Christmas at the End of Main (A Nestled Hollow Romance Book 2)

by Meg Easton

  Once the place emptied of the kids and their parents and he got all the dog toys cleaned up, he opened the office door and peeked in. Macie was still sound asleep and looked so peaceful and less miserable than she had been that he couldn’t bear to wake her up. He glanced down at his watch. There was no way he could find a sub this late, and it would only be thirty minutes before Emily came in anyway.

  Then he remembered that Joselyn and Marcus worked just next door. He hurried in to With a Cherry on Top, where thankfully they were both working, and Joselyn was free enough to come man the shop.

  “Thank you,” Aaron said as Joselyn walked into the shop, baby Aria in her arms. “I just didn’t want to wake her.”

  “Thanks for looking out for her,” Joselyn said. “I’ll make sure she gets home and in bed once Emily gets here.”

  Aaron gave one last glance the direction of Macie’s office before he left. She had been so sick, he wondered if she’d even remember that he’d been there.

  Chapter Eleven

  Macie spent the day on Saturday at her parents’ house, helping to prepare the food for the family Christmas Kickoff with her mom and oldest sister, Nicole, while other siblings helped out in other places. After putting the top crust on one pie, she wiped the flour off her hands and pulled out her phone for what was possibly the thousandth time, wanting to text Aaron, but holding herself back. She was dangerously close to falling for him, and if she just let herself text when she wanted to, she’d fall completely. For a guy who was only interested in being her fake boyfriend.

  Falling for him would be dangerous. And dangerously easy. So instead of texting when she wanted to, she’d only texted once—on Friday, when she’d joined the land of the living again. Or at least the land of the semi-conscious. She had thanked him for coming to rescue her on Thursday, and let him know that she was feeling much better and expected a full recovery by the party that night.

  So she’d kept herself from texting, yet she’d still used the tissues he’d brought, taken his medicine, eaten his soup, and snuggled up to his coat that smelled like the most wonderful combination of cinnamon and pine with hints of chlorine. And thought over and over about how thoughtful he’d been to show up when she most needed help, even when she’d told him that she’d be fine. And how it felt to have him carry her into her office. And how sweet it was that he took over her Parent, Preschooler, and a Puppy event. And how she could put a check next to Takes care of me when I’m sick on her list.

  Come to think of it, texting probably would’ve been much less dangerous than thinking about him.

  “Tell me about this new man in your life,” her mom said as she put another filled pie on the counter in front of Macie.

  Okay, Macie, she told herself. Time to push the part of you that’s seeing hearts for real out of the way, and pull out the part that is trying to convince everyone of the fake relationship. The further this relationship went, the more difficult it was to switch into fake relationship mode.

  “He’s great, Mom,” she said as she laid strips of pie crust across an apple cranberry pie. “You’re going to love him.”

  “Well, Joselyn has had nothing but good to say about him. I’m glad you’re finally bringing him to meet us.”

  “They haven’t even been dating for two weeks yet, Mom,” Nicole said as she rolled out a pie crust. “Janet, Mindy, Masen, and Chris, freeze right where you are!” Macie’s attention flew to the back doors where Nicole’s four kids had just burst into the house. “Get those snowy boots and coats off and hung up before you track it through Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house! I heard he brought you soup. I tell you, if a man brings you soup when you’re sick, he’s a keeper.”

  “Kennon, Zach, and I have the lights all finished!” her dad called from the far side of the family room. “Can I ring the bell yet?”

  “Five minutes, Dad,” Joselyn said from where she and their sisters-in-law, Audra and Lia, were helping her to set the long dining tables that separated the kitchen from the family room. “Just let us finish with the table before you add to the,” she stepped over Brindley, her parents’ dog, and then over Katie, her three-year-old niece who was chasing her, “crazy.”

  The doorbell rang just then, and everyone’s heads jerked up, all knowing that the only person who was coming who wouldn’t have just walked in was Aaron.

