Her Christmas Surprise (Silhouette Special Edition)

by Kristin Hardy

  What the hell was wrong with him? He had no business getting serious about Keely Stafford. It was one thing to have a quick affair, to take and give pleasure. It was another to let her get inside his head. It was foolish to let emotions enter into it. And it would be even more of a mistake to start thinking about a future with her.

  A mistake for both of them.

  The door to Darlene’s jingled as he stepped inside, stomping the snow off his boots. Caffeine was probably the last thing he needed but until something better came along, it would have to do.

  It was early enough that the shop was still empty. Darlene bustled out from the back. “Merry Christmas,” she sang out. “Nine more shopping days. Better head to the mall now.”

  “Coffee,” he growled.

  She raised a brow. “Sounds like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

  His reply was interrupted by the ring of his cell phone.

  “You going to answer that?” Darlene asked.

  Lex shot her a sharp look. He hadn’t brought the phone intentionally. It was only in his jacket pocket because it had been there the day before, a result of Olivia’s campaign to get him to carry it all the time. He was in no mood to talk with anyone. For that matter, he couldn’t even figure who might be calling him. Still…

  Reluctantly, he pulled out the phone, to see Flaherty’s number on the display. Fighting the urge to curse, Lex snapped the phone open. “You want to tell me why you’re bugging me on a Sunday morning?”

  “I thought I’d call and see if you had any sins you wanted to confess, me lad.”

  “Father forgive me, for I’m contemplating strangling someone.”

  “And who would that be?”

  “You.”

  Flaherty laughed. “Did I interrupt your beauty sleep? I was just calling to see if you’d had any time to think about our discussion.”

  “It’s been three days, Flaherty. I’ve barely gotten home from the train station.” Even he could hear the edge in his voice.

  “I just thought if you had any questions, I could answer them.”

  Lex stared at an old photo of barnstormers posing with their planes. “Yeah, I’ve got a question. Can you give me some room to breathe here?”

  “Well, well, well,” Flaherty said slowly, the amusement replaced by satisfaction.

  “What have you got to be so smug about?”

  “I know you, Lex, my boy, and if you’d already decided against the job, you’d be telling me to take a hike right now.”

  “Is that a dare?”

  “Just an observation. The point is, you’re not turning it down.” The whisper of triumph in his voice rankled.

  And for the life of him, Lex couldn’t figure what was preventing him from telling Flaherty what he could do with both his observations and his job.

  “This is good news,” Flaherty continued blithely. “I think you’re weakening. Have a good rest of your weekend, laddie. My best to your mother. And we’ll be talking again, soon.”

  “Go choke on a waffle.” Lex cut off the call and snapped the phone closed.

  Darlene stared at him, wide-eyed. “Remind me never to call you on a Sunday morning,” she said.

  “It’s just a guy bugging me about a job.”

  “Well, I’m sure you’re going to get it, you charmer.”

  “I don’t want it.” Flaherty—yet another person trying to back him into a corner.

  “What’s the job?”

  “Working as a desk jockey for a wire service in New York next year.”

  Her eyes gleamed. “Do tell.”

  “No, if you don’t mind, I won’t.”

  “If you don’t want the job, why didn’t you just say so?” she asked, stacking fresh-baked corn muffins in the display case.

  Lex glowered at her. “Don’t you have anything better to do than eavesdrop on customers’ phone calls?”

  “Kind of hard not to when they’re three feet in front of me,” she said mildly. “And I noticed you didn’t say no to him. I’m just saying. As an old friend.”

  Lex leaned toward her, planting his hands on the countertop for leverage. “Hey, Darlene? As an old friend—I’ve got enough stuff on my mind right now without one more person putting pressure on me. Now, can I get that coffee?”

  Darlene eyed him speculatively as she reached for the coffeepot. “The world is full of pressure these days, isn’t it? Particularly the kind of pressure you get from blond hair and gray eyes, nice figure, good family…” As his eyes narrowed, she laughed. “I’m not blind, Lex, though it seems like the rest of this town might be. I see how you two look at each other. You’ve got good taste. And despite your present crankiness, so does she.”

