Mistletoe Cottage

by Debbie Mason

  Obviously they were both in denial. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. He dipped his head and nipped her earlobe. “Liar.”

  She shivered. “Fine. But it’s not you. It could be anyone. No sex for six years, remember?”

  “Nope, totally forgot about that. Thanks for the reminder, though. My fingers are too big. You try again.” It was an excuse. He needed his hands free to lift her chin so he could look into her eyes. To prove she was feeling what he was. To be able to hold her gaze and have her tell him what he did wrong so he could make it right.

  Moving his hands into her thick, dark hair, he tipped her face up. “Michael’s a lawyer, Soph. A good one. He’s an assistant district attorney, which means he knows people who can help you.”

  “I didn’t want your help or his. I told you that, Liam. The only thing I asked was that you help me keep my job. You’re not going to, are you?”

  “Of course I will. I’ll do anything you need me to do to ensure Michael and Bethany have a great wedding. I won’t sabotage you. For as long as Greystone remains open, I’ll support you as much as I can. But I can’t vote to keep Greystone in the family. I’m sorry if that’s not the answer you want to hear.”

  “You know it’s not. For argument’s sake, let’s say we can convince nine out of ten of the Gallaghers to keep the estate. Will you make it unanimous?”

  “Yes.” It was an easy answer. He knew she had no hope of winning over his brothers. But when she rewarded him with a wide smile, he was almost tempted to give her the answer she really wanted and throw in with the Cape Crusader. “Am I forgiven?”

  She bowed her head and went back to work on the tangled gold chain then nodded. “Yes, I shouldn’t have put you in the position of lying to my brother. I’m sorry. I know you meant well with Michael too. It’s just”—she lifted a shoulder—“I’m used to taking care of Mia myself. I don’t like asking for help.”

  “I get that. I won’t interfere again unless you ask me to. Sound good?”

  “Really good.”

  “Really, really good?” he asked, thinking back to the night she arrived at Greystone and her comment to Kris.

  She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Liam, you have very impressive abs. No sex in six years, remember?”

  “You know, it might make this easier if you don’t keep reminding me of that. I think I have an idea that will help you untangle the chain. You need to go at it from a better angle.” He placed his hands under her ass and lifted her up. “Wrap your legs around me.”

  “Like this?”

  “Oh, yeah, just like that.” Any hope he’d had of keeping his life simple and uncomplicated vanished the moment Sophie wrapped her long, toned legs around his waist. He moved one hand up her back and under her hair to her nape. “You mind if I keep myself occupied while you work on the chain?”

  “What did you have in mind?” From the warm glint in her eyes and her sultry smile, she knew exactly what he had in mind.

  “This,” he said, and kissed her how he’d been wanting to since the night in the study. But it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t tender or gentle. It was…

  A woman cursed outside the cooler. In Italian. Liam jerked back.

  Sophie, her beautiful face flushed and her lips damp, gave him an impish grin. “So I guess my grandmother cursing in Italian doesn’t have the same effect on you as I do,” she said as she unwound her legs from his waist and slid down his body.

  “Good—” He broke off at the sound of the cooler door opening and Rosa yelling at Sophie in Italian. Nope, not at Sophie, at him. He didn’t understand what she was saying, but he definitely heard her spit out Gallagher. There was a lot of contempt behind the word too—a couple of curse words even. Those he did understand. “Mrs. DiRossi…” At the flash of fiery temper in Sophie’s grandmother’s eyes, he closed his mouth. He didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t make the situation worse.

  “Nonna, it’s not what you think. My chain’s caught on Liam’s button. We were just trying to—”

  Rosa muttered something in Italian, and then said, “Give me a knife.”

  Behind her, his supposed best friend grinned. “Coming right up.”

  Liam swung his gaze back to Sophie, but he didn’t get a chance to say anything because Rosa was suddenly beside them with a knife in her hand. It looked sharp. Really sharp.

  “Now, Mrs. DiRossi, you know me. I would never—”

  Rosa lifted the knife, the light from the bulb overhead glinting off the blade. Liam placed his hands protectively over his groin. He could have sworn he heard Sophie laugh, but he wasn’t sure because he was too busy praying. Rosa sliced the button off his shirt in one expert stroke.

