Snow Angel (The Hope Falls Chronicles) (6 page)

Maybe she is using the breathing technique to hold back her laughter at my expense.

Then she continued calmly. “I’m twenty-six. So you don’t have to feel creepy.”

Eric wasn’t sure if he felt more relieved by A. the fact that he wasn’t an inadvertent pervert or B. the

fact that Lily was smiling, happy, and relaxed in an exchange they were having.

She was a beautiful girl, standing before him, and he had no idea what her story was, but he knew there

was a
definitely
a story there. He also knew he wanted to find out what it was. Never before in his life had he felt so inexplicably drawn to someone.

“Do you have more boxes to bring in?” he asked, hating the idea of her trying to struggle with the heavy

containers by herself.

Her eyes widened once again, and as he peered down at her, she looked less scared and just more…

wary. Hesitant. He waited, not pushing her for an answer but also not letting her off the hook to respond to him.

“I have four more boxes.” She bit the side of her lip, still apparently on the fence about whether or not

to accept his help. Then, scrunching her nose, almost as if the admission pained her, she conceded. “I

would actually…
really
…appreciate your help.”

Eric smiled as they headed out to the car. “Not big on accepting help, are you?”

“Is it that obvious?” She let out a little laugh as she popped the trunk.

“I would say glaringly so. Yes,” he teased as he reached in to retrieve the next box.

Lily shrugged as she headed back up to the house. “I’m working on it.”

“In this town, you will have a lot of opportunities for practice.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” She smiled as she turned back to him, and he was momentarily paralyzed. The sun

was setting, and the illumination on her hair, eyes, and skin created an almost ethereal glow around her. She looked like an angel. He was speechless.

A car honked behind him, breaking the spell she had cast on him. He turned and saw that it was Henry,

Hope Falls Mayor, driving by probably on his way to see Old Man Coyer at end of the cul-de-sac. Eric

nodded his head in recognition since his arms were full, unable to wave hello.

When he turned back, he saw that Lily had gone on inside. He decided he should take a moment to

compose himself. He didn’t want to make another misstep where she was concerned. He needed a game

plan. But in that brief moment, his body’s aches and pains beat out composure and a game plan and he

started moving.

This was crazy. Eric knew he shouldn’t need ‘a moment’ to get himself together. He shouldn’t need a

‘game plan’ to talk to a girl. He was a grown man, not some lovestruck, horny teen. He was the Chief of

Police. He really just needed to get a grip.

So yes, Lily was beautiful. And sure, Eric was attracted to her. And true, now she was his neighbor. He

could handle it.

What could possibly go wrong?

Chapter Five

“Thank you all for coming,” Karina said after hitting her fork against her glass to get everyone’s

attention. She stood at the head of her massive dining room table, holding court. “I know most of you flew

in only for the evening, and I appreciate it. I just wanted to get you all in a room so we could all meet

before starting pre-production.

“I am so lucky to be working with all of you on the Wonder of Escape winter tour. It’s not often in an

artist’s career that you are lucky enough to get all of your number one picks. Well, this time around I did.

You were all at the top of my list. My Dream Team, if you will. So thank you again for agreeing to be a part of my team. Cheers.”

Lily lifted her glass as everyone around the large table did the same and echoed, “Cheers.”

Lily felt like a fraud. Seated around her were people who were the cream of the crop talent in each of

their fields. Beside her sat Carlos Benson, the ‘it’ stylist for young Hollywood. In fact, he was actually

becoming more famous than half of his clients. Across from her was Ariana Jax, who was not only

stunningly gorgeous but also the most sought-after makeup artist in the industry. Her clientele read like a who’s who of entertainment. Then there was Miles Rayne to her left. He was a photographer and his last

shoot had been for the cover of Vogue.

