Christmas from the Heart

by Sheila Roberts

  “I think Mom would want us to keep enjoying them,” she said, although looking at his expression she doubted he’d find any enjoyment in her offering.

  He nodded and took the plate. “Thank you, Snowflake.”

  She twisted her fingers together. “Maybe I shouldn’t have.”

  “Yes, you should have. It would have made your mother happy to see you making them.”

  “It would have made her happy to see you eating them,” she said softly.

  He nodded, but made no move to take one.

  He looked like a man anxious for a solitary moment so she kissed his cheek and left him, shutting the pocket door behind her. It was barely closed when she heard a sob. This had not been one of her better ideas.

  With a sigh, she returned to the kitchen. Oh well. They were done now. May as well take some up to Joe. She put some on another plate and went upstairs to deliver her cookies and maybe a little speech about how she really was a nice person and never got snappy, then knocked on the door.

  It felt like the little drummer boy was banging around in her chest. This was going to go over about as well as the delivery to her father. She’d already given Joe cookies at dinner. This would come across as a desperate ploy for attention. But it was too late to slink away now that she’d knocked.

  Joe opened the door looking wary. Until he saw the cookies. “Oh wow.”

  Success. She smiled. “Peace offering,” she said as she handed over the plate.

  “There’s no need for that.”

  “I thought there was. I got a little snappy.”

  He shrugged. “We all do when we’re stressed and overworked.”

  “Which is why I guess I should be saving up for a vacation.”

  “All work and no play, they say.”

  “Oh, I fit in some play.”

  He leaned against the doorjamb and helped himself to a cookie. “Yeah?” He took a bite. “Oh man, that’s good.”

  “Just like you remember?”

  “Better. Only don’t tell my mom.” He took another bite. Chewed, swallowed.

  And she stood there, not wanting to leave.

  He didn’t seem to want her to. “So, what do you do for fun around here?”

  “I ski.”

  “Yeah?”

  Okay, tell the whole truth. “Cross-country,” she said.

  He nodded, half approving. “Pretty country for that.”

  “I was never brave enough to try downhill,” she confessed.

  “You should try it. It gives you a real rush.”

  A real rush. When it came down to it, she didn’t do much of anything that gave her a real rush.

  “What else?”

  What else? “There’s a restaurant here in town that has a little dance floor. Morris and I go dancing sometimes.” Oh no, that had been a misstep. “Not that there’s anything between us,” she hurried on. “We’re just friends.”

  “One of you is just friends,” Joe said. Joe had good powers of observation.

  “We’ve known each other for years.”

  “But he’s not cutting it.”

  “Morris is a nice man and a good friend.”

  “Like I said, he’s not cutting it.”

  “He doesn’t care if he ever sees the Eiffel Tower.” Good grief. What was she saying? “Okay, how shallow does that make me sound?”

  “It doesn’t. You’re obviously two different people who want different things out of life. No point being with somebody when it’s not going to work.”

  Well, she and Morris did want the same basic things—a home and family. Did Joe Ford want a home and family?

  “What else do you do for fun?” he prompted.

  “Not much,” she admitted. “My family used to play cards but Dad and I haven’t done anything like that since we lost Mom.”

  “Cards, huh?”

  Now he was looking at her speculatively.

  Cookies and cards. Joe Ford could be lured back out of the guest room. She cast out a lure she was sure would work. “I’m unbeatable at progressive gin rummy.”

  A corner of his mouth quirked up and the little drummer boy woke up and started on his drum again. That smile. Oh, that smile. It lit up his eyes. Lit her up pretty good, too.

  “Yeah?” he said.

  She raised her chin in challenge. “Yeah.”

  “Got some cards?”

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll be down in a few,” he said.

  “I don’t believe in stroking egos,” she warned.

  “And I don’t believe in chivalry,” he shot back. “There are no friends in cards.”

  “Okay. But don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she said, and sashayed off down the hall. Oh yes, she and Joe Ford were now well on their way to becoming friends. Could they possibly become more?

  9

  By the time Guy came down, his hostess had the cards out and hot chocolate poured into mugs. More cookies sat on the plate on the kitchen table. Greeting card perfect.

  She smiled up at him as she shuffled the deck and taunted, “Prepare to lose.”

  “I don’t lose at cards.” He and his brothers used to play a lot of poker on those ski trips to Vail. He always came away with the pot.

  She cocked an eyebrow. “Oh? Ever hear the expression pride goes before a fall?”

  “Yeah, and I’m afraid you’re gonna fall big-time,” he said as he sat down. All those shiny curls, those pretty green eyes—someone else at this table was in danger of falling. Big-time.

  She dealt three cards for the first round. “I almost feel sorry for you.”

  “You that confident, huh?” he teased. Her perfume reached out with invisible fingers and tickled his nose. He wanted to play with a lock of her hair.

  She looked at her hand and smiled. “I am.”

  She must have gotten a wild card. “Want to bet on it?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Ah, not so confident after all. I don’t want that card, by the way,” he said, passing on the four of diamonds on the discard pile.

