“Just take a quick peek,” Sean said, kneeling with them. “Don’t try to parlay this into opening the gift or playing with it tonight or any other nonsense.”
“We swear!” Jonah said, eagerly grabbing Sean’s gift and pushing aside the tissue paper with a quiet rustle.
Sean, who prided himself on his gift selection skills, held his breath. Waited for the twins’ reaction—
“Oh, my God!” Noah cried, eyes nearly bulging out of his head. “It’s the Star Trek edition of Trivial Pursuit!”
“Let me see that.” Jonah shoved his brother’s hands out of the way and looked for himself. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God!”
“I assume you’ll figure out how to play with this together,” Sean said dryly, immensely pleased with himself. Not that it took a genius like Isaiah to notice that the twins wore Star Trek gear every chance they got.
“You’re the greatest!”
Noah leapt onto Sean, bowling him over with the ferocity of his hug. Jonah quickly piled on. The dogs, perhaps sensing mischief from across the room, raced over and collapsed on top of them, adding to the general commotion. When it was all said and done, Sean emerged flushed, grinning and happy. He eyeballed the Grinch-covered gift bag containing Ella’s gift and sent up a fervent prayer that it would enjoy a similar reception when they all formally exchanged presents on Christmas morning. Then he shushed the twins and hustled them back to the kitchen before anyone noticed that they’d been gone.
“I’d like to say a few words,” Nigel said once the pizzas were in the oven, earning himself a round of jeering from the crowd. Nigel was not known for being brief and succinct.
That being the case, Sean lapsed into a bout of daydreaming while Nigel waxed poetic about how grateful he was for his health following last summer’s heart attack and for all of his sons and their significant others.
Sean’s daydreaming thoughts only went in one direction these days.
Amber, man.
What was she up to right now? Baking those macarons? He wondered how that was going. Wondered if she was thinking of him at all. Wondered if she felt the same acute pang of loneliness that he currently felt. Which was weird, because this was easily the best Christmas he’d had in, oh, the last ten years. Much better than any of the Napa Christmas seasons he’d spent busting his ass in the restaurant, trying to make sure the customers had delicious holiday dinners before crashing alone in his small and empty apartment on Christmas Day, too exhausted to do anything other than binge on pizza and watch football. Back in Napa, he’d felt fleeting pangs of nostalgia for the early Christmases he’d spent with his family back in Cincinnati, but those memories were fuzzed, distant and dusty. His father had been dead for a long time. Sean and Mike didn’t get along. Sean missed his mother, sure, but he made up for it by flying her out to Napa for mini vacations whenever possible.
But now…
Now.
Now he had a new surrogate family. His best friend Daniel was there. Daniel’s wonderful parents, Nigel and Ada, were there. Daniel’s brothers and their wives, significant others and kids were there. All of them had rolled out the red carpet for Sean and accepted him into the fold as though he were Oprah bearing beribboned car keys for all of them. Not one of them had ever acted as though Sean was an idiot or a loser or a pain in the ass.
He couldn’t say the same about his own brother.
This was, therefore, as good as it had ever gotten or was likely to get when it came to holiday seasons for Sean.
And yet he still felt that gnawing in his chest that told him something was missing. Not something. Amber.
God, he missed her. He knew she was only about an hour away back in Journey’s End, but it felt way too far. A sign of his growing insanity where that one woman was concerned, he supposed—
“—also have Reeve with us now,” Nigel said, continuing with his lengthy remarks.
The sound of Reeve’s name snapped Sean out of his daydream and put him firmly in the here and now. He watched Reeve and Edward closely, wanting to see how they behaved together and if Edward betrayed any signs of wanting Amber back, his heart pumping out an erratic beat that threatened him with imminent cardiac arrest.
“And we’ve never seen Edward happier,” Nigel continued. “So we’re grateful for that. Love you, Reeve.”
Love you, Reeve, Edward mouthed before giving Reeve a quick kiss.
“I love all of you, too,” Reeve said, flushed with pleasure as she emerged from the kiss.
