Free Together for Christmas by Lisa Plumley Page A

was beyond creepy. “I’m going to stick with it.” Even if it does mean I’ll never get to experience Casey’s flat abs, taut biceps, and broad, strong shoulders for myself . If he had them, of course. Technically, she’d only imagined those physical details.
    Along with his make-believe tight black boxer briefs. Mmm .
    “As a strategy, it’s only going to fail more as time goes by, too,” Gareth said in a knowledgeable tone. “Because it’s not as though people get bored with porn or anything. I mean, that video of Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson is a bona fide classic. It’s right up there with Lesbian Spank Inferno in total views.”
    Kristen sighed. “I wish it was different. I really do.”
    She did, too. Because she bet Casey would be spectacular in bed. He had the eyes for it. His eyes stayed focused on you, full of attentiveness and admiration and not-at-all concealed attraction. He had the hands for it. His hands moved nimbly and surely and capably, just the way she enjoyed the most. Most especially, Casey had the mouth for it, Kristen mused, because his lips looked soft and full and firm and kissable and . . .
    “Hey, Kristen. Heads-up!” Her pastry chef, Walden Farr, strode into the break room wearing his cranberry-compote-smudged chef ’s whites. His linebacker-size body, beard stubble, tattoos, and long, dark dreadlocked hair combined to make him an imposing presence—but his chocolaty brown eyes turned him into a teddy bear. “That asshat from the bank is out front.”
    “Again?” Kristen groaned. “He’s not supposed to be here! I’ve been over this and over this with the bank. They were supposed to be looking into the situation.”
    “Yeah.” Walden nodded. “They’re ‘looking into it’ by harassing you. My guess is, they think if they hound you enough, you’ll just buckle and let them repossess the place.”
    “Ha! They don’t know you very well then,” Gareth said.
    Concernedly, he and Talia frowned at her. The whole gang knew about her travails with the bank. Somehow, during a recent bank merger, her mortgage documents for the diner had gotten mixed up with a bunch of repossessions paperwork. The bank’s threats to close her diner hadn’t exactly made Kristen’s Christmas season, but she couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer to rebut their claims on a more informed and official basis.
    Maybe after the holidays, she’d be in a better financial position to deal with all of it. But Kristen couldn’t help hoping that if she could just dodge the bank rep for another few weeks, the bank would sort out its paperwork, let her off the hook, and save her all those attorney’s fees in the process.
    “I heard Avery tell him you’re not here.” Walden nodded toward the front, where the waitress in question, Avery, was working. “I’d suggest you make that a true statement.”
    Gareth and Talia nodded. “I’ll cover for you,” Talia told her, offering a shooing motion. “Don’t worry about a thing.”
    “Don’t even worry about coming back to close later,” Gareth added. “We’ll handle everything.”
    Kristen hesitated. It wasn’t like her to skip out early, but it was only a few hours until closing time. The Galaxy Diner was a breakfast-and-lunch joint only, open until 3:00 P . M . most days. She had hopes of expanding into dinner service someday, but until she bolstered her finances somehow, this was it.
    She’d already sunk all of her personal resources into the diner. Every dime of profit went to covering operating costs and repaying her debts. She couldn’t give any more.
    “Okay.” She handed her keys to Gareth, gave Walden a grateful nod, then outlined a few last-minute instructions to Talia. She shrugged into her coat. “Hey, thanks, you guys. You’re the best. I’ll have my cell phone if you need anything.”
    “We won’t need anything.”
    “But if you do—”
    “Get out of here!” all three of them shouted at once.
    Practically pushed outside by