Merry with a Lawman (Love Beach, Holiday Collection)

10. No More Blockades

TEN

NO MORE BLOCKADES

BELLE

It’s the last night of the Merry Festival of Lights, one of my favorite events of the year. I happen to love Christmas in our beach town. There’s usually just enough of a nip in the air to make it feel like winter, but I don’t have to deal with the snow. Occasionally, in the past, we’ve had a random year with an inch of snow, but more often than not, we’ve had warm enough weather, I wear a bikini Christmas Day.

Tonight, though, it is definitely chilly. I’m in leggings and boots, and, since I opted to enter the Christmas Sweater Contest, I’m ready to parade my design. In a green light sweater that I decorated with red bows and lights, if I put my arms certain way, one above my head, the other below my waist, the under parts of my sleeves have a wreath sewn on them, so my sweater resembles a lit up and decorated Christmas wreath. Gigi joined me in this, doing the same. Only her sweater is red.

Of course, she and I get press passes being part of the Love Beach Buzz. While I don’t directly work at the paper, I know at events like these—festivals, concerts, and sporting events—I can get in anytime with them. All I have to do is help Gigi take photos or help her write out bits of news from the event or post quick things on the Buzz’s social media page.

We laugh, cruising around the festival like old times, eating all the food, taking plenty of photos, visiting with people we know. It’s the hometown event I love most, and it endears this location to my heart more than ever.

Addie and Beau finally come into sight. She’s standing with her hand on her belly, looking all too uncomfortable with just a few months left until the baby is due. They’re talking with Jackson and Davis by the funnel cake stand. He looks as good as always in his police uniform. That must be a thing, getting hot and bothered by a man in uniform, because I definitely suffer from it.

I’m thankful tonight to be among my friends, as Richardson had some meeting to go to, so I knew I wouldn’t have to run into him. After finding out he knows the Senator, I’ve kind of backed off. I’m taking things slower than slow now, as I told Gigi after I shared what happened.

Of course, one glance from Davis and I’m back to square one. Fluttering insides, weak knees, shallow breathing. The man just does it for me. And unrequited love really hurts.

I should make an excuse and run the other direction, like over to the big tent where the preschoolers are about to sing their annual rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas, always an adorable thing to watch and a guaranteed photo in the Buzz. But I don’t. Because Davis gives me a broad smile as I approach, and those are so rare. I’m drawn to him like he’s my energy source.

“Hi,” he directs the greeting like it’s just for me.

“Hey.” The group is quiet, but I hardly notice, my eyes not once diverting from his.

Addie speaks up. “Honey, weren’t we going to get some cake? I think we should get some cake. Like right now.” She pulls Beau away, and he shrugs and waves at us.

“Yeah, uh Gigi, didn’t you say you needed help with a ladder? Something about wanting a shot of the festival from high above? I’d love to help you with that,” Jackson says, which is odd considering he usually balks at anything my sister needs help with, as if he’d rather argue with her than do the thing she’s asking.

“Yeppers. Thanks so much for offering, friend, ” she responds and off they go. Suspiciously leaving me behind with Davis.

“Uh, what just happened?” I ask and blink at our friends scurrying away.

“Truth? I got ambushed by them. Somehow, they know about us.” He scratches the back of his neck.

“What? Oh. Sorry. I told Gigi because she’s my sister and I tell her everything, but I thought she would guard that with her life.”

“It’s okay. I recently told Jackson, and I think things snowballed from there.” He sighs and glances out over my head, around us, until he finally lands back on me. “It’s fine. They wanted to give us some time alone. Because I asked them to. So, um, we could talk.”

Ah. I get it now. I nod, curious about what he has to say. “So talk.”

“Can we walk and talk? The preschoolers are about to start and I know how much you like to watch them. Hate for you to miss them.”

There’s that comfort zone with Davis I’ve never had with any other man. He just knows me. He gets me.

We start off slowly, taking our time. I nod at a couple we know from school days, now married with two little kids. One of them in a stroller, the other on his dad’s shoulders. I used to dream Davis and I would be at this festival someday, looking exactly like that with kids of our own.

