“Sitting with his mother. She’s missed him since you got ahold of him.”
Tessa's eyebrows rose. So that was the way it was. Good to know. Because no civil words came to mind, she remained silent. Instead she gazed around the parts of the house that she could see from the entryway, namely the living and dining rooms. Cherubs abounded. They were cross-stitched on pillows, paintings of them adorned the walls, and a few particularly chubby ones were painted on the dining room ceiling. The Kennedy’s color palette of choice was a creamy off-white with liberal gold accents. It somehow managed to be heavenly and tacky all at once.
“Come on through, young lady,” Liam’s uncle said. “I bet you wouldn’t mind seeing your husband, huh?”
Mind? She was near desperate at this point. She and Liam were night and day, black and white, sun and moon…but despite their polarity, they belonged together. “You have no idea.”
She followed Liam’s uncle down a long hallway that led toward the back of the house. Framed family photos hung on the walls. She slowed to get a better look at some of them. A quick glance confirmed the Kennedys were an outdoor bunch. Camping, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, canoeing, it appears they did it all. With smiles on their faces, no less.
One of the last photos hung slightly to the side. Never one to tolerate anything crooked, Tessa reached up to straighten the frame. When she did, her fingernail caught on something. She tugged her hand free and a small black and white snapshot came loose from the backing. The original photo was still in the frame, so this one must have been tucked away behind it.
Tessa peered at the photo. Four children stood in front of a Christmas tree. One of the boys was obviously Liam, and she gathered the two toddlers were his younger sisters. But who was the boy with them? Despite his young age, his expression was as cocky as Liam’s was serene. “Rodney, who is this little boy?”
When Liam's uncle looked at the photo, surprise flitted across his face. “Where’d you get that?”
Tessa pointed to the frame. “It was stuck behind that one.”
He took a longer look at it. “I haven’t seen that photo in years.” He shook his head, a rueful expression on his face. “That rascal would be Liam’s brother.”
Tessa’s eyes widened. Liam had a brother? This was the very first she was hearing of it.
“My nephew didn’t mention him?” Rodney asked. “Well, I guess that shouldn't surprise me. Damian is the proverbial black sheep of the Kennedy clan.”
“Damian?” Tessa’s mind buzzed with questions. Why hadn’t her husband told her that he had a brother? Liam was the most open and honest man she’d ever met, bar none. How would he leave something this significant out of their conversations? “Wait a moment, Rodney,” she called after his departing back. “Will Damian be here for the holidays?”
Rodney stopped short and came right back to her side. “Good heavens, no. He’s not welcome here.” He glanced in the direction of the kitchen and lowered his voice. “And if you want to get in good with my sister-in-law, I wouldn’t mention her wayward son. That would tank any relationship that you hope to have with her.”
“No one talks about him?”
“No one,” Rodney confirmed. “Consider the topic completely off limits.”
Tessa frowned. “Then why wasn’t this picture destroyed?”
Rodney shrugged. “They’ve probably forgotten it was there. You know how it is when you have tons of family photos here and there.”
Actually, she didn’t. Her only family was Aunt Trudy and her coven members, and they were hardly a typical family. No, the inner-workings of a family were a complete mystery to her. “But what did Liam’s brother do that was so terrible?” she asked.
Rodney shifted from foot to foot as if he were suddenly standing on hot coals. “I suggest you just slip that back in the frame and forget you saw it.”
Tessa started to ask another question but realized she was talking to Rodney’s back because he’d literally beat a retreat to the kitchen. She looked back down at the photo. The two little boys couldn’t have looked more different. Liam's smile was sweet, innocent, and infectious. Damian's expression, however, couldn't be called anything other than a smirk.
After only a moment’s hesitation, she slid the photo into her dress pocket. There was a story here, and if her husband wasn’t going to tell it to her, she was going to discover it for herself.
***
When Tessa entered the kitchen she felt the eyes of the entire Kennedy clan focus on her but she ignored them all once she saw Liam. Judging by the smile on his face, he was as happy to see her as she was to see him.
