SLOWLY UNWRAPPED
By Victoria Vane
A Very Short Christmas Story
Decatur, Georgia - Christmas Day
Nikki yanked the handle
of the shopping buggy. It stuck. She cursed and gave it another jerk but it
remained jammed.
“Use your foot,” Shelby
instructed. “Like this.” With one solid kick, Shelby wedged the buggy free. “I
still don’t understand why you’re going through all this stress and
aggravation, Nik. The man just gave you a ring. Are you really sure you want to
risk cooking for him?”
Nikki grimaced. “Thanks
a lot, Shel.”
“I’m just sayin’ he has
to know by now that you’re no domestic goddess.”
“But I still want to do
this for him,” Nikki insisted. “He’s come all this way from Montana. The least
we can do is show him some Southern holiday cheer.”
“But didn’t you tell me
his mother’s a Texan?” Shelby remarked.
“She is,” Nikki replied.
“But Texas isn’t Georgia, Shel. I’d argue that Texas is even part of the south.
They eat tamales on Christmas. We don’t do that.”
“Yeah, well they don’t
exactly sell turkey and dressing at Walgreens either.”
“But there was no place
else open. What am I even going to feed him?” Nikki lamented, nearly at the
point of despair. “I thought it was only going to be us and you don’t eat meat
so I didn’t even buy anything for a real Christmas meal.”
“Don’t worry about me. I
already have plans with that hot guy from Home Depot who delivered our
Christmas tree. You could always just go out to eat,” Shelby suggested.
“Where? Everything is
closed on Christmas Day.”
“There’s the China
Buffet on North Decatur,” Shelby said. “You could do the
Peking duck like they
ate in A Christmas Story. Or there’s always Waffle House. They never close for
anything.”
“I can’t believe you
just suggested Waffle House for Christmas Dinner.” Nikki sounded an exasperated
huff. “It just wouldn’t feel right. Christmas is meant to be spent at home.”
“All right. Have it your
way. Let’s try the frozen food case.”
Nikki chewed her lip as
they scanned the contents of the freezer. The first two cases held nothing but
Lean Cuisine and frozen pizzas. The third held more promise.
“Lookie here, Nik,”
Shelby exclaimed. “I think we hit the jackpot.” She tossed two boxes of
Stouffers frozen mac and cheese into the cart with a grin. “A Southern holiday
staple.”
“Great! What else is
there?” Nikki asked.
“I think I even got you
covered on the turkey.” Shelby tossed two Marie Callender’s turkey pot pies
into the cart. Wheeling down the snack aisles, they added a big bag of pecans.
“What am I going to do
about dessert?” Nikki asked.
Shelby paused at the
breakfast foods. “If he likes cherries we’ve got desert covered.”
“I don’t know about
cherries but he certainly has a thing for peaches.” Nikki recalled a certain
night in a mountain cabin with a sudden frisson of desire.
Shelby tossed a box of
cherry Pop Tarts into the cart.
Nikki snorted. “Pop
Tarts?”
“Why not? A tart’s the
same as a pie right?”
They proceeded down the
aisle to the canned goods where Nikki picked up
cans of jellied
cranberries, French cut green beans, and cream of mushroom soup. She was
reaching for a carton of French’s fried onions when Shelby grabbed her hand.
“Don’t! I beg you! No one ever eats that disgusting green bean casserole.”
“But it’s a Southern
tradition,” Nikki protested.
“One that needs to end
here and now,” Shelby insisted. “Here. Skip the veggie.” She grabbed a can of
fruit cocktail and some flaked coconut. “Make ambrosia instead.”
“But I need whipped
cream for that.”
“Then I’ll go to dairy
and see if they have Cool Whip.” Shelby returned a moment later with a can of
Reddi-Wip. She dropped in in the cart with a shrug. “It’s all they had.”
Nikki took a dismal
inventory of her cart. Tears blurred her eyes as they wheeled it to check out.
“It’s times like this that I truly miss Mee-Maw. She made every holiday
special. And no one made a better fried turkey and cornbread dressing. I even
miss sitting at the kitchen table with her stringing popcorn and making
Magnolia wreaths.”
“Then why haven’t you
continued the tradition?”
“For who? It’s usually
just been you and me at Christmas and you’ve never been into any of that
Southern Living kinda stuff.” Nikki palmed her eyes with a sniff.