“Bells, I want to apologize again. I didn’t know you were developing feelings for me. I feel like a dick. Like a big huge dick who took advantage of you?—”

“You didn’t. I wanted to be with you. Every single time.”

“But you should have told me long ago you were, um, falling.”

“What difference would it have made? Would you suddenly have changed and decided you were falling, too? Or would that just have broken us up earlier?”

“I don’t know.”

“Either way, I couldn’t risk losing you. I wasn’t ready to, Davis.”

“And, now? You’re dating someone new, Bells. I guess that means you’re ready.”

“It’s complicated.” I shrug.

“I just… I want…” He turns into me at the entryway to the big tent, stopping so abruptly, I run into him. He catches me by the arms to steady me. The moonlight beams down into my face as I peer up at him, and I don’t know…something magical happens.

It’s like Davis gazes upon me with fresh eyes, seeing me for the first time. That longing look I’ve caught him giving me so briefly at times, stays on his face, and he doesn’t shy away. We’re so caught up in each other, our breaths mingling, so close, we hardly notice the concert has begun until a woman asks us to please take our seats and stop blocking half of the entrance.

“Oh, right,” I giggle, breaking away with a nervous response because I need to figure out what’s happening here. Did he get hit on the head again? Or some elf arrived in Love Beach and sprinkled him with a love potion? Or our friends—the way they left us alone—they’re working some kind of Christmas magic here. Whatever it is, I’ll take it. I think.

We find seats at the back, and they are set close together. Our knees and thighs touch. His arm rests behind my back, and I don’t know if he realizes it, but he’s tracing tiny patterns on my shoulder with his fingertips.

The tingles from that one touch could wet my panties, flood them, if I let it. Nothing Richardson could do would produce this kind of response in me. Only Davis.

So I focus on the children, instead, laughing at all their cuteness. Dressed in festive sweaters in all the colors of red and green and gold, with reindeer antlers on their heads, I note the proud faces of parents in the audience.

I’ve never dared ask Davis if he could see himself wanting children, because he never wanted to speak of any kind of commitment. But I like the way he’s all smiles during the concert. Addie has no worries, believing he’ll make a great uncle to her children, and I know he will.

He’s not his father. I’ve been around them in the past enough to know that there’s a vast different between them. Davis can be a hard ass at work, sure, as a cop since he has to be to deal with criminals, but he also has a pleasant demeanor dealing with people in town.

I know many in the community like him and hope he can grow into a position of leadership on the force here one day. And kids? Out and about, I’ve seen how they love to ask him about being a police officer and how he enjoys answering their cute little questions.

I have no doubt he’ll be fine. He’ll make a woman happy one day. A lump forms in my throat, nearly choking me, like I’m dying to be that woman.

The concert ends, but we remain seated. He doesn’t move, so I shift my head to say something, but he’s trained on me, just like before, like he has so much to say and no idea how to begin.

“The parade is starting, Mommy,” a little girl shouts, passing by.

That snaps him out of it, finally speaking. “Can’t miss the parade. Let’s go, Bells.”

He leads me out of the tent, and a minute later we’re down at the shore, but he doesn’t stop there. We go up on the pier, where the police have it blocked off, requiring all residents to take in the parade from the beach. I suppose there’s some safety strategy behind that, but I don’t ask as they allow us by the blockade and we walk down the length of it just as the first boat passes by.

Every third light on the pier has turned off, making it nicer to enjoy the lights on the boats. Romantic even. But the wind howls harder up here, too, chilling me. I rub my arms and chuckle to myself about the myth of the Love Beach Pier. A silly thing someone probably made up long ago. That when lovers kiss at the end of the pier for the very first time, it’s supposed to bring them good luck.

Davis and I have never kissed on the lips. Ever. If we had, it might have opened up a whole new level of emotional ties between us he couldn’t handle, and I never pushed. I never wanted to do anything that would give him a reason to leave me.

I never had to. He had enough of his own baggage to push me away.