Buffy Summers frowned at the amount of cars parked next to the Christmas tree lot. Images of having to elbow her way through the busy lot entered her mind and she groaned in annoyance.
This was what she got for waiting until the last minute to get a damn tree. But it wasn’t as if she had a choice. The Christmas get together was being held at her house this year and she couldn’t very well go without the shrubbery, could she?
Besides the kids would be disappointed.
Her beautiful babies. Conner and Dawn were her five year old twins with ex-husband Angel. They just loved Christmas, their eyes lighting up when they saw the decorations for the first time.
Too bad they would be spending Christmas with their father this year. Buffy didn’t like it, but she couldn’t really say no if he wanted to spend the holidays with his kids. And she’d had them for the last three Christmases.
He had agreed to attend the Christmas Eve party at her house so she could spend the night with them, but after that they would be with him for a week.
Sighing, she got out of her car and started towards the center of the lot. Trees were being hefted out left and right, huge bare spots appearing where they had once sat.
Every time she had found one that she liked, someone else bought it out from under her. Crap! She was going to be stuck with a scrawny weed if she didn’t find something soon.
“Help you find somethin’, luv?”
Turning around, she looked up into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. Oddly enough, though, they seemed awfully familiar. Although, she was pretty sure she would remember a man with platinum blond spikes and a sinful grin.
“I need a tree,” she replied lamely. Where had she seen him before?
He smiled. “Well, let’s find you one, then.”
She realized that he must have worked there. He was wearing dark blue coveralls and heavy leather gloves, big black boots covered his feet. Dressed just like a working man would be, yet on him, it looked out of place.
She couldn’t even guess how old he was, but she gathered he was still fairly young. Most definitely younger than her thirty-two, that she was sure of.
As he was looking through the remaining trees, she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Do I know you?”
He let the branch in his hand go, the plant snapping back, and gave her a shy grin. “I worked at the pumpkin patch this year. Think you an’ your kids bought one from me.”
Her eyes widened. That’s where she’d seen him! But he looked different now. In October, his hair had been a mess of russet-colored curls and she remembered having the urge to brush them away from his face. Now, there was nothing to sweep away with his white blond hair slicked back with gel.
“That’s right. I remember you now.”
He didn’t say anything to that, but the smile remained on his lips. With a wave of his hand, he motioned for her to follow him. After walking to the back row of trees, they stopped.
“I’ve got a really nice one back here. I was supposed t’ be holdin’ it, but your kids deserve a nice lookin’ tree and there aren’t too many left out there,” he told her, directing her to a tree in the corner.
“Wow, that’s really nice of you…”
“William,” he offered.
A grin curved on her lips. “Well, thank you, William. But you’re not going to get into any trouble, are you? I could pick something else if-”
“No,” he interrupted, putting his hand up to stop her. “It’s fine. You should take it.”
“Okay, I will.”
Christmas Eve: 5:00 pm
Buffy cursed for the millionth time as she squeezed through the packed aisles of the grocery store. How the hell could she have forgotten egg nog? Normally, she made it from scratch, but she had completely spaced it until a half an hour ago and now she was trolling the supermarket for the pre-made stuff and a lot of rum.
This had never happened to her before. What was wrong with her? Usually, she was like supermom, on top of everything. But ever since Angel had picked up the kids yesterday afternoon, she was a complete basketcase.
No, it had started before that, she realized. She guessed it had begun when she had agreed to let Conner and Dawn stay with their father. The idea just didn’t sit well with her.
The bastard hadn’t had any interest in spending time with them before and now all of the sudden he was All-American Dad? Uh-uh, sounded completely fishy to her.
Frowning, she stared at the empty shelves where the egg nog was supposed to be. There was one carton left and she grabbed it. One was better than nothing, she figured. Her guests would just have to share.
She made her way up to the registers and spent twenty minutes waiting for her turn. The store closed at seven, so everyone was trying to get their last minute supplies before they would be SOL for the night.
Finally getting her one carton of egg nog and three bottles of rum rung up, she pushed her way through the crowd to get outside. Her red Honda Accord sat in a stall on the farthest corner of the parking lot and she trudged her way over to it.
