She and Brett and Livia—they’d been a real family. Brett would tell her if...
He nodded. “I trust my family with you, Mom.” Almost as if he understood what was going on, her grandson leaned forward, grabbing at Lila’s bun. Smelling his baby scent, she started to tremble. She kissed his chubby cheek. Kissed her son’s cheek. Hugged his wife—a woman she’d met, professionally, through The Lemonade Stand. Hugged and didn’t want to let go.
“Our family needs you,” Ella whispered.
Cara was next, when Lila could move on. Lila didn’t have any words for her. Couldn’t begin to explain how, after years of counseling victims, it had taken one special one to show her the victim inside herself...
“Welcome home,” Cara said, smiling through tears.
The exact words Lila had said to the young woman when she’d met her the month before.
Lila felt Edward behind her. Her entire being yearned for him. She was afraid to face him.
“It’s okay.” His voice came from just behind her. “I said I’d wait for as long as it took...”
Lila shook her head. “You’ve waited far too long to have love back in your life,” she told him, and turning, reached up and kissed him. In front of everyone. Not at all chastely.
She was still afraid. Knew that the road ahead would have bumps. But she’d opened the door peace had shown her to—it was time to move forward to happiness.
* * *
CARA HAD JUST kissed Joy good night, leaving the door to the bedroom she currently shared with her daughter open as she made her way back to the living room. Her father had been staying at his hotel, but that night there’d been a quick change of plans. He’d be staying with Lila, who needed him more.
He needed her, too.
This past month with him, seeing him every day, in counseling with him at The Lemonade Stand, had, in some ways, been the best in her life. They were very different—the way they handled things—and still had work to do to help each other, but they’d reached an understanding they’d never had before.
With daily counseling and his help reframing much of what had taken place during her last year in Florida, she’d fought her way out of Shawn’s voice in her head. It might always be there, popping in from time to time, but from what Sara had told her, what everyone in the group said and what Lila and her father had told her, she’d already taken herself back from him before she’d arrived at the Stand.
Her mom had had a lot to do with that. A mom’s voice stayed forever in a daughter’s head for a reason.
And Simon...
She hadn’t heard from him.
She didn’t blame him. Their time together had been...completely unreal. She’d been anything but someone he could rely on. Her feelings... How could anything real and lasting have grown within her during their two months up on that mountain?
She had no explanation, but knew, as she sat there alone that Christmas Eve, that she was in love with him.
There were no doubts. And there was no panicked need to have him take care of her, either. She’d rather he be in his world, happy and successful, than taking care of her. She just missed him.
Like hell.
The knock on her door came as no surprise. Her father had told her that he and Lila would be by for a sip of brandy before she went to bed—a tradition he and her mother had shared every Christmas Eve after Cara had gone to bed.
A tradition she’d only heard about that evening.
He and Lila had gone out to get the brandy.
Lila McDaniels, a woman she’d grown to love and respect over the past month, was going to be her stepmother. They were going to live in Hunter’s place, which her father was buying, since her new cousin by marriage was moving into Julie’s wing in the Fairbanks family mansion.
Cara had grown closer than she could have imagined to Julie. More than just life circumstances, they shared secrets. And fears. And doubts.
Cara and Joy were welcome to stay with Edward and Lila—Hunter’s house had plenty of room and a pool, too—once Cara was ready to leave the Stand. She hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. With the sale of her house and the money from Shawn’s business, she could afford a small place of their own.
At the door now, she pulled it open, smiling. And stopped. Edward was there. Lila, too. But they weren’t alone.
Her entire body lit on fire. It was like the sun rose right then, at close to midnight.
“That’s it,” Simon said to Edward. Opening the door, he pulled Cara into his arms and kissed her like...well, way too personally in front of her father. And future stepmother.
She tried to care.
But didn’t. She kissed him back. Every bit as hungrily.
He was trembling as much as she was. Her doctor. The professional who was so certain that he didn’t want to be trapped when times got bad...
“When your father called, inviting me here for Christmas, I...”
“He didn’t think he should come,” Edward interrupted, coming inside with Lila right beside him.
“He thought you needed more time. That he should wait until you invited him,” Lila said.
She wouldn’t have.
Cara looked at Lila...and she knew. As she’d been a part of helping Lila find her way home, Lila was now giving Cara the same. They got it for each other.
And neither of them had been able to...
“I agreed to come. There was no keeping me away, really...”
“He’s been calling me every night to see how you were doing,” Edward said.
