“All those beautiful trees. It’s such a waste.”
Jack waved his hand at her. “People can take them for free. I’ll put an ad in the newspaper. ‘Free Christmas Tree Day.’ ”
She smiled at him a little. The first smile he had coaxed from her all morning. “That would be interesting. I bet you’ll be on the six-o’clock news.”
He laughed. “I hope not. I certainly don’t want to be.”
“You just want to be left alone, right?”
She put it so bluntly, it caught him by surprise. He had been trying to tell her that for the past twenty-four hours, ever since he injured his leg. But now that she put it right out on the table, he wasn’t sure how to answer.
You want us to leave, was what she was really saying. All he had to do was answer yes.
Why did it suddenly seem so hard to say that simple word?
He rubbed his cheek. “I’m not a very easy person to be around right now. That’s just the way it is. The truth.”
She didn’t answer, just looked at him. He felt she understood what he couldn’t explain. He still hurt so badly from the loss of his wife and son. It had twisted him somehow. Made him not quite himself anymore. Not quite right.
“You’re not so bad, Jack,” she said finally. “I mean, when you snap out of your Grinch act.”
He glanced at her. He could see she was teasing him.
“I’ve been on my best behavior. I’m not sure how much longer I can keep it up,” he warned her. “You ought to take that into consideration.”
“In consideration of . . . what?” She tilted her head, her soft curly hair swinging to one side. “Are you asking me to stay on, to help you?”
He cleared his throat. “I—I’m not sure.”
Was he? Well . . . maybe. How had that happened?
Julie took a deep breath and flattened both hands against the table. “Look, here’s what we can try. I can stay here with Kate. Do the housework and help you outside with the trees. In exchange for room and board, and a small salary. You wouldn’t have to pay me much.”
She paused and checked his reaction. When he didn’t start arguing with her, she added, “We can try it for a few days—say, until the car is fixed. Either of us can pull the plug at any time, no hard feelings.”
“What about your family in New York?”
“I’ll call my brother and tell him we’ll be a few days late.”
He had to ask. “And your ex? He won’t care?” Jack regretted the question at once. What a dumb, clumsy thing to say.
But Julie looked at him evenly and said, “My ex-husband is no longer part of my life or Kate’s. And that’s the way it’s going to remain. So—” Her mouth quirked up in a smile. “I can stay or go. It’s your call.”
Jack nodded, taking in her offer. He held his mug of coffee with both hands, nervously drumming his fingers on the smooth sides.
He had exaggerated when he said he didn’t care about the trees. The lot was a big investment. If he didn’t sell the trees, or at least most of them, he would be out a pile of money. He wasn’t lacking financially, but it didn’t make sense to take that loss when he didn’t have to.
Still, having her here, day after day . . . He wasn’t sure he could handle that. He wasn’t used to any kind of company at all. Not even a dog. And a little girl and a pretty woman like Julie . . .
Jack rubbed the back of his neck. “Let’s get something straight. Don’t expect me to talk all the time and be real . . . social. It’s not that I have anything against you. I think you’re . . . you’re fine. But I’m not used to talking much. I’m used to just . . .”
“—I know,” she finished for him with a slight smile. “You’re used to being by yourself. Talking to yourself,” she added playfully.
He had to smile. It was true. He had started talking to himself. “That’s right.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t talk to you. Too much,” she added. “Anything else? Don’t you think I can do it?” She leaned forward in her chair. “I’m strong enough, I don’t mind the cold, and I’ve worked in stores, so I know how to handle customers.”
“I know you can do it. That’s not what I’m worried about.”
She stared at him, her eyes pressing him to explain.
He couldn’t explain. He wasn’t going to even try.
But he did need her help. Around the house, at least until he didn’t see stars every time he tried to put weight on his leg. And with the tree lot. At least for now.
“Listen, a trial period. A few days, to see how it goes. I guess you’re stuck around here anyway, until your car gets fixed. You might as well earn some money . . . and it will help me out, too,” he finally admitted.
