“You…you…” Drew’s rage practically made his phone vibrate. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You know nothing. You don’t even know where you—”
He stopped abruptly.
“What?” Lyle prodded. Get mad, Drew. Spill it.
“Fuck you,” Drew hissed, then ended the call.
“Merry Christmas Eve,” Lyle muttered. He tossed the phone aside and slammed a fist into the punching bag. Didn’t even bother wrapping his hands. He wanted the impact, the bruise.
What did Drew know? Or think he knew?
Fuck, did it even matter? Lyle was what he was, and he’d come to terms with that long ago. He hadn’t had a normal life. He was a survivor first and foremost. A bare-knuckle brawler, a brute in Hugo Boss clothing. It was possible that he would never be anything else, that he would always be on the outside looking in.
If that was the case, at least he’d make sure that his employees were safe, that he stood between Rocky Peak Lodge and disaster, and that he funneled as much money toward worthy causes as he could.
And maybe, if he got extra lucky, he’d get another night with Isabelle. One that didn’t leave him with an expired condom and a severe case of blue balls.
19
Since she’d started working with Doctors Without Borders, Isabelle had been home for Christmas only a handful of times. With Kai gone, and Griffin often MIA as well, the holiday had been a shadow of its former self.
This year was completely different, with all the Rockwells back at the lodge, including all the new romantic partners.
Not to mention Lyle. She wouldn’t call him a romantic partner, but she had high hopes for “sexual.” Now that they’d broken the ice during that morning’s encounter, all she could think about was the next time they could be together.
He must be thinking along the same lines, because every glance they shared during the pre-Christmas fun was loaded with secret promises. The undercurrents between them felt so clear and strong she was amazed that her family didn’t seem to notice.
With Lyle around, she saw all the crazy Rockwell traditions with new eyes, because he seemed to enjoy them so much.
The “cold-hearted” billionaire was second only to Birdie, who arrived on Christmas Eve, in his enthusiasm for all their quirky made-up rituals. There was the ceremonial raising of the angel, for instance. The lodge was too big for twinkle lights, so Amanda Rockwell had constructed an enormous wire structure in the shape of an angel. It was so huge that it took several people using two ladders to wrap it in lights.
They hadn’t bothered the last few years, because Max wasn’t up for it. But this year he made a point to request it. Or rather, being Max, demand it.
Late on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, most of the family gathered outside in their snow suits and spent over an hour wrapping the lights and testing them. Then came the process of raising the angel into position and anchoring it with cables and ropes so it wouldn’t get blown away by the next snowstorm.
Of course every member of the Rockwell family thought they knew best how to make it stable, which meant a lot of arguing and laughing, which inevitably led to flying snowballs and eventually an all-out pitched battle of a snowball fight. This too was a familiar tradition. The family snowball fights got very elaborate, with battle positions and snowball stockpiles.
She and Lyle wound up on the same team. Maybe “wound up” wasn’t quite the right way to put it, since she blatantly maneuvered to be on his team.
“Come on.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him over to where Kai and Serena were already plotting their strategy. “You’re with us.”
“You’re fighting against your twin?”
“Oh yes, we have a family rule about that. It’s not fair when we’re on the same team because we’re too fearsome together. No one else would stand a chance.”
Kai snorted. “Is that what you tell yourself? They’re not allowed to be on the same team because they argue too much,” he told Lyle. “They’re better off as adversaries. And we got the warrior twin, and now we have you, so I like our chances.”
“Not to mention Rogue,” Serena said, rubbing one mittened hand across the Great Dane’s coat. “We’ve been secretly sneaking away to practice our snowball skills. He loves chasing them.”
“I haven’t thrown a snowball since grade school,” said Lyle. “But it went right through the principal’s window, so I had pretty good aim.”
“You mean bad aim,” Isabelle corrected.
“No. I was aiming for it.” Lyle grinned, remembering that satisfying moment. Of course, he’d gotten expelled and transferred to a different foster home after that, but it had been worth it.
“Here’s the plan,” Kai said as they moved into a huddle. They were still nailing down their strategy when a barrage of snowballs came raining down on them. Rogue yelped and flung himself into the air, trying to catch them in his mouth.
“Hey,” shouted Isabelle, shielding her face. Lyle moved his big body to protect her, which seemed like such a Lyle thing to do that she almost forgot to be mad at the other team. “You’re supposed to wait until we’re all ready!”
“Boo hoo,” called Jake. “Can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
Serena dropped to her knees and quickly packed a snowball and handed it up to Isabelle. “Let it fly, Izzy. Come on, I’ll keep ‘em coming.”
Using Lyle as a shield, Isabelle flung the snowball at the nearest attacker, who happened to be Gracie. Her sprite of a sister danced out of the way and it hit Griffin smack in the face. He staggered backwards.
“I got your boyfriend,” she told Serena.
“Way to go.” Serena handed up another batch of quickly formed snowballs. “Now go for your evil twin.”
“I’m actually the evil twin,” Isabelle corrected her, flinging the entire stash of snowballs in a rapid fire sequence at Jake. Kai was on his knees, simultaneously making and throwing snowballs. He looked like a human tennis ball machine, except with snowballs.
