A Christmas Miracle

by Amy Andrews

  ‘Don’t look at me,’ she warned, eyes on her job. ‘Your face pisses me off too.’

  The whole room cracked up at that.

  ‘You do know she has a kid, right?’ Reid said.

  ‘Of course. Ollie.’

  ‘Oscar.’

  ‘He’s four.’

  Reid shoved his hands on his hips. ‘He’s five.’

  ‘Right.’ Chase grinned. ‘Oscar. Who’s five.’

  ‘You might have to go somewhere family friendly and take him with you.’

  ‘Aw come on, man. They’re living with you—you could babysit for a night, right? You like kids, don’t you?’

  Reid liked kids just fine but he hardly thought that was the point. ‘She might be more amenable to a guy who’s willing to include her son right from the get-go, doofus.’

  Did he have to hand Trinity to Chase on a goddamn freaking platter?

  ‘Or maybe she’s just dying to have some adult one-on-one time? You know—’ He waggled his eyebrows and Reid wondered if twenty-somethings were getting dumber these days. ‘Without her kid hanging around all the time.’

  Reid snorted. Good luck with that. He’d seen her yesterday morning at breakfast trying to be upbeat about Oscar’s first day of school, stoking his excitement, fussing over his uniform and encouraging his chatter even though Reid could see the emotion in her eyes when Oscar’s attention was elsewhere.

  As if she wanted to snatch him to her side and never let him out in the big bad world.

  ‘Right,’ Reid said. ‘You should definitely go with that angle.’

  He had a feeling that Trinity’s heart had been taken five years ago and she was a one-guy woman.

  * * *

  Trinity opened the door and placed her car keys—which also now included a house key—on the hallstand at just before ten, a smile on her face. It was the last day of Oscar’s second week and, so far, school had been an outstanding success. All her fears and worries about him not liking it or missing her had been put to bed and he was thriving.

  There’d been a special welcome parade for the new parents this morning, which she’d stayed on for. Seeing Oscar up on stage in front of the whole school with the other new kids in his class, singing a welcome song, had filled her heart to bursting.

  The sense that things really were going to be all right settled around. The thought of leaving all the difficult times behind them made her giddy and for the first time in a long time she felt as if she could breathe properly.

  ‘Eddie?’

  She’d taken some pictures of Oscar up on stage on her phone for Eddie and couldn’t wait to show him. She walked into the television room where he’d been when she left. He’d been doing some Sudoku puzzles, which he loved and the hospital had recommended to help keep his brain active.

  He wasn’t in the living room. ‘Eddie?’ she called again. Maybe he was out watering the garden?

  She checked outside. And in his room. And his en-suite. No Eddie.

  ‘Eddie?’

  A note of panic crept into her voice as a trickle of fear slid into her system. She checked the other downstairs bathroom, the office, even the garage. She took the stairs two at a time, calling his name as she looked frantically in all the upstairs rooms. Including Reid’s, which she’d kept the hell away from thus far.

  ‘Eddie!’ The silence that roared back at her was deafening.

  That breath she’d been taking was sucked away.

  Where could he have got to? She remembered the thugs at the park and the hot lick of fear chilled to ice in her veins.

  She bolted down the stairs, scooped the keys off the hallstand and flew out of the house. She barely looked both ways as she crossed the road, praying like crazy that Eddie had decided to feed the ducks. But there was no Eddie anywhere near the pond. Trinity jogged the length and breadth of the park calling his name, her heart hammering more from fear than exertion.

  She didn’t find him lying unconscious on the ground either and she couldn’t decide if she was relieved or even more petrified. ‘Where are you, Eddie?’ she muttered.

  She ran back across the street, adrenaline and bile settling uneasily like oil on water in her gut. She banged on the doors of the neighbours either side but neither of them had seen Eddie leave. She looked up and down the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of his snowy-white head but there was nothing.

  It didn’t stop her running up and down it though, calling his name.

  God. She’d been watching over him for two weeks—two lousy weeks—and she’d already failed to do the one thing Reid had wanted her to do. Keep an eye on him.

