Hell on Heels Christmas (19 page)

Regan saw the last sister run towards the storage room and took after her. She
tripped her as she tried to dash out the back door. She placed her heel on the girl’s temple and she froze.

“I told them this was a bad idea!” the girl moaned.

“Maybe you should’ve tried harder.” Regan sat on the Carson sister’s back as she squirmed. “Have I kicked you ass before?”

“No. You fought Magnolia.”

“Who?”

“The one you were fighting with that branch.”

Regan slapped the back of her head. “I thought she looked familiar! Now, you be a good girl or I’ll have to kick your ass too. Understand?”

“Yeah.”

“Great.”

Regan snagged a piece of string and hogtied her before she went out to the front where Allison was losing the fight against Steph. Regan was just about to step in when someone came through the front door. Kerry looked at the two unconscious women and rushed through the shelves, took in the two fighting women and grabbed Steph like she weighed nothing and tossed her across the shop into an empty shelf where she slumped to the floor, out cold.

“You okay?” Kerry asked Allison.

“Yeah,” Allison wheezed. “Where’s Regan?”

“I’m here.”

Kerry looked up and her lip curled. “I heard you fought one of the Carson’s. You know if you mess with one they all come.”

Regan shrugged. “I knew that. I’m surprised they waited this long. Lucky thing the shop’s practically empty. Let’s dump them outside.”

“Their
car’s parked at the curb,” Kerry said.

“Even better.
Unconscious customers don’t look so good.”

They dragged all four sisters outside and tossed them none too gently into their car. Regan went in to get the tied up sister and wheeled her out on a cart
to mess with her. Regan just finished untying her when Allison elbowed her in the ribs. She looked up and saw Guy in his cop car at a dead stop on the road watching them with his window rolled down.

“Hello there officer! Nice night, huh?” Regan called.

The only conscious Carson sister ran to the driver’s seat and revved the car.

“I’ll be seeing you guys,” Regan called
to the Carson sister’s as the car pulled away from the curb with a screech.

Allison and Kerry flanked her as Guy got out of his car and glanced at the retreating car
, the cart and then the string trailing on the ground.

“Watcha been up to, Regan Lee?” Guy asked.

She shrugged. “You know, there’s so many baskets to make that the Carson sisters came to help. Kerry and Allison are here now so I’ll be fine.”

Guy cocked his hip and tipped down his sunglasses. “You are trouble.”

“So my mom says,” Regan said.

Guy looked at Allison. “Your lip’s bleeding.”

Allison touched her bruised lip and winced. “Regan and I had it out over Brooks.”

Regan was so startled her mouth dropped. Guy looked sharply at
Regan and she recovered, smiling and knocking her knuckles on Allison’s head.

“You know, I’m a jealous bitch,” Regan said.

“Regan Lee, no more fighting,” Guy said sternly.

“See ya later!” Regan said and shushed Allison and Kerry into the shop.

“That was exciting!” Allison chirped.

Kerry and Regan stared at her and Allison shrugged.

“I never did this kind of stuff in high school like you guys. I feel so,” Allison bounced around the shop like a boxer, “pumped.”

“We better get her home,” Regan muttered to Kerry.

“Yeah.”

They closed the shop and piled into Kerry’s SUV and dropped off Allison first. When it was just Regan and Kerry an uncomfortable silence fell.

“You still got it,” Kerry said.

Regan kissed her right fist. “I know.”

Kerry glanced at her. “He’s my brother and I love him.”

“I know.”

“Okay then.”

Kerry dropped Regan off at
Brooks’ house. Feeling more like Allison but not wanting to admit it she opened Brooks’ door and found the house quiet with the only illumination coming from their Christmas tree.

Brooks worked an eighteen hour shift and probably came home and crashed. She crept upstairs and found him exactly where she wanted him- in bed. She stripped and crept onto the bed until she straddled him. He was only wearing a tiny pair of boxers and her mouth watered. She pressed their bodies together and nibbled his chin and rocked against him. He hardened almost instantly and groaned. His hands brushed her sid
es and then gripped her ass. She rocked harder and he sent a desperate hand between them to pull his cock out of the slit in the boxers.

Adrenaline and desire were a heady cocktail in her bloodstream. She nipped, bit and drove them both crazy. By the time he flipped her onto her back she was so desperate for him she clawed his back. He drove into her and pounded her into the mattress. She screamed for more and he gave it to her. When they collapsed in a sweaty heap she smiled.

“God, I think you almost killed me,” he moaned.

She brushed back his sweaty hair and kissed him. “Thanks. I needed that.”

“Anytime.”

Regan couldn’t sleep
. It was three in the morning on Christmas morning and when she realized she was watching Brooks sleep like some kind of creeper she headed downstairs and sat in front of their Christmas tree which was becoming her favorite pastime. For some reason the blinking lights and the sparkly ornaments made her happy. She ran a critical eye over the presents beneath the tree and noticed a square envelope buried in the branches of the tree with Johnny’s handwriting. She pulled out a CD and note Johnny wrote in his childish scrawl

Regan,

I got my mojo back thanks to you. Hope you like the demo. Live hard, love hard, rock on.