  Great, he was becoming obvious. His immediate impulse was to tell Darlene she was wrong, but one look into her eyes took the fight out of him.

  “Let’s not talk about this right now, okay?” he muttered.

  Darlene smiled slightly and set his coffee on the counter between his hands. “Maybe this will help. Try some sugar, it’ll sweeten things up.”

  She turned to the wall behind her and pulled out a pushpin to take down a postcard. She’d already cleared away at least half of them, he saw.

  “You got someone else sending you postcards?”

  She shrugged. “The wall was full. I figured I’d take some down to make some more room. Of course, now I’m starting to think maybe I should put them in a scrapbook. I get the feeling you might be sticking around.”

  “No way.”

  “Don’t dismiss the idea so fast. It’s been nice having you around. I’m not the only one who thinks so.”

  And again he could feel the potential entanglements snatching at him, as if his sleeve had been caught by the gears of a giant machine, the one he’d escaped at eighteen. His mother, Flaherty, Darlene. Even Keely. People all around him suddenly wanted things from him, to have him become yet another cog spinning in one place that would make the world this town represented run more smoothly.

  Lex placed a dollar carefully on the counter and picked up the steaming paper cup Darlene had set before him. “Go ahead and clear that wall. I’ll send you enough new postcards to cover it twice.” He turned and left the shop, the bell above the door jangling again as it closed behind him.

  Sunlight slanted through the stained glass windows at the side of the church. The voices of the choir filtered down from above them like the song of angels. Incense scented the air.

  Keely always found services at her childhood church soothing. So maybe she was well and truly lapsed, and maybe she guided her life these days by her own moral compass rather than the teachings of the High Episcopalian church, but there was something about sitting on the polished wood pew next to her parents and listening to the drone of Reverend Richards’ voice that soothed.

  And on this day, of all days, she could use soothing.

  She wasn’t upset exactly. She wasn’t even quite on edge. She was just…unsettled. Something wasn’t quite right. She couldn’t say how she knew it but she knew it, as though she were walking across a railroad trestle and feeling the first distant hint of an oncoming train in the tiny vibrations of the track.

  She turned her head slightly to stare at the stained glass window that showed the Annunciation. She didn’t need archangels appearing with trumpets to tell her what was going on; she’d have settled for a whisper.

  “Don’t gawk,” Jeannie chided sotto voce, just as she had when Keely had been a girl.

  Now, as then, Keely listened to the Reverend’s voice and let her thoughts spiral away, and suddenly she was back at the gala, warm with the fizz of champagne, circling the dance floor in Lex’s arms.

  All little girls, she guessed, dreamed of being a fairy princess in the arms of a prince. And for those few moments, she had been. Under the golden glow of the chandeliers, with the swirling sounds of the orchestra in the background, he’d gazed at her as though she were some priceless treasure. In his eyes, sh
e’d read forever. And she’d felt like her heart was just going to explode with emotion.

  All her imagination, though, because when the song ended, so had the look, and she’d barely seen him the rest of the night.

  Her mother elbowed her. “Kneel,” she hissed.

  Obediently, Keely sank down onto the crimson velvet cushion.

  It had turned strange. She wasn’t quite sure why or how, but something was off. Maybe something had happened, maybe too much of what she felt had shown in her eyes. Whatever it was, Lex was already backing away.

  And she hadn’t a clue what to do.

  Lex unlocked the front door quietly. The last thing he was in the mood for was company. If it had been a different time of year, he’d have just kept walking but after an hour of sub-freezing temperatures, it was too cold to stay outside.

  Even for him.

  So he opened the door as stealthily as he could manage, trying not to think that it was damned silly for a grown man to sneak in like a guilty high schooler come back from being out all night. He was too old to be tiptoeing down halls. One more example of how out off-kilter his life had become.

