Blue Christmas (The Moody Blue Trilogy | Book One) (12 page)

“Of course it is, Marissa.” Frank said. “We’re always happy to have you.”

“Thanks, Frank. Well, we need to go back over to his mom and dad’s house
for a while. Though I have to admit, that houseful of cousins and munchkins
makes this place a sanctuary. Don’t be surprised if we show back up. But thanks
for letting us crash here.” Marissa gave Hannah a hug, Jason a longer one with
a kiss on the cheek, then turned to leave the room.

“You and Gevin be careful out on those roads, Marissa.”

“We will, Frank. See you guys later.”

Frank stood, pushed his chair back, and began clearing the table. “Oh,
and Jason, a word of advice, son. Keep the cook happy.” He deposited the dirty
dishes in the sink, then leaned over his son’s shoulder whispering, “Two words:
Tommy Joe.”

As his father left the room, Jason lifted his brows, searching Hannah’s
face. “Tommy Joe? Something I should know?”

She laughed. “I guess not. Let’s just say it’s on a ‘need-to-know’
basis.”

Alone with Jason for
the first time that morning, Hannah started rinsing some of the dishes. “I told
your mom you’d do the dishes for her. She was delighted.” Jason snapped her
with a dish towel. “Ouch? Well, good morning to you too!”

“Don’t be kissing
up to my mama, Hannah,” he chided.

She looked up at
him, surprised at the tone of his voice. For a second her heart stopped. Then
his face broke into his world-famous smile and she breathed again.

“You actually thought
I was serious?” he teased, stacking the dirty plates beside the sink. “
Now
who’s gullible?”

Silence.

“Hannah?”

She tried to
smile. “Yeah?”

“It was a joke.
You know it was.”

She detected a
sincere pleading in his eyes before turning her attention back to the dishes. “Jason,
look—the last couple of days have been . . . unbelievable. I
mean, I still don’t totally know what’s happening. How I got here, why I’m here
with you and your family. But you’ve got to look at all this from
my
point of view. Two days ago I was just a college student trying to make ends
meet working in a grocery store. Suddenly, I find myself in this make-believe
world . . . but I’m still
me
. And when you said that just
now about kissing up to your mom, I don’t know, it just felt like an insult.”

“But I didn’t mean
anything by it. Trust me on that.”

“I know, but I
also know how many girls and women out there probably
have
kissed up to
you and your family and the other guys over all these years.” She felt the
agitation brewing inside. “The thing is, I don’t
feel
like a groupie
anymore, Jason. I’m not a little kid anymore. And this feels like . . .
I mean, it seems like . . . only—”

“Only what?”

She paused,
leaning over to put a wet glass in the dishwasher. “Only I don’t know! How
could I possibly know what all this means? Where all this is going? It’s only
been two days, Jason.
Two days.
And I feel like my life has forever
changed. Like I’ll never be the same.”

He folded his arms
across his chest, leaning against the counter beside her. He stared at his
tennis shoes with absent eyes. “I know.”

She waited.
Nothing. “You know . . . ?”

He looked up at her.
“I know what you mean.”

His gaze
penetrated her soul. If she didn’t know better, thoughts were exchanged between
them in spite of the silence.

She looked back at
her soapy hands, blinking back tears she refused. “Why me, Jason? I’m a nobody.
I’m just a girl who used to be sitting up in the nosebleed section at your
concert a few years ago. Just one in a million. So why me? Why exactly am I
here?” She was embarrassed to hear the words tumbling out of her mouth. She looked
up and noticed a smile slowly warming his face.

His arms still
folded, he reached over to pinch the sleeve of her sweats. “Truth?”

“Truth,” she
whispered as her pulse began to slow.

He pulled her
toward him as she quickly wiped her hands on a hand towel. “First of all, don’t
ever—and I mean
ever
—refer to yourself as a nobody. Okay?”

She pressed her
lips together for a moment. “Okay.”

