A Bayberry Christmas: A Bayberry Island Holiday e-Novella Book 5

  Without missing a beat, Leo reached over, put her hand in his, and returned it to its previous position. “I can work around you.”

  That made her laugh.

  When the movie ended, Tess expected Leo to make some generic comment about liking the movie and then head off to bed. Instead, he turned to face her on the couch, the blank movie screen the only light in the room.

  “So, what do you think, Tess?”

  She removed her glasses and propped them on top of her head. “Think of what?”

  “The mermaid. Do you think that if you to go the fountain with an open heart, kiss her hand, and ask for true love, you’ll get what you ask for?”

  Tess adjusted her position, too, leaning her shoulder against the back of the couch so she could face Leo. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I would have to say, hell, no.”

  He laughed. “You sound pretty sure. You don’t believe in magic?”

  “I don’t know what I believe anymore.” Tess looked away. She told herself to be careful. There was a false sense of intimacy in this moment — a middle-of-the-night movie, the only two people awake in a silent house, the cozy couch, the darkness.

  The truth was, she didn’t know Leo. She didn’t even know herself anymore.

  “Well.” She prepared to stand. “Thanks for watching the movie with me. I should probably—”

  “Please stay. Just a minute more.”

  He touched her hand again, and this time it was no accident. He’d reached out for her, and his strong, straight fingers rested warmly on her palm for a long moment. Then they slid away.

  “May I ask you a question?”

  Tess didn’t mean to, but she sighed out loud. “Okay.”

  “Why are you here for Christmas?”

  She straightened. “I’m visiting Nat and Annie. It was a last-minute thing after…my holiday plans fell through.”

  Leo nodded. “Nat said you just went through a bad breakup.”

  “He did?” She squeezed her arms tighter across the front of her body, making a note to herself to kick his ass in the morning. But Leo looked so earnest that she decided to give him an honest — albeit vague — answer.

  “Something like that, yes. And you? Why are you here?”

  Leo shrugged. “I’ve been on Bayberry finishing up a grant proposal and—”

  “You said you were a coach.”

  He tipped his head when he smiled at her. “That’s part of the job, as well. I’m program director. Our foundation helps injured vets get their lives back with physical training and competitive swim events.”

  “Of course.” Tess had been unnecessarily snarky.

  “This is the first Christmas since my mom died,” Leo went on to say. “So Duncan invited me to stick around.”

  “I’m so sorry, Leo.” She was aware that her words were horribly inadequate. Any words would have.

  He gave a quick nod.

  She studied him. Sadness flashed in his eyes, but his overall expression was one of composure. She couldn’t imagine how much Leo had gone through in the last few years. She had no idea how he’d managed to hold onto any peace.

  “Can I ask you something else, Leo?”

  He relaxed further into the couch. “Have at it.”

  “Would you mind telling me how…” Tess was determined not to let her gaze drop to his leg. “…you were injured?”

  Leo stared blankly for a moment. “Nothing all that unusual, unfortunately. I stepped on an IED. Despite our best efforts, it still happens all the time. I’m lucky to be alive.”

  Tess didn’t know how to respond. She swallowed, her stomach twisting. She could not imagine the horror and the pain of such an injury. She could not imagine the depth of the loss. “Transfemoral?”

  Leo smiled sadly. “Ah, I guess you’d know the fancy name for it, but yes. My leg was amputated just above my left knee.”

  “But you’re doing great, right?” She hated the overly cheerful tone she heard in her voice. A man like Leo surely saw though bullshit. “What I meant to say is you look amazing.” That didn’t come out right, either. “Amazingly healthy.”

  Leo laughed. “For the most part, yes, I’m doing great. And thanks.”

  “I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “I don’t mind.” He gestured to his the left leg of his jeans, propped on the couch cushions. “My situation is pretty obvious.”

  “Not when you wear you long pants.”

  “Maybe not then.”

  Tess dropped her hands into her lap and stared down at her twisting fingers. She wanted to tell him more about herself. She wanted to know more about him. But she hesitated to open up, to take the risk.