  “Oh, I am. But on the off chance that you got lucky I wouldn’t have anything to pay you with. I’ve only got a couple of dollars in my purse. I don’t want that, either,” she said.

  He drew and got a wild card, which gave him three of a kind. “So, wager something else.”

  “More cookies?”

  “You already gave me cookies.”

  “Fudge?”

  “Not that into fudge.” Looking at Livi, he had something much better in mind.

  “Okay, then what?”

  “How about a kiss?”

  Her eyes opened wide and her face flushed. “A kiss?” she repeated as if he’d just proposed she sleep with him.

  Okay, that had been stupid. What could he say? He’d been under the influence of perfume.

  He bluffed it out. “Hey, I like to gamble big.”

  “We hardly know each other,” she protested.

  Wasn’t that the truth? If she knew he was Guy Hightower she’d spit in his face. But right now he was plain old Joe Ford, enjoying an evening with a pretty woman.

  “We’re getting to know each other,” he pointed out. And he realized he wanted her to get to know him, to see that he was more than the stingy guardian of a company’s treasure chest. “One kiss won’t hurt. Unless there’s someone else?”

  “No, no.” The words came out half assurance and half regret.

  “Well, then?”

  “What will you give me if I win?” she asked, her cheeks still flushed.

  “If I lose, I’ll make breakfast tomorrow. How’s that?”

  That was acceptable. Her smile returned. “Okay. We just happen to have plenty of eggs.”

  �
�Good,” he said, then discarded and laid down his cards, faceup.

  “You had a wild card,” she accused.

  “But not up my sleeve.”

  She frowned and drew. Then laid down. She’d had a wild card, too, but nothing else matched. Even when she played it on what he’d laid down, he still caught her with ten points.

  “I’m looking forward to that kiss,” he teased, bringing back her blush.

  “It’s only the first hand,” she said. “You got lucky.”

  He’d like to get lucky with Little Miss Helpful. But that really wasn’t in the cards. He’d have to settle for a kiss.

  She won the next hand, going out with a run of four, but only caught him with a couple of points and the third hand went to him. “I hope you’re a good kisser,” he teased as he dealt the cards.

  “I hope you’re a good cook,” she retorted.

  “Not really, but I can handle eggs.”

  “You don’t cook much?”

  “No time, really,” he said. “I put in pretty long hours.”

  She examined her cards. “No one in your life to cook for you?”

  She was fishing. He hid a smile. “Nope. Back to that time thing.”

  “You have to make time for people somewhere in your life.”

  “I have people in my life. I’ve got my mom and two brothers, a couple of nephews and a niece, a stepdad and stepsisters, people I work with.” His family was too busy to hang out outside of work. He rarely had time for his old college buddies. Most of his social life revolved around business.

  It counted. “But really, when you’re working sixty and seventy hours a week, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for much of anything else.”

  “That’s kind of sad,” she said, and drew a card.

  “Sad?”

  “Well, it’s good to have a job, but I’d think you’d want a little more balance in your life.”

  This from the woman who couldn’t afford to take a vacation. “I don’t just have a job. I have a company. I’m responsible for a lot of jobs.”

  “Of course,” she murmured.

  “You make it sound like it’s a bad thing to be in business.”

  “Oh, it’s not,” she said quickly. “Without businesspeople there’d be no one to help organizations like mine,” she said.

  Damn straight.

  “I guess I was just thinking that maybe there’s a difference between you being in business and business being in you so much that the rest of your life gets shoved off into a corner.”

  She discarded and he picked it up. “It all goes together, Livi. I care about what I do as much as you do, and for good reason. Businesses give people jobs. Jobs equal security and happiness. Corporations get a bad rap, but when it comes right down to it, those corporations that give people a paycheck help them have a life.” So much for not getting into a philosophical debate.

  “It looks like you’ve got a pretty good life,” she observed.

  That hit a nerve. Yeah, he did. He had his condo and the family place in Vail. He had stocks and mutual funds and a nice 401K. But so what? His dad had worked hard and his father before him. Guy’s brothers worked hard and so did he.

  “Should I feel guilty because I’m doing well?”

  “No, not at all. I don’t begrudge anyone his success,” she said, keeping her gaze on the card she’d just drawn.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Really,” she insisted, sorting through the cards in her hand. “But isn’t it wonderful when you’re doing well to be able to help others do well, too?”

  “I do that,” he insisted. It was his turn. He drew and discarded. Well, crap. There went a wild card.

  She beamed at him. “I’m glad to hear that. I think generosity is the best quality a person can have. And speaking of, thanks,” she said, and scooped up his discard. And went down, leaving him stuck with twenty-five points. “I like my eggs over easy.”

  “Don’t put your order in yet. The game’s not over.” And neither was this conversation.

  “You know,” he said casually, as they organized their hands, “it’s easy for people to judge how other people manage their money but sometimes they don’t have all the facts.”

  She frowned.

  “You don’t agree with that?” he prompted.

  “I do in most cases. But some businesses...” She pressed her lips tightly together and picked up a card.

  “The major donor you lost?”

