Christmas at Timberwoods - Fern Michaels [54]
Five minutes later they were still locked in each other’s arms, their fear having lessened only slightly. Heather sagged against him, then straightened.
“This is a reprieve,” Lex said softly. “Nothing else. We still have the rest of the day to get through. There’s another twelve hours to go before the mall closes for the day.”
“Take me away from here, Lex,” Heather said. “Take me anywhere. I don’t care where, just as long as it’s away from here.”
“You got it, babe. You got it.”
The Christmas tree lot was full of parents and kids, last-minute tree shoppers like themselves. The best trees were already gone, but Angela didn’t care. Any tree was good as far as she was concerned. She would even have settled for an artificial one.
“What about this one, Charlie? This part is a little bare, but no one will see it because it’ll be in the corner.”
“Looks good to me,” he said, giving the tree an all-over inspection.
“What a thrill. My first Christmas tree!” On impulse she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him. It was a smacking kiss, hard and quick and over almost before it had begun. “I’ll go get someone to ring it up,” she said, dancing away from him.
Charlie stood staring at the tree but not really seeing it. She had kissed him. Kissed him! Charlie Roman. Now there was no doubt in his mind that she liked him. He didn’t quite know what to make of it. But he liked it.
They put the tree in the car trunk and tied the lid down. Charlie drove slowly all the way home, taking the curves carefully so as not to disturb the tree. Angela chattered like a magpie, telling him how excited she was, that she’d never celebrated a real Christmas before.
“Let’s make cookies when we get home. You do like Christmas cookies, don’t you, Charlie?”
“Are you kidding? I love them.”
“All right then, tonight we’ll decorate the tree and tomorrow while you’re at work I’ll roll out sugar-cookie dough and cut it into Santas and sleighs and stars.”
“Okay.” Angela seemed a little giddy to him, but he kind of liked it.
“You know what else, Charlie?” She laughed. “You’d look good in a Santa suit.” She gave him a playful poke in the tummy. “Go get one.”
Charlie started to say that he couldn’t bring Nick’s suit home, that it belonged to the mall. But he didn’t want to disappoint her. Maybe he could find a suit that one of the walk-around Santas used, somewhere in the employee dressing area. Or he could find a way to sneak Nick’s suit out, then sneak it back in. No one would be the wiser and Angela would have even more fun. He’d deal with that later, though.
It was past midnight when they finished decorating the tree and turned off the overhead light. Hand in hand, Angela and Charlie stood back and admired their work. The CD player, on shuffle, moved to a new song and a huge church choir burst into an angelic version of “Joy to the World.”
“I’ll always remember this night,” Angela said, squeezing Charlie’s hand. “Now I know what they mean when they talk about the magic of Christmas.”
“You’re the magic, Angela. You made all this happen.”
She seemed bedazzled. Almost too happy. He had noticed even in their short time together that her moods ran to extremes, but he wasn’t going to bug her about it and jinx his newfound happiness.
“Oh no, Charlie. You’re wrong. It was you. It was all you.”
As if. She had to be more than a little nuts. But he didn’t care. For the first time in his life, Charlie Roman felt the stirrings of love.
Heather Andrews slowly opened her eyes and was surprised to see Lex’s face above hers.
“Hi there, sleepyhead,” Lex said.
Heather raised up on one elbow, the sheet slipping down to reveal the tops of her breasts. “Oh my God, what time is it?”
Lex pointed to the clock on the bedstand beside her. “It’s early yet. We’ve got plenty of time,” he said with a mischievous smile.
Heather breathed a sigh of relief, then lay back down and snuggled up close to him. After leaving the mall, Lex had taken her straight back to his house and fixed them drinks. She’d calmed