  “I’ll get it,” Macie said, taking off her apron, brushing the flour from her hands on a towel, and heading toward the front door. Her mom did the same. She had a suspicion that her dad was on his way from the other end of the hall, too.

  She opened the door, and Aaron stood on the porch, looking tall and lean and perfect and covered in snow and holding a vase of Christmas-themed flowers.

  “Oh, wow. It’s really coming down out there, isn’t it?” Macie helped to brush the snow off his coat and scarf, and then he stomped his feet and stepped inside.

  “You look beautiful,” he said. “The flour on your cheek is a nice touch.” He reached a hand out and brushed the flour off her face with his knuckles. “How are you feeling? You look about three hundred times better than last I saw you.”

  “I’m feeling all the way better. Thank you. And thank you for Thursday.”

  He smiled, then his eyes shifted behind her, and she turned to see that it wasn’t just her parents who were crowded around the back of the entry, but at least half of her siblings and their spouses. “Aaron, I’d like you to meet my parents, Emeline and Joseph.”

  “Thank you for inviting me to your home,” Aaron said as he handed the flowers to her mom. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

  Her mom accepted the flowers and gave him a one-armed hug and said, “We’re so pleased you could come. We’ve heard nothing but good things about you.”

  Then he shook her dad’s hand, and her dad added, “Don’t do anything to hurt my little girl, and you’re always welcome here.”

  Macie held an upturned hand toward everyone else in the room, and said, “Well, I’d like to say that I’ll introduce you to everyone else, but we both know this isn’t even close to everyone else. Here, let me take your coat.”

  As they walked into the kitchen from the hall at the right, she thought about how proud of herself she was for not dwelling on how sweet it was that he brought flowers for her mom. Instead, she leaned in and whispered, “Nice touch with the flowers,” and offered her fist. He bumped it with his.

  When they reached the great room, her mom placed the flowers from Aaron in the middle of the dining tables, and took a step back. “There. Now everything is absolutely perfect.”

  “So does this mean I can ring the bell?” her dad asked.

  “Yes, dear, you can ring the bell.”

  Her dad went on to the back patio, and rang the big bell he had attached to the patio roof, like he was calling the ranch hands in for the midday meal. He’d installed it clear back when she was a sophomore in high school and her oldest brother Oliver had just finished building his house. Twelve years later, and it still brought him just as much joy to ring it to call everyone home.

  Within minutes, the patio was swarming with family, brushing the snow off their coats and hats and gloves and stomping their feet, before pouring into the house and removing winter gear. A lot of the coats and scarves made it on to the hooks, and some boots were paired and standing upright along the wall, and the rest was in one massive pile.

  He dad’s face was beaming as all the kids gathered around him and the Christmas tree. Like always, it was a live tree that he went into the mountains to chop down, and by the looks of it, was nearly ten feet tall. Ladders of various sizes were placed around the tree.

  “Who’s ready to decorate this tree?” The kids cheered loudly, then he said, “Remember, you’ve got to be eight to get on the taller ladders, and five to get on the shorter ones, okay? Raise your hand if you are one, two, three, or four.” All the littlest kids raised their hands. “You all get something even better than a ladder. If there’s ever an ornam
ent you want to put up high, you’ve got me. I’ll be just like a ladder on a fire truck and lift you up as high as you need. Okay, you all know what to do—let’s get this tree decorated!”

  “It looks like your dad loves this,” Aaron said.

  “He really does.”

  “Do you want to give me everyone’s names?”

  Marcus, who was standing nearby, said, “Don’t do it. There’s too many— they’ll all just swirl into a fog. It took me months to learn all of them. I still forget some sometimes.”

  “He does not,” Joselyn said. “Don’t let him fool you. He even has their birthdays memorized.”

  “Well, there’s a lot of competition here for favorite uncle! I have to do what I can to stay ahead of the game.” He crouched down, and as four-year-old Brighton ran past to grab another ornament, he said, “Who’s your favorite uncle, buddy?”

