A dog named Jingle Bells Read online

  “Why do you say things like that to me? You don’t know me, Cole. And even when you did know me you didn’t even like me!”

  The shock of what she was saying to him dragged Cole’s mind out his dark corner fantasy. “What do you mean? Of course I liked you.”

  “You were awful to me! Always making fun of me, and stealing my things, and putting pictures on my locker!” Sandy only stopped listing his offenses when she realized that people in the restaurant were starting to stare.

  “Sandy. I never imagined you thought I didn’t like you. I will admit that I wasn’t doing it well—but I was flirting with you! I wanted you to notice me. And when did I hang pictures on your locker?”

  Sandy felt herself turning red again. “After the physics olympics.” She mumbled.

  “The Einstein thing? That wasn’t me. I remember it only because you looked so upset that morning. I tore them down for you.”

  Sandy only nodded her head. “That was flirting?” She caught up to what he was telling her.

  Cole leaned back into his chair and gave her a slow smile. “I already admitted it wasn’t very good flirting. I think I’ve refined my technique over the years though—care to offer me a critique?”

  “That depends. Are you flirting with me now?” Cole nodded his head and Sandy smiled at him. “Well then I would have to say your technique is too cryptic. A girl likes to know where she stands.”

  “Too cryptic? Okay. From now on I will just say exactly what I am thinking. Sandy Masters I am thinking that I like you very much.”

  Sandy started to laugh, but when Cole’s hand closed over hers next to the bread basket she froze. “This isn’t a good idea, Cole. I’m not interested in getting involved with someone right now.”

  Cole gripped her hand a little tighter. “Why is that? Is there someone else? Someone that might mind me making a pass at you?”

  Sandy considered lying, but it was a small town and it wouldn’t take long for him to find out the truth. There was no one. There hadn’t been anyone since Todd left. “No, but you said you were in the market for a wife and I’m not interested.”

  “Well gee, give a guy the chance to propose first.”

  “I mean it, Cole. I’m not the marrying type.” He let the matter drop and they went back to the easy company they’d shared in the pet store.

  After they’d finished Cole drove her back to the animal shelter where they had left her car. Putting his truck in park, he reached over to hit the automatic locks and turned to face her again. “In the spirit of honesty, Sandy, I am going to tell you something. I’m very interested in a relationship and I don’t give up easily. So you may want to brace yourself. I am going to do everything in my power to change your mind.”

  As he gave his little speech he had been inching closer to her on the bench seat. Now she was trapped between her door and all of his big man-ness. When she opened his mouth to tell him not to bother and that she still wasn’t interested he wasted no time in taking advantage. Cole’s mouth closed over hers softly at first, but the next moment he was anything but. The second her lips opened his control broke. He growled as he took the kiss deeper and his hands grabbed at her waist hauling her into his body. When she gasped at the contact he abandoned her mouth and scraped rough passionate kisses along her jaw and down her throat.

  Soft skin and feminine curves filled his hands wherever they went. The tiny gasps she made each time he found patches of bare skin sucked all the remaining oxygen from his brain. The moment before Cole was about to lift Sandy’s sweater over her head he came to his senses. He wasn’t a teenager anymore! He was a grown man and a father. What was he doing necking in a parking lot? Groaning again, Cole smoothed Sandy’s clothing back in place and slid back to his side of the seat. “That wasn’t the romantic kiss goodnight I’d intended, but I’m sure as hell not sorry.” He chuckled as he spoke. He didn’t look at her though. If he did they would both be goners.

  Sandy reached for the door handle, but she paused. She didn’t know what to say. Thank you? Good night? Come home with me? She was saved from the decision when he spoke again.

  “I’ll be seeing you again Sandy, very soon. But unless you want me to think you changed your mind about being interested you had probably better go.”

  “Good night, Cole.”

  “Good night, Sandy.”

  Chapter Three

  “Cole Pennington!” Allie squealed over the phone. “Cole Pennington, that you drooled over all through school, moved back to town, bought you a dog, and asked you to marry him?!”