Cara stared at him. “You have?”
Simon’s shrug caught her heart. “You know me. Conscientious doctor and all...”
He’d given her his heart. She saw that now. In so many ways...
“I just didn’t want you to know I was coming,” he said now. “I didn’t want you welcoming me for me... I needed to know it was what you really wanted.”
“Of course I...”
He smiled at her. “The look in your eyes when you opened the door was all it took, Cara. I lived with those eyes as my only real communication with you for weeks. I knew as soon as I saw your expression...”
“I’ve missed you more than I would have thought possible,” she told him, not caring about their audience.
“You needed this time with your family...”
She thought of Joy. “We’ll need to be careful with Joy...she’s been through so much...she’ll need...”
“Grandpa and Hunter already telled me.” A little voice came from the bedroom door. “Grandpa said to be really quiet and wait, and I’d get to see the good man who chased the monster away...”
The monster. The name she’d used to describe what Shawn became when he was angry. Joy had to hide from the monster. But not from her daddy.
Cara had failed her little girl so miserably...
In her nightgown and bare feet, Joy walked out into the living room, coming to stop in front of Simon, looking up at him with wide-eyed inspection. “Are you the good man?”
Kneeling down, Simon met her eye to eye. “What do you think?” he asked her. “Do I look like a good man to you?”
“You made Mommy smile.”
He nodded.
“I like it when Mommy smiles.”
“I do, too. You know what else?”
“What?”
“I had a little girl like you once. You want to see her picture?”
When Joy nodded, he pulled a wallet out of his pocket, flipped it open to the first picture and handed it to Joy. “She’s pretty,” the little girl said. “Is she here, too?”
“No.” Simon put his wallet back in his pocket, still kneeling. “Things were broken inside of her when she was born, and she got to go be with God early, to help him with sp
ecial jobs...”
Cara should have been surprised at Simon’s ease with such a tough subject, but she wasn’t. He’d dedicated his life to dealing with traumatized children and parents.
“Like Amy’s friend Michael,” Joy said. And because she’d read the entire series of Amy books again and again over the past month, Cara fully understood.
“Yes, just like that,” she interjected, knowing Simon would have no way of knowing that Joy was talking about a series of children’s books that Julie had written and Joy had clung to.
“Well, the thing is,” Simon continued, “she’s happy now, where she is, but I’m sad, because I have a place for a little girl in my life and it’s empty right now. I was kind of wondering... If it’s okay with your mommy, if maybe you and I could be friends...”
Joy looked at Cara, who, with tears in her eyes, grinning like an idiot, nodded.
Joy reached up, her fingers fiddling with Simon’s collar. “But only if you don’t ever hit. And Mommy’s your friend, too, and you don’t ever hit her, either.”
His expression completely serious, Simon took her hand, held it. “You have my solemn promise on that,” he said. “Because hitting is wrong.”
She nodded. “Grandpa telled me that when Mommy was gone because she was hurt, that you were the doctor who helped her get better. Is that really you?”
“Yes, it is,” Simon said. “And can I tell you a little secret?”
Joy nodded, leaning in as she turned her ear toward him.
“When I was helping your mommy get better, she helped me, too.”
“Mommy always makes people better.” Joy’s words were so matter-of-fact, they changed Cara’s self-concept again. Added a little more depth. Another little piece of gold on the inner scale of her life.
“So...is it okay with you if I hang around here, then? And make you and Mommy smile a lot?” Simon was asking Joy.
Joy looked at Edward. And Cara and Lila exchanged a heartfelt glance. For so long the little girl had held herself apart from the grandfather who’d been afraid to open up to her because his true self had failed his daughter.
“He’s the good man,” Edward said.
“Then, yes, you can stay,” Joy said. “But I have to go to bed now so that Santa can come.” She looked back at Edward, at Cara and then toward Simon. “Santa is still coming, isn’t he?”
Laughing out loud, Cara assured her he was. Joy still believed in Santa Claus. She’d done something right.
And would get better and better at being her mother every day.
After she’d tucked Joy in for the second time that night, Cara and Simon and Edward and Lila had a toast of brandy. They honored Beth. And Livia. And Opus. And all the others who’d died too young.
Her father and Lila left, and as Simon grabbed her up and headed to the second bedroom in the bungalow, Cara gave Fate a silent thank-you.
She’d expected Simon to—maybe—rip her clothes off, but he set her down inside the closed bedroom door and just looked at her. Studied her. Like he’d done so much during their time together.
