Page 44 of Welcome Home for Christmas
“Really.”
“That would be fantastic. Little Lucy only wants that one item and it’s impossible to find anywhere. I’ve even looked on Amazon.”
Troy nodded. “I guarantee that my sister-in-law will have it.”
Allison pulled her lower lip between her teeth and looked over. She wasn’t ready to continue with their previous conversation just yet, so she asked the question that Troy kept dodging. “You still haven’t told me why you aren’t going home for Christmas.”
He took a deep breath and blew it out. “Long story. But in short, my middle brother is a dickhead.”
Allison gave an audible gasp.
This made him laugh. “He’s always been a dickhead, but I used to like him,” he said nonchalantly. “My father left the family businesses to me and my brothers.” He glanced over. “I have three brothers. Dad knew that my heart was in the military. I joined after my cousin Dale died on nine-eleven. Mom and Dad were always fine with it. My older brother David, however, resents me for what he defines as walking out on the family. Last Christmas he had one too many beers and kicked me out of the house that I grew up in.”
Allison gasped louder. “How can he do that?”
Troy shrugged. “My dad died a couple years ago. David lives with my mom and thinks he’s the man of the house now. We got in an argument and he told me I wasn’t welcome there anymore. Of course, my mom doesn’t feel that way and she insists that I come home.” Troy shook his head. “I’ll go to my other brothers’ houses. And mom comes to Seaside regularly to have dinner with me. But as long as David is a dickhead—which he always has been so why would he change now?—and as long as he is living with my mother, then I’m not going back to that house.”
“And that’s why you’re skipping Christmas this year,” Allison said.
“Trying my damnedest.” Troy ran his gaze over her. “But this beautiful redhead keeps getting in the way, sprinkling all this Christmas cheer all over me.”
“Sorry,” she said, but didn’t mean it. “It’s Wednesday. Saturday night is only a couple days away,” she added, hesitantly returning to the initial topic.
“Exactly. It’s just a couple days of dating me. What could go wrong?”
Allison could think of a lot of things that could go wrong. Her crush could grow even bigger. She could develop feelings for Troy. Feelings that her mother would trample on come Saturday night. Feelings that he might not reciprocate.
He reached over for her hand. His calloused skin felt so good against hers, and she shuddered with the memory of how good those hands had felt on the rest of her body last night.
“What do you say?” he asked.
She glanced over as he pulled into the parking lot of a toy store in Paradise Point. She took a breath and nodded. “I say…why not?”
—
Hell, yeah.That’s what Troy was saying internally. Because ever since he’d met the green-eyed beauty, he hadn’t been able to shake her. He fully planned on doing that, but what was the hurry? He might as well take these next couple of days and discover what exactly it was about Allison that made him tick so hard that he vibrated these days.
He walked around his truck and opened the door for her. “They don’t sell adult toys here, by the way.”
Her mouth fell open. “I’m tempted to go back on my agreement just for that.”
“That would mar your integrity. And you value integrity.”
“I do, huh?”
“Yep. You are a moral person. It’s one of the things I love about you.”
Allison’s mouth fell open again; her eyes widened just a little at the mention of her in the same sentence as love. Yeah, that had surprised him, too. He held the door to the toy store open and gestured for her to enter, ready to get as far away as possible from what he’d just said.
“Troy! Is that you?” Rhonda came running down the aisle toward him as they entered the store. She was small-boned, but she knew how to tackle. She’d been in the family for years. She was like a sister to them and had to be tough to hold her own. Lord knew his brother Jason, Rhonda’s husband, had never made the brothers take it easy on her.
Troy opened his arms and spread his legs, bracing himself to be pummeled.
Rhonda skidded to a stop when she saw Allison. “Who’s this? You brought a girl home?”
“Not exactly home,” Troy said.
Rhonda waved a hand. “You and David need to hug and make up already. It’s Christmas.”