Then at the opposite end of the table was Karina’s band, all celebrities in their own right. To say that

Lily felt out of her league was the understatement of the century. She had zero choreography experience. If someone saw her resume stacked up beside the people at this dinner, well… She was afraid it would be like

that Sesame Street song:

“Some of these things belong together,

Some of these things are kind of the same

But one of these things just doesn’t belong here...”

She smiled to herself as she let the ridiculousness of the situation in which she found herself sink in.

Originally when Karina had approached Lily to choreograph the tour, she had explained to her that this was

going to be low-key and not at all like her huge arena shows. The venues would be smaller, more intimate.

No big lighting displays or pyrotechnics.

Lily had honestly imagined things going something like this: she and Karina would quietly work in the

studio for a few months and then go on the tour, where she would be there for support and to make

adjustments when necessary. She had
not
imagined herself sitting in a Carlos Benson, Miles Rayne

sandwich while she stared across the table at Ariana Jax. Nope, this scenario had never entered her mind.

During dinner, Lily remained quiet. There were some pretty big, pretty interesting personalities to

observe, so she definitely wasn’t bored.

Still, no matter how entertaining her dinner companions were, Lily couldn’t seem to stop her mind from

drifting back to her new neighbor. The first thing that was on constant repeat in her mind’s eye was the

vision of
him
standing in her small living room in his uniform.

Even though Lily would willingly admit that she had always been a sucker for a guy in uniform, Eric

took the entire man-in-uniform thing to a whole new level of hot-hot-hotness. She had thought that, after her reactions to seeing him in a tux and then sweats had been so severe, nothing could possibly top them.

She had thought wrong.

The shirt he’d worn hugged his chest and arms in all the right spots. When Eric had picked up her box,

his biceps practically burst through the taut material. His pants somehow caused his legs to look even longer and stronger that they had in his sweats and tux. Eric was tall, probably around six foot four, but his

uniform seemed to add to his already impressive height.

And the crazy thing was that no matter what he was wearing, whether it was his uniform, a tux, or

sweats, it didn’t even scratch the surface of his greatest sex appeal attribute. In Lily’s humble opinion, Eric’s steel blue eyes, chestnut brown hair, chiseled jaw, and boyish grin were far more panty-melting than his

body. Which was saying something.

But it wasn’t just the visual he presented that had gotten Lily all worked up, making it difficult for her to think of little else over the last twenty-four hours. It was also just how capable and protective he seemed.

He had an effortless air of authority and control that was ridiculously steamin’-hot-sexy.

Lily had observed that she wasn’t the only one who was of the Eric-is-steamin’-hot-sexy mindset. That

waitress at Sue Ann’s Café had practically been throwing herself on the counter and offering her boobs up

as a dish for Eric. To Lily, that type of behavior came off as desperate, not flirtatious. In fact, between her flashes of completely unjustified jealousy, Lily had almost felt sorry for the ample-chested, bleached blond girl.
Almost
.

Lily hadn’t ever met anyone that made her body and mind react the way they did around Eric. If things

were different, she would be really interested to see what would happen if they acted on their chemistry.

Eric made her wish for things she really had no business wishing for, like, instead of just pretending to

be normal, she really was.

Lily felt delicate fingers wrap around her hand and tug, pulling her out of her Eric-riddled thoughts.

“I have to know.” Ariana leaned forward, whispering conspiratorially to Lily as she held her wrist in

place. “What do you use?”

“I’m sorry?” Lily had no idea what she was talking about.

“Your skin is flawless. What do you use?” Ariana repeated in almost a whisper.

Lily shrugged then answered honestly. “Whatever soap is on sale.”

She heard a collective gasp from her fellow dinner companions.

Oh lord, did I say something wrong?

Carlos grabbed her arm, causing Ariana to let go of her hand. He pulled her towards him, examining her

face—
closely
—before releasing her and saying, “Hand to God, there is not one open pore on this beauty’s face.”

Ariana leaned across the table once again, doing her own visual inspection before concluding, “There’s

not.”

