“Anyway, Aidan wants you there,” the cook went on.
She thought of that fleeting, charged moment when she had been coming down the stairs with the children and had seen him in the great room talking to his father. The look in his gaze had left her feeling so jittery and off-balance, it was a wonder she hadn’t stumbled over a step.
“Have you spoken with him today?” she asked.
“No,” Sue admitted. “He’s been making himself scarce. I think he’s got some big project he’s working on. He’s been holed up in his office most of the day on those computers of his. I took him a sandwich earlier but I’m not sure he even touched it.”
Eliza frowned. “He has gone to so much trouble to have his family here. You would think he would at least try to spend a little time with them.”
She hated to see him become so obsessed with work that he missed out on this family holiday he had been planning since his surgery.
“Sometimes he gets like this. An idea comes to him and he can’t rest until he figures out how to make it work. It’s just one of his quirks. You learn to live with it.”
She wouldn’t be learning to live with it. She would be leaving Snow Angel Cove within the week and he would be taking his workaholic quirks back to California.
“It’s Christmas Eve. He should let his brain rest for a few hours and enjoy the moment with his family.”
“Maybe someone needs to go remind him of that. Someone whose opinion he cares about.”
Sue gave her a meaningful look that made Eliza flush. It wasn’t her place to offer opinions about anything—not that he would care what she thought.
“Good idea,” she answered smartly. “Let me know what he says.”
The other woman snorted. “You know I meant you, missy. At least go knock on his door and remind him dinner will be ready at seven sharp, whether he’s there or not.”
Eliza wanted to come up with some excuse to avoid the task—but how could she send Sue traipsing down the length of the house, maneuvering around kids and dogs, on her bad foot?
“Sure,” she said, trying to give in as gracefully as possible. “I have to round up Maddie, anyway, in order to change for dinner.”
Outside his office door, she paused for a moment and took a deep breath, willing down the silly butterflies that now seemed to be marching in time to The Nutcracker suite. Just as she reached a hand up to knock, the door opened from the other side and, abruptly, he was there.
He froze, looking confused and disoriented to find her outside his door.
“Oh. Hi.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that intense look in his eyes that made her feel young and giddy and very, very female.
“Sue just sent me to pry you out of your office. It’s nearly time for dinner.”
“Right. I set an alarm to remind myself. I was just heading that way.”
He looked exhausted, she thought, his eyes blurry through those sexy glasses and his hair sticking up as if he had been running his hand through it.
She could clearly see his scar, raw, white and terrifying. Glimpsing this rare vulnerability affected her far more profoundly than it should. If he walked out to see his family now, everyone would see it. Questions would fly like sparks going up the chimney and his big, dark secret would be out.
Should she tell him, or should she let the truth come out? She still believed he was wrong to withhold that information from his family, especially after meeting them and seeing their love for him.
She sighed. She couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t be sneaky like that. “Before you go out there, you should probably take a minute to, um, do something with your hair.”
“What’s wrong with my hair?”
“Nothing, really. It’s just...it’s sticking up a bit and your scar is showing.”
Telling herself it was no different from helping Maddie, she reached a hand up and pulled the locks gently back in place. He froze at her touch and then, for an almost imperceptible moment, she almost thought he leaned into her hand.
The air between them seemed to thicken, heavy with awareness, tension, all the unspoken emotions between them.
“Thank you,” he murmured. In his blue eyes, she saw gratitude and clear awareness. He knew she was helping him cover up something she thought should already be out in the open.
She dropped her hand quickly to her side. “I hope you would do the same for me, if I had a brain surgery scar I was foolishly trying to keep from my family.”
His laugh was low and rusty-sounding. “You know I would.”
“Of course, here’s another good way to keep secrets from them,” she said pointedly. “Invite them all to spend the holidays at your lovely home but then just hide out the whole time in your office. They’ll never suspect a thing.”
He looked rueful. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s been a crazy couple of days. I’ve got a last-minute project I’m trying to wrap up but I’m almost done.”
“Well, we told everyone seven for dinner. It’s close to that. Sue wanted me to let you know.”
“Thanks.”
She should walk away. Her time was not her own, after all. She still had to find Maddie and change her clothes and her daughter’s, run a comb through her hair, maybe add a little lipstick, and then help Sue set out the dishes for the Christmas Eve feast. On a subconscious level, she knew all that. Still, she couldn’t seem to make herself move away from him and the seductive warmth in those tired blue eyes.
“El. I need to—” he started to say but the doorbell rang before he could finish the thought.
“Probably a last-minute delivery,” she said, grateful for the distraction. “Those poor drivers, having to be out on Christmas Eve. I’ll grab one of the gift bags of cookies for him.”
She picked one up off the console table in the hallway where she kept extras and pulled open the door.
It wasn’t a delivery driver. It was a man in a uniform, looking handsome and friendly and delighted to be there.
“Jamie!” Aidan exclaimed. The happiness on his face as he spotted his brother just about took her breath away.
