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  Sam snorted. “Right. You haven’t thought that about me since you were twelve.”

  “Actually, I’ve always thought that about you. I’ve just been too much of a dickwad to admit it. Now that I’m getting married though, I figure I need to man up with my father and support him in his love life like he’s always supported me with mine.”

  “Is that right?” Sam asked, giving his son a doubtful look.

  “Yes—definitely. That’s why I’m going to give you a little advice. Megan says if you date any hooker types her mother will never touch you even if she wants to.”

  Nathan grinned at his father’s frustrated grunt in response to his comment.

  “Since when does my future daughter-in-law get an opinion about the women I date?” Sam asked.

  “Since she would rather you date her mother, even if we all agree that it will be weird when it happens,” Nathan said.

  “All? Who is all?” Sam asked.

  Nathan shrugged as he laughed. “All as in Megan says Rick and Jill also think you two would be a good match.”

  Sam laughed hard then, his deep, husky voice drawing attention from several women who immediately smiled at him. Getting noticed was not his problem. The problem was that he listened to the Delight After Dark radio show every evening before he went to bed and had been fantasizing about the woman two houses away from him for months.

  And apparently his lust was a secret only to the woman herself.

  “Well, that’s just great, Nathan. For Christmas, tell Santa to bring me a time machine. I’ll erase the last decade of our lives as only friends, then erase memories of seeing each other through David’s and your mother’s death. If I can get all that to happen, maybe I might actually stand a chance with Eve. But if the man in red can’t deliver, I’ll just have to settle for keeping her friendship. I haven’t bought coffee in months and I like it that way.”

  Nathan shoved his freezing hands into his pockets, glad they were almost back to the car. “Dad, you’re not seeing Eve for free coffee. And you’re making this way harder than it has to be. You and Eve are just stuck in a pattern. You have to break the pattern. Change things up. Christmas is the perfect time.”

  Sam snorted. “They teach you that wisdom in your art classes?”

  Nathan chuckled. “Hell no. Megan taught me that over the last two years. She’s pretty and smart like her mother. I love that combination.”

  Sam nodded. “Yes. So do I. Megan’s a great woman. I’m glad it’s worked out with you two.”

  Nathan opened the car door and slid inside. “Eve’s a nice woman too. And you’re a nice man. Do something different, Dad. Be unpredictable. Break the pattern and see what happens.”

  “What are you talking about, Nathan?” Sam started the car and let it warm up.

  Nathan shrugged. “Remember last Christmas when I had that fight with Megan over some stupid guy that had been pressing on her? She froze me out for a couple of weeks because I turned into a jealous ass. When I finally talked her into coming to a makeup dinner at the apartment, I wore a Santa hat and sang to her. Somewhere in all the laughing, she forgave me. I got that idea from you. I’m never going to forget that last Christmas with Mom. You were amazing at getting her to laugh even as sick as she was.”

  Sam thought about that final holiday with Angeline. Truly he had done all he could to make his wife’s last days as wonderful as possible. And he had no regrets about anything he’d done during that time. He just didn’t want to have any regrets about the rest of his own life either. It hadn’t taken much dating to discover that the only woman he truly wanted to spend time with was Eve Kingston.

  “Nathan, have I ever told you that you are the best fruit my loins could ever have produced? Thank you for picking up my best qualities instead of the shitty ones. Every father would be proud to say the same to his son.”

  “You’re very welcome and I’m happy you’re proud of your loins, Dad. Now don’t forget we have to grab a couple bottles of red wine on the way. We’re having spaghetti and salad tonight, the very merry Christmas dinner of every red-blooded Kentucky family.”

  “Eve does love her pasta,” Sam said, laughing as he pulled out of the parking space and headed to the liquor store.

  Chapter 2

  “I’ll get it,” Megan declared, when the doorbell chimed incessantly. “Nathan—stop laying on it. I hear you.”

  Eve watched her daughter weave her way around the ladder she stood on to yank open the front door. “Megan, ask who it is first. Don’t let strange men into the house. Oh shoot. Too late.”

