He’d offered her everything despite her father, and she still didn’t want him.
“I’ll drive safe,” Billy said. “Promise.” He glanced at Max. “Can you get one of them latch systems for car seats in an old car?”
“Probably. Have to look into it.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Max?” Lindsey said. “Everything okay?”
No. He was lonely and tired and slightly lost. “Yeah. Long week.”
“Heard about your excitement last night,” Billy said. “Merry doing okay? And her dad?”
Max didn’t give a jewel thief’s ass about Nicholas Raymond. And he didn’t want to talk about Merry. “Wouldn’t know.”
The lovebirds shared a look, and Max’s jaw clenched shut.
“Seemed like you liked her,” Billy said.
Liked her didn’t touch it.
But he’d proven to her time and time again that she could trust him. He’d listened to her. He’d let her back in his house, in his life, in his heart. He’d told her he loved her. He’d guessed her biggest secret. He’d surrendered his family’s most prized possession for her.
If that wasn’t enough, then he’d just go back to enjoying the luxury of having a cursed love life.
Far better than having a broken heart.
“Your family giving you shit?” Billy asked.
“They’re leaving me alone,” Max replied pointedly.
At least, he was ignoring them since the texts had started flowing in this morning with speculation about his going price in the bachelor auction tonight going way up, thanks to him being a hero.
The FBI’s official and unofficial statements on the arrest of Whitey Burgess Jr. and his attack owl had mentioned the younger son of a prominent family connected to the Mrs. Claus diamond ring finding the stolen article and providing it to the authorities to assist in their sting. It hadn’t mentioned Merry and her mother being arrested at the wedding or that her father had been involved or that he’d been shot.
But no one could remember a time when there had been a crime in Bliss worse than someone’s yard getting flamingoed. Since the Bliss gossip express was decked out and running in all its Christmas glory, everyone knew Max was the younger son mentioned in the paper.
“You’re still in the bachelor auction tonight?” Lindsey asked.
“It’s for a good cause.”
Rachel had over seven hundred in donations for Pepper to bid on him. Maybe going out with someone equally cursed was a good idea.
Lindsey reached out to touch his hand, seeming on the verge of saying something, but then she shook her head. “Hang in there, Max,” she finally said.
Billy nodded. “It’ll work out. ’Sides, can’t appreciate the good if you don’t go through the bad.”
True enough.
But Max was about done with the bad.
At least he had a car to look forward to.
* * *
Patrick was some kind of superhero.
He’d been in the waiting room down the hall from Daddy’s room most of the night, occasionally stopping in to ask if Mom or Merry needed food or coffee or tissues, then making himself scarce while they continued to sit by Daddy’s bedside, waiting for him to wake up.
Daddy’s shoulder was bandaged and his arm immobilized in a fancy sling contraption. An oxygen line was taped beneath his nose, and Merry could count the veins in his eyelids.
He was so pale.
So very, very pale.
The doctors said he’d lost a good deal of blood and a part of his shoulder blade, but the bullet had missed his vital organs and made a clean exit. He’d been lucky, they said.
He’d live. Probably with minimal long-term effects.
“I always feared this day would come,” Mom whispered shortly after Patrick had delivered a fast-food breakfast of egg muffins and yogurt cups.
“That he’d be hurt, or that he’d be caught?” Merry asked.
“Both.”
In going to the authorities, Daddy had put himself in a position of having to answer for his own crimes. According to the FBI agent, Daddy’s job with Whitey Burgess Jr. initially had had nothing to do with the Mrs. Claus diamond. But when the bastard had spotted her with Max last year, he’d decided to go for it too. Daddy had stalled him, working smaller jobs for Whitey to try to get enough evidence to get him tossed in jail with his father, but it hadn’t been enough, and Whitey had given Daddy a deadline.
And now Daddy was strapped into a hospital bed, recovering from a wound he’d gotten to protect her.
