A Son For Christmas (West Coast Christmas Secrets Book 1)

by Tina Cambria

  She turned around and spotted Shane’s smartphone vibrating on the small table beside the sofa bed. It could be important. Like the call he got about the hacking incident that night at the restaurant. Maybe someone was calling from work about another security issue.

  Crossing the room, she saw a woman’s face on the phone screen. The name “Tonya” and a phone number were displayed above her picture. That told her that the caller was in Shane’s list of contacts. A closer look at the image made her blink her eyes a few times to be sure she really saw what she thought she was seeing.

  Wasn’t that the woman Shane had been staring at so intently about a week ago when she’d noticed him engrossed in a car dealership commercial?

  She was sure they were one and the same, even though the photo on the phone was a close-up and didn’t reveal the skimpy skirt and high-heeled boots the woman had been wearing on television. Kendra felt a mixture of disgust and envy as she imagined the woman probably wearing something equally provocative when this picture was snapped.

  This woman was definitely not anyone from QJV with a request for him to investigate a security issue.

  Here she’d been fantasizing about a happy little family and the possibility of Shane eventually taking up residence in her bed. But experience told her that women who looked like ‘Tonya’ didn’t usually have guy friends. The guys’ wives and girlfriends would never go for it.

  No, this was the kind of woman who made men drool. With her swaying hips and flirtatious smile—the thought of Tonya sauntering up to Shane and pressing herself against him made Kendra want to grab those long black strands of hair and give them a good yank.

  She quickly told herself to ditch that thought. About the only thing that would result from that would be an assault charge. She’d be in front of a judge while Tonya pranced off with Shane.

  The mere thought that he might be two-timing her with that woman made her stomach turn flip-flops. Sitting back down in front of her computer, she reasoned that Shane really couldn’t be two-timing her since they weren’t even any kind of official couple at the moment.

  Who knew? Maybe he was actually two-timing Tonya when he’d tried to make his move on her in the living room the other night. Had he been leading her down the wrong path these past few weeks by calling himself single during their dinner at Antonio’s?

  “Hey, am I interrupting anything?” Shane’s voice pulled her from her speculation about his relationship with the woman with the long black hair.

  Standing in the doorway of the spare room, his grin lit up his face. His outdoorsy smell, so clean and masculine, wafted into the room, enticing her to draw closer to the source of the appealing scent.

  She wanted to forget she’d seen the face of the dark-haired temptress on his cell phone display. Pretend that woman had no place in Shane’s universe. And maybe she didn’t have to pretend. It could’ve been a wrong number, couldn’t it?

  Time for a reality check. She was grasping at straws if she believed that woman had misdialed and somehow accidentally connected with Shane’s number. Something like that would certainly be a fantasy of many men, but the likelihood it would actually happen was next to impossible.

  And the little ding sound from his phone indicating a message had been left squashed any hope that it had been a wrong number. It was unlikely she’d leave a message saying she was sorry to have bothered him by dialing a wrong number. No, Shane and the mystery woman definitely had some sort of connection.

  “You’re not interrupting anything,” she finally responded, trying to decide whether to let it go or ask him about the woman. If she let it go, she’d never stop wondering. May as well find out for sure if anything stood in the way of her relationship with Shane. And the chance for it to go beyond jointly parenting Matt.

  “Seriously, if you’re doing something important…” Shane started.

  “I was catching up on some e-mail,” she said. “Oh, and I think you missed a call while you were outside with Matt.” She gestured to his phone, lying on the table like a grenade ready to explode and rip apart her emerging hopes and dreams.

  Shane picked up the phone, checked the phone log, and set it back on the table. “That can wait until later.” He turned back to her and smiled. “Any plans for the rest of the day?”

  “Um, nothing specific…” Deciding she’d never be able to forget about the woman she’d seen first on the car dealership commercial and then on his phone display, she forged ahead. “I happened to see a woman’s face on your phone screen when it was ringing a few minutes ago.”

  “And…?”

  He was challenging her to continue.

  She’d already dipped her toe in, and Kendra had no choice but to dive in the rest of the way. “Well, I could’ve sworn I saw that same woman on a commercial about a week ago when you were watching TV.”

  She gave him a couple of seconds to respond, but he just stared at her.

  “Is she a friend of yours?” Kendra asked.

  “Yes, she is,” he quickly replied, tucking his phone into the front pocket of his jeans.

  Kendra waited for his explanation, but he looked at her as though there were nothing to discuss. “That’s it? You know I have to be a little curious when I see a woman who looks like that calling you.”

  “Did you ever hear the old expression that says curiosity killed the cat?”

  “Yeah, why?” She heard her voice taking on a challenging tone as well, but she couldn’t rein it in.

  “Sometimes you’re too curious for your own good.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “The woman who called me this morning is of no concern to you. You have no business trying to find out who she is or why she’s calling me.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. She’s a friend of mine. End of story.”

  “End of story?” Kendra’s voice rose as her anger bubbled inside. “What about that other story on Friday night? The one that started with you kissing me and getting ready to take off your pants.”

  “What about it?” he responded calmly.

