Jingle Bell Rock (20 page)

Michael didn’t release her hand, but pulled her to the front desk. The very proper matronly manager, Mrs. Bloom, glanced at them with a disapproving lift of a single eyebrow and a chillingly delivered, “May I help you?”

“We need a room,” Michael said, ignoring her pursed lips. “Preferably on the fourth floor.” He looked down at Laura and smiled.

Mrs. Bloom was obviously hesitant. The Original Heartbreak Hotel might not be the nicest place in Memphis, but it hadn’t yet degenerated to the point where they would rent rooms by the hour to a couple with no luggage.

Laura called up her most dignified smile. “It’s getting so crowded in our little room, we decided it would be best just to get another room and... spread out a bit.”

The manager’s eyes widened slightly. “Ms. Marlow? I didn’t recognize you without the little one in tow.” Her attitude changed, though she did glance suspiciously at Michael. “We have a room available just two doors down from yours, and then there’s the Blue Hawaii Suite on that floor, which just became available this afternoon.”

Michael didn’t even hesitate. “We’ll take the suite.”

A beaming Mrs. Bloom handed Michael, who had evidently just risen in her estimation, a key. “Harold can show you to your room.”

Michael draped an arm over Laura’s shoulder and headed for the elevators. “No, thanks. I think we can find our way.”

The manager started to protest, something about a video and a tour of the suite, and Harold stepped forward.

Michael didn’t even slow down. The elevator doors closed on Harold, a confused bellboy in an ill-fitting uniform. The poor guy wasn’t quite sure if he should tag along or not. Laura had a feeling Michael would have escorted Harold from the elevator if he’d tried to join them.

When the doors were closed Michael took Laura in his arms and kissed her, holding tight and kissing her as if it were the first time, or the last, as if they’d never get this chance again.

There was nothing quite so wonderful, she decided as the elevator moved smoothly upward, as a long, slow, deep kiss.

The doors opened on their floor, but they didn’t know it until another couple stepped on to take the elevator down. If the man hadn’t bumped into Michael as he reached for the lobby button, they might have made the trip down and back up again. Which wouldn’t have been, Laura decided as Michael grabbed her hand and pulled her from the elevator just before the doors closed, such a bad thing. A kiss like that shouldn’t be rushed.

The Blue Hawaii Suite was a testament to bad taste and, of course, to the fiftieth state. In the front room there were plastic and silk tropical plants, a distressing Polynesian mask hanging on one wall, a pair of hula-dancer lamps complete with fringe shades bracketing a brightly colorful floral sofa, and—of course—Elvis on velvet. In this particular rendering he was wearing a Hawaiian print shirt and standing before a singularly vivid blue wave.

On the far wall there was a mural, so that a hotel guest might squint and pretend it was a wide window overlooking the surf and a towering volcano, and there in the corner was a working waterfall, with gently rushing water over smooth rock that emptied into a small pool.

The bedroom was no better, but once they were through those doors she didn’t have time to take inventory. There was a king-size bed covered in a tropical-inspired spread of orange and red and turquoise and draped with what appeared to be mosquito netting—and that was as far as she got in her inspection.

“I love the rain,” Michael whispered as he pushed her wet coat off her shoulders. Raindrops pattered against the windows, the sound seeming to buffer the two of them from the outside world, isolating them. He reached behind her to lower the zipper of her gray dress, and she stepped out of her shoes as he pushed the dress off her shoulders.

“Me, too,” she said, standing on her toes to kiss him again, molding her lips to his. Surely she would never get enough of this, of the taste and the feel of Michael. “Do you remember,” she said breathlessly as she unbuttoned his shirt, “that night?”

“After the concert.”

“Yes,” she said, stripping off his shirt for him.

“We got caught walking in the rain,” he said, unfastening her bra and tossing it to the floor, where it landed on top of his shirt. He touched her breasts tenderly, tracing the soft globes and brushing his thumb over one hard nipple. “And we ended up at my apartment at two in the morning, soaking wet and laughing and... and undressing each other just like this,” he said as he slipped his fingers into the waistband of her panties.

“So excited,” she added as she unsnapped the top snap of his jeans, “that we didn’t even make it to the bed, much less think of...”

