Pretty In Pink (3 page)

“Clarice was giving me a makeover is
all,” he said. “What kind of noises?”

He stood up straighter and Kimber
could truly see the bulk of him. The yummy, trim, fit bulk. He scooped up the
girl when she moved to him and Kimber felt something in her warm to him even
more. “Like a groan.”

“And a scream!” Sarah cut in.

“A groan mixed with a scream,” Sarah
said.

“A human scream?” Charlie looked calm
but concerned as he shifted his niece to the other hip.

“Not human. More like…house noises
mixed with um…”

“Monsters!” Sarah laughed, but she
didn’t look like it was so funny all the sudden.

“Oh, no, not monsters,” Clarice
breathed.

“I’m sure it’s not monsters,” Charlie
said to Clarice. He patted her head. “Well, if you let me get dressed, I’ll
come check it out.”

“You really…I mean, you clearly have
something…”

“My uncle is very brave. He’s a police
occifer.”

“I know. I’ve seen him in his
uniform,” Kimber said and smiled.

“And she liked it,” Sarah whispered
and laughed.

Kimber blushed, but at least she saw
that she wasn’t the only one. It seemed Charlie Brewster was blushing too.

Chapter 2

“I was in a blue mood,” Clarice said
again.

“But the robe was totally pink. To
match the bird,” Sarah said, examining Charlie's knick knacks even thought
Kimber kept waving her to sit down and behave.

“That robe is my mom’s. It was in
there by accident from when we stayed with Uncle Charlie when we moved here. We
used to live in another state, but now we're going to live here in this state.
I thought it looked pretty with his hair.”

“It sure did,” Kimber said, laughing.
This kid was too cute.

“So does your uncle have anyone special
up here?” Sarah asked, poking through the pictures on the mantle.

“We’re all special,” Clarice said,
frowning.

“Of course you are.” Kimber gave Sarah
the old axe motion when the child wasn’t looking.

“I mean a special friend. A
special…um…
very special
kind of person. Someone he really likes. You know.
Like, really,” Sarah said.

Kimber willed the floor to open up and
swallow her. This was all mortifying enough without Sarah playing the nosy
buttinsky version of Nancy Drew with a small child.

Clarice looked up and smiled. “Uncle
Charlie likes everyone. Boys, girls…” she shrugged.

Sarah’s eyes flew wide, but Kimber
nodded. When Clarice looked out the window she mouthed “bi.” to her friend.
Sarah rolled her eyes and returned to examining the photos. She held up a
picture of him with a woman. Then a man. But really, what the hell did that
mean? That he had people in his life. Whoopdee doo! Sarah would just have to
learn to defer to Kimber’s perfected gaydar.

“You did a lovely job on his makeup,” Kimber
said and Clarice beamed.

“Did you know it’s snowing?” The girl
clapped her hands. “Here’s hoping for no school tomorrow!”

“You don’t like school?” Sarah asked.
She was a part-time teacher's assistant for Pre-K and Kindgarten for one of the
local schools. At least until hey got their business up and running.

“I love it, but I love snow more!”
Clarice said.

Kimber nodded. “You have a point. I
work in a daycare center and Sarah works for the school up the street. Pine
Perry Elementary.”

“Oh, I don’t go there. I go to Seven
Spruces. But if Uncle Charlie would let me live here, I could go to school with
you!” she pointed to Sarah.

“Only for a bit. We’re starting a
business for moms around here.”

“Neat.”

“Very neat,” said a much deeper voice.
He came in the room and okay, so Kimber had to admit it, she felt her pulse
jackrabbit and some of her naughtier spots reacted a bit warmly and wetly to
Charlie Brewster without his fancy makeup and decked out in a tee and faded
jeans.

“What?” she breathed.

Sarah snorted and even Clarice
laughed. Charlie beamed. My god, did he have any clue how good looking he was?

“It’s very neat that you' re starting
a business. You two come and go and always look so…what’s the word?”