  Jake’s betrayal had stolen some of the confidence she once had. She hated him for that. She really did.

  Leo leaned closer, and when he spoke it was in a tender whisper. “Tell me about it, Tess,” he said. “I’m a pretty good listener.”

  * * *

  When she looked up, Leo nearly gasped. Tears had begun to form in her pretty hazel eyes. Her cheeks had flushed and her chin was trembling.

  Tess had been terribly hurt. The ladies in the kitchen had been only partially right — the man who did this to her was not only an idiotic fool, he was a dick.

  “I appreciate the offer, Leo, but I don’t want to come across as…” she shook her head. “Look, it’s an awful story, but not very unique, I’m afraid.”

  Tess raked her fingers through her hair, knocking her glasses from where they’d been perched on top of her head. Leo caught them before they fell in the popcorn, then placed them on the back of the couch for safekeeping.

  Since Tess didn’t say more, Leo chose to do the talking for a bit.

  “After I got hurt, my feelings were nothing but a giant, black, tangled mess. I couldn’t get a handle on it at first. It was too overwhelming to name. But once I started talking about it, things got clearer.”

  Tess was listening.

  “Eventually I realized that at the center of everything was a false assumption — a lie. I’d told myself that what happened that night was my fault. That I’d failed. That I was to blame for my injury.”

  Tess blinked. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Yes, but it took a while to convince myself.”

  “So how did you?”

  “I kept talking, and I kept stripping away at the layers. I don’t think the negative thoughts will ever disappear completely, but at least I can put a name to them these days. I call them on their bullshit and remind myself of what’s true.”

  When Tess lowered her head, those curly blond bangs fell over her eyes. Leo did it without thinking — brushed her hair from her face. She looked up, her hazel eyes challenging him. “So tell me something you know to be true, Tess Curry. Just one true thing.”

  She chuckled. “Yeah, well, that’s kind of the problem. I’m not sure what’s true anymore.”

  Leo gave her an encouraging smile. “Then tell me what isn’t.”

  Anger flared in her eyes. Had he pressed too hard? He sure as hell didn’t want to push her away.

  Tess nodded with a sudden burst of conviction. “Like I said, my story’s boring. It happens to people every day and they get over it. I will, too.”

  Leo nodded. “You have to know what it is before you can get over it.”

  Tess’s laugh was full and tinged with bitterness, then she produced another deep sigh. “You want to hear my sob story? Fine. I’ll tell you what happened. I’m leaving in two days and I’ll probably never see you again? So why not?”

  Leo knew she might be right. They could go their separate ways and never see each other again, if that’s what she wanted. But it stung to hear it.

  Two days? She was leaving in just two days?

  “His name was Jake.”

  Leo gave her a nod of encouragement.

  “We’d been together for four years and lived together for three. I thought he was the one for me and vice versa. The more time passed the mor
e I just assumed...” She raised her eyes to his. “We talked about marriage every once in a while. We agreed it was going to happen, someday, when the time was right.”

  He listened.

  “About a week ago, I found a jewelry store receipt in the desk drawer. It wasn’t looking for it. It was just there on top of some bills and stuff. And I couldn’t believe what I was seeing — an invoice for a seventeen-thousand-dollar platinum and diamond engagement ring.”

  Shit. Leo felt his stomach drop.

  “I assumed it was for me because, well, who else would it be for, right?” Tess stopped. She raised her lovely eyebrows in challenge. “So how many false assumptions are we up to now, coach?”

  “You tell me.”

  “Okay. One, the ring wasn’t for me; two, Jake didn’t love me; three, our relationship was an illusion — my illusion. But I didn’t know any of this until four days ago, when I found Jake in bed with his affianced.”

  “Whoa.”

  “Yeah. Whoa. I knew her, too. She’d joined Jake’s surgery practice just a few months before. She was French — if you can believe it — tall and glamorous and ooh-la-la as fuck. And there she was, twisted up in my bed sheets, naked except for the really nice platinum and diamond engagement ring on her left hand.”

