* * *
“LIKE THIS, BABY!” Iris got down on her hands and knees next to Tommy, demonstrating how to crawl. “I teaching him, Mommy.”
“I see that,” Megan said, supervising while she wrapped another strand of lights around the tree in the corner. They were saving the ornaments for after dinner.
Wanting to join in the fun, Lily dropped to all fours on Tommy’s other side. But she quickly got distracted by pretending that she was a dog, barking and “digging.” Rather than join in, Daisy looked mystified by the entire procedure.
“Why he not just walk?” she asked Megan.
“He’ll get there eventually.”
Daisy stuck her face down close to Tommy’s. “You should walk.”
He babbled happily at her.
“With feet,” she clarified.
More babbling.
Shrugging, she retreated to her room with a selection of library books.
“Don’t mind her,” Megan told the baby. “Everyone’s full of opinions. Best learn early not to take them too seriously.” The phone in her jeans pocket rang. “See? That’s probably someone calling with an opinion now. Hello?”
“Hey.” Just the sound of Will’s voice made her grin. “How has your afternoon been? Kids driving you crazy?”
“Not really. Daisy attempted a short-lived career as a motivational speaker for infants, and Lily decided she’s a dog. Pretty much the norm. What about you?”
“Well, I’ve left the station, but I’m not heading straight to the house yet. I have to pick up J— I have a stop to make. Is it okay if I’m fifteen or twenty minutes late?”
“Sure. If they haven’t driven me to a mental breakdown by now, I’ll probably be all right for another fifteen minutes.” She sat on the couch, tucking her legs underneath her. “While I have you on the phone, I just wanted to say that I’m flattered you asked me to be your wedding date, but—”
“If you’re going to be so cruel as to reject me, don’t I deserve to hear it face-to-face? This is like dumping someone by text,” he grumbled.
“It is not! For starters, I can’t dump you. We were never dating.” And she had opted to take advantage of this phone conversation because she wasn’t sure she could turn him down face-to-face.
“Please, Megan. Go with me,” he persisted.
“How about a compromise? We’ll both be there anyway. I’ll save you a dance.”
He made a phhbbt sound, clearly not mollified. “You’re an only child, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I hope that you can understand this without thinking I’m a terrible brother, but Cole can be obnoxiously perfect. He’s a great guy, always has been. He didn’t beat up on his younger brothers, he didn’t get in trouble, he made all A’s. In comparison, I’ve always felt... I know this wedding day is about him and Kate, and I wish them all the happiness in the world, but there will be friends and family there looking at me, remembering my would-be wedding not too long ago.”
He was embarrassed to go without a date.
As someone whose pride had taken more than a few hits over the last couple of years, she empathized. “But why me? There were half a dozen women at the Christmas tree farm you could have asked who won’t be preoccupied with whether all the boutonnieres are pinned on straight or checking the arrangements every half hour to make sure nothing’s wilting.”
“I didn’t want to give anyone the wrong impression. As Jace put it, a date to a wedding is a lot more romantic than, say, bowling. You know I’m not looking for a relationship. There are half a dozen women I could have asked, but I don’t want to lead them on.”
His blunt answer was a rather sobering reality check. What had she expected him to say? That he craved her company, that he wanted her to be his date because she was an excellent kisser? It was ludicrous that she could feel so let down when she had rejected him.
“Thank you for being candid with me. I just don’t think I’m your girl. Confidentially—and please don’t repeat this to any of my customer base—I don’t like weddings. I mean, I do in theory. But I’ve only been to a few since I divorced my cheating husband, and I’m still a little raw. A little cynical. I caught myself rolling my eyes while a groom was saying his vows,” she admitted.
“You think that’s bad? I’m Cole’s best man and I...”
The guilty edge to his voice made her rabidly curious. “Spill.”
“I have these warped daydreams about him sneezing during his ‘I do’ or dropping the ring or something. Nothing that would mess up their big day, you understand, just a tiny flub. Something marginally less than perfect.”
