Page 6 of Mr. Mistletoe
“I’ll kill him,” I mumble under my breath.
Deacon
I knowit ain’t the way Valentina Fairhope raised me to be when greeting folks but fuck that, I’m not laughing it up with James. I wait for everyone to get settled in and when Mack is the last one in, I drive us towards Ms. Faye’s home.
“So, how long are you guys in town?” Mack decides to talk over the silence that I was rather enjoying.
“Well, Kimmie and I are planning on staying until the day after Christmas since we’ve got this big board meeting coming up when we go back,” he answers.
We stop at a red light, I press the button-pushing my window down completely, I place my elbow on the window and mindlessly focus on the night or instead well into the morning. Kimberly and her fiancée or whatever he is came in relatively late and there’s something that tells me she chose this time so that I wouldn’t be the one to get her. I trace my bottom lip with my thumb, trying to figure out why she didn’t tell me about her fiancée until the invitations. Does she think that I wouldn’t have approved? Or does she really love him?
I tune out whatever the hell they’re talking about as the light turns green. I bend my left knee preferring to drive this way as I’ve always done. I place it on the side of the door andWhy Don’t We Just Danceby Josh Turner comes on. I turn the music up via the buttons on the wheel but not enough that they can’t talk but enough that I don’t have to listen to them talk about how long Kimberly is here or whatever. I need to think about my plans. I tap my fingers along with the music forgetting everything as it brings me to my happy place.
“Shit, Kimbers!” Mack exclaims. “You remember this song and how we threw you a grad party when you came back into town right before you went AWOL on all of us.”
Kimberly laughs.
“They threw you a grad party at 20. You were done high school by then, no?” James asks her.
I try not to engage myself into the conversation. The thing with Kimberly and me is that we are the best, worst thing for each other. I lick my lips and I think about the party we threw her. It wasn’t formal, Just family and friends. We didn’t dress up or nothing. Just came in our jeans, boots, t-shirts and my damn Stetson. It’s crazy because I was so fucking heartbroken when she chose the Big Apple instead of staying to be with me. Although I understood, I didn’t at the same time because she didn’t want me to follow her there either. That’s Kimberly, fucking complicated and crazy as fuck. I drunk my ass off that night, tried to dance with everyone but her yet by the end of the night, I was on the dance floor practically fucking her with my clothes on to this damned song. I wonder if she remembers the way that my hands slid down her back and rested in the back pockets of her jean cut ups. Or the way her body felt so perfect next to mine. Or if she remembers that at the end of the night, I fucked her in the backseat of my vintage pickup that I can’t seem to ever drive again. My mind makes me go to the next day waking up, alone and realizing that Kimberly took her ass back home and avoided me for days. I beat the shit out of my vintage truck and my father threatened to get my ass checked into a damn rehab center over in Founder’s. Fuck that.
Ever since then, I learned to control that shit, drink but not get piss-drunk and fuck but not commit until Annabelle. I don’t know what it was. I did like her, she made me laugh and smile, but then she just wanted out. I know that it had something to do with her dislike of Kimberly but I’m not giving Kimberly up for anyone. I may not have her the way that I want her or rather didn’t have her the way I wanted, but now, all bets are off. I let her run off and do stupid shit but not anymore. James had better prove himself and bring his A-game because if he slips once, he’s out.
Cameron Kennedy’s songSummertime Finestarts to play and I bob my head to it.
She’s so fine an’ she’s all mine… My summertime fine. All for me, that smile, those dimples, the way she laughs, all for me. I’m one lucky bastard.
“This is a nice song,” Kimberly states, “What song is this?”
“Cameron Kennedy’sSummertime Fine,” I answer, and I look up at her through the rear-view mirror.
She smiles at me, and those damned killer dimples appear on her face. I feel my whole body just relaxes looking at her. “It’s a really nice song,” she answers.
I nod. Then I look back at the road, we get quiet again, and Kimberly starts to tell James where everyone she knows lives. “You see that big mansion right up there, you can’t really see the full view of it, but that’s Old Man Winters’s mansion. It’s so beautiful, honey. He is the town Santa and he’s the sweetest old man ever. I need to go over there and say hi before we leave.”
Mack turns to face her, “Baby, Old Man Winters passed away last year. We told you, you don’t remember?”
“What?” Kimberly says. “I would’ve remembered if you told me.”
“Baby, Arden left you a voicemail and everythin’, we never heard from you, so we figured ya heard it but was busy,” Mack continues.
I look up at Kimberly and her happiness looks like it’s been sucked out. “Wow, I can’t believe I never checked it. Does Jack know? Have you guys heard from him? I feel so sorry for him. He loved his grandfather.”
I nod. “We haven’t really talked to him but someone moved to the Winters Mansion bout a year ago but we ain’t seen that person in that long. Seems like Jack knows since there’s someone in the mansion.”
“Wow, how do you know the person hasn’t been out in town?” she asks.
“Cause I live bout’ 20 minutes from him and I ain’t seen em’.”
Kimberly’s eyes go wide as we pull up into the driveway, “you don’t live at home anymore?”
“Live at home?” James snorts. “No man his age should be at home. I left home on my own at 22.”
I smirk. “Guess us country boys just like to make sure our parents don’ have nothin’ to worry about. It ain’t nothing.”
“Do you live with Mack?” Kimberly asks.
I shake my head as I press the button to stop the truck. “Nah, Mamita, I live by my lonesome. I like the quiet and bein’ away from it all sometimes,” I answer, and she locks eyes with me again. There’s a look in her eyes that I can’t decipher. “We’re here. Let’s get you two settled.” I get out of the truck.