Kimber tried to keep her eyes pinned
to his big, green eyes instead of his tight ass and muscular legs. Or the way
his jeans kissed all the right places on his body to make her feel girlish and
flushed. Kimber shook her head. “I have no idea. What is the word?”

“Intent. Determined. Capable.” He
smiled and that smile made her nipples hard.

Thank god for thick sweaters.

“We are
so
capable,” Kimber
said, “that we’re here to beg you to help us.” Her voice was too high and too
thin, sort of like she’d been sucking Helium.

Charlie frowned and scooped Clarice up
when she tugged his arm. He settled her with ease on his hip with such casual
grace that Kimber felt the fleeting urge to lean in and kiss him. So, maybe,
just maybe, she could hope for bi. She wouldn’t mind a…no!
NO, no, no.
She wanted a long term man who wanted her and only her or nothing at all.

Right?

“What’s up? Is there a problem?”

“I know you’re a police officer, I’ve
seen you in uniform—”

“And might we say, Yum!” Sarah
interjected.

“Shush.” Kimber waved a hand at her
and Clarice giggled again behind her pudgy little hand. “And we have an odd
noise in my house and we cannot figure out what it is and it’s sort of scary.
But, you have Clarice here and that would be wrong and—”

“What’s it sound like?” Clarice asked,
and Charlie grinned at her, obviously pleased at her urge to investigate.

“A moan and a …well, a screech…and
sort of…” Why was it so hard to succinctly describe a sound that had driven her
from her home on a cold December night to ask this man for help?

“It sounded like a Hellhound with a
thorn in its paw,” Sarah blurted. Then, “Sorry.”

“Sorry?” Charlie asked, grinning.

“Yeah,” she whispered as if Clarice
wouldn’t hear. “I said ‘hell.’”

“I’ve heard worse,” Clarice whispered,
and Kimber had to bite back a grin. The child was so sharp it was unreal. “I’ve
even heard Uncle Charlie say ‘damn’.”

“Clarice!” he said, but Kimber could
tell he was losing the war with his own smile.

“It is in the Bible, Uncle Charlie.”

“So it is. Put your boots and coat on.
We’re going next door.”

“But we—” Kimber started to protest.

Charlie held up his hand and winked at
her. He set Clarice on the floor and she ran off to gear up. “I think I know
what it is. Trust me. I would never in a million years put that little girl in
the way of any danger.”

“Who’s this?” Sarah asked, waving a
silver frame of a gorgeous man standing and posing for the camera with Charlie.

Charlie frowned for a single beat. “My
partner,” he said, pulling on his own boots. Rugged, brown, beat to hell boots.
There was something about a man who wore his work boots to shreds that turned
Kimber on. At this point she found herself, really, really,
really
hoping for bisexual. She had never rooted for anyone to be bisexual before.

“But I’ve seen the person with you in
your cruis…” she let her voice peter out. Boy, way to sound uninterested. Her
face burned hot and bright red, she could tell from the feel of it.

“They're not together anymore,”
Clarice said from the doorway. She wore a bright orange coat and purple boots.
Kimber thought she looked adorable and fun.

“I apologize,” Sarah said.

“It’s fine. He moved on. I moved on.
Everyone moved on.”

Sarah’s hands went for the other frame
showing Charlie and a stunning blonde woman. Kimber swiftly grabbed his arm and
took Clarice’s hand. “Let’s go. Thank you so much for seeing about this. Are
you sure it’s not a problem?”

“None at all,” he said and she saw his
eyes slide down the slope of her neck. His gazed roamed her for a second and
Kimber found herself holding her breath. Would she pass muster? Was he
interested? Were they even right about him? She’d never been more confused
about a man, and that was saying something.

“Let’s go slay us a Hellhound!”
Clarice yelled and swung Kimber’s hand high, pulling her eyes down and away
from Charlie.

"Clarice," Charlie said.

"Late night TV. Inappropriate."

