It Started One Christmas

by Susan Mallery

  “Why the Disney tree? Is it because you grew up in Los Angeles? Did you go to the park a lot?”

  “Not until Malcolm and Callie took me.” She smiled at the memory. “I was thirteen. Callie and Santiago got married in the fall and Malcolm and Delaney got married the following Valentine’s Day. Between Christmas and New Year’s, we all went to Disneyland. It was amazing. The park was so beautiful and everything was decorated, even some of the rides. We saw the parades and the shows. I’ve been back three times since, and every time I love it more.”

  She turned and scowled at him. “Do not, in any way, mock my Christmas Disney memories.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it. They sound lovely and charming.”

  When he didn’t say anything else, she relaxed. “Okay, that’s my life, what about you?”

  “There’s not much to tell. If I remember correctly, you already know I—”

  “Am very, very smart?” she offered.

  “You’re going to hold that over me forever, aren’t you?”

  “That is the plan, yes.”

  “I was going to say, you know I started college when I was young.”

  “Fourteen. That can’t have been easy.”

  “I was focused on my studies, so it wasn’t too awful until my parents died. That was tough. Socially, I fit in better at college than I did at home. I got my undergraduate degree from Northwestern, went to medical school at Harvard, then moved here for a fellowship and my first PhD.”

  “There’s going to be more than one?”

  “Probably.”

  “Are you really going to cure cancer?”

  “Not all of them, but at least a couple. I hope so.”

  She dug through the bin, then held up two tree toppers. “That only leaves us with one pressing dilemma then. Do you want Mickey as Santa with the sleigh or do you want Mickey and Minnie on the star?”

  Dalton grinned. “I think Mickey and Minnie, for sure.”

  “I agree.”

  * * *

  A LITTLE BEFORE midnight on Christmas Eve, Santiago, Callie’s husband and Keira’s brother-in-law, handed the small switch to Dalton.

  “You get the honors.”

  “I couldn’t,” Dalton told him. “It’s your house and your train set.”

  Santiago shrugged. “You figured out the circuit wasn’t connected. Without that, we couldn’t have gotten it working.”

  Callie rolled her eyes. “At this rate, they’ll still be arguing by morning.” She nodded at the controller. “Keira.”

  “You got it.”

  Keira grabbed it from Dalton and pushed the button. The model train started along the track that circled the base of the tree. Santiago sighed.

  “Women.”

  Callie and Keira exchanged a high five.

  “Logan’s going to love that,” Keira said. “Santa is a good guy for bringing it.”

  Santa, aka the parents, had left Adalyn a beautiful dollhouse that gave Keira a twinge of envy. Presents were piled under the tree, including a couple for Dalton. He was getting socks from the Trejo family and a sweater from Keira. Santa had also left him a $200 gift certificate to Alberto’s Alfresco.

  They all cleaned up after the train assembly, then Callie and Santiago headed off to bed. Keira and Dalton lingered by the tree, sprawled out on the carpet.

  “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Keira told him. Dalton had gone onto solid food on Saturday and joined the family at their meals today.

  “Me, too.” He smiled at her. “Thank you again for taking me in. This has been a great holiday.”

  “Tomorrow is when it gets insane. The whole family will be here.” Malcolm and Delaney, along with their twins, Jason and Jackson, had been over for dinner the night before.

  “This kind of insanity is perfect. When I was growing up, it was just my parents and me. Sometimes that was a little quiet.”

  She rolled onto her back and looked up at the huge tree. There were at least a half dozen throughout the house, but this was the only real one. The scent of pine mingled with the lingering fragrance of cinnamon and chocolate from their after-dinner drinks.

  She half closed her eyes so the lights blurred and reveled in contentment. Her life hadn’t been fun at the start, but once she’d been found by Malcolm and her grandfather, things had picked up.

  She looked at Dalton. “So what’s up with the beautiful women?”

  He winced. “Do we have to talk about that?”

  “Of course not.” She paused. “So what’s up with the beautiful women?”

  He laughed. “Fine. I don’t know. I’m attracted to them. It’s ridiculous. I wish I weren’t, but I can’t seem to help myself. The relationships never work out, but I keep trying.”

  “Have you heard from Mandy?”

  “No, and I won’t.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Thank you.” He paused. “Don’t take this wrong, Keira, but you’re really easy to be around. I like spending time with you. I was hoping we could...be friends.”

  She sat up. “What’s with the hesitation? Are you afraid I’ve totally fallen for you and that I’ll be crushed you want to only be friends?”

  He flushed. “No,” he said, not sounding the least bit convincing.

  “You’re not all that. I’m not interested in you that way at all.”

  She was telling the truth. There had been that one quiver, but since then, nothing. Besides, she wasn’t looking for a boyfriend. “What is it about the whole boy-girl thing? I’m not ready. I don’t want some guy screwing up my life. Love messes with your head, and don’t get me started on sex.”

  “You’re against sex?”

  “No. Not exactly. It’s just sex always complicates the situation, and it requires a level of trust I just don’t have.”

  “You’ve thought this through.”