“That’s just good genes,” Miles chimed in. “I bet your mom had flawless skin. Am I right?”

“Ummm…” Lily didn’t know what to say. The question had come out of the blue and she wasn’t

prepared to answer it. She really didn’t want to tell these people the truth, that her mom had died when she was three and Lily didn’t even have one picture of her so she wasn’t really sure if her mom had flawless

skin. But she also didn’t want to lie either and say that yes her mom had flawless skin when she had

nothing to base that statement on.

She could tell them the truth if she wanted to. She’d never had to lie about that part of her life. She just didn’t like how people usually reacted when they found out.

Everyone on her little corner of the table was staring at her expectantly. She made a split decision and

decided to pick option one. The truth. “I don’t really remember. My mom passed away when I was really

young.”

A chorus of “Aww” and “I’m so sorry” followed from everyone.

“How old were you?” Carlos asked, grabbing her hands in his and holding them tightly to his chest.

“Three,” Lily explained.

“Oh, you poor thing.” Releasing her hands, Carlos wrapped his arms protectively around her, and Lily

had to admit that being in strong arms felt good. Amazing even. Too bad she knew she wasn’t Carlos’s

type…because she didn’t have a penis. Oh well. That was probably why it felt so comforting, because Lily

knew that she was one hundred percent safe.

Karina, oblivious to what was going on down at Lily’s end of the table, stood and announced that they

would all be heading into the front room where there would be drinks and most likely a jam session. The

crowd all got up and moved from the dining room through the house. Lily separated herself from the flock,

automatically gravitating towards the huge picture windows that made up an entire wall of the impressive

room that also boasted a fireplace and baby grand piano.

Lily still could not quite wrap her head around the view from Karina’s living room. It overlooked the

small town of Hope Falls, which was lit up below. As Lily stood beside the window, she could feel the cold

seeping through the glass from outside and it invigorated her. Which she needed because she hadn’t gotten

much sleep the past week.

Wow. So much has changed in one week
.

She had come up to Hope Falls last Thursday to lead a dance class for Amanda’s bridal party, kind of a

bachelorette party type of a deal. When she had arrived, Karina had immediately asked if she would be

interested in choreographing her tour. Lily had stayed in Hope Falls through the weekend for the wedding

and signed the contract with Bernie, Karina’s manager, before heading back to Sacramento on Sunday.

After taking a couple days to tie up loose ends in Sac-Town, she had been back in Hope Falls by

Wednesday night. She’d rented and moved into her house Thursday, and now she was spending her Friday

night at a dinner hosted by the one and only Karina Black. She felt like she had lived out a year’s worth of milestones in one week.

“Hey, hun. I know that the guys can be a lot, but believe me, they are awesome. I think you’re really

going to love working with everyone,” Karina assured Lily as she stepped beside her.

“They are amazing!” Lily turned, motioning to the guests that were all either gathered around the roaring

fire or the shiny black piano.

“They are, aren’t they?” Karina smiled as she nodded her head.

“I feel honored just to be here.” Lily hesitated a moment before adding, “Truthfully, I feel a little out of my league.”

Admissions like that did not come easy for Lily. She never wanted anyone to see even the slightest bit

of weakness. But with Karina and her friends Lauren, Amanda, and Sam, Lily did something that she rarely

did—let her guard down. The girls were just so open and…real.

“Look, logically I get why you might feel like that, but honestly, you belong here. I wasn’t just blowing

smoke when I said that I had all my number-one picks to work on the tour. Once we nailed down the

concept, I knew you would be perfect for this,” Karina assured her.

“Thanks, I really appreciate the opportunity.” Lily felt herself getting a little choked up. Hearing those

words out of Karina Black’s mouth was an overwhelming experience.

Just as Lily was going to move the conversation topic onto a lighter subject, like the fact that she just

couldn’t get over how beautiful Karina’s home was, a bright flash of light caused her to shut her eyes and