She had no idea how long they stood there in her little sitting room, listening to the distant sounds of the Silver Belles singing on the other side of the house as they performed their show one last time to the final group of the night.
She only knew it was a pure, lovely moment she would never forget.
Finally, she knew she had to extricate herself from his arms or she would want to stay there forever.
She lifted her head. “Sorry. It’s been a long day. I guess I was more tired than I thought. Thank you for the shoulder.”
“Anytime,” he said, his voice gruff again. For some reason, that made her want to cry all over again.
She and Christopher would be leaving soon, returning to Phoenix to pack up the rest of their lives. The time they had spent in Silver Bells was like the bridge in a musical score between the two different periods of her life.
She would dearly miss all the friends she had made during her time here. Mariah, Sofia, Emily Tsu. And especially Winnie.
Ethan studied her carefully. “If I kissed you again, would you be able to hold on to your snickerdoodles?”
She met his gaze, unable to look away. “I can’t make any promises,” she whispered.
“I guess I’ll have to take my chances.”
When his mouth met hers, she released a sigh that seemed to come from her toes. She had wanted this all day. All week, really, since he kissed her the first time beneath Winnie’s giant Christmas tree.
She was falling for him and realized as his mouth danced over hers that it was far too late to do anything about it.
His hands tightened around her, and he somehow managed to settle them both on the sofa. It was one thing to kiss Ethan when they were both standing up. It was something else when he was half-reclined on her sofa, taking all her weight.
Oh, she had missed this heat surging through her, the delicious ache for more and more.
His hands were under her sweater, his mouth nuzzling her neck when she suddenly thought she heard a knock at her door.
“Abs? You still awake?”
She jerked away, scrambling to find her footing. The two of them stared at each other for a long, astonished second before she hurried to the door, pulling her sweater back into place as she went and hoping she didn’t look as aroused as she felt right now.
She cleared her throat so she could speak without a sexy rasp as she reached for the door and pulled it open.
Though it clearly had been Lucy’s voice she heard, Abby still couldn’t quite believe she was standing in the doorway, hand up as if ready to knock again.
“Lucy! What a surprise! I thought you weren’t going to be able to make it back for a few more days!”
Her friend beamed at her. “Surprise! I was able to talk another teacher into taking my last few days before the break, changed my flight and twenty-four hours later, here I am.”
She looked over Abby’s shoulder and shock flickered in her blue eyes, so much like her brother’s.
“Ethan! What are you doing here?”
Lucy really didn’t need to know the answer to that question right now. Abby looked down, feeling her face heat with a furious blush that could probably be seen from several blocks away.
“He was, um, just leaving. Weren’t you?”
“Right,” he answered, his voice strangled.
“Ethan was kind enough to read a story to Christopher tonight. The one about Snowball the reindeer. It’s his favorite. Well, one of his favorites. It seems like his favorite story changes every night, depending on his mood. He’s discovered all your old Christmas stories and is really enjoying the Jan Brett books, especially the ones with trolls.”
She was babbling, she realized, feeling like a troll herself. She clamped her mouth shut and stepped forward to hug her friend instead, hoping Lucy couldn’t smell Ethan’s scent on her.
“It’s so good to see you.”
“And you. And bonus, my big brother. It’s like a two-for-one sale of my two favorite people. Hey, you.”
She held her arms out and Ethan gave her a brief embrace. “I’m glad you’re home, sis. Next time give us all a little warning. I could have sent a car to pick you up from the airport.”
“I rented a car so I would have some wheels while I’m in town.”
“I could have loaned you a car, too, but okay. How was your flight?”
She shrugged, exhaustion pulling down the corners of her mouth. “I tend to forget how long it takes to get home from anywhere in Asia. I’m always so glad to step off an airplane. It’s so good to be home.”
“How long are you staying?” Ethan asked.
“I don’t have to be back until January third. How’s Winnie? She was busy talking to her friends and didn’t notice me. I didn’t want to ruin her big night.”
“Abby can probably answer better than I can.”
The only problem was, Abby didn’t have any functioning brain cells right about now. She forced a smile and tried to gather her thoughts. “She’s, um, good. The bruised ribs have healed almost all the way, and she no longer has to use a mobility help like the walker or even a cane. The cast has to stay on the wrist for another month, but the doctor says she’s healing better than he expected.”
“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that.” Lucy hugged her again. “Thank you for coming to our rescue. I owe you!”
“I was happy to help Winnie, though you could have warned me that I might end up decorating this entire place while I was here.”
Lucy gave her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry about that. I honestly thought Winnie would cancel the event.”
“Then you don’t know our grandmother as well as you think you do,” Ethan said.
“It wasn’t as terrible as I feared,” Abby said. “I actually enjoyed most of it. Yes, decorating a Victorian mansion was totally out of my comfort zone, but in the end, things worked out.”
“For what it’s worth, the house looks better than I’ve ever seen it, at least the bits I saw as I walked through on my way here.”