  Reid who had offered her so much.

  What if Eddie had fallen down somewhere and broken his other hip? What if some other thugs had bailed him up and this time hurt him?

  What if he’d had a stroke? Or a heart attack?

  The possibilities mounted like boogie men in her mind and by the time she’d got back to the house with still no Eddie she knew she was going to have to call Reid and tell him she’d lost his grandfather.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘REID?’ TRINITY WAS jogging along the footpath again, peering down the side streets, her gaze searching for Eddie’s big, slightly stooped frame and wild white hair.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  His voice was low but alert in her ear and she knew instantly that he knew something was up. He’d have to be deaf not to pick up on the panic and distress in her voice.

  ‘I was home later than usual...’ she was puffing and panting as she ran to the frantic pound of her heart ‘...this morning because...’ puff, puff ‘...there was a special welcome parade and—’

  ‘Trinity.’ He cut into her rambling. ‘What’s wrong? Has something happened?’

  Trinity stopped jogging, the enormity of the situation pulling her to a dead stop. Her pulse washed like Niagara Falls through her ears and dread filled all the space in her chest she needed to breathe. ‘Eddie’s gone. I can’t find him. He wasn’t in the house when I got home.’

  There was a long pause and Trinity wished she could see his face. Was he worried, annoyed or flat-out angry? After spending the last two weeks trying to keep some distance between them she suddenly wished he were beside her.

  Even if he was angry he was a man who exuded capability as if it was God-given and she could sure as hell do with some of that right now.

  ‘When was the last time you saw him?’

  ‘We left for school at eight-thirty. I’m usually home by just after nine but—’

  He cut her off briskly. ‘Where are you now? Are you home?’

  ‘I’m searching the side streets.’

  ‘I’m coming now. I’ll try a few of his old haunts. Go home.’

  She wasn’t annoyed by the order—she was pleased he was thinking methodically—but she needed to do something. ‘I can’t just sit at home. Text me some locations I can help search.’

  His response was swift. ‘No. I need you home in case he turns up there.’

  Trinity had been all set to argue her point but she couldn’t fault that logic. There was no use them both out combing the streets if Eddie had returned home.

  ‘Okay. Sure.’ She turned back for the house. ‘Look, Reid... I’m so, so sorry.’

  ‘It’s fine, Trinity.’ The briskness was gone. His voice was soft and compassionate.

  ‘But what if he—?’

  ‘I’ll find him.’

  Trinity stomped down on all the ways that Eddie could be hurt. The last thing Reid needed was her litany of worst-case scenarios when he probably had a hundred of his own.

  ‘It’ll be okay, don’t worry,’ he assured her. ‘He can’t have gone too far. Speak soon.’

  The phone went dead, his assurances not he
lping one iota.

  * * *

  An hour later she got the phone call that Eddie was safe and Reid was bringing him home. Trinity groped for the steps behind her, falling back onto the third one as relief flooded her system. She’d been pacing the floor area between the internal staircase and the front door while trying and failing to keep all those thoughts stuffed down.

  She’d pictured him dead and maimed in so many different ways.

  Now she was dizzy with relief.

  Fifteen minutes later she heard the key in the lock and all but ran to greet Eddie as he appeared, launching herself at his big frame, hugging him hard. ‘Eddie! You gave me a heart attack.’

  The old man caught her and laughed. ‘I’m so sorry, my dear,’ he said, his eyes twinkling. ‘Got a call from a dear friend who was in town. Wanted to meet for a beer in the old stomping ground. I should have let Reid know what I was up to or left you a note. I just forgot...’

  Trinity noted Eddie had put on some smart clothes. ‘Oh. So you didn’t...’

  She glanced at a grinning Reid, who shook his head. ‘Found him at the local pub a few kilometres away.’

  So he’d just...gone out? Drinking. At nine in the morning. But he hadn’t wandered away.