“Like the piano player hitting a wrong note.”
“Exactly. Or a draft blowing out the unity candle.”
“Or the minister getting their names wrong.”
“Or the flower girl—”
“Hey, you leave all flower-related details out of this.”
“Yes, ma’am. The flowers will be perfection.”
“Hopefully, so will everything else. We’re terrible people to even joke otherwise.”
“Which is why we’d make excellent partners for this shindig. I’m going to win you over, you know.”
“No, you aren’t.”
But he merely laughed as he ended the call.
After she put her phone back in her pocket, she kept replaying parts of their conversation, grinning. He’s a bad influence on you. But she’d been the responsible, stable person who’d had to hold life together for her and the girls. The idea of being a little reckless was tantalizing. Maybe just for one night?
She was going to the wedding. There were worse ways to spend the evening than dancing with a sexy man who made her laugh. She’d have to find a dress and a sitter either way. Dagmar had said she’d watch the girls if the teenager down the street couldn’t do it. You know what Dagmar’s vote would be.
Then again, this was Megan’s love life. Dagmar didn’t get a vote.
The doorbell gargled its terrible death rattle, and she pressed her hand to her head. She really did need to look up online instructions for how to fix that. She did her usual workout routine of stepping over the waist-high baby gate—doing that a few hundred times a day had to be toning some muscles—and answered the door.
Her mouth dropped open in a gasp she tried to cover. “Mom!”
Beth Ann beamed at her. “Surprised, aren’t you?”
“More than words can capture.”
“Good news. I’ve come to stay with you for the week!”
Chapter Ten
Megan inhaled through her nose, and slowly exhaled, waiting for the fuzzy-headed faint feeling to subside. “Mom, what are you doing here?”
Beth Ann frowned. “I just told you, I’ve come to stay for the week. That way, I’ll be out of your hair before Spencer arrives, but available to help you clean and get ready for Christmas.” She hefted a plaid suitcase. “Now be a good girl and invite me in.”
Megan could hardly tell her mother to get back in the car and hit the road. “Please. Do come in.” She needed to get back to the living room anyway, to supervise the baby. No doubt her mother was going to have opinions about Megan watching Tommy.
It wasn’t that she disliked her mom, exactly, but their personalities occasionally clashed. Beth Ann could fret over potential problems to the point that her worrying exhausted those around her, particularly her daughter who felt as if she should be doing more to allay her mother’s concerns. Megan didn’t have the energy or hours in the day to take care of herself, her daughters and her mother’s worst-case scenarios.
“It’s sweet that you came all this way, Mom,” she said, stepping over the baby gate. “But I’m not sure the timing—”
“How do you open this?” Beth Ann eyed the barrier as if
it was a thing of evil. “The ones they had in my day weren’t so complicated.”
“Sorry.” Megan reached down and released the spring-loaded latch. “As I was saying, as much as I appreciate your thoughtfulness—”
“Gammy!” Daisy came racing toward her grandmother for a hug.
Beth Ann looked momentarily terrified. She braced her hands out in front of her. “Slow down there, speedy. Gammy’s no spring chicken. You don’t want me to break a hip.”
“Chicken?” Daisy threw her head back and laughed as if that were uproariously funny. Instead of tackling her grandmother, she grabbed her hand and tugged her into the living room. “Come see Iris and Lily and baby Tommy.”
“Is Tommy your baby doll?”
Daisy laughed again. From her perspective, Gammy was a regular stand-up comedian. “No, baby Tommy is a baby.”
Beth Ann’s penciled eyebrows shot up, her quizzical gaze boring into Megan. “Did you get another one while I wasn’t looking, dear?”
“Ha-ha. I’m babysitting for a neighbor.” What were the chances that she could keep her mom from meeting said neighbor?