“Love you, Reevie!” Ella ran over to Reeve and hugged her around the legs. “Love you!”
“Love you, too, Ella!” Reeve picked Ella up and kissed her plump cheek.
Sean breathed a little easier, which was ridiculous. The future of his budding relationship with Amber should not depend upon whether or not Edward was happy with Reeve. If Edward up and decided that he wanted Amber back and Amber went back to him, then she wasn’t the woman for Sean. Period, end of story. Good riddance. The rational part of Sean’s brain knew that. The only problem? When it came to Amber, precious little of Sean’s rational brain remained—
“Now I want to talk about Sean for a minute,” Nigel said, catching him completely by surprise.
Chapter Fourteen
“Come here, son,” Nigel said. “Don’t be shy. You haven’t been shy this whole time. Don’t start now.”
Sean experienced an awkward moment of paralysis, but managed to unstick himself, duck his head and walk over to Nigel, who slung an arm around his shoulders. So far, so good. But then Sean caught a glimpse of the glowing warmth in Nigel’s eyes and felt the loss of his own father all the more acutely. He blinked furiously, trying to lock down the wayward tear or two that threatened to embarrass him, but there was nothing he could do about his trembling chin.
Nigel, meanwhile, paused to clear his throat and gather his thoughts.
“I am a man with five sons,” he said. “I did not want six sons. Hell, there were plenty of days that I wanted to trade in three or four of the ones I had.”
Everyone chuckled.
Sean tried not to break into an ugly cry.
“He wanted to trade them in!” Noah said as he and Jonah doubled up with raucous laughter.
Miranda snapped her fingers at the boys. They straightened and shut up immediately, probably fearing the imminent cancellation of their Christmas.
“If anyone had told me three months ago that I would have another son, I would have said they were crazy,” Nigel continued. “If they had said I would let my new son live for free in the carriage house, I would’ve taken them to have their head checked. But then Daniel brought Sean home from Napa with him, and here we are.”
Nigel pressed his lips together and squeezed Sean’s shoulder, forcing Sean to hastily wipe his eyes with the back of his hand and pray that everyone present experienced a sudden catastrophic loss of vision, at least temporarily.
The only good thing?
He wasn’t the only one struggling with his or her feelings at the moment, judging by the muffled sniffles and shuffling feet surrounding them in all directions. Even the twins looked misty.
“I just resent the fact that you’ve never made his ass pay rent.” Daniel jerked his thumb at Sean. “If it was any one of the rest of us, you’d have started court proceedings to evict us by now. Can I get an amen from the choir?”
“Amen,” muttered James, Isaiah, Ethan and Edward.
That cracked everyone up. Relieved that his unexpected moment in the spotlight seemed to be over, Sean turned to Nigel for a backslapping hug. Then he hugged Ada, holding her tight and lifting her up to her tippy toes. A hug for Daniel came next, during which Sean thought of all the fun, laughter and emotional support he’d received from Daniel over the years and tried not to compare this relationship to his nonexistent one with Mike.
Another wave of emotion made his nostrils flare with a pending meltdown, but then he caught himself and recovered.
Family was where you found it,
wasn’t it? Why be so morose all the time? He had a family. He had brothers. They just weren’t the ones he’d been born with. Why waste time looking gift horses in the mouth?
“Good to be here,” Sean told everyone when he trusted his voice again. “Appreciate you. Still not paying rent, but I appreciate you.”
Another round of laughter quickly segued into the family spending a few minutes discussing Isaiah’s return to the family fold. The Harper brothers worked out a few emotional issues left over from their past. Sean did his best to become invisible and give them the space they needed for a semi-private moment.
But then Isaiah tossed a Christmas bombshell into the crowd and astounded everyone by revealing his heart of gold and announcing that he planned to become an angel investor with the twenty-five-million-dollar proceeds from the sale of his software company. As such, he wanted to fund Ethan’s landscape business, James’s scout troop, Miranda’s expansion at Java Nectar and help Daniel buy more grapes for the winery. It was as though everyone had won the lotto. A true Christmas miracle. Until Ethan foolishly questioned the wisdom of intra-family loans. Especially the proposed loan to Nigel and Ada to rebuild the charred restaurant.
