A Little Bit of Christmas (Crystal Lake 3)

Not once in her life had she felt anything more than casual attraction to any of the men she’d been involved with. And her husband had been in the friend zone pretty much from day one. It was why they got along so well.

Since her divorce, there’d been men, but none of them meant anything. They’d been a means to an end. A body to eat up the desolation and quiet. A way to get by until she figured things out. Not even Nate Jacobs had managed to pierce her armor, and she’d held out hope for that one. Though, in all fairness, she knew his heart belonged to someone else before he did. Men could be such idiots.

The bathroom door opened behind her, and she froze, eyes centered on the far wall. His shadow was there, a larger-than-life version of a man she barely knew.

He walked to the dresser, and she glanced his way as he unpacked two coffees and two chicken noodle soups. His hair was damp and curled around his ears. He’d pulled on a plain black mock neck sweater and faded jeans. His feet were bare, but he didn’t seem to care.

Chess looked down at her own bare feet and curled her toes. The nails were chipped, the polish all but gone from her trip home in the snow, no doubt, and about as sad and pathetic as the rest of her.

“Here.”

Startled, she accepted the coffee cup from Cash and wrapped her fingers around the welcome warmth.

“It’s Christmas Eve,” she said slowly, as realization dawned.

He nodded but didn’t reply, then moved toward the window for a look out. “We’re stuck here at least another night.”

“I wish I was only stuck here for one more night.” She heard the words spill out of her mouth into the room and winced. Since when did she share her thoughts? Especially with someone like Cash? He was passing through town, and when he left, she’d never see him again. What the hell did he care about her situation?

“How long you been here?” He turned and leaned against the dresser. She saw curiosity in his eyes, but more importantly, there was no pity or judgment.

“A few months,” she said, taking a sip of coffee. Double cream. Double sugar. He’d gotten that right without asking. Did the man have superpowers? “I didn’t know my mother was living in this dive until I moved back home. She told me she sold the house because she couldn’t manage the property, but that’s a lie. The bank took the house, and now Beck Jacobs owns it. He’s going to reno it and sell it, and that’s that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Did she sound bitter? “I hated that house.”

Liar. It was easier to tell herself that than think of strangers in the house that at one time had been a happy home. She would never get to visit her secret garden again or sit in her window seat and read her mother’s old Nancy Drew books.

“Where were you before?”

Chess moistened her lips and glanced down at her chipped toes. “It’s a long story.”

“Time is something we have lots of.” He paused, his features softening. “I don’t mean to pry. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing, ignore me. I just thought since we’re stuck here, we could get to know each other a little better.”

“Well, you’ve already seen me naked. I’d say you know me pretty well.” Jesus. Again with the word vomit. What the hell was wrong with her?

When he didn’t reply, she glanced up to find his gaze settled on her with an intensity that should have made her uncomfortable. For some reason, it didn’t. For some reason, she wanted to share. It wasn’t exactly a pretty story, but he sure seemed interested. She took another sip of coffee and shrugged.

“I left town the day after graduation. There was nothing to keep me here. I had no close friends, at least not the kind that counted. My mom was lost in booze, and I wanted to be an actress.” She laughed at the thought and felt real pain for the naïve girl she’d been.

“It was the typical small-town-girl-who-thinks-she’ll-make-it-big-in-Hollywood story. And it’s true what they say, the narrative is as old as time. LA was full of women who looked like me, and a good number of them had a lot more talent. I got exactly one role as the coffee girl in one scene of a made-for-TV movie I’m not even sure aired. I didn’t have a line, I was told to look pretty and to unbutton the top three buttons of my top. The director’s brother was visiting the set that day, he took a liking to me, and two months later, we were married. We didn’t love each other, but I made him laugh, and he made me feel safe and comfortable. He was lonely, and I filled a hole inside him, and he was rich. He owned a company that produced big films with A-list stars, and after the first few months of our marriage, he basically left me alone.”

Chess sighed and set down her coffee.

“For a while, we had the perfect life. We were two lonely, screwed-up people happy to have someone to call their own, you know? It’s hard making your way in that world without a plus one. The wolves are hungry, and if you’re on your own, you don’t stand a chance. Brian gave me stability, and I was happy, I think. But then it fell apart. I found Brian in bed with the doorman of the hotel we’d been staying at, while our mansion in Calabasas was being fumigated for horny tarantulas.”

“Come again?”

She gave Cash a look and shuddered. “Hundreds of horny tarantulas. They get aggressive during mating season and they’re everywhere. Anyway, the fact that I found him in bed with Johan didn’t surprise me. The big kicker came two months later when I was evicted from our tarantula-infested mansion after my husband was arrested for embezzlement and the bank foreclosed on the property. Apparently, while he was busy having sex with doormen and stealing from his own company, he’d forgotten to pay our bills and defaulted on the mortgage. In addition to losing the house, my credit cards were no good, my bank account was frozen, and for a while there, I was scared the prosecutor would go after me as well. When I was free to leave, I headed to friends in New York City, and after a few months, they made it clear I’d overstayed my welcome.

“I came back to Crystal Lake a few weeks before Labor Day, the one place on earth I swore I’d never return to, especially since I came home with nothing. After living a life most people dream about, now I’m the butt of jokes, talked about in whispers, and I have zero friends.” She smiled, a cold plastic kind of thing. “I thought Brian was saving me from a life I hated, and for a while, he did, but Prince Charming only exists in fairy tales. I realized the person I am, this place I come from, is always going to be a part of me. I can’t outrun it, not even if I moved to the end of the world. I can’t count on anyone but myself.”

“That’s a pretty jaded view for someone so young.”

She laughed at that and looked at him, incredulous. “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when your world is knocked upside down and you’re only eight.”

“What happened when you were eight?”