Abby smiled. “I can’t take credit for that. The house is beautiful even without Christmas decorations, and the other Silver Belles helped immensely. Plus, Ethan had an entire crew from the hotel come out this morning to rescue us after a windstorm knocked down two trees and blew branches, broken Christmas lights and debris across the grounds.”
The morning seemed a lifetime ago, though she couldn’t shake the image of him out working with his crew, sweaty and masculine.
Lucy gave her brother a look of surprise. “Good for you. Way to step up.”
“We’re Lancasters and we help each other.” He glanced at the clock. “I should probably run. It’s late. I’m glad you’re back safe.”
He hugged his sister one more time, longer this time, then turned to Abby with an expression she couldn’t quite decipher. “Thank you again for letting me read to Christopher. I enjoyed it very much. I’m not sure of my schedule over the next few nights, but tell him I’ll try to drop by again soon.”
“I’ll tell him. He’ll be excited.” She forced a smile, not quite sure how to say good-night to a man who had been kissing her intimately just a few moments earlier.
He solved the awkwardness by leaning in and kissing her cheek. She allowed herself the indulgence of inhaling the deliciously expensive scent of him, leather and pine and male, before she stepped away.
“Get some rest,” he said over his shoulder to his sister. “You look haggard.”
Lucy stuck out her tongue at him. “Thank you for those kind words, but you’re right. I feel haggard. I’ll probably sleep for a week.”
“We’ll catch up when you’ve rested.”
“I’ll count on it.”
Ethan gave Abby one more unreadable look, then slipped out the door.
When he was gone, Abby turned to her f
riend.
“I can’t believe you came home early. It’s so good to have you here.”
“It’s wonderful to see you, too,” Lucy said, trying to hide a huge yawn.
“Ethan’s right. You need to rest. Your usual bedroom is open and ready for you. Also, Winnie made sure it’s in one of the off-limits areas of the house for the tours, so you shouldn’t have strangers traipsing through.”
“Always a bonus,” Lucy said with a smile.
“Can I help you carry your luggage up?”
“Nope. I only brought a backpack since Winnie lets me keep clothes and things here year-round. I’m just going to pop out to say good-night to her, and then I’ll head up to bed.”
“All right. Good night.”
After Lucy left, Abby sank onto the sofa. The same one where she and Ethan had been entwined.
That kiss.
She licked her lips, still tasting him there. She should have stopped it. What good would come from indulging in something she knew would never go anywhere?
She was leaving shortly. Maybe even sooner than she thought. Now that Lucy was here, Winnie didn’t really need Abby’s help. There was no reason she couldn’t load up her little SUV, scoop up her boy and her cat and flee into the night.
Christopher loved it here. He loved Winnie. He loved the corgis, the mountains, the snow.
She didn’t want to go, either. These past few weeks had been the most enjoyable holiday season she had ever known. She would just have to be careful to make sure when they did leave, neither she nor Christopher left part of their hearts behind.
* * *
Lucy awoke to delicious smells seeping through her door that was open a crack and one of her grandmother’s corgis crushing her feet.
“Hello to you, too,” she said. Her voice sounded raspy from disuse, and she cleared away the sleep as she automatically reached for her cell phone.
It was one in the afternoon. She hadn’t quite slept through the clock but close enough.
She sat up, annoyed with herself. She hadn’t meant to sleep so long. She’d learned through long experience that it was better to keep to a regular schedule and simply power through the exhaustion for a few days to acclimatize herself to a different time zone. Sleeping until early afternoon definitely wouldn’t help her adjust to the rhythms of life here in Silver Bells.
Oh, well. One day of sleeping in wouldn’t hurt anything.
“How did you get in here?” she asked the dog, who just looked back at her with a quizzical look. She must not have latched her door tightly after collapsing on her bed the night before.
“Also, which one are you?”
Again, the dog wasn’t forthcoming with answers so Lucy lifted the tag and read the answer. “Nick. I should have known. Your sisters are too well behaved to climb into bed with someone they barely know.”
The dog just did a circle at the foot of the bed and resettled himself to a more comfortable position, then closed his eyes.
Lucy looked around her room, with its comforting familiarity.
Winnie had decorated this room when Lucy was a little girl, designating it strictly for Lucy’s use when she came to stay. The walls originally were lavender, the bedspread a soft green.
When she was a teenager and Winnie had somehow managed to persuade Lucy’s parents to let her and Ethan come here to finish high school, Lucy and Winnie had redecorated it. They had painted the walls a deeper purple and Winnie had somebody install an egg-shaped swing.
It had been her favorite place on earth.
Winnie had been her touchstone, the anchor that had always brought her back to Silver Bells.
Lucy would have been lost without her grandparents.
She thought of Clive—bushy browed, bald head, mustache and the kindest smile in the world. She allowed herself a moment to miss him fiercely, then decided it was time to get up and go see how her grandmother was doing.
She stretched and was about to push the blankets away when the door opened a crack and an adorable face peeked through. “Hi, Aunt Lucy! I wanted to wake you up but Mom said I couldn’t. You’ve been sleeping forever. I checked on you before and you didn’t even make a sound.”
