Together for Christmas

by Debbie Macomber

  Those friends used to be her friends, until Noelle had stolen Kyle and made it too awkward for Olivia to hang out with them. Incensed to think her sister would dare take that tack after what she’d done, Olivia almost let her have it. But then she glanced up and caught Brandon watching her. As he walked through the crowded room, he gave her a half smile and a wink that reminded her to take it on the chin—or at least pretend to.

  Ignoring Noelle and Gail DeMarco, Noah Rackham, Baxter North, Callie Vanetta, even Cheyenne Christensen, her favorite of Kyle’s friends, as well as the rest of them, Olivia began to circle the center table. She was hoping to put several place settings between her and Noelle. But her sister had saved the seat next to her.

  “Olivia, why don’t you sit here by me?” she said as sweetly as if she hadn’t just called Olivia a slut.

  Olivia suspected her sister of trying to keep her from sitting beside Brandon, but she had no intention of doing that, anyway—not under the watchful eyes of both sets of parents, neither of whom seemed pleased by their friendship. Maybe they believed Noelle and thought she and Brandon were trying to ruin the wedding.

  “Noelle!” Kyle’s chastening tone surprised Olivia. Clearly he wasn’t happy. He seemed to be cautioning his fiancée against baiting her, but Noelle ignored him.

  “Well?” Her sister lifted her eyebrows.

  Feeling Kyle’s parents’ attention on her, Olivia suppressed her anger. She’d be damned if she’d let Noelle make her look any worse than she already did. “Coming.”

  Once they were all seated, the tension eased enough for polite conversation. Everyone joined in except Kyle. He remained silent, drinking far more than he ate.

  Noelle didn’t seem to notice that her groom was upset. Her gaze darted to Brandon every few seconds, even though he didn’t pay her the slightest attention. When he did look up, it was to catch Olivia’s eye.

  Determined to get through the meal as fast as possible, Olivia concentrated on her salad and champagne and tried to block out everything else. But Brandon’s mother whispered something to him, and Olivia couldn’t help straining to hear what was said.

  “Why on earth were you so late? You promised me you’d be on your best behavior!”

  “I am on my best behavior,” he said with a mock scowl that nearly made Olivia laugh. He hadn’t answered his mother’s question, but when he leaned back and put his arm around her, she seemed so pleased by the loving gesture that she let the rest go.

  Smooth, Olivia thought. Too smooth. She was going to have to be careful not to fall for him like everyone else.

  Nine

  KYLE FELT AS if the night would never end. He knew he was drinking too much, but he had to do something. Otherwise, he’d get into a public argument with his soon-to-be wife. Noelle was playing games, taunting Olivia wherever and whenever she could. She didn’t realize that it made her look jealous and inferior and foolish.

  This was the woman he was marrying. But the sense of doom that acknowledgment brought him wasn’t the worst of what he was suffering. Not tonight. The worst was watching Brandon and Olivia together. The way they’d walked into the room, united against everyone else. The intimacy of the looks they exchanged across the table. The smiles. They were captivated with each other. He’d never seen his brother so attentive to a woman. He wanted to believe Brandon was just trying to get under his skin, but he knew better. Brandon had his faults. He was competitive and stubborn and determined to live life on his own terms, but he was honest, and he wasn’t petty.

  Kyle had expected this wedding to be difficult, but it was proving to be almost impossible.

  “So have you decided where you’ll live?” his future mother-in-law asked.

  This had been a subject of much contention. He wanted to stay in the same house he’d been living in for five years, the one he’d had built near his manufacturing plant. It wasn’t big or ostentatious, but it was comfortable and convenient.

  Noelle wanted him to buy her a mansion in town. She worked at a dress boutique, making minimum wage, and used the excuse that it was closer to her job.

  “We’re going to knock down the old Foreman house right there on the turn as you leave town and build our dream home,” Noelle gushed.