The other man just had time to give Eliza a flirtatious grin before Aidan grabbed him hard in a bear hug.
“You always have to make an entrance, don’t you? Last I heard, you couldn’t get leave.”
The guy extricated himself and picked up his suitcase to come inside. “It was a last-minute thing. I didn’t know until late last night, so I’ve spent all day catching stand-by flights.”
“You should have called! I could have sent transportation for you.”
Jamie—just younger than Aidan, she remembered—gave a cheeky grin. “Then it wouldn’t have been a surprise, right?”
She could tell right away this one was a troublemaking charmer. Good thing her heart was no longer available.
“Your father is going to be over the moon,” Eliza predicted with a smile.
Jamie turned to her and aimed all that mojo her direction. “Hello, there. I don’t think we’ve met. I’m James. Younger brother to Geek Boy, here.”
“I’m Eliza Hayward,” she said with a polite smile. “Aidan’s housekeeper. For the sake of the family, I’m glad you’re here. But you have no idea how hard it’s going to be to find a bed for you.”
Jamie raised an eyebrow. “Do you know, I believe that’s the first time any woman has ever said that to me before.”
He was obviously a player, an uncomplicated flirt—at least on the surface. Because she caught just a glimpse of deeper layers beneath the lightheartedness—and because Aidan was so obviously thrilled to have his entire family intact and at his home—she decided to like the man.
“I’m not picky,” he said. “I can sleep on an unused sofa or a couple of blankets on the floor. Even a pile of hay would
work. Wouldn’t be the first time somebody in a pinch had to make do with that on Christmas Eve.”
“I think we can probably manage to keep you out of the stable,” she said dryly.
He grinned and draped an arm over his brother’s shoulder. They went in search of the rest of the family while Eliza hurried off to add another place setting and make arrangements for one more guest.
* * *
“THIS IS GREAT, AIDAN. Really great.”
The rare sentiment coming from Dylan as they looked at the packed table touched him. He loved seeing his youngest brother smile again after so many months when they weren’t sure he would survive his injuries sustained in an ambush in Afghanistan.
His stomach growled. “Everything looks delicious, doesn’t it?”
“Hope there’s enough to go around now that Jamie rolled in. I would hate to have to fight you for the last piece of ham.”
“You know you would lose, brother. I have no mercy and I fight dirty.”
Dylan grinned. “You always did, which is one of the things we love about you.”
The rest of his family had started to gather in small groups and take seats at the big dining table. Everyone looked so happy that his heart seemed to expand in his chest—just like the Grinch in the book he had read to the little ones the other day.
Down at the other end of the table, he saw Eliza sit down with Maddie sandwiched between her and Charlotte.
With all the in-laws and grandchildren, his family didn’t fit all together anywhere else, even in Pop’s big house in Hope’s Crossing. Usually the children complained about having to be separated into another room. He had purposely had a huge table made from planed hickory logs so that he could have everyone together—though it was still tight, he had to admit. He might have to commission a second table to go next to it, at the rate the Caines were growing.
When everyone sat down, he turned to his father, whom he had seated at the head of the table out of respect. “Pop, do you want to say a few words before we eat?”
Silly question, he knew. Dermot was Irish. He always had something to say.
His father stood and smiled at his progeny. “Only this. What a year we have had.”
He smiled at Katherine, elegant and graceful. She blushed and smiled back and Aidan couldn’t help thinking how perfect they were. Their courtship had taken more than a decade but perhaps that only made it all the sweeter.
“Three weddings and another in the New Year. Our table is more crowded every year, just as it should be.”
“Get your elbow out of my plate,” Jamie teased to Charlotte, who made a face.
Dermot smiled at his squabbling children, then grew serious again. “Every family goes through struggle. Alas, nobody escapes pain in this world, like it or not. We are no different. We have suffered loss and sorrow, sometimes so great we didn’t know how to get through it. But we are the stronger for our pain. It is our trials that bind us together. They remind us we must walk through the dark times so we can fully appreciate the light. The joy and love and miracles around us. I hope we never lose sight of how much we need each other, in good times and bad. Slàinte.”
Everyone toasted each other. As he looked around the family at his brothers, at Charlotte, at their spouses and children and stepchildren, Aidan suddenly knew what he had to do. I hope we never lose sight of how much we need each other, in good times and bad. He had lost sight of that. Eliza was right. He had been selfishly confident he could handle anything life threw at him.
He had been so wrong.
He stood up quickly. “Before we eat, I...need to say something, as well.”
Carter, the kid who was always hungry, made an impatient little sound but was quickly shushed by Lucy.
Everyone looked at him with expectant faces. His gaze traveled the table and finally stopped on Eliza, watching him with a curious expression on her lovely, calm features.
“Thank you all for coming. I know it’s a little different having the holidays somewhere besides Hope’s Crossing.”
“Different but wonderful,” Charlotte assured him.
