Promise Me the Stars: A Hearts of Harkness Romance (The Standish Clan Book 3)

by Norah Wilson

  “Lovely,” Arden said.

  Jace smiled. “I couldn’t agree more.”

  Arden gestured to April’s full stocking. “You haven’t opened yours yet, April.”

  “Go ahead,” Scott urged.

  As everyone watched, she pulled the items out of her stocking one by one and unwrapped them. The first was a silk scarf in a merlot red with a gold floral pattern painted on it. April’s gaze flew to Ember.

  “I figured it would go nicely with so many of your sweaters.”

  “Thank you so much. It’s beautiful.”

  She went on to open the gift she was most curious about. It had been rolled into a wrapping paper tube and poked down the sock. It turned out to be a gorgeous hand-stitched, lightweight apron from Faye. Arden’s gift to her was a new paring knife. He must have been listening when she bemoaned the fact that while she could hone her chef’s knives, it was futile to try to keep a paring knife sharp. Then there were the beautiful dangly earrings from Ocean, a small jar of cinnamon-infused honey from a local apiary from Titus, and from Jace, a vintage recipe box.

  Sid’s gift involved woodworking too, but as with all her gifts, she’d made it herself, no doubt after school under Faye’s watchful eye. Sid came to perch on the couch beside her as she unwrapped it. Peeling the foil paper away, she found herself looking at a small wooden placard suitable for a desk, with April Dawn’s etched on it with the aid of a wood burning tool.

  Tears sprang to April’s eyes. “Oh, Ladybug, this is priceless. I love it. Thank you!”

  She hugged her daughter, and Sid hugged her right back.

  Finally, there was only one gift left in the stocking. It had to be from Scott. She tore the wrapping off the small package to reveal a packet of kala jeera, otherwise known as black cumin seed. Her eyes widened. Harkness was a lovely town, but it didn’t have much in the way of ethnic food or spices, and when it came to Indian spices, she was lucky to find cardamom or fenugreek.

  She looked at Scott. “You didn’t get this in Harkness.”

  He grinned. “That came all the way from New York with Ocean’s friend, Greg.”

  The fact that he’d thought about what she might want, and then to ask Ocean to get her friend to pick it up… That kind of thoughtfulness was priceless.

  “Thank you,” she said simply, knowing her heart was probably in her eyes. “It’s…perfect.”

  The whole morning had been perfect. Scott had acquitted himself fantastically in the kitchen. The biscuits had been awesome. His mother’s recipe, of course. The quiche too. Predictably, the bacon and the hash brown casserole had been a hit with the men. But to Scott’s chagrin—completely faked for comedic effect, of course—the real raves were reserved for the butter curls. Scott kept fishing for compliments to keep the joke going.

  “Yeah, so what about those biscuits?” he’d prompted.

  “A little dry,” Ocean had teased. “Thank God for the butter curls.”

  Sidney had laughed so hard, she’d had to clutch her ribs.

  That was the real gift—the laughter and the closeness.

  But the other gifts had been pretty fantastic too. They hadn’t even opened the “real” presents yet, but the thought and care that had gone into choosing the stocking stuffers absolutely blew April away.

  “Your turn, Scott.” Sidney brought his stocking.

  April sat up straighter as Scott pulled the first gift from the stocking. From the wrapping, she knew it was Sidney’s offering. He carefully peeled the paper back to reveal a gift box. He lifted the lid, peeled back delicate white tissue paper. “Chocolate cookies.” He looked at April. “Are these from you?”

  She shook her head.

  “They’re from me!” Sidney said. “Chocolate espresso shortbread cookies, made from espresso beans I bought at the market.” She glanced quickly at her mother. “Don’t worry, Mom. Faye helped. She melted the chocolate for me in the double boiler. But I did the rest, didn’t I, Faye?”

  “You certainly did,” Faye said. “Including grinding the coffee beans.”

  “You made these?” Scott’s amazement seemed genuine, and Sidney soaked it up.

  “You’re going to love them!” Sidney fairly bounced on her seat.

