“Asher?” Daniel said, pausing in his story. “You okay?”
“I’m good. Please finish about you and Kylie.”
“I might have known after three days, but I needed to progress slowly. Kylie’d had two major losses in her life within a short time. I didn’t want to overwhelm her by declaring myself too soon. I was patient and managed to hold out for several months.
“All these questions tell me this woman you don’t want to talk about is special.”
Special didn’t start to describe Daisy. “There are complications.”
His brother chuckled. “Aren’t there always? Is she married? Divorced?”
“Nothing like that.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
Asher outlined it as best he could, explaining how they’d met and grown close during her convalescence. He was sure to explain why he felt a relationship wouldn’t work, detailing their differences.
“You mean to say your Daisy lives here in Chicago?”
“She isn’t my Daisy.” After everything he’d explained, this was the one fact Daniel wanted to confirm?
“Answer the question.”
“Yes, Daisy worked with her partner to establish the online real estate company that has become a household name.” Another way to torture himself, Asher had taken to investigating Daisy, Jack Campbell, and the company. What he read confirmed that Daisy was a brilliant executive, hard-working, dedicated, and savvy.
“Is it Easy Home?” Daniel asked.
“That’s the one,” Asher said.
“Kylie and I used them to find this house.”
Asher should have guessed.
“I thought the partnership was with a woman named Everly something or other?”
“Daisy goes by Everly. She changed her name. Said she didn’t think anyone in the business world would take a woman named Daisy seriously.”
“Asher, this is great news. Does it mean you’re considering giving up your vagabond ways and heading into the classroom to teach? I know the university would jump at the chance to hire you.”
Daniel was out of his mind. “No.”
“No?” his brother repeated. “Why not? You’ve met the woman, you’re—”
“Daisy isn’t going to move to Brazil for me,” he stated emphatically. “And I’m not giving up my entire life to be stuffed indoors eight hours a day, so we’re at an impasse.”
Daniel chuckled. “You’re putting up obstacles where there are none, little brother.”
Yup, his brother had completely lost his mind. “Come on, Daniel, you know me better than anyone. Can you honestly see me stuck in a classroom? If I’m not outside I become claustrophobic after more than a few hours. Teaching isn’t for me any more than living in a big city like Chicago.”
If Asher was expecting an argument, Daniel didn’t give him one. He had another question.
“Tell me more about her. Let me see her through your eyes.”
This wasn’t the direction Asher wanted to take. Every mention of Daisy was a pinprick in his chest. “You said it took a year for you and Kylie to reconnect, right?”
“Right. What’s that got to do with you and Daisy?”
“Daisy and I hit it off right away. Like gangbusters. I don’t know that I’ve laughed with anyone as much as I did her. The crazy part is this cruise wasn’t what she expected.” He explained how her loony assistant had arranged it as some sort of revenge.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m not,” Asher insisted. “I know it sounds nuts, and at the same time it makes me think I was meant to meet Daisy. After her initial shock, I have to say she was a good sport about it. She was out of her element, but adapted quickly…well, other than a few mishaps along the way, none of which were her fault.” He couldn’t keep from chuckling as he recalled her misadventures.
“What makes you think she’s the one?” Daniel asked.
“I didn’t say she’s the one,” Asher reminded his brother.
“Yes, you did, perhaps not verbally, but your call tells me as much. You’re looking at the situation with blinders on, little brother. You sent Daisy on her way and now you can’t stop thinking about her. You can’t sleep, your mind refuses to forget her. Tell me, when was the last time you felt this strongly about a woman?”
It’d been a mistake to reach out to his brother.
“Asher?” Daniel prompted.
He answered through gritted teeth. “Never.”
“That’s what I thought.”
If Asher could retract this call, he would. “I’ve only known her two weeks, Daniel. I’d be a fool to give up everything for a woman I’ve only known for two short weeks.”
“Really?”
One word: a probing question.
“Did I hear you mention in your email that the ship is in dock waiting for repairs?”
“Yes, Daisy wanted me to fly to Chicago with her and I refused.”
His brother’s sigh echoed through Asher’s phone. “Seriously?”
“I was saving us the heartache that’s sure to follow.”
“How’s that working for you?”
Yup, it’d been a huge mistake to contact his brother.
“Take the time off, join Kylie and me for Christmas, and while you’re here, go see Daisy. You’ve been apart for a while now. Maybe once you see her, you’ll be able to decide what you really want.”
Asher wasn’t sure about anything any longer. He wasn’t keen on leaving Brazil, and yet he was as miserable as he’d ever been. Besides, it wouldn’t be easy to get a flight at this late date. “I’ll mull it over.”
A long, awkward silence followed. “You know what I think?”
It went without saying that Daniel would tell him no matter how he answered.
“It seems to me you need some value clarification,” Daniel said. “What is it you really want, Asher? You say you can’t breathe in a classroom, and yet isn’t that exactly what you’re doing on these cruises? You’re giving lectures the same way you would in any classroom.”