  Now that he could breathe and think clearly again, he decided a relationship between him and Sophie wouldn’t only be difficult and complicated; it might also be dangerous.

  An hour after the reception ended, someone knocked on the study door. Sophie looked up from the computer screen. “Come in.” She winced, too sultry. If it was Liam as she hoped, he’d know she’d been fantasizing about him instead of working on her ideas to present to Michael and Bethany. The couple hadn’t had time to meet with her today, but they’d scheduled an appointment for next weekend.

  Ava peeked her head around the door. “You have a minute?”

  “Sure. Come in,” she said, managing to keep the disappointment from her voice. “Everything okay?”

  “I was worried about you.” She took the seat across from Sophie. Ava still had on her chef’s uniform, her waist-length hair piled on her head. She looked good, Sophie thought. Better than she did when Sophie first arrived in Harmony Harbor. Maybe her plan would work after all.

  “It was a bit of a crazy afternoon, but I think it went well, don’t you?”

  “Sí. Kitty was pleased. She stopped by the kitchen to let me know. Helga was another story. But that’s not what I meant. You were upset, Sophie. And not just a little upset. Whatever Liam said”—she gave Sophie a pointed look—“or did, seemed to help. I just want you to know I’m here for you.”

  Sophie’s cheeks warmed. It wasn’t only the memory of making out in the cooler with Liam that caused the heated flush. It was embarrassment over how she’d reacted to him telling Michael. It wasn’t his fault. She was the one with the guilty conscience, with something to hide. The only thing Liam had been guilty of was trying to help, to protect her and Mia. “He did help.”

  “I’m sure Auntie Rosa will be pleased to hear that,” her cousin said, the touch of a smirk on her lips.

  “I was a little nervous when she came at him with the knife.” Sophie laughed at the memory of Liam’s expression when he covered himself. “So was Liam.”

  “He had good reason to be.” Ava smiled then twisted the gold chain at her neck. “At the church this morning, you said you wished he was the Gallagher Auntie Rosa referred to. But he’s not. Is…Is it Griffin?”

  “No, oh God no. Of course it’s not, Ava. It’s…” She paused. Today was crazier in more ways than one. She’d had to acknowledge the feelings she had for Liam were no longer the ones she had as a girl. Obviously she was as attracted to him as she’d always been, which wasn’t a surprise. He was even more handsome than she remembered, taller, broader, stronger…just more.

  But she’d been a teenager with virtually no life experience when she had a crush on him. Now she was a woman with an abundance of it, most of it far from fabulous. She recognized a good man when she saw one, an honorable man, a kind man, a man who did the right thing always. A man who was sweet and caring and protective of Sophie and her daughter. He was the real deal, and her feelings were beginning to feel real too. And that was scary…

  “It’s Michael,” she admitted to her cousin, because she needed someone to talk to. Someone closer to her own age who would understand, and hopefully be honest with her. Sophie wasn’t sure she was doing the right thing anymore. Michael had seemed different, less full of himself and arrogant. Kind, really. Supportive like Li
am. So now the guilt that she’d kept a good man from knowing his daughter was beginning to outweigh her need to protect them both.

  “What happened, Sophie? Did he hurt you?” Ava’s hands were clasped tightly in her lap. Her face was pale and pinched, her expression anxious. Something dark and troubled swirled in her eyes.

  “No, of course not.” Sophie placed her elbows on the desk and cupped her face in her hands. She looked at her cousin. “I’ve never told anyone this before.”

  “Tell me, Sophie, please.”

  She nodded, stacking the papers on her desk as she worked up the courage to finally tell the story to someone. Like ripping off a bandage, she decided the best thing to do was jump right in. “I ran into Michael the night I went out with a bunch of friends to celebrate my eighteenth birthday. Everyone knew us in town, so we went to a bar in Bridgeport. We started drinking and acting stupid. They were teasing me because I was the only virgin in our group. They dared me to lose my virginity to the next guy who walked in the bar. I wasn’t going to. I was going to come up with an excuse, and then the next guy walked in, and it was Liam. The guy I’d been crushing on since I was fourteen. So I took it as a sign and took the bet. Only once I walked over, I realized it wasn’t Liam. It was Michael. He seemed so mature and sexy.” Sophie covered her face. “I can’t believe how stupid I was back then. I’m going to lock Mia up from sixteen to twenty-one.”

