The doorbell rang. Maya’s curly head shot up from trying to pull purple leggings onto Carla Marie’s chunky bare legs. “Hawp?” She dropped the doll. Levering forward, hands flat on the floor, she stuck her butt in the air. From that position, she popped upright. “Hawp!” And off she went, headed for the door.
Jayden came pounding down the stairs. “Who’s at the door?”
Linc ordered his racing heart to settle down as he stood. “Let’s go find out.”
It wasn’t Harper, but the kids were glad, anyway, because it was Hailey. They loved Hailey almost as much as they loved her sister.
“Lee-Lee!” crowed Maya and lifted her arms. “Up.”
“Hailey,” said Jayden. “Come in. I need to show you my train station.”
“Hey, guys.” Hailey swung Maya up in her arms.
Linc stepped back so Harper’s sister could enter. “Good to see you.”
Jayden tugged on the hem of her jacket. “Come on, Hailey. My train set is upstairs, and I got a second depot for Christmas.”
She grinned down at him. “Hold on a minute, big guy.” And she looked up at Linc. “I was just at the other cottage...”
His pulse rocketed into the stratosphere. “Is she all right?”
“As a matter of fact, it occurred to me that you could use a sitter for an hour or two. You can go check on her, maybe tell her all the things you probably should have said before she came face-to-face with your ex, who for some unknown reason was still wearing your ring...” He winced at the memory as Hailey continued, “And while we’re on the subject of diamonds, I would also advise that you never give a woman you’re serious about a small velvet jewelry box—that is, unless it contains an engagement ring.”
It all came way too clear—Imogen wearing his ring, the earrings he’d tried to give Harper. “She thought I was proposing, that the earring box had a ring in it—and then she saw the ring I gave Imogen...”
Hailey regarded him patiently—and the kids stared, too. “How do you think that made my sister feel?”
“Okay, yeah. It all makes an awful kind of sense now...”
“I’m so pleased you get that.”
“I need to talk to her.”
“Yes, you do.”
Linc grabbed his jacket off the hook by the door. “I’ll, um, be back soon...”
“Take your time,” Hailey advised. “We’re fine, aren’t we, guys?”
“Yes!” declared Jayden. “We got stuff to do.”
“We fine!” Maya agreed.
Linc stared at Hailey, hardly daring to believe that Harper might just be waiting at home for him to come and get her.
“Why are you still here?” Hailey waved him off with an impatient flick of her free hand. “Go.”
* * *
After Hailey left the cottage, Harper poured herself a third cup of coffee. She sat at the table, still in her red plaid flannel pajamas, thinking about washing her hair, putting her clothes on, working up the courage to go to Linc and tell him that she loved him.
Hailey said she needed to be the star of her own story. But she didn’t feel like a star. She felt like an unprepared understudy with dirty hair.
And was that a theater metaphor?
Hailey would be so proud.
The doorbell chimed.
What now?
Reluctantly, she got up and went to the door, pulling it wide with no clue who would be waiting on the other side.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said.
She blinked in disbelief that he was actually standing on her doorstep. “My hair’s dirty and I’m still in my pajamas.”
A smile quirked the corners of his wonderful mouth. “Like I said, you are absolutely beautiful. Can I come in?”
“Uh, yeah. Sure.” She stepped back for him to enter and then closed the door behind him. “The kids?”
“Hailey’s with them at the other cottage.”
She groaned and felt the hot flush as it swept up her throat. “I should have known. How much did she tell you?”
He reached out, ran a slow, tender finger over the curve of her cheek. Her nerve endings sparked in sheer pleasure at the lingering touch. He said, “She just explained a few things I really needed to understand.”
“Oh, God. She told you about Imogen’s ring and the earrings, right?” She kind of wished the hardwood floor would just open up and swallow her whole.
But then he said, “I love you, Harper. You’re my light in the darkness, my heart and my soul. I have no excuse for Imogen. I was a man without a clue. But I’m not that guy anymore. And I do want to marry you. Whenever you’re ready—the sooner the better. I should have just made my move, but I really thought it was the right thing, not to push you too fast...”
She had no words. Center stage, in the spotlight. And she’d forgotten her lines. “Linc. Oh, Linc...” She reached for him.
“Harper. Damn it. At last.” He grabbed her close and wrapped her up in those big, strong arms.
And then his mouth came down on hers. Heat and hope and love and longing pulsing through her, she jumped up and he caught her as she wrapped her legs around him, twined her whole body around him, like a vine.
“That way.” She broke the kiss just long enough to point down the hall. He carried her where she pointed. When they reached her room, she grabbed the door frame before he could stride past it. “I love you, too. In here...”
He took her in there and laid her on her unmade bed. She pulled him down with her and started pushing on his jacket. “Get rid of this. Get rid of everything...”
They proceeded to tear frantically at each other’s clothes. It was awkward and ridiculous and absolutely smoking hot.
Finally, when both of them were stark naked, they rolled together on the bed, kissing endlessly, hands all over each other, unable to get close enough, unwilling to let go.
