Christmas in Cambria

by Linda Seed

  It made sense for Quinn to sleep over, since the boys would be up at the crack of dawn begging to open their gifts. It wouldn’t be fair to make them wait for Quinn to get here, Delilah thought.

  That was mostly an excuse. In truth, she just wanted him there.

  Delilah and Quinn ate Santa’s cookies and drank his milk, then they went to bed and made love quietly, so the boys wouldn’t hear. They were getting good at it.

  The morning was a flurry of torn wrapping paper, gift boxes opened and thrown aside, and squeals of excitement from the boys as they unwrapped their gifts and revealed video games, books, board games, and art supplies.

  Quinn had a goofy look of contentment on his face as he sat on the sofa in sweatpants and a T-shirt, sipping his first cup of coffee of the day and watching the boys.

  That look scared Delilah when she glanced at him and saw it. That look hit her like a punch to the chest. Quinn was in love—with the boys, at least, if not with her.

  Until now, she’d fooled herself that she could walk away from this on January first without anyone getting seriously hurt. But that look—the way Quinn was absorbed with happiness watching Jesse and Gavin—told her it was already too late for that.

  Delilah opened gifts from the boys that they’d made with Dolly—a clay flowerpot full of herbs that Gavin had painted with a happy sun and lollipop-shaped trees, and a jar of lavender sugar scrub from Jesse.

  Delilah exclaimed with pleasure at each one.

  “Dolly helped me make it,” Jesse said. “She’s got a recipe. You can see the lavender in there. See?” Jesse pointed at the jar.

  “I see it, honey.” Delilah opened the lid and smelled the contents. “It smells wonderful.”

  “It’s got trees,” Gavin said, pointing to his flowerpot.

  “It certainly does. They’re lovely.” Delilah scooped Gavin into her arms and gave him a squeeze.

  When the boys were done opening their gifts, Delilah and Quinn exchanged theirs. She gave him a lightweight camping hammock he could string between two trees—an item he’d mentioned that he wanted the last time they’d gone hiking. He gave her a handmade scarf he’d seen in one of the boutiques on Main Street. The colors reminded him of her, he said.

  Both of the gifts were chosen carefully, Delilah noticed. They were personal, but not too personal. They said, I’m thinking about you, but not I love you.

  Right now, though, she felt considerably more for him than a travel hammock could express.

  “I love my scarf.” She leaned over to give him a kiss.

  “I’m glad.” He gestured toward the hammock, which was sitting on the sofa next to him. “You think this thing will hold two people?”

  She grinned. “The box said it would.”

  His eyebrows rose. “That gives me ideas.”

  “What kind of ideas?” Jesse asked.

  “Ideas for the naps we can take,” Delilah put in quickly. The boys tended to resist naps, so she hoped that would put the conversation to rest.

  Thankfully, it did.

  They ate a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast, then Quinn and Delilah tidied up the living room while the boys played with their new things. Jesse wanted Quinn to see his new video game, so Quinn played it with him for a while after the cleanup was done.

  After breakfast, they took a walk together on the beach, then they came back to Otter Bluff with sand in their shoes and seashells in their pockets.

  Later, over a Christmas dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, fresh rolls, salad, and pie, Delilah thought the day had seemed perfect.

  Almost perfect.

  The only thing marring it was the tick-tock of the timer they’d set on their relationship. They would have to decide where this thing was going—and soon.

  But that wasn’t what was on Delilah’s mind as she sat in front of the Christmas tree after dinner, a fire crackling in the fireplace and a mug of hot cocoa in her hands. She was thinking that she finally had the kind of family life she’d always wanted for herself and her boys—and she’d found it not with her husband, but with someone who might decide not to be with her past the next week.

  Her eyes filled with tears and she wiped them away quickly, hoping Quinn wouldn’t see.

  He did see, though.

  “Are you okay?” He’d been sitting on the carpet with Gavin, helping him assemble an indoor tent Quinn had bought him as a kind of clubhouse, but when he saw the look on Delilah’s face, he got up and came to sit next to her.

  “Yes.” She took in a ragged breath. “Fine.”

  “You’re leaking a little bit.” He reached out and wiped a tear from her face with his thumb.

  “Yeah, I guess I am.” She laughed, blinked a few times, and willed herself to get her crap together. “It’s just … thank you. The boys have had a wonderful Christmas, and it’s because of you.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that. You put in a ton of work on this whole production. I’d say they owe their happy holiday to you.”

  “You don’t get it.” She shook her head.

  “What don’t I get?”

  She glanced at the boys, who were so absorbed in their gifts that they likely weren’t listening to them. She lowered her voice to keep what she was about to say just between herself and Quinn.

  “What you don’t get is … is that I was barely managing when you met me. I was trying to hold it together for the boys, but …” She shook her head. “I was a mess. I was miserable. And I was dreading Christmas because I thought … I thought it would be a reminder of the divorce, and the disaster of my marriage, and all of the things I couldn’t give Jesse and Gavin now that their father is gone.”

  Damn it. There went the tears again.

  “But,” she went on. “You made me want to be happy again. Not just for them, but for me. You made me feel hopeful. And believe me, that’s no small thing.”