Everyone laughed and Kimber noted,
gratefully, that Sarah put the damn picture frame down and followed.

* * * *

“Adam told me about the most god awful
noise one winter when he lived here,” Charlie said, climbing the steps to her
top floor. Kimber tried really, really hard to keep her eyes on the ugly blue
runner that she wished to replace. But her wily eyes kept straying up and up
and up. Over firm calves and thighs clad in faded demin. Over back pockets and
back belt loops and what appeared to be the world’s most perfect ass sheathed
in Levi’s.

“Dear god,” she said under her breath.

“Pardon?” He stopped, pinning her with
a green gaze that reminded her of some tropical body of water or other.

“I said what did he tell you?”

“That it sounded like something out of
a horror movie,” Charlie said.

Clarice had asked for crayons and
Sarah had promptly provided some white butcher’s paper and some pens and
permanent markers for the girl. They were busy drawing Santa’s village while
Kimber followed Charlie through her house. The way he moved with previous
knowledge through her upstairs was somehow intimate.
Or maybe it’s just that
he’s so damn hot that makes it
seem
intimate. Him shaking your damn hand
would seem intimate…

“Well, that pretty much describes it,”
Kimber said and cleared her throat. Nerves had made her feel like she was
breathing through a swizzle stick. “It was horrible. I thought we were going to
trip over each other getting out of here,” she snorted and then promptly shook
her head. Classy.

“And good old Adam told me that it was
the damndest thing…” Charlie had taken a turn into her master bedroom and the
fact that he was standing two feet from her unmade bed, blond, hair mussed,
green eyes glowing in a soft desk lamp, made Kimber’s skin was burn with need.

“Which was what?”

Suddenly, Charlie stopped and she
slammed into hard bicep, shoulder, and, god help her, taut forearm. He turned
to steady her and she found herself breast to chest with the gay policeman who starred
in her pornographic mental images.

“That his rain gutter had frozen,”
Charlie said, hands still on her.

“Oh.” His fingers were big. And warm.
And the way he gripped her arms she could imagine him holding her like that
while he moved over her. Moved
in
her. Kimber blinked, feeling the world
spin just a bit. But that was silly. He was a safe guy. A nice guy. An off
limits guy.

“And the rain gutter
was…peeling…away…from…” He gasped, shook her a little and she yelped. He was
joking with her. Charlie laughed and finished. “The house! Let’s take a look.”

Her tongue grew dry and her panties dampened.
She wanted to smack him on the head and kiss him all at once. “Christ.”

“Hey, I was just messing with you.”
Charlie rubbed her back in a good natured way and Kimber heard herself sigh. It
was a definitive kind of sigh. A
man that feels good go lower
sigh.
Charlie froze and so did she.

Kimber swallowed hard. “Let’s see
about that gutter!”
And forget that my mind seems to be in one.

Together they wrestled her ancient
painted and repainted window up, though Kimber had no doubt that Charlie could
have done it himself. They leaned out nearly side by side, though his bulk
crowded her and stopped her pulse in her throat. Dear goodness, he was big.

“There it is,” he said, staring at her
gutter as the top part hung precariously from the side of her house.

“Yep, there it is.”  The long nails
used to hold it into the white siding were pulling free. The top of the gutter
was flush with shiny ice and as the wind whipped her hair around her face and
Charlie’s, Kimber saw the gutter sag a bit more with a
Whu-unnnnnh.
A
deep, mournful, spooky-ass sound.

“Is that your monster?” He turned to
her, the two of them smushed close in the old window.

“Yeah.” She nodded, staring at the
place where his pulse jumped in his throat. There was the smoky shadow of
stubble and a small nick where he’d shaved. “That’s it.”

She shivered from another chilled curl
of air and he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in. “Got a
hammer?”

Her mind went off
If I had a
hammer…
But then she caught on and a nervous whoop of laughter escaped her.
“Sure. Somewhere!”