My Sweet Valentine (16 page)

A
llen walked into the room to a bunch of cheers. People slapped him on his back, laughed, or just shook their heads at him. He didn't like all the attention, but smiled and kept walking farther into Luke's house.

He'd looked around the crowded place for Sara, but so far he hadn't seen her. He saw all of his other friends, and had even spotted Becca, but no Sara.

“Hi,” someone said behind him. He turned thinking it was Sara, but instead stood a woman dressed as Cyndi Lauper. If he hadn’t known better, he would have sworn it was Cyndi Lauper standing there. Her half-yellow, half-red hair stood in spikes. Bright colored makeup covered one eye and half her cheek, and her lips were a dark shade of purple. Beads of every color hung around her neck and wrists. Her tank top was net and her skirt flared out. When he looked down at her legs and saw bright pink fishnets, his eyes flashed back to her face.

“Sara?” She smiled and he could see it was her. How could he have not known it was her with that smile? “Wow.” He smiled back at her and slowly started walking around her. His eyes traveled every inch of her outrageous outfit. “Best costume ever.” He crossed his arms over his chest and smiled down at her. “You even look shorter.”

She smiled. “I'm wearing flats. Usually I wear something with a heel. I don't know. You're rocking the Tom Selleck look. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were his twin.”

He grunted and took the beer someone offered him. “Yeah, well.”

“Don't you like dressing up?”

“Love it.” The sarcasm rolled off his smile. “I hear you're really into it, though.”

She nodded and smiled again. “I guess I've always had a thing for dressing up. It started right after my father left. He took off with Mom's best friend a week before Halloween.”

“Ouch.” He shook his head. “I'm sorry.”

“For?” Her eyebrows rose.

“The stupidity of some in my gender.” He smiled and took a swig of his beer. He hadn't heard about her dad.

“Well, anyway, that Halloween, walking around in my strawberry shortcake costume, all my worries, all my sadness disappeared. I guess you can say every time I dress up, I get that feeling back.”

“Well, then, let's not waste it.” He set his beer down and took her hands. “I hear music in the next room. What do you say we go enjoy the night?”

She laughed as he pulled them into the next room. He'd only been to two other costume parties in his life, and neither of those could touch this one. By the time midnight rolled around, everyone was crowded into the two largest rooms in the house. Everyone cheered at the end of the countdown. He pulled Sara into his arms and welcomed the new year with one of the hottest kisses he could remember.

By the time he walked her to her house, just a block over, most of the other guests had already left. The streets were empty as a light snow fell, making the world seem cut off and silent.

“It's so beautiful here.” Sara stepped back and wrapped her arms around her chest as flakes landed in her hair. She started turning slowly, enjoying the rush of air. “I'm so happy that I came home.” When she stopped spinning, he gathered her into his arms and gently pulled the wig from her head. He wanted to see the snow fall on her dark hair, to feel it in his hands.

“I'm so happy you came home, too.” He leaned down and kissed her lips. Her purple lipstick had worn off halfway through the night and he'd ripped the damn fake mustache off his lip after his first beer. Now, her lips tasted like heaven and felt like silk. His fingers moved into her soft hair. When she wrapped her arms tighter around him, she moaned and he felt her shiver.

“You feel so good.” She pulled back and smiled at him. “I don't know what I did to deserve you.”

He pulled her close and started walking towards her house again. She was a little drunk, and he was sure it was close to freezing out. Her long, dark coat kept out a lot of the cold, but still he didn't want her to catch a cold.

“Why Pride?” She stopped and looked at him.

“Pardon?”

“Why did you move to Pride? There are Coastguard stations everywhere. What made you stop here?” She looked up at him, her dark hair getting matted with the wetness of the snow.

“To be honest, I'm not really sure. When I was stationed in Afghanistan, and our chopper went down, I had a dream of a beach. The first time I stopped along the Oregon coast, I knew I wanted to stay.” He smiled and put his hand in hers, gently getting her to walk again.

“It is beautiful. Have you been to Haystack beach?” She tugged on his arm.

“No. I've heard about it, but haven't made the trip yet.”

“Oh, maybe we can go someday.” She sighed and started swinging their arms as they walked. When they finally stopped in front of her front door, underneath the protection of the front porch, he pulled her into his arms again and this time enjoyed a slow kiss that he was sure had steam rolling off his skin.