  “Suppose that story had a different ending? One where I let you go where you wanted to go.” Glaring at him, she felt as humiliated and frustrated as when she’d found out she was pregnant with his baby and realized she hadn’t heard from him in months. “We’ve been there before. You go for the ultimate feel good ride with me. Next thing I know, I’m pregnant, and you’re doing the town with some hot-looking babe.”

  “Oh, man, here we go again. When does this stop?”

  “You tell me. Maybe it stops when you start to focus on things other than putting your hands—and other parts of you—where they shouldn’t be.”

  “Okay, I’m done with this.” He pulled a small duffel bag from the closet and stuffed some of his clothing into it.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’ve had it with your suspicion and pride.” He continued to pull shirts and pants from the closet. “I live in a world where I’m occasionally going to come in contact with attractive women. That doesn’t mean I’m sleeping with them.”

  He looked up from the heap of clothes jammed into the duffel bag. “That suspicion and misplaced pride is what kicked off your selfish deception and kept me from knowing about my son for over six years. And all this time later, you haven’t learned how to control it.”

  She watched him zip the duffel bag closed. He couldn’t be leaving. “But where are you going? What about Matt?”

  “I can check into a hotel or even stay at my mother’s place for a while if I need to. But I can’t be here with you.” He picked up the bag and turned to go. “I’ll speak to Matt before I leave. He needs to know this has nothing to do with him.”

  He hesitated for a moment.

  Was he considering whether to kiss her good-bye?

  But he didn’t move toward her.

  “I’ll call you in a few days to arrange my next visit with Matt.”

  Then he walke
d out of the bedroom.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Fifteen minutes later, Kendra and Matt were in her car, heading to Pop’s house. When she’d called to ask if they could stop by, Pop had said, “Sure, come on over. Looks like old Duke could use some attention from Matt. He’s sprawled out on his back next to my feet, practically begging to have his tummy rubbed.”

  She’d said no more to her father than she had something she needed to discuss with him. Pop wasn’t the biggest talker around, but what he said always made sense to her. The situation with Shane leaving had turned her brain into a bag of overheated microwave popcorn ready to explode. Her emotions were going in a thousand different directions. How could she think straight when the man she thought she might be able to make a future with had essentially called her a suspicious witch?

  All right, she’d be exaggerating if she said he had actually called her a witch, but the word ‘suspicion’ had definitely been used. And being in the field of public relations, she knew well that the word ‘suspicious’ was never used to positively describe anyone. No, that was one that never made it into a compliment or any kind of tribute.

  She hadn’t allowed herself the luxury of crying when Shane unceremoniously packed up and walked out of her home. How could she when she had to pretend to Matt that everything was fine? His dad was staying in a hotel for now because it was more convenient to his job.

  Sure, that’s the ticket, she felt like saying.

  So, there were no red-rimmed eyes or streaks of tear-stained mascara when she walked into her father’s house, trying oh-so-hard to act as though everything was fine. At least for the first few minutes, until Matt was safely out of earshot playing fetch in the back yard with Duke.

  “Where’s Shane?” Pop got right to the point as soon as they heard the back door shutting behind Matt and the dog.

  “He left.” She figured there was no use trying to put any kind of spin on what happened. Pop had never been one to beat around the bush, and he didn’t tolerate people who tried to be evasive.

  “What do you mean—he left?”

  “Exactly that. He said he needed time to think.”

  “What the heck does he need to think about?” Pop’s face reflected a mixture of confusion and annoyance.

  “Me, I guess.” She blinked to try to hold back the tears that were so close to escaping. “We were getting attracted to each other again, but I guess I blew it. I’m too jealous of other women he’s around.”

  “What other women?”

  “Women he knows from various places. Women who are extremely good looking—”

  “So are you,” Pop interrupted.

  “But one particular woman is pretty enough to be on television. She’s a professional model…”

  Pop snorted. “She’s wearing more make-up than you are, and she had her hair done at some salon. Nothing more than that. So, don’t sell yourself short.”

  “There’s no future for us anyway.” She shrugged her shoulders, a cloud of hopelessness enveloping her. “He’s liable to move somewhere else in a year or two if he gets a better job offer.”

  “Since when are your feet stuck in concrete? You and Matt couldn’t go along with him if things got that far?”

  “But what would it do to our family? You’re here…and Alicia…” As her voice trailed off, she felt as though the perfectly ordered world she’d constructed over the past few years was spinning off its axis and preparing to crash into the sun. She’d done so much hard work to make everything seem flawless, yet it could burst into flames in an instant.

  Pop studied his daughter for a long moment. When he spoke, his usually gruff voice had turned softer. “When you meet the one you want to be with forever, you go wherever you need to, so you can be with that person. Your husband or wife comes first, above everyone else.” He moved a step toward her and gave her a fatherly hug. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be, sweets.”

  “But what about the time you spend with Matt?”

  “Aren’t there cars and airplanes so we could visit? My feet aren’t stuck in concrete either, you know.”