  He took her face in his hands and kissed her until the boys yelled “Ew!” and “Gross!” and “Mom, that’s embarrassing!” Then they pulled apart, laughing. Quinn grabbed a wadded-up piece of tissue paper from someone’s gift box and threw it at Jesse. The tissue bounced lightly off his head.

  Quinn had felt the same way. He’d had no one to spend Christmas with, no one to buy gifts for, no one to make happy memories with. He’d wanted to forget that such things as holidays even existed.

  But then he’d met Delilah, and all of that had changed. She and the boys weren’t his family—not really—but they felt like it. Suddenly, he’d had things to look forward to. Suddenly, he’d been a part of something again.

  “You know,” he said, “we’re going to have to figure this thing out sooner rather than later.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that.” She shifted on the sofa to face him.

  “You have?”

  “Yes.”

  Nerves rattled around in his stomach as he waited for what she had to say. Whatever she said next—that she wanted to stay or that she wanted to go, possibly without him—would either send him soaring or crashing down to earth in a painful jumble of broken parts.

  “Okay. What have you been thinking?”

  She let out a breath and squared her shoulders, preparing herself. Okay, so it was something that required preparation.

  “The boys and I have to leave Otter Bluff on January first. Our rental agreement will be up, and the house is booked to someone else after that.”

  “Yeah. Okay …” He was starting to sweat a little.

  “And I thought …” She hesitated, almost like she was trying to mess with him. “I thought we’d look for another place here in Cambria. A long-term rental, maybe, until we can figure out a plan for what we’re doing. I can look for a job, and I can enroll Jesse in kindergarten and Gavin in preschool, and you and I … we can take our time. We won’t be on a deadline anymore, and we can just … just be together and see how it goes.”

  Quinn was so relieved that he felt dizzy. “You’re staying.”

  “We
’re staying.”

  He swept her into his arms and let out a whoop of joy that had the boys coming over to see what was going on.

  “What happened?” Jesse asked.

  “Did you get another present?” Gavin asked his mother.

  “I think I’m the one who got the gift,” Quinn said. Probably the best one he’d ever received.

  Chapter 28

  Delilah should have known Mitch wouldn’t let it go. She should have known he’d make trouble now that Delilah had found a way to be happy.

  He dropped the bombshell two days after Christmas while Delilah was touring rental properties with a Realtor. Jesse and Gavin were having a guys’ day out with Quinn—that’s what they’d called it, a guys’ day out. Delilah had thought that was adorable, but it had also hurt that her sons didn’t have that with their father.

  She was standing in the living room of a two-bedroom house on Happy Hill when the call came in.

  “I thought I told you to stop seeing that Quinn Monroe person.” Mitch launched into his attack as soon as she picked up the call.

  Delilah instantly felt tension surge through her body.

  “That’s not your decision to make, Mitch.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re half right.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means, I might not have any control over what kind of random, questionable men you spend your time with, but I sure as hell have control over who you’re bringing around my kids.”

  “Mitch. Quinn isn’t random or questionable. You don’t know anything about him.”

  “Oh, I know a lot,” he said. “Probably more than you do.”

  Delilah felt cold dread as she thought about where this might be going. She told Mitch she would call him back, told the Realtor she had an emergency and would have to reschedule, then went out to her car, waited for the Realtor to leave, and called him back.

  “Okay. I’m alone now. What’s this about?”

  Mitch told her a story she could hardly believe.

  He told her he’d hired a private investigator to learn everything he could about Quinn. It was all for Jesse and Gavin’s sake, he said. How could he just let them spend time around a strange man without Mitch determining it was safe? How could any good father do that?

  The investigator learned that Quinn had received a sizable inheritance from his uncle—an inheritance that Quinn’s two brothers had been shut out of.

  “One of the brothers—guy by the name of Alexander Monroe—had a heart attack a year ago, which led to a two-week hospital stay. He couldn’t pay his medical bills, and he was evicted from his home. All this while Quinn’s sitting on a few hundred thousand that his brothers had as much right to as he did. Not only didn’t your boyfriend help out with the medical bills—something he easily could have done—but the asshole didn’t even visit his brother in the hospital.”

  Delilah sat in her car, frozen, not knowing what to think or what to do.

  Finally, she said the only thing she could think of: “I’m sure there’s some sort of explanation. Quinn wouldn’t—”

  “Yeah, well, he did. You want to keep seeing this guy? Be my guest. But if you do, I’m suing for custody. And I’ll win. I’m pretty sure Jesse and Gavin will like Paris. What do you think?”

  “Can he do that?”

  Delilah called her lawyer before anything else—before driving back to Otter Bluff, before asking herself if Mitch would really try such a thing, before even setting down her phone. His receptionist had tried to take a message, but the hysteria in Delilah’s voice had persuaded her to put the call through.

  Miles Lawrence had patiently listened to everything Mitch had said to Delilah, and now he pronounced his verdict. “No. No. Almost certainly, no.”

  “Miles, is it ‘no’? Or is it ‘almost certainly no’? Because one of those sounds pretty good, and the other one sounds like you’re nervous.”