  Which he really needed to deal with at some point. He needed to have a quiet, diplomatic sit down with Olivia and get this worked out. No, what he needed was to solve the Bradley problem so that he could leave.

  “Well, you’re up early,” Olivia said from the breakfast nook, startling him.

  “So are you,” he responded, then took a conscious breath. It wasn’t her fault he was in a hell of a mood that morning.

  “I went to early Mass,” she said, fingering her pearls. “I knocked to see if you wanted to come but you were out.”

  “I went for a walk.” He made himself sit and took coffee from the maid. “Why didn’t you sleep in and go to a later service? I figured you’d want to take it easy on your first gala-free day. Rest on your laurels. You did a great job.”

  “It did come off well, didn’t it? Our biggest yet, the ticket committee told me.”

  “Everyone looked like they were having a good time.”

  “Except you.” At his guilty start, the corners of her mouth curved slightly. “You did a good job of pretending, but I could tell you were miserable most of the time. And I could also tell when you weren’t.” She paused. “I saw you dancing with Keely Stafford.”

  Lex let out a long, slow breath. “I danced with a lot of people. I danced with you.”

  “And you danced with her.”

  “Why shouldn’t I? We’re all kind of in this together, aren’t we? I like her.” And he was very afraid that like had turned into something more, something that was going to be dangerous if he didn’t watch it.

  “Just don’t get too caught up in her. She was your brother’s fiancée, don’t forget.”

  Lex felt his jaw tighten. “I’m aware of that. I also don’t think that matters much, given the present situation.”

  “I wasn’t the only one who noticed, you know. And commented.”

  “Let me guess,” he said. “Alicia Smythe.”

  “Joyce Barron, actually.”

  Equally as loathsome, as far as he was concerned. “She can mind her own business. Not that it matters what she thinks.”

  “It matters to me,” Olivia said tartly. “Keely Stafford was involved with your brother, got him to propose to her and then all this trouble broke out. I won’t have you paying that kind of attention to her. It makes us all look ridiculous.”

  Lex stared at her. “Ridiculous? Do you hear yourself? Are you completely forgetting the fact that Bradley was the one who got you both into this mess? Keely’s doing everything she possibly can to get you off the hook. I’d focus more on that and stop listening to trash-talking witches.”

  “Those ‘trash-talking witches,’ as you call them, happen to be my friends.”

  “Are you so sure about that? I’d say your friend is the person I’m working with to clear your name.”

  Olivia’s gaze cooled. “Are you doing anything else with her?”

  Yes, he was—but what, exactly? “I spend ninety-five percent of my time in places like the Sudan and Lebanon,” he said shortly. “You want to tell me how I’m supposed to get involved with anyone?”

  “That’s not an answer to my question.”

  “It’s the only one you’re going to get.” Courtesy, he believed in. Pointless accountability, he didn’t. “Mom, I turned thirty last summer. A medical miracle, I realize, since you’re only twenty-nine yourself, but still…”

  “I don’t want you involved with her.” She folded her arms.

  He looked at her, staring at him defiantly like some Victorian matron. Whatever world she thought gave her that kind of authority, he didn’t belong in it. He met her eyes with a look equally as resolved. A humming silence stretched out between them.

  Olivia cracked first. “I don’t want to fight with you,” she said.

  “That’s good. I don’t want to fight with you, either.”

  “There’s just a lot going on. Bill Hartley is pressuring me. We have to make a decision on the new director this week.”

  “So what’s holding you up?”

  “They want my recommendations.”

  “The answer,” he said, “is still no.”

  “You don’t know the question yet.”

  The hell he didn’t. “Did you forget what I just said about ninety-five percent of my time? That’s where I belong. Not here, not on the board. For the last time, find someone else.” The room suddenly felt stifling. Lex rose. “I’m going to get out of here and check e-mail.”

