Merry Christmas, Baby(16)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

“Ah, so I’m just one of many,” he said.

With a start, Teddy realized everyone at the table was watching them with avid interest. Gus wore a knowing smirk. For the span of a few seconds Teddy had totally lost track of being in a crowded restaurant. Shaking hands with Jared had been that potent.

Work, Teddy, work, she reminded herself. She needed to focus on work rather than the heat Jared Martin had unleashed in her. This time she made sure her smile included Nick, as well.

“The specials tonight are caribou stew, moose stroganoff and elk lasagna. What can I get everyone?”

The large group had been having drinks, eating chips and salsa and waiting on Nick and Jared to arrive. It felt so strange to have Gus sitting at the table as a patron rather than being behind the counter running the kitchen. Teddy had missed Gus.

Self-consciousness washed over Teddy. She was altogether too aware of Jared’s eyes on her as she took the orders around the table. Of course, she’d had men flirt with her—not only was she a passably attractive female in a state where the men vastly outnumbered the women, she also worked in a bar. She’d selectively dated a few guys, but no one had ever affected her this way. And this man was going to be sleeping on her sofa tonight…and tomorrow night, as well. Of course, she might spend a little time with him and discover he was a jerk. But she didn’t think so. She had a feeling her ship was sunk.

3

JARED HAD TO CONFESS he wasn’t fully paying attention to the conversation flowing around him. He couldn’t seem to stop watching Teddy as she moved about the restaurant. Her energy and enthusiasm captivated him. Her blond hair was up in a ponytail and the way it bobbed and swung as she worked was straight-up sexy. There was nothing overtly enticing about the way she was dressed. She wore jeans tucked into flat, animal-skin boots and a red Christmas sweater with a moose on the front. Jingle bell earrings dangled from her ears. However, there was an inherent sensuality to the way she moved, as if she was extremely comfortable in her own skin. He noticed her in a way he hadn’t noticed a woman in a long time, perhaps ever—as if he was seeing nuances and layers he’d never noticed before in other women, his ex-wife included.

More than once their glances had caught and held across the crowded room. As the evening wore on, Jared was increasingly aware he’d buried himself in work for the past nine months with no female companionship since Trish had moved out and they’d divorced.

Next to him, Nick said, “Want to get our luggage upstairs and settle in a bit, and then if you’re still alert and alive we can come back downstairs?”

Jared should’ve been exhausted given the jet lag and the fact he’d crammed a full day’s work into a couple of hours before catching the shuttle to the airport and hooking up with Nick there, but he felt energized in a way he hadn’t in a long time. “Sure.”

They made their way back through the room, stopping by the bar area to settle their bill. The food had been good, the company great, and watching Teddy Monroe better still. Nick caught her eye and she walked over. “Jared and I are going to take our luggage upstairs. We’ll come back down if we’re both still alive. Jared’s on the sofa, right?”

“Yep. There’s a pillow and a couple of blankets.” She looked at Jared, the impact of her brown eyes twisting his gut into a knot of hot want. “Make yourself at home. If you find you forgot something you need such as a toothbrush or razor, Merrilee keeps extras next door for the bed-and-breakfast.”

“What time do you finish up here?” he asked, getting straight to the point. There’d been any number of interesting conversations going on at the table over dinner, but she was the person in the room he couldn’t stop looking at and thinking about.

Teddy’s smile left him feeling…he didn’t exactly know, but God, she was sexy. “We close at ten and then it’s about forty-five minutes to get everything cleaned and ready for the next day.”

Nick chimed in. “Don’t even bother to offer to help. Trust me, I’ve seen it firsthand. They have this down to a science.”

“Don’t let him fool you.” Her smile encompassed Nick as well as Jared. “Nick was pretty good at stepping in and taking over when I came down with the flu last year.”

Jared remembered the story from when he and Trish had first gone to dinner with Nick and Gus.

Nick shrugged. “We managed. But thank goodness there’s no flu outbreak this Chrismoose season.”

Teddy nodded. “Yeah, knock on wood.” She rapped lightly against the bar’s surface for good measure. “I’ve never been so sick in all of my life. Last year it was a mess with the flu going around.”