A grimace appeared on her face when she spied a glob of dried sap on the top of her car. It must have dripped off the tree when she’d tied it to the roof to get it home.
It was a beautiful tree, she had to admit. The kids went wild when they saw it and they spent the night decorating it, singing Christmas carols and throwing tinsel everywhere.
Her thoughts went to William suddenly. She’d been thinking about him a lot the last couple of weeks.
Okay, so the guy was incredibly hot and she hadn’t been with a man in years. It was completely normal for her to be attracted to him. It didn’t exactly answer why she couldn’t get him out of her mind, but she chalked it up to having a severe sex deficiency and tried not to delve any deeper into the matter.
As she drove home though, his face kept popping up in her mind. Maybe she had gone too long without, but she was convinced he was the most attractive man she’d ever seen.
Looking over, she realized with a start that her car was stopped in front of the Christmas tree lot. How had she gotten here? Did she do it unconsciously?
She willed herself to put the car back in gear, but all she managed to do was turn the ignition off.
“Uh, okay? What am I doing?” She asked herself.
You want to see him. Go for it, a voice in her mind answered back.
“What? No way!” She was losing her mind. No other explanation for her sitting there and talking to herself than that she was going crazy.
You’re not crazy. Just hot for the guy.
“And so what? I should just go up and ask him to get down and dirty with me? I’ve got a Christmas party to host.”
Just go. The voice in her head sounded annoyed.
Throwing up her hands in frustration, she threw open the door and got out of the car.
It was uncommonly cold this year in LA. They had gotten hit with some nasty winter storms in the past month and they were even talking heavy snow later that night.
Her breath came out in white puffs as she walked up the blacktop towards the camper trailer parked in the corner. The lights were on and a generator was humming loudly, so she knew he was probably there. Poor guy, having to spend Christmas alone.
She stopped in front of the door and hesitated. What was she going to say? ‘Hey, I was in the neighborhood and thought you might like to screw me silly before I go play nice with my ex and his evil parents.’
Uh…no.
Mustering up some courage, she stepped up onto the plywood step and knocked on the aluminum-covered door. She heard some clattering and a big thump before the door swung open.
William stood in the doorway, his mouth open as if he were going to say something. His bright blue eyes were wide with astonishment.
“Uh, hi. Do you remember me?”
He blinked slowly before he tilted his head and gave her a lopsided smile. “How could I forget?”
Buffy felt her cheeks redden at his remark. She giggled nervously, her hands fidgeting in front of her.
“So, do what do I owe this pleasure to? There’s nothin’ wrong with the tree, is there?” He asked, a frown spreading across his lips.
“Oh, no. No, the tree is great. I was just in the neighborhood and I thought I would stop by and wish you a merry Christmas.” Lame, Buffy. So very lame.
His dark eyebrows rose. “That was very nice of you, luv. Happy Christmas t’ you and your kids too. They with you?”
Buffy shook her head. “No, they are with their father.”
He frowned again. “Oh, well, you better get back t’ your husband and-”
She couldn’t help but to laugh. God, if he only knew how ridiculous that sounded to her. Get back to her ‘husband’. It was laughable. There was no way in Hell she would ever want to get back to Angel.
“Ex.”
“Pardon me?”
“He’s my ex-husband,” she informed him, taking a little pride in the fact that his unhappy expression changed dramatically after she’d said it.
“I see. So you’re not attached then.” It was a statement rather than a question.
She nodded. “Yep.”
“That’s good.”
Okay, now they were just skirting around the obvious attraction between them and Buffy was losing her patience. Why didn’t he just ask her? For her number or to have dinner with him or if he could kiss her? Why was he still talking about the weather?
“Bloody cold the last couple o’ days.”
“Do you want to come home with me?” She blurted out without thinking about how she phrased the question.
“Uh…” He searched her face for clarification.
She shook her head to clear her mind. “I mean, I’m having a Christmas party and I was wondering if you’d like to come?”
“Oh,” he said in comprehension. “Yeah, sure. I’d love to.”