“Right. Well, I just wanted to say how happy I am that you all took time out of your busy lives to come here at my request. Also...I owe you an apology. In retrospect, this might not be the appropriate moment for it when Carter there is ready to gnaw through the table but I don’t know when I can get everybody together, sitting still. It will only take a second, I promise.”
Eliza watched him with dawning awareness in her gaze.
He cleared his throat. “Something happened to me this year, something tough I thought I could handle alone. It’s recently come to my attention that by keeping it to myself and not letting my family know when I was going through a rough patch, I was being selfish and maybe even thoughtless and insensitive.”
“What is it, son?” Dermot asked. “What’s happened?”
This was a mistake. He should have waited until after the holidays, maybe tomorrow evening after the burst of Christmas excitement had passed. He didn’t want to ruin dinner. If he hadn’t been so fatigued, he might have thought this through a little better and made a different choice. Or maybe he would have chickened out and not said anything at all.
Whatever, it was too late to back down.
He glanced at Eliza again. She gave him an encouraging smile and he felt almost light-headed from the approval there. A thought that had been playing through his mind for the past few days, random and scattered, seemed to coalesce into one clear realization. Loving someone—truly loving them—meant exposing your weaknesses to them, not only projecting your strengths.
With a sigh, he parted his hair to show the scar, his most glaring sign of weakness. “I had a brain tumor removed in September, the week after Pop and Katherine got married.”
There was an almost audible collective indrawn breath and then the dining room erupted into a dozen different questions.
Everyone looked shocked, his father most of all, and he was suddenly profoundly sorry for shutting them out.
“Don’t worry, it was benign,” he assured them quickly. “The surgery went well and they were able to remove the whole thing. I’m doing fine now, just some lingering fatigue and headaches once in a while and a little double vision if I’m at the computer too long.”
“Aidan. Why didn’t you say anything?” Charlotte exclaimed. “A brain tumor. I can’t believe this! And you didn’t want your family to help you?”
“I had what I thought were good reasons. The timing of the surgery, for one thing, just days after Pop’s wedding while he was on his honeymoon. The distance between us, with the surgery in California and you all in Colorado. And,” he admitted, “a good part of it was pride. I’m...not good at allowing myself to need other people. I’m learning, though. I invited you all here for the holidays, right?”
“Just goes to show that even smart guys can sometimes be idiot assholes,” Dylan said gruffly.
He tore his gaze away from Eliza, who was smiling softly at him now, he saw, and maybe even wiping a tear or two away with her napkin.
“True enough. It was wrong of me to keep it from you. I’m sorry. I made a mistake. Contrary to what I would like to think, I do make them. This particular mistake won’t happen again. We can talk about this later but for now, let’s eat before all this delicious food is too cold to enjoy. Pop. Do you want to say grace or pick somebody?”
“It’s your home, son. Seems to me you should do the honors, since you have more than most to be thankful for today.”
Damn right. And he wasn’t about to forget it.
With a nod, he reached for Charlotte’s hand on one side and his niece Maggie’s on the other and bowed his head.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ELIZA HAD NEVER slept well on Christmas Eve.
When she w
as a little girl, she had always been too excited. She hadn’t necessarily wanted to catch Santa Claus in the act of hanging stockings or anything, she only wanted to stay up and capture every moment of the magic.
She would hide in her room with a flashlight under her covers, humming Christmas songs or reading one of her favorite Christmas stories or perhaps making one up in her head.
A quick check of her phone revealed it was past 3:00 a.m. This was becoming quite a habit during her stay at Snow Angel Cove.
Staying up all night on Christmas Eve might have worked when she was a little girl who could nap with her new toys tucked around her, after the rush and frenzy of opening presents was over. As a mother and as an employee, she didn’t have that luxury. She was going to be exhausted in the morning.
She could sleep in a little, assuming Maddie did, but that was far from a certainty. Her only real job in the morning was to preheat the oven about nine o’clock and then add the breakfast casseroles she had helped Sue prepare the afternoon before.
Each of the siblings was to spend Christmas morning with his or her own family before they all came together for a casual, no-frills brunch.
She rolled over, trying for a more comfortable position. Her body was certainly tired after a long day and an even more hectic week preceding it, but her mind wouldn’t seem to settle.
The evening had been wonderful. Her perfect image of a big, boisterous family Christmas. After Aidan’s announcement, the family had been upset with him but they had all forgiven him for withholding the information, as she had fully expected.
After the delicious dinner, she had seen his sister-in-law Christine—a pediatrician in Denver—peppering him with questions while Charlotte and Dylan interjected a few of their own.
When the meal had been cleaned up, Dermot read the Christmas story from the New Testament in his lilting Irish brogue and then the children performed the short collection of songs they had prepared: “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,” Maddie’s favorite, “Away in a Manger,” as well as a medley of angel-themed Christmas songs in honor of the house’s name—“Angels we have Heard on High” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”
Snow Angel Cove (Hqn) Page 26