“Protection,” he finished as they fell to the bed. “I still think about that night. Dream about it, close my eyes and hear the way you laughed. I wake up with your scent in my nose and the feel of you on my hands as if I’d just touched you, but it never lasts.”

“We made Megan that night,” she said, the words coming so easily, so naturally after all her inept rehearsals.

He was very still for a moment, and then he kissed her neck, feathering kisses first and then sucking gently. When he lifted his head from her neck he whispered with a smile, “I know.” She could see the twinkle in his eyes, and at that moment she wondered why she’d ever worried about his reaction to the news.

“When did you figure it out?” She slipped her fingers into the waistband of his jeans and waited for her answer.

“Last night.” His smile faded, and he lowered his head to kiss her thoroughly. There was nothing gentle about this kiss, nothing tender. It was pure heat, demanding hunger, a mating of their mouths that promised more.

There was a definite reluctance as he took his mouth from hers to speak again. “I looked at her and saw my eyes, and then I looked at her again and saw us.”

They came together with a passion reminiscent of that rainy night five years ago, limbs entangled and bodies searching, touching, reaching. But there was something better now, something more. No doubts remained between them, and this time... this time Laura believed with all her heart that no matter what, they belonged together—now and always.

As Michael stroked her body with his, as he kissed her again and again, Laura heard the muffled strains of an old radio somewhere playing “Always On My Mind.” It came to her softly, and yet it was very clear—muffled, and still so close she could hear every word distinctly. And then she was so lost in the way Michael loved her she didn’t hear anything at all but his whispered “I love you.”

Chapter Eight

After a short phone call it was decided that it would be best for Elaine to come to Memphis for Jennifer, rather than Laura driving her niece to Grandma’s house. Facing her mother tomorrow, on Christmas Day, would be soon enough for Laura. More than soon enough. And Elaine wouldn’t wait another day to have her eldest daughter with her. It was, after all, Christmas Eve.

Michael had left the hotel early, after suggesting that she and the girls move into the Blue Hawaii Suite. It hadn’t taken them long to throw their things into suitcases and trudge down the hall.

Megan was delighted with the bigger rooms, with the hula lamps and the waterfall, and most especially with the Elvis on velvet, which she declared a better likeness than the one in the old room. Laura didn’t argue with her. Not today.

Elaine came by to collect Jennifer well before noon. Jennifer was not happy to leave when they’d just moved into the very cool Blue Hawaii Suite, but she knew better than to argue with her mother for very long. Elaine had always been very big on family and holidays. As they left, Jennifer with her small suitcase in hand and Elaine leading the way, Laura stopped her sister with a stilling hand.

“Tell Mom,” Laura said softly, “that I’ll be there tomorrow in time for dinner. And tell her...” She swallowed hard. This was not going to be easy. ‘‘Tell her if I’m lucky and I don’t mess things up in the next twenty-four hours, I’ll have Michael with me, and she’d damn well better welcome him with open arms if she wants Megan and me to be there.”

Elaine bit one side of her lower lip, and then sent Jennifer to the end of the hall to get the elevator. When Jennifer was out of hearing range, Elaine leaned in close. “That won’t be easy.”

“I know she doesn’t like Michael, and she never forgave him for... for Megan, but this is my life, and she can’t make my decisions for me.”

Elaine leaned against the wall. “She knows why you came to Memphis, you know. Last night she told me she was terrified you’d fall back in love with ‘that piano player’ and he’d break your heart again.”

“It’s my heart,” Laura insisted.

Elaine smiled gently. “You have a daughter now. Wouldn’t you do anything, including murder, to protect her heart, body, and soul?”

Laura nodded. “Sure, but—”

“Then forgive Mom for what she told me last night.” Elaine hesitated before continuing, and Laura felt a cold chill shoot through her veins.

“Forgive her for what?”

Elaine’s smile faded, and Laura didn’t like the look that crept over her sister’s face. This was Elaine’s most serious,
I-hate-to-tell-you-this-but
face. “Michael came looking for you one night a few years back, the Christmas after Katie was born, to be exact. Mom told him you were happy and didn’t need him, and then he saw you with Katie and Wes and apparently assumed that they were both yours. Mom didn’t feel compelled to tell him any different, and she didn’t want to tell you that he’d come by because she was afraid you’d get involved and hurt all over again.”

