Champagne and Lemon Drops: A Blueberry Springs Chick Lit Contemporary Romance (24 page)

Beth pushed her chin deeper into her knees.
Wow. Could she do this? Could she pursue something with Nash? Could
she live up to this life? Could she fall in love again?

Hadn't she already? Or were those feelings
simply desperate need and lust?

Nash rested a hand gently over hers. "You
can be free, Beth. You just have to decide on it. You don't have to
run or hide. What this town thinks and believes doesn't define you.
You are more than this town. You are adventure and independence."
Beth's eyes welled with tears. She loved how he always believed she
was more than who she was. But maybe others did too. Oz found her
independent. How did these two men see the woman she wanted to be
but didn't feel like she truly was?

"I fell for that strong girl I saw in
Paris," he said. "She's really something. Full of life, light, and
hope. The future... it's good." He tipped her chin to look her in
the eye. "I know it's tough bringing that girl home to a town full
of expectations and history, but you can do it, Beth. And I can
help." He paused, still holding her gaze. "If you want me."

She gave him a crooked smile. "You fell for
me?"

Nash smiled softly and pulled her against
him. He gave the top of her head a kiss. "How could I not?"

"You realize I'm a country bumpkin,
right?"

Nash roared with laughter. He wiped the
tears from his eyes and held her face. "Even though you are a
country bumpkin." He placed a kiss on her lips and wrapped her deep
in his arms.

Her mind refused to process the
conversation. It was like it got stuck in a groove and couldn't
bump itself back out. Did he mean, move in together like lovers? Or
as boyfriend and girlfriend in a serious and committed
relationship? Did he fall for her as in love? Real love?

Nash was supposed to be a light and easy
rebound fling and nothing more. Something new. If she moved
forward, it would strike a finality to any future with Oz. But the
end had already been marked. And a new beginning was what she was
seeking.

And it was right here just waiting for her
to leap. To say yes.

Step forward, girl.

It just felt so... unexpected.

Welcome. But uncertain. And not quite
real.

But wasn't that the exciting part? How this
unexpected man had swept her off her feet? How he assumed she was
all these things she wanted to be? How he was confident she would
choose him—confident enough to put himself out there even when she
was still hanging on to an ex?

He was good for her. He understood her.

Screw it all.

He was hers and she was his. Starting
now.

She caressed the seriously high-thread-count
sheet covering her. She sighed, imagining a life with Nash. It
would be good. Different and good. Sometimes you were handed a
second chance, and all you had to do was close your eyes and step
into it.

"So, do I have to stay on the Murphy bed?"
she asked, peering up at him, head against his bare chest.

"You can sleep anywhere you like as long as
I can be right there beside you."

Chapter 14

The phone rang and Beth stretched across
Nash's bed to reach it. His alarm clock said 11:37 p.m. meaning it
had to be the hospital giving Nash yet another shift since he
always said yes. It was starting to get boring hanging out in his
empty condo all alone. It had taken her a whole two hours to get
her life's possessions unpacked over a month ago and since then had
been dying of boredom whenever he went out. It was as fabulous as
ever when he was home, but the man didn't return her texts when he
was working. He used to, but now he said she was too distracting.
She needed to convince him to get a game system or something.
Anything. There was only so much hanging out alone before you
started talking to the walls so your mind didn't turn to
kibble.

She couldn't pester Cynthia because she was
wrapped up in her wedding plans and didn't need help. And Katie was
still in a snit (well, she assumed so since neither of them had
broken the weeks of silence). She was scared what Katie must be
thinking about her moving in with Nash—even though she'd been
telling everyone it was only temporary. Although, holding Nash's
hand last night when watching the carolers and fire performers
downtown may have shown everyone it wasn't so temporary after all.
That or the kiss she'd given his chilled lips. And true, she didn't
know one-hundred percent what Nash was feeling seeing as she still
hadn't shared the L word with him... but it felt real. Felt
serious. Felt good.