“Crap,” he muttered. “No condoms...”
“No problem. Remember? I do get the shot—and I trust you, Linc. Completely.” She hitched her legs around his lean waist, reached down between them and guided him home.
“I love you.”
“I love you.”
And then no more words were necessary. They were just Linc and Harper, joined in every way at last, making promises with their bodies, the most important promises, the kind two people in love are forever bound to keep.
Epilogue
Harper never leased that studio apartment. In the first week of January, she moved to the Forest Park house with Linc and the kids.
The new nanny, Elaine, started the first day Harper went to work for Mia and Sam. Elaine was kind and affectionate. Jayden and Maya adored her—but they came running when Harper got home.
It was during the third week in January that Linc took Harper shopping for the perfect ring. She chose a round, pale blue sapphire flanked by diamonds on a platinum band.
She and Linc got married in Valentine Bay on the last Saturday in March, a small celebration, mostly family. Maya was the flower girl and Jayden the ring bearer. Harper had Hailey for her maid of honor and Daniel to give her away. Linc’s mother, now back in Italy, said she couldn’t make it.
But Warren and Shelby came from Vail, with their beautiful new baby, Shaniece. And though Alan and Jean Hollister were still on their world cruise, they attended the ceremony via Skype.
When Harper threw the bouquet, she made sure that Hailey caught it. After all, Hailey and Roman were getting married at the end of May—and except for the long-lost Finn, Hailey would be the last of the Bravo siblings to say, “I do.”
Up at Daniel’s house after the wedding, Harper made a point to raise a glass of champagne to the parents they all missed to this day. “To Mom and Dad. We love you so much!”
Her words were picked up and echoed through the room.
N
ext, Harper saluted the brother they’d yet to find. “To Finn. Wherever you are, we will find you someday.”
“To Finn,” everyone answered in unison, each face solemn, the women with teary eyes, as they drank to the ongoing search for the brother they’d lost so long ago.
* * *
On the first Friday in May, Harper sat at her drafting table at Acevedo Hybrid Homes when her cell vibrated with a call from Hailey.
Harper picked up. “Hey. What’s going on?”
“You will not believe this.” Hailey spoke low—as if in awe or maybe shock.
“What? Tell me. You’re freaking me out.”
“It’s official. We didn’t find Finn.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Finn has found us.”
“Hailey, slow down. Finn found us?”
“That’s right. A couple of hours ago, Finn—who lives in New York now and goes by Ian McNeill—walked into Valentine Logging and asked to speak with Daniel.”
Harper’s stomach hollowed out. If she hadn’t already been sitting down, she just might have fallen flat on her ass. “You’re messing with me.”
“Never would I mess about Finn. He’s coming up to Daniel’s for dinner tonight. Can you get here?”
“Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I’m calling Linc to see if he can come, too. But one way or another, you can count on me to be there.”
When she hung up with Hailey, Harper just sat there for a minute, holding the phone, hardly daring to believe that their vanished brother had come home at last.
It felt so huge and impossible, the final closing of an open circle, her family reunited after so many years. She called Linc.
“How’s my beautiful wife?”
“Stunned. Flabbergasted. Thunderstruck. And every other word that means shocked beyond belief. My brother Finn has come home. I need to go to Valentine Bay—now.”
Her husband didn’t hesitate. “I’ll call Oxana to pack us a bag and tell Elaine to get the kids ready.”
“Should I go get them?”
“No. You can leave your car there. I’ll pick up the kids and swing by for you within the hour.”
“Wait—what about Oscar?” Oscar was the rescue dog Jayden had chosen at the animal shelter two weeks before. They’d planned to adopt a puppy, but one look at the wiry-haired five-year-old mutt with the patch on one eye, and Jayden had changed his mind.
“How about we just bring him?” said Linc.
She laughed. “Sure. Bring Oscar. Why not? It’s a family affair.”
“Would you call the property manager to open up the cottage for us?”
“Will do.”
“Sit tight, my love,” he said softly. “We’re on our way.”
* * * * *
Watch for Finn Bravo’s story, coming in May 2021.
And for more great holiday romances, try these other swoon-worthy romances:
A Sheriff’s Star
By Makenna Lee
For This Christmas Only
By Caro Carson
A Soldier Under Her Tree
By Kathy Douglass
Available now wherever Mills & Boon books and ebooks are sold!
Keep reading for an excerpt from His Last-Chance Christmas Family by Michelle Major.
His Last-Chance Christmas Family
by Michelle Major
Chapter One
Brynn Hale glanced at her watch, fifteen minutes late for her lunch date. She checked her cell phone, which still displayed No Service in the top left corner of the screen.
Another turn of the key in the car’s ignition produced only a hollow click, click, click.
She muttered a curse under her breath and immediately felt guilty. Her mother had taught her from a young age that swearing was unladylike. While Brynn had disappointed her mom in so many ways, at least she kept her language clean. Usually.
Desperate times and all that.