“I need to see that you’re okay,” he said, running a finger down the cheek that would probably never be what it had once been. “You look incredible.” His voice was soft. Almost reverent.
“So do you.” She touched his cheek, too, looking into his right eye. Wondering if it saw her back.
“It’s getting better every day,” he told her. “But I’m not going back to my old practice.”
It was a testament to how blown away she’d been by his presence that she’d given no thought to his life in LA—only an hour away, but...
“Your father asked me to go into practice with him. To cover pediatrics...”
“But...your surgery...your patients...”
“I’m probably never going to see as well as I did,” he said. “There will always be clouds. And for now... I want to work hours that will allow me to be home with you. And Joy. She’s going to need a lot of time with us if we’re going to make that monster in her nightmares little more than a distant memory...”
Cara nodded. Having him close, in her life every day...it was more than she’d dared dream.
“I’m probably going to be moving in with my father, and now Lila, when I leave here,” she told him. “Just until I find my own place.”
“I was kind of hoping, and I think maybe your dad is, too, that you’d be moving in with me. I put an offer in on a house on the beach this morning.”
He’d been planning to move to Santa Raquel even before he’d known that she was ready for him. Or would ever be ready for him.
Because they were that connected.
“I am so, so thankful that Fate didn’t let me kill myself,” she said now, thinking about how close she’d come.
Simon, looking her straight in the eye, actually smiled. And shook his head. “If you were going to die, you’d never have made it to my place. Why do you think you didn’t just stay and let Shawn kill you?” he asked. “Why pretend to have a brain bleed, the one thing you knew would scare him into dumping you?”
She shook her head. He made it sound like she’d had some grand plan, when really, she’d just been...
“Because, deep down, you already had control of your own mind, Cara. He tried to steal you away from yourself, from the woman your parents had raised you to be, but even after ten years, using Joy against you, beating you down, you were still here...still fighting for what you believed...”
She looked at him. Taking in his words. Into her mind, but also into her heart. And she listened. To her heart. Just like her mother had taught her.
“I love you, Simon. For the rest of my life. You don’t have to ask me to live with you. I’m just thankful to have you here. To be able to walk into your arms and know I’ll be held. To hear your thoughts and cook food for you. To make you smile...”
“Wait.” He pulled back. “I’m not just asking you to live with me, Cara. I’m expecting you to marry me. Your father said your divorce from Shawn is final already, partially because it was uncontested. I’m ready for you to be my wife tonight. But am prepared to wait until you’re ready...”
She might not have been able to take his words at face value. To really believe him. But when she looked into his eyes, she knew that he needed her as badly as she needed him. That he was as ready for her as she was ready for him.
“I’m ready tonight, too,” she told him. “But we should probably wait until tomorrow, or the next day—” since tomorrow was Christmas “—because I can’t have a real wedding without my father there to walk me down the aisle.”
Simon kissed her then, and there was no more need for words. Not for a long time. They were a couple who’d learned to listen more to what wasn’t being said, to listen with their hearts, while their minds had taken time to heal.
Their time at the cabin—it hadn’t been time out of time.
It had been the beginning of time.
* * * * *
Be sure to check out the
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FOR JOY’S SAKE
THE FIREMAN’S SON
HER SECRET LIFE
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The Undercover Affair
by Cathryn Parry
CHAPTER ONE
“OH-OH-SIX, M-S-T. A white box truck. That’s the tag and vehicle description for the crew of movers. They gave their names as—”
A shadow fell across the decoy catalog where Lyndsay Fairfax had scribbled her morning’s surveillance notes. Instinctively, she covered the jottings as she lifted her head.
Outside her car window, a man’s gaze met hers—the bartender from the Seaside Bar and Grill, whose parking lot she was currently sitting in. Her “police brain” automatically noted the details: six feet tall, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. He had brown hair with piercing gray-blue eyes.
She hadn’t expected anyone to sneak up on her like that. There was no exit on this side of the parking lot, which meant he must have come from the house behind the restaurant.
He stared, his attention lingering on her face. She’d noticed him during the past week while she ate lunch at the Seaside with the group of home contractors from the wealthy cul-de-sac she’d infiltrated. But he wasn’t the object of her investigation in Wallis Point, New Hampshire, and so she’d never endeavored to meet him. Her police task force hadn’t mentioned investigating him or the Seaside Bar and Grill.
A Family for Christmas Page 26