  Kyle gaped at her. Where had that come from? She’d been trying to talk him into that plan, but he’d never agreed. “No, we’re not,” he said. “Noelle will be moving in with me.”

  “We can’t live in that cracker box!” she snapped. “Where will we put the baby?”

  “There’s room.” He finished his champagne and searched for the waiter. “I can move the storage I have over to the plant.”

  “But there’s no need to go to the trouble. If we build in town, we can have everything just the way we want.”

  The way she wanted. That was all that ever mattered.

  He could tell he was making his parents uncomfortable by not respecting her wishes, but the alcohol was interfering with his ability to control the negative thoughts and emotions rising to the surface. “I’m not ready to build in town.”

  “That’s not what you said when we talked about it last,” Noelle pressed, despite the look he gave her, asking her to drop it. “You said you’d think about it.”

  He shrugged. “I have. The answer’s no.”

  “What I want doesn’t count?” Her voice grew shrill. “We’re going to stay in that dump just because you like it?”

  His place was one of the nicest in the area. It wasn’t even close to being a “dump.” She was just trying to get her own way, like the spoiled child she really was, but before he could say so, someone touched his shoulder.

  “Hey, you.”

  Gail had left her table in the middle of the main dish to rescue him. He knew that as soon as her gaze cut to the waiter filling his glass on the other side.

  “What’s up?” he said.

  “I have a toast I want to do tomorrow,” she replied, “but I’d like to check with you to see if what I’ve got planned is okay. Do you have a minute?”

  He glanced around the table at all the faces watching him and managed to conjure up what he hoped was a passable smile. “Of course.” He dipped his head toward the rest of them. “Excuse us.”

  “Don’t you want me to come?” Noelle asked. “I should probably know about it, if it’s for the wedding.”

  “Um...” As Gail’s eyes shifted to his fiancée, Kyle was willing to bet only he knew how much Gail disliked her.

  “It’s actually a surprise,” Gail said. “For you! So...it would be better if you stayed here, okay?”

  Obviously flattered, Noelle preened for Brandon as if this somehow proved her importance. Then Brandon turned to Kyle, and he might as well have said, “You’re a fool if you go through with this,” because it was written all over his face.

  “What about your dinner?” Noelle’s mother piped up. “Can’t you talk about the toast after you finish? You’ve hardly eaten a thing!”

  Kyle put his napkin to the side of his plate. “I’m too excited to eat,” he said, even though excitement played no role.

  Eager to escape, he followed his friend out of the room and then out of the restaurant to a patio that was empty except for a few lingering diners who congregated around a table at one end.

  “What’s going on?” he murmured.

  “That’s what I’m wondering,” she said, turning to confront him. “I’ve never seen you drink so much at someone else’s rehearsal dinner—and this is your own!”

  “I’m fine. I—”

  She squeezed his arm. “Kyle, please. If the rest of the gang could’ve gotten out of that room without making it look too odd, they’d be here with me, trying to talk some sense into you.”

  He knew where this was going. “She’s having my baby, Gail.”

  She pressed two fingers to each temple. “I know! I u
nderstand you feel responsible for that. And I admire how determined you are to do the right thing. But... I can’t bear to see you unhappy. We all feel like we’re attending your funeral instead of your wedding!”

  The others must have shared the details of the past few weeks with her because he hadn’t had the chance to say much since she hit town. She lived in L.A., was the only member of their group to have moved away and had been gone since starting her public relations firm over a decade ago.

  Normally he loved it when she came home. She had the best stories about the movie stars she represented. At last count, she was working with several box office hits, including Hollywood heavyweight Simon O’Neal. But they hadn’t had a chance to catch up on any of that this time around.

  “It’s just extra hard,” he said. “With Olivia here.”

  “I’ve let my work take over my life, so I’m no expert on relationships,” she said. “But...if you won’t cancel this, you should at least put it off until you’re more confident in your decision.”