Mom hadn’t sat still since they’d arrived. She stood, she sat, she stood again. She looked out the window, and she went pale when she eyed the police guarding Daddy’s room.
But she kept looking toward the door.
“Patrick would come in and sit with us if you asked him,” Merry said.
A blush crept into Mom’s smooth cheeks. “That would be awkward.”
“Your entire love life is awkward.”
The blush went deeper. “Remind me again why you sent that nice Matt away last night?”
Oh, she zinged you good! Phoebe Moon crowed.
Forget being a crazy cat lady. Merry was a crazy lady with voices in her head. And when she died, the voices would go with her. Unlike the cats.
You’re so morbid, Phoebe Moon chided.
“Mom, I’m not built for relationships.”
“Meredith—”
“I don’t have Cinderella dreams. I don’t need a man to make me feel fulfilled. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But having a man isn’t for me. I like taking care of me. I like not sharing. Maybe someday I’ll change my mind, but right now, I want to be alone.”
Liar, Phoebe Moon said.
Yes. Yes, she was.
“You always were so strong,” Mom said. “But, sweetheart—”
Daddy grunted. His head rolled to the side and a grimace crossed his features. His eyes slowly blinked open.
“Nicholas? Sweet—Nick, are you awake? Merry, call the doctor. Your father’s waking up.”
Daddy lifted his head, then his shoulders. He winced. His brown eyes slid from Mom to Merry, and a weak but classic Daddy smile spread over his lips. “So a guy has to get shot to see both his girls at once?”
“Not funny,” Merry said.
“And I’m not your girl.” Mom blinked as though she were surprised with herself, then glanced at the door again. “I’d slug you for what you put us through, but I’m not your girl, Nicholas Raymond. I’m…I’m my own girl. Just like my daughter.”
“Merry-berry, your mother’s adorable.”
“And you’re jacked up on morphine.” Mom went to the door and said something to one of the guards, then crossed her arms and took up a position looking out the window.
“Safe now, my little girl,” Daddy said. “So sorry I put you in danger. Did that owl hurt you? Never wanted to strangle an animal like I wanted to strangle that one. Damn FBI’s planning on retraining it to help them.”
“I’m fine, Daddy.”
“I’m sorry I got between you and the Mrs. Claus boy too. Seems like a decent fellow.”
The sting was back behind Merry’s eyelids. “Hush. You need to get better.”
A nurse came in, and Merry and Mom stepped outside while she took Daddy’s vitals.
Patrick stopped his pacing at the end of the hallway and looked at them.
“He’s a good one, Mom,” Merry whispered.
Mom dashed a finger at her eyes. “He is, isn’t he?”
“Daddy’s not good for either one of us.”
“Oh, Merry, your father always loved you more than he loved anything.”
Merry cast a wary glance at the two guards outside her father’s room. “Not more than he loved his job.”
“That’s a sickness, sweetheart. And he’s beating it.”
Maybe today. But what about tomorrow? “You should take time to be yourself, Mom. But don’t cut Patrick out. There�
��s not another Patrick in the whole world.”
“Nor another Max,” Mom murmured.
“Shush. We’re having a Merry-as-Mom moment, not a Mom-as-Mom moment.” And Argentina sounded like an interesting country. Her Spanish was almost as good as her French. She could count to ten and say please, thank you, and where’s the bathroom in both languages.
And it was far, far away from here.
Mom wrapped her arms around Merry. “I’m going to lose you, aren’t I?”
Merry’s throat clogged. “I’ll call.”
“I’d rather you just stay.”
Before they’d been arrested, Merry would’ve given in to wishing the same.
But today, all she wanted was to go away and pretend Bliss didn’t exist.
Pretend Max didn’t exist.
Someday he’d make a nice, normal, trusting woman very happy.
But that woman wasn’t Merry.
She didn’t know how to trust, and she didn’t want to be normal.
Chapter 30
“Would you do it again, Phoebe Moon?” Zack Diggory said. “Even knowing what you know now?”
