Christmas With the Best Man (4 page)

“What now?”

“I was comparing you to a glass of wine.”

“I’m afraid to ask how I fared.”

“Oh, you’re equal. Maybe two glasses, even.”

“I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. Really. I can’t.”

“Hey, glad I could make your day.” Her eyelids were finally growing heavy. She sighed, and let herself relax into sleep.

~*~

An odd scurrying noise woke Joey. He was freezing. Why the hell wasn’t his heater working? And when did mice move in? He paid too much for extermination to have mice.

“Damn it.”

He sat up at the sound of Jasmine’s voice. What was she doing at his place? Seeing the sparsely-decorated room around him, he remembered where he was. Ireland. And from the noise on the roof, it was still raining.

The bathroom door opened and Jasmine came out. Now he knew where the scurrying noises had come from. “Good morning.”

Her hair was all crinkled and wild, but a far cry from the sexy, tousled look some women worked for. Her head snapped around when she heard his voice. “Geez, you scared me. Now that you’re up, can we go over to Ned’s house? I’m dying to use the bathroom.”

“Yeah, sure.” He grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom to dress.

When he came out, she was hopping on one foot, fighting with her shoe. “I think the leather trim shrank from getting all wet.”

“You wear real leather?”

“That’s all you can say?”

“I thought that was better than suggesting the obvious—wear a different pair of shoes.”

She grimaced and rolled her eyes. “Great, and then I’ll have two pairs that don’t fit.”

“That’ll give you an excuse to shop for shoes. I thought all women loved to shop for shoes.”

He moved as far across the room as he could while she finished putting herself together. He needed space. Finally, they rushed out into the rain and headed to Ned’s home.

Sue, Ned’s wife, welcomed them like old friends. “Come in, get warm. I’ve got sausage frying up, and I’ll cook the rest while you two get cleaned up.” She glanced at Joey, then Jasmine, and back. “Ned didn’t tell me what a handsome couple you are.”

He cringed. There was that word again. Couple.

Letting Jasmine shower first, he made small talk with Sue. She’d said she had sausage frying, but there was also a pan with rounds of Irish bacon, and a pot of beans. Sue cracked an egg into another skillet.

“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” he said.

“No trouble a’tall. I forgot to boil some potatoes, and I’m out of black pudding, so we’ll have to settle on white.” She cracked more eggs and flipped the bacon.

When Jasmine came back, her hair was wet but she had on a different outfit. She hadn’t put on makeup, yet she was one of the prettiest women he knew.

He showered quickly. Sue dished up their food when he returned to the kitchen.

There were only three plates on the table. “Ned’s not here?”

“Oh, no. He leaves early to clean the pub before he opens. Then he preps the food for the day.”

Joey felt even more guilty that she’d gone to all that trouble for them. But the meal was heavenly. “I’m going to have to run to the west coast and back to burn this off.”

“I’ll have to do it twice,” Jasmine added with a laugh. She cut another bite of sausage.

He noticed she wasn’t slowing down. That was one thing he liked about her—she did everything full on.

“Ned tells me this is your first trip to Ireland,” Sue said. “Are you finding it a romantic getaway?”

Joey scratched the back of his neck, unable to speak.

“We came for our friends’ wedding,” Jasmine said simply after wiping her mouth with the cloth napkin.

“Now that’s romantic.”

He’d swear he had a bite on his arm, and scratched it hard. He shoveled in a mouthful of eggs. He should come right out with it and explain clearly they’re just friends. But it seemed rude to do so. Not only might it embarrass Sue for her assumption, but Jasmine might take it to mean he’d never be in a relationship with her.

He wouldn’t, but that was beside the point. Women didn’t necessarily mind when a guy didn’t fall head over heels for them, but saying so made it sound like she was unlovable.

He didn’t know a lot about women, but he knew that much.

Jasmine had cleaned her plate before he finished, but she hadn’t been served quite as much. Joey wasn’t very far behind her. Besides, his stomach was about to explode. He scooted his chair back and reached for his plate to take it to the kitchen.

“No, no, leave it. I’ll do the washing up later. You two just sit there for a minute.” She hurried into the kitchen and came back with two gifts and a plastic container. “Here, these are for you.”

Jasmine waved the packages away. “We can’t accept gifts. It’s too much, Sue. Your hospitality is generous enough.”

“Jasmine’s right, we can’t take your gifts.”

“Don’t be silly. Open them and you’ll see they’re nothing special.” She handed each of them a box with a ribbon tied around it.

He let Jasmine open hers first, almost afraid to see what Sue had given them.

Jasmine gasped and held up an ivory-colored sweater, with cables and bumps and an amazing amount of detailed knitting. “It’s too beautiful.”

He took his from the box and held it up, surprised to see how close to his size it was. “She’s right. All of your time, your handiwork. It’s too much.”

Sue smiled. “They were for my son and daughter, but since they aren’t here, you get them.”

Now he felt even more guilty. “You should save them for your kids. Or mail the sweaters to them.”

Sue laughed. “I knit each of them a new one every year. They’ll thank you for sparing them this year.”

Jasmine caught his eye. “If you’re certain they won’t mind…” She shrugged at Joey.

“Thank you,” he added.

Sue held out the plastic container. “Some spiced beef and bread for later. You’ll come for dinner tomorrow?”

He nodded. “We’d love to, thanks.”

Her grin lit her entire body, if that was possible.

Chapter Four

Joey and Jasmine no longer ran through the rain. Doing so just meant they got wet faster. She kept her hood up, and his hat offered some slight protection as they walked through the town.

“Look, the stores are open, at least the grocer is.” He motioned across the street. “Let’s grab something to drink. Maybe they have a deck of cards.”

