A Virgin River Christmas (Virgin River #4)(60)

He wanted to know what kind of little girl she had been.

“Bad, very bad. I took the term tomboy to the next level. I didn’t have any little girlfriends, just the boys. I could take all of ’em, but even though I thought I was a boy I fought like a girl—biting, hair pulling. I went from slingshots to spitballs and my dad got called to school a lot. I was a bratty little carrottop, the smallest, meanest one in my class.”

He grinned largely. So beautifully. “How does this not surprise me? You’re a little better mannered now, but not much.”

“Then the cutest boy in ninth grade got a crush on me. My first thought was—bet I can take him. My next thought was, bet I can get him to kiss me. It turned me into a girl overnight—a total transformation. Bobby. Erin Elizabeth was prissy from the day she was born and you can’t imagine how it killed me to ask her for advice on looking pretty. She was so damn smug about it, too.”

“Bobby? Since ninth grade?”

“Uh-huh. We went steady all through school, married at nineteen. Barely nineteen.”

He just shook his head. “Awful young.”

“Awful,” she said. “Our families wanted us to wait, but it didn’t take too much convincing—we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. I think everyone went along with the wedding just to cool us down. But there were a lot of bad jokes—like I was wearing training pants under the gown. That sort of thing.”

“And did it? Cool you down?”

“Kept us from pawing each other in public, at least,” she said with a grin. “Now you have to step up, Buchanan, and tell some things—you were star of the high-school musical. You probably had girls all over you. Huh?”

One corner of his mouth lifted. “I was pretty much a slut,” he said, making her laugh so loud that people’s heads turned in the restaurant.

“No morals,” she interpreted.

“Few,” he said. “I was on my way to getting some girl I barely loved in trouble.”

“Barely loved? Did you tell them you loved them to get in their pants?”

“Be fair—I was a teenage boy!”

“You did! You’re such a dog!”

“I was a pup, that’s what I was. The Marine Corps was my dad’s idea, but the joke was on him. Not only did I take to it, but spruced-up marines have no trouble getting girls.”

“My little brother, Drew, I think maybe he’s a lot like you. He’s a gorgeous little devil. Smart and so funny he can make you laugh till you leave a little wet spot on the floor—and he has a different girl every month. He’s such a screw-off, it’s hard to believe he’s going to be a doctor.”

“Doctor?” Ian asked, mouth full.

“Uh-huh—he’s a med student now. My sister’s a lawyer, my brother will be a doctor and I barely made it out of high school.”

Ian swallowed. “Come on—I bet you were an honor student.”

“Nope. I was pretty much a B average on a good report card. But then I had other things on my mind—like fun, Bobby, et cetera. I’m much more serious now.”

“I wish I’d known you then—you must have been a real loose cannon. So what kind of doctor do you think your little brother will be?”

“At this rate? A gynecologist.”

The bantering went on all through dinner. For Marcie it was wonderfully pleasant and fun, but not different than her life had been—being with someone, talking, laughing. She suspected it was very different for Ian, at least lately. By the way his eyes grew more golden than brown, she assumed it felt good.

The truck parade happened after dinner, when it was good and dark. They parked along a high road and watched from the truck until that wasn’t good enough and they got out and sat on the warm hood. The trucks were, as he said, magnificent. The flashing, sparkling lights, Santas perched atop, even Nativities, snow scenes and Christmas trees set up on long flatbeds. Every color under the rainbow was represented and, for good measure, the drivers blasted their horns in response to the gallery of viewers who waved and applauded.

After standing out in the cold for a while, then riding back toward home in a truck with a poor heater, Marcie was shivering. So Ian suggested they swing through town before heading up the mountain. If it wasn’t too late, they could get a quick toddy to warm them up.

The tree lit their way into town, so majestic, that star creating just the right path. When they walked into Jack’s there were quite a few people, the lights dimmed, the fire in the hearth blazing. They chose to sit up at the bar in front of a grinning bartender. “Evening,” Jack said.

“I wonder if I might use the phone, since I’m here?” Marcie said. “I should check in, make sure Erin had no trouble getting home.”

“You bet. Can I set you up something to come back to?”

“How about a brandy,” she said, jumping off the stool. “Something nice and smooth.”

“You got it.” And when she’d gone to the kitchen, Jack said to Ian, “And you?”

“Schnapps, thanks.”

Jack put a couple of drinks on the bar. “You take advantage of the holiday special at the Haircuts R Us store?”

“Funny. I thought you talked when they talked, shut up when they didn’t?”