She sighed and picked up the phone as Nash
called from the bathroom, "Can you get that?" He ducked his head
out of the en suite. "It's probably the hospital."

"Yeah, I know." Why was he always on the top
of the list? She needed to teach him to live a little more. There
was more to life than constant work with the odd big trip thrown
in. Sometimes little weekend events like last night's Christmas
festival could be just as memorable. Although still not as awesome
as the pampering she got in Paris, obviously. She lifted the
receiver. "Hello, Nash's answering service. How can I help you this
evening?"

She winked at Nash who'd stopped flossing
his teeth to give her a stern look. She winked and grinned at
him.

Silence on the phone.

"Hello?" she repeated.

"Beth?" The familiar voice made her hands
curl into fists. She snuck a glance at Nash over her shoulder.
"It's for me," she mouthed, and Nash closed the bathroom, giving
her privacy as he completed his fastidious oral hygiene regime.

"What do you want, Oz?" she asked in a low
voice.

"I got in shome trouble," he slurred.

Beth took a quick intake of breath, her mind
flitting from one horrible scenario to another. "What kind?"

"Can you bail me out?"

"Bail?" Her heart took up
speed racing and she had to take long, drawn-out breaths to calm
herself. "Where are you?"
Please tell me
you didn't kill someone drinking and driving.

"I didn't kill anyone," he said darkly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to say that out
loud."

Beth snuck a peek over her shoulder to check
on Nash. Door still closed.

"What did you do?" She slid onto the floor,
her back resting against the bed. Was she the only one he could
call with his one call? And if so, how the hell did that
happen?

No, it couldn't be. He had his mom, Katie
and Will, Mandy, and a smattering of other relatives and friends.
She was the one who had nobody other than Nash, Cynthia, and
Gran.

"Why are you calling me?" she asked. She
squeezed her eyes shut, reminding herself to push air in and out of
her lungs. She opened her eyes and took in her now familiar
surroundings. The cream colored walls, the original art, the bed
that sent her off to sleep faster than if the sandman had
personally bonked her over the head. And she had steady, reliable,
loving Nash who didn't freak out at the idea of having kids. Who
invited her in instead of shoving her out. She'd picked the right
path. The right man. "Did you call your mom?" she asked.

"No."

"Well, since this is your
first time I'm sure she'll come and get you, even though she'll
probably go apeshit. This
is
your first time?"

"Yes," he said immediately,
although it sounded more like
yesh
. "Are you and Katie still
fighting?"

"We aren't exactly talking."

Oz sighed. "She's stubborn."

"I'll send your mom in to get you, okay? I'm
busy right now." She began to put the phone down.

"Don't." Something in his voice caused her
to pause before hanging up.

She waited, listening to his breath come in
puffs through the line. She wondered what he looked like. How his
eyes seemed. Those windows into his soul—were they empty? Dark?
Rimmed with red or wide open?

"You moved in with him."

Beth braced herself as Oz's hiccups were
followed by strangled noises.

"That is what you wanted, wasn't it?" Beth
asked. "For me to follow my dreams? To leave you alone? To move
on?"

"Beth." His voice sounded anguished.

"What?" she begged. "What Oz? You don't want
me in your life and have chosen Mandy again. What am I supposed to
do? You were right when you said this isn't us. Was I supposed to
wait for you to push me away one more time?" Desperation welled
around her like floodwaters and she longed for him to snip the
final thread between them and set her free. But he kept holding on.
She wanted to buck against that thread and snap it.

She glanced at the closed bathroom door
again. Why couldn't she simply hang up and move on?

"For Christ's sake. Mandy's just a friend.
And I was making a point," he said.

"With who? Me?"

"A slick in leather pants
was calling down small-town girls. Calling you hicks," he slurred
slowly. "I told him they were
babes
and that my ex-fiancée was small town and anything
but hick." She heard him fumble the phone a few times as he relayed
his story about how he felt the need to moon the man.