The last time they’d spoken on the phone, Beth Ann was espousing her long-held opinion that mothers should not be single. She firmly believed Megan needed a man in her life. If she found out that Megan’s next-door neighbor was a virile firefighter who was good with children...
Fortunately, Tommy hadn’t gotten into any trouble in the few minutes that Megan had taken her eyes off him. He was on his hands and knees, rocking back and forth and laughing at Iris.
Megan scooped him up. “I think it’s about time for your bottle.”
The girls had crowded around their grandmother, expressing affectionate greetings but also demanding to know if she had brought presents. Beth Ann unzipped her suitcase, pulling out a few brightly wrapped parcels.
“I do have gifts, but you can’t open them until Christmas. Who wants to put them under the tree for Gammy?” She glanced at the spruce in the corner. “Oh. You haven’t decorated yet.”
“Nope, you’re just in time,” Megan said, shaking a bottle. “That’s on our agenda for tonight.”
“When you were younger,” Beth Ann reminded her, “we always decorated the tree on December first. It was a family tradition.”
“I’m all for tradition, but I’ve been a little busy, Mom.”
“I can imagine.” Her mother sat next to her on the couch. “What with that flower stuff you do—”
“My job.”
“—and the girls. And now you’re taking in other children on top of that?”
Only my mom could make a single baby sound like I’m running a home for juvenile delinquents. “The extra cash is nice at the holidays.”
Her mother pursed her lips. “Are you having money troubles, dear? That rat Spencer—”
“Ixnay on the at-ray.” Megan cast a meaningful glance at her daughters. She tried never to speak ill of their father in front of them.
“I’m sorry.” Beth Ann lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “But it makes me so mad, him cavorting with Barbie or Bunny—”
“I think he said Bonnie.”
“—while you’re here spending Christmas alone.” She practically wailed the word.
“Well, Spencer and I aren’t married anymore. He’s legally allowed to cavort. And I’m not lonely. I have the girls and Dagmar.” And the dangerously attractive next-door neighbor who was either a blessing or a bad influence. The jury was still out.
Beth Ann patted her knee. “And also me. That’s why I’m here, to help you get ready for Christmas.”
Megan adjusted Tommy in her arms, giving her mother a knowing look over the baby’s head. “Are you sure you aren’t here to criticize my life choices?”
“I can multitask, dear.”
Megan wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to be very afraid. The doorbell wheezed, and her heart jumped to her throat. Will! How quickly could she hand off the baby and send them on their way without being unforgivably rude?
“Do you want me to answer that?” her mother offered.
But Megan was already bolting from the sofa, holding Tommy tight against her while she cleared the gate. “Coming!”
As she reached for the doorknob, her mind scrambled for a plan of action. Personally, she thought Will had a fantastic family, but Gayle Trent could, on occasion, get a little intense about wanting what was best for her sons. So perhaps Megan could make him understand, quickly and quietly, why he should avoid her matrimonial-minded mother.
She opened the door as narrowly as possible. “Hey, just a heads-up—”
Will beamed at her, like a little boy with a secret he couldn’t wait share. “Do you have a few minutes?”
“Actually, this isn’t the best time...” How best to encapsulate Beth Ann without using words that would upset her mother too much if she overheard?
“Oh.” His face fell. “Want me to tell Santa to hit the bricks, then?”
“Santa.” She opened the door farther and craned her head outside the door to spot a Santa Claus standing on her sidewalk.
His demeanor seemed more sarcastic than jolly, but he gamely offered a “Ho-ho-ho.”
“My brother Jace,” Will explained softly.
“Nice to meet you,” Jace said. “I know it’s hard to tell right now, but I’m the good-looking Trent. I’m also, unfortunately, the Trent who is not too tall to fit the suit.” He shot his brother a glare beneath his fake bushy eyebrows, an adorably malevolent Father Christmas. It was clear Will had coerced him into being here.
For my girls. Her heart melted. The triplets still hadn’t seen Santa this year. Leave it to Will, who was fast becoming one of her daughters’ favorite people, to arrange a house call.