  “You are!” Brighton said and gave him a high five with an impressive amount of force behind it.

  “I want to hear them,” Aaron said.

  “Really?” Macie searched his face, to see if she could tell if he was really wanting to know, or just trying to play the part of the perfect boyfriend. How had she once thought this fake relationship was a brilliant idea? She hated never being able to tell how he really felt. “Okay, well that’s my oldest brother Oliver over there on the couch next to his wife Audra. That’s Larissa, Riley, Claire, Sophie, and that was Brighton. Then there’s Zach with Cameron in his arms, his wife Lia is over there, and Trevor and Katie.”

  She looked at him to see if he was overwhelmed already, but he motioned for him to keep going. “Then my sister Nicole and her husband Noble are there, and they’ve got Janet, Mindy, Mason, and Chris. My brother Kennon is with his wife Rosabella there, and their sons are the ones at the tops of the ladders— Brian and Brandon. Everett is over there, and his wife Hannah is holding Madison. She’s my youngest niece; she’s only two months old. They’ve got Drew and Jason there, and Kristine is over— Kristine! No eating the dog’s tail! And then you already know Joselyn and Marcus and Aria.”

  Aaron smiled as he watched the kids decorate the tree, and that made Macie smile. She had worried that being around such a big family might be too much for him, especially since his was small and didn’t include kids. But if she had to guess, she’d say that he was enjoying himself.

  Of course, he had proven himself to be a pretty good faker.

  When it was time to eat dinner—their traditional prime rib, roasted Brussels sprouts, rosemary roasted baby potatoes, and a big range of salads made by each of her siblings—Aaron was gracious and kind and started conversations with everyone. He even made sure the kids weren’t ignored. In fact, beyond not being ignored, he had a gift of making each of them feel important and special. Back when she was sixteen, she hadn’t even known to put that on her list. She had just put an all-inclusive Would make a good dad on it. But this kind of thing was exactly what she had meant. She put a bunch of checkmarks next to that on her mental list.

  “Who made this butternut squash and apple casserole?” Aaron asked the table in general.

  “I did,” her older brother Oliver answered.

  “This is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted,” Aaron said. “We need to talk after.”

  Oliver nodded back, and she could see in Oliver’s eyes that he liked Aaron and accepted him. Oliver. Her brother who was the harshest judge of her boyfriends out of everyone. She tried to remember if he had ever had that look in his eyes when seeing anyone she had dated.

  Maybe she didn’t need a break from dating. Maybe she just needed a break from dating all the wrong people. Maybe the right guy was sitting next to her.

  When the meal was finished and cleaned up, her parents gathered everyone into the family room, and they all found spots on the floor facing the fireplace.

  “It’s time for the annual hanging of the stockings!” her mom said, her hands clasped in front of her.

  This had always been one of Macie’s favorite parts of Christmas. She wondered what Aaron would think of it. Her mom pulled out the pile of stockings that were all linked together. With her own stocking in one hand, her mom handed her dad’s stocking to him. They each pulled on their end, and everyone’s stockings unfurled. Macie and all of her siblings’ stockings were connected together between her mom’s stocking and her dad’s, one after another, a row of nine stockings, each linked to the next with gold rings. Each of her siblings had their spouse’s stocking linked to theirs, and each of their kids was linked to the two of them, hanging down in a line before it connected with the next family’s.

  Each of her parents used big clamps to fix their stockings nice and sturdy to the mantle, everyone’s stockings hanging between them.

  “We’ve got three new stockings to add this year,” her mom said, and pulled the stockings from the box. “We’ve got Cameron’s, since he was born just the day after Christmas last year.” She held the stocking out and everyone Ooh-ed an Ahh-ed.

  Macie leaned into Aaron and whispered “My mom makes every stocking, and they’re all different. You’ve got to see them up close.”

  “And then we’ve got Aria’s,” she said as she held hers up, “and of course baby Madison’s.”