"Oz, tell me you didn't?" she groaned. Why
on earth did he feel the need to defend her so-called honor at this
late stage? Why her?

"Right there in the bar!" he said with
something that sounded like pride.

"Are they charging you with public
indecency?"

"I don't know. I see a judge in the
morning."

A chill raced through her.

"I don't get it. Are they letting you
out?"

"I'm not done my story."

"Oh, God." She buried her face in her free
hand. "It gets worse?"

"I kinda lost my balance and fell over and
my pants came down. A lot."

"Oh, Jesus." She could see it. How could he
humiliate himself like that? "Tequila?"

"Shots."

"Oh, Oz. You know it makes you do stupid
things."

"I might get charged with public
indiscrepancy."

"Indecency." She sighed. Who was this new
man? "If you're seeing a judge in the morning I think you have to
stay overnight." She rubbed her forehead, imagining him sleeping in
a cell. She blinked away tears. "Just... make sure you're honest
with them, okay?"

"Yeah."

Silence.

Gripping the phone she asked. "Why did you
call me?"

"I wanted to talk to someone who understands
me."

"Oh, Oz," she said softly. "I wish I
did."

***

Beth snuggled next to Nash by the Christmas
tree in Cynthia's apartment. Nash was flying out in the morning to
spend Christmas with his parents. And even though he'd tried to
convince her to come along she'd insisted she couldn't possibly
crash his family gathering despite her longing to do so. And so
tonight they were having a family Christmas at Cynthia's with Gran
and Dan. Despite it only being the five of them it still felt like
Christmas, only a little less bustling than Beth had always
dreamed. She'd thought by this age her Christmases would involve a
house jam-packed with people and tons of excitement and bustle—kind
of like last year at Oz's parents' place. Not this: five people and
a tree crammed into her sister's miniscule apartment.

Cynthia handed Beth a tagless Christmas gift
wrapped in newspaper, her expression blank.

"Is this is for me?" Beth asked, turning the
small gift over in her hands. Her butt was getting numb, but there
wasn't enough room to squeeze more furniture into the room.

Cynthia nodded.

"You run out of gift wrap?" she laughed.

"It's not from me, but I'm told you'll know
once you open it." Cynthia trotted back to the loveseat she was
sharing with Dan, making the tree's tinsel flutter in her wake.

Beth frowned at the gift and glanced at Dan
who shook his head. She peeked at Nash whose attention was absorbed
by the radio gadget he'd given Beth. Even though they'd been living
together for only a little over a month, she knew he'd never wrap a
gift in newspaper unless he was trying to throw her off. And seeing
as she'd already received her gift from him, this was a mystery
gift. With a thrill racing through her, she ripped the paper off
the small box and flipped it over, her heart's rhythm becoming
unstable. The boxed set compilation of various musical genres was
dog-eared, but otherwise fine. She pulled out the first CD and a
small card fell into her lap.

"Who's it from?" asked Gran.

Beth hesitantly opened the card. Tight
printing dented the tiny card and made her chest feel shaky. She
closed her eyes as though concentrating to remember a flavor.

Oz.

She glanced at Cynthia who was intently
focused on the blinking Christmas tree. Nash leaned against her
shoulder to inspect the gift.

"Oh, CDs. We can get that stuff on your new
satellite radio." He held up the gadget he'd been playing with. "We
can set up song alerts."

"It's for my patients," she replied.

Oz wrote
love
on the
card.

Did that mean love-love, or was it a
leftover habit? Something slightly more fond than sincerely?

She turned the box over in her hands. Had he
found this in his uncle's store and decided to send it along as a
Christmas gift, nothing more? Just a little something to ensure
they could still be friends and remain civilly in the same town? An
apology for the drunken phone call? Or was it a hint? A keyhole for
her to peek through?

She sighed. Why couldn't he just say what he
meant and skip the little things that made no sense to her? And why
was she trying to read intentions into all his actions? The whole
thing made her want to scream as well as flip him the bird.