—Phoebe Moon and the Missing Sunshine
* * *
After a three-hour nap at the B&B Saturday afternoon, Merry showered, changed into jeans and a soft gray sweater, then started packing.
Her computer was safe. Her notebook was safe. Daddy was recovering. Mom was—
Mom was good, actually.
She’d asked Patrick if they could date a while longer before planning their next wedding.
Merry had expected Mom to cut him loose and throw herself into planning Daddy’s future if the FBI got him a deal, or into planning Daddy’s defense if they didn’t. Instead, when they’d left him at the hospital to get his rest, Mom had wished him well and told him to stay out of trouble, because his daughter still loved him, much as he didn’t deserve it.
No histrionics. No drama. No hints—thinly veiled or obvious—that she had another man in her life or that she needed to make Daddy jealous or herself feel better for having a man who worshipped her despite what he did or didn’t know about her.
“You’re keeping Patrick?” Merry had asked Mom when they returned to the B&B for some rest.
“You were right,” Mom replied. “He’s still here. Despite everything, he’s still here. Perhaps we’ll try to get married again one day, but for now, we’re going to see if I can find who I am outside of being a girlfriend, fiancée, or wife. And Patrick…he’s okay with waiting.” Mom shook her head, a wondrous sort of bafflement in her smile and an odd glow in her eyes. “I’m an expert at getting married, but I’ve forgotten how to simply love.”
Was that Merry’s problem?
That she didn’t know how to love? That her love was inferior? Or insufficient against the extra challenges and baggage she carried in her life? Was she afraid that one day, she would do the same as Mom and move on to the next new and exciting thing, leaving a stunned, perfectly adequate man behind?
Or was she terrified she’d be the one left behind when he got tired of the complications of her life?
Life would be so much easier if she could go back to that time when she’d been happy being on her own.
Except her heart hurt at the thought of never knowing Max.
So she made herself think about Phoebe Moon and the sometimes misunderstood Uncle Sandy—but not Zack Diggory—and folded her clothes, cleaned her toiletries from the bathroom, and zipped up her luggage.
She had her passport. She had all her earthly belongings that she cared to take. She had her ticket to Paris and a credit card to pay the fees to change her ticket to wherever she wanted to go when she got to the airport. Australia, maybe. That was good and far away. Or maybe Japan.
Maybe she’d stay long. Maybe she wouldn’t.
But she couldn’t stay here.
She’d stay a town or two over until Daddy was released from the hospital and his fate was decided, but she didn’t want to stay in Bliss, where everyone knew her. Where everyone knew what her father did.
Where everyone would soon know about Amber Finch?
She opened her door and came face-to-face with the older, softer version of the man she was running away from.
“I won’t take long,” Dan said. “Spencer McGraw asked me to pass along his thanks for your handling of his ring.”
Merry blinked. “Seriously?”
“Good publicity, apparently.”
Ah. That made sense. Sales of his Mrs. Claus diamond ring book would probably skyrocket, thanks to renewed interest and scandal surrounding the piece. “He’s welcome,” she said dryly.
Dan’s lips twitched, and her belly flipped.
She’d miss Max’s smile. “If that’s all, I need to—”
“Who are you?”
Her heart stuttered. Had Max told his family? Did they know she was Amber Finch? Was her secret out? “I’m sorry?”
“Max told me who your father is, and I reacted…as you might expect. But he’s rather enamored with you. He’s never been a bad judge of character, and my wife has suggested that it must be difficult to make friends when people react to your relatives the way I did. So. Who are you?”
She slowly closed her mouth.
Who was she? Not the daughter of a jewel thief. Not Amber Finch. Not the daughter of a serial marrier. Who was Merry Silver?
“I’m a woman about to miss a flight.”
Merry Silver is a chicken, Phoebe Moon said.
Don’t insult chickens, Zack Diggory chided.
“I hope you’re not leaving because of anything we’ve done here in Bliss,” Dan said.