  Her parents used the golden rings to link each of the three new stockings to the bottom of each of their families, and then linked them to the next family. Then her dad took a step forward to tell the annual Christmas Link story.

  “As you can see, each of you are linked to everyone else in our family up here. All those links, connecting us together, is what makes us strong. Happy. Loved. United. Every single person represented here is an important link in our family. You are important. You matter. You are loved by all the family that are surrounding you today. Nothing will ever change that. There is nothing that you can ever do that will change that fact, not even death.”

  Macie’s mom reached out and touched the stocking with Cambry’s name that was linked right below Zach’s and Lia’s stocking.

  “We love you. You matter. Your relationships with your family matters. So when disagreements or misunderstandings or hurt feelings happen—and they will, we’re all human—talk it out. Fix it. Nurture each other extra in those moments. Keeping those relationships takes work. But it’s some of the most valuable work you can do. You matter. The people around you matter. Family matters. Those relationships matter. Keep working on them, and keep looking out for every chance you can get to serve each other, because that’s what keeps those links strong.”

  Two years ago, Joselyn’s stocking was just like Macie’s—linked together yet hanging alone. And then last Christmas, Joselyn’s had Marcus’s stocking linked next to it. Now they had a stocking hanging below them.

  Seeing her family’s stockings all linked together always made Macie feel like she was belonged and was valued. But she wanted more. She wanted her own stocking links to go down, too, just like all of her siblings’ stockings did. She had wanted it for years, but never had the longing hit her as strongly as it was right now.

  She snuck a glance at Aaron, and could tell by the way he was staring at the stockings and blinking faster than normal that what her dad had said had touched him too. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

  “What do you say we work on making those links even stronger? Who’s ready for their Secret Service names?”

  All the kids cheered and jumped up from where they were sitting on the floor. They each came up to Macie’s mom and pulled a name out of the bowl she was holding, the littler ones racing to their parents to have them read the name and tell them who they’d be doing secret acts of service for. Macie’s dad brought around the bowl that had her siblings’ and their spouses’ names in it, and had each person pull a name out. Macie pulled one out and looked at Aaron, but his eyes were still fixed on the stockings.

  Chapter Twelve

  Aaron had to admit that the tree lighting was pretty cool. You could hardly even tell that all the orn
aments were clumped in clusters on the bottom half or up in lines along the edges of each ladder.

  He hardly had time to admire it, though, before Macie’s brother Zach leapt out of his seat and said, “Who thinks they can outlast me? I’m planning to make it around the playground.”

  Zach kicked off his shoes and started pulling off his socks, and Aaron’s eyes grew wide. His attention flew to Macie. “When I asked if you ran outside barefoot in the snow with your siblings when you were little—”

  Macie ducked into a shrug. “Yeah, I didn’t quite mention that it wasn’t only when we were little. What? It’s not like we do it all the time. Just during Christmas Kickoff. So...” She looked to the left and the right. “Do you want to see if we can outlast Zach? He’s tough.”

  Aaron laughed. One thing was for certain, life with Macie would never be boring.

  Did he just imagine his life with Macie? It had been a very long time since he’d done that with anyone. He looked at her for a long moment, admiring how her curls cascaded down her shoulders, the way her smile lit up her entire face, the way she got excited about the little things. Not to mention the way she looked in that red sweater and jeans. “Sure. We survived last time, after all. And I don’t have to worry about you getting too cold, because I warm your heart, baby.”

  “You better believe it,” she said, putting her hand on his chest and sending heat zinging to it.

  “I’ll grab the towels,” Macie’s mom said as he and Macie took off their shoes and socks and rolled up their pant legs.

  Aaron was surprised—most of the adults were taking their shoes off, along with all the older kids. Of course it was a family event with the Zimmermans. He should have guessed. They all raced out to the covered patio, braced for the cold, and came to an abrupt halt. Snow covered everything so deeply, it was difficult to make out what any of the bumps were.