A Christmas Affair: A Seaside Cove Romance (Seaside Cove Romance Series Book 1) (7 page)

Jack drummed his fingers on the counter as he watched Jeremy drink with his friends. He had come in alone earlier, obviously pissed off and looking to get drunk. Some of his buddies trickled in over the hours to drink with him. Jack wished there was a way to keep the rich assholes out of his bar. They had their own bars to drink in.

"Hey barkeep, get us another round will ya?" Jeremy shouted across the room. Jack nodded, saying nothing. Jeremy's group was rowdy, and as always it bothered the regulars, but Jack did not worry about any of them causing a fight. After all, these assholes parents signed most of the paychecks for Jack's patrons.

Jack stood with an empty pitcher below the tap, wondering if he should fill it or make them leave. He wanted to make them leave. He set the pitcher down and looked up at the obnoxious group.

"Just give them what they want," Eli said. He got into a lot of fights in his early days in town, and probably noticed the look of anger in Jack's eyes.
Eli was always good for cooling a situation down.
"Ten seconds of happiness ain't gonna be worth the trouble they cause if you cut them off or kick them out."

"Thanks Eli," Jack said as he allowed his friend's words to wash over him. He was right. Jack slid a beer towards Eli and then walked over to rambunctious men with the full pitcher.

"Bent over, head smashed in the carpet, she's going nowhere." Jeremy was in the middle of a demonstration that made Jack's blood boil. The man took out his wallet and handed a twenty to Jack. "Keep the change barkeep." He turned back to his friends and continued with his story. "She starts yelling "Ouch! Ouch! My earring is stuck in the carpet" so I say, "you mean I need to pound faster?"

His friends all started roaring with laughter and slapping their knees. Jack figured them all for a group of kiss asses. He forced himself to walk part way back to the counter, but found he could not keep quiet. He briefly made eye contact with Eli before turning around.

"You shouldn't talk about your girlfriend like that." Jack wished he could take it back the minute it came out of his mouth. Molly picked a guy like this, she must not care what is said about her in public. "What I mean is, gentlemen don't kiss and tell."

The group of men started laughing again, all except for Jeremy who took a step closer to Jack. Jack could smell the beer and liquor coming off his breath, and figured if Jeremy was drunk enough, he might be able to cut him off without causing a problem.

Of course, that only would have been if Jack had not opened his mouth a moment before.

Jeremy lowered his voice so only Jack could hear. "I might have a bigger house than you, a better car than you, and an infinite amount of money, but who said I'm a gentleman?" Jeremy snorted and turned around to his friends raising his voice so everyone could hear. "Besides, who said this was a story about my girlfriend? Although, slut that Molly is-"

Jack's vision turned red and Jeremy never finished his sentence. Jack grabbed Jeremy's shoulder swinging the drunk man around to face him, and punched him squarely in the jaw. Jack expected to feel a wave of relief fall over him, but he was not done.

"You asshole!" Jeremy cried and two of his friends jumped up from the table and flanked Jeremy's sides. Jack did not notice them though as he punched Jeremy again. Jeremy tried to deflect it, but his speed and strength were not anywhere near Jack's. Jeremy raised his own fist to strike at Jack, but Jack found himself laughing as he ducked, and Jeremy almost fell over from loss of balance.

The laugh reduced the redness in his vision, and Jack could see Eli on the ground wrestling one of Jeremy's friends. Jeremy's other friend was sitting back down at the booth, his eyes on his beer. Jack threw Jeremy in a chokehold, and felt satisfied as Jeremy struggled to breathe. Jack barely noticed as a burst of icy air hit the room when the door opened.

"What the fuck?" Brian yelled as he ran into the bar, and Jack felt hands on his shoulder. "Someone help me get these idiots separated!"