  Well. Okay, then. Why shouldn’t he? This was his life. His house. He’d no doubt been coming and going from it for decades without telling anyone his business. He didn’t need her permission or approval. He wasn’t a prisoner here and, as Reid had said, she wasn’t Eddie’s jailer.

  Still, he’d scared a decade off her life, and, for someone who already looked more than her twenty-four years, she could do without the addition of grey hair.

  ‘Anything to eat?’ Eddie asked, cheerfully. ‘Two beers on an empty stomach and I’m as dizzy as a top.’

  Trinity blinked. ‘Ah...sure. I’ll make you a sandwich.’

  ‘Cheese and pickle? That would be lovely,’ he said, patting her on the arm before heading in the direction of the living room.

  ‘He can make his own sandwiches,’ Reid said, following her into the kitchen.

  ‘I don’t mind.’

  ‘Doing things for him won’t help keep his brain active.’

  ‘I’m making him one lousy cheese and pickle sandwich,’ Trinity chided. She’d have gone out and slain a deer if he’d asked for venison. ‘He can make his own tomorrow.’

  She dragged the bread, butter and cheese out of the fridge and dumped them on the bench. Her hands shook as reaction to Eddie being safe set in. She grabbed the pickles from the pantry but the adrenaline that had maintained her in a state of high alert chose that moment to drain away in an almost audible whoosh.

  Eddie was safe. He hadn’t had a stroke, broken his hip again or been attacked. Her legs wobbled and the jar fell from suddenly nerveless fingers, smashing on the floor.

  She swore under her breath, staring at the pile of glass and the ooze of thick yellow pickles as she knelt to clean it up.

  Reid leapt to her aid, grabbing a roll of paper towel off the bench as he crouched beside the mess. ‘Be careful, don’t cut yourself.’

  The adrenaline surge had left her wrung out and irritable. His broad shoulders seemed to loom over her. His thighs, clad in his bike leathers, seemed to loom up at her. And his feet looked huge in his big biker boots.

  ‘Gee thanks,’ she muttered as she picked out the larger pieces of glass from the spilled food, placing them on a paper towel he thrust at her. ‘I was planning on doing just that.’

  Did he think she was stupid?

  He ignored her sarcasm and they worked together, her kneeling, him crouching, his big boots and spread thighs in her direct line of vision.

  ‘I’ll get the mop,’ she said, once the mess was taken care of.

  ‘No need.’ He departed momentarily before crouching down again with a thick wad of wet paper towels. ‘A spot-mop’ll do. The cleaner will be here tomorrow morning.’

  Oh, yes. The cleaner. Trinity had never known such luxury. In fact, she’d usually been the cleaner.

  He went to do the job but she wrested the paper towel off him. He didn’t resist too hard, which saved a dumb tug-of-war. She was hyperaware, though, of him watching her as she swiped the stickiness away. Conscious of his nearness. Of the way he filled out his bike leathers and the battered state of his sturdy boots.

  ‘Looks good,’ he said, once she’d thoroughly swabbed the area.

  Trinity glanced at him. He was so close. She didn’t think she’d ever been this close—for good reason. She could see the individual golden brown strands of his beard and smell the aftershave he wore so damn well. Her heart rate picked up again but for an entirely different reason than a missing grandfather.

  God, what was she doing down here on the floor with him?

  She’d already dragged him away from his work and caused him who knew how much stress over his pop and now he was cleaning up another mess of hers.

  She needed to apologise and send him back to work.

  ‘Look... I’m so sorry for dragging you out of work like that. I just assumed that he’d wandered away and I panicked. I didn’t even consider that he might have left with an actual purpose in mind.’

  ‘It’s fine,’ Reid assured her. ‘I assumed the same thing. And I want you to ring me if you ever have any concerns about Pops. Any time, okay?’

  She nodded, the movement of his mouth distracting. She liked the way it sat in amongst his facial hair, the whiskers perfectly groomed to delineate the margins of his lips. She wanted to run her fingers around his mouth and feel the tickle of whiskers against the pads of her finger and the contrasting softness of his lips.