“Sweetheart, think of the baby,” he called to Nicole, who was tossing snowballs from a tote bag slung around her body. “Go inside, honey. Don’t get in the middle of this. Safety first.”
“Low blow, mister!” she shouted back as she winged a snowball at him. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m in it to win it.”
“Well, it’s official. The new future Rockwells are just as bloodthirsty as we are.” Isabelle grinned over at Kai, who was wiping snow off his face.
“Bring it!” he shouted to his future bride.
Lyle was laughing his ass off, even as his broad body took the brunt of the snowball hits.
“You okay there, big guy?” she asked him as she stuck her head out from behind his chest for another fast fusillade.
“This? This is nothing. Easiest fight I was ever in.”
“Want a snowball?” She offered him one of hers.
“Nope. You’re doing great. I’ll play defense on this one. It’s safer for everyone.”
“Okay, but if it looks like we’re going to lose, we go all out, agreed? We unleash our secret weapon. We send out Lyle the Pile. Are we all agreed?”
The snowball fight degenerated after that, ending with everyone sprawled in the snow except Gracie, who pranced around in a snow-booted victory dance while yelling, “oh yeah, oh yeah.”
Isabelle threw a halfhearted snowball her way, but it barely made it half the distance before falling splat onto the ground. Lyle was resting on his elbows right next to her, his chest heaving with out-of-breath laughter. “Who needs a workout when there’s a snowball fight going on?”
“Right?” She moved her knee so it touched his thigh, and even through all the layers of insulation, the contact felt good. “I always thought they should be a thing, like paintball.”
“Remember that long-ass winter when Mom challenged us to invent fifty new snow sports?” Kai said from over Nicole’s shoulder. She was sitting on his lap with his arms wrapped around her.
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“Snow polo was a bust,” said Griffin. He was busy untangling a snowball from Serena’s hair, his fingers red with cold. “Snowballs don’t stay together well enough. I still have flashbacks of snow exploding all over my face.”
His careful movements made Isabelle think of the sensitive way Lyle had handled her hair. And other parts of her body. And suddenly she was no longer chilled at all.
“We did make the most amazing snow fort on the planet,” said Jake. “We worked on that thing for months, remember?”
“We would leave buckets of water to freeze overnight,” Isabelle explained to Lyle. “We’d stick branches in them to make the underlying structure, then work around that. We had a whole tunnel system that you had to crawl through, and we made it small enough so the adults couldn’t get in.”
“I don’t remember that.” Gracie crouched down next to Griffin and rested her head on his arm. “I must have been too little.”
“You were a toddler.” Kai flipped the braided tassel that dangled from the ear flap of her wool cap. “Your big contribution was knocking things over. We had to rebuild the south wing twice.”
“The south wing?” Lyle snorted. “You guys really did get into it.”
“Oh yeah. It was like the Taj Mahal of snow forts. Then in February we had a big thaw and the whole thing melted away.”
“Mom cried,” Isabelle said softly. The memory had never left her, because seeing her mother cry had been such a shocker. “And Max kept saying, ‘what did you expect would happen? It’s snow.’’”
“Mr. Sympathetic,” said Jake dryly. “As always.”
Isabelle also remembered overhearing their parents fighting later that night.
“Human beings aren’t meant to live in the freaking snow all winter long! We need warmth and sunshine! We need to get out, Max. Even just for a vacation. I’ll take the kids, just them and me.”
“No, Amanda. I need them here. I can’t do everything by myself.”
“Sometimes I think they’re just child labor to you.”
“You’re getting hysterical.”
“Hysterical? That’s insulting.”
“Okay, emotional. Is that better?”
“I’m emotional because I’m sick of the cold and snow. How many times do I have to say it before you start hearing me?”
“I hear you. So does everyone else. They probably hear you up at Majestic Lodge.”
“Good. I want everyone to know.”
“Why don’t you stick to your journals and leave me out of it?”
“Izzy.” She startled, wrenched back to the present by her twin brother’s voice. “Come on, that angel’s not going to light itself, and it’s getting dark.”
“Right. Sorry.” She looked around to see that everyone else had already gotten to their feet. The first early stars glittered in the sky, which had turned the shade of a ripe plum. She filled her lungs with the clear air, so cold it felt like breathing icicles.
Lyle offered his hand to help her up. Big and warm, his hand grasped hers with a grip that managed to be firm and arousing at the same time. “You looked lost in a dream there for a minute. What were you thinking about?”
“Oh, just something I remembered about when our snow fort melted. I heard my mom and dad arguing later that night. I forgot about that until just now. The topic of her journals came up.”
“Have you gone through them yet?”
“No, I haven’t had a chance with Tigger around. You want to know something crazy? I actually miss Tigger.” Renata was watching him while he napped, out of reach of rogue snowballs. “At first I felt nothing but panic being in charge of a baby. But now that I’ve had Tigger for a few days I feel so different.”
His hand brushed against hers. The two of them were a few feet behind the rest of the group, who were all chattering and shivering as they made their way toward the towering angel. They’d positioned it to the right of the front entrance, as if it was blessing the property.
