A Barker Family Christmas (The Barker Triplets 3.50)

“Shane, I can look after myself.”

He didn’t answer, though his mouth tightened. Instead he tossed his leather jacket onto the sofa and rolled up the sleeves of his blue plaid shirt.

“Can I get you a beer, son?” Gramps asked, hands going for the controls of his wheelchair.

“Nah, I’m good, Herschel.”

“Bobbi can you throw some of that there, Uncle Ben’s in the microwave?” her gramps said, as he maneuvered his chair toward the sofa.

What?

Bobbi turned to her grandfather and frowned. “Rice? You want rice?”

Herschel scratched under his ball cap. “Rice? Who said anything about rice? There’s a Criminal Minds marathon on and we should settle in before we lose power. I’d like some of that there popcorn.”

Popcorn. Right.

She let Pia down and kissed her gramps, a small smile on her face. “Anything else you need?”

Herschel raised an eyebrow. “Some of my homemade red wine would be good.”

“No.”

“Maybe the last bit of that scotch, neat?”

“No.”

“Whiskey?”

“Water is the only thing on the menu tonight,” Bobbi said, shaking her head. “Or maybe some hot cocoa?”

“Can we add a dash of rum to that?”

“You’re impossible,” she replied. Bobbi glanced up at Shane, mouth dry at the look in his eyes. Something in their depths touched that scared place inside her and for one moment, Bobbi wished she were anywhere other than trapped here with the man that she loved.

How screwed up was that?

She cleared her throat and moved toward the hallway, breath catching when Shane leaned close to her as she passed by him.

“I’m done waiting, Bobbi. Done with you pushing me away. Done with you avoiding the one thing we can’t avoid. The one thing we need to figure out if we’re going to have half a chance. The way I figure it, this storm is our chance to get all this bullshit sorted out once and for all. There’s no place to hide anymore. I’m not letting you hide.”

She froze.

“And even if you did find somewhere to disappear,” Shane continued, his voice dangerous, his warmth scorching the skin beneath her ear. “It wouldn’t matter, because I’d find you.”

Her heart stopped.

“I’d find you,” he repeated softly.

Bobbi swallowed the biggest lump ever and squeaked out a response. It wasn’t eloquent or well thought out, but it was all she had.

“Okay.”

Okay, she thought, moving past him and heading toward the kitchen. This is good. We’ll get everything out. We’ll fix this.

Thing will get back to the way they were.

So why did she feel so damn scared?