  Looking at Pop’s concerned face, she felt more confused than ever. Maybe she’d spent too much time the past few years building her life around her extended family instead of searching for the man she wanted to be with forever. She had to ask herself why she hadn’t put much effort into trying to meet men and possibly develop a long-lasting relationship with one of them. Was it because she’d already met the one man she wanted to be with forever? Met him, had his baby, but stupidly managed to let him slip away?

  She took a deep breath. “I guess I have some thinking to do too.”

  When she heard the back door open and the sound of Matt and Duke running into the house, she quickly said, “If I haven’t screwed things up totally beyond repair this time.”

  * * *

  The next morning, Kendra was grateful for tons of work to do at the office. If the inbox full of unread e-mails didn’t keep her mind off Shane, nothing would.

  After the heart-to-heart with her father the day before, they’d had an impromptu dinner of take-out pizza that Pop had delivered to his house. Both she and Pop laughed when Matt suggested wrapping a dog treat in a tiny slice of pizza for Duke. But, to the dog’s likely disappointment, the idea was rejected by both grown-ups.

  Despite the lighthearted Sunday afternoon mood, Matt’s chatter with his grandfather about their newly-decorated Christmas tree hadn’t been enough to take her mind off the handsome man who’d helped set up the tree and hang the ornaments the day before.

  What had been shaping up as a rekindled relationship with the potential to grow into something much, much stronger was now looking like a fading memory of a connection that was never really as good as it seemed.

  Now, with so many work-related issues to deal with in the aftermath of the recent controversy over the silicon chip supplier, the upcoming work week promised to keep her especially busy. Adding those issues to her usual Monday morning workload made her more than ready to take a quick break for lunch by noon.

  In the elevator on the way down to the building atrium, she decided to have a working lunch at her desk. If she bought something at the ground floor sandwich shop and ate it in her office while responding to a few e-mails, she might stand a chance of getting out of work on time.

  Walking through the atrium after purchasing a ham sandwich and bottled water, Kendra heard a female voice calling her name. She turned to find herself face-to-face with Shane’s mother.

  “Mrs. McCarthy,” Kendra said. She tried to hide her surprise and focused on maintaining a normal tone of voice. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was heading to the parking lot,” she replied, smiling. “I was supposed to meet Shane for a quick lunch. But he’s swamped with work.”

  She stared at Shane’s mother, not sure what to say. This was way beyond awkward. She knew she was going to end up having some kind of relationship with Mrs. McCarthy—after all, the woman was Matt’s grandmother. But the timing was about as uncomfortable as it could get. After all, she’d had a major league disagreement with Shane only about twenty-four hours earlier.

  This smiling woman’s son had told Kendra her suspicious, jealous nature was out of control, and he credited that green-eyed monster as the reason he’d been deprived of his son for so many years. That didn’t exactly provide fertile ground for starting a friendly relationship between the two women.

  “I’m sorry you came into the city for nothing,” Kendra said.

  “No problem. And I’m glad I ran into you, dear, because that was so nice of you to include me in your family’s plans for Christmas dinner,” she said. “Is there anything in particular you’d like me to bring? Dessert or a side dish or something else?”

  “No need for you to bring any food, Mrs. McCarthy,” Kendra assured her. “That is, unless you really want to. If you have a special dish you like to make for Christmas, we would love to sample it.”

&nbs
p; Kendra’s feeling of awkwardness had turned to total confusion. Mrs. McCarthy knew that she had invited Shane to Christmas dinner at Alicia’s house and that she had told him to bring his mother too? Her mind pieced together the sequence of everything that had happened in the past few days, as though she were mentally reconstructing a crime scene.

  She and Shane had discussed plans for Christmas Day late on Saturday evening, after Matt had gone to bed. Then they’d had their big blow-up on Sunday around lunchtime, followed by his hasty retreat after pretty much calling her a suspicious…a suspicious whatever.

  So, when did he let his mother know that she was invited to the Stevens family Christmas dinner? Had he perhaps called her later on Saturday night after they had gone their separate ways into their separate bedrooms? Or had he spoken to his mother sometime yesterday, after the nasty fight?

  The way she saw it, it would certainly be strange for Shane’s mother to be smiling at her and acting happy to share Christmas dinner with her if she knew about the big fight that went down yesterday. Or would it? Maybe she was just desperate to spend holiday time with her newly-discovered grandson?

  Until next year when Shane might have worked out a legal arrangement that gave him Christmas visitation with Matt? If that happened, Matt’s grandmother might have plenty of time with him over the holidays. Even more time than Kendra might get. Her stomach ached thinking about the possibility of not being with Matt on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

  She couldn’t deny she had a huge problem with the idea of sharing her son. Not if it meant he’d be spending all of the Christmas holidays somewhere else.

  Making Shane and his mother part of the Stevens family Christmas celebration might be a good idea—not just this year, but in the future too. Keep everyone…especially Matt…all celebrating under the same roof.

  Shane’s mother continued to smile at her. “Maybe I’ll bring one of Shane’s favorite dishes. He hasn’t been home for Christmas in a while, so I’d like to make it special.” She hesitated for an instant. “And please call me Nancy.”