Lyle enveloped her hand in his, so they were walking like two teenagers behind her brothers and sister. It was such an innocent gesture, so sweet and so unlike Lyle.
Or maybe it wasn’t unlike him. Maybe he had a secret gooey-soft center behind that intimidating exterior. Maybe he only showed that side on special occasions, like walking across a snowy field on a brilliant clear night just before Christmas.
She smiled at him and squeezed his hand in return. He bent his head toward her, the strong line of his neck outlined against the twilight sky, and a ghost of a smile tugged at his lips. Her heart did the strangest little leap in response, like a baby lamb springing with joy.
Whoa.
What was that all about? Where had that come from?
She didn’t have a chance to examine it because suddenly the night brightened and a chorus of shouts came from the group ahead of them.
“It did light itself!” yelled Jake. “Unbelievable. The angel lit itself!”
Isabelle spun around to see the outline of the angel, graceful and a little awkward, one wing bigger than the other, with a halo that looked more like a sun hat, outlined in lights the color of fire. She clapped her hands together like a little kid.
“Look how beautiful! It’s just how I remember, except the halo’s even more crooked than it used to be.”
A small group spilled out of the front entrance. Renata, holding Tigger, pointed at the angel while he crowed in delight. Birdie, her blond hair adorned with sparkly silver hair clips, wriggled with excitement in her wheelchair. And there was Max, holding a big extension cord.
“You kids were taking too damn long,” he called. “Had to power up the darn thing myself. Fooled ya, huh?”
Laughing, they gathered around the angel. Even though Amanda hadn’t given her creation a face, the tilt of her “head” seemed to have an expression. She gazed out across the mountains, as if ready to flap her mighty wings and ride an air current to the heavens. But yet she stayed, anchored in light, radiating joy.
Still a distance behind the others, Isabelle’s eyes filled with tears. Lyle wrapped his arms around her from behind so she could lean back and take in the glory of Amanda’s angel. “Your mother was a real artist, wasn’t she?” he murmured.
“I guess she was. I never thought of her that way, but this is incredible.”
“I think…” He hesitated so long she wondered if he’d forgotten what he wanted to say.
“You think what?”
“I think you need to read those journals.”
“Yeah. I will. As soon as Christmas is over, I’ll start going through them.”
“Good.” And yet there was more, she heard it in his voice.
“What else?”
“I think you should come over.” His voice rumbled in her ear, the brush of his lips making her shiver.
“What about Tigger?”
“Gracie’s been dying to babysit him.”
“I guess I could leave him with her.” She hesitated. “But the thing is, it’s hard being away from him. He likes to go to sleep with his hand wrapped around my finger.”
“Okay. Your choice. Whenever you’re ready.” His voice deepened, and he lowered his head to nuzzle her neck, and trail kisses along the bone behind her ear. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”
She had zero doubts about that.
20
Even though Lyle had always avoided Christmas celebrations, he’d seen enough to know the Rockwell family had their own twist on the holiday. Maybe all families did—but he especially liked theirs.
He enjoyed every second of events like the hot-chocolate-and-charades marathon on Christmas Eve. He even took a turn himself, clumsily trying to act out the plot of Wonder Woman with nothing but gestures.
At midnight, when it was officially Christmas day, everyone ran outside in the snow and yelled “Merry Christmas” while making noise with whatever congas or pots or noisemakers they could put their hands on. Kai helped Max, leaning on his cane, while Nic
ole pushed Birdie’s wheelchair down the packed snow path. The girl laughed with delight as she shook a tambourine.
Then Isabelle handed out squat yellow candles from a tote bag she’d brought outside. She lit her own, then everyone passed it around to share the flame. They stood together in a ring, candlelight playing across their faces, and sang “Silent Night, Holy Night,” to the skies. The scene was so pure—the dark night punctured only by the luminous starlight overhead and the warm pools of candlelight. He knew it would be seared into his memory forever, no matter where he went or what he did.
After that, people started yawning and peeling off for their own rooms. Strangely reluctant to face his empty guesthouse, Lyle said goodnight to everyone. Isabelle, who was busy with Tigger at that moment, waved at him cheerfully.
“Don’t forget, our traditional Christmas morning breakfast at eleven. I hope you like lox.”
“As in bagels and lox?”
“Yes, it started as a joke, but we all love bagels and lox so it turned into a tradition,” explained Kai. “It was the only breakfast we could all agree on.”
“Hey, I love bagels too. No complaints here. I’ll see you all at eleven.” He hesitated, since he wasn’t sure about the next bit. “What about…well, gifts?”
“Oh, right. You have to hide those,” said Jake. “Sorry, we should have told you earlier, but didn’t realize—really, you brought gifts?”
“Hide them? Isn’t that more of an Easter egg thing?”
“Well, sure, in normal families.” Gracie yawned and got to her feet. She wore bright red socks with goofy reindeer faces on them. “But you may have already figured out that we’re a little weird. We hide all the presents and then everyone scrambles all over the lodge looking for them. No bedrooms, no guesthouses, the storeroom is off-limits because it’s too cluttered, but everything else is fair game.”
The Renegade (The Rockwell Legacy Book 3) Page 14