“No, you’ve all been very nice. I just…” She trailed off, realizing I just have to run away from myself wasn’t something she wanted to admit to anyone.
Max knew about her father’s thievery. He knew about her mother’s list of ex-husbands. He knew her darkest secret and her biggest secret.
But he’d stayed by her side until she ordered him to leave.
“I’ve never seen my brother tied up over a woman before,” Dan said. “I won’t deny I would’ve wished better in-laws for him, but I also don’t want to stand between him and his happiness.”
She felt as though carbonated water was fizzling beneath her skin. “I stole from your family.”
“As my wife has pointed out—repeatedly—you moved an endangered piece to what you believed to be a safer location with the intention of foiling a known threat. Never mind that we have safes and top-notch security in the store and a trustworthy, upstanding police force at our beck and call. However, as my wife has also repeatedly pointed out, you were in a tough spot, and we were virtual strangers.”
Not entirely an apology, but then she hardly merited one.
Dan shook his head. “I don’t care if Max gets married or has kids or works at With This Ring, but I care that he’s happy. And right now, he’s not happy. If that matters to you.” He looked as though he wanted to say more but instead he turned away. “Best of luck to you, Merry.”
The stairs creaked when he walked away. When the door to the B&B opened a minute later, Mom peeked out of her room. “He seems like a nice man.”
Merry shrugged. “It’s like a law or something to be nice in Bliss. Unless you’re the police and you’re arresting someone.”
“It would be a nice place to live.” Mom’s eyebrow almost twitched. “If you’re not on the receiving end of being arrested here. Again.”
And that was all that needed to be said on the subject.
“If your father and I weren’t here, what would you do?” Mom asked.
“You and Daddy are here. Both of you. For which I’m infinitely grateful, though I appreciate you each in your own individual ways.”
“Meredith, I don’t want us to be a hindrance to your life. If you want to stay, stay. I want to learn who I am, but if I haven’t figured it out in my thirty-six years on this earth, I may never learn.”
“Mo
m, you’re fifty-eight.”
“Hush. It’s far more important to me that you get one chance to be happy than for me to work on it one more time. So if you need me to keep obstacles out of your way so that you can stay here, I will.”
Merry narrowed her eyes. “Are you suggesting you’d get back together with Daddy?”
Mom’s shudder was instantaneous and actually caused a real wrinkle in her forehead. “Dear God, no. It’s taken thirty of my thirty-six years on this planet, but I think I’ve finally outgrown him.” She sagged onto her wood-paneled door. “I think I’m actually falling in love with Patrick,” she whispered. “It’s so odd—he’s not really my type at all.”
Crapadoodle. Merry couldn’t go to Australia. Mom couldn’t handle being single by herself. “Maybe the last thirty years have finally been good for you,” she whispered back.
“And maybe the next thirty could be really good for you. You were such a sweet, happy girl once. I wish I could wave a magic wand and give that back to you.”
“Magic isn’t real.”
“Just something to think about.” She gestured to Merry’s luggage. “You’re not leaving yet, are you?”
“The B&B needs my room. I’ll be close though. For a little bit.”
Mom smothered her in a hug. “Be brave, my little Merry,” she whispered. “Be brave, and be happy.”
Could she?
What if Max got hurt? What if his family got hurt because of her?
But what if they didn’t?
An odd sensation prickled her belly and spread through her chest, a blood-pumping adrenaline rush coupled with something else that had always been just out of reach.
Hope.
She’d already stolen Max’s family’s most prized possession. She’d been arrested at her mother’s wedding and tossed in jail. She’d sat at her father’s bedside, waiting for him to wake up after being shot.
Could life get any more difficult?
And if it did, did she want to face it alone when she could have Max holding her hand to face it with her?
And what about Max?
Who would be there with him to hold his hand the next time he faced a disaster?
Life isn’t always a disaster, Merry Silver, Zack Diggory intoned.
Merried Page 27