"What's your name?"
"Kyla Ridgley," she answered, extending her hand.
"Wayne Stint," he replied, accepting her hand and squeezing.
"It was great to meet you, Wayne. I'm going to go back to my baking now," she said before realizing he was still holding on to her hand.
He reached the same realization at the same time, and his cheeks flushed. He let go quickly and mumbled "Sorry."
"No problem." She stood there awkwardly a moment longer before she decided to just turn and walk away.
Making it back to her apartment, Kyla leaned against the door and sighed before she called herself all sorts of names. She should have just taken the cookies to Tanner. She still could. She had a lot more to make.
But she knew she wasn't going to do it.
Chapter Twelve
Well, look at what we have here!"
Tanner froze. He didn't need to turn around to recognize that voice. Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! His life was really going to hell.
"Mmm, what a very sexy Santa Claus you make. I heard the good news, but I had to come see it for myself."
Jokes and guffaws at Tanner's expense flew thick and fast. With a thunderous expression on his face - sadly obscured by his white beard and bushy eyebrows - he glared at his brother Crew and cousin Lucas.
"Do you guys have a reason for being here?" he snapped as he looked around to see whether any of his other relatives were nearby. He'd really hoped that the visit at his apartment a little over a week ago would be the only such surprise.
"Nope. Just had to come and see how charming you look in your Santa costume," Crew said.
"What a peach you are, big brother," Tanner growled, and he began walking away.
"Now, now, don't be in such a hurry. We thought we'd take you out for a beer. I'm sure you could use it," Lucas said, easily keeping up.
"Very funny, Lucas. You both know I'm under flipping house arrest. The only place I get to go now is to my wonderfully quaint apartment - that is, if I don't get mugged on the way there," he said as he reached the break room and began yanking the Santa suit off.
"Well, then, I guess we'll just have to drink a couple of beers in your new digs," Crew said. "I'm looking forward to checking the place out."
"What if I'd rather not have the company?" Tanner didn't want to take a chance that he'd run into Kyla while these guys were around. If she came up and spoke to him, they'd get ideas. He didn't want them getting ideas. As soon as he was done with this sentence, he was out of here and he wouldn't look back. He shouldn't need to worry about it, though, as he hadn't seen her since last Thursday, when she'd been attacked. That was four days ago, and he wasn't happy about it.
"You have to be bored out of your mind," Lucas said. "Of course you want the company."
"I'm not going to get you two to go away, am I?"
"Not a chance," Crew said, sitting down and relaxing, even though the bench was absurdly uncomfortable.
"Fine. Give me a few minutes to change and you can give me a ride back. I get sick of taking stinking cabs or the bus. The walk takes too damn long after being at this mall all day. Kyla likes the walk, though - says it relaxes her."
Tanner wanted to bite his tongue off as soon as the words popped from his mouth. There was no hope the two of them hadn't noticed his slip.
"Kyla?" they said in unison, eyebrows raised.
"Don't," Tanner replied, and added a glare to let them know it was a closed subject.
"Hmm, have you managed to find romance in the projects?" Crew asked.
"The apartments aren't the projects, and no, I haven't. Even if I had, I certainly wouldn't tell you about it."
"I think you're protesting a little too much, cuz," Lucas said with a big grin.
Tanner had met his Anderson cousins a year ago or just a little more. He hadn't known of their existence until then, thanks to a very desperate doctor who'd kidnapped his father when he was a newborn. But it was as if they'd all been together their entire lives. All of them got along beautifully, and none of them had a problem with flinging crap at each other.
"How could I have met someone? I'm under house arrest," Tanner reminded them, trying his best to sound convincing.
"You do have a point there, but you are staying in an apartment building, not an all-male prison facility," Crew told his brother. "I think meeting someone is a definite possibility."
"Fine. I did meet a woman, but it's not what you think. She's an elf." Again, if he could kick his own ass, he would.
"An elf? Oh, this just keeps getting better and better," Lucas said with a Santa-like belly laugh.
"I think there's an adult movie or two with Santa and his elves," Crew managed to choke out in the midst of an explosion of his own guffaws.