Laura didn’t know whether she wanted more to cry or to punch a hole through the wall. Michael had come back for her, and her mother had sent him on his way and never seen fit to share that information. It would have made a difference, Laura knew. She would have found the nerve to face him years ago if she’d known he still cared.

“Elevator!” Jennifer yelled impatiently.

Elaine took off down the hall, glancing over her shoulder once. “See you tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Laura said, unable to move. “We’ll be there.”

No wonder it had taken Michael so long to realize that Megan was his daughter. Megan was a full year older than Katie, so he’d naturally assumed she was three years old, not four. He’d probably thought she’d found the stable, dependable man she’d been looking for and forgotten all about him. How could she ever forgive her mother?

The only reason she could even consider forgiveness was the one Elaine had offered. Megan had made her realize how far any mother would go to protect her child. When Megan hurt, Laura hurt; when Megan cried, Laura cried for her.

Maybe, in her own way, her mother had been trying to protect her. Laura had to take some responsibility for this. If she’d ever been brave enough to tell her mother the truth about the breakup with Michael, instead of resorting to tears and silence, that night three years ago might have turned out differently.

It was Christmas Eve, and Megan was so excited she literally couldn’t sit still. She played with her toys, climbed over the green and yellow and red flowered sofa, and closely examined the hula girl lamps again and again.

Laura found herself pacing, as anxious as Megan. An hour passed, and then another. Where was Michael? What if her mother was right after all, what if he was going to break her heart all over again?

No, she refused to believe that. She had faith in him, had faith in what they had. No matter what happened, they belonged together.

The knock on the door startled her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

She opened the door to face a Christmas tree decorated with white and gold satin ornaments and weaving precariously as the man who carried it swayed back under its weight. Beyond the branches, she saw Michael. His arms were full of packages big and small, and he was providing support, with one shoulder, for the bellhop who carried the tree.

Laura backed away from the door and let them in. Megan was delighted with the tree the weary bellhop placed by the window, and with the packages Michael placed beneath it. The bellhop seemed significantly cheered when Michael placed a hundred-dollar bill in his hand and wished him Merry Christmas.

“Sorry I was gone so long,” Michael said as Megan examined the packages beneath the tree, fingering the bows and looking for her name. She squealed when she found that several were designated for her.

“Do we have to wait for tomorrow?” she pleaded, throwing herself at Laura’s legs.

“It’s not Christmas yet,” Laura said as she brushed Megan’s bangs away from her face. “Tomorrow morning—”

“I can’t wait until tomorrow morning.” Laura had expected this statement from Megan, but it came from Michael. “My Aunt Dinah always let me open my gifts on Christmas Eve.”

“It’s Christmas Eve right now,” Megan said, jumping up and down before them.

Outnumbered, Laura relented, and Megan grabbed the largest package and began to unwrap it. Laura almost groaned when she saw what it was a small keyboard.

Michael leaned over and whispered in Laura’s ear, “I thought maybe I could give her lessons.”

Laura couldn’t help but smile. The other packages contained more conventional gifts for a little girl. There was a doll, and a stuffed giraffe, and another doll, and lastly a T-shirt with a picture of Elvis on the front and the back.

“Bring that little package to your mother,” Michael instructed when Megan had opened all her presents. She obeyed dutifully, and then threw herself into Michael’s lap.

“Thank you,” she said, and then she planted a kiss on Michael’s cheek. Before it could become a truly touching moment, she climbed down, unknowingly kneeing him in the crotch as she made her way.

“We’re going to have to have a talk.” Michael groaned as Megan made her way back to her presents, heading straight for the keyboard.

He turned to Laura with a smile and directed her to open her present. The box was tiny, square, and she knew what was in that box before she ever touched the gold wrapping.

She hadn’t, however, expected anything so dramatic. She thought she might find a small diamond to cement everything they’d talked about last night, or something unconventional like an emerald or a pearl. What she saw when she opened the box was a set of three rings—matching gold wedding bands and the biggest diamond she’d ever seen.