“Try to pay attention,” Isaiah told them. “I don’t want part of your business. I’m not a landscape architect. Or a vintner or a restaurant owner. The plan is, I loan you the money. You repay me in five years at a low interest rate or you hire five new full-time employees and the debt is forgiven. If five years comes and you haven’t fulfilled either one of those conditions? I sue your asses. End of story. Simple.”
“What?” Nigel looked incredulous. “That’s it?”
Isaiah nodded. “That’s it. Oh, and you need to hire Sean as your executive chef when you rebuild.”
Sean stiffened. Nearly fell over backward in a dead faint because he’d had no idea that a fairy godfather was on the way to rescue him from his jobless state, yet here Isaiah was, working his magic.
“Give him carte blanche in the kitchen,” Isaiah went on. “Let him work some magic for you without you micromanaging every detail. He’s hungry and he’s loyal. He needs the job. You’re not going to find anyone better.”
Sean hesitated before saying anything, certain he’d misheard. He must have. His luck wasn’t that good. Nothing that had happened in his life thus far had ever led him to believe he’d experience such a stunning reversal of fortune. So he ran Isaiah’s words through his brain again. Confirmed them. Blinked and started to get his wits back.
But they all remained dumbstruck.
Nigel gaped at Isaiah. Then he turned to gape at Sean. Sean could only gape back. Ada rubbed her temple, looking dazed. Nigel looked at Ada. Gaped at her. Ada managed a teary smile.
Sean held his breath, prayed and hoped against hope that Nigel’s stubborn pride wouldn’t keep him from taking this sweetheart deal from his son and thereby giving Sean the dream job for which he’d been desperately searching all these months.
“Take the money!” shouted Noah when he couldn’t stand the tension any longer.
Everyone broke up with laughter. Ella, who’d been quietly watching from her perch on Edward’s hip, also broke into applause.
“Well, son,” Nigel said, finally extending a hand to Isaiah after they’d all died a thousand deaths. “I think we’re going to take the money.”
Sean exhaled, so weak with stunned relief that he had to brace his hands on his thighs and catch his breath. General chaos erupted at that point, with everyone talking excitedly, laughing and hugging everyone else. There were whoops. There were cheers. And all Sean could think was that he might now, finally, turn the corner and become a real man with a real career that generated a real salary and, more importantly, real self-confidence and joy.
That he might now become a man with something to offer a woman like Amber.
He straightened and got his bearings, not at all surprised to discover Isaiah standing there in his face, that brow of his cocked high with sarcasm.
“Thought I wasn’t your brother,” he said, reminding Isaiah of the way he’d needled Sean a few weeks ago.
“You’re not. Let’s keep that clear. But I can’t stand to see a brother unemployed. So I’m working on lowering those statistics.”
There was a pause, then they both burst into laughter and hugged it out. In that wild moment, Sean didn’t even care that he’d just received a handout from a person who likely felt sorry for him. The only thing that mattered to Sean was that he now had a job. He wouldn’t have to endure more soul-crushing rounds of interviews and rejections. Because now he had a chance.
“Thank you,” Sean told Isaiah when they broke apart. “I mean it. I appreciate you. I won’t let you down.”
“I know,” Isaiah said gruffly. “That’s why your name came out of my mouth.”
Isaiah turned and hugged the next grateful person. Sean took the opportunity to find Nigel, his new boss, who looked as shell-shocked as Sean felt.
“Are we going to do this, Pops?” Sean asked him.
“We’re going to do this, son,” Nigel said, squeezing his shoulder.
“I don’t want to screw this up for myself,” Sean said, deciding it only made sense to throw a flag on the play before this went any further. “But I want to make sure you and I can work together. We’ve got a great relationship. You’re like a father to me. I don’t want to mess that up.”