  “We were all stupid, Sophie. Some of us more stupid than others. You were just a kid. Michael was what, twenty-four?”

  “He was, but I knew what I was doing. I didn’t sleep with him that night. But his age was one of the reasons that I eventually did. I figured a twenty-four-year-old wasn’t going to be happy with a girlfriend who’d only go to first base. Second, eventually. It was pathetic. I wanted to be like my friends. I wanted a boyfriend. I was in love with the idea of being in love. Michael was smart and handsome and reminded me of Liam with his Gallagher-blue eyes. Only he didn’t treat me like a kid. He seemed to really like me. But first-time sex isn’t as romantic as the movies and books make it out to be. So I spent most of July trying to avoid having it again while hanging on to my smart, sexy, older boyfriend.”

  Sophie stopped and reached for her mug of coffee. Stalling, she took a sip. This was the hard part. The part where her cousin would undoubtedly judge her and find her lacking. “Do you remember the big party Michael organized at Greystone that summer?”

  “Vaguely. I think I remember Jasper complaining about the mess the next morning.”

  “It got out of hand. So did I. I drank way too much and got sloppy and emotional. I was afraid Michael didn’t love me anymore…I thought I saw him kissing another girl and took off to Kismet Cove. Another brilliant move on my part. I was lucky I didn’t kill myself. It was so dark, I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Plus, by that time, I was officially wasted.

  “Anyway, Michael came after me. I, ah, threw myself at him.” She released a self-conscious laugh at the memory. “The poor guy probably didn’t know what hit him. I spent half the summer avoiding sex, and then I basically tore off our clothes and jumped his bones.” She cleared her throat. “That’s the night Mia was conceived.”

  Ava stared at her. “But I thought…Mia is Michael’s daughter?”

  “Yes, I…” She glanced at the door. It was still closed, but she could have sworn she heard someone on the other side. “Did you hear that?”

  “No. But I’m used to the noises. This place creaks and groans all the time. Don’t worry, it was probably just a draft.” Ava rubbed her arms. “It’s freezing in here.”

  “I’ll turn up the heat.” Sophie got up and adjusted the thermostat. Instead of returning to the chair behind the desk, she walked to the window.

  “Sophie, please don’t think I’m judging you, but why didn’t you tell Michael when you found out?”

  “I probably would have if I hadn’t overheard him talking to his mother two days after the night at Kismet Cove. Right here in this room.” She repeated the conversation he’d had with his mother.

  “Quello che una coegna,” Ava said, shaking her head.

  Sophie agreed with her cousin. Maura was a bitch, and from what Sophie had seen and heard today, she hadn’t changed. Which was one of the reasons Sophie still didn’t want to tell Michael. “That’s why I left with my mother for California. Left everyone I loved behind because I was afraid they’d hate me and I’d make things worse between Nonna and the Gallaghers. When things got really bad in LA and I was desperate, I nearly broke down and called Michael. But I was afraid they’d force me to give up Mia or take her from me. She was all I had.”

  “How bad did things get, Sophie?”

  She pressed her forehead against the cold pane of glass and told her cousin everything. About the lonely nights, the constant struggle to put food on the table and pay the bills, working at the hotel during the day and studying all night. The bank had foreclosed on Doris the day after Mia’s third birthday. Doris went to live with her sister in Utah, and Sophie had to start over again. She found a job at a boutique hotel. The pay was better, but she no longer had a room at the motel or the ability to keep Mia with her while she worked. By the time she paid for childcare and rent there wasn’t much left at the end of the month. But there were good times too. She had friends, and she had Mia. She told Ava how Mia had been before the fire, and she told her about the fire and being arrested.

  Ava came up behind her and wrapped Sophie in her arms. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry your life in LA was so difficult. But I admire you, Sophie. I admire you for working so hard to provide a good life for your daughter and never giving up. I’m glad you came home. You belong here. It will be better now.”