  He laughed. “Are you kidding me? The wedding’s tomorrow, Gail. There’s no way I can change anything.” If he backed out, he feared Noelle would make it impossible for him to ever see his child. As long as she got her way, she was tractable. But if he embarrassed or upset her, she’d fight him on everything.

  “Kyle—”

  “There you are.”

  They both turned to see Eve, who managed The Gold Nugget, the bed-and-breakfast owned by her family.

  “Did you tell him what we think?” she asked Gail.

  Gail shot Kyle a meaningful glance. “I told him.”

  Eve gave him a stern look. “So are you going to call it off?”

  Once again, he searched for a better way to handle the situation but couldn’t find one. “No. I’m going to be a father. Nothing can take precedence over that.”

  * * *

  They were almost out of the room, almost free, when Kyle’s father caught up with Brandon and pulled him off to one side. “So what are you doing to keep busy now that the cast is off?” he asked.

  Olivia gritted her teeth at being detained. She couldn’t wait to leave, to put the rehearsal dinner behind them and return to the peace of Brandon’s secluded cabin. She needed to regroup, but she couldn’t allow her eagerness to show. Everyone was watching her too closely, wondering if she’d been late in some passive-aggressive attempt to make her unhappiness known.

  “Just working out every day, trying to get in shape for the season.”

  Brandon answered Bob’s questions politely, but Olivia could tell he was purposely playing up the ski-bum image. He’d already told her that spring and summer were almost as busy as fall and winter. When she’d acted surprised, he’d explained that he had to meet with his sponsors, be available to film commercials and participate in photo shoots, most of which required travel to New York or Los Angeles. He also had to appear at various events, including children’s camps and autographings, and increase his presence on social networking sites. Professional skiing was a business as much as a sport, and the stacks of paperwork on his desk—mostly contracts of one kind or another—seemed to prove it. So did the poster samples he’d been sent. One showed him dropping, seemingly without effort, down the face of an alarmingly steep mountain wearing an expensive brand of ski gear. Another captured his smiling face in a pair of Oakley goggles with ice crystals caught in the beard growth along his jaw.

  He could’ve told his stepfather about these things. He could also have mentioned that he was making a tremendous amount of money. Although they hadn’t spoken about that aspect, Olivia could tell it was true. But Brandon refused to vie for Bob’s approval, and Olivia couldn’t help but respect that.

  “Can the leg take another season?” This question was spoken with apparent concern, but Olivia heard the subtext. Bob thought Brandon should hang up his skis and get serious about life.

  She guessed Brandon interpreted his tone the same way and that made her sad. Brandon was one of the best skiers in the world, yet Bob treated him as if he hadn’t accomplished anything. He seemed to think Brandon should be a horse breeder like him, or something else more “legitimate,” like Kyle.

  “Leg’s getting stronger all the time,” Brandon assured him. “It’ll be fine.”

  Olivia imagined the pain Brandon must’ve suffered from that injury. Another daunting descent would require courage, but she had no doubt he’d do it. His daring made her smile.

  She was still smiling when she realized that Brandon was watching her with a speculative expression. He had somehow guessed that her smile was related to him. His lips quirked slightly as if he was tempted to grin back at her, even though a grin wasn’t appropriate to the conversation he was having with the disapproving Bob.

  “Well, you’ve got several months before you go back to Europe. You want to learn what it’s like to put in a hard day’s work, come on out to the stables,” Bob was saying. “We’ve got our hands full this year. Might be a great way to make some extra cash.”

  Brandon thanked him for the opportunity but begged off, saying he was going backpacking in Nicaragua. That didn’t win him any points with Bob, but it made Olivia chuckle. Brandon knew just how to tweak his stepfather’s nose without appearing to be impolite.

  She turned to hide her mirth and came face-to-face with Brandon’s mother. Paige had been talking to Nancy and Ham, who’d just left.