More hands were on the men, pulling them apart at the policeman's order. Jack was sure they were probably grateful to have the law on their side instead of only their own convictions. The men were pulled to different corners of the room, and Brian walked back and forth as a mediator. By time Brian was done, he convinced Jeremy not to press charges on account of the holiday, and Jack was out two hundred dollars to buy a new shirt to replace the one ruined by Jeremy's nosebleed.

"What the hell got into you?" Brian asked a few minutes after Jeremy and his friends pulled off in a cab. "You should know better than to be starting fights with those guys. You're just asking for more trouble."

"He deserved it," Jack said touching the bandage over his fist. Jack's skin had broken when it made contact with Jeremy's teeth. "Ask Eli."

"Yeah, he deserved something alright," Eli said, still holding an ice pack to the side of his head. "He deserved a better beating than that for all the years of hell he's raised."

"Deserved or not, you can't just go around punching people," Brian said. He lifted a box onto the counter. "You're lucky I was coming to drop these off."

"What the hell is this?" Jack lifted the top of the box and cringed at the sight of Christmas lights rolled up in the bottom.

"From Molly, she said she had extra," Brian said, then he whistled. "Oh, I understand now. Jeremy and Molly."

"What? Nope, didn't even connect the two," Jack said wishing Brian would shut up. "Jeremy was asking for a knockout for many reasons."

"Okay, cause from what Rachel tells me, the two got into quite the fight themselves tonight," Brian said smiling.

"Drop it Brian, unless you want to start paying for your samples," Jack growled. Brian laughed, but did not bring the subject up again that evening.

The rest of the night passed by fast, more customers than usual were in. Some had heard about the fight with Jeremy, and others were just escaping a house full of relatives. Jack deflected questions about the fight, but accepted larger than normal tips for knocking Jeremy out. When no one was looking, he dropped the tips into the Old Farm Dog Rescue collection box.

He did not open the Christmas light box again until the bar was empty and cleaned top to bottom. He figured if he was going to get his permit, there was no reason why he could not hang a few lights. Maybe it would bring a few more customers over to his bar.

He felt the adrenaline of the evening coursing through his body as he pulled a glove over his bandaged hand. A myriad of emotions flashed over him as he thought of Jeremy, Molly, Christmas, and the damn Dickens Village.

Main Street was quiet, almost haunted in the silence at three in the morning. The only sound was the crunching of his boots on the snow as he lost himself in reliving the day in his head. Bit by bit he strung the lights around his front window and doorway.

Headlights spilled down the road, and Jack turned to see who was driving by at this late hour. When the car got closer, he realized it was Molly's car, and he kept an eye on her face while she was careful not to look at him. Her car was out of view in a moment as she pulled around the back of her building.

He turned back to the lights and worked at stringing them. Jack had been thinking about her all evening, ever since he found her with Jeremy in the storeroom. Lies.
You've been thinking about her all damn day.
She looked angry and beautiful all at the same time when he found them. How a woman could do that, he'd never know. His heartbeat quickened as he heard the snow crunching.

"Nice lights," Molly said. Jack did not turn around.

"Thanks, almost done hanging them all up," he said, fingers holding the last part of the strand in place as he opened another piece of the sticky Christmas light hanging goo.

"Just one question though," she said, her voice quiet but playful.

"Mmm?" Jack held the piece of goo paper he had just torn off in between his teeth.

"Where is the outlet?"

"Down there," he muttered around the paper.

"So why do you have the plug way up there?" she walked over to him and pointed where the light plug was, a good ten feet away from the outlet.

"Fuck." Jack let the paper flutter out of his mouth onto the ground. "I have to do this whole thing over again don't I?"

Molly laughed and Jack's heart leapt at the sound.

"I have a long extension cord that matches the color of the strand. You'll have to help me dig it out of my storage closet though." She titled her head, and smiled slightly. "I probably should have just stuck it in the box earlier, huh?"

"I should be good at this," Jack said shaking his head.

"Why? I have a feeling it's your first time hanging Christmas lights." Molly's delicate ungloved fingers traced the outline of the strands of lights.