  He’d gone very still all of a sudden and her breath hitched as his gaze dropped to her mouth.

  Oh, Lordy!

  ‘Thank you...for coming.’ It was just for something to say but she instantly regretted it when his mouth kicked up at one corner in wicked suggestion. Trinity blushed under the steady heat of his gaze.

  ‘For leaving work,’ she clarified quickly. ‘For dropping everything. Just...thank you. And thank you a hundred times for finding him.’

  God, yes. Definitely that. Seeing Eddie again had been such a relief.

  He smiled at her and it was so damn sexy she was lost to the pull of his mouth. She’d never kissed a man with a beard. The fact that this man was highly inappropriate didn’t seem to matter right now.

  ‘You should get back to work,’ she said in an effort to distract herself from the potency of his attraction and the tug of her hormones.

  He nodded but didn’t move and before she could check the impulse she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.

  That was it. Just a press. A tentative thing. Shy, almost. No opening of lips, no angling of heads to accommodate noses, no aligning of bodies, no sigh as they settled in.

  Just her lips on his.

  Testing, trying.

  His whiskers spiked pleasantly at the outline of her mouth, his scent teased her nostrils and the husky timbre of his breathing tickled her ears. Time suspended in that moment or two before a kiss became something else.

  And then common sense rushed in and she pulled back as if she’d been zapped, her tripping pulse stuttering to a momentary halt as shock set in. She stared at Reid, aghast, her hand covering her mouth as he stared too.

  ‘I...’ She removed her hand in the hopes she’d say something sensible, something to justify her completely inexcusable actions. She’d kissed him, for crying out loud.

  ‘I...’

  Nothing. She had nothing. She couldn’t think above the bang of her restarted heart fibrillating through her ribcage. But she had to say something.

  ‘I’m so...so sorry,’ she stuttered, her gaze glued to his face with its completely inscrutable expression. ‘That was co
mpletely and utterly inappropriate. I don’t know—’

  ‘Trinity.’

  Her pulse leapt at his interruption but she ignored him. ‘What came over me. I was just so...scared—’

  ‘Trinity.’

  ‘That something had happened,’ she said, ploughing on, needing to get an apology out before she dissolved in a nervous puddle, ‘to Eddie and to see he was okay—’

  She cut out as he dropped from a crouch to a kneel bringing him so much closer. So close their thighs almost touched and she could feel the warm fan of his breath on her cheek. Her body stiffened and her heart raced as a crazy buzz started up deep inside her pelvis. She eased her torso back, putting some distance between them.

  ‘To...to...to know he was okay,’ she said, ignoring the dryness of her mouth as she forced herself to continue, ‘and to see him come through that door with you—’

  ‘Trinity,’ Reid said, interrupting her again, sliding a hand onto the side of her neck before slipping it all the way around to her nape.

  ‘What?’

  Her voice, low and husky, was barely audible as his hand urged her closer, her body aligning with his. His lips were just there, the bristles of his beard were just there and she curled her fingers into her palms to stop herself from touching. Her skin sizzled wherever his body made contact with hers.

  ‘Be quiet,’ he muttered and brought his mouth down on hers.

  There was nothing shy about this kiss.

  It was open-mouthed from the start. Nothing pleasant about the tickle of his whiskers. They scraped erotically against her chin and cheeks as he angled his head to deepen the kiss, prickling in a tidal wave of sensation down her entire body, hardening her nipples and settling right between her legs.

  His scent raged like a juggernaut through her system. His breathing was the harsh suck of a hurricane in her ears. Her pulse didn’t trip, it pounded like a jackhammer through her head and chest and all her pulse points.

  Reid was a full-body experience and she was utterly consumed by the havoc he was wreaking.

  And his tongue. God, his tongue. Swiping and thrusting and stroking. Thick and urgent as it explored and demanded hers do the same in return. It tore whimpers from her throat and weakened her knees. If she hadn’t already threaded her fingers through his belt loops she’d have slumped to the floor at the first touch of his tongue.