“Don’t cry, Nik.” Shelby
wrapped her arms around her sister. “He doesn’t expect anything. You didn’t
even know he was coming.”
“Doesn’t matter.” She
hiccupped. “It’s our very first Christmas and it’s going to be his lamest one
ever. The worst part of this is that he gave me the best present I ever got and
I don’t even have anything for him to unwrap!”
“You do now!” Shelby
snatched a sparkly pink Santa hat from a clearance end cap and plopped it on
Nikki’s head. “Just put this on, add a matching bow, and let him unwrap you.”
~*~
Hours later, with a wink
at her sister, Shelby made an excuse to go out, leaving Wade and Nikki
stretched out on the couch watching It’s a Wonderful Life.
“I’m so sorry about
dinner, Wade.” Try as she might, Nikki couldn’t suppress the quiver from her
voice or the burning sensation behind her eyes.
Wade’s warm strong arms
tightened around her. She loved having his arms around her, being cloaked in
his body, in his scent.
“Why’s that sweetheart?”
he asked.
“Because everything was
just awful.”
“What makes you think
I’m so hard to please? For the record, one of the best meals I ever had was
fried Spam and a can of cling peaches up in that mountain cabin with you.”
That was their first
time together and he’d made it a night she’d never forgotten either.
“I don’t think it was
the meal that you remember so fondly.”
He grinned. “Probably
not. But I sure liked the dessert.”
“Stop humoring me,
Wade.” She gave him a playful swat. “You aren’t helping a bit. Can’t you see
I’m trying really hard to be miserable? I don’t even have a gift for you. I
mean I do, but it’s not anything you can unwrap.”
“What is it then?” he
asked.
“I was hoping we could
go away together. You’ve worked so hard for so long, I thought that now with
things settled down a bit with your brother, maybe I could
entice you into taking
some time off. Since Dirk has Janice helping him out at the ranch, I was hoping
maybe you and I could take that trip to Mexico we’d once talked about.”
“I think that’s a mighty
fine idea indeed. In fact, why don’t we plan to make it a honeymoon trip?”
“Really?” She instantly
brightened. “I’m so glad you like the idea.” Then her smile faded again. “But
that still doesn’t make up for this lousy Christmas. I wanted so badly to show
you how we do it Southern style.”
He laughed, a deep
throaty rumble. “If that’s all that’s eating you, sweetheart, you can make it
up to me real easy.”
“How?” she asked.
He tipped her face up to
his, his eyes gleaming with humor and something else that made her insides
quiver. “Why don’t you just grab that can of Reddi-Wip, put on that little pink
Santa hat, and do me cowgirl style?”
~THE
END~
Read SLOW HAND by Victoria Vane for Wade and
Nikki’s full story.
SLOW HAND
By Victoria Vane
Available now from Sourcebooks
Casablanca
In rural Montana…
Wade Knowlton is a hardworking lawyer who’s torn between his
small-town Montana law practice and a struggling family ranch. He’s on the
brink of exhaustion from trying to save everybody and everything, when gorgeous
Nicole Powell walks into his office. She’s a damsel in distress and the breath
of fresh air he needs.
Even the lawyers wear
boots…
Nicole Powell is a sassy Southern girl who has officially
sworn off cowboys after a spate of bad seeds—until her father’s death sends her
to Montana and into the arms of a man who seems too good to be true. Her
instincts tell her to high tail it out of Montana, but she can't resist a
cowboy with a slow hand…
About the Author:
Victoria Vane is a
multiple award-winning romance novelist and history junkie whose collective works
of fiction range from wildly comedic romps to emotionally compelling erotic
romance. Her books have received more than twenty reviewer awards and
nominations including the 2014 RONE Award for TREACHEROUS TEMPTATIONS and
Library Journal Best E-Book romance of 2012 for The Devil DeVere series.
Victoria also writes historical fiction as Emery Lee and is the founder of
Goodreads Romantic Historical Fiction Lovers and the Romantic Historical Lovers
book review blog.
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2 comments:
OMG! Cowgirl style? I wonder how that works LOL! Thanks for sharing and for the awesome giveaway! The blog is looking mighty festive!
LOL! I got a kick out of that "cowgirl style" too, Elizabeth! I'm sure it makes for a great ride. ;-)
Thanks for the compliment on the blog. I try! xoxo
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