Mistletoe Daddy

by Deb Kastner

  “I imagine she has been under a lot of stress,” Alice murmured. “What with the grand opening of her beauty salon right around the corner. Have you been working yourself too hard, sweetheart?”

  Vivian opened her mouth to speak but Nick beat her to the punch bowl.

  “Yes, she has. She spent all day today on her feet, plastering advertisements all over town. I doubt she even took time to sit down and eat lunch.”

  Vivian bristled. Of course she’d eaten. She’d gotten a corn dog to go from Jo’s Café, along with a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips. Her eating habits didn’t even remotely resemble her prepregnancy fare, but then, little did, these days.

  “Vivian, I’d like you to stay another half hour or so just to make sure we’re clear of all contractions. And then I want you to take it easy. I know you’ve got your grand opening coming up, but try to rest if you can and stay off your feet as much as possible.”

  Delia removed the straps of the fetal monitor, but when Vivian tried to sit up, Delia laid a restraining hand on her shoulder.

  “Keep resting for me for a little while longer, will you, hon?”

  Vivian took a deep breath and then sighed. She would rather have gone home to her own house and not have everyone fretting over her, but she supposed it was good that they cared.

  Alice had even offered to attend the actual birth, being an extra support person along with Alexis. Vivian had gratefully accepted. It felt nice to have a mother figure by her side, especially since her own mother had passed away from cancer when Viv and Alexis were only six years old.

  “I guess I’ll be on my way, then,” Alice said, kissing Vivian’s cheek. “But you make sure to have Nick program my cell phone number on your speed dial. Feel free to call me day or night, and it doesn’t have to be because you are in labor. I’m always happy to talk.”

  “Thank you. Really, Alice, I can’t tell you how much your support means to me.”

  Alice patted her arm. “I know, dear. I know. As of this moment you can consider the whole McKenna clan as family, can’t she, Nick?”

  Nick made a choking sound. Even through the scruff on his cheeks she could see the heat rising to his face. Alice’s words had probably embarrassed him, poor man. Even so, they were welcome to Vivian’s ears.

  Nick cleared his throat. “I’ll walk you out to your car, Mama. And, Delia—if I could speak to you for a moment?” He nodded his head toward the waiting room.

  Vivian laid with her hands clasped around her middle, staring at the ceiling. Her silly baby had apparently gone to sleep, now that the excitement was over.

  It felt like quite a bit of time had passed, and Delia and Nick still hadn’t returned. What was taking them so long? Were they still in the waiting room? Would they mind if she came out there, too? Viv hadn’t had a single contraction in over an hour, and she badly needed to use the facilities, which were located off of the waiting room.

  Finally, half out of curiosity as to where Delia and Nick had disappeared to, and half because the baby was now awake and was currently using her bladder as a trampoline, Viv rolled off the narrow bed and opened the door to the waiting room.

  To her surprise, Alice hadn’t left yet. She appeared to be deep in a hushed conversation with Nick and Delia.

  Vivian didn’t know whether it was the tone of their voices or maybe their postures, but something made her freeze in the doorway without making her presence known.

  “So then, you want me to be there a little before ten o’clock?” Alice asked, clearly confirming something Nick had said earlier.

  Nick nodded. “I told Vivian I’d signed you up for a haircut so she’ll be expecting you. The official opening time is at ten, so any time around there should be fine.”

  Vivian cringed. They were talking about her—and her hopeless grand opening. Of course it would be fine if Alice arrived just as the door opened. It wasn’t as if there was going to be a huge line waiting for Viv’s services.

  “And what about me?” Delia asked. “Did you want me there a little before ten, as well?”

  Nick shook his head. “No, you don’t have to come—”

  Vivian gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth. She ducked back into the examination room, all thoughts of leaving for home or using the facilities instantly evaporating.

  She suddenly felt as if all the air had left the room. She was shaking so hard her teeth were chattering.

  Nick was actually telling people not to come to her opening instead of urging them to come? Why would he do that?

  She slipped back onto the exam bed and turned toward the back wall, curling into a ball. If only she could disappear from here and not have to face Nick—or anyone in Serendipity—ever again. She was just so, so tired and disheartened.

  “Vivian?” Nick’s deep voice came from behind her. A moment later she felt his large, warm hand on her shoulder.

  Why did he have to be so gentle? Tears pricked Vivian’s eyes.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, having the gall to sound genuinely concerned.

  Vivian knew she was trembling under his touch but she couldn’t seem to help herself. She’d never been so angry in her life—not even when she’d discovered the cattle lounging inside her shop.

  She’d been angry with Nick then, too, and had immediately blamed him for the whole incident. And then she’d had to ask for forgiveness because he hadn’t been at fault.

  But this time there could be no doubt. It would be hard for her to misinterpret Nick’s words to Delia.

  No. You don’t need to come.

  “I thought I might have heard you a minute ago but I must have been mistaken,” Nick said.

  Vivian didn’t trust her voice to answer.