"Yeah, true, but it's not the first time I've had to plug something into an outlet. I mean, that should be the most basic of all basic man knowledge, right?" Jack gave her his best lopsided grin, the one she confessed in high school she loved.
What are you doing? She's taken, and even if she wasn't, there is no chance for us.
But when Molly smiled, Jack felt like he was hungry only for her.

"Come on.” Molly walked toward her shop and as Jack followed closely behind her, he could smell the light scent of her shampoo. She smelled like lavender. 

"You're up late," he said, searching for conversation as he watched her long dark hair swish side to side with each step.

"Yeah, I drove out to the shore to watch it snow over the ocean." She unlocked the door and stepped inside. She stomped her boots at the front door, and he did the same thing. "I try to never miss it when it happens. Even when it is storming in town, it doesn't seem to be always snowing over the water."

"I've never done that." He watched as Molly flipped on a few of the light switches.

"You've never seen it snow on the ocean? But your dad was a fisherman," she said pausing as she pulled an electric tea kettle onto the desk. "Do you want some tea? I am pretty much addicted."

"Uh sure," he said as she pulled out two mugs and a box of tea bags. "I mean, I've seen it snowing on the ocean, but I've never driven out there just to watch it. I'd rather sit inside by a fire when it's snowing than sit outside in it."

"I don't sit outside, I sit in my car," she said giggling. "I go there when I need peace and quiet. Time to think."

He heard the crack in her voice and he wanted to ask what she needed to think about. Did it have anything to do with Jeremy's anger when he arrived at the bar this evening. For the first time Jack wondered if Jeremy had called Molly to tell her about the fight at the bar. What would he say to her?

The silence stretched on as Molly fidgeted with the stereo. Finally, Jack spoke. "What did you need to think about?"

Quiet Christmas music filled the store. "I've been feeling, different lately." She looked into his eyes and leaned forward, her elbows on the counter.

"What do you mean, different?"

"I don't know, I guess I've just been thinking about a lot of stuff lately, you know?" She rested her chin in her palm and relaxed her eyes. The blue was barely visible through her silted eyelids. "Everything, this town, my store, the Boughmans... us."

"Us?" Jack raised his eyebrows. Had she been thinking about him as much as he had been thinking about her?

"Back in high school, the prom." Molly shuddered slightly. Jack felt like she had struck him. Maybe she had not been thinking about him the same way he had been thinking about her. She was thinking people never changed, and she was probably still scared of him. And now after he struck Jeremy, it just gave her all the more reason not to trust him.

"I should get that cord," Jack said his shoulders stiffening. The light tone he had earlier was gone, replaced by a steely edged one. He wanted to be alone, back in his bar, nowhere near Molly.

He thought Molly looked sad, like he hurt her. It was like living those moments all over again. "Jack, can we talk about it, please?"

"I've spent a lot of time putting that part of my life in the past," Jack said shaking his head. Molly reached out to touch his arm, and he pulled back. "Like you said earlier, we've all changed since High School."

Jack saw the tears prick in Molly's eyes, and he hated that he was the one who caused that much pain for her. That much pain for Izzie. Moments he could never take back. The kettle began to whistle and Molly filled their mugs with the steaming water. "Let’s go look in the storage closet while these cool down a little."

She began to walk towards the back room and Jack followed careful not to walk close enough to smell her shampoo again. It was easier to do inside with all the Christmas scents than it had been outside. They were in the storeroom together for the second time that day, and Jack's mind could not help but to drift to walking in on her and Jeremy earlier. His presence seemed to fill the room even though he was gone. Jack felt his blood start to boil again.

He looked down to his bandaged fist and decided after all this time, he would ask. "What do you see in Jeremy?"

She threw open the closet doors and revealed piles of dusty boxes. "I'm going to pretend like you didn't ask me a question that is absolutely none of your business."