You Had Me At Christmas: A Holiday Anthology(77)

“Cindy Lauper,” she said, with a firm nod.

“Why?” He sounded genuinely surprised.

“Because I can’t imagine a heron named Cindy Lauper. So many things I couldn’t have imagined have happened in the past twenty-four hours. Why not that one?”

“That reasoning is as sound as any I’ve given for any of my names,” he said with a chuckle.

They stood like that at the edge of the canyon, his arm wrapped around her, naming birds after famous—and infamous—women until their cheeks were red from the cold and the wind, and their teeth were chattering.

Their hands brushed several times as they walked the short path back to the car, but she never slipped her hand into his and he never grasped on to hers. Like the bird that had surprised them from the sky, their relationship would soon be out of sight. If she tried to hold on to it, she would only get hurt.

*

It was getting dark when they drove into Jerome, Idaho, a small town on the edge of Snake River Canyon. Marc turned at the signs for a hotel and pulled around to the front door. As soon as he got out of the car, Selina pulled out her phone to call her mom. To her surprise, her mom picked up on the first ring.

“Selina? Is that you? What happened? You haven’t come home in days! And I didn’t know where you were. Usually I, at least, know where you are.”

The worry in her mom’s voice made Selina choke on sadness she hadn’t realized was going to crop up. Not regret—everything about the drive convinced her that she’d made the right decision—but sorrow that driving away with a nice stranger still seemed like the smart thing to do.

“I’ve decided to move to Salt Lake City.”

“I didn’t even know you were thinking about moving.” Confusion stilted her mom’s words. “I mean, I know you talked about moving out, but I thought to Lewiston or Coeur d’Alene. Spokane, maybe, if you were moving to another state.”

“The opportunity to move to Salt Lake came up last night, and it was too good to refuse. I have a place to stay for a week or so while I look for a job and a free ride down here. I can make it work.” She tried for as chipper a voice as she could find to make the whole idea sound like a well thought-out one, rather than the last-minute, half-panicked decision it had been.

“There’s a man involved, isn’t there?” Now that her mother’s concern had worn off, scorn had set in.

“Of course there is.” Selina ignored her mom’s implication, trying instead to steer the conversation to the real issue. Or at least the heart of the real issue. “I’ve been telling you for a long time that Gary made me uncomfortable. And he finally went too far.”

Her mom didn’t say a word. Selina couldn’t even hear her breathing. Cars raced by on the busy road outside the hotel, and the traffic from the highway was audible, too.

“There’s another man,” her mother snarled. “This isn’t just because of what you say about Gary.”

“A man came into the diner, yes,” she confirmed. “He was going to Salt Lake City and offered me a ride. He’s nice, but it’s not what you think.”

“He’s gay?”

The feeling of Marc’s erection pressed against her in the morning flashed through her mind. Maybe it was the normal erection men get in the morning, but Selina knew her presence had probably had something to do with it also.

She picked up a gum wrapper, balled it up, then tossed it to the floor. “No. He’s not gay.”

“Are you pregnant?”

Selina coughed, choking down the retort that she wasn’t her mother and wouldn’t make the same mistakes. She’d made different ones, which had been enough. “No.” Her voice was short and stiff.

“You know, if you run away with a man, he’ll never recognize your independence.”

Selina cut her mom off before she could get too far into her story. “I know, Mom. I know what mistakes you made and what you regret.” Her mom had never actually said she regretted having Selina, but regretting the man and the move was close enough. “I can fancy it up any way I want: I know I’m running away. I know you ran away and look where it got you. But things will be different for me.”

Marc was exiting the lobby of the hotel, two keys splayed out in his hands like playing cards and a smile on his face. Affection spread through her body, pushing out her lingering irritation and relaxing her shoulders.

“I’ve got to go, Mom. I’ll call you when I’m in Salt Lake. We can talk more then. If you’re worried, you can talk to Babe. She met the guy.” She hung up before her mom could continue to protest.

My guy. He wasn’t, not really, but it was nice to think of Marc that way, only if for a moment.

“Your castle awaits, milady,” Marc said as he climbed into the car. “The front desk staff said it was the nicest room in the place.”

Selina looked over at the hotel. It was an older building, and she wasn’t such a rural hick that she didn’t realize it wasn’t considered a “nice” hotel, but it still looked nicer than any hotel she had ever been in.

He brandished the hotel keys. “Nicest because it had the least road noise, that is. So we should get a good night’s sleep. And two queen beds, as promised. I need to protect my virtue, after all,” he said with a smile that was almost as floppy as his hair.