“Good idea.”

They ducked inside, shaking as much water as they could on the mat at the door. Jasmine went straight to the magazines. Joey wandered the aisles looking for something to keep himself entertained. He wasn’t much for reading, and while the little store had a great variety of items, he doubted they had anything to help him pass the time.

He collected an armful of chips and crackers and a couple of sodas. Jasmine met him at the register with several magazines, some chocolate and a large bottle of mineral water. After paying, they went back out in the rain.

They passed a flower and gifts store where some lighted wreaths glowed in the window. “Let’s go in here,” he said.

“Why? What’s the point of buying some flowers or something that we’ll have to throw away when we leave?”

“I thought I’d buy some flowers to give Sue tomorrow. We can get something to make the room look more Christmassy, too. Maybe it’ll make this easier for you to deal with.”

She gave him a sidelong glance as she walked past the door he held open.

“If nothing else, it’s not raining in here.”

“It smells wonderful. Evergreens, cinnamon. Something else I can’t name.”

“Vanilla candles,” said the woman behind the counter. “I burn cinnamon and vanilla candles at the same time. The scents together make me think of cookies.”

Jasmine laughed. “I’d be hungry all the time.”

Joey wandered the aisle filled with decorations. A small wreath caught his eye, red and white ornaments nestled into the greenery. Not too fancy, but not a Charlie Brown style decoration. He picked up the wreath.

Walking toward the cash register, he was distracted by a bright display. Hand knit items in a rainbow of colors. He quickly skimmed past the baby booties and sweaters and was about to walk away when he saw the socks. Neon colors, practically, pink, yellow orange and green.

Something about the pink made him think of Jasmine. He hadn’t seen her wear such a bright color, but if she hated the pink she could wear them under boots and jeans where no one would see.

She was in a back corner of the shop, so he quickly paid for the items. He stuffed the small bag with the socks into his coat pocket.

~*~

When they arrived back at the flat, Mrs. Gilmore stuck her head out of the fish shop. “We turned on the water. I’m so sorry I didn’t think of it yesterday.”

“No problem. We’re so grateful to have a place to stay. There aren’t enough words to express our appreciation,” Joey said.

Jasmine spent the afternoon reading the gossip and beauty magazines she’d bought. Joey had picked up some takeaway fish and chips before the little café closed for the holiday. He sat beside her on the bed while they ate, both of them leaning back against the wall.

“I’m sorry you won’t be with your family tomorrow.”

She sighed. “Me, too. But what can we do?”

The firelight flickered off the white and red glass bulbs on the wreath, reminding her of Christmas lights.

“What would you be doing if you were with your family right now?”

“Right now?” She looked out the window at the fading daylight. “What’s the time difference? We’d probably be asleep.”

“We’re only eight hours ahead of California here. It would be midmorning, Christmas Eve.”

“I’d be cleaning the house. Dad and my brothers would be at work. If I were keeping to plan, I’d have the pies in the fridge waiting to be put in the oven after the ham on Christmas Day.”

“Hey, I’m sorry to make you miss such excitement.”

She laughed. “Right? But we’d have dinner together. My oldest brother is married, and he and his wife come over. The other boys live in Springfield, not far from where we grew up, so they don’t stay at the house. We go to midnight mass.”

“You’re Catholic?”

“No, we just love the atmosphere of the church in the middle of the night. Have you ever been?”

“No. We weren’t much for church.”

“What would you be doing if we’d made it home?”

He picked up the trash from their meal and carried it to the wastebasket. “Hanging out. Just like you.”

“With family?” He’d never spoken of his family, which made her all that much more curious.

“At my place in Austin. Just another day. I call my mom on Christmas morning. That’s about it.”

His holiday sounded so lonely. “By choice?”

“It’s not that big a deal to me. I can get a lot more work done, writing, checking on schedules and such. Everyone else is too busy doing other things to interrupt me.”

Was that an act to cover up how he felt about being alone at Christmas? He wouldn’t meet her eye, which told her he was embarrassed or something. If he were acting, he’d be bold and in her face, that much she knew. “Then you should love spending the day here. No one could reach you if they tried.”

He smiled as he sat beside her again. “Hand me one of those magazines.”

She tossed him one of the gossip ones.

“Well then. Let’s see who ran off with who.”

“I didn’t see Vanessa and Harry in there.” When she, Bree and Kenzi met the guys, they were in St. Thomas. She and her friends were on a girls’ getaway. The band was there so Chaz could marry Vanessa Edwards. That hadn’t gone off quite like he’d planned.

Joey elbowed her. “Be nice.”

“That
was
nice. Everything then turned out perfectly, as our trip here proves. Chaz and Kenzi are perfect together.”

“Here we go. ‘Soulmate Challenge. Are you two meant to be together?’”

“Me and who? You’ll notice I came stag to this party.”

“What the hell. We’ll take the quiz together. We’ll either be perfect for each other or perfectly awful.”

“Whatever. How can we take it if we’re both right here? Any answer I give, you’ll say the opposite just for spite.”

“Where’s your phone?” He pulled his phone from his jeans pocket.

Jasmine took hers from the table beside the bed and opened a note app. “I’m ready when you are.”

“Here we go. ‘Is your partner your best friend? A—we talk about common interests, but I already have a BFF. B—of course! I want to share everything with him. Or C—No. We hang out after sex but don’t have much in common.’”

As she prepared to type, she caught him looking at her phone. “No peeking.”

After a pause, he went on. “Next. ‘What does your mother think of your guy? A—she thinks he’s hot and wouldn’t mind dating him if we break up.’”