  “I have. I have issues, I get that. I’m dealing. But right now, no on the guy thing. So being friends is perfectly fine. I’m in favor of it.”

  “Me, too.”

  “If you don’t have anywhere to go next Christmas, you can come back here.”

  He smiled at her. “I’d like that. A lot.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The first day of Christmas break—senior year.

  KEIRA TOLD HERSELF she wasn’t going to cry. No way. Hugh wasn’t worth it. I mean, come on. She’d dated a guy name Hugh! She should have known better.

  She sucked in a breath and squared her shoulders. The hustle and bustle at Sea-Tac airport was a testament to the frantic pace of the holiday season. She would absorb the positive energy around her and let the rest of it go. She was going to be perfectly fine.

  She checked her phone. According to the app, Dalton’s flight was on time, and any second now he would be coming down the escalator. He’d spent six months at Sloan Kettering, the cancer center in New York City, doing whatever really smart thing it was he did for his fellowship. He would go back after the holidays. But for these few days before Christmas and through New Year’s, he would be at her family’s home.

  Dalton at Christmas had become a tradition. Her junior year he’d brought Inessa—a leggy redhead with big boobs and a foul temper. She and Dalton had fought for two days before she’d stomped out of the house. Everyone had breathed a sigh of relief. This year he’d promised to come alone—a fact for which Keira was incredibly grateful. She honestly didn’t care if he had a girlfriend or not. It was just she needed her friend to focus on her and not some other girl. Her heart was breaking, and he was all that stood between her and a complete meltdown.

  “Not a meltdown,” she told herself. She was strong. She was self-actualized. She was not going to cry.

  Five minutes later, she spotted him coming down the escalator. He grinned and waved. She took in the ever-present glasses, the ni
ce leather coat—Dalton was finally making something close to a living wage—and the familiar confident walk before humiliatingly bursting into loud, unattractive sobs.

  He rushed toward her. “Keira, what? Tell me.” He pulled her close and hugged her hard, as if he would never let go. “What’s wrong? Is it your family?”

  “N-no,” she managed to gasp, tears pouring out of her eyes as snot dripped down her lip. “T-they’re fine. It’s Hugh.”

  “Boyfriend Hugh?”

  “I d-don’t think it’s physically possible to know more than one person named Hugh at a time.” She wiped her nose on the back of her hand and looked up at him. “He slept with someone else. Or she slept with him. I don’t know which. I caught them together.”

  More sobs escaped. “He said he l-loved me. He said I was important to him. I s-slept with him. I gave him my heart and my virginity, and he slept with someone else while we were still together.”

  They stood at the bottom of the escalator. Keira was aware of the people easing around them and was sure more than a few of them were staring. She tried to care but she couldn’t. She hurt too much. Her whole body ached, even her hair.

  “I was so careful,” she said, digging in her bag for a tissue. “I stayed away from the known players—I made sure he was nice and that he had good hygiene. Everyone said he was supposed to be a good guy. I dated him for two months before sleeping with him. I thought we were in love.”

  She wiped her face again. “The thing is, I’m more mad at myself than at him. I should have known. Why did I trust him? I knew better, but there I was, giving in to some stupid guy who betrayed me. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I get anything right?”

  “You get a lot of things right.”

  “Not this.”

  Dalton pulled her close again. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Keira.”

  “You can’t know that.” She sniffed. “Maybe I’m a terrible girlfriend.”

  “I doubt that. You’re smart—”

  “Not as smart as you.”

  He ignored her. “Funny, pretty—”

  “Not as pretty as Inessa.”

  “She was a beauty, but that’s not the point, is it?”

  “I g-guess not.” More tears flowed. “I feel awful.”

  He put his arm around her and led her to the baggage-claim area.

  “It’s going to hurt for a while, and then it will get better.”

  “You’re just saying that.”

  “No, I’m pretty sure it’s true.”

  She wiped her face again and glared at him. “No offense, Dalton, but you haven’t had a relationship that lasted longer than three weeks. I was with Hugh for two months, and I slept with him.”

  She was careful to keep her voice down on that last bit.

  “I gave him my virginity, or did you miss that last part?” Because honestly, where was the outrage?

  “How was it?”

  The flashing lights over the luggage carousel came on and buzzed as the conveyor belt began to move.

  “How was...”

  He grinned. “The sex? Did you like it?”

  She narrowed her gaze. “You are my friend. Please don’t remind me that you’re also a guy.”

  He didn’t look the least bit cowed. “How was it?”

  “Jeez, it was fine, okay. Not amazing, just fine.”

  “Then Hugh was doing it wrong.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m done with men and relationships. I’m going to be celibate for the rest of my life. I wish I could become a lesbian. Women are so much nicer than men.”

  “I don’t think you can become a lesbian.”

  Tears filled her eyes again. “I know, and it’s unfair to point that out. I feel so stupid about the whole thing.”

  Dalton hung on her to her as she had another good cry. They collected his luggage, but before they headed to the parking garage, he excused himself to use the restroom.