  “I know I will,” he said. “Thanks, Sid. That was a very thoughtful gift.”

  She beamed.

  Scott pulled another gift from the stocking. It was the one April had put in there, she saw. He opened the small box and pulled out the black, grommet-studded leather belt, unfurling it.

  “Damn, that’s nice,” Titus said.

  “That one’s from me,” April said. She’d bought it from the leatherworks guy three booths down from hers.

  He grinned. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

  It wasn’t his main gift—no way would that fit in a stocking—but she was glad he liked it.

  “Open another!” Sid urged.

  He pulled out another gift, this one a neatly wrapped small box. He tore the paper off and opened the box’s lid. “Tiny motorcycles?”

  “Look closely,” Ember said. “They’re cufflinks.”

  April leaned closer. Yes, they were the ones she’d scouted at the market and almost bought. But they’d been too rich for her budget. Well, after she’d bought the other gift.

  “They’re kickass,” Scott said.

  “You can rock them at our wedding,” Jace said. “’Cuz you know we’ll be all tuxedoed out for that.”

  “Who knows?” Titus said. “Maybe you’ll have occasion to wear them sooner than that.”

  Titus’s voice was casual enough, but April caught the way he looked at Ocean and the way she looked back…

  Ember and Jace. Titus and Ocean. Faye and Arden.

  April and a fantastic new job in Boston. Enough money to finally provide her and Sid the financial security she so desperately wanted.

  She leaped up off the couch, not even realizing she’d done it until everyone turned surprised eyes on her.

  “The kitchen,” she said. “I have to get the turkey in the oven if we’re going to eat on schedule. Excuse me for a few moments.”

  “Hurry back,” Ember said.

  “Take your time,” Jace said.

  “Jace!”

  “What?” He looked at Ember. “This meal is going to be a work of art. I don’t want her to rush a thing.”

  “Good point.” Ember nodded. “Take your time, April.”

  On that compliment, she headed into the kitchen.

  “Can I open my presents yet?” Sidney called after her.

  She stopped at the door and fixed her daughter with a stern look. “No way. Wait till I get back, Ladybug.”

  “Aww.”

  That was the least heartfelt aww her daughter had ever uttered.

  She’d just got the oven preheated and slid the turkey in when Arden joined her in the kitchen.

  “How’s it going in here?”

  April closed the oven door.

  “All under control, for now, thanks.”

  He nodded. “I’ve no doubt about that. I’ve never been so well fed since…well, since Margaret was well enough to cook.”

  “Thank you. That means a lot to me.” It was one thing for Scott to sing her praises, but for Arden to do so—that was another thing entirely. “Scott’s told me a lot about his mother. She sounds like a great woman.”

  “She was. We were very happy together.” He looked reflective, both happy and sad.

  “I’m guessing she’d be happy that you’ve found Faye.”

  Silence.

  Oh dear. Had she overstepped her bounds? “Arden, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. That was awkward.”

  He shook his head. “Not at all. There was never a more loving woman than Margaret and I’m so grateful we had the time together that we did. Did you know that she and Faye were friends?”

  “Scott mentioned it.”

  Arden made a bee-line for the coffee pot on the counter and refilled his mug. He t
urned and leaned on the counter in a way that reminded her strongly of Scott when he had something on his mind.

  “You’ve got this place looking ship-shape, April.”

  “Thank you.” She kept it short, hoping he’d get to the point.

  “I know this is old-fashioned of me to say, but this place really needed a woman’s touch. I’m really hoping…I mean…would you consider staying on?”

  His words hit her square in the chest. Yesterday, she’d have jumped all over that offer. After Scott raised the possibility, she’d thought about little else, weighing the pros and cons. She’d all but decided to stay, but then Stone Thibault had made his bid…

  “We’ve got the room,” Arden rushed to assure her. “Ember’s practically moved in with Jace now. And Sid loves it here. I don’t know what you’d want for salary for a more permanent arrangement. Frankly, we’d be pretty strapped to continue paying you what Scott’s paying you now. Once Scott leaves, the salary he’s foregoing will have to be redirected to Titus when he takes up the farm management role again, but we can certainly offer something. Maybe we can figure out alternate terms that would fully replace any lost salary, like supplying you with all the free organic strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and apples you can use for your business. We can even put in a vegetable garden or an herb garden…whatever you want.”