“Hello, darling,” he said as he made his way over to where she stood. Although it wasn’t either the right time or the right place, he gathered her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly. “I’m glad you’re here.”
A slow, satisfied smile stretched across Tessa’s face. “Good to know seeing as how I’ve missed you too.” She reached up to gently stroke his cheek. “But perhaps you should show me again.”
“Liam, honey,” a sugary sweet voice broke into their private moment. “Why don’t you introduce us?”
Reluctantly, Tessa pulled back. She slid a possessive arm around Liam’s waist. She’d done everything she could to postpone meeting his parents but it looked like the time of reckoning was finally here. She ignored the battalion of butterflies on military maneuver in her stomach.
“Tessa, love, these are my parents,” Liam said. “Mop, Pop, this my wife, Tessa.”
Tessa tensed as Liam’s mother made her way over to them.
“Welcome to our home, my dear,” Mrs. Kennedy said as she enveloped Tessa into a crushing hug. “We’re delighted to meet you, at long last. I'd almost given up hope of ever seeing my new daughter-in-law.”
“Hello, Mrs. Kennedy,” Tessa said once she’d been released and was able to take a deep breath.
“Call me Mop,” his mother chirped.
Mop? As in a bucket of dirty water? “I don’t think I can,” Tessa said. “Not yet.”
“Hello, Tessa.” Liam’s father smiled broadly from across the room. “We’re happy you’ve come home for the holidays. Come in, please.” He waved her over to the kitchen table. “You’ve met my brother Rodney, but please don’t hold the knowledge that we're related against me.”
Tessa managed a small smile. Her father-in-law, she decided, was going to be much easier to tolerate than his wife. Grateful to have Liam's hand on the small of her back for much needed moral support, she joined the family at the kitchen table. After Liam introduced her to his two sisters, the family fell into an awkward silence.
"Well, I have to say you're just as attractive as Liam said you were," his mother finally said. She pulled out the chair next to Liam's and sat beside her son. "We were hoping for wedding photos but we suppose you forgot to send them. Which is understandable, please don't feel badly."
Tessa tried to say that she didn't, in fact, feel bad at all but she wasn't able to interject a word into her mother-in-law's monologue.
"I suppose in all the excitement of eloping, finding little ways to include Liam's family in your plans took a backseat. I wouldn't know, we had a big wedding because it was so important to my parents." Mrs. Kennedy reached over and patted her son's arm. "The very fact you talked my son into running off to marry you tells me that you're something else, Tessa."
Tessa raised a delicately arched eyebrow. She met and held Mrs. Kennedy's gaze without blinking. Message received loud and clear. She trusted herself to keep her mouth shut, for now, but it was her hands she worried about. A nearly irresistible temptation to use all three of her permitted spells at once washed over her but she resisted. Far better to hold them in reserve, doubtless they were going to come in handy over the next several days. Judging by the hostile-disguised-as-wholesome chatter emanating from her mother-in-law, one spell wasn't likely to be enough to mount a decent defense.
Chapter Three
"Just hol
d your finger right here so I can tie this bow."
Tessa did as her husband asked, even though his desire to achieve the perfectly wrapped present made no sense to her. "Why go to the all the trouble of wrapping these gifts if everyone is just going to rip the paper off?"
Liam looked up from what he was doing, a startled expression on his face. "Who said anything about ripping?" He looped one end of the ribbon under the other and tightened it. "You can have your finger back now."
Tessa slipped her finger out of the knot. "Your family doesn't tear open their gifts?"
Liam pulled a face. "Heavens, no. Why would we?"
Tessa shrugged, hoping her disappointment didn't show on her face. "No reason." In all of the old holiday movies she'd watched, the best part of Christmas morning looked like it was tearing through stacks of wrapped presents. Leave it to her in-laws to rob her of even that small pleasure. Now she would have to carefully unwrap her gift before she refolded the tissue and wrapping paper. No doubt there was an unwritten law amongst the fairies that they had to recycle the wrapping paper. What killjoys.