  She stood by his bags, trying to get herself together. Christmas was in four days. She wanted to enjoy every second with her family, and with Dalton. Since his new fellowship, she rarely saw him. The daily texts and phone calls weren’t nearly the same. Before New York, he’d spent six months in China. It had turned out he really was as smart as he said, and while he hadn’t cured cancer yet, he was making huge progress.

  He returned to her side, kissed her cheek, then grabbed the two large bags and wheeled them out. “So what’s the plan? For Christmas, I mean.”

  “The trees are up, except for the Disney tree in your room. I thought we’d do that together later. Then it’s just the usual. Last-minute shopping and baking. I told Logan and Adalyn we’d take them ice skating.”

  Callie’s kids were so big. Adalyn was already seven, and Logan was five and still in love with trains. Malcolm and Delaney’s boys were six. The family was thriving. There’d been that health scare with Grandfather Alberto, but he’d recovered and Carmen had finally agreed to marry him.

  They made their way to her car. Dalton loaded the luggage, then pulled her close again. “Hugh was a jerk and a fool. He’d been given something precious, and for the rest of his life, he’s going to regret letting you go.”

  Her mouth twisted. “That all sounds really nice, but I’d rather he woke up with a rash.”

  Dalton chuckled. “Okay, that, too.”

  She got behind the wheel and drove out of the parking structure. Honestly, she was going to have to pull herself together. It was Christmas, and she didn’t want to be a big old wet blanket while everyone else was celebrating.

  “I didn’t tell anyone,” she said suddenly as she remembered how she’d lied to Callie and said everything was fine. “Hugh and I were never going to spend Christmas together. He was going home to his family in Montana anyway.”

  “Good to know.”

  “How’s New York? Have you walked down Fifth Avenue? Malcolm and Delaney took me a couple of years ago, and the whole city is amazing. We saw the tourists sites, did some window shopping. It was so fun.”

  “I’ve been busy with work, but I have seen a few things.”

  “Any new supermodels in your life?”

  He glanced at her. “One or two, but I’m not sure this is the time to talk about them.”

  “We can. I totally want you to be happy. Not everyone has to be sad just because Hugh is a total idiot, cheating, weasel butt.”

  His mouth twitched. “One day you’re going to have to learn to swear like a grown-up.”

  “Or not.”

  “Or not,” he repeated and reached across the console to touch her arm. “You are my friend, and I’m sorry you’re in pain.”

  “Thank you.”

  They talked about their plans for the holidays. Keira and Dalton usually went out for dinner—just the two of them—and they had their traditional culling of the toys with the kids. Then everyone would pile in the car and they would take the donated toys to a charity.

  She had a lot to look forward to, she told herself. People who loved her and would never betray her. Eventually her heart would heal, and she would find somebody else. For all her talk of being alone, she had to admit there had been parts of having a boyfriend that she’d really liked. The hanging out together, the snuggling. The sex had been disappointing, but maybe that was about her. In high school, she’d refused to do more than kiss, so it wasn’t as if she’d been prepared for all the grunting and thrusting. Plus, why did he have to pant like a dog? Did all guys pant? And the “Oh, baby, baby” between pants had been off-putting as well. And then it had been over. Forty-five seconds of panting and “oh, baby” followed by him dropping on her like a rock. Which part was she supposed to like?

  Dalton would know, she thought. Maybe she should ask him. Although the thought of her friend acting like that was beyond disheartening.

 
Before she could decide, they arrived at her place. They got out of the car and walked around to the trunk. But instead of taking his suitcases inside, Dalton set them on the ground and opened them.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, confused by his behavior. “You have a dresser you can use inside.”

  “I’m rearranging.”

  Sure enough, he was moving clothes from one bag to another. When he was done, he put the smaller bag back in her trunk and smiled at her. “Trust me.”

  “I do. Sort of.”

  The front door opened, and Callie came out with a suitcase of her own.

  “You’re running away with my sister?” Keira asked, hoping she was kidding.

  “Not even close.”

  Callie handed him the bag, then looked at Keira. “Oh, honey, you should have told me.”

  The combination of sympathy and soft voice had Keira spinning toward Dalton. “You called her? When?” She thought about him disappearing to use the bathroom. “You lied about having to pee?”

  Callie drew her close and kissed her forehead. “Don’t be mad. I’m just sorry Hugh turned out to be a total jerk. I hate him, and I will hate him forever.” She put her hands on Keira’s shoulders. “We’ll be fine. You and Dalton will be back on the twenty-third. That’s plenty of time to get everything done. Just go have fun.”

  “Go? Where are we going? What are you talking about? Has everyone gone insane?” She still wasn’t sure if she was mad at Dalton or not, but now she had to be worried that everyone had slipped over the edge into madness.

  Dalton put the suitcase Callie had packed into the trunk. “I’ll explain on the way.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Back to the airport.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  DALTON KEPT KEIRA in the dark right up until they checked in for their flight. No matter how many times she asked where they were going, he wouldn’t say. It wasn’t until they were at the Alaska Airlines kiosk and she put in her reservation information that the destination popped up.