  “It was wrong. The company’s founder was my great-grandmother’s first donor. He supported Christmas from the Heart wholeheartedly.”

  Old Elias Hightower again. Guy frowned.

  To hear Livi speak, you’d have thought his great-granddad was a saint. He may have looked like a saint to a lot of people, but the ones he’d cheated early in his life with shady business deals probably hadn’t thought so.

  By the time Livi’s great-grandma had come along, Elias had managed to pass himself off as a solid family man and pillar of the community, all the while keeping his mistress hidden from the public eye. Family legend had it that Elias had tried to seduce Adelaide Brimwell, hoping to make her his new mistress. Adelaide had threatened to tell her husband, and the only way to shut her up was to make a hefty contribution to her charity. Elias forked over a sizable chunk and got to keep his false but good reputation and Adelaide found a champion for her cause. Thus began the relationship between the Hightowers and Christmas from the Heart.

  “I’d say she pretty much blackmailed him,” Guy’s dad had once said when the subject of corporate responsibility came up. “But in her case the ends justified the means, and old Elias needed to pay for his sins anyway.”

  This was one bedtime story Olivia Berg had probably never heard.

  “His company has been there for us ever since,” Livi continued, warming to her subject.

  Paying for Great-Granddad’s sins.

  “He’s probably turning in his grave at the way they’ve abandoned us.”

  More likely he was turning in his grave over how his great-grandkids had managed to screw up managing the company since taking over. “The company could be having problems you don’t know about.”

  She sighed. “I suppose. It was just the way the whole thing was handled. It was so...heartless. And I bet if their CFO had looked hard enough he could have found some money.”

  He probably could have. But instead he’d given their money to higher-profile nonprofits. Guy felt slightly ill. Cookies, hot chocolate and guilt didn’t mix well together.

  “I guess I’m sounding...” She stopped and gnawed that kissable lower lip.

  “What?” Guy prompted.

  “Entitled. And I shouldn’t feel entitled to something that’s given and not owed.”

  She had that right.

  “But I am hugely disappointed. After so many years, being cut off, losing that funding—we were orphaned. And insulted, to boot. We’re not leeches,” she said with a scowl. “That was what the CFO called me. Picture that.”

  He was, and it made him wince. “Maybe he was having a bad day.” Or maybe he was being a jerk. “They’ll probably make up for it next year,” he said, and vowed to do exactly that.

  “That sure doesn’t help us this year. Honestly, if I had that man here right now I’d...” She sputtered to a stop. “I’m sorry. I’m being completely unprofessional.”

  “It’s okay,” he assured her. “This isn’t a business meeting.”

  “Still, you’re right. I don’t know what’s going on at the company. For all I know the man’s had to take a pay cut.”

  Not yet.

  “He’s probably got a family to feed.”

  Not even a cat.

  “You never really know about people.”

  Thank God she didn’t know about him. Guy was so rattled
he missed picking up a card he needed.

  On her turn, she drew and went down. “Ha! Gotcha,” she crowed.

  Yes, she did. She had him, hook, line and sinker, and he was flopping at her feet.

  “So, let’s quit talking about all those evil businessmen,” he said as they started their next hand. “Tell me what you do for the holidays.”

  That put her in a happy mood again. “Well, on Christmas Eve day we’ll be delivering Christmas stockings and turkeys to homes here in town and in Gold Bar and Skykomish.”

  Back to Christmas from the Heart again. The woman lived, ate and breathed it. Guy found himself envying her passion. In spite of the long hours he worked he didn’t feel that kind of passion for his company.

  “Then my brother and his wife will come up to spend the night,” she continued, “which means as soon as those deliveries are made I’ll be busy baking red velvet cake and heating ham for Christmas Eve dinner. We always play a couple of games after dinner and then stay up late watching Christmas movies. Of course, my brother will still wake us up early to open presents.”

  “Yeah, I was always the one who did that.”

  “You’re welcome to join us for dinner if you’re still stranded here,” she offered.

  “Thanks.”

  If he hadn’t promised his mom he’d be with her, he’d have loved to. He could easily envision Christmas in the Berg household—eggnog, presents, lit candles, and a smiling, happy family. It was the kind of holiday his mom had created for them growing up, only with more expensive presents. The kind of holiday he’d loved before his dad died and it all fell apart.

  “You probably have your own Christmas traditions, too,” she said.

  “We did. When my dad was alive. Things changed after he died.” And not for the better.

  Guy had just gotten his MBA when his father had his heart attack, forcing his sons to shoulder burdens they weren’t yet ready for. Mike had already been working at Hightower for four years, learning the business, and wife number one was spending his money as fast as he could make it. Their dad had been grooming him to take over the company but that was supposed to have been much further down the road. Bryan had gone to the Hightower salt mine right after college and he’d been there for two years and was still pretty much clueless and only mildly invested in his job. Then there’d been Guy, the boy genius, the third member of the young Hightower triumvirate that would someday control the family empire. He’d been in no hurry to come on board. He’d worked hard in school and wanted time off to play. There was time. The old man would be around forever.