatmeal.”

“I don’t, but nice try.” Darla left for a minute to ring up a customer. When she returned, she jammed her pen in her hair and took up residence right across the counter from Lila. “So, how long have you known Spence?”

Lila choked down the piece of doughnut she’d been chewing. Swallowing over the sudden lump in her throat hadn’t been easy. “You’ve been holding that in since last night, haven’t you?”

Darla threw back her head and laughed in a sound so rich and genuine that several people joined in even though they couldn’t possibly have heard the comment. “I gotta tell you. The curiosity has been killing me. Spence is not the type to bring his girl around.”

Just like that Lila’s amusement faded. It was a good thing she’d finished the doughnut so fast because this turn in the conversation might ruin the last bites for her. “No.”

“You’re thinking he does?”

“I’m saying the ‘his girl’ thing, that’s not me.”

Darla’s eyes narrowed a fraction. “Word is you two had a lover’s spat.”

“A really vocal one, if the gossip is right.” An older woman shuffled over and plopped down next to Lila. The stool creaked and coffee splashed over the rim of Lila’s cup when the woman knocked it with the open sleeve of her oversized coat.

The lady smelled like gardenias and wore the brightest pink lipstick Lila had ever seen. She’d never been good at tagging people’s ages, but she’d guess this lady was in her sixties or seventies. She was short and almost as wide as she was tall. She threw elbows and shushed a man who tried to get Darla’s attention.

Darla took the interruption in stride. She grabbed another coffee mug and set it down. “Hi Cleo. This is Lila, Spence’s new girlfriend.”

Yeah, she had to put a stop to that talk. “I’m not—”

Cleo made a slurping sound as she drank from the mug. “I’ve heard.”

The people of Holloway sure did like their gossip. Lila had never been a fan of... “Wait, what exactly did you hear?”

Cleo dropped the cup to the counter, lipstick smudge and all, and signaled for Darla to pour a second cup. “Something about wild nights and a knock-out fight at the nursery.”

Good grief
. “I’m Ned Payne’s niece. I’m running—”

“Bah, I know who you are. It’s good Spence found a hometown girl. Mitch’s Cassidy. Austin and Carrie. Those men knew not to drag one of those city types back here.” Cleo leaned back as far as her stomach would allow without tipping her over and looked Lila up and down. “Where are you from?”

“Philadelphia.”

The older woman’s face fell. “That’s not good.”

“Cleo, she’s here now and has kin in these parts.” Darla kept pouring coffee. Cleo would empty a cup and Darla would be right there with more. Clearly this was some sort of practiced dance.

At the older woman’s comment, those insecurities came rushing back at Lila. She tried to mentally duck them but the wallop didn’t stop. Being an outsider. Being in a place, in a job, where she didn’t have an ounce of experience. The newness of everything, of being a grown woman and having to make friends all over again, scared the crap out of her.

Cleo shrugged. “We’ll see.”

Lila figured she’d missed something. “See what? What is happening around here?”

“Big Spence Thomas having a serious girl is quite the news,” Darla explained.

Whoa
. These people wanted to marry Spence off and were looking in the wrong direction. “I’m not that girl.”

Darla skipped over Lila and talked directly to Cleo. “It might just be sex now, but I can see it for the future.”

Lila’s stomach flip-flopped. She wasn’t ready to be left out of this conversation. Not when it was veering so far into fantasy land. If she so much as sneezed, these two might have her wedding planned by the time she blew her nose.

“That one was scarred by his momma’s leaving.” Cleo nodded at Lila then Darla as if to prove her point.

Lila wanted to walk away but they’d finally found a topic that interested her. After three days with Spence, three days of talking and touching, she knew nothing about his personal life. Oh, he’d given her the basics, along with using his brother’s name, but she hadn’t gotten a sense of Spence other than to know she was safe in that small space with him.

With a few throwaway words, Cleo had given Lila more insight than she’d gotten from all her time with him combined. “Did you say momma?”

“He’ll be tough to reel in, but you can do it.” Darla patted Lila’s hand. “I know I’m right about this.”

About what?

“She’ll be able to hook him,” Darla said.

Cleo looked Lila up and down. “Hmpf.”

That fast the women were off again. Just when the conversation got interesting, they shut it down and circled back to the commitment talk. Lila got dizzy just trying to keep up. “What makes you think I want to snag Spence?”

“Well, who wouldn’t want Spence Thomas? Under all that gruffness, he’s a catch,” Darla said.

Lila pushed that thought as far out of her mind as she could get it. Nowhere on her To Do List was an item about getting to know Spence Thomas better. “I’m not fishing.”

