“Sounds beautiful,” Drew said softly.
“It was,” I told them, fighting back each misty memory. “It was the best.”
They didn’t dig any further, so I remained quiet as we stabled the horses and headed for home. They wanted to watch a Christmas classic in the media room, but I feigned a headache and made an early night of it.
By Monday morning I was back in party planning mode. We only had five days left before the first party, so I knew it would be a week of 12-hour days at the very least. That I had to work in a final dress fitting in the midst of it all only added to my stress. Unlike the costume I wore for the Masquerade Ball, I knew that no designer gown I could choose would help me fit into the world of the beautiful and the elite. This was Elise’s world, not mine. Even Simone outclassed me with her statuesque figure, standing 5’10 with less than ten percent body fat, and straight, Nordic blonde hair that fell almost to her waist.
Drew did have a thing for his blondes.
The burgundy dress with a stylish empire waist and velvet bodice was probably the finest gown I had ever worn, but I still felt every inch the outsider as I critically inspected my image in the mirror. This was a lot different than the faculty party the year before, where I had gone with Nancy in some off-the-rack number like every other teacher living on a budget.
A sweater and skirt made sense for a four-star hotel… not so much for a Beverly Hills soiree with caviar and imported champagne on the menu.
The closer we got to the big day, the more apprehensive I became. I even snapped at Jonathan, who approached the whole shindig like a big game. I hardly ever raised my voice to him, so he was surprised into submission. I felt so guilt-ridden that I bought him yet another present to place under one of the trees.
By Friday morning I was a nauseated, jittery mess. When Simone cracked open the champagne, I took a glass or two just to calm my nerves. It didn’t help that Drew hovered nearby, much more hands on with this party than the Halloween party. There was no avoiding him. Fortunately Jonathan shadowed his father enough so that we never had to spend one moment alone, but I couldn’t quite escape the implied intimacy of hosting a party in “our” house.
I went upstairs by four o’clock in the afternoon to dress, complete with stylists and a hairdresser to complete the look as professionally as possible. They pampered me and fawned all over me until they transformed the lowly working caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. I was so astounded by their results that Drew’s appearance at my door barely threw me for a loop.
Of course, the additional glass of champagne probably didn’t hurt.
The stylist and her makeup artist made a discreet departure as Drew strolled into the room. He looked incredible in his tuxedo. It was a typical monkey suit, but he looked breathtaking with his jet black hair and striking blue eyes. Those eyes inspected me head to foot, which warmed me down to my toes.
But again, that too could have been because of the champagne.
“You look beautiful, Rachel,” he said softly as he stopped a foot away.
“So do you,” I said as I gestured to his tux.
“Tuxedos are utilitarian,” he dismissed with a slight wave of the hand. “It is the female companion that distinguishes the man. I am proud you will be standing at my side.” His eyes met mine. “Where you should be.”
I shook my head. “Drew.”
He withdrew a velvet box from his coat pocket. “Save your protests until after you see this,” he warned with a playful smirk.
I took it from his hand. “What is it?”
“A gift,” he explained softly. “It’s a little early but I figured Gram wouldn’t mind.”
I chuckled as I opened the box. Inside was a diamond-studded pendant in the shape of a star. “Drew,” I breathed.
“It is completely inappropriate,” he agreed as he slipped the necklace from the box. “And I shouldn’t have done it,” he continued as he stepped behind me to fasten the chain around my neck. “You totally can’t accept it,” he finished as he put his hands on my shoulders and faced me toward the mirror. “That about cover it?”
I nodded as I touched the pendant with one hand. I watched in the mirror as Drew’s head bent close to mine, to whisper in my ear. “You are our star, Rachel. Not just tonight, but every day.”
“Say you’ll take it, Rachel,” Jonathan added from my doorway, where he stood in a similar tux with a green paisley vest.
“The gift is from both of us,” Drew explained. “A thank you for all you’ve done this year to help us.”
I smiled as I held out a hand to Jonathan, who rushed to my side. “Of course,” I said as I hugged him tight. “Thank you both for everything you’ve done for me.”
Jonathan hugged my middle tight, and Drew stepped in behind me to complete the circle. I could see our reflection in the mirror. I was surrounded by love, just like my childhood. Finally it was Christmas.
We walked downstairs together and by seven o’clock we were in place to receive our guests. Many I remembered from the Halloween party, including Senator De Havilland and his wife. Elise arrived with Derek in tow, and they both looked picture perfect. She wore a black cocktail dress and he wore a simple but stylish tuxedo.
The actress Drew had charmed on Halloween also arrived, bestowing a special kiss right on his lips that immediately soured my mood. I mumbled my greeting before reaching for another glass of the festive champagne punch. Drew’s eyes glittered as he glanced down at me. He could read me like a book and I knew it. He reached for my hand, which he brought to his lips for a lingering kiss.
“Ho, ho, ho!” Alex greeted jovially. We turned to see him in full costume as Santa Claus, complete with a full bag slung over his shoulder. “Merry Christmas, y’all,” he added as he glanced at me.
“What are you doing?” Drew hissed.