"Have you wrapped your mother's gift yet?" Tessa could not, under any circumstances imaginable, refer to her mother-in-law as Mop. "You did buy her something?"
Liam set aside the gift he'd been wrapping and met her gaze. "I did. But what she really wants is-"
A grandchild. Good heavens, he didn't need to say it out loud.
"-a grandchild."
Hold the presses. Here was news.
Tessa struggled to keep her voice level. "She might have mentioned that during dinner." At least half a dozen times.
"And would that be so very bad?" Liam watched her thoughtfully. "Us having a baby together?"
"Well, we're certainly not about to do it apart." Tessa flicked her hair over her shoulder in an impatient gesture. "It's the 'when' that I have a problem with. But I don't want to talk about it now. I'm a bit out of sorts."
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Liam reached for her hands. "Are you worried that you haven't been a good girl this year and that you won't receive a gift?" His eyes sparkled with laughter.
Tessa snatched her hands back. "Funny. I fully expect to receive a spectacular gift, thank you very much."
"Oh, you will. You're going to flip when you find out what you're getting."
"Is my gift here?" Tessa turned her gaze to the stack of gifts behind her husband.
"No, it's not. Well, sort of." Liam grinned. "Aren't you tempted to torture me into telling you where it is?"
Tessa lifted an eyebrow. "You know, for a fairy, you're wearing a devil of a grin."
With one swift move, Liam swept the wrapping paper, ribbon, tape, and scissors onto the carpet. "I am feeling a bit devilish. Come here."
Tessa didn't even try to play coy. After the day she'd spent with her in-laws, she could use a little one on one with her adoring husband. Even if it meant they had to confine their snuggling to a twin bed.
She sighed with pleasure as Liam gathered her into his arms and brushed his lips across hers. "Liam-"
But her next words were cut off by a high pitched scream. Tessa stiffened and pulled back from Liam's embrace. "Was that-" but her question was interrupted by the slamming of at least three doors along the corridor in rapid succession.
Liam got to his feet with an apologetic backwards glance. "That sounds like Mop. Give me a second to check on her."
She waved her hand. "Go."
Hand on the doorknob, Liam turned back to look at her, indecision clear on his face.
Tessa forced herself to sound neutral, not annoyed. "Go do your white knight thing. I'll wait here."
With a grateful smile, Liam pulled open the door and slipped out. Just before he closed it behind him, a black streak shot through it and made a flying leap onto Tessa's lap.
"Good grief, Minx, what is the matter with you?" Tessa lifted the cat up and stared into its jade green eyes. "You're a furious little fur ball tonight."
The cat went limp. Tessa laughed. "Trust me, I feel the same way." She settled the familiar onto her lap and stroked it's ebony fur. "At least you can get away with hissing and hiding. I've got to pretend to be nice." She sighed and leaned her head back against the headboard. "What are we going to do about that mother-in-law of mine?"
Minx sat up and batted at the fabric of her skirt. Tessa nudged it's paw away. "Stop that. You're not very helpful, do you know that?"
Undeterred, Minx kept up her assault on Tessa's pocket.
"Minx, if you don't stop I'm going to send you back into my mother-in-law's loving arms." But that threat only intensified the cat's frenzied efforts. Tessa scooped up Minx and plopped her onto the end of the bed. She smoothed out the fabric of her skirt but stopped when she felt something in her pocket. She pulled out the photograph that she'd found behind the photo frame when she'd first arrived. "Oh, that's what you wanted."
Tessa held up the photo and studied it more carefully now that she had the luxury of a moment alone. She'd seen very few childhood pictures of Liam but he was every bit as adorable then as he was now. She smiled and traced a finger over his image. But her smile faded when she turned her attention to the boy standing next to Liam. If height was any indication, Damian would be a couple of years older than Liam, but not much more. He shared only a passing resemblance to his siblings, but that could well be attributed to the cynical expression on his young face.
"I wonder what happened?" she asked aloud.
Minx hissed. Tessa laughed. "I can't very well go downstairs and just ask my mother-in-law. I doubt she'd tell me the truth anyway."