  She smiled when Nathan came barreling in first and kissed her daughter until Sam nudged him to let her go. Leaning on her arms, Eve peered down the ladder and winked at Sam’s eye roll.

  Sam moved forward and looked up in concern at the fluffy-haired, trim blonde woman balancing on her toes. “I’d have done that for you if you would have waited for me, Eve.”

  “I was too impatient. Besides, Nathan and Megan don’t have enough motivation to stop and kiss each other. I thought they needed something extra to spark their libidos. I hung a double bunch of mistletoe in every doorway.”

  “I know all about being impatient. It hasn’t killed me yet, but don’t press your luck. Climb down, woman,” Sam said.

  Eve backed down a couple of rungs.

  “Mom, you and Sam are under the mistletoe. Kiss him. It’s tradition,” Megan declared, dragging her snickering fiancée forward.

  “Subtle, babe,” Nathan whispered.

  Megan snorted at her fiancée’s chastisement. “Mom and I were just talking about whether she was brave enough to kiss Vin Diesel under the mistletoe if she ever got the chance. Kissing Sam will give her a little practice on a real guy first before she tackles a celebrity who obviously has kissed a lot of women.”

  “Vin Diesel?” Sam asked, narrowing his eyes at Eve’s blush. “Is that who you like?”

  Eve laughed. “Not really. Megan is teasing. Now come here and kiss me. If you refuse now, you’ll make us both look bad.”

  Sam grunted. “God forbid. I wouldn’t want to do that.”

  He stepped slightly forward as Eve landed on a rung that placed them at eye level with each other. Leaning toward her, he felt her stiffen despite her brave words. His hand came out and touched her cheek, then slid into her soft, curling hair without stopping. It was a moment he’d dreamed of many times. He touched his lips to the corner of her mouth only to be startled by her gasp of alarm. Her reflexive jerk brought her lips more directly under his. Sliding fully over them felt very natural. And right. In fact, kissing Eve felt so right that he wanted to do it a few thousand times. But without an audience.

  “Hop on down, Eve. I’ll put the ladder away,” Sam whispered, surprised at the huskiness of his voice. One tiny lip brush and his cool was nowhere to be found. Nathan would be pulling his man card any time now. “Come on. Climb all the way down.”

  Stunned at her reaction to the tiny kiss, Eve finally backed down the last couple of steps until she stood on the floor. She stared up in amazement at the familiar tall man with chocolate eyes and curly brown hair always in need of a haircut. Her lips were tingling at the moment because of him. How had that happened? And that wasn’t all.

  Her gaze dropped to the front of her sweater, suddenly very grateful that she’d worn a padded bra that day.

  When she raised her gaze again, Sam was staring at her like he’d never seen her before. No, that wasn’t it. He was staring at her like he wanted to kiss her again, which was even scarier.

  “Thank you for putting the ladder away,” she said.

  “Sure.” Reaching around her, Sam grabbed the ladder and lowered his voice. “Next time, wait for me.”

  Eve shook her head. “No. That’s silly—I’m just—I’m going to go put on water for the pasta.”

  “Okay. Do that. We’ll talk later,” Sam said, glancing at the ladder as he snapped it closed.

  When he looked back, Eve had alre
ady fled. Before the sigh could escape him, Nathan reached out and punched his arm.

  “See? What did I tell you, Dad? You broke the pattern with that kiss.”

  “Well, I’m no Vin Diesel,” Sam said, lifting the ladder.

  “That’s okay,” Megan said, patting his other arm. “Mom likes Dwayne Johnson too. You look a little like him, except you have all that curly hair. She said she would kiss either of those men if they showed up naked wearing a Santa hat. Do you own a Santa hat? If not, Nathan has one you can borrow.”

  Sam glared at his son who was snickering again before turning the same glare to the woman next to him. “No worries, Megan. If I get the urge to dance naked with your mother, I have my own hat.”

  “Oh good,” she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes.

  Sighing long and loudly, Sam headed to the garage.