In the distance, she heard the sound of a car engine, a first since she’d realized her old Toyota sedan wouldn’t start on this lonely stretch of mountain highway.
She climbed out of the car, which she’d parked on the shoulder near the sharp curve of Devil’s Landing, into the cool mountain air. The location was only about twenty minutes outside the town limits of Starlight, Washington, where she’d lived for her entire twenty-eight years.
It hadn’t been her plan to become a townie. Most everything about Brynn’s current life hadn’t been part of how she’d dreamed things would turn out.
She’d made the best of things, even the events that had rocked her to her core, which was what had prompted her visit to mile marker six on this cold, damp December day.
Easing around her car, she was careful to stay to one side of the white line that bordered the two-lane highway. A lift into town would be good, a trip to the ER because she got herself hit by a passing motorist not so much.
Her stomach dipped as she realized the approaching SUV had police lights on the roof. Not Nick. Let it be anyone but Starlight’s police chief.
The urge to return to her car and duck was almost overwhelming, but it wouldn’t do any good. The officer was bound to stop. She lifted her arms to wave just as her boot heel caught on a random patch of ice. She lost her balance, dropping to one knee before righting herself.
“Son of a biscuit,” she said through clenched teeth. The fall had ripped a hole in her new black tights and tiny pieces of gravel stuck to her palms.
Before she had time to brush them off, the police vehicle had lurched to a stop next to her car, blue and red lights suddenly flashing, beacons of color against the dreary gray of the winter day.
Because that’s how her day was going, Nick Dunlap bolted from the car and rushed toward her.
“Brynn, are you okay?”
Her breath caught in her throat as he reached for her, grabbing her wrists and examining her hands before giving her an intense once-over. His honey-brown eyes were filled with worry—panic if she was reading him correctly. The smell of cinnamon gum and spice drifted over her, a potent mix she always associated with Nick.
Brynn hated the flood of memories that scent evoked.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded. “Are you hurt? Tell me.”
She yanked away from him, frustrated at her visceral reaction to the warmth of his calloused hands on her skin. “What’s wrong with you?” she countered. “You’re being overdramatic.”
“Overdramatic,” he repeated, taking a step back, the mask of stalwart police chief falling over his handsome features. Nick had always been too good-looking, with thick hair, chiseled features, an easy grin that showcased the most annoyingly adorable dimples Brynn had ever seen on a person.
He’d been a girl magnet since his family moved to town in third grade, first on the Starlight Elementary playground and then in the hallways of the high school, at the local football field, and behind the bleachers and too many places for Brynn to count. Places she’d never experienced with him.
The most popular boy in school didn’t take his best friend and sidekick behind the bleachers. Nick spent time with Brynn in the library and in his mother’s cozy kitchen and watching reruns or playing video games in the family’s remodeled basement.
Brynn had been the literal girl next door, even though she’d always wanted more from Nick. Things he couldn’t—or wouldn’t—offer her. Always, until those few minutes peeing on a stick in her pink bathroom just before high school graduation had changed everything.
“Do you know where you are?” he asked, turning his gaze to the valley below them. Their town was down there, under the fog that clung to the mountain today.
She felt her jaw clench. “Of course I know.”
“And the date?”
“Yes,” she whispered.<
br />
“Then why the hell are you here?”
“None of your business.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Tell me anyway,” he said, his voice calmer. Low and gentle. The little hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. “Please,” he added, which was a nice touch. “Because I’ve got all kinds of bizarre rationales running through my mind at the moment.”
“What kind of rationales?”
His gaze flicked to the section of guardrail that was newer than the rest, rebuilt after her late husband’s truck had slammed into it before hurtling off the side of the cliff and landing in a fiery crash two hundred feet below.
“Do you think I came out here to follow Daniel into the great beyond?” In the list of life moments that made Brynn feel like swearing a blue streak, this one vaulted to the top. “Are you joking?”
She paced to the edge of the barricade and then back again, hands fisted at her sides, anger and disbelief flooding through her.
“I thought you knew me,” she told him tightly.
He blew out a breath. “I do.”
“I would never...” She closed her eyes, mentally counted to ten. “I have Tyler to think of. You know that.” Her ten-year-old son was everything to her. Even the suggestion that she might risk the chance to raise him, especially from someone like Nick, cut her to the core.
“I know. Brynn, I’m sorry. Seeing you out here on this day and then watching you fall to your knees...it caught me off guard.” The emotion in his voice did funny things to her insides. Then he placed a hand on her arm, and she had to force herself not to shift away from him again. “Tell me why you’re here.”
She looked down, noticing for the first time a tiny spot of blood on her knee where the tights had ripped. “I have a date.”
Nick went completely still in front of her, so she continued, “Mara set me up with a guy from Weatherby who came into the coffee shop last week when he drove over on business.” Her friend Mara Johnson managed Main Street Perk, Starlight’s popular local coffee joint. “I wanted to tell Daniel, and it felt strange to go to his grave site. This was the last place he was alive, so I came here.”
A Temporary Christmas Arrangement Page 20