  “I’m sorry about how things worked out for you with Kyle,” Paige said, almost conspiratorially. “We miss seeing you at the house.”

  “I miss you, too,” Olivia responded, feeling an odd tug for what used to be.

  “Brandon’s far more of a handful,” she responded. “But it’s impossible not to love him.”

  Another warning—in case Olivia wasn’t already a believer. “We’re just friends,” she said, but Paige had already started a separate conversation with Cheyenne Christensen, whose mother was suffering from cancer. Olivia didn’t think Paige had heard the rejoinder.

  “What’d she say?” Brandon had finally broken away from his stepfather.

  “She said she loves you.”

  Taking hold of her elbow, he guided her out. “Was she shaking her head as if it was against her will?” he asked with a laugh.

  * * *

  Olivia had been so eager to get to Brandon’s house, but even before they walked through the door she knew she wouldn’t be able to unwind the way she’d envisioned. They no longer had to cope with the myriad emotions swirling around the wedding party. Her father’s disappointment with the way she’d handled the evening. Noelle’s jealousy. Kyle’s sullenness. The palpable concern of Kyle’s friends. All of that suddenly seemed so distant...part of another lifetime. Instead they had to cope with each other, and that was almost more difficult, because every word they’d spoken on the drive back, every accidental touch as he let her in, felt like foreplay to a sexual encounter she knew she’d be foolish to allow.

  It wasn’t so unusual for a woman in her situation to want to jump into bed with the next handsome guy. Another relationship, one with a quick flame, could assuage the loneliness and ease the sting of rejection. But, oddly enough, this was different. It didn’t feel as if Brandon would be a substitute for Kyle. It felt as if Kyle had always been a substitute for Brandon!

  She was fairly certain the rebound experience wasn’t supposed to work like that and couldn’t figure out why her situation was so different. She and Kyle had only been apart for about four months, and thanks to his betrayal, those four months had been the most miserable of her life. That meant she still loved him, didn’t it?

  So how could she care more about being with Brandon than she did about being hurt and angry over Kyle’s Big Mistake? What he’d done meant they could never be together again.

  But that didn’t seem to matter so much anymore.

  “Would you like some
herbal tea?” Brandon asked as she put her purse on the counter.

  “What kind do you have?”

  “A blend I found in Thailand.” He reached into a cupboard to get the box, which he showed her. “You should try it.”

  She pictured them drinking tea together, talking into the night and eventually ending up in his bed. She wanted that exact scenario so badly she almost chose satisfaction over caution.

  Maybe she would have, if not for his mother’s words: It’s impossible not to love him.

  She had an inkling that might be true. She’d always been drawn to Brandon, but never more so than in the past two days. She figured it was better to get away while she could. So, after a brief hesitation, she shook her head. “No, thanks. I’ve got to get up early. I wouldn’t want to oversleep the way I did today.”

  She halfway hoped he’d try to convince her to stay up with him. But he didn’t. He told her he understood and added a polite good-night.

  Forcing a smile to hide her disappointment, she nodded, but before she turned away, she caught sight of something that held her fast. When he moved, a grimace crossed his face and he shifted to take his weight off the leg he’d broken in his skiing accident.

  “Are you okay?” She’d heard him say his doctors had been able to put him back together, that he was healed and already training for the next season.

  His expression cleared instantly. He even exerted normal pressure on his leg while putting away the tea. “Of course. Why?”

  “I just thought...” She stopped herself. He wouldn’t be planning to walk across Nicaragua if his leg was causing him trouble. She must’ve imagined that he felt pain. Or maybe he’d just twisted it, which could make anyone wince. “Never mind,” she said. “See you in the morning.”

  Ten

  SOMETHING WOKE OLIVIA a few hours later. She wasn’t sure what—until she listened carefully. Then she realized it was the TV. Although the house was otherwise dark and quiet, she could hear the drone of voices and wondered what Brandon was watching.