“Yes. It will help both of us.”
She stuck out her hand. He realized she wanted to shake on their deal. He hesitantly took her hand in his. It felt smooth and cool; her skin was so soft. His hand looked large and calloused around hers, lined with sap stains so deep in his skin that he could never get them out. He quickly pulled his hand back, feeling embarrassed.
“Mommy, can you help me?” Kate called from the other end of the table. Julie turned and walked toward her. “Of course I can, sweetie. What’s up?”
Jack thought Kate was having some trouble with her drawing, but then he saw Kate pull her mother down and whisper in her ear. He knew from the child’s expression and from Julie’s that they were talking about him. Katie had heard the grown-up conversation and understood that she and her mother would be staying at this house. With him. Indefinitely.
Jack thought she looked wary. Kate probably didn’t like the idea of being around such a scary ogre. She had looked terrified yesterday when he tossed the crutches and had a fit. She had shied away from him ever since.
He tried to catch her eye and smile. But she looked back up at her mother then slipped off her chair and ran upstairs.
Jack suddenly regretted agreeing to this arrangement. That was just what he didn’t want, feeling bad because the little girl didn’t like him. Didn’t he already have enough troubles weighing on his mind?
He wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into here. He wasn’t sure at all.
CHAPTER SIX
MOLLY AND MATT’S HOUSE WAS BIG. VERY BIG, WITH SIX BEDROOMS and several full bathrooms. But Fenway Park would not have been big enough to contain the energy of Tyler and Darrell, and their cousins, Noah and Nick.
At least, that’s how it seemed to Jessica on Saturday morning when all the children were home from school and rainy sleet fell, making it impossible to get them outside.
A few days ago, it seemed like a good idea to move from Emily’s snug cottage to Molly’s spacious minimansion. Molly had four children of her own, but the older girls, Amanda and Lauren, were away at their first year of college, and her middle child, Jillian, was the perfect babysitting age. Betty, their four-month-old baby, was still in arms and no trouble at all.
But Molly had also opened her doors to her younger sister Laurie, who was going through a difficult divorce and needed a place to stay with her twin sons.
The three younger boys were close in age and would start off together all right. But before very long, there would be shouting and name calling and inevitably, someone furiously telling on someone else.
No matter how hard the parents tried to negotiate, the kids just didn’t get along.
“There’s a lot of hormones flying around in there,” Molly had observed the night before as the adults heard shouts from the family room. “That’s what it is.”
Jessica didn’t entirely agree with that analysis, though she was sure the hormone level didn’t help. She thought Laurie’s boys were spoiled and rude. And she knew Laurie thought the same about her children.
It had been suspiciously quiet all morning, but just as she was taking a load of laundry out of Molly’s dryer, Jessica heard a fight break out in a bedroom upstairs. She grabbed the laundry basket and ran upstairs to investigate.
“It�
��s my turn!” she heard Noah shout.
“No, it’s not. It’s my turn. You just had a turn,” she heard her son Tyler shout back. “You said I could use it now.”
“I changed my mind. I’m not done yet. Get lost.”
When Jessica reached the doorway, Tyler was staring at Noah, looking as if he might explode. “That’s not fair!”
“Big deal. It’s my game,” Noah snapped back.
Tyler stared at him angrily, then grabbed for the controls of a video game that Noah was holding high above his head, beyond Tyler’s reach.
“Tyler—” Jessica called to him from the doorway, but he didn’t seem to hear her. Before she could stop him, he jumped on his cousin, grabbing him around the neck and pulling him down.
“Tyler! Stop that right now!”
Jessica dropped the laundry basket and ran into the room. After a brief struggle, she managed to pull Tyler off his cousin. Noah lay flat on the carpet, holding his nose. It looked as though it might start bleeding. She hoped not. Laurie got hysterical whenever her children so much as sneezed. She might go over the edge at the sight of blood.
