Tanya Michaels: Mistletoe Hero

Since the fair’s patrons were good sports here for a bit of fun-he noticed many of the guys flirting with Arianne in bad piratespeak-they paid their dollar, dropped a quick kiss and went away. The line moved at a brisk clip. Ari, who was busy making change in the cash box and filling in tiny premarked sections of the lip poster, had yet to notice him. As he waited his turn with the woman he’d foolishly tried to walk away from, Gabe realized what he wanted to do.

He saw the exact moment she spotted him. She froze in the middle of teasing Beau Albright-the guy had made a joke about the size of his cannon, and Arianne had pretended disgust, calling him a bilge rat. Her eyes locked with Gabe’s and even from this distance, the electric current between them was unmistakable.

Hell with this. I’m claiming what’s mine. He reached into his pocket, slapped the patch over his eye and cut in line.

“Away wi’ ye,” he growled to the two guys who’d been ahead of him.

Arianne put a hand on her hip, projecting a fierce demeanor, but her lips twitched in amusement. And desire for him danced in her eyes. “And what d’ ye think yer doing?”

Gabe slapped his dollar down on the cash box, then stepped behind the table.

“You know,” she whispered, a sweet quaver in her voice as she melted against him, “you’re not really supposed to be back here.”

He grinned. “Pirates don’t have to follow rules.” Then he bent her backward over his arm and kissed her with fourteen years’ worth of pent-up emotion, never wanting to come up for air, never wanting to return to the bleak world as it had been before Arianne. Distantly he was aware of applause and whistles.

Pulling away, he studied her face, hoping his stunt hadn’t angered her.

She winked at him. “So does this mean you’re okay with people knowing we’re dating?”

“The more, the better.”

Starting with all the guys behind him who’d been planning to kiss Gabe’s girl. He reached into his wallet and extracted all the cash he had-two twenty-dollar bills.

Ari’s eyes went wide. “Forty bucks?”

“Does that meet your shift quota?”

“Well, yeah, but-”

“Then I claim the pirate queen for my own,” he informed the crowd.

Onlookers who hadn’t expected to get nearly this much entertainment value hooted and stamped their feet in approval. Arianne squeaked in surprise when he hefted her into his arms and carried her away.

“I should apologize for my rash behavior,” he told her, with absolutely no intention of doing so. “But you know how it is when you get an impulse. You have to act on it.”

“I CAN’T BELIEVE I LET YOU talk me into this,” Gabe groused good-naturedly from the nursery doorway.

“As if you had better plans!” Arianne wasn’t fooled by his bluster. He looked perfectly content to be here with her. And since she’d never spent this much time alone with a baby, she greatly appreciated the extra pair of hands. She’d canceled going to an annual Halloween bash one of her college friends threw, but she didn’t mind.

“Do you even get trick-or-treaters out where you live?” she asked, trying to picture Gabe handing out mini candy bars to three-foot-tall princesses and goblins.

“No, which is my point. We could have had a completely uninterrupted Halloween evening.” He waggled his eyebrows. “You could have busted out that lady pirate costume…”

She shot him a look as she finished dressing her niece. “As I recall, you ripped that pirate costume trying to get it off me last weekend.”

“Ah, yes.” He smiled in fond recollection. “Good times.”

“Here, come take Bailey for me.” The high-tech diaper pail was getting full, and Arianne needed a few minutes and two free hands to figure out how to empty it.

Gabe obliged, but held Bailey slightly away from his body, eyeing her as nervously as if she were a ticking bomb. Which in some ways, Arianne supposed, babies were.

Arianne laughed. “You’re not scared, are you?”

“Scared of this beautiful girl?” He grinned at the infant, who cooed adoringly in return. “Of course not. What I’m scared of is dinner with your family next weekend.”

The Waides often had Sunday dinner as a family, but this weekend was Rachel and David’s first away from the baby. They’d gone to nearby Helen, Georgia, leaving Bailey in the care of her doting aunt. Arianne tried not to take it personally that they’d called eight times to check on the baby and had only been gone since that morning. When the family reconvened for their usual group meal next week, Gabe would be joining them.

“They’ll love you,” she promised, passing by him toward the garage. “But if you want any more pointers-”

“Enough with the pointers. I didn’t study as hard for the SATs as you’ve been drilling me for this meal.”

Was she really that bad? she wondered as she washed her hands. All she wanted was for everyone to see Gabe the way she did-warm and wonderful. He was coming out of his shell more, but it wasn’t easy to overcome a decade of antisocial habits.

She joined them in the living room, where Gabe had set the baby on an activity blanket on the floor. “You know what I think would be fun?”

Gabe looked imploringly heavenward. “Please let there be costumes involved in this suggestion.”

“Fetishist!” she scolded. “I was thinking about a book club.”

“A book club?” he echoed, looking at her as if she’d suddenly started speaking Swahili.

“Yeah. You like to read, right? Why not get a group of our friends together, maybe every two weeks. We could decide what we wanted to read, then talk about the story-the themes, the symbols, what we liked, what we would have changed. My mom and dad belong to one and really enjoy it.”

He’d gone from looking confused to looking the same way he had earlier when he’d smelled a dirty diaper. “I don’t know, Ari. I like reading whatever I’m in the mood for when I have the time, not trying to meet someone else’s deadline. Themes? Symbols? Half your friends are teachers.”

“So?” She plopped down on the floor next to Bailey. “I thought you liked Quinn and Patrick and Lilah.”

“I do. I just have…a different background.”

She winced. Did he feel somehow inferior because he hadn’t gone to college? She’d been trying to brainstorm ways to make him feel more included.

After the festival last weekend, they’d gone to her place and made love for hours. And then they’d talked for hours. Gabe hadn’t abandoned his job search outside of Mistletoe. He’d told her candidly that he did want to be with her and that they could discuss their options as individual opportunities arose, but he wanted at least to investigate those possibilities instead of continuing to stagnate the way he’d allowed himself to for so long.

“You understand, don’t you?” he’d asked.

Yes.

But understanding didn’t quell that horrible sensation she got in the pit of her stomach whenever she thought about him leaving. He had such potential here! People were just getting to know him. Arianne kept hoping that maybe if he strengthened his relationships in Mistletoe-maybe played softball with Nick or invited Patrick over for a video game showdown or doubledated with Lilah and Tanner at On Tap Friday nights…

She was a lousy girlfriend, she admitted to herself as she watched him play with the baby. What kind of loyal supporter helped you proofread résumés while at the same time secretly crossing her fingers that nobody would call you about a job?

Arianne had just parked her car Friday afternoon when her cell phone rang. “Hello?”

“Where are you?” Gabe asked, his tone jubilant.