Jared liked how genuine she was. “That’s what I heard.”

Lucky called out another order up and Teddy was back in work mode. “Okay, I’ll see you guys later.”

Jared stood rooted to the spot and watched her walk away, her ponytail swinging and her neat tush swaying.

Nick laughed and elbowed him as they closed the distance to the connecting door between the restaurant and the terminal. “Easy there. You’re about one step away from drooling.”

Jared shook his head slightly, trying to clear it. They walked into the deserted terminal. A sled dog curled next to the stove raised his head long enough to look at them then lowered it and closed his eyes again. Jared heard someone moving around upstairs.

Leave it to Nick to have summed it up so neatly— Jared wasn’t even going to try denying being damn close to drooling over Teddy Monroe. “Hey, she’s pretty. Very pretty. What can I say?”

Nick grinned. “It’s good to see you back in the land of the living.”

“She have a boyfriend?” Not that it would particularly make a difference. Competition was healthy and if she had a boyfriend, Jared would give him a run for his money—he was that damned attracted to Teddy.

“Not as far as I know.” Good answer. “In fact, not only does she not have a boyfriend, she’s moving to New York next month.”

“Are you serious?” Jared grabbed his suitcase. What the hell was wrong with Nick that he hadn’t mentioned any of this? Jared immediately felt sheepish. Uh, maybe it was because Nick was getting freaking married.

Nick nodded. “Yep. She wants to go to acting school. She stayed here to help Lucky get on his feet and sock away some extra cash. Gus is going to hook her up with a restaurant job while she’s in school. And we found her an apartment just around the corner from my cousin Angela. Remember Angela?” Jared nodded. Of course he did. Angela and her brother Mark had spent nearly as much time at Nick’s house as Jared had.

Dammit. Wouldn’t you know it? He was ready to check out of the city and a woman who totally blew him away appeared on his horizon? “That’s cool. I may not be there by then, but good for her.”

“You’re really serious about leaving New York?” Nick opened the door leading outside and even though Jared was accustomed to New York winters, the cold hit him like a slap in the face. Snow drifted down in a desultory fashion.

“Yeah, I’m serious.” The snow crunched beneath their feet as they walked the length of the building, crossing to a set of stairs on the far rear corner of the building. Small planes sat in the dark on the other side of the small runway to the right.

The muted activity from the restaurant and bar was audible but out here the evening was cold and calm. In the distance a wolf howled. Within seconds the call was answered. Jared looked up. Without the city lights, the sky seemed vast but at the same time close enough that he could touch the velvet darkness.

“This is the other entrance to Gus’s…I mean, Teddy’s apartment,” Nick said.

They climbed the stairs and entered the apartment. Jared stopped in surprise. An open floor plan, sleek furniture, and the odd touch of whimsy here and there reminded him of a Soho loft. This was a definite departure from the frontier décor in the terminal and bar below. A four-foot tree sat on one end table next to the sofa, winking and blinking Christmas cheer from its colored lights.

“Wow, this is definitely not what I expected here.” Jared closed the door behind him, shutting out the cold and lightly falling snow.

“That’s the same reaction I had the first time I saw it.” Nick looked around. “Gus left the big furniture here because it was damn expensive to ship it. She just took photos and artwork. Teddy’s brought in her own stuff.” The artwork on the wall was all black-and-white prints of theaters and stages and a couple of playbills. Jared itched to pick up and examine more closely a framed photograph on the other end table of three females, one of which looked like a very young version of Teddy. “She’s a little more free-spirited than Gus. I love my woman but she can be uptight.”

“Gus is good for you,” Jared said with a smile but he meant it. Nick’s family had always kept him rooted and he needed a woman who did the same. And there was a huge difference in being rooted and being tied down.

“Yeah, she is good for me, isn’t she?” Something about Nick’s goofy expression touched Jared. He was damn glad his buddy had found Gus. “Well, ace, this is where you’re bunking for the next couple of nights. Gus and I are in here,” Nick said, walking into a bedroom to the right. “This was Gus’s room all along so when Teddy moved in she just took over what had been the guest room.” The other bedroom was to the left, with a bathroom in between the two.