He pulled back when he felt her shiver again and watched her disappear into her house. He walked back to his truck in the snow and finally cooled down by the time he drove up to his house. He parked and knew immediately that something was wrong. The mudroom door stood at an odd angle.

Jumping from the truck, he rushed into his house and was rewarded with a low growl from Beast.

“It's okay, buddy.” He flipped on the light and saw the small dog cowardly shivering in the corner. Allen punched in Robert's number as he went around the house flipping on the lights. He could instantly tell the place was empty. When Robert showed up, he was standing by the back door, waiting.

“Nothing's missing,” he said and opened the door further. “I think they busted in the back door and when Beast greeted them with a growl, they must have taken off.”

Robert filled out a report and walked through the house, just in case.

“Well, I'll help you fix the door. They busted the lock, but if you want, I have a spare one in my trunk. Always carry a new one just for cases like this.”

“Thanks. I'll go grab my tools.”

By the time he finally got to bed, there were fewer than three hours before he needed to get back up and head in for his morning shift. His mind refused to shut down. Images of Sara kept popping into his mind. Her taste was still on his lips. She had seeped into every pore and he had become addicted to her, and he didn't know what he was going to do now.

The day arrived when Josie was coming into town. Sara stood in the doorway of their new rental house and waited. Finally, Josie's car turned the corner, followed closely by a small moving van. When her Neon stopped, Josie jumped out and Sara rushed forward to hug her.

“I can't believe you're here.” She jumped up and down. Josie followed her movement and said, “I can't believe I'm here.” They both did circles, laughing.

It took the moving company less than an hour to have the truck emptied and, three hours after Josie had arrived in Pride, their house was complete.

“I don't have a lot of furniture yet, but I'm sure we can get things as we go.” Sara stood back and looked at the small space. Josie had a couch and chair, and a small flat-screen TV that fit just right in the living room. They didn't have a kitchen table or chairs yet.

Sara had her bed from her mother's house and most of her bedroom set. Josie had a larger bed, so she took the main bedroom.

“Here.” Josie handed her an envelope. “I got my deposit back. Rickie tried to argue with me about a stain on the carpet, but when I pointed out that in my lease it said they'd carpet clean after I moved out, he gave it all back to me.” Sara smiled. Her friend was almost six inches shorter than she was and weighed probably half of what Sara did, but Sara knew better than to try and cross her.

“He had no chance going up against you, trying to rip you off. Silly mortal.” She smiled when her friend struck her favorite Mortal Kombat character pose.

“Liu Kang fears no one.” She bowed.

“Is Liu Kang hungry?”

“
Starved.” Josie smiled. “But first, I want to see your bakery. I'm dying here!”

“Okay, okay. First, Sara's Nook. Second, the Golden Oar.”

Five minutes later, Sara unlocked the front door and punched in her alarm code.

“Wow.” Josie stood in the doorway and gaped. “This is perfect.” Her friend spun around, taking in the entire room. “Now, I must see the kitchen.” She held her arms up, like someone who was sleep walking and started walking towards the backroom.

Sara laughed and followed her.

“O-M-G!” Josie rushed around, looking at everything. “You got Vulcan's! Oh, look at this.” Josie rushed to her refrigerators next. She spent the next five minutes opening every drawer, looking in every appliance. When her friend pulled out a spoon that was bent, Sara walked over and took it.

“Oh, sorry. I must have missed this one. I forgot to tell you about the break in. Well, it wasn't really a break in, more like kids making a mess. At least I've come to think of them as kids.”

“What happened?” Josie asked, just as Sara's stomach let out a loud growl.

“How about I tell you over lunch?”

When they walked into the Golden Oar, Josie sighed. “I'm going to love living here. You know,” she said as they were seated in a table right off the water, “I've lived in the city most of my life and just last month, after I lost my cell phone, I realized it wasn't all that bad being cut off from the world. Those two weeks without my phone or computer were the most peaceful I've had in years.” She looked down at her menu. “I'm thinking of getting rid of them permanently.”

Sara laughed. “You could really live without playing Mortal Kombat every day?” Sara shook her head. “I don't think so. By the way, what did you do for those two weeks? And don't tell me you went without.”

Josie looked down at her menu, avoiding eye contact.

“Josie?” Her friend looked up at her with a smile.

“Fine. I went to the library every night.” Sara laughed.

Just when they were finishing up with their lunch, a familiar face showed up. She hadn't expected to see Allen walk in the door with a pretty blonde. Both of them had huge smiles pasted on their faces. The shock of seeing the couple must have shown on her face.