The cat reached up and furiously batted the photo with its paw.
"You're right, Minx." She slipped the picture back into her pocket and stroked her cat behind the ears. "If I want to know the true story, I'll just have to figure out what happened to Liam's brother myself."
A slow smile stretched across her face. All things considered, using one of her spells to find her mother's long lost son might well be worth it just to watch the Kennedys react to seeing him again. It certainly would shift their attention off of her and the subject of grandchildren. So this, Tessa decided, was a very spell worthy situation indeed.
***
"Go on, your mother and I will be just fine here." Tessa put an arm around her mother-in-law's shoulders and fixed what she hoped was an innocent smile on her face. "Go with your father and uncle to have a drink. Guy time, and all that."
Liam glanced from her to his mother and then back to her. "If you're sure." He looked anything but certain it was a good idea. "Mop, will you be okay here?"
Tessa resisted the urge to roll her eyes, but just barely.
Mop reached over and zipped her son's jacket up to his chin. "We'll be fine, won't we, Tessa, now that your cat is locked up in Liam's room." She laid her hand over her heart. "That beast gave me quite the scare. Does she usually jump from the top of the banister like that?"
Tessa shook her head. "No, I don't know what’s come over her." Except for paralyzing boredom, which she totally sympathized with. Her goal was to get Liam out of the house so she smiled as sweetly as she could. "I'm sure Minx will be much happier confined upstairs."
Liam's mother nodded. "Good, that's settled then. Now if we can just get rid of these boys, we could work on the pie crusts together. Would you like that, dear?"
"Sounds peachy." Lame. But it was all she could manage in a civil tone.
Liam brushed a kiss his mother's cheek first and then he leaned in and did the same to Tessa. "Behave yourself, Tessa Kennedy," he whispered.
She kissed him back but didn't dignify his warning with an acknowledgement. 'Behave herself', indeed. Such condescension was beneath him but she'd sort out her husband later. Her first order of business was her mother-in-law.
Once the door closed behind the men, Mop turned to her. "Well, this certainly gives us a nice chance to talk now, doesn't it? Let's head back to the kitchen and work on those pie crusts."
&n
bsp; The grandfather clock in the hallway chimed the half hour. Tessa bit her lip. If she had an unlimited number of spells at her disposal she'd cast one on her mother-in-law that would cause her to make the pie crusts on auto-pilot. But she only had three spells to work with, she wasn't about to waste one trying to silence her mother-in-law. She'd have to do this the old-fashioned way. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass on the offer, as fun as it sounds. I'm not feeling well all of a sudden."
Concern and confusion flashed across Mop's face. "Come into the living room and lie down in front of the fire. I'll make you a cold compress." Her eyes sparkled. "You don't think that perhaps you could be...?"
It took Tessa several seconds to realize that Liam's mother was asking if she could possibly be pregnant. It shouldn't have though, not considering that the subject of her fertility had dominated the dinner conversation earlier in the evening. She shook her head. "Of course not, that's absurd."
Mop's eyebrows rose. "Absurd? You mean impossible?" Her expression changed from one of hope to curiosity. "You mean that you and Liam haven't, well, you know, consummated your marriage?"
Tessa stared. Holy broomsticks. Wasn't there some sort of law that strictly prohibited mothers from inquiring about their son's sex life? If there wasn't, there should be. "We have." The thought of discussing her love life with her mother-in-law made her downright queasy. "I assure you, Mop, that we are not expecting a baby. And we won't be, for a very long time."
"Oh." Mrs. Kennedy stepped back, her face crestfallen. "I see."
This was the opening Tessa had waited for, her chance to escape to her room. But she hesitated. Her mother in-law's disappointment at the news that no grandchildren were on the horizon was palpable. And genuine. But what could she say to ease the woman's disenchantment? Nothing. But she could do something. She could find Liam's long lost brother and bring him home. Maybe Damian had settled down by now and was married with three point two adorable children that would delight, not to mention distract, her mother-in-law. Then she and Liam would be off the procreation hook. Perfect.
Witch Christmas Page 2