Free Holiday Sparks by Shannon Stacey

crazy to think Chloe might be the woman he wanted to wake up to, but hers was the face he saw when he let himself imagine it.
    And it had hurt like hell to walk out of her house and not look back. He’d wanted to kiss her, just one last time, but he knew if he’d gotten that close to her, he wouldn’t have been able to walk away. He would have made a fool out of himself, confessing to all sorts of feelings she hadn’t signed up for. And, once again, rather than risk her rejection, he’d kept on walking.
    “Too bad about the Burkes, huh?” his mother said.
    Scott’s head snapped around so fast his neck cracked and Kojak leapt to his feet next to his chair. “What about the Burkes? What happened?”
    “I heard the storm shut everything down, so they’re snowed in at Logan. Even the buses aren’t running. It’s ironic, really. After all this time, Chloe finally came home for Christmas and they’ll be stuck at her condo in Boston without her.”
    At least they were okay, but Chloe would be alone for Christmas and that wasn’t right. So maybe their fling was over. They were still friends and a friend wouldn’t let another friend be alone on Christmas Day.
    An hour later, after Scott and Lanie had washed and dried the dishes just because they were the “kids”, the family gathered around the Christmas tree to exchange gifts. Most of them were for Bethany, of course, but each of the adults had a couple too.
    Watching Lanie and his mom, as well as the two guys, open gifts Chloe had helped him pick out made his stomach hurt. He’d been such a grump that day. He hated shopping, but she’d patiently dragged him to store after store until everybody was crossed off his list.
    “Uncle Scott, open these, please!”
    Bethany dumped her pile of gifts in his lap. After watching Lanie struggle with those gray twisty wires used by the dozen to hold toys in packaging, he’d started bringing his small wire snips to Christmas Eve dinner. Now it was officially his job.
    Once his niece’s gifts had been liberated and the wrapping paper cleared away, his father snuck out to the garage for his after-dinner cigar and, because dressing dolls wasn’t one of his finer skills, Scott escaped with him. He didn’t smoke, but he popped open a beer and took a seat on the riding mower.
    “Good dinner,” his dad said, rubbing his hand over his stomach.
    “Yup.”
    “What’s going on with you, son? Your mother says you’re too quiet so something must be bothering you because you usually never shut up.”
    Might as well spill the beans. Since he obviously wasn’t as decent an actor as he’d thought, they’d keep after him, trying to find out what was wrong. And, since it was after the fact, it’s not like they’d go getting their hopes up.
    “I wasn’t totally honest with you and Ma about Chloe Burke,” he confessed.
    “We figured that out about two weeks ago.”
    “Oh.” So much for keeping secrets. “The thing is, it was just supposed to be a fling, you know? A little fun between consenting adults and then we’d go our separate ways.”
    “But you fell for her.”
    “Hard.”
    “Did you tell her that?”
    “No.”
    “I’m pretty sure if Chloe Burke was one of those psychic people, your mother would have heard about it by now.”
    “She lives in Boston and she likes it there. And I…I don’t want to move to Boston, Dad. Maybe I’d make more money, but I work for myself here and, because I set a fair price for people, work’s steady. And this is home. I’d go nuts in a city like that.”
    “Doesn’t she work on that internet stuff? Maybe you should ask her if she’d consider moving back. You don’t know if you don’t ask.”
    “It’s only been three weeks.”
    “Sometimes you just know, son.”
    The words echoed through his mind hours later when he was stretched out on his back, alone in the middle of his king-sized bed, with his hands tucked under his head.
    What was the worst that could happen if he