Hell, she was going to have to introduce him to her mom. There was no way she could send him away in light of his thoughtfulness.
“Megan?” her mother prodded from the hallway. “Who’s at the door?”
Someone very special. Her gaze locked with Will’s, and she blurted under her breath, “Yes, I’ll be your date for the wedding.”
“Oh, he gets a date out of this?” Jace drawled.
“You get my everlasting gratitude.” She blew him a kiss. “And a lifetime discount on flowers, should you ever want to impress a special lady friend.”
Will stepped forward and squeezed her hand. “I would have worn you down—I’m very persuasive—but I wouldn’t have used the girls to do it. This is for them, not to impress you.”
“I know.” Which was why she was moved by the gesture.
“Where are the girls?” he asked in a low voice. “Usually, they’re crowding around to say hi. Did you say it was a bad time because someone’s asleep? Sick?”
“No, they’re just momentarily distracted by my mother. Who arrived unexpectedly.” She tried to apologize with her eyes for whatever Beth Ann might say. “Do you two want to come in, or should I bring the girls out here?”
Will glanced at his brother. “Do you mind staying put for a minute?”
“For the record, you owe me so big. When I get married, you are paying for the bachelor party. And it will be epic.”
Will and Megan went into the house, and she passed him Tommy. “His crawling is getting really good.”
“Tell me about it. I may need to buy baby gates this weekend.” He stopped, looking dazed. “I can’t believe that sentence just came out of my mouth.” Shaking it off, he walked into the living room. “You must be Megan’s mom. I’m Will Trent, her neighbor.”
“You live next door to my daughter?” Beth Ann eyed him with the same gleeful avarice Daisy had shown for the toy catalog that came in the mail last week. “I think it’s wonderful that you two single parents could help each other out.”
&n
bsp; Megan almost snorted at her mother’s abrupt change of heart.
“I’m actually not a parent—long story—but I couldn’t agree more about your daughter being wonderful. Will you excuse me a moment?” He turned toward her daughters. “Iris? Do you remember we talked about you drawing a picture for Santa, and I promised you’d get a chance to meet him?”
She nodded eagerly.
“Did you draw your picture? Can you go get it?”
From the speed with which she dashed to her room and back, no one would ever guess that she was the slowest one to leave the house each morning. When she tried to hand the drawing over to him, he grinned. “No, you hold on to that. I have a surprise for you—all three of you. I sent Santa an email telling him how sad you were that you didn’t get to meet him, and he asked if he could come visit you sometime. Would that be okay?”
Daisy and Iris both shouted, “Yes!” loudly enough to make their grandmother wince.
“Would you like to meet him now?” Will asked. Another volley of yeses followed. He paused for a moment, studying each girl, then went back to the front door.
“How about we wait over by the Christmas tree?” Megan suggested so that Iris and Daisy didn’t both ambush Santa at once. Will’s brother might not know what he was in for. Will returned with Jace and a chair from the kitchen.
Whether Jace was here voluntarily or not, he certainly put his heart into it. “Ho-ho-ho! Merry Christmas, Rivers family,” he boomed.
Lily and Iris gasped. Daisy shouted back, “Merry Christmas!”
Will set the chair by the fireplace while Daisy asked Santa if he’d brought his reindeer.
Jace shook his head. “No, they’re all being checked out by the North Pole veterinarian. He’s the doctor who makes sure they’re healthy enough to fly all over the world.”
“I hafta go to the doctor sometimes,” Daisy commiserated. “I don’t like shots.”
“Neither do the reindeer. Rudolph got so mad that his nose turned a whole bunch of different colors! It glowed yellow for a week.”
The girls giggled.
Jace sat in the chair. “I thought I’d visit today so you girls could tell me some of the things you might like for Christmas. Then maybe your mommy can take some pictures?” He turned toward Iris. “Speaking of pictures, the elves told me that you made something for me.”
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