“Spreading joy and cheer,” Alex answered with a wide smile. Nothing made him happier than putting his brother off his game. “Tis the season and all that.”
“You look ridiculous,” Drew muttered. “Why must you take every family function and make a mockery of it?”
“How can you expect anything else when you insist on parading around our mockery of a family?” Alex challenged. “Unless, of course, your miracle worker has fixed that, too.”
Drew put his arm around me to pull me close. “I don’t think that is any of your business, Alex.”
“Of course not,” Alex sneered. “I’m just a Fullerton, after all.”
“Alex, please,” I said under my breath. “Don’t make a scene.”
He laughed. “I’m a big fat guy in red velvet. Santa doesn’t exactly play it small, sweets.” He put the bag on the ground. “But I come bearing gifts.” He withdrew a stocking for Drew, which happened to be full of charcoal. “Bad luck again, old man,” he said with a shrug. “Guess you’ll have to get all your goodies from your good pal, De Havilland. He owes you after your generous donations to his campaign and Entrepreneurs for American Liberty, don’t you think?”
“That is none of your concern,” Drew hissed through clenched teeth.
“Of course not,” Alex repeated. He dug around in the bag and brought out a gift-wrapped box. “And for the good teacher,” he said as he handed me the gift. His eyes were hard on me as I opened the flat box and withdrew the one-way ticket back to Texas. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving. You get your freedom, and Elise gets her son back. It’s a win-win.”
Drew was livid as he tore the ticket in half. “I want you out of my house, Alex.”
Alex laughed as he hoisted the bag back over his shoulder. “No can do, brah,” he said. “You can’t kick Santa out of your house on Christmas. It’s the one time the trespasser is more welcome than the thief,” he added as he glared at me. He spun on his heel and went into the ballroom, hollering, “ho-ho-ho” like he was a part of the venue entertainment.
Drew stalked to his study and slammed the door shut. I honestly didn’t know which brother to chase aft
er. I decided to curtail as much damage as possible by tracking down Alex, who was bestowing gifts to his favorite nephew near one of the majestic trees in the ballroom. Jonathan had no clue how much of a problem his uncle’s presence caused for his dad. All he knew was that all the people he loved were in the same place. I let them interact for a few minutes before I gently interrupted and pulled Alex out of the ballroom.
Since the common areas downstairs were open as a holiday showcase, I had to pull him into my office so that we could speak privately. “You’ve made your point,” I said after I closed the door. “Can’t that be enough for once?”
Alex laughed. “You are something else. Not only are you Jonathan’s governess, but you’re a party planner, hostess and now… bouncer. You take multi-tasking to the next level, princess.”
“Look, I know you don’t like me…,” I started, but he was quick to interrupt.
“Who says I don’t like you?”
“You do. Every chance you get.”
He walked to where I stood at the door. “If I didn’t like you, I wouldn’t care what happened to you,” he pointed out as his eyes swept across my face. “You may not see it now, but I am trying to save you.”
“From what?” I challenged.
His eyes slid down to my mouth. “From us.”
I backed up a step, but he pulled me back. “Elise… Nina… my mother… Fullerton men always destroy the women that they love. You think you can save us, but you can’t. You’re just prolonging the inevitable. Especially where Jonathan is concerned. You want to give us a gift? Leave. Let this house of ruin fall to decay like it should have done years ago.”
“I know you’re bitter,” I said softly, and he chuckled in response as he pulled away. “I don’t need the dirty details. I know it’s bad… poisonous… between the two of you. But you are still a family. You just need one person to give a damn. To fight.”
“And you think you’re that person, is that it?”
“I think you’re that person,” I told him as I squared my chin. “You’ve got a good heart, Alex. I’ve seen it. With Max, with Jonathan, with complete strangers at the mission. And I know you got that from your mom.” He looked away. “She did everything she could to save her boys by binding you both together. All this fighting and bitterness, it can’t be what she wanted for the both of you. Nothing is worth the hatred. Not the money, not the women, not the kids. It just takes one of you to decide to be the bigger man. You want to prove to me how sincere you are? Let it be you.”
He turned to stare at me for a long moment. Clearly he was dissecting what I had said, looking for something, anything, to use against me. I no longer cared what he thought about me. It was time to end the bitter feud between these two brothers once and for all.
I turned to leave, but his words stopped me.
“Don’t you have a gift for good ol’ Saint Nick?” he asked softly.
I turned back to face him. “What did you have in mind?”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sprig of mistletoe as he approached. He stopped a breath apart and held it above his head. His eyes dared me to defy his request. Maybe it was a test. I had come to expect that from him. Instead I stepped closer, braced myself on his arm and stood on my tiptoes to plant a soft, lingering kiss on his stubbly cheek. “Merry Christmas, Alex,” I said as I pulled away.
His eyes engulfed me. “Merry Christmas, Rachel,” he murmured. He hoisted his bag onto his shoulder and slipped through the door. I followed him down the hall, but instead of going into the ballroom, he walked right out the front door.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
The Christmas party, like the Halloween party before it, was a huge success. Drew danced with his actress friend more than once, and Jonathan stayed close to his mother, but I was too busy to brood about either. I stayed mostly with Simone as we flitted about from guest to guest, corralling the media through each room. I planned to make a quick exit after Jonathan left with Elise and Derek, but there was too much to do to ensure the enjoyment of our other guests, and I didn’t feel right unloading all of the responsibility on Simone.