  Miles didn’t answer for a moment, but she could hear him tapping the point of a pencil on his legal pad as he’d done every time they’d met. “Well, here’s the thing. Suing for custody as a parent living outside of the minor’s home country is … problematic. However …”

  Delilah closed her eyes and waited for the however.

  Miles went on, “Your ex-husband isn’t a typical noncustodial parent. He’s a highly skilled attorney with significant resources.”

  “So, what are you saying? Are you saying he’ll win?”

  “I’m saying he shouldn’t win. My prediction is that he won’t win. But … in all honesty, anything could happen.”

  Delilah drove back to Otter Bluff with tears in her eyes, wondering how much more Mitch planned to take from her.

  He’d taken her home, her self-respect, her dignity. He’d taken her trust in him and had broken it into a thousand pieces. He’d taken her sense of security. And now he was poised to take her kids—or the man she loved.

  She hadn’t been sure she loved Quinn until Mitch had tried to force her to give him up. But now, in the face of that threat, she was sure.

  She loved him.

  But she loved her children more. The idea of losing them—of living here, half a world away, while they were in Paris with a woman they didn’t know and a father who was too preoccupied to really parent them—was unthinkable.

  Losing Quinn would devastate her, but losing Jesse and Gavin would kill her.

  She came home to an empty house, because Quinn and the boys were still on their outing. Delilah didn’t bother to turn on the lights or even take her purse off her shoulder. She just sat on the sofa with her hands pressed between her knees and stared at the floor, trying to process everything Mitch had said.

  Delilah had never been an angry person. She’d been even-tempered from childhood, always taking things in stride, always expecting the best out of the people around her.

  Until she’d experienced divorce.

  Now, she had a well of anger within her that was so deep and so boiling hot that, for the first time in her life, she felt capable of murder. She felt like she could rip her ex into pieces with her bare hands if only he were here for her to do it.

  Mother-bear instinct, she supposed.

  Her thoughts bounced around from the impossibility of living without her children, to the constant, ongoing betrayal she was suffering at Mitch’s hands, to the things he’d said about Quinn.

  Disturbing things.

  Had he really turned his back on his brother just when he’d needed Quinn most? Had he really put money above his love for his own family? Was that why he changed the subject whenever Delilah asked about his family? Was that why he’d been alone for the holidays until the Ballards came along?

  She really didn’t know Quinn that well, did she? She’d only met him a couple of months ago. If he was the kind of man who would put money above family, that made him … Well, that made him just like Mitch, didn’t it?

  Was it possible that she’d gotten entangled with another man who was like her ex? It didn’t seem that way, but maybe that was just Delilah’s poor judgment talking.

  Maybe she was only seeing what she wanted to see.

  When Quinn came in with the boys that afternoon, Delilah tried to put on a pleasant face for her children’s sake.

  “Mom! We went to Morro Bay and went in a boat and everything!” Jesse’s eyes were wide with excitement.

  “I got to steer it,” Gavin said earnestly.

  “Did you, honey? That’s great.” Delilah pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

  “Yeah, we did one of those electric boat rentals,” Quinn said. “We saw some harbor seals and a group of otters, didn’t we, guys?”

  “And then we got ice cream!” Jesse added.

  “Gavin thought you might not want them to have ice cream,” Quinn said, “but I thought—”

  “Oh … that’s fine.” Delilah tried on a smile, but she felt it wobble on her face. “Thank you for doing this.”

  “Hey. Is everything okay?
” Quinn peered at her with concern.

  She would have to tell him what had happened, of course. But she couldn’t do it right now—not with the boys here. She had vowed not to trash-talk her ex in front of her sons, and she wasn’t about to go back on that now. It might feel good momentarily, but it would hurt Jesse and Gavin, and she simply wasn’t going to do it.

  Instead, she forced herself to offer him a more stable and convincing smile. “Yes, sure. Everything’s fine. I just … I got some news today, and it’s kind of thrown me.”

  He ran a hand down her upper arm. “You want to talk about it?”

  “I will want to, yes. But not right now.” She looked pointedly at Jesse and Gavin, who were talking to each other excitedly about all they’d done that day.

  “Ah. Sure.” Quinn nodded. “Listen. How about we order a pizza, and I’ll—”

  “I’m not really feeling up to it.” Delilah shrugged apologetically. “If that’s okay. The news I got … I think the guys and I just need to be alone tonight.”

  The disappointment on his face made Delilah feel guilty—even though none of this was her fault.

  “Well … call me if you want to talk,” he said. “Or if you need anything. I mean it. If you need anything.”

  The fact that he was willing to go—willing to take her word that she needed time and leave her alone—was another difference between Quinn and Mitch. If Mitch had wanted to know what she was thinking, he’d have badgered her like she was a witness in court. He’d have interrogated her until she cracked.

  But Quinn trusted her to know what she needed, and that was a revelation.

  It made the fact of what she’d learned about him even more painful.

  He said goodbye to Jesse and Gavin, who protested, begging him to stay. Then he kissed Delilah goodbye and left, acting like all of this was just fine, like it was normal.

  It wasn’t fine, and it wasn’t normal.