  ***

  In the too hot kitchen, Eve pulled her sweater away from her chest and blew out a breath. She wasn’t sure which was more surprising, the fact that her lips had yet to stop tingling or that Sam had caused the sensation. How had she not seen that simmering sexuality in a man she shared coffee with most mornings?

  His mouth on hers had been confident and precise. She could have sworn Sam had been on the verge of slipping his tongue between her lips just before he backed off. But that was just crazy. She had to be overreacting.

  “Earth to Mom,” Rick shouted.

  Eve heard her son laughing as she jumped and squealed.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you away from your daydreaming. The pasta water is boiling away and you seemed not to notice,” he said.

  “Boiling. Right.” Eve scrambled to get the still uncooked spaghetti out of the box. Trembling hands made a joke of her efforts and had the skinny, yellow sticks flying out of her fingers. They scattered across the counter, the stove, and the floor. “Well—shoot.”

  Rick laughed as he stooped to pick up the noodles now rolling across the tile floor. “Geez, Mom. Did you have too much coffee this morning? You’ve got the shakes.”

  Before Eve could answer, a large laughing male appeared beside her, taking his time to inspect the mess she’d made. Saying nothing about it though, Sam quietly started gathering up the spaghetti that had gone skidding down the granite surface of the countertop. But she could see he was grinning about it—the bastard. He probably knew exactly what he’d done to her.

  “It wasn’t the coffee, Rick. Your mother is very predictable about her drinking,” Sam said calmly. He turned and proudly held out the handful of spaghetti he had gathered. “Here Eve—I think this much is still usable.”

  “Gee—thanks.” Eve’s fingers reached out to take the spaghetti from her torturer only to end up wrestling with Sam’s fingers as she tried to grab the loose handful from him. When he laughed at her struggles, the husky, sexy sounds coming from his throat spiked sexual awareness through her as bad as the kiss under the mistletoe had.

  What the hell was wrong with her today? She’d known the man in front of her for years. It hadn’t even been a real kiss.

  What would a real kiss with him be like?

  To her mortification, while she stared at Sam’s mouth deep in thought, uncooked spaghetti once again escaped from her grip. This time it rained onto her son’s head as he crawled around at her feet.

  “Unbelievable. I did it again,” she said, looking down at her son.

  “Mom, seriously—where is your mind today?”

  Eve watched her son rake broken raw noodle pieces from his shoulder length hair. Her head snapped up though when she heard Sam laughing in that deep throated way he had that brought everyone’s attention to him. She must have been glaring because he stopped laughing and turned his face from hers. He crossed his arms and leaned back on the counter.

  “My clumsiness isn’t that funny,” she complained.

  Sam smiled. “It is if you have a sense of humor. Need some help with dinner before all the water boils away?”

  Eve lifted a fresh box of spaghetti from the counter and held it out to him. “Yes, smart ass. Put these in the pot while I fetch another box from the pantry.”

  “Sure. Anything you want,” Sam teased, allowing himself a wink as he took her offering. Eve’s instant flush had him biting his lip to keep from laughing again. Her anxiety over their tiny kiss was making him dizzy drunk with anticipation. What would she do if he kissed her for real?

  “Mom, snap out of it. You’re doing it again,” Rick said.

  “Doing what?” Eve demanded, watching her oldest climb to his feet. He looked so much like David did at twenty-four that it was sometimes disconcerting to her. She watched Rick shrug and grin.

  “I don’t know, but you’re staring at Sam like he’s an alien with two heads.”

  Eve blinked. Was she doing that? Sam moved away from the counter until he stood towering over her. He seemed so much bigger to her suddenly.

  “Rick, will you pour me a glass of wine after you sweep up the mess? Maybe it will combat my caffeine shakes.”

  She heard the two men snickering about her absentmindedness as she walked out.

  ***

  In the storage closet she used for a pantry, Eve stood on a stepping stool and moved boxes around until she found the extra pasta she was looking for. She turned and called out in alarm when she saw the large man leaning in the doorway.

  “My God Sam, are you trying to kill me today? You’ve already made me a nervous wreck.”

  Eve put a hand to the middle of her heaving chest where her heart was thumping wildly.

