The Christmas He Loved Her (Bad Boys of Crystal Lake 2)

“It’s good you’re back.”

Jake nodded but remained silent.

Mackenzie smiled a million watts at Raine, his green eyes crinkled with warmth. “Take care, gorgeous, and I’ll think about Christmas.”

The door closed behind Mackenzie, leaving silence in his wake and the oppressive weight of two ice-blue eyes shooting daggers at Jake. Now that Mac was gone, she didn’t make any effort to hide her anger.

Jake turned to her, set his leather bag onto the coffee table, and waited for the hammer to fall.

“I should kick your ass all over Crystal Lake, you know that, right?” She blew out a strand of hair that caught at the corner of her mouth. “And maybe I will, but first I’d like to hear all about your yearlong vacation.”

Vacation?

Okay, so now anger burned beneath his leather collar. Fort Hood was no fucking vacation. The nightmares in his head were no fucking vacation. The guilt and pain that lived with him every single day were no fucking vacation.

“Are you serious?” He asked so softly, he knew she barely heard him, or else she might have taken the hint and backed off. “You think the last year has been a vacation?”

Instead, Raine took two steps forward and thumped him in the chest with the palm of her hand. “Yes, I do,” she spat. “You took a vacation from life for the last year and a half while the rest of us slugged it out in the trenches.” Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears, and she’d never looked more fierce. Never looked more delicate and frail or so damn lovely it made his stomach ache. “It’s time to come clean, Edwards. Why have you stayed away so long?”

The hammer, it seemed, was heavy, and it didn’t take long to strike.

Chapter 2

Raine didn’t know if she wanted to strangle the man in front of her, slap him across the face and order him out of her house, or hug him. And by the looks of it, Jake Edwards needed more than just a hug. Judging from the bleak, haunted look in his eyes, he hadn’t fared well over the last year and a half. But then again, had any of them?

She tore her gaze from his, her heart pounding, her cheeks heated. God, she was so angry with him.

He stood in front of her, hurting so badly it fell off him in waves, and yet all she could think about was the fact that he had been in touch with every single person they shared a bond with, except her.

She’d received exactly six emails from him since he left Crystal Lake. And one drunken voice mail, which she’d never erased and would listen to from time to time when she was feeling more down in the dumps than usual. How sad was that?

Raine exhaled sharply and took a step back, eyes critical as she took him in once more. He was dressed in faded jeans and black leather, a deep blue turtleneck sweater offering some bit of warmth against the late November chill. His hair, so much longer than when she’d seen him last, was wavy, the thick espresso curls now touching his collar. The coffee-colored eyes that stared back at her glittered with a hardness in their depths she didn’t like. His strong jaw, slightly crooked nose—broken when he was twelve and his brother dared him to jump off the bridge near the dam—and full, wide mouth hadn’t changed.

He was still as handsome as ever, and she supposed some women would find the hard edge he’d picked up even more attractive. He looked dangerous, very much a bad boy—as if Jake Edwards needed any more weapons in his arsenal. Women had always flocked to his side like bees to honey. Heck, he’d been as much a horndog as Cain Black, back in the day.

He’s so different from Jesse.

They were fraternal twins, so while physically they looked different—her husband had been lighter in coloring, with blue eyes instead of brown, and dark blond hair—there’d still been enough of a resemblance between them that anyone would know they were brothers. The Edwards twins. The Bad Boys.

She closed her eyes as a familiar wave of pain rolled through her. It stuck in her chest, tightening like iron claws, and she took a step back, hating the sensation more than ever.

She much preferred the numb cocoon she usually existed in. It was just easier when everything was coated in ice and frozen over, smooth as the lake in mid-December.

“Are you all right?”

Raine’s eyes shot open. “What kind of question is that?” She turned, grabbed Mackenzie’s empty beer bottle, and headed toward her kitchen. She rinsed the bottle out and set it on the counter, aware that Jake had followed her.

Keeping the granite island between them, she glared at him. “Why wouldn’t I be all right? I’m a thirty-year-old widow who lives alone, though I suppose Gibson counts for something.” She paused and glared at him. “Gibson would be my puppy.” Then she continued. “My mother is back in town and wants to spend the holidays with me, and really, she’s the last person I want to see. Most of my friends are either too busy or too weirded out by my situation to come around anymore. I’m scared, pissed off, and…”

She went quiet as her thoughts wandered toward

the dark place inside her. The empty place. The one that would never heal.

I’m alone.

Jake’s eyes narrowed and the bleakness in them intensified. She knew exactly what he was thinking about, and for a moment she was back there with him. Back to that crazy night when the darkness inside both of them had exploded.

The night they had reached for each other in pain. The night they had used their bodies to try and forget Jesse’s death—her husband, his brother. But it had backfired, and their pain had been too great, their last words bitter. Jake’s had rung in her head for many, many nights.