Holiday Sparks

Cesar’s eyebrows rose, the ring that pierced his right arch flipping up. “Yeah.”

“I need to talk to Ben.”

“This is my place, Darcy. You don’t get to boss anyone around here.”

She turned her attention back to Cesar. “Do you have more appointments?” That damn librarian voice came out, making his chest ache.

Cesar flipped his jacket over his shoulder. “No ma’am.”

“Would it be too much of an imposition to ask you to leave us alone?”

Cesar smiled. “Man, you are so doomed. Just marry her and get it over with.”

Ben tipped his head. Un-fucking-believable. “Traitor.”

Cesar chuckled and clomped up the steps, his shit-kickers unbuckled as usual. “Doomed! I’m telling you right now, bro.”

“Out!” they both yelled.

The door slammed on Cesar’s exit.

“You can’t come in here and act like this. You’re the one that told me to take a hike. So I did. With my lights.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little childish?”

Ben shook his head. “Practical. You should be proud, since you think I have too much fun to be serious.”

“Don’t give me that sarcastic crap, Ben Hartley. I came home tonight to a dark house. No warning, no explanations. Just—dark.”

“I left the little tree lit up.”

“Yeah, one tree, damn you. One stupid tree that looked so stupid and lonely in the middle of my dark lawn.”

He cracked his thumb knuckle. “I should have left the porch light on. I’m sorry.”

“That’s not what I mean, you idiot.” She pushed her hair out of the way. “Dammit. I’ve been getting used to the Ben Christmas that puked all over my house, and now you’re going to take it all away?”

She was too much. Only this woman would equate Christmas with puke. “Tell me how you really feel, Darc.”

“How I really feel?”

He folded his arms, digging his fingertips into his triceps. The woman was making him insane. “Yeah, actually. How you really feel.”

She took off her gloves, jammed them in her pockets and grabbed his ears, dragging him down to her mouth. The kiss was imperfect and messy and she tasted of Diet Coke. He slid his hands under her coat and gripped the soft sweater she was wearing and held on, swallowing all the frustration she let loose and giving back some of his own.

She pressed her forehead to his jaw, dragged her lips over his neck. “I miss you, Ben. I miss your laughter, I miss your smell and I miss your stupid lights.”

Dammit, she felt right in his arms. The weight of her, the way she fit, hell, even her snarky little digs at Christmas. He missed her. And now he even had pieces of her in his store. If she dropped him like a hot rock again, he was going to have to sell his freaking place. “I thought you didn’t have time for me.”

“I don’t.”

He took a step back.

She gripped his shoulders. “But I’ll make time.”

All the knots in his chest dissolved.

She hurried on, her evergreen eyes tired but shining. “It’s going to be crazy until the season ends, but I-I need you.”