Love, Johnny

She rushed over to the stereo in the corner and put in the CD and leaned against the wall and waited. Although Johnny had that rock and roll side he was also known for his heartfelt ballads that tore at your heart and had thousands of people holding their lighters up and waving them back and forth at his concerts. The first two songs were about getting a woman. Big deal. The third made her pause.

I had to follow my dreams, I’ve made it

I left you behind and you moved on

I’m back and the feelings are still there

Should we ignore it and go on our way?

Give me a sign, baby. Give me a sign.

Regan pulled on ice skates
and stepped onto an ice pond as the sun began to rise. The cold stung her swollen eyes and her breath came out in a gust of white that hovered in the air as she tested her balance and began to skate. Although it had been years since she skated on this pond she knew the exact measurements by heart. She closed her eyes and skated the perimeter with her eyes closed. The wind rushed around her as she skated faster and the sun rose, blinding her. Skating was another thing she and her dad shared. They used to come to this pond every morning as the sun rose. They’d race and do tricks that would make her mom’s hair gray if she knew.

She glanced at the empty bench where
her dad used to sit and watch her skate. She spent most of her time here after her dad left. When she was skating her mind cleared and it was just her, the sound of her blades cutting through ice and the feeling of flying. She came here to forget the outside world and escape the frustration of living with a family that didn’t understand her. Ten years later she wasn’t as fit and she felt her muscles quiver as she pushed her body into motion but she didn’t stop.

It was inevitable that her mind conjured up the memory of the day her father left. He hadn’t said a word to her mom, Missy or Max but he’d come here and watched her skate for the last time. He sat her on the bench and told her he wasn’t cut out for White
Mist that he loved his family but he needed to be free. He said he would come back and Regan had stared up at him in silence with tears flowing down her cheeks. She’d been eight years old.

She replayed Johnny’s lyrics and felt a spear of pain slide through her chest. Had she chosen to be like her dad and
ruled out living here because she wanted to be like him? Could she quiet the niggling voice in the back of her mind that prodded her every now and then and lured her with the call of a new, exciting challenge?

As a teenager she had this swinging love/hate/understanding of her father. The reasons she wanted to leave White Mist were the same as his but she hadn’t realized that until she listened to Johnny’s songs. Why the hell was Brooks with her? She was volatile, temperamental, rejected a proposal from him and yet he invited her into his home and couldn’t seem to get enough of her.

I asked you to marry me

What I had wasn’t enough for you

You went after your heart and it led you back to me

Take my heart, drain me dry and stay with me

She wiped her tears away as she skated. She was breathing hard and she could hear Johnny’s voice cutting through the peace she was desperately grasping for. The song was made all the more effective by the simple notes on the piano. Even while his lyrics battered her because she knew they were about her life she admitted that Johnny had written something beautiful that would so get him laid.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed but at one point she opened her eyes and saw a man sitting on the bench. She was so startled she nearly fell
, cranking her head around to get a second look. For a moment she thought it was her dad and then she stopped and saw Brooks standing there watching her. He was bundled up in his jacket just watching her in the early morning light. When she stopped in the middle of the pond he got to his feet and came towards her through the snow and stepped onto the ice with a familiarity that told her he still skated. It began to snow, small flurries that swirled around them.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she said and tried to catch her breath.

“You used to come here when you were pissed.”

“I’m not.”

“And that’s what you always said.”

She glared at him and refused to back away when he stopped in front of her.

“How’d you know where I was?”

“Gertie saw you go to your mom’s house and come back towards my house with your skates on your shoulder.”

“Does she work?” Regan said irritably.

“No.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“You haven’t skated since you came back.”

Regan blew out a breath. “Feels good.”

He didn’t say anything, he just waited. She scuffed her toe pick on the ice before she cracked.

“I don’t get what you see in me,” she said with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Me either,” he said with a straight face.

She skated around him and unlaced the skates and pulled on her boots and tied the laces together to put them over her shoulder again. He followed and paced beside her as she started back towards the house.

She shot him a bad-tempered glance. “Christmas isn’t the best time of the year for me.”

“It hasn’t been a walk in the park for me either,” he retorted.

She stopped. “If you were hurt the first time why are you taking that chance again?”

“You should be used to
risks. You’ve been doing it for ten years.”

“Not like what you’re doing!” She gambled with her life, never her heart.

He watched her steadily. “What do I have to lose?”

Everything.
Nothing. He eased closer when she just stared at him and cupped her face with his gloves.

“Do you know what the difference is this time?”

“No.”

“You’re not telling me you want to go anywhere. You’re not angry at your family or me for trying to stifle you. You love working with our moms at the shop and you seem happy. Aren’t you?”

Regan blew out a breath and ran her hand over the blade over her skate. “Yeah.”

“As long as you’re not acting crazy and telling me you want to leave I’m going to let you be. The moment
that changes we’re going to have a talk.”

She tensed. “Talk?”

“If you want to travel somewhere let me know. I may be able to come with you.”