  “Delia says you can go home whenever you’d like, but I’m not in a rush if you still want to rest for a while. Take all the time you need.”

  He sounded so sweet. So gentle.

  So sincere.

  How could he act this way when her world was about to break into tiny, irreparable pieces? Is that why he’d asked about stress bringing on labor? Because he already knew how the grand opening would turn out?

  Little did he know—and neither had she, until this moment—that the worst part wasn’t that her business had been set up for failure.

  It was that Nick had concurred.

  She’d trusted him. With her business, her friendship and even, perhaps, eventually with her heart. She’d been starting to feel like her emotions were healing, that she might be able to fall in love again and that this time that love might last forever.

  She’d thought Nick was different. Certainly her feelings for him were unlike any she had experienced before.

  How could she have been so wrong?

  * * *

  Nick really had his work cut out for him. Vivian had managed to staple advertisements to every single telephone pole in Serendipity, and that was to say nothing of all the community bulletin boards and shop windows. She was nothing if not thorough.

  There couldn’t possibly be a single resident in Serendipity who didn’t know about Tranquility’s grand opening, and that meant trouble for Nick.

  Folks around here would welcome any excuse for a party, and they especially liked it when they were able to help their neighbors at the same time. That’s why the Bachelors and Baskets auction had been such a success, and the opening of the senior center, as well.

  Now, with Tranquility’s grand opening...

  How was he supposed to put that kind of fire out? It was the day before the grand opening and he’d heard the buzz about town. He could only hope Vivian hadn’t.

  He’d tried to stay a step ahead of her and make sure everyone was hush-hush about his surprise for the event, but even one person letting the cat out of the bag would be one person to
o many, and enough to ruin all his plans.

  He tried to open the back door to the salon, but it was locked. He was surprised Viv wasn’t here yet—putting all of the finishing touches on the place, giving the floor one last mop, shining the mirrors until they sparkled, arranging the stock of premium products that had only arrived yesterday.

  For the past week, Viv had been busy training her two new protégés, Nicole and Lauren. She’d barely spoken a word to Nick. In fact, if he didn’t know any better, he might have thought she was purposely avoiding him.

  He put his key into the lock and flipped on the lights as he entered the building. It looked perfect—just as perfect as his plan would be...he hoped. There had been a moment that night in Delia’s office when he’d been certain his plan had been uncovered. In hindsight, it hadn’t been such a great idea, discussing his strategies for the grand opening with his mom and Delia when Vivian was potentially within hearing range.

  He’d been concentrating so hard on the mechanics of getting the right people to show up at the right times that it hadn’t even occurred to him that Vivian might walk into the waiting room and ruin the surprise altogether.

  At one point he’d heard what he thought was a gasp and his heart had leaped into his throat, but when he’d whirled around, expecting to see Vivian, he’d found the examination room door closed. And when he’d returned to the exam room, Viv was still lying on the bed, so all was well.

  He was grateful he’d just imagined it. Talk about a way to take all the fun out of the secret.

  Still, Vivian was acting odd around him—and when she finally arrived, it only got worse. He told himself that she had too much on her mind—preparing for the grand opening and for Baby G’s imminent arrival.

  She barely spoke to him, and when she did, it was to order him about, telling him to do this or that. Gone was the sweet, sensitive Viv with a ready smile and a tinkling fairy laugh. In her place was a frowning woman with drooping shoulders and black circles under her eyes.

  It was clear she wasn’t following Delia’s suggestion to rest more and put her feet up.

  “Are you getting enough sleep at night?” he asked her, cornering her as she stocked new product onto the front shelves. She shrugged rather than answered.

  He grabbed an armful of red shampoo bottles with long, pointed nozzles and started placing and facing them next to the shelf where Vivian was working.

  He tried again. “Are you overexerting yourself? The doctor said you shouldn’t be pushing too hard. You need to think about the baby.”

  “I’m fine,” Vivian snapped, scowling at him. “And I am thinking about the baby. Why do you think I’m working so hard to get my business up and running?” She pulled the bottom corner of her full lower lip between her teeth. “Don’t nag me. Who made you the sleep police?”

  “I’m just concerned. You know what Dr. Delia said.”

  His initial reaction was to snap back at her. But that was just one of the many ways he had learned and grown through his relationship with Vivian. He now tried to give more thought to his words and his attitude before he spoke. He tried to consider the other person’s feelings first, and tried to discern what God would want him to say or do. Right now Vivian was clearly testy because she was stressed about the grand opening. She still deserved gentle treatment and compassion, even if she wasn’t in the right state of mind to show those qualities herself.

  And hadn’t Vivian been the one to teach him the old adage that you could catch more flies with honey than with vinegar?

  Although knowing Vivian the phrase would come out something like catching more hummingbirds with honey or flies with jelly in that delightful way she had of mixing her metaphors.

  In any case, the good old Golden Rule applied. Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.

  And if he felt half as physically and emotionally wiped out as Vivian looked he wouldn’t want someone pushing his buttons, intentionally or not.

