Harlequin Superromance November 2014 - Box Set 2 of 2: Christmas at the CoveNavy ChristmasUntil She Met Daniel

by Rachel Brimble

  “Understood.”

  She took a step closer. “Ronald, it’s okay.”

  Her words were superfluous as Ronald had already deemed Jonas safe with an invisible doggy stamp of approval. He lay at Jonas’s feet, his belly exposed for a rub. Jonas obliged and she didn’t miss how nice his hands looked against Ronald’s silver-brown coat.

  Couldn’t the dog at least pretend to have more of a vicious edge around strange men? Step-cousins included?

  “We’re not blood relatives, not cousins, by the way.” There. It was out; let him go after her about the house.

  “You mean like you, Pepé and Dottie.”

  He looked up at her as he spoke, continuing to stroke Ronald’s underside. When he stood she had to look up. He was at least a foot taller than she was. And his gaze—a girl needed to watch how she interpreted his attention. Why couldn’t Jonas look more like a toad?

  “I didn’t let you off the hook at the clinic. I’m sorry.” She owed him that much.

  “Don’t be. I earned your wrath. And although I don’t deserve it, I’d like to start over with you.”

  Serena smiled.

  Jonas responded with a grin and held out his hand. “Jonas Scott, Dottie’s youngest stepson. Pleased to meet you.”

  His hand was warm and strong as it enveloped hers. She liked his firm handshake—certain but not overbearing.

  “Serena Delgado. Dottie’s biological niece.”

  She met his gaze at the same moment a spark seemed to travel from where their hands joined up her arm. Judging from the interest in his eyes he’d felt it, too.

  This wasn’t what she’d bargained for, this instant attraction she was experiencing with Jonas.

  “Hey, what about me?” Pepé stuck out his hand in front of Jonas.

  “Nice to see you again, buddy.” Jonas shook Pepé’s hand with the solemnity reserved for equals.

  “Mom, can I go inside and play?”

  “Sure, but no computer or television. Keep it to your toys or books.”

  “But it’s a holiday vacation, Mom!”

  “Take it or leave it, mi hijo.”

  Pepé ran back inside, Ronald on his heels.

  “You’re good with him.”

  “Hmm.” Serena shifted on her feet, not sure where to go next. She didn’t remember ever feeling so completely exposed with another person.

  Jonas was practically a stranger, yet he knew her life. He knew her father had abandoned her before she’d even been born, that she was a widow and single mother. He’d drawn conclusions about how she’d come to have the house. He probably thought she’d finagled it out of Dottie.

  Yet she knew so little about him. Except for what Dottie had told her. Dottie had made Jonas out to be perfect.

  Serena knew that wasn’t possible.

  At the clinic he had played the straight man, the professional. He didn’t dare comment on her role in his family’s business in that setting.

  Except for the venting session that she’d overheard, he’d behaved.

  “You know who I am, Jonas. You know my family situation. You might even think you’ve figured me out. But I don’t know a whole lot about you.”

  His blink indicated she’d hit her target. She hadn’t meant to sound so harsh but it felt good, if just for a moment. Let him judge her; she had as much right to be here as he did.

  Didn’t she?

  They might be unofficial cousins, of a sort, but the attraction between them glittered. Maybe she had too much Christmas on the brain, but she was mesmerized by the vision of a long, gold tinsel garland wrapped around both of them and drawing them closer.... Who needed mistletoe?

  “Mom, is Jonas related to Auntie Dottie, too?”

  “I thought you were playing inside, Pepé. This is an adult conversation.” She studied Pepé, his eyes wide. If he could raise his ears like a dog to listen better, he would. Her little sponge was taking it all in.

  Pepé held up an apple and a cheese stick. “Can I have these?”

  “Yes. At the table.”

  “Auntie Dottie?” Jonas didn’t have to raise his eyebrows; his tone of voice made clear that his judgment of her was as clichéd as the gesture. Let him add the assumption that she’d used Pepé to gain an inside track to Dottie’s will and the house.