Instead I played hostess with a phony smile plastered on my face, hoping it wouldn’t crack under the strain. I tried to tell myself I was happy that Drew and the actress waltzed together, keeping him suitably distracted so that I wouldn’t have to endure yet another encounter with a confusing and dynamic Fullerton man. After Alex, I had fulfilled my quota for the day.
In fact, the whole stressful month had caught up to me and I nursed a killer headache, thanks mostly to the champagne punch I used to fuel my merriment throughout the evening.
I breathed a sigh of relief by the time the guests began to disperse. I was clearing empty glasses when Drew caught up with me. “Another success,” he praised with a smile. “How about a celebratory dance?”
I shook my head. “No, thanks. I just want to clean up and head to bed.”
He didn’t take no for an answer. He pulled me toward the middle of the floor, where a few couples still lingered as the band played their last song. “The staff can clean,” he said as he pulled me close and fitted me to his powerful body. “The queen must dance.”
I snickered. “I thought she did. Where is Olivia anyway?”
He bent close to whisper in my ear, “In my study, waiting for me.”
I stiffened in his arms, which made him smile. “I shouldn’t keep you, then,” I muttered as I tried to pull away, but he wasn’t having it.
“She can wait,” he dismissed as he twirled me around the floor. “She can also leave. That’s really up to you.”
I shook my head. “You’re a big boy. You get to pick and choose who you want to warm your bed.”
“I did that a month ago,” he reminded as he brushed his mouth against my ear. I shuddered in his tight embrace. “So when are you going to join me, Rachel?”
I sighed. “Drew, please. I have a headache and I just really want to go to bed. Alone.”
“Is that what you really want?” he murmured against my ear.
“Yes,” I said, even though it tasted every bit of a lie as the word slipped from my mouth. The truth of the matter? Having him in my arms at long last was more fulfilling, and more tempting, than I remembered. I felt his body respond to mine and God help me, I wanted him more than I could ever dare to admit.
He wore a humorless smile as he stepped apart to end our dance. He brought my hand to his mouth and kissed my hand. “Your wish is my command,” he said before he exited the ballroom and headed to his study where his consort waited.
I fought tears as I turned over the cleaning duties to the staff, and escaped to my room. For a brief, crazy minute I wished that Drew hadn’t ripped up that ticket.
I was seriously tempted to do just what Alex had asked me to do… to get the hell away from these two brothers who kept tearing me in opposite directions.
The next day I didn’t bother leaving my room. I stayed in bed, uncharacteristically sleeping in late, to enjoy my downtime before Jonathan returned home that evening.
At least that was what I told myself. Truth be told, I didn’t want to run into Drew and his playmate. I honestly didn’t think I could stomach seeing the two of them together, knowing what they had likely done all night. I never thought of myself as a jealous person, but the idea of her wrapped in his arms invariably curled my hands into tight little balls that sliced my short fingernails into my own flesh.
“It could have been you,” the devil on my shoulder whispered sadistically.
Every time I closed my eyes I could picture them together, his hard, athletic body wedged so neatly between her slender thighs as he buried himself in her without guilt or apology. He was through waiting around for me, and he made sure I knew it.
Despite my better judgment, my ears were preened to detect their laughter, or other outbursts of enjoyment, all throughout the night. It would have been torture to hear her cries of pleasure, cries that could have come fr
om me, but I laid awake most of the night and waited to hear her scream as he brought her to the ecstasy that I had rejected. I thought it was what I wanted, to be free of his amorous attention, but I knew all I had to hear was one peep from his bedroom and my heart would have dissolved right into dust.
That night had been as silent as every single night that had preceded it. The next morning, all I heard were the cleaning crews who restored our home to its former glory.
“Our home,” I thought with a sneer. This was never my home. I had a bedroom and an office, but an office and bedroom do not a home make. I had added nothing to the multi-million dollar mansion, except for maybe an art suggestion or two.
But walk around in my flannel jammies with a towel on my head, scattering magazines along the coffee table in the living room? I couldn’t imagine.
Hell, I didn’t even have a tree to call my own.
Maybe it was time to go home for a visit. I knew Nancy would welcome me back with open arms, ensuring I’d have a place to stay for the holidays. Her family was my second family, so it would be a good homecoming that I desperately needed to remind me of my roots and my core values, none of which had anything at all to do with what I had found in California.
Actually that wasn’t entirely true. Each Fullerton male had demonstrated to me that they were much better than they had allowed themselves to become. From Alex and his charitable deeds, to Drew’s dedication to his son, both men… though aggravating as hell… had shown a willingness to rise to the occasion and surprise me more than once.
But why was it my job to save them?
“Because you can,” the angel on my other shoulder whispered. I knew I had brought out the best in all of them, including Jonathan. Maybe if I stayed a little longer… worked a little harder… loved a little more unselfishly…
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