Ah. Christopher must have opened the door a crack, allowing Nick to wriggle his way in.
“Hey, you. If it isn’t my favorite boy in the whole world. Come give me a hug.”
Christopher jumped on the bed and wrapped his arms around her. Lucy hugged him, feeling something wild and restless seem to settle inside her.
“You missed breakfast. And now it’s lunchtime.”
“I know. And now I’m hungry enough to eat a boy.” She nuzzled her face in his neck, much to his giggly delight.
Oh, she loved this kid. She hadn’t seen him in more than a year, and then only had a few days to spend in Phoenix hanging out with Abby. She tried to stay connected with video calls—yay for technology—but it wasn’t the same as smelling the sweet little-boy scent of him.
“Can I sit in your swing?” Christopher asked.
“Please do.”
He hopped off the bed, Nick close on his heels, and climbed into the swing. He was busy trying to make it move when the door opened another crack and Winnie appeared in the doorway. “You’re really here. Oh, darling. I woke up this morning wondering if I’d imagined it in my old age. It’s so marvelous to see you.”
Winnie sat on the edge of the bed and hugged her, surrounding her in a cloud of Aqua Net hair spray and White Shoulders perfume, and Lucy felt as if she was finally home.
“How are you feeling?” she asked her grandmother when Winnie pulled away. “You seem to be getting around okay.”
“No cane anymore. I’m not sorry to see that go, I’ll tell you that. Don’t you worry about me for a minute. I’m fine.”
Lucy wasn’t entirely certain she believed that, but she didn’t want to argue with her grandmother in front of Christopher.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t come right home after you were hurt. I should have figured out a way.”
Winnie waved off her concern and settled in the easy chair next to the bed. “We managed, didn’t we, Chris?”
“Yep,” the boy said, still trying to make the swing move more.
“I’m just glad you sent me Abby and Christopher. I don’t know what I would have done without them.”
“Where is Abby?”
“We were running low on just about everything so she made a quick run to the store.”
“I’m supposed to watch over Winnie,” Christopher said, a pride in his voice that made Lucy smile.
“And what a wonderful job you’ve been doing, too,” Winnie said, winking at Lucy.
“You have to be starving. Get dressed and I’ll make you a grilled cheese sandwich.”
She rolled her eyes at her grandmother. “How about I get dressed and make you a grilled cheese sandwich?”
“I don’t care who makes it. I just want a grilled cheese sandwich,” Christopher said.
Winnie chuckled. “You already had lunch, young man. I was there when your mom made you a PB&J.”
“I can’t help it if I’m still hungry.”
Lucy had to smile. “All right. Let me jump in the shower, then it will be grilled cheese all around. Give me a minute.”
The pulsing heat of the shower felt so good on her travel-weary body that she wanted to spend an hour there. She hurried things along, reluctant to leave Christopher waiting too long for his sandwich.
When she emerged from her bedroom a short time later and walked into the huge, comfortable kitchen, she found Winnie and Christopher at the kitchen table, engaged in a fierce game of slapjack.
She left them to it while she gathered the ingredients for sandwiches. She also found some crisp apples in the refrigerator that she sliced up for them.
She had
just slid the sandwiches onto three plates when she heard the front door open.
“Winnie? Mama said you needed more folding chairs for tonight. She said we should go ahead and put them in the great room.”
José.
Everything inside her seemed to melt like cheese on a hot burner at his voice, low and rich and beautiful.
“The great room is fine,” her grandmother called back. “We’re in the kitchen. Come back and say hi.”
She had only a moment to steel herself before José walked into the kitchen, followed closely by his brother, Rodrigo.
She was aware they weren’t alone. She could hear Christopher’s chattering, her grandmother’s greeting. Everything else seemed to fade away and she was once more on a Thai beach, in his arms.
A series of emotions seemed to cross his features rapidly when he saw her, until he seemed to gather himself. “Oh. Lucy. I didn’t know you were back.”
She smiled weakly, unable to breathe for a moment at seeing him again.
Oh, this was so stupid.
They had been friends forever. She adored his family. Rodrigo. She loved spending time with him. They laughed more together than she did with anybody else she knew.
Why did he have to go and ruin everything by throwing around words like love and commitment?
Ordinarily, she would have jumped into his arms and hugged him hard, as Christopher had done to her a short time earlier.
Now everything was so wrong between them, and she didn’t know the first thing to say to him.
She hated this.
She should have stayed in Thailand. Or maybe she should have traveled somewhere even farther away. Nepal, maybe. Or Madagascar.
Rodrigo must have just noticed her. He let out a cry of joy.
“Lucy! Hi, Lucy!” he exclaimed, his face lighting up like the sun.
This, she could navigate.
“Hey, Rodrigo.” She hugged him hard, feeling renewed hope for the goodness of the world at his open, honest affection.
“I missed you so much,” he declared.
“Same goes. How’s the Ping-Pong champion of Silver Bells doing these days?”
Christmas at Holiday House Page 18