Not with her life in pieces. Stephen had used their firm’s client account as his gambling seed money, swearing he’d planned to reimburse it with his next big score. She’d missed the signs and trusted him to handle the bookkeeping. Everything she counseled women not to do with their money, she’d done. She trusted the wrong guy and let it all happen. That said more about her gullibility and malfunctioning man radar than she was comfortable analyzing.

With a little luck and a lack of evidence linking her to the crime, she’d escaped prosecution. She’d even paid back all the money Stephen had stolen by emptying the savings he hadn’t pissed away and running up her credit cards with cash advances. She went from having great credit to barely being able to buy a hot dog without a co-signor.

The scandal ripped her reputation apart and left her with attorney bills she had to pay and only a few thousand dollars with which to start over. But the worst part was how he dumped her right after being found out. Dumped her right when her fury was in full spin. She’d just thrown all of his suits out the window to the dirty sidewalk below and was waiting for him to get back from the police station so she could officially kick him out. He walked in and, before she could say anything, gave her the I-need-to-get-my-life-together-and-start-over speech as if she were the bad influence in the marriage. Only thing she wondered was why she hadn’t noticed he was a raving asshat before getting so royally screwed by him.

“I had a good feeling about the other one and was right. That Cassidy worked out for Mitch just fine,” Cleo said.

“You didn’t like Cassidy at all when she first came back to town,” Darla pointed out.

Cleo kept talking as if Darla had never spoken. “Cassidy was off living somewhere else before finding Mitch, but I’m betting we have wedding news after the holidays. The lead in the town’s betting pool is Christmas Eve. I say New Year’s. Mitch seems like the new-year-big-news type.”

Lila had no idea what they were talking about.

Darla turned to Lila. “But you have time.”

Still lost
. “For what?”

Cleo shook her empty mug at Darla again. “To get Spence to commit, of course.”

This older one never stopped with her agenda. “I’m not looking for—”

Darla pointed at the glass doors to the diner. “His truck just pulled up. You better get going.”

Lila looked up and saw lights outlining the window and a plastic Santa sitting right outside. “Why?”

“There’s no reason to keep a good man waiting. Go get him, honey. I’m betting on you moving in with him by Christmas.” Darla finished the comment at a near shout that had the diner patrons mumbling in agreement.

It took Lila an entire doughnut and two cups of coffee, but she was starting to get it. Darla wasn’t spouting off town folksiness. She said what was in her head and meant it. And sometimes that seemed like a bad thing. “And you mean an actual bet, right? Someone has actually started a pool already.”

Darla flipped her order pad over and looked at the lines of blue print. “You want in?”

Lila didn’t even know a head could pound this hard. “I’m trying to figure out how to get out.”

Cleo picked up Lila’s coat and handed it to her. “Go get him.”

“What?”

She shook her head. “When will you modern ladies figure that out and stop with all this hard to get?”

Darla laughed. “Words of wisdom.”

What was happening here?
The way Lila saw it she came in for breakfast and dropped down a hole. The town was Spence-obsessed and the more everyone talked about him, the harder it was for her not to think about him. It was like some evil matchmaking plan.

“Go.” Cleo actually shooed Lila away. Pushed on her arm, shoving Lila off the chair.

The older lady had a lot of strength behind that wall of gardenias. But suddenly the idea of running sounded good to Lila. She reached for the five tucked in her front jeans pocket. “I need to—”

Darla waved her off. “Breakfast is on me today.”

“I...uh. Okay.” Lila would have argued but she’d lost the ability to say much of anything. She put on her gloves, figuring getting out of there—and fast—might be the best response. Possibly the only response.

She somehow made it to the door and through another round of quick smiles and small waves to the other diners. The cold air hit her and rushed down her throat the minute she stepped out onto the flurry-dampened sidewalk with her coat in her arms. The chill should have revived her but she couldn’t shake off the female conversation.

Spence got out of the company truck and stood there by the open door. “I was just coming in to see if you had any interest in breakfast.”

Now there was a terrible idea. “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you.”

His smile dropped and his eyes narrowed as she got closer. “You look like someone punched you.”

“They kind of did.”

He came around the front of the vehicle in three long strides and met her at the passenger door. His hands went to her arms, rubbing up and down her now-frozen limbs. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Lila nibbled on her bottom lip as she internally debated how much to tell him. “Darla and this lady named Cleo—”

“Ah, Cleo.” The tension pulling across his cheeks left as he began to nod. “She’s a town treasure.”

“Is that what we call her?” Lila tried to ignore the way her breath curled in a puff of smoke when she talked. Also tried to wiggle her toes to get the feeling back down there. The cold had settled the second she stepped through the door and was slowly freezing her from the inside out.