He wrapped his arm
around her waist. “And second—the truth is, I have no idea what’s going on.
Nothing like this has ever happened to me before.
So
many women, Hannah . . .
I’d be lying if I said it was otherwise. Everywhere we go. But I never get
involved with any of them. They just hang around. That’s it. I promise you, it
isn’t
anything
like the tabloids portray. At least not in my case. I’ve
gone out with a few—I told you that last night. The rest are just faces I don’t
even remember. I never took any of it seriously. Well, with the exception of
Jennifer, of course.

“But this—with you
dropping into my life like this . . . I don’t have a clue. It
was the last thing I expected to happen. But it has.” He tipped her chin with
his finger, their faces mere inches apart. “And I’ve gotta tell you, I like it.
A lot. It feels right. And trust me—you are anything but ‘a nobody.’ If I
wanted to get involved with a celebrity, I would. But I don’t. Not ever again.”
His eyebrows spiked high on his forehead.  A familiar expression she’d already learned
to love.

“Just lose the
‘kissing up’ comments, okay?” she whispered.

“Okay,” he mouthed
silently.

“So what are we going
to do today? Have you talked to Gevin yet?” She put the last dish in the
dishwasher and closed it.

Jason drew in a
deep breath. “No, I was going to, but I decided to blow it all off today. Until
we talk to the rest of the guys, I want to pretend it never came up. Call me
immature, call me in denial, but I just don’t want to think about it.”

“You didn’t sleep
last night, did you?”

“What gave it
away? The bags under my eyes? Did I just snore through our conversation here?
What?”

“Just a guess. But
if you didn’t sleep, maybe you should take me home and come back here for some
rest.”

“No way. That’s
the last thing I want to do. If I lie around all day, I’ll go nuts. Let’s go to
a movie this afternoon. Maybe we can sneak in without too much hassle. I’ll do
the sunglasses and hat routine. And there’s an Italian place here that I love.
They’re very discreet. I’ve got my own booth in the back. It’s like heaven for
me there. What d’ya say?”

“Works for me.
Think I should wear a hat and sunglasses too? I wouldn’t want anyone to
recognize me.”

His smile widened
across his face. “You learn quick. Now let’s get outta here.”

“Well, it was
worth a try!” Hannah screamed over the shrieks of the five adolescent girls
surrounding Jason. He shrugged, resigning himself to the outburst around him.
The young fans apparently spotted them as they left the theatre through a back
exit.

Just then, a rotund
redhead shot an elbow into Hannah’s side, shoving her aside to get closer to
her idol. “Jason! I love you! Sign my mitten! Please, please, please?!” The
screaming continued with an unbelievable barrage of requests and adoration.
Hannah stood aside, watching with amusement. Jason gave them his full
attention, signing their purses and coats and bare hands. No wonder they loved
him so much. Occasionally he came up for air and flashed her a smile.

Finally, he
pulled himself free and reached for Hannah’s hand, tugging her along as he took
off running for his Escalade. Two freckle-faced twins hung onto the hem of his
jacket, sliding across the icy pavement behind him.

“Don’t leave,
Jason!”

“Who’s the
girl?”

“Is that
Jennifer?”

“Don’t go!
Please don’t go!”

“Jason, come
back!”

“WE LOVE YOU,
JASON!”

They broke
free, making a daring dash for the SUV they’d hidden behind a dry cleaner’s
next door. They jumped in and Jason roared the engine, the Escalade spinning a
full 360 degree circle before stopping.

Hannah
screamed. “Ahhhh! Jason! Be careful!”

“Whoa! That was
GREAT!”

“What—the girls
or the wheelie?”

“Yeee-hawwww!
The wheelie, of course!”

“You know
you’re crazy, don’t you?” She tried to catch her breath, laughing in the
process.

“Is there any
other way to be?”

“But I have to
admit you were awesome with those kids. They adore you!”