  “No, it wasn’t like that.” Sandy was sorry she’d chosen Allie to spill all her troubles to. Laurie would have been more sympathetic. “He was just teasing, and Jingle Bells is for his daughter.”

  “It sounds better the way I said it. When are you going out again?”

  “We aren’t. I can’t. You know I can’t!” Sandy wailed to her friend.

  “Of course you are! Sandy, please tell me this is not about Todd. The guy was a loser. It is more than time for you to move on.”

  “He wasn’t a loser; he just needed more than I could give him. You should see Cole with Hannah. He has ‘family man’ written all over him.”

  “And he comes ready-made with a family! So what’s the problem?”

  “It is just not going to happen, Allie.”

  ***

  It had been three days since her dinner with Cole and her phone conversation with Allie. And that was three days she had spent reliving the feeling of Cole’s lips in her mind. Sandy was determined to think of something else as she put the finishing touches on her Christmas tree. But it was proving difficult—fate really liked messing with her. What wouldn’t she have given to have Cole want her this way ten years ago? When she could have responded to him as a whole woman? An armful of plastic icicles clattered to the ground when her doorbell rang.

  Cole and Hannah were all smiles standing on her doorstep. “We are going to see Santa Claus! And you can come too!” Hannah announced before Sandy could even say hello.

  “Hannie. That’s not our best manners. Maybe Miss Sandy has plans.”

  “But Daddy, you said we shouldn’t give her a chance to say no.” Cole’s hand quickly clamped over his daughter’s mouth.

  “What do you say, Miss Sandy? Spend the afternoon with us?” Cole turned his attention to Sandy before Hannah could incriminate him any further.

  “I’ve still got a lot of decorating to do.” Sandy started to decline, but Hannah’s big saucer eyes stopped her. “You play dirty, Cole.”

  Cole barked out a laugh. “I prefer to think of it as playing to win. You were warned, Sandy.”

  “I’ll get my coat.” Sandy turned around to grab her things, but she didn’t miss the father-daughter high five on her porch.

  It took him a couple days, but Cole was now armed with a plan. He knew he could persuade Sandy to give up her nonsense about not wanting to be in a relationship. He just needed to keep them in situations where she would be willing to relax her guard. Having Hannah around should help with that. Today they were going to wander around the mall, do a little shopping and watch a five year old meet Santa Claus. That was about as innocent as an outing could get and still an opportunity to show Sandy the best parts of being a family during the holidays.

  “Daddy! Let’s go!” Hannah grabbed the hands of both Cole and Sandy and took off running as soon as the fenced off North Pole display came into sight. Santa Claus was seated in big red arm chair next to a cardboard fireplace and surrounded by fluffy sparkling ‘snow’ and plastic penguins and reindeer. “Is he really the real Santa?” Hannah wanted to know as soon as they joined the line. She was leaning over the velvet rope partition and trying to see over the dozen families ahead of them.

  Cole easily plucked her up and lifted her over his head to sit on his shoulders. Cole was already the tallest person in line—Hannah now had the perfect view. “Let’s see…” Cole took a long inspection of the Santa in question.
“Red suit, big belly, long white beard… looks like the real deal to me. What do you think Sandy?”

  “Oh, yes—very authentic.” Sandy agreed after her own thoughtful .assessment

  “Well that’s a relief.” Hannah sighed happily. “I don’t want to take any chances, you know?” Both Cole and Sandy nodded seriously.

  The line moved slowly, but it wrapped around the display and with every step Hannah cooed over the decorations. At the caroling eskimos Hannah giggled and stood next to them pretending to sing along while Cole took photos on his phone. When they reached the ice skating elves she flung out her arms and twirled around, making-believe she was figure skating too. Just before they reached the front of the line were a couple of animatronic reindeer swaying their heads back and forth in time to softly playing Christmas music. Hannah was awestruck as she tried to squeeze her arms through the slats of the white fence to touch them. Sandy lifted her high enough that she could reach over and pet their heads.

  “You don’t have to come with me, Daddy.” Hannah hissed before she trotted off to take her turn in Santa’s lap.