  Wait, what? Scott had been foregoing his manager’s salary to subsidize her salary?

  Arden was talking again and she forced herself to focus.

  “…from what Sid’s been telling me, your market business is booming.”

  Her ears felt like they were buzzing, but she managed to answer. “It’s doing pretty well, yes.”

  “Well, just tell me you’ll think about it, April.” He pushed away from the counter. “There’s so much room in this big old house. And it was all so stale before you and Sidney got here. The pair of you have been like a breath of fresh air.”

  “Hurry up, Mom!” came Sidney’s shout from the living room.

  She forced a smile. “I’ll bet it was quieter before we got here, though.”

  Arden laughed. “A little.” His face turned serious. “No, more than a little. It’s been too quiet for too long. I’d really love for you to stay permanently. We all would.”

  “I don’t know, Arden. Making things permanent…” She looked at the lovely bracelet on her wrist. “Does Scott know you’re making me this offer?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet. But I mentioned it to Titus and he thought it was a great idea.”

  “It’s just such a big step. A big decision.”

  “It doesn’t have to be.” He sipped his coffee. “Maybe you can do it in increments. You know, stay till June so Sidney can finish out the school year, and then see how you’re feeling about extending your stay.”

  She eyed Arden. “Are you sure you haven’t been talking to Scott about this? Because he suggested the same thing—that I stay on until school finishes and focus on building the business.”

  “Did he?” Arden looked pleased. “The boy has good sense.”

  She huffed out a breath. “More like he knows my weak spot.”

  “It’s never weakness to want to take care of your own,” Arden said, his eyes kind and soft with concern. “You just need to decide what’s best, for her and for you, in the long term. But in the short term, I think we can all agree it’d be easier on the girl if she doesn’t have to change schools mid-year, but the decision is obviously yours.”

  And didn’t that just encapsulate her problem? What was best long term? The position with K.Z. offered her the kind of security she’d always dreamed of, and if she took the job, it would cement her future. Careers had been made on nothing more than a passing comment from K.Z. McCoy. Once having worked for the woman, April would be a highly sought after commodity.

  But she’d have to park her little business. Stone had been clear on that point. K.Z. expected undivided loyalty and attention from her employees, and she paid accordingly.

  “Just think it over, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Arden drained his coffee mug, put it in the sink and headed back into the living room.

  Not ready to rejoin everyone just yet, she rearranged some things in the refrigerator and put the few stray dishes in the dishwasher. Her thoughts kept going around and around, weighing the pros and cons of staying versus going. If they stayed until the end of the school year, Sidney would be so happy. It would be good for her too. She’d never had a better friend than Danika. And Faye Siliker was a godsend to her little girl. A surrogate grandmother. This old house? Sidney loved it. Axl. Arden. Even Titus, who she delighted in teasing.

  But K.Z.-Freaking-McCoy? That was like having Oprah recommend your book or getting featured in Martha Stewart Living. It would be life-changing for her and Sidney. If she didn’t go for it, she’d never know how far it could have taken her.

  “Mom!”

  “Coming!” She rubbed a hand over her forehead, consciously smoothing the frown lines. Putting a smile on her face, she walked back into the living room.

  When she sat down beside Scott, he took her hand and squeezed it, then let it go.

  Then there was Scott. Then there was this. If she stayed, she could have this, at least for a little while longer.

  Sidney rushed up to her. “Now can I open my presents?”

  “Go for it, Ladybug.”

  Sidney tore into the first gift, a medium-sized box. “A bike helmet?” She looked confused. “I don’t get it. I don’t have a bike.”

  “Yet,” April said. “You don’t have a bike yet.’

  Sidney’s eyes grew round.