“Yes, but—”
Daniel cut him off. “You claim you need to roam free as you have for the last several years and that’s all well and good, but have you noticed, because I certainly have, that you’ve chosen the least populated areas of the world.”
He specialized in both Antarctica and the rainforest. Daniel knew that. Asher opened his mouth to defend himself and then closed it, knowing it would do little good.
“I’m wondering,” Daniel continued, “if this is more a case of you protecting your heart.”
“Protecting my heart?” Asher protested, thinking the idea ridiculous.
“Think about it, little brother, and get back to me.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
As promised, a couple days after her arrival, Rose cut and shaped Everly’s hair into a bob that was both stylish and flattering. It softened her features; she loved the way her hair framed her face. In more ways than she could count, she felt brand-new.
“You like?” Rose asked, giving her a hand mirror so she could view the back side.
“I love it. Now let me buy you lunch.” Her sister had come into the salon on her day off; the least Everly could do was treat Rose at her favorite Mexican restaurant.
“Deal,” her sister agreed.
Reaching for their coats, gloves, and scarves, they walked the two blocks down to El Capitan, straining against the wind and the cold. Within minutes they were seated in the restaurant scented with spices, trying to warm themselves once again and holding menus. The threat of snow hung in the air, which put Everly in the mood for soup. When the server appeared, she ordered hot tea and tortilla soup. Rose set aside her menu and ordered spinach enchiladas with sour cream on the side.
“I app
reciate the new hairstyle,” Everly said, “but you don’t need to do this, you know.”
“Do what?” Rose frowned and appeared genuinely puzzled.
“Go out of your way to make me…I don’t know, feel like I belong in this family, I guess.”
“What? That’s crazy. Of course you belong. All right. I’ll admit, it shook all of us last Christmas when you decided to stay in Chicago. We all went through a bit of soul-searching, I think, and realized that business was an excuse.” Rose looked down at her hands. “For my part, I thought you felt like you were better than the rest of us.”
“Rose, no.” Everly felt terrible that her sister would even think such a thing.
“You were always the smart one.”
“The nonathletic one.”
Rose smiled. “The executive who ruled an empire.”
“More like overworked, stressed out, and foolish enough to trust her assistant when she had already proven herself to be a total screwup. And allowed herself to be drawn into Jack’s family drama at her expense.”
Having heard the story of what Annette had done, Rose merely shook her head. “Dad’s favorite,” she added.
“Really?” Everly didn’t think she was anyone’s favorite.
“Until the boys were born,” her sister added.
They both laughed and it felt amazingly good. It seemed there’d been misconceptions on both sides. Clearing the air, getting back to being sisters and friends, was what Everly needed most, especially now. Being with Rose gave her strength and helped ease the ache in her heart.
“Did I do anything overtly to make you uncomfortable?” Rose asked.
Everly shrugged. It wasn’t what any of her siblings had said or done, it was simply a feeling she’d held for as long as she could remember. “Not really. I’m not like you and Lily and the twins…oh, those boys, don’t get me started.”
Rose cocked her eyebrows and nodded. “Yup, those two are something else. You are different than Lily and me, I suppose, but that doesn’t make you any less important or any less loved.”
“I can’t do half the things you and Lily do. I’m not athletic. Remember what my first sewing project looked like? And—”
“Stop.” Rose flattened her hand on the tabletop. “You were never meant to play soccer or sit behind a sewing machine. That isn’t you. It doesn’t make you any less or any better. We all have our talents, Daisy. Yours just happen to be different from the ones Lily and I have. You went after your dream and Lily and I did, too. Because those dreams didn’t match yours doesn’t make any one of us less than the other.”
“Why is everyone going out of their way like this? It’s disconcerting.” All the fuss made her uneasy.
“Daisy, don’t you know? We’ve missed you. Last Christmas was the worst. It felt as if a deep, dark hole had developed in our family. Even caroling and the hayride felt off without you there.”
“I should have been here.” Everly regretted that now.
“Yes, you should have. I think each one of us decided to do whatever it took to make sure you didn’t want to stay away for Christmas ever again.”
“None of this is necessary, I learned my lesson. I’m happy to be home for Christmas. If nothing else, the cruise taught me to appreciate what I have.”
Rose reached for her napkin, removed the paper band, and released her silverware. “I’m glad you brought that up. You want to tell me, sister to sister, what happened on the cruise?”
Everly reached for her own silverware. “Not really.” She hadn’t stopped thinking about Asher from the moment she’d left Brazil. He was the one who’d insisted it had to end then and there. If she were to move forward, she had to put him out of her mind…not that it was working. He was constantly in her thoughts, despite her best efforts to put him behind her and look toward the future.
“It might help,” Rose urged gently.
“His name’s Asher, the naturalist aboard the Amazon Explorer, and I was foolish enough to fall for him,” she said, her voice low to hide her heartache. “Unfortunately, the feelings were more one-sided than I thought.” It embarrassed her to think of how she’d laid her heart before him only to have him stomp all over it.
