Page 2 of Merry Christmas To Me
Chapter 1
Archer (One Week Later)~
What were the odds?
Brenner, California wasn’t that big, but it wasn’t that small either. It had a decent-sized population, maybe thirty-thousand, definitely no bigger than that. So, it was small enough to know a few people by name, but it was large enough that a lot of people were still strangers as well. And since I always kept to my side of the tracks, I had never expected to see her again.
But there she was.
I watched from across the street, and even though the town was erupting in Christmas season decorations, she still looked flustered, moody, and…well, like she was yelling at herself.
I flipped off the car honking at me-though it was totally my fault for darting out into the street-and jogged my way towards her. I didn’t want her getting away before I could find out who she was.
Even after blowing my stacks down that sweet brunette’s throat that night, this woman hasn’t left my thoughts since then. I wondered about her, and I wondered stupid shit. I wondered if she’d forgiven that bastard, but mostly, if she was safe. For whatever reason, I wondered about her safety.
She was digging in her purse as best she could with a large manila envelope in her hand, next to a car I presumed was hers. And she was so consumed in her whispered ranting, she hadn’t heard me approach. So, when I cleared my throat behind her, the screaming and jumping were kind of expected.
I threw my hands up in a surrendering motion. “Oh, hey…it’s okay…” Her hand on her heaving chest, her grey eyes wide, she didn’t look like she agreed.
When she finally found her voice, she didn’t sound happy to see me. “Are you out of your mind?” she cried out. “Why would you go sneaking up on a person?”
I fought my grin. “I wasn’t sneaking up on you,” I protested. “You were just…deep in concentration.”
Her black brows furrowed, and the woman really, really, really didn’t look happy to see me. “Well?”
I slid my hands in my pockets to appear less threatening. I knew I was a big guy, and my stature didn’t always give off that welcoming vibe. “Well, what?”
Her head tilted a bit and now she was looking at me like I was stupid. “Well, what do you want?”
Okay.
“I’m not sure if you remember me, but-”
“Of course, I remember you,” she practically spat. “You’re part of one of the most humiliating moments in my life.” Her frosty attitude-okay, bitchy attitude-made sense now. And as much as I felt for her, she was behaving like a bit of a bitch. I wasn’t the asshole who cheated on her. But before I could make my case, she went on to say, “And do you know why that night is classified as onlyoneof the most humiliating moments of my life, and not at the top?”
“Okay, I’ll bite,” I replied. “Why is it not at the top?”
She flung her arm behind her, and my eyes immediately caught the sign of the building she’d just exited, and that went a long way to explaining her mood and frustration.
Healthy Lives Clinic.
“The top is having to walk into a clinic and tell a bunch of strangers-and I don’t care if they are registered professionals-that my boyfriend of six months was nothing but a cheating asshole. And because I was too stupid to see the signs, I have to get tested for everything under the sun,” she snapped. And before I could offer any words of sympathy, she kept right on going. “That was actually second to the top,” she corrected. “The top of the list goes to thirty minutes ago, when I walked back in there, after a week of being a complete basket case, and demanding the results like a lunatic.”
I gestured towards the envelope. “So…I take it the results aren’t what you were hoping f-”
She waved the envelope in my face. “Oh, the results are perfect,” she clarified, cutting me off. “I’m as healthy as a goddamn horse.” She shoved the envelope in her oversized purse. “But if all that weren’t humiliating enough, I get told that I probably didn’t even need to have all those tests performed because I made sure to use condoms.” Her hands started failing about. “Instead of just patting me on the head with some compassion and sympathy, I get a lecture on how I might be overreacting a bit.”
“So, then…you weren’t in love with the guy,” I surmised. “That’s good, right?” I really didn’t know what else to say to the woman without setting her off more, but I quickly learned that accusing her of not being in love with Robbie...Roger…Ronnie? was the wrong thing to say.
Her head reared back.“Excuse me?”She sounded offended, and she probably should be since none of this was any of my business.
I shrugged. “Well, if you guys were still using condoms after six months, then obviously you weren’t in love with the guy.”
She narrowed those grey eyes of hers at me, and she really was fucking stunning.
An entire foot shorter than me, she had silky black hair and it paired magnificently with those startling grey eyes of hers. Her brows were plucked to arched perfection over those eyes, and she looked to have some mascara on, but she didn’t need it. Her eyes were surrounded by thick black lashes.
Her face looked like it belonged on a doll, and with her dimples flashing as she ranted, she kind of reminded me of Eliza Dushku, just with black hair and grey eyes. But that was the only comparison I could make to the actress. Whereas Ms. Dushku was a petite thing, the woman in front of me had curves upon curves, upon curves. She looked like a pin-up and I bet my dick would look perfect sliding through those heavy tits of hers.