  Vivian made a hissing sound through her teeth. “Yes, yes, I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to harp at you. It’s just that I can’t finish all the last-minute details of the grand opening if I’m lying on my couch with my feet propped up.”

  “Okay.” He wanted to tell her she could always ask for his help...but he knew it wouldn’t do any good to argue with her when her will—and her jaw—was set. “But at least tell me what I can do to make things easier on you.”

  Vivian had been facing a row of premium conditioners, but suddenly her hand jerked away and four bottles fell clattering off the shelves.

  He immediately reached down to retrieve the bottles, knowing how difficult it was for her to pick things off the floor in her current expanded condition.

  As soon as he straightened up, she wrenched the conditioners from his grasp. “I think you’ve already done enough.”

  He felt as if there was an entirely different conversation going on between them, in a silent language that he had no idea how to translate.

  What did she mean? They’d been working together on this project since day one, when she’d bid on him at the auction. And now all of the sudden he’d done enough?

  What was that supposed to mean? He certainly didn’t have a clue. And it was difficult not to get his back up when she continued to talk in riddles.

  “We’ll be good to go if we work together on this.” He was frustrated beyond belief but he focused all his energy on keeping his tone mild.

  She just stared at him as if he’d suddenly sprouted a pair of horns.

  Or maybe that look meant she wanted him to disappear.

  Well, he could do that, he supposed, and make one more pass around the neighborhood, reminding everyone when they should arrive for the grand opening.

  “Okay,” he concluded.

  “Okay?” He thought he saw a flash of distress cross her gaze before irritation replaced it.

  She wanted him to leave, but she didn’t really want him to go? He wasn’t about to try to solve that particular female quandary.

  “Okay, I’ll leave, if that’s what you want,” he clarified. “But not until we’ve taped the butcher paper over the front windows. That’s a two-person job and I don’t want you climbing any ladders.”

  She opened her mouth to protest and then promptly closed it again. He was right and they both knew it, so there was no use in her arguing with him.

  The butcher paper had been his idea, and one of his brighter ones, he thought. It was ostensibly to hide the interior of the finished salon from prying eyes until it was revealed during the official grand opening, but really it was a way for him to mask what would be happening on the street outside the shop.

  “I don’t know why we’re bothering,” Viv said as Nick used packing tape to secure the butcher paper to the top of the window. “Anyone who wanted to could already have looked in the window for the past few weeks and seen all the new fixtures.” She shook her head. “Not that anyone would want to see the inside of a beauty salon.”

  He wanted to argue with her, or shake some sense into that stubborn blond head of hers. Didn’t she realize what an amazing job she’d done? She’d made the beauty parlor as beautiful as she was.

  This pessimism was so not the Vivian he knew and...liked. It was as if someone had switched off the light inside her.

  This whole idea of his wasn’t working out the way he had planned it at all. Or rather, it was working, but he hadn’t planned it very well or considered all the contingencies he might encounter.

  She just had to last until tomorrow.

  So did he. Because right now, seeing her downcast face, he was an inch away from blurting out the whole truth himself.

  But at this point he might as well keep his mouth shut and let things unfurl as they would. She was kicking him out of the salon early, anyway. The next time he saw her, h
e would be able to make everything in her world right again. Her downcast features would turn to delight and happiness.

  Whether or not she ever forgave him for his subterfuge and the unnecessary pain he’d caused her was another thing entirely. After everything was out in the open, she still might never want to speak to him again.

  And even if everything went off without a hitch, even if Vivian was as shocked and delighted as he hoped she would be, and even if the sequence of events erased the strain between them, their relationship would still never be the same again.

  Because after tomorrow, he’d have no real reason to seek Vivian out anymore. He’d be of no use to her. More than that, he wasn’t good enough for her and her baby. Sure, they might remain friends on some level and exchange pleasantries at church or social events, but it wouldn’t be the same. He wouldn’t be seeing her every day and working together with her, and that thought gripped painfully at his chest.

  Her sunshine had finally started to seep into his cold heart. What would happen to him when the clouds returned?

  No doubt about it. There were dark days ahead. But he would take comfort in the fact that Vivian, at least, would be basking in the balmy glow of happiness and success, with her thriving business and her healthy baby boy.

  Seeing Vivian happy, even from a distance, would have to be enough for him. She and her son deserved the very best that life could offer them, and, as he’d once again proven by this botched-up grand opening scheme, he was not it.

  And he never would be.

  Chapter Ten

  Vivian took extra care in her appearance, gussying up in her most fashionable dress and styling her hair for the special opening-day event. She didn’t know why, considering she was entirely convinced no one would attend her grand opening—well, except those who had been coerced into being there. Her sister, Jo Spencer and Alice, since Nick had signed her up to get her hair done.

  Even if she was dressing only for the few people who would take the time out to visit her, she wanted to look her very best. She had very little pride left, but if she was going to fail, she would go out looking her best.