  Cole kept smiling, but his eyes turned a little sad. Sandy laid a sympathetic hand on his forearm. Even that innocent little touch made Sandy shiver with goose bumps. “Cold?” Cole’s eyes suggested that he knew that it wasn’t the temperature making Sandy shiver.

  “Not cold.” She admitted and pulled her hand away.

  Quickly Cole caught her hand and threaded their fingers together. “Good. I’m not cold either.” He leveled her with heated eyes that almost made Sandy forget they were surrounded by small children. An instant later he returned his attention to his daughter and Sandy almost thought she’d imagined the whole exchange.

  “She was born on Christmas morning you know—that’s how I picked ‘Holly’ for her middle name. So her first Christmas we spent in the hospital. The next year I had just been awarded permanent custody, so I made Christmas as big as I could for her. Not that she’ll ever remember. That was the first year I took her to see Santa. I wouldn’t even let him hold her. She was still so tiny because she was a preemie and I was afraid he’d drop her. This will be the first Santa photo where I’m not at least standing next to her holding her hand.”

  “She’s independent alright, but I can tell she’s still a daddy’s girl.” Sandy smiled up at him. He was perfect. This was perfect. Maybe she could let herself have this—at least for a little while. There was no need to make any future plans after just two afternoons together.

  “Independent is good.” Cole smiled back at her. “And I can always look forward to the next one.”

  “Hmm?” Sandy was confused. Cole chuckled and dropped his arm around her shoulders.

  “The next one. If she takes after you she’ll be so small I’ll be able to carry her around in my pocket for the first couple of years.” Sandy’s heart fell through her chest and past he stomach. It was a miracle no one around them heard it crashing into the floor.

  Hannah was finished and Cole bent down so she could relay every word of her Santa conversation. Of course. Cole clearly loved being a father. He should have more kids. Sandy could easily see him surrounded by five or six more little ones. Maybe twin boys with his devastating good looks chasing girls around the monkey bars at recess and at least one other little girl, because any girl would love to have eyes like Cole’s. Hannah must have gotten her looks from her mother (wherever she was). Last Sunday Sandy had been too shocked to notice, but Hannah’s ice blue eyes weren’t more than a little similar to her daddy’s.

  “Should we get a snack?” Cole was oblivious to Sandy’s change in disposition as he led them confidently to the soft pretzel stand and ordered them each a pretzel and an array of those over priced dipping sauces. Sandy loved soft pretzels with spicy mustard. She tried to focus on enjoying herself. Nothing had changed. She still wasn’t interested in getting seriously involved. There was no reason she had to ruin the afternoon by running home to wallow—she could wallow later.

  “Are you really going to eat that?” Sandy asked Cole after he’d dipped a strip of his pretzel into both the spicy mustard and the sweet icing.

  “Why not? Afraid of a little adventure?” Cole gave her a challenging look before taking a huge bit. “Delicious!”

  Sandy eyed him doubtfully and then followed his example. She chewed only once before spiting her mouthful out into a napkin. Cole and Hannah were both laughing at her. Sandy laughed too. “Daddy plays that trick on me all the time.” Hannah announced. “He always gets me with broccoli.”

  “Except that broccoli is good.” Sandy put it.

  “Not the way I make it.” Cole supplied unabashedly. “I’m not what you might call a gourmet.”

  “Because he’s a daddy.” Hannah clarified. “When he picks me out a mommy she’ll make dinner. Mommies make good dinners”

  Sandy was very uncomfortable, but Cole just looked at her calmly. “How about you, Sandy? Do you make good dinners?”

  “Nope. I’m a microwave and take out kinda girl. Does that knock me out of the running?” Actually, Sandy loved to cook. And bake. She had a recipe for strawberry muffins that was to die for.

  “Nah. Maybe we’ll hire someone. Or mom can teach us. She was scandalized last week when I microwaved chicken and rice. So I’m pretty sure she’s planning on springing some lessons on me anyway. It’ll be fun to learn together.”

  Great. He was perfect. Couldn’t the man at least be fostering any caveman gender role expectations! Was one flaw really too much to ask for? “I know how to cook.” Sandy mumbled with resignation. She couldn’t have him telling his mom she needed lessons. Mrs. Pennington’s chili always came in second place at the fair—right behind Sandy’s.