  “In some ways, it is better, but in other ways, it’s worse. I’m lying to everyone. And Mia knows it. I don’t know what to do.”

  “What are you afraid of?”

  “That I’ll lose her. That Michael and his mother will take her from me. That Bethany will hate her. That Liam will hate me for keeping Mia from Michael.”

  “Ah.”

  “Ah? What does that mean?”

  “You have feelings for Liam.”

  She thought about him following her around with the coffeepot, trying to protect her from Maura and Harper. “I do. I’m just not sure what they are.” Or maybe she was afraid that she was.

  “We should have listened to Auntie Rosa and stayed away from the Gallagher boys. She always said no good would come from a Gallagher and DiRossi union.”

  “Do you have any idea what happened between them?”

  She shook her head. “All I know is that the feud began in the early seventeen hundreds when William Gallagher destroyed Marcello DiRossi’s shipbuilding business. I’m not sure what happened between Rosa and Kitty, but I think it had something to do with Ronan.”

  “But Kitty and Colleen have been so good to you. To me too. And here we are trying to save Greystone.”

  “And your daughter is both a DiRossi and a Gallagher, and this is her legacy.”

  “Meow.”

  Sophie nearly jumped out of her skin when Simon wound his way around her legs. She pressed a hand to her pounding heart. “How did he…”

  Her eyes shot to the study door. It was open.

  Chapter Twelve

  You scared the bejaysus out of me, Simon. I thought I was about to have a bloody heart attack.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Colleen chuckled. “Not that it would matter, I suppose, seeing that I’m already dead. Or am I undead? Haven’t quite figured all this out yet.” Colleen frowned at the cat purring and winding his way around Ava’s and Sophie’s legs. “How did you get in here? You haven’t developed a talent for going through closed doors now, have…” Colleen’s gaze flicked to the study’s door. It was open. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, someone let you in!”

  She’d been so caught up in Sophie’s story, she hadn’t noticed they had company. If she had, she would have warned the girls by pus
hing a book off the desk. Same as she’d done the night of the wake when Sophie and Liam were having a snog in here. Seemed to be quite a bit of snogging going on between those two. But that was the least of her worries. If someone had been eavesdropping…“We’re in a pickle now, Sophie my girl. That we are.” It wasn’t the right time for the news to come out. Colleen wanted to wait until after the wedding.

  “Come on, laddie. It’s time for us to do some investigating. Find out who was listening in.” She headed for the door, turning back when Simon didn’t follow her—too busy cozying up to the girls. “Leg man, are you? I’ll leave you to it later, but right now I need your help. Step lively, Tom Cat. There’s a spy to be found.”

  Colleen walked through the door. It gave her a shiver every time she did, but she was getting better at this ghost gig. At least there was no more of that floating nonsense. And every once in a while she’d been able to make her presence known. Like she’d done with Griffin. The boy deserved a good whack upside the head talking about Greystone the way that he did. No matter, if Colleen had anything to do with it, Ava would change his mind.

  Oh yes, Colleen knew exactly what she was doing when she left the estate and manor to her great-grandchildren. She just needed time for her plans for their love lives to come to fruition. She was canny when it came to choosing the ones they were meant to be with. Sooner or later her great-grandchildren would all be back in Harmony Harbor where they belonged, and Greystone would continue to be a shining beacon of hope and a link to the past.

  “All right now, show me who let you in.” Simon stared at her. “Oh for the love of all that is holy, did you pay no mind to who opened the door for you?”

  Someone talking in the library drew her attention from Simon. She walked a little way down the hall, entering the room to see Paige Townsend dressed all in black. As though she gave a flying fig about Colleen’s demise. The woman made herself at home sitting in Ronan’s favorite wingback chair by the window. Every wall, right up to the third story, was covered with dark oak shelves lined with books. They’d been collected by generations of Gallaghers; some were priceless and some well-worn favorites. Colleen wondered if perhaps she’d hidden her memoir here. She was about to scan the shelves when she picked up on Paige’s conversation.