“And Daniel’s told you plenty of nightmare stories about me,” Nigel said without missing a beat. “So you’re concerned.”
“Yeah. I’m concerned,” Sean said, snorting back a laugh.
“Don’t worry yourself. Between my heart attack last summer and the fire yesterday, I am done stressing myself about anything. Daniel taught me about delegating authority. He’s doing a great job with the vineyard without my micromanagement. I’m taking this as my sign from God that someone else needs to run the restaurant. And that someone is you. So have at it. Make it your own.” Nigel leaned closer, pointing at Sean’s nose and shooting him an or else look. “You just make sure you make me plenty of money while you’re doing it.”
“That I can do,” Sean said, thinking of the standing-room-only dinner crowds they’d had most nights back at the restaurant in Napa. “Leave it to me.”
They laughed together, hugging it out once again.
“We need to talk about compensation,” Nigel said when he let him go. “If Isaiah’s footing the bill, that makes it hard for me to be stingy with your pay, doesn’t it?”
“Are you serious?” Sean said, incredulous. “I was on the verge of checking to see if McDonald’s is hiring. At this point, I’ll work for food. Much less have my own restaurant. That’s my dream come true. You know that.”
“Well, I’m going to be fair with you. More than fair.”
Sean nodded, deciding on the spot that this was the opening he needed to continue another step along his journey to full manhood.
“Speaking of fair… I know I was just joking about not paying rent at the carriage house, but I want to. Now that I’m getting paid and all.”
Nigel recoiled as though Sean had brandished a smashed garden slug in his face.
“I don’t want you to pay me for that. Why would I want rent from a family member who minds his own business in a part of my property that normally sits empty and makes me smile when he shows up?”
“Because you’re entitled to rent when someone lives on your property in America. Unless I’m mistaken.”
“I don’t want your money,” Nigel said flatly.
“I insist, Pops,” Sean said, more flatly. “Help me out here. I’m starting to get a touch of pride. As a man. I don’t want to kill it before it really gets going.”
Nigel’s lips thinned and his entire body contract with displeasure. He seemed to wage an epic struggle with himself for two or three beats. Then he blew out a breath and held out his hand.
“We’ll make the cottage part of your salary or benefits package,” he said. “Best
I can do.”
“Deal,” Sean said with tremendous satisfaction as they shook.
By then the pizzas were ready. They sat and ate together with the raucous good cheer of a family reunion. Then everyone dashed off to change into their new flannel pajamas and slippers before reconvening in the living room for the screening of Home Alone. The lights went down and the movie started up with all the happy couples snuggled together on their various sofas and love seats.
Nigel and Ada.
James, Miranda, the twins and the dogs.
Isaiah, Alyssa and their new cat, who seemed to have promised not to bite or claw anyone if they liberated him from the carrier.
Ethan and Sofia.
Edward, Ella and Reeve.
Daniel and Zoya.
And then there were—
Sean, sitting by himself in one of the recliners like a freaking loser.
The line from that old Sesame Street song ran through his head.
One of these things is not like the other.
His loneliness kicked in with a vengeance, intensifying until it sat like a leaden knot deep in his belly, right next to the pizza he’d just eaten. Sighing, he pulled out his phone to text her. Damn woman. Why couldn’t she leave him alone long enough to enjoy Home Alone, one of the greatest Christmas movies ever made?
Sean: Hey
Amber: Hey
Sean: Thinking about you
Amber: Thinking about you, too
Sean, hesitating: Missing you
Amber, without hesitation: Missing you, too
Sean: Regretting not taking you up on your offer yesterday
Amber: As you should
Sean, eyeballing the snow flurries outside the window, which seemed to be tapering off, and deciding that an hour’s drive down a mountain and back to Journey’s End on a dark, cold and snowy night was a small price to pay for being with Amber right now: I’m on my way. Since you asked so nicely
Amber: You can’t leave! That’s way too conspicuous. They’re all expecting you to stay for the weekend. I don’t want Ada and Daniel to hate me for taking you away from them
Somebody to Love Page 14