“You sit right there, young man,” Jessica sternly ordered Tyler as she crouched down and tended to Noah. “Noah, try to sit up, honey. Let me see your nose.”
He took his hand off his face and Jessica checked the injury. No blood, thank goodness. Then he looked down at his game controls and saw that a handle had been cracked off.
His face crumpled like a ball of paper, and he let out an ear-piercing shriek.
Sam and Laurie ran into the room. Jessica turned, holding the broken video controls. She didn’t know why she felt so guilty all of a sudden. But she did.
“They had a fight over the game controls. Over whose turn it was,” she explained as she stood up.
Sam stared down at Tyler, who looked very repentant, sitting on the bed with his gaze down, hands folded in his lap.
“Who started it?” Sam asked.
“He did!” both boys answered simultaneously, pointing at each other.
Laurie stepped forward and knelt down next to Noah. “Your nose! Look at it! It might be broken!”
“I don’t think it’s broken, Laurie. It’s not even bleeding,” Jessica said calmly.
“It doesn’t have to bleed. It could still be broken,” Sam said helpfully. “Here, let me have a look.”
He also knelt down near Noah and checked the boy’s nose.
Laurie had recently had professional photographs taken of both her children and had sent the headshots around to modeling agencies. Though Laurie talked a lot about the auditions, as far Jessica knew, the boys had not been called for any jobs yet. Jessica sighed, wondering if Sam’s sister was now going to hold them accountable for the ruin of Noah’s modeling career.
“I don’t think it’s broken,” Sam said finally. “It might swell up a little. You ought to get him some ice.”
“I will,” Jessica said quickly.
Laurie glanced at her but didn’t say anything. She turned Noah’s head to the side and critically examined his profile. “I see a bump,” she announced. “He didn’t have that before.”
Jessica left the room, relieved at having an excuse to escape.
When she returned with the ice pack, Tyler was out in the hall, leaning against the wall. “Dad said to wait outside until he’s ready to talk to me.”
He looked very mournful. Jessica knew the confrontation wasn’t entirely his fault, but she tried not to give him any sympathy. “Yes, you wait right there. We need to have a talk.”
Jessica went into the bedroom. Noah was seated on the bed and Laurie sat next to him.
She handed Noah the pack. “Hold this on your nose awhile. You’ll feel better soon.”
“Here, honey. Let me help you.” Laurie fussed over her son.
Sam looked up at Jessica. “Tyler broke the controls for the game. I told Laurie we would buy him a new one.”
Jessica felt her mouth twist in a sour expression. Just what they wanted to spend their money on right now. And right before Christmas.
“Maybe it could be fixed?” she asked.
And maybe it wasn’t entirely Tyler’s fault the toy is broken, she wanted to add. If Noah learned to share a little bit and not to taunt his younger cousin, this wouldn’t have happened.
But she didn’t want to get into a fight with Laurie, who was, more often than not, emotional and irrational, even in normal conversation.
They were guests here. She didn’t want to embarrass Sam in front of his family.
“You can’t fix these things. We already tried that once,” Sam reminded her. “You have to ship it to the moon, and it never comes back right.”
Jessica sighed. She knew he was right. “I was just wondering.”
Noah tugged on his mother’s sleeve. “Can I watch TV now?”
Laurie nodded and stroked his head. “Sure, honey. Just keep that pack on and let Mommy know right away if you see any blood.” She fixed Sam and Jessica with an accusing frown. “It must be very painful. He’s being very good about it.”
Noah slipped off the bed and ran out of the room. Jessica saw him make a gloating face at Tyler as he skipped past.
“Sam, Tyler’s waiting for you. Why don’t you talk to him in here? I’m going to fold some laundry.”
Jessica knew if she stayed any longer, talking about the kids with Laurie, she might end up popping her sister-in-law in the nose.
Sam seemed to sense this and quickly nodded. “Okay, honey. I’ll be right in to help.”