“Yeah. Just
call me kiddy bait. Me and Barney the dinosaur, we’re right up there together
at the top of the list.”

“I’m just glad
you’re not fat and purple.” She rubbed her mittens together, squinting to see
out the window. “You sure you won’t get mobbed at this restaurant?”

“Not a chance.
Patty takes care of me. What are you hungry for? You like calzones?”

“Cheese only?”

“Is there any
other way?”

An hour later, calzone
crumbs dotted their plates, their glasses empty after two refills. Hannah had
to agree, the food was outstanding. And his personally-proclaimed private booth
in the back kept them secluded just as he’d said. They’d had no interruptions
except for Patty’s undivided attention. Jason wiped his mouth and sat back in
the booth. “I’m stuffed,” he moaned, rubbing his stomach. “I’ll have to run ten
miles to get this off my gut.”

“Pssst! Max! Come
back here!” A throaty whisper beckoned him from the kitchen.

“Max?” Hannah
mouthed.

He grinned.
“That’s Patty’s nickname for me. McKenzie. Max. Somehow she decided Max would
be her cover for me and it just stuck. C’mon.” He took her by the hand, leading
her through the swinging doors into the hot kitchen. The strong scent of
Italian spices filled the cramped room.

Patty hugged him
again, patting him on the back like a child. “I just love this guy! He’s like
one of my own. I could just eat him up!” She laughed, pinching both his cheeks.

“I-wuv-woo-hoo, Paee.”

Hannah laughed at
his pitiful attempt to talk.

“Sing for me!” Patty
wiped her hands on her apron as she stepped into her tiny office. “Pull up the
soap, Max.”

Jason grunted as
he tugged a twenty-gallon drum of institutional detergent to the center of the
room. Hannah found a pink vinyl chair in a corner and sat down. Patty emerged
from her tiny office with a beat-up guitar case, handing it to Jason. “Max here
gave me this years ago. It was his first guitar. I was hoping my Tony would
learn to play, but all he plays is video games. Such a waste! So I keep it here
for Max whenever he stops by. Go on, play me something sweet.” She hopped up to
sit on the counter, her legs swinging back and forth.

“Patty makes me
work for my food when I come here. Won’t take my money but always makes me
sing. How about some U2? You up for a little Bono tune
?
” He started
playing one of the group’s classic tunes.

“No, no, no!”
Patty groaned. “If I wanted Bono, I’d call Bono. I want Max.”

Jason threw his
head back laughing. “Oh, okay. U2, no Bono, huh? Then how about a little Rascal
Flatts? I do a mean version of
Bless the
Broken Road
.
He sang
the famous lyrics matching lead singer Gary Levox’s exact tone and style.

“Stop! Honestly,
Max—I’ll never feed you again. I mean it! Now sing to me.
Your
songs.
Don’t make me hurt you.” Patty forced a playful scowl.

His fingers
strummed the guitar. He stopped to tune a couple of strings, then strummed
again. The chords of the familiar song drifted around them making Hannah smile.
One of her favorite
Blue
love songs . . .

There simply
are no words

To tell you how
I feel,

There simply
isn’t time

To share what’s
in my heart . . .

Patty moved to the
music, at times closing her eyes and mouthing the words along with her Max.

A hundred songs
of love,

Or a thousand
years together

Could never be
enough.

So it all comes
down to this,

A quiet, simple
kiss

A quiet, simple
kiss.

She watched his
fingers flying along the neck of the old guitar, a more classical version than
the original recording. Hannah sang silently, drinking in the moment of this
private concert, blushing at the memory of those words on Christmas Eve. He
winked at her, a sly smile on his lips. He remembered too.

If only I could
play for you

The symphony
inside my soul

You’d hear the
secret melody

A lyric just
for you from me . . .

Patty and Hannah
joined the sweet chorus, harmonizing the parts they knew so well.

But a hundred
songs of love,

Or a thousand
years together

Could never be
enough.