Page 8 of A Very Naughty Christmas

“Ah, well…” She cast her eyes on the ground and scuffed her shoes across the pavement. “Um…”

“Yes?”

Was it possible for him to sound evensterner? She hadn’t thought so, and yet, an anticipatory shiver ran along her spine. “Ah, I was driving today…”

“Uh-huh.”

“I was on my way to, um, buy some Christmas decorations.” She peeked up at him to see that his eyes were focused on her, waiting. She looked away again. “And, well, I was sort of listening to my music too loud, I guess.”

“You guess?”

Oh,whydid hearing that authoritative voice make her feel all squirmy inside? She felt nervous and excited all at once, which didn’t make much sense, but felt delicious just the same. “Yes, Sir. Well, anyway, I wasn’t really paying attention… and I…” This was the hard part. Sara swallowed over the lump in her throat. She knew she’d be in for it once she came clean. He was a cop, after all. He would probably be duty-bound to give her a ticket. And she was sure she’d get an earful on top of it. “I might have run a stop sign.”

“Youmighthave?”

Oh, he was ticked. She could hear it, though he didn’t raise his voice in the slightest. Just knowing that he was disappointed in her made her eyes begin to well again. “I… I did.”

“Sara.”

There it was again. She winced at the disapproval in his voice. She’d known it was coming, but it still hurt to hear it. And worse, she wasn’t even done. When he heard the rest, she’d bet he’d be yelling, all right.

“We talked about this,” he continued.

“I… I know. And, uh… well, that’s not all.”

“You know what, give me just a minute. I think we need to finish this discussion inside.”

She looked up again, uncertain. Not that she objected to going into his house—truth was, she’d always wondered what it looked like. But she didn’t know why his suggestion would make her tummy drop, why she’d suddenly be filled with a nervous anticipation. “Um… ah, sure, I guess.”

He gave her one decisive nod and moved to his door. She watched as he unlocked it, and then he was motioning for her to follow him. When she stepped closer, he slid to the side, holding the door open for her. Giving him a dubious glance, she walked inside. When he closed the door behind them, it somehow had an ominous finality to it. What, she couldn’t help but wonder, had she gotten herself into?

Chapter Three

Alex had led them into the kitchen, which had a small table for two in the corner. Somehow along the way Sara had lost her voice. When he gestured for her to take a seat, she’d obeyed, feeling even more trepidation in the pit of her belly. She’d always been such a good girl growing up. Part of it was her accommodating nature and the other part was the fact that she just really, really hated it when either of her parents got onto her. A disappointed look was enough to make her feel repentant, and even though Alex was a good two decades younger than her dad had been, and not a father himself, he had that look down pat.

“Well?” he prompted when a few minutes had passed with her sitting at one of the chairs and doing nothing more than staring at her toes.

It didn’t help that while she was sitting, he was standing in front of her with those big, muscly arms crossed over his chest again.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“Ah, well…” She squirmed in the hard wooden chair. Hadn’t the man ever heard of seat cushions? “Like I said, I wasn’t really paying attention…”

“Your music was too loud,” he prompted dryly.

“Uh, right. And, well, you know… the stop sign just kind of came out of nowhere.”

“Uh-huh.” He didn’t sound convinced.

“I didn’t mean to run it. Really.” She looked up, but when she saw his handsome face looking back at her impassively, she dropped her eyes once more. “But, ah, I kind of did, and…” This was the hard part. She swallowed, having a feeling that she wouldn’t be able to put off telling him any longer. “Well, there was… there was a little girl, and she… she ran into the street, chasing a ball, or something, and…” She sucked in a deep breath and blinked, trying to ward off the tears. She could practically feel the disbelief radiating from him; she didn’t have to look at his face to see it. “Everyone’s fine. She’s fine. I stopped in time,” she finished, her voice a near-whisper.

“I see,” he said. “Is that all?”

“Y-yes. That’s all.” Wasn’t it enough? She knew she’d messed up, big time. And now she was going to pay the piper, as her dad used to say. She could feel it brewing—she was going to get yelled at until she was a crying mess.Again. “I… I came straight here. To… to tell you.”

“Well, I appreciate you being honest with me. That took bravery on your part.”

Wait a minute. He didn’tsoundmad. He didn’t even sound stern anymore. Was it possible that she wasn’t going to get scolded after all? Sara looked at him tentatively, then felta rush of relief when she saw that he’d dropped his arms. That had to be a good sign, right?

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