Okay, mate. Get it together. A very gorgeous woman just invited you to her party and here you are shaking like a bloody leaf.
William Pratt stared at himself in a blurry mirror in the closet-sized bathroom. He looked like a punk-kid with his hair bleached instead of a twenty-four year old man. He didn’t know what had possessed him to make such a drastic change, but now he was regretting it.
What woman would want to get involved with a guy who looked like Sex Pistols reject? More importantly, what did he have to offer her? He worked at a sodding tree lot, for under the table wages, no less.
He half expected her to be gone when he emerged from the bathroom after changing his clothes. But instead, he found her sitting patiently on the old futon, smiling when she saw him.
“You ready?” She asked, standing up.
Nodding, he grabbed his coat and followed her out the door. He walked behind her, not able to keep his gaze from sliding down to her bottom. It looked like a ripe, denim-covered peach. Absolutely delicious.
Since October when she’d shown up with her kids at the pumpkin patch he’d been working at, he couldn’t get her out of his mind. All of his dreams starred this gorgeous blond beauty with her golden skin and kittenish hazel-green eyes.
He had never expected to see her again so when she showed up a couple weeks ago for a tree, he had practically felt his heart stop at the sight of her. And now she was inviting him back to her house? Fuck, he was going to make a damn fool out of himself if he didn’t rein in his attraction for her.
For all he knew, she was just being nice. Maybe she felt sorry for him because he was all alone on Christmas Eve. She had kids; maybe her maternal instinct was kicking in or something.
She unlocked the doors to her car and they both got in.
“This is going to be fun. I promise. Totally unlame as Christmas parties go,” she told him as she started the car up.
“I’m sure it will be.”
She smiled at him and he felt himself almost come undone. What she could do with just a smile. He was hers, whether she knew it or not, he was all hers.
They drove for a couple of miles before she spoke again. “So, are you British? You have an accent.”
“Yeah, born and raised.”
“What brought you out to California?”
“A girl.”
She looked over at him, surprise on her face. “Oh? Your girlfriend?”
He chuckled. “No, not my girlfriend. Wanted her t’ be, but she didn’t want anythin’ to do with me.”
“Well, she doesn’t seem like a very smart girl then.”
His heartbeat sped up at her words. Was she complimenting him?
“She wasn’t exactly in her right mind, anyway. Better that she turned me down,” he replied.
At the time, he’d been devastated that Dru hadn’t wanted anything to do with him. It broke his heart. Now, he was relieved. The girl was completely sack of hammers and he wondered why he’d liked her in the first place. He felt sorry for the bloke she got her claws into.
“Yeah, now you’re free when the right woman comes around.”
He quickly turned to look at her. She was smirking at him, her head tilted towards him. Was that an invitation? If so, he was ready right now to take her up on it.
She turned down a street and made her way up several blocks before stopping in front of a beautiful two-story brick house.
“This is it,” she announced, turning the car off. “The party doesn’t start until seven, so maybe you can help me get everything set up?”
“Of course. Wouldn’t have it any other way, luv.”
“Good.”
She led him up the path to the front door and got them inside quickly. After giving him a quick tour of the living room and kitchen, she set her grocery bag down on the counter.
“So, I got most of the stuff ready yesterday, but I’ll need help setting everything out. Sound okay?”
“Sure.”
They worked quickly, the clock ticking by until the doorbell rang at five til’ seven. She frowned and William wondered if she really wanted to do this. Somehow, he doubted it.
“I’ll just go get the door. You wait here,” she told him, giving his forearm a squeeze before hurrying off to the door.
His skin burned where she touched him. Did she know how much he wanted her? From his perspective, he was sure it was obvious.
Just calm down. Don’t make a bleedin’ fool out of yourself.
Just then Buffy walked back into the room, her frown having turned into a downright awful scowl. She’d only been gone a second. What the Hell had happened?
“So, is this your new boyfriend, Buff? Looks a little wet behind the ears if you ask me.”
Well, that answered that.
A/N: Okay, I couldn’t resist. This my Holiday Spuffy contribution. It’s not going to be an epic, I swear. Let me know what you think. Happy Holidays! ~Jae