  “We had a chance to get to know Dottie before...before last summer.” She stared at him.

  “I never heard of you until six months before she died.” He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. His nicely formed, masculine hands.

  “No reason for you to.” She shrugged. “I didn’t want Dottie to bother her family, your family, with what I came out here for—to find out about my biological family. It had nothing to do with you until...until she died.”

  “And left the house to you.”

  Anger grew from a curl of tension in her stomach to a python gripping her throat.

  “It’s really none of your business. Dottie was my aunt and had information about my biological father that I couldn’t get from anyone else, as all of their relatives are gone. As I’m sure you know, Dottie was the last one. And, as I’m sure you also know better than I do, genetic medical information is invaluable. I met with Dottie as much for Pepé as myself.”

  Her throat ached even more and she wanted to punch the side of the house. She would not cry in front of this virtual stranger.

  Jonas remained quiet, watching her.

  “It didn’t make sense to draw you and your brothers into my sordid family life.”

  “Who said anything about ‘sordid’?” Jonas flashed that handsome smile again. Aware that Pepé could be within earshot, absorbing their entire conversation, she kept herself from shoving Jonas and telling him to shut up.

  “Not to be rude, but why exactly are you here, Jonas?”

  He shrugged. “I came out to introduce myself properly, and to see if there’s anything you need for the house.”

  “Anything I need?”

  He had the grace to look away.

  “My brothers have, um, indicated that you haven’t asked for any help fixing up the place. We know Dottie wasn’t able to keep up with it the past several years. And she wouldn’t let us help out like we wanted to.” He looked up at the house. She followed his gaze and saw the peeling paint, the hole in the eaves where a bird had made a nest last spring.

  Discomfort made her wiggle her toes in her faux shearling–lined boots. He wasn’t going to get under her skin this way, no matter how hard he tried. She’d fix the house on her own.

  “It looks worse than it is. This place is over a hundred years old. It’s been through a lot. I’ve painted the inside and ripped up all the old carpets.” She’d found beautiful pine flooring underneath, which she’d refinished in October, thinking her family might come out from Texas for a visit.

  Of course her mother hadn’t been willing to make the trek, not even for Pepé. Not yet. She was still too raw about the fact that Serena had come west to learn about a man who’d never taken the time to know his daughter or provide child support to a teenage mother.

  “I’m not criticizing anything you’ve done or not done to the house. Carpentry, woodworking, cabinetry—they’re my hobbies. I know this place as well as Dottie did. It’d be my pleasure to help you get it in tip-top shape.”

  “Is that a Navy expression?”

  He looked at her questioningly. “What—tip-top? Yes, I suppose so. Look, I realize you don’t know me, not yet. But I’m the one person who could give you a hand bringing this house back to its full potential.”

  For the first time since she’d inherited the place, Serena felt a strong surge of possessiveness. This was her home. Hers and Pepé’s.

  “I’ve gone over it pretty thoroughly the past several months. I’ve
got an extended list of what I’ll update and when.” She crossed her arms. What was it about this man that brought out her defensiveness?

  “No doubt you’ve made a great start, Serena. But an old place like this has secrets that are hard to find. For example, have you uncovered the buried treasure yet?”

  His eyes twinkled. Serena clenched her hands as she heard Pepé’s feet stomp on the floor inside. He appeared at the open front door.

  “There’s a buried treasure in our house?” Pepé’s eyes were wide and Serena wished to heaven and back he didn’t have that enthusiastic grin on his face.

  Jonas nodded. “When I was a boy I found a special place to hide my treasures from my three brothers. Maybe you’ve found your own nook for your favorite toys?”

  Pepé shook his head. “No, not yet. But I love my room!”

  Now Pepé had twinkles in his eyes. Serena wanted to scream but instead pasted on a killer smile for Jonas. He was on her turf.

  “Mind if I take a look inside?”

  “Of course not.” She paused. Aside from his brothers and the contractors, Jonas was the first man she’d allowed in their home.

