First Impressions

I’d have taken you to my house,” he mumbled, then helped her to her feet.
    Hugging him, she whispered in his ear, “I close in two hours.”
    While Shane dealt with a straggle of customers who touched everything and bought nothing, Vance made himself useful by setting up the tree. Pat’s lighthearted chatter helped cool the blood Shane had so quickly heated. Following Shane’s instructions, he found the boxes of ornaments in the dusty attic.
    Dusk was falling before they were alone again. Because she was still looking pale, Vance bullied her into a quick meal before they began to sort through the ornaments. They made do with cold meat from the rib roast neither of them had touched the night before.
    But as well as alleviating her hunger, the meal reminded her forcibly of her mother’s visit. She struggled to push away the depression, or at least to conceal it. Her chatter was bright and mindless and entirely too strained.
    Vance caught her hand, stopping her in midsentence. “Not with me, Shane,” he said quietly.
    Not bothering to pretend she didn’t understand, Shane squeezed his hand. “I’m not dwelling on it, Vance. It just sneaks up on me sometimes.”
    “And when it does, I’m here. Lean on me, Shane, when you need to.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “God knows, I’ll lean on you.”
    “Now,” she said shakily. “Just hold me a minute.”
    He drew her into his arms, pressing her head to his heart. “As long as you want.”
    She sighed, relaxing again. “I hate being a fool,” she murmured. “I suppose I hate that worse than anything.”
    “You’re not being a fool,” he said, then drew her away as he came to a decision. “Shane, I went to see your mother this morning.”
    “What?” The word came out in a whisper.
    “You can be angry if you like, but I won’t stand by and watch you be hurt again. I made it very clear that if she bothered you again, she’d have me to deal with.”
    Shaken, she turned away from him. “You shouldn’t—”
    “Don’t tell me what I shouldn’t have done,” he interrupted angrily. “I love you, damn it. You can’t expect me to do nothing while she puts you through the wringer.”
    “I can deal with it, Vance.”
    “No.” Taking her shoulders, he turned her around. “With an amazing number of things, yes, but not with this. She turns you inside out.” His grip lightened to a caress. “Shane, if it had been me hurting, what would you have done?”
    She opened her mouth to speak, but only released a pent-up breath. Taking his face in her hands, she pulled it down to hers. “I hope I’d have done the same thing. Thank you,” she said, kissing him gently. “I don’t want to know what was said,” she added with more firmness. “No more problems tonight, Vance.”
    He shook his head, acknowledging another delay in making everything known to her. “All right, no more problems.”
    “We’ll trim the tree,” she stated decisively. “Then you’re going to make love to me under it.”
    He grinned. “I suppose I could do that.” He allowed her to pull him down the stairs. “What if I make love to you under it, then we trim it?”
    “There’s nothing festive in that,” she said gravely as she began unpacking ornaments.
    “Wanna bet?”
    She laughed, but shook her head. “Absolutely not. There’s an order to these things, you know. Lights first,” she announced, pulling out a neatly coiled string.
    It took well over an hour as Shane shared her memories about nearly every ornament she unpacked. As she took out a red felt star, she recalled the year she had made it for her grandmother. It brought both a sting and a warmth. She’d been dreading Christmas. It hadn’t seemed possible to celebrate the holiday in that house without the woman who had always shared it with her. Gran would have reminded her that there was a cycle, but Shane knew she would have found a tree and tinsel unbearable had she been alone.
    She watched Vance carefully arranging a garland. How Gran would have loved him, she thought with a smile. And he her. Somehow she found it didn’t matter that the two people she loved most in the world had never met. She knew both of them, and the link was formed. Shane was ready to give herself to him completely.
    If he doesn’t ask me to marry him soon, she mused, I’ll just have to ask him. When he glanced over, she sent him a saucy smile.
    “What are you thinking?” he demanded.
    “Oh, nothing,” she said