Christmas Babies

The picture of her smiling sister gave away no secrets. Danni plunked it facedown, and then she started to get dressed. Yes, she would spend time with Bryan—she owed him that much.

If she was going to pay for what her sister did, she just wanted to get it over with.

“YOU REALLY are beautiful.”

These were the words Bryan uttered as he and Danni walked from her apartment to the elevator. She flushed when she saw the expression in his eyes. She’d finally chosen an outfit that usually gave her confidence: a peach-colored blouse and slim jeans in biscuit brown. She’d also swept her hair into a loose chignon. Unfortunately, they were the only two people in the elevator, so Danni found herself shut in a small, intimate space with Bryan McKay.

“Strange,” he said. “You’re a carpenter at heart. You want to build things. So why do you live in an apartment, instead of your own house? A home you could remodel as much as you wanted.”

He’d had no way of knowing that he was talking about her dreams…her own home where she could tear down walls, replace windows, put on an addition or two. But pursuing her advertising career simply hadn’t left a lot of time for such indulgences.

Her gaze strayed to the Stop button. Maybe being confined to a small space with him wasn’t such a bad idea. They could stay in here until Bryan finally said everything he needed to say. The necessary recriminations…

Bryan, it seemed, had followed the direction of her glance. “My thoughts exactly,” he murmured. “We could settle in here pretty comfortably, don’t you think?”

“No—that’s not what I had in mind…”

He leaned her against the wall of the elevator. Every time he touched her it was like this…the warmth coursing through her, turning so quickly to need. She seemed powerless to resist. And so, with a sigh of surrender, she arched her throat so that he could trail his mouth against her skin.

The only thing that saved her was that he hadn’t pressed the Stop button. The elevator reached the lobby, and the doors glided open. Danni pulled away from Bryan, averted her gaze from the doorman, and hurried outside. Her body still tingled from Bryan’s caresses.

“I thought we were having fun,” he remarked as he caught up to her.

Fun…Danni wouldn’t call it that. Sweet torture, perhaps.

Bryan led her to a navy-blue sports car complete with ragtop. She recognized it as a very expensive model, all aerodynamic curves. Bryan, apparently, had his indulgences.

“Nice,” Danni commented as she settled into the passenger seat. Bryan climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine. He drove down the street, his hand easy on the gearshift knob, taking a right turn, then a left. Eventually he pulled up at a small, unassuming coffee shop not far from the harbor.

“Can’t take you anywhere without breakfast,” Bryan announced. “How do waffles sound? They make the best in town here.”

To her surprise, Danni found that she was quite hungry. “Waffles sound wonderful,” she admitted.

A short while later, she discovered that he was right. For all its unadorned atmosphere, this restaurant served possibly the best waffles she’d ever tasted.

“You like the good things in life, don’t you, Bryan?” she asked, when she couldn’t eat another bite. “You’re…a connoisseur. Something tells me you don’t take second best.”

He smiled a little grimly. “Okay, I have a confession to make. I grew up poor. The kind of poor where you’re just one step away from not making the rent, one step away from skipping lunch because you can’t afford three meals a day. That’s how it was for a long time after my dad died. So I guess I did get a taste for what I couldn’t have. And when I could finally afford a few things…yeah, I knew what I wanted.”

“I wasn’t accusing you,” she said.

“They say you never really stop being the kid you once were.”

Absentmindedly she traced a pattern on the table top. “I think that’s true. I think I’m still twelve years old at heart, wishing it was summer so I could be out of school and spending more time with Grandpa Daniel.”

“Tell me about him,” Bryan said.

“He never seemed to expect too much of me,” she said slowly. “He wasn’t like my parents at all. They always had very specific ideas of what they wanted from me. But not Grandpa Daniel. When I was with him…I could just be. And we’d build things. If I didn’t know how to use a framing square, or if I smacked my thumb with the hammer…Grandpa just showed me how to do it right. I was always happy that my parents named me after him. Danielle for Daniel.”

“When did you lose him?” Bryan asked after a moment.

“I was nineteen. He was sick for a while…too long, actually. But I didn’t want him to go. I wanted to hang on. I wanted him to hang on. And he did, as long as he could, even though the pain was getting bad. He was eighty years old, but I think he was still a kid inside, too.”

Bryan reached across the table and took her hand. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Danni blinked against sudden tears. “I still miss him—you know that? It’s been eleven years, but sometimes I wake up in the morning and think of something I need to tell him. Like the fact that I was down at the hardware store, and I saw the perfect sliding compound miter saw. Grandpa Daniel was the only one who’d be interested in something like that.”

“Hey, I’m interested. I understand the importance of a good saw.”

Danni tried to smile. “You’re being nice.”

“Never tell a guy he’s nice. Destroys any image he ever had of himself.”

So…nice wasn’t the right word for Bryan. Danni could think of a lot of other ones. Devastatingly handsome. Sexy. Appealing—any way you looked at him…

She was getting on the wrong track. But when she tried to tug her hand from his, he held fast.

“Why do you keep trying to run away?”

“I’m sitting right here, aren’t I?”

“Yet you want to run away,” he said.

She gazed at their linked fingers. “What I really want to do is talk about what happened. About me and my sis—”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Bryan said easily. “Right now the day is too good to waste.”

Danni tried to argue, but Bryan was in no mood to listen.

And so they were soon in the little blue sportster again, making their way to one of the docks along San Diego Bay.

“Let me guess,” Danni said. “You have a boat. Not a very big one, probably. Just the nicest boat in the bay.”

“It’s seaworthy,” he said in a gruff tone.

That turned out to be an understatement. It was a gorgeous boat—light polished wood fashioned into intriguing nooks and crannies, expert craftsmanship in every detail. After clearing the docks, Bryan hoisted the sails and they made their way into the bay. Sunlight sparkled on the water, lulling Danni into a false sense of comfort.

“Want to take the helm?” Bryan asked.

“No way,” she said. “I’d probably just end up crashing this thing.”