  But it wasn’t as though he was a man in that sense—she wasn’t going to start anything with him. He was a sailor from the base and he was practically family. The drug-related burglaries on the island were definitely making her paranoid.

  Would her fear of living out on this remote property ever completely vanish?

  Jonas had even passed Ronald’s appraisal.

  It’d be easier if he hadn’t. Then she could chalk up her body’s response to him as nerves and not the blatant sexual attraction she knew it was.

  She saw in his eyes what she’d felt in her heart too many times to count. Self-assurance with a hint of sadness.

  Why was she being so tough on him? Jonas was no more responsible for her inheriting the house than she was. They were both surprised by Dottie’s decision, and affected by it. One more happily than the other.

  “I’m sorry, Jonas. This isn’t easy for you, is it? You didn’t get a chance to say a proper goodbye to Dottie. It all must seem surreal to you. Do you want to have some time alone in the house?”

  “I appreciate it but I don’t need to be alone, Serena.”

  That she understood.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “I DIDN’T SAY anything at the clinic because I didn’t think it was appropriate. It’s my place of work, and your son was there.” Serena sat across from him in the family kitchen, the kitchen in which he’d watched Dottie bake dozens upon dozens of Christmas cookies. He drummed his fingers on the table. “It wasn’t the time to bring up Dottie’s death, or your involvement in it.”

  They were alone at the oak table while Pepé played in the next room.

  She’d made them coffee and put out pumpkin bread that he hated to admit was as good as anything Dottie had ever baked.

  Serena’s eyes flashed a warning.

  “I had no involvement in Dottie’s death. Except that I went to answer the phone for my boss, which left her alone long enough for...for...” She looked down and the waves of regret were practically tangible as the remorse rolled off her.

  “I know you didn’t have anything to do with it. And I shouldn’t have pressed you in front of Pepé. Sorry about that.”

  “Thank you.”

  She leveled a steady look at him. Her emotional strength impressed him as much as it made him uneasy, and it seemed to drive his inexplicable urge to make her understand why he was so wary of her.

  “Can you blame my family for being suspicious of you? You blew in here from out of nowhere, and within six months Dottie was dead. Murdered. And, oh, yeah, she left you, a stranger, the house that had been in our family for generations.”

  “She left me the house that had been in her family for decades, yes. She was murdered, yes, by a psychopath who used to work at the clinic. I’m not responsible for Dottie’s actions any more than I am for those of her murderer.”

  Her skin developed a dusky rose flush at her cheekbones and her eyes blazed with warning. His awareness of her startled him. When his brothers had said “Dottie’s long-lost niece is a Marine widow from Texas,” he’d pictured a nondescript middle-aged woman. Not the sexy beauty who sat in front of him.

  “We didn’t know you weren’t responsible for her death, not when it first happened.”

  To keep from staring at her, he glanced around the kitchen. It seemed larger, warmer, than he remembered. The dark cupboards had been painted white and their trimmings were red. The woodworker in him hated any natural wood painted over, but the kitchen looked years newer. Children’s artwork, obviously Pepé’s, was taped to every cupboard door. The countertops used to be butcher block but now were hard marble or granite—he wasn’t a connoisseur of home decorating. They looked updated, clean. He liked it.

  “I’m sorry for your loss, Jonas.” As much as her pride must have stung at his comment, the gal had class.

  “Thank you. It was a huge shock.”

  “It was for all of us. The clinic staff was like a family, and our clients were part of that family. Not to mention Dottie was my family. If I’d stayed in the room instead of answering the phone—”

  She shook her head as if to clear out ugly thoughts, memories that burned. Jonas knew the feeling. Multiple wartime deployments didn’t allow him to ever pretend bad things didn’t happen to good people.

  “The physical therapist gave me the job as a favor to Dottie, since she was one of his favorite clients. I didn’t need the money, and I’d planned to go back to practicing law at some point. But I needed something to do while Pepé was in school, and this allowed me to meet a lot of the people in our community.”