  Tess stared straight ahead but wasn’t looking at him. Those tears she’d had a few moments ago were gone. Her eyes were blank and angry. Leo didn’t move a muscle.

  When he realized she’d finished with her story, he cleared is throat. “Sounds like you had a bomb go off in your life.”

  Tess seemed startled, suddenly seeing him in front of her. “What?”

  “Your life blew up. Just like mine.”

  Chapter Five

  Five-thirty A.M., Christmas Eve

  “Was this your idea?”

  Leo glanced over at Tess as they trudged through five inches of fresh snow. She’d tugged her knitted down to her ears, and now her curls stuck out from the bottom, coated in snowflakes. Under the glow of the old-fashioned street lamp, he saw that her glasses were fogging up.

  She grinned at him. “I think it was your idea, coach. You know, cleanse my aura with the sunrise and all that shit.”

  Tess cracked him up. “I don’t remember using that word.”

  “You wanted to, though.”

  Leo laughed.

  To be fair, they’d both agreed that watching the sunrise would be the perfect way to cap off hours spent in the media room. They’d gone upstairs for their coats and, in an effort to avoid Mellie at work in the kitchen, they exited from the front door.

  Now, the only sound was the crunch of their boots in the snow, their own breathing, and the gentle hiss of the ocean. No birds were awake yet. Nobody was out and about.

  “This is my favorite time of day,” Tess said.

  “Mine, too.”

  She turned to him. “I’m keeping you from your swim, aren’t I?”

  Leo shrugged. “No worries. I’ll take the day off. It’s Christmas Eve, after all.”

  Tess stopped walking. Her eyes widened. “Oh, my God. It is. I didn’t bring anybody a present — I was so stuck in my own drama that I completely forgot.”

  “I didn’t, either, but I don’t think the focus is on gift-exchange. It’s all about the anniversary.”

  Tess gave a quick nod and began walking again. “I heard that Mona and Fraser were separated for years and only recently got back together.”

  “That’s what Duncan told me.”

  “Well, it’s good they got a happy ending.”

  Leo smiled at her. “Or a new beginning.”

  They continued on, walking down the gentle slope of Shore Road on their way to town. Tess was oblivious to Leo’s worry. She had no idea that this casual stroll required his complete concentration and effort, that walking with a prosthetic leg was a challenge on any surface, even the most level and dry ground.

  She didn’t know that walking downhill on snow was damn-near impossible, or that Leo had wiped out this way more times than he could count. His everyday prosthetic foot was nothing like the real thing. The human foot was a miracle of biomechanics, with hundreds of bones and thousands of nerve endings that enabled precise control.

  Leo was working with nothing more than an unfeeling hunk of plastic inside his boot this morning. It gave no feedback to his brain. There was no control. It was always hit or miss.

  He really didn’t want to wipe out in front of Tess.

  “I’ve never actually been to the mermaid fountain. Do you mind if we go?”

  “I don’t mind at all. We can —”

  He lost his footing. His prosthetic limb shot out in front of his body and Leo was on his was down. “Shit!”

  Tess grabbed his arm. She somehow used her weight to stop his backward motion, which gave him a chance to get his leg beneath him again. She kept a tight hold on his arm even after he’d regained his balance.

  “Are you okay?”

  Leo glanced over at her. She looked worried. He hated that she’d seen him fall — absolutely hated it. “I’m fine. Sorry.”

  She wrapped both her arms around his right arm, tucked his elbow into her side, and maintained a tight grip on him.

  Leo felt like an invalid.

  “I’m the one who’s sorry, Leo. I didn’t even think…I mean, it must be really hard to manage a snowy hill. We can go back.”

  “Hell, no.”

  “So it’s okay if I…”

  He turned to her. He let his gaze fall to where she held onto him. “If it’s okay with you.”

  Tess smiled. This girl with the curly hair and fogged- up glasses had the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. Damn. Leo never let a woman see his weakness like this. Why was it all right with Tess?

