Read Online Black Flame by Ruby Laska - Free Book Online

their complicated histories, the family that Jimmy had lost, and the family that Deneen had purposefully taken a break from. She felt like she ought to say something profound to mark the occasion. But what? Jimmy wasn’t the sentimental sort, nor did he seem particularly religious.
    “Watch out for reindeer,” she blurted, then wished she could take it back.
    “I beg your pardon?”
    Deneen blushed, something she seemed to be doing every other minute around Jimmy. “Oh, it’s just something my grandfather used to say, when we were kids. My mom and dad and my grandma weren’t really into the holidays. They thought they were just a big commercial indulgence.”
    “A sensible viewpoint,” Jimmy commented approvingly.
    “Yes, well, kids love Christmas no matter what. And my grandpa was the only one who got into the spirit with me and Jayne. Every year he’d tell us to watch out for reindeer, and sometime in the middle of the night, there’d be the sound of bells outside, and then we would hear the sleigh landing on the roof. Of course, it was just Grandpa—he’d get the ladder out of the garage and climb up there just to give us a thrill. When we finally found out about Santa, we knew it had been him. But by then he had died.”
    Jimmy started to answer, and then a sad look crossed his face. Deneen wondered if he was thinking about his mother: about the things she’d been unable to do for him.
    “What was Christmas like for you and your mom?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t poking her nose into things that weren’t her business. Maybe he’d feel better if he could talk about it.
    “It was…” Jimmy frowned and studied the table. When he looked up again, his expression was guarded. “It was fine. So, I’d better go. Good night.”
    Abruptly, he turned on his heel and stalked to the front door.
    “Good night,” Deneen called after him. After the door had shut, she added softly, the words her grandfather always said when he gave Jayne and Deneen goodnight hugs on Christmas Eve, “Don’t let Santa see you out of bed.”

CHAPTER NINE
    Jimmy knew his errand would take longer in the snow, especially since Nan’s house was at the other end of town. Still, the thick blanket of fluffy new flakes quickly covered the roads that the town crew managed to plow, and it didn’t help that the temperature had risen and now was hovering right under freezing, meaning slush turned quickly to ice on the roads.
    It was nearly midnight when he returned home. He tried to slip quietly into the house, so as not to wake Deneen. Her door was closed, he noted with relief as he passed on his way to his room. Quickly stripping out of his clothes, he grabbed his towel off the hook in his room—there wasn’t room in the bathroom for everyone to hang their towels—and wrapped it around his waist.
    He pushed open the door to the bathroom and stopped cold.
    Sitting in the tub, under a mound of bubbles, and illuminated only by the glow of a couple of candles on the sink, was Deneen. Her hair was piled up on her head, a few blond strands having come free and fallen against her cheek, and her eyes were closed. A faint smile played across her lips as she languidly swirled the bubbles around the tub with one hand. She was wearing ear buds, but even so Jimmy could hear the faint sounds of music coming from her phone, which was perched perilously close to the edge of the tub.
    Strangely, she had applied a gel-like green substance to her face, covering the skin from her forehead to her chin, leaving holes around the eyes so that she looked vaguely like a mint-green panda bear.
    “At ninety-four decibels, which I’m pretty sure your music is exceeding, your risk of hearing loss passes acceptable levels,” Jimmy said loudly.
    Deneen’s eyes flew open and she gasped as she yanked the ear buds off and flung them to the floor. “What are you doing in here?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her breasts and sinking farther into the tub,