  He wondered if she realized she’d referred to the Whidbey Island community as “our.” This wasn’t a woman who was going to pack up and leave anytime soon.

  It didn’t mean she had to stay in this house, though.

  Serena’s hands were wrapped around her mug and she stared into her coffee. Her silence reverberated with grief. Jonas had to fight like hell to keep from reaching across the table and grasping her hands.

  What was wrong with him?

  He wanted to comfort her? Serena? The woman who’d been all but responsible for Dottie’s being left alone with a murderer. The woman who’d walked away with the prize of his childhood.

  While Dottie had left him a more than generous amount of cash, she’d gone back on her promise of leaving him the house. Did Serena know why? He forced himself to look anywhere but on her. He noticed that the kitchen wall was bare where it had once held several shelves.

  “Wait, what did you do with all the frogs?”

  “Frogs?” Serena frowned and he realized he’d spoken too loudly.

  “Sorry, I have a bad habit of doing that. It’s from dealing with trauma situations where there’s always a lot of noise. I’m used to shouting medical orders over the din.” He consciously lowered his voice. “What did you do with Dottie’s frogs?”

  Serena looked over her shoulder to where his gaze aimed at the bare wall, then turned back to him.

  “Most of her figurines and wall hangings were gone by the time we moved in. Your brothers came and got all the family items that meant anything to them. I stored what they didn’t want, until I have time to sort through it all. She had a lot of knickknacks!” Serena smiled.

  Jonas scratched his chin. “She had a collection of frogs. They were her favorite. I loved buying them for her.” He fought back his defensiveness. Of course his brothers had cleaned out the house before Serena and Pepé moved in.

  He’d have to find out who got the frogs. He’d loved Dottie’s frogs as a kid, and had given her many of them for her birthdays and Mother’s Day. One of his brothers had probably boxed them up and forgotten it.r />
  “I know. She had us out here a lot. Treated us like family right from the start.” Unlike you and your brothers. He heard the unspoken accusation that glowed in her eyes. Serena squared her shoulders. “Mary took the frogs, against Paul’s wishes. She loves the frogs, too.”

  Jonas snorted. Leave it to Mary to convince Paul they needed the frogs. She already had a house full of collectibles, on top of the two kids.

  “I don’t want to be rude here, Jonas, but what do you really want from me?”

  Strike. Preemptive at that. Uninvited respect for Serena pushed at his pride.

  “What, don’t you think that family should get to know one another at holiday time?”

  She didn’t take his bait.

  “I’m sorry, Serena. I always seem to say the wrong thing with you. What I’d really love to know is why Dottie changed her mind about the house. I get that she wanted the farmhouse to stay in her family, but she’d always made clear that my brothers and I meant as much to her as any blood relative. It wasn’t like her to go back on a promise, either. She’d been a top Realtor on Whidbey, and the main reason for that was—because her word was golden.”

  “I’ve asked myself the same thing. If she hadn’t left you the cash settlement, I wouldn’t have taken the house, Jonas. I don’t expect you to believe that, but it’s true. As it is, she took care of you. I have to believe she had valid reasons for her decisions.”

  Pepé played with Lego in the family room, which was visible from the kitchen now that Serena had torn down a wall. The wall the family photos had been on. Jonas didn’t think Pepé could hear their conversation, though. Serena kept her voice low, forcing him to lean in to listen to her.

  “I’ve already been through all of this with your family. I had no idea Dottie was leaving me, us, the house. There was no reason for her to—Pepé and I are financially secure, as I’m sure you’re aware.”

  “No, I didn’t know that.”

  “Oh, really? You don’t realize that military survivors get pretty decent life insurance? Or that I’m a successful attorney? I have a hard time believing Paul didn’t mention any of this to you.” She shook her head. “I only worked at the PT clinic while I was applying for my Washington State law license. It gave us extra time to get to know Dottie, too. Besides, Pepé needed me around more, at first.”