  She glanced down at their boots making slow progress in the snow. “What are you working with? Titanium? Carbon fiber?”

  “Yep, and a computerized knee with Blue Tooth connectivity.”

  “Seriously?”

  Leo nodded. “They’ve come a long way in the last few years.”

  She raised her eyes to him, and he saw a rush of sadness in her face. He didn’t want her to be sad. He didn’t want her to feel sorry for him. Anything but that.

  “Leo?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m really glad you lived.”

  He tugged her closer to him. “You and me both, Tess.”

  * * *

  She was beautiful, even in the darkness. The old Victorian gas street lamps around Fountain Square lit the mermaid in a diffuse golden glow. She was taller than Tess expected, and far more impressive than she’d appeared on film.

  Tess’s eyes rose up, up, to the tip of her head. She stared out to sea, her body turned with grace, her profile serene.

  “Oh!” Suddenly, she snapped out of it, realizing she still clutched onto Leo’s arm. They’d stopped walking several minutes ago, yet there she was, still clutching him as if he were an unruly toddler. She let go.

  Tess glanced up at him, a little embarrassed. “Hope I didn’t cut off your circulation.”

  He smiled. God, he was hot. No…more than hot. Leo was beautiful, interesting, funny, and deep. And she’d have to say that Leo was unusually real. When Tess looked into his eyes, she knew that the man she saw was the man he was.

  How strange. She’d never felt that way about Jake. She’d spent a lot of years wondering what he wasn’t telling her, what else might be lurking behind the pretty exterior, and why, of all the women he could have had, he’d chosen her.

  She’d wasted so much time…

  Tess turned away. She didn’t want Leo to see that she’d just had an epiphany, that she could now name one of the things she would have to get over.

  She was angry with herself. Furious.

  “Here comes the sun,” Leo whispered. “The first sliver of light.”

  Tess turned east, toward a horizon line hinting of yellow and red. She and Leo stood next to one another. They watched th
e light intensify and spread. They witnessed the instant the sun peeked over the water line and a pink flush infused the morning clouds.

  “Look, Tess.”

  Leo touched her back to get her attention, and she felt the warmth spread through her coat and sweater, all the way down to her bones. His touch had energy in it, and a healing comfort. She wanted more. Tess turned to where Leo pointed.

  The mermaid had come alive in the dawn light. Each snow crystal on her bronze skin was now a tiny sun, catching and releasing the light a hundred times over. She sparkled.

  The icicles dangling from the lampposts were suddenly iridescent. The evergreen branches, heavy with snow, glittered.

  “It’s like a dream world,” she whispered.

  “A crystal fairy land.”

  “Beautiful…”

  They were quiet for a moment, feeling the sunlight touch their faces. Then Leo said, “Diamonds, Tess. Diamonds everywhere you look.”

  She went rigid. Rage tightened her face and her heart hammered in he ribs. She was suddenly, inexplicably pissed off.

  “Really, Leo? Diamonds?” She turned on him, a sob stuck in her throat. “Did you have to say diamonds? Couldn’t you have found some other word?”

  Both his dark brows rose high on his forehead. He studied her like she was a nut case. Maybe she was.

  “Even the frickin’ mermaid gets diamonds?”

  “Tess…”

  This was not what she wanted to do. This was not how she wanted to melt down. Not here. Not in front of the sparkling mermaid and the beautiful sunrise. Not in front of Leo.

  But it was too late. There was nothing she could do. Tess felt herself collapse. She folded. Her heart was too heavy to hold up anymore. She was too weak to keep it together another second.

  Leo caught her. She fell against his solid body, into his safe embrace. Tess had no way of knowing if he was speaking to her, because she’d suddenly gone deaf, swimming in her own pain. She couldn’t breathe. The air was stuck in her lungs. She was locked up, frozen. And it hurt…it hurt so much.

  She cried. The sounds that broke the silence were horrifying, even to her own ears, like a poor animal stuck in a trap. Tess just kept crying and crying.