  He headed out to the hall, Olivia hot on his heels. “But we can’t have someone else. We need you.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  He entered Pierce’s office and headed for the desk. Olivia slipped past him and stood in his way. “Aubrey Pierce Alexander, you stop right there and listen to me.” Despite himself, Lex stopped short. “That company is our family legacy. It’s only right that control stays in our hands, in the person of a family member who can carry on the Alexander line of succession. And that means you.”

  It was as if he could hear the shackles clamped around his ankles. “No, Mom. No. It doesn’t mean me.”

  “Then who else do you suggest?” she snapped. “I need someone who’s looking out for this family’s interests. This is your legacy, Trey, whether you want it to be or not. It’s in your blood. It’s your future.”

  “No,” he blazed. “It’s not my future. Why the hell do you think I left? Why do you think I’ve stayed away all these years?”

  “You left because you were angry at your father,” she retorted. “Let it go. He’s gone. He had flaws but he’s gone, and all staying angry with him is going to do is hurt you, the family and the family’s future.”

  Fury boiled up in him. “I’m hurting the family’s future? I am? You’ve got one Alexander who couldn’t tell his home life from his business life and the other who’s in hiding because he flushed some criminal’s money through the corporate accounts. That’s the family legacy I’m supposed to uphold?” He leaned down toward her, his face only inches from hers. “I want my own life, not version three of the Aubrey Pierce Alexander corporate dynasty. I am not Pierce—thank God—and I sure as hell am not Bradley. You want someone in the family to be on the board, then dammit, do it yourself.”

  Anger seethed in the room like some kind of a living thing. Each click of the clock sounded like a mallet being struck.

  “I see.” Olivia’s voice was as brittle as glass. “Well. Excuse me. I won’t take up any more of your time.”

  A nice quiet, diplomatic conversation. Perfect.

  “Mom, wait,” Lex said, but she’d already gone.

  He stared at the photographs on the walls: Pierce, his parents together. Bradley and Pierce side by side on the family sailboat, the one Bradley had inherited, destined now to be confiscated and auctioned off to the highest bidder.

  On the day captured in th
e photo, though, that was all off in the unimaginable future. Bradley and Pierce leaned shoulder to shoulder, holding a race trophy they’d just won, putting on toothy smiles for the camera. The day Bradley had inherited the All In had no doubt been his proudest moment.

  People usually use the name of someone or something important. Lex stiffened. The boat, he thought. It had to be the boat.

  And he rose.

  Keely and her parents walked out of the church, squinting in the late-morning sunlight. The bells of the carillon sounded in the background.

  “Lovely sermon, Reverend,” Jeannie said warmly, shaking his hand.

  “Glad you enjoyed it. And it’s been a pleasure to have you back.” He smiled at Keely with eyes so twinkly she wondered if he knew just how long it had been since she’d been to services.

  A snatch of My Chemical Romance shattered the silence. Blushing furiously, Keely dug out her phone.

  “Excuse me,” Keely muttered, and hurried down the steps. “Hello?”

  “Keely? Lex,” he said briefly. “Where are you? Can you get loose?”

  “I’m just coming out of church. What’s up?”

  “I just figured out something that might be our answer.”

  “To what?”

  “The password. What church are you at?”

  “St. Stephen’s, over on Hollis.”

  “Great. I’ll be by in ten minutes.”

  It was closer to five when his Jeep swung up.

  “I’ve got to go,” Keely told Jeannie, and kissed her goodbye.

  She couldn’t help noticing the stares as she walked to the vehicle. So much for staying under the radar, she thought in resignation.

  “You found the password?” she asked as she shut the door and snapped on her seatbelt.

  “Not exactly. But I think I have a good guess. If I’m right, this might all be over.”

  The snow they’d had since the last time they were up at the house had done the road no good. The Jeep bounced over the ruts with a tooth-rattling vigor that made it impossible to talk.

  Little else had changed since their last visit, she saw when they arrived. The new snow lay in a pristine white layer over the yard and the steps, broken only by the small tracks of some little rodent.