  “It was just a tiny kiss under the mistletoe, Eve. No reason to get so wound up over it,” Sam said, smiling at her glare.

  “I’m not wound up, Sam. If you must know, I haven’t been kissed in a while. But please don’t tell my listeners that the voice of Delight After Dark doesn’t have a love life,” Eve said. “Maybe I should just take a page from your book and start dating again. Megan and Rick are both harassing me about it.”

  Sam smiled as he walked forward. “Maybe you should, but I have to tell you, dating is not all that great. Lots of interested people are willing to go out, but there’s not a lot of chemistry happening. Trust me. There’s way more sizzle going on in this pantry than I’ve found on any date I’ve gone on.”

  “I really don’t want to discuss your dating experiments. Truthfully, I get enough of that doing my show,” Eve said.

  Her body went rigid at Sam’s continued approach.

  “What are you doing?”

  He filled up the room way too much for Eve to pretend she didn’t notice him closing the physical distance between them. In the tiny closet, there wasn’t anywhere to escape.

  “I went out a few times, but it wasn’t like real dating,” Sam explained. “I just went to dinner with other women while I was waiting for you to wake up and notice my interest. The others—they were just me trying to put a backup plan into place in case you rejected me.”

  “Sam, we’ve known each other for ages. I think I would have noticed if you’d felt that way about me. That’s just not true. The holidays just make it harder to be alone. So stop teasing me.”

  “Actually, my interest in you is very real and true. What I’m feeling has nothing to do with the holidays. I felt this way months ago.”

  They stared at each other, almost eyeball to eyeball again. Eve tried to keep her composure around the suddenly intimidating man. Standing on a stool was not the most dignified position to be in for an argument, but she lifted her chin and glared.

  “Okay. This is me rejecting the idea then. Why does anything have to change between us? Why can’t we just continue to have coffee together and be good friends? I don’t think I’m ready to wake up. I don’t want to deal with knowing you want—knowing you might—damn it, Sam,” Eve said.

  Her eyelids drooped heavily as his face moved closer to hers.

  “Come on, my blonde sleeping beauty. Kiss me for real and let’s see if you’re ready to wake up or not,�
� Sam whispered.

  He lifted a hand to her cheek again and used his thumb to caress Eve’s full bottom lip.

  Then groaning, he plunged a hand into her hair to hold her while his mouth descended hotly. It took all the control he possessed to keep the pressure light when he wanted to devour. He nibbled her bottom lip and pulled it between his teeth to suck it gently. Eve tasted every bit as good as he’d imagined she would.

  Her answering moan of pleasure from what they were doing soon made him forget his intentions to go slowly. Which was just as well because his tongue had a mind of it’s own anyway. Slipping between Eve’s lips, it traced her teeth before plunging hard against hers. A couple times of that and he yanked away from her mouth to swallow hard over the wave of desire crashing over him. Eve’s face was pink with arousal and he could smell her perfume floating up from her breasts. To save his sanity, and to keep from attacking her, Sam gripped her chin as he slipped the extra box of spaghetti from her limp hand.

  “I think you’re more awake than you realize. Or maybe you’re just awake with me. I really like the idea of my kiss being the catalyst. Damn, Eve. I want you and I’m tired of not telling you.”

  “No . . . please don’t say that. My head is spinning. How long have you wanted to be more than friends?” Eve asked.

  “Since I decided my life was going to go on and figured out that being alone was a choice. Having coffee with you is better than having dinner with any other woman. Two months ago I figured out that you were the reason I never wanted to take any of my dates to bed.”

  “Sam—”

  His thumb stroking her lip again silenced her and turned the denial she was going to make into a lie before it left her mouth.

  “I listen to your show every night. I fall asleep hearing your voice, but when I wake up, you’re not there to talk to. That’s why I come for coffee every morning. If it shocks you that I’m interested, I’m sorry. I was trying to let you come to terms with our attraction to each other on your own.”

  “Attraction to each other? Are you kidding me? This is all so—sudden,” Eve said, the trite phrase totally applicable in her case.