His smell had infiltrated her brain and snagged into every crevice of her anxious, worked-up mind. It was like she had imprinted on him, which was ridiculous. Even if he was sincere in his admiration for Sameera, Tom clearly had his own issues. It wouldn’t be smart to complicate things, especially not while they were in Alaska. They both had work to do on themselves before they could enter into a healthy relationship.
What about a hot, unhealthy, no-strings-attached relationship instead?a voice whispered in her mind. She tried to tell it to shut up, but as a counterargument, it brought up Tom’s eyes, his hair, his arms, his laugh. Sameera stood up and started to pace. She was developing a tiny crush on Tom, that was all. Crushes passed.
She needed fresh air and a change of scenery. She put on her coat, eased into boots, and grabbed a blanket from the living room couch before sliding the glass patio doors open and tiptoeing outside.
She stood in the dark for a moment, appreciating the silence. As much as she loved her hometown, Atlanta was never really quiet, and never this dark. Walking to the edge of the backyard patio, which had been cleared of the latest snowfall but was still covered with adusting of snow, she looked up at the sky. It was a cloudless night, the stars so bright, they looked like diamonds a giant hand had spilled on a rich velvet cloth. The air felt refreshing, cold but clean, and she inhaled deeply.
“Can’t sleep?” a voice called from the gloom, and Sameera stifled a scream. As if she had conjured him, a familiar figure sat on a bench tucked into a copse of trees. The glow of an outdoor heat lamp flickered to life, casting long shadows over Tom’s handsome face.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, and she could just make out his shrug in the soft dark as she drifted closer.
“I shouldn’t have had that coffee after dinner, not to mention all the chai we drank,” he said. “Sorry if I disturbed your nighttime stroll. Watch out for bears.” He stood to leave, stretching as he rose, and Sameera caught a tantalizing flash of flat belly. And was that the bottom half of a six-pack? Her mouth immediately went dry.
“You don’t have to go,” she blurted. He was kidding about the bears, right?
“Are you sure?” he asked, but he had already settled back on the padded bench seat, and she cautiously took a seat beside him, arranging the blanket to cover them both.
The silence stretched, and once again, it was a comfortable sort of quiet, the sort that didn’t ask much of her. She leaned back, and her shoulder brushed against Tom’s. The heater was clearly effective.
“You’re so warm,” she said absently.
“I think you mean, I’m so hot,” he said, and she laughed quietly. Flirting was as natural as breathing to him. It didn’t come with any expectations, either; he just enjoyed teasing her, and being teased in turn.
“It’s like you can read my mind,” she said, and his smile flashed bright in the dark. They settled back into silence, and feeling brave, she leaned her head on his shoulder. A purely friendly gesture, of course.
He shifted so that his arm lay on the back of the bench, and she cuddled closer. The darkness made everything feel more intimate, and Sameera could feel her inhibitions evaporate into the night sky, as ifnothing that happened here, while the rest of their family slept, would really count. Sameera felt her body relax as the steady churn of her mind finally calmed, like a boat stumbling into a sheltered harbor.
“Esa is funny,” Tom said, his voice a soft rumble above her cheek. “Cal likes him a lot. It usually takes him a while to open up to strangers.” Tom shifted again, and his arm lightly curled around her shoulder.
“Are you close with Cal?” she asked. Her lids were getting heavy. He was so warm, and the air was fresh and crisp on her face, the contrast delicious.
Tom was quiet, thinking. “I wish we were closer. But that’s not his fault. I had moved out by the time he arrived. He was seven years old when Barb married Rob. I’m not sure he’s ever felt like he truly belonged in Wolf Run, either.”
That answered a question Sameera had been wondering. As much as Rob clearly loved Cal, she had wondered why the older man’s fixation on family and legacy had settled on the son who didn’t live in his beloved hometown rather than the son who did. “I did notice that Wolf Run is a bit ... homogenous,” Sameera said tentatively, and Tom laughed.
“That’s one way to put it. Barb gets on with everyone, and it’s nice to see that things are changing slowly and growing more diverse. Abu Isra and his family have been a welcome addition. But yes, some people can be set in their ways and wary of newcomers, which in their world means anyone who can’t trace their family in Wolf Run back four generations. They’re also not happy when one of us leaves.”
“Like you did,” Sameera said. He had mentioned this to her before; she suspected it was foremost on his mind now he was back.
“Those Christmas pranks,” Tom said, changing the subject. “Is it customary to play jokes on Eid?”
Sameera laughed. “The Christmas pranks are entirely Esa’s and Kevin McCallister’s fault,” she said. “Plus, he took your advice about making content and has decided to specialize.”
“I wonder how many pranks that movie is responsible for,” Tom mused. “Maybe an entire industry.”
“Just another Christmas mystery we will never solve,” she agreed. In the soft glow of the patio lights, Tom’s face was wreathed in shadows, which did interesting things to the planes of his cheekbones and the sharp line of his jaw, his nose just a touch too big for his face, eyes that looked almost hooded in the dark, eyebrows thick and dark. He raised one at her, smiling quizzically, and she wondered if he knew how attractive he was, or whether he’d had a glow-up as an adult. Nobody really told men they were beautiful. Hot, maybe, but not that they were pretty.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” Tom said. His voice felt like a delicious rasp against her skin, and Sameera shivered.
“Did you enjoy watching our fathers give themselves ulcers from eating too much hot sauce? Or when that air siren went off in Barb’s pantry, and she jumped a mile? Or the terrified screams of Abu Isra’s children when they spotted your resident jinn, a.k.a. an ordinary Elf on a Shelf?” Her tone was teasing, but a part of her worried.
When he turned to face her fully, she could see the sincerity on his face as he replied. “I loved it all,” he said. “Christmas in Wolf Run usually means silent family dinners and stilted conversations where no one says what they really mean. Barb always tries to draw everyone out, but it’s hard when you can cut the tension with a knife. No jokes, no laughter. Not even an inflatable T. rex. I love the energy and unpredictability the Maliks bring everywhere they go.”
“What’s Christmas without a battery-operated Halloween costume?” Sameera said.
“Joyless. With plenty of guilt for dessert, and land mines waiting in every conversation, until the only safe subject is the weather, or hockey. And as you now know, I don’t watch hockey.”
“Nobody watches hockey; you breathe it into your veins,” Sameera said. “We need to get the Thrashers back from Winnipeg is all I’m saying.”