  Cole laughed at her again. It was a good thing Sandy wasn’t keeping count of how often he did that—she definitely would have run out of fingers and toes by now. “You lied about your culinary skills to get out of dating me? I thought we talked about this—I’m not the type to give up easily.”

  “Will you cook dinner for us, Miss Sandy?” Hannah wanted to know. “Since we don’t have a mommy yet?”

  “Yeah, Miss Sandy. Will you?” Cole chimed in, his face filled with mischief.

  “Playing to win again?”

  “Again? I never stopped.” Cole knew he’d won. “What’s on the menu for tomorrow? Hannah and I will bring desert… I’ll get mom to fix us something so it will be edible.”

  Sandy rolled her eyes. “I was planning on pasta. Do you like lasagna?”

  “Is that like spaghetti?” Hannah didn’t look very confident.

  “Yes sweetheart.” Cole answered. “It is like spaghetti, only way better.”

  “Okay, I like spaghetti. Maybe Grandma will make cookies. She let me help last time.”

  Sandy groaned and dropped her head in her hands. How did she get herself into these things? “Dinner’s at six.’

  “Great. We’ll be there at 5:30—thanks for inviting us.” Cole barely contained his laughter as he spoke.

  After the pretzels were gone Cole didn’t have any reason not to take Sandy home and thank her for spending the afternoon with them. But the very idea of that left a bad taste in his mouth.

  “As long as we are at the mall shall we do some shopping? I still need something for my mother this year.” Cole’s Christmas shopping had been finished since before they’d moved, but his mother was putting up with him and Hannah until he found a house so she probably deserved more than the earrings he already had wrapped and hidden in a closet.

  “There is a specialty kitchen store here. I’m sure we’ll find something there.” Sandy could think of lots of reasons for needing to go home and enforce a little emotional distance, but she pushed them all aside and took Hannah’s hand as they strolled past the store fronts like any of the other families.

  On the drive home Hannah fell asleep between them in the truck and she slumped over into Sandy. Cole stayed paused much longer than necessary at the stop sign on
Monroe Street. “Did you forget where you are going?” Sandy whispered.

  “Not exactly.” Cole muttered. “Turn right and I drop you off at home. Go straight and I drop Hannah off at mom’s before taking you home.”

  Sandy’s heart thudded loudly. “So?” She was afraid to hope for either choice.

  “So. Hannah is going to want dinner when she wakes up, and she will be kind of a handful after such an exciting day.” Cole sighed and turned right. Neither of them spoke until he was parked in front of her house. Sandy shifted Hannah so she was leaning against her Daddy.

  “For the record, I wanted to drop you off last Sandy. I’d have liked a kiss good night.”

  She didn’t know why she did it. Sandy usually made well thought out decisions. But when she climbed out of his truck instead of going up her front walk and heading for the carton of chocolate chunk ice cream in her freezer she walked around to the driver’s side window. Cole lowered the glass and she leaned in to kiss him good night. It was just a soft pressing of her lips against his. Cole’s free arm snaked out of the window and fastened on the base of her neck, holding her in place. When Sandy pulled away she nipped him playfully at the corner of his mouth. She was rewarded by a low growl that set her stomach fluttering.

  “Hannah won’t always be around for you to hide behind.” Cole whispered.

  Sandy realized that was what she was doing. How else could she have the courage to kiss him and tease him if she didn’t know that Hannah’s presence would keep them from taking this somewhere she couldn’t go? “I’ll see you tomorrow, Cole. Both of you.” She turned and fled through her front door.

  Cole loved every minute he spent with Hannah. He did. Every single moment she was with him was a gift. But for his entire ride home Cole was very intent on imagining up excuses to get Sandy alone. She’d had him in knots all week. The way she looked at him sometimes made his skin feel as though it were going to self combust. Anytime he closed his eyes lately Sandy was there laying stretched across a bed wearing nothing but silk sheets. Oh yeah. He needed to have Sandy to himself—and soon.