  Chapter 35

  SCOTT WAS stuffed. Honestly, he did not think he could eat another bite if his life depended on it. However when April brought out the plate of bite-sized squares to the table… Well, a man only lived once.

  The meal had started with prosciutto-wrapped scallops on a bed of arugula. Given how much food there was, an appetizer course was completely unnecessary. But damn, it was good.

  The turkey, which Arden had carved earlier, had been perfect. The skin just as crispy and golden as his mother used to make it, the meat just as tender and moist. The herbed oyster dressing, while nothing like Margaret Standish’s, was inspired. There’d also been garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce made with Grand Marnier, a wicked acorn squash sweetened with maple syrup, buttery caramelized turnip, tender green beans, and roasted beets.

  Dessert consisted of a choice of old-fashioned apple pie with ice cream or a traditional Yule log cake, or bûche de Noël as Sid called it, slathered with chocolate frosting. Scott’s “choice” had been one of each. Titus had had two pieces of pie and one fat slab of cake.

  When the dishes had been cleared away, April disappeared to the kitchen while the rest of them had sipped their wine, and Sidney enjoyed the apple cider she’d helped Arden make right here on the farm. Scott had wanted to help with the cleanup, but she’d insisted he relax with his family. This was her gift.

  April had looked so happy, so alive and passionate, as she’d served the courses. Now they were having coffee and tea and—unbelievably—a plate of squares and sweets.

  And conversation…

  “So this time,” Titus said, obviously reveling in telling the story, “Ember had actually climbed out the window and was halfway down the trellis when Mom came home from bingo.”

  Ember laughed “Oh, God, I was in so much trouble. She pulled into the yard and caught me in the headlights. Of course, she stopped right there, with me frozen mid-way down.”

  “Like the proverbial deer in the headlights?” Ocean guessed.

  “More like a fly on flypaper—just stuck there.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “And I was over in the apple trees by the road,” Jace said. “My heart was beating out of my chest. It was one thing for Ember to get caught sneaking out, but to be sneaking out to meet me? I don’t know who was more scared
—me or her. Fortunately, Margaret didn’t see me.”

  “I remember Margaret telling me about that,” Faye said, wiping away tears of laughter. “She couldn’t stop giggling.” She turned to Jace. “She knew you were there.”

  “You’re kidding!” Jace said.

  “No.”

  “She never said a word to me.”

  “Well, she had plenty of them for me,” Ember said. “She made me promise never to do it again, and I didn’t,” she said righteously.

  Scott snorted. “Maybe you didn’t climb down the trellis again, but you found other ways to sneak out. And I followed you every time.”

  “Did you?” Smiling enigmatically, Ember chose a square from the tray.

  “Dammit.” He injected the curse with more vehemence than it deserved after all these years. Everyone chuckled, which was his aim. Even Axl, who’d scored a few bites of turkey without skin or gravy or anything to make him sick, lifted his head and wagged his tail against the door frame. “You really got past me?”

  She shrugged. “A time or two.”

  The family had spent most of the meal reminiscing about old times, good times. Christmas dances. There’d been lots of talk about the upcoming wedding, too. Happy talk.

  Eventually, Faye jumped up and volunteered for dish duty.

  Predictably, April protested. “Please, leave it to me, Faye. It’s part of my gift.”

  “Yeah, and I’ll help,” Sidney said.

  “What?” Titus said. “You want to be in here drying dishes when you got a brand new bike for Christmas?”

  Sid rolled her eyes. “It’s icy out there. I can’t ride a bike on ice.” Her eyes went to her mother. “Can I?”

  “No, you most certainly cannot.”

  “No ice in the nursery,” Titus observed, “and it’s plenty big enough to do a few laps if I moved a few things out of the way.”

  “Oh, what a great idea!” Ocean said. “I’ll help.”

  Sidney literally bounced in her chair. “Can I, Mom?”

  April smiled. “Of course you can, Ladybug. But wear your helmet.”

  “I will!” She dashed off to grab her helmet and coat.

  “And say thank you to Titus and Ocean for clearing that stuff away for you!” April called after her.