“Come with me?”

“I have a lot of vacation saved. I think I’d have enough to come with you.”

Regan forced the tears down. “What if I took a job somewhere
else?”

“That depends on you.”

“Me?”

“If you’re taking a job because
you want to get away from me there’s nothing I can do about that but if you want me with you either ask me to come or don’t take the job.” He gestured around them at the trees covered in snow and White Mist in the distance. “Staying or leaving is your choice. If you stay I’m going to take full advantage but if you want to go I can’t stop you. What do you want?”

“Everybody keeps asking me that!” Regan bellowed so loudly several birds in a nearby tree flew away.

He crowded her space. “Everybody keeps asking you because we can’t read your mind.”

“
I can’t either!”

She stomped off through the snow and he followed, listening to her muttering beneath her breath.

“Everybody’s asking, asking, asking. I don’t ask them questions! Whatever they do I just go with it. They’re making me watch their kids, frickin decorate and buy presents. I haven’t celebrated Christmas in ten years and the first year I do it I’m back in White Mist. What are the chances?”

“Why are you so steamed?”

“Steamed?
Who’s steamed
?” Regan snapped as they walked into his house.

She stripped off her coat,
tossed her skates in the corner and downed a glass of water before she stomped upstairs to the bathroom. She stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the shower and turned it on as hot as it could go. She washed off the sweat and got dressed in sweats and went downstairs and stopped dead when Johnny’s voice floated up to her. She pounded down the stairs and found Brooks standing in front of the stereo, his back to her.

It was a fear she hadn’t realized she’d been harboring until this moment. She felt like a selfish, stupid ass when she listened to Johnny put her fears into a song but how would Brooks feel, hearing his worst moments broadcast over every radio frequency? Brooks turned and his face was tight with strain.

“Johnny’s demo sounds good,” he said.

“Brooks-” she began and stopped because she couldn’t think of anything to say.

“He really knows how to put things into perspective, doesn’t he?”

Brooks tried to go up the stairs but she blocked him. Fear bloomed in her as she clutched fistfuls of his shirt and looked up into his face. Her friend, lover and foundation.

“Now I know why you were skating,” Brooks said. “You couldn’t just tell me about his songs. You’re always trying to keep everything inside.”

“I’m sorry,” Regan said, feeling like an idiot.

He spread his arms wide. “It’s Christmas, Regan. Here we are again. What do you want to do?”

Panic had its claws in her back. She opened and closed her mouth, wanting to sa
y something that would tell him how much he meant to her, how much it meant that he ignored the past and took her as she was. Brooks face flashed with impatience and he stepped away from her.

“After all we’ve been through you still haven’t made a choice?”

The anger mixed with hurt made her insides bleed. “Brooks, I-”

“You what?” he snapped.

“I love you.”

Something flashed in his eyes
but he didn’t speak. She put her hands on his chest. She was happy back in White Mist and being able to help her mom gave her a sense of worth and purpose but Brooks made her feel alive and adored. She couldn’t lose him and she was done with running. She wouldn’t be her father. She wouldn’t desert her family.

“I love you,” she repeated and let out a long breath. The scariest sentence in the world just came out of her and it was heartfelt.

Without a word Brooks dragged her outside while she screeched as her bare feet sank into the snow. He faced her in the slowly falling snow and with a threatening look on his face went down on one knee. Her breath seized as he reached into his jeans and held up a sparkling ring that winked in the morning light.

“We’re gonna do this one more time and you better give me the right answer this time
.”

He held her anchored by his side with one hand while he held the ring
up to her, daring her to take it. She looked at his face. God, Brooks was demanding. He wasn’t content just to have her. He wanted all of her- mind, body and soul. Legally. He would never let her retreat and he would always stand toe to toe with her. He would beguile her into having their own brood of kids and when that restlessness came… then what? Brooks would sit on her until it passed. She had no doubt about that.

“Take. It,” he said through gritted teeth.

He was growling at her and still on his knees which made him look ludicrous. When she didn’t take the ring he grabbed her left hand and jammed it onto her ring finger. She didn’t struggle and the ring winked devilishly at her. Married to Brooks Hawking? Could she really do this? How could she not?

Brooks let out a hiss and rose, hands going up to clasp her face in steady, hot hands. He looked into her eyes and kissed her once on the lips and then feathered kisses over her face. He was being very gentle but she felt him tremble.

“I need you here with me. No one else will do. I’ll do anything for you except let you go. You should’ve known that once you walked back into town, there’s no way in hell I’d let you leave.”

She chuckled and felt him relax.
“Are you sure about this?”

“
More than I have been about anything else.”

She leaned up and kissed him. It wasn’t one of those polite kisses that couples gave when someone proposed and the whole family took pictures and screamed and shouted. This was a raunchy, claiming kiss that had Brooks hauling her into his arms and scrambling back in the house. He
laid her in front of the Christmas tree and followed her down. Their hands were clumsy from the cold but that didn’t stop him from getting her clothes off in record time. He pinned her hands above her head as he slid into her.