Jessica carried the overflowing basket into the bedroom she shared with Sam. It was a large room with its own private full bath. It was Amanda’s room, Molly’s stepdaughter. She would be home soon for winter break, but Molly promised when the older girls got home, they would share the small maid’s room that was in the basement.
Jessica didn’t like the idea of putting her niece out of her own bedroom. The girls wouldn’t be back until mid-December, but Jessica didn’t think she could last that long around here. Not with Laurie and her children under the same roof. She just hadn’t found the right time to talk to Sam about it.
Sam walked in as she was matching up socks.
He sat on the bed and started to help her. “I had a talk with Tyler. He said he was sorry for starting the fight, and he understands he has to be nicer to Noah.”
Jessica’s jaw dropped. “I heard the whole thing, Sam. Noah was taunting him. He promised Tyler he would give him a turn on the game, then he went back on his word and teased him with the toy, holding it over his head. Tyler felt frustrated. It wasn’t entirely his fault.”
Sam’s mouth set in a tight line. “I’m sure there was blame on both sides, Jess. Tyler has to learn you can’t just jump on somebody and knock them down if you feel angry. He broke the toy and we’re responsible.”
Jessica sighed and grabbed up another pair of socks, rolling them in a tight ball. “Well, if we stay here much longer, we’d better open a charge account at the toy store. I’m not sure we can afford it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that we’re not comfortable here. The boys don’t get along at all with Laurie’s kids. And I don’t blame them. If the boys aren’t fighting, then the baby is crying. Amanda and Lauren will be home soon and we’ll be taking up their bedrooms.”
“It’s a big house. It’s as big as an airplane hangar, for goodness sake. I’m sure we can all find a place to sleep here.”
It was a big house, and that was part of the problem, too. But it was hard for Jessica to admit that part to Sam. It wasn’t so very long ago that Molly was a struggling single mother, living in a tiny apartment above a store. She and Sam were always taking care of Molly’s girls so Molly could pursue her many part-time jobs to make ends meet.
Then she met Matt Harding, a successful doctor. They married and Molly started a catering business, Willoughby Fine Foods, which was now wildly successful. They had this hou
se custom-built, Molly’s dream house, and then had another baby.
The tables had turned. Molly’s life was a fairy tale with a happy ending. Now they were the needy ones and Molly was helping them. Jessica didn’t begrudge Molly one bit of her good fortune or happiness. That wasn’t it at all. It was just hard to be surrounded by all this conspicuous luxury in the light of all they had just lost. It was hard to be the ones in need.
It was just . . . hard.
She glanced at Sam. She didn’t think he would understand, and she didn’t want to start another argument.
“Sam,” she began quietly, “we’re all under a lot of stress right now. Especially the kids. I don’t think these living arrangements are good for them. Tyler is still sleeping in his clothes, afraid he might need to run out of the house in the middle of the night, and Darrell is having nightmares. All this fighting with their cousins, all this noise and activity—it’s making things even more stressful for us.”
“I know, Jess. I know what the boys are going through. And you,” he added. Sam sat on the edge of the bed, his elbows resting on his knees. “We really need to have some patience. It’s only been a week. I think it was very generous of Molly and Matt to have us here. We’re not in a position to be choosy.”
“What about the insurance? Won’t they cover a stay in a motel for us?”
They had put in claims for rebuilding the house, for their belongings, and for their living expenses. Jessica thought they could ask for an allowance toward a hotel, though she didn’t know for sure since Sam had been handling all the paperwork.
She could tell from Sam’s expression that Sam didn’t like that idea. “I don’t want to bring the kids to some drafty, drab motel. We’ll definitely be on top of each other in a place like that. We won’t even be able to cook our own meals. Or wash clothes.”
What he said was true. It would be inconvenient, and the atmosphere would probably be depressing. Maybe a motel was not the answer, Jessica realized.
“How about staying with my mother? Even with Sara and Luke, there’s still plenty of room.”
A Christmas Star Page 9