As if reading the pain in her sister’s eyes, Rose leaned forward and placed her hand over Everly’s.
“I don’t have any option but to accept that he didn’t feel as strongly about me as I do him. To Asher, I was nothing more than a shipboard romance. He claims otherwise. But what else am I to think when he let me walk away?”
Rose’s face tightened. “Then he doesn’t deserve you.”
Everly knew that wasn’t the case. Unwilling to argue, she played along. Nodding, she said, “You’re absolutely right. I’m moving on.”
“Good for you.”
It was better to put all that behind her, or so she kept telling herself. “But it hurts,” she added in a whisper.
“Of course it does.” Her sister’s eyes filled with sympathy.
Everly was grateful when their meals were served, as she didn’t want to discuss Asher any longer.
Rose dug into the enchiladas with vigor. “I skipped breakfast…I know, I know, bad idea. With all the Christmas goodies around and my low resistance level, I’m trying to avoid gaining weight. Don’t ask how well this is working, and spare me the embarrassment of lying. I envy you. You weigh the same as you did in high school, don’t you?”
“No, I’m a few pounds heavier.”
“Yeah, right,” Rose said, glaring at her. “If you weren’t my little sister and brilliant to boot, I could hate you.”
“I wasn’t so brilliant in Brazil,” Everly said, mentally recalling her misadventures. She might be at the top of her game when it came to orchestrating a business transaction, but when she ventured into the unspoiled beauty of the Brazilian rainforest, she’d been lost in more ways than one. Forging through the jungle in what can only be described as a monsoon wasn’t her idea of fun. Only it had been. Asher had made it so, leaving her with memories that would last a lifetime.
Her sister was eager to hear about her cruise, and under normal circumstances Everly would have been happy to relay her many escapades. However, any mention of her trip would include Asher, the one person she was determined to put out of her mind.
Halfway through her meal, Everly’s phone pinged and she noticed it was a message from Jack. She ignored it and set it back inside her purse. Everly was all too aware that Jack would use whatever he felt was necessary to get her back inside the office, having conveniently forgotten his impromptu offer of a month off.
Rose studied her. “Do you need to get that?” she asked.
“Nope.”
“It wasn’t work, then?”
“It was, only I’m choosing to ignore it.” Jack could learn, the same way she had, to handle whatever crisis floated across his desk. It was baptism by fire. Everly had no doubt he’d come through just fine. Jack was fully capable. For years he’d become accustomed to having Everly deal with anything the least bit demanding. And she’d let him.
Well, no longer.
Everly had been foolish to think she was the only problem-solver in the company.
Rose looked stunned. “It could be important.”
Everly nodded. “It probably is. When Jack won’t be able to reach me, he’ll need to figure it out himself without relying on me. And that will be good for him.” Good for them both.
Feeling slightly guilty to be ignoring Jack, she sent him a quick text, claiming that whatever the issue was he could handle it and wishing him the best. They were partners, after all. It was well past time for Jack to carry his share of the weight.
“What’s this I hear about you wanting to build a gingerbread house with all the kids?” Rose asked after she pushed her clean plate aside. “Talk about swimming with the sharks.�
��
Everly smiled to herself. Her sister knew nothing about her tumble into piranha-infested waters. If she survived that, a gingerbread house with a few rambunctious kids was nothing.
They finished their meal, Everly paid, and they started walking back to the salon.
School would be out for the holidays soon and the gingerbread house was a family tradition. Their mother invited all the grandchildren old enough to participate to gather at the farm. Seeing that Everly was home, she decided to join in on the fun.
Most of the work would be done by their mother, but Everly was all in. She’d bought a small fortune in candy from the local candy store, the very one where she’d spent a good portion of her allowance as a child, to decorate the gingerbread house.
The plan was for Mom to bake the gingerbread into the shape of a cottage. Later that afternoon Everly and her mother would glue it together with frosting. They’d decided to give it overnight to harden so that little fingers wouldn’t demolish it.
“You know Mom. Any opportunity she has to pass along family traditions and she’s gung-ho,” Everly reminded her sister.
“Yes, but it’s Mom’s thing,” Rose said. “What made you decide to help? It’s going to be messy and the kids will eat far more candy than will ever end up on Candy Cane Lane.”
What her sister said was true, but Everly didn’t mind. “It’ll be fun. It always is, and I have to make up for the time I squandered last Christmas.”
Rose shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You have no idea of what you’re getting yourself into, little sister.”
* * *
—
Rose was right. The following afternoon, Everly’s sisters’ children eagerly gathered around the kitchen table. The bare gingerbread house sat in the middle of an aluminum foil–covered piece of cardboard. Little ones jockeyed for space to paste pieces of candy to the roof and sides. They licked their fingers in between, smearing frosting over their faces. Dealing with a thousand brokers was easier than supervising her nieces and nephews, high on sugar and excitement. Everly loved it, laughing with them and her mother. This was Christmas and the very traditions she had once loved.
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