Waving her off, Eliza moved closer and sat on the corner of the bed. “Just as Carter said in his toast, you were the reason we got to take this whole project to the next level.” She gently wiped at her eyes. “I can’t wait to see some of the photos Drew took tonight. Sometimes I forgot he was there!”
Both Emery and Carter nodded.
“The thing is, I wasn’t…well, everyone said this Christmas would be easier since it wasn’t the first one since Joseph died, but they were wrong. Last year, you kids came home and it was wonderful having you all close, but I think we were all still a little shell-shocked. This year, I feel like it’s finally sunk in that he’s gone and I’m having to make my way on my own. Taking on this project for the charity was a great distraction, and having you both help me with it turned into such a blessing.”
“That’s not what you were saying a month ago,” Carter teased.
“You were being a brat a month ago,” his mother reminded him.
Emery laughed quietly and when Carter glanced her way, she said, “What? It’s the truth!”
“Still,” he muttered, “she didn’t need to say it.”
“Poor baby,” she cooed.
“Anyway,” Eliza continued, “it felt really good to have everyone here and for you to remind us all of a simpler time in our family history. It was perfect. You did something I never imagined, not only for the project, but for me.” Her tears came in earnest now. “It’s not like I don’t miss your father or that I’m saying that I’m over losing him.” She paused. “But tonight was such a precious reminder of all of the good things in our lives, so…thank you.”
Glancing at Carter, Emery could see the way he was fighting to keep his own emotions under control. She didn’t think he was a man who was afraid to cry, but she did think he was the kind of man who wanted to be strong for his mother.
It didn’t matter that she was in nothing more than her boy-shorts and a tank top. Emery kicked the blankets off and walked over to hug Eliza, holding her close as she cried a little more. Her own emotions were too close to the surface to stop and soon she found herself sobbing too. And just as she hoped, Carter took advantage of the distraction to stand and slip his pants back on so he could come around and comfort Eliza too.
Then Emery stood and grabbed her robe, slipping it on. Lucky for her, because another knock came on the open door and she turned in time to see Megan standing there.
“Everything all right?” she asked, stepping into the room.
Eliza wiped away some tears as she pulled back from Carter. “I was just telling Carter and Emery how much today meant to me and I got a little emotional.”
Megan walked over and sat on the bed next to her mother and smiled at her brother. “It really was a great day. It felt like those Christmas Eves when we were kids. I had forgotten about the eclectic menu we used to do.”
Carter nodded. “I’m sure I forgot a dish or two, but the ones I made were the ones I remembered, so…”
“Hey, what’s going on?” They all raised their heads to find Christian standing in the doorway. He looked at his mother and his siblings, then Emery. “Everyone okay?”
Eliza explained the situation again, so Christian sat next to his sister; Emery felt like the fifth wheel, but didn’t know how to go about giving them a moment without being obvious about it.
But she didn’t need to, because Christian’s wife, Sophie, and Megan’s husband, Alex, soon entered the room and the whole lot of them were sitting on Carter’s bed. It was a bit comical at first, but Emery found herself being gently tugged onto Carter’s lap.
“Don’t think you can hide,” he whispered in her ear. “You’re family.”
Nothing he could have ever said to her would have affected Emery more. Burying her face in his neck, she took a moment to get her emotions under control as Christian pulled Sophie into his lap and Megan and Alex switched places so they could be there on the bed too.
“Probably should have moved this to Mom’s bed,” Megan said with a laugh. “At least she has a king-size mattress and we all would have fit a little bit better.”
“What?” Christian teased. “You mean you don’t like feeling this cozy with your family?” He nudged her with his shoulder and they all felt the effect of it and started to laugh.
Even Eliza.
“Nonsense,” Eliza said after a moment. “This is perfect.” She reached out to try to get her arms around everyone. “I’m feeling incredibly blessed tonight. Thank you for being willing to come home and indulge me in this little endeavor.”
“No need to thank us, Mom,” Christian said. “And we know Carter’s going to do it all again in December—”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Carter quickly interrupted. “I didn’t say that.”
“Really? After all the praise you’ve been getting?” Megan quipped. “You’re saying you’re willing to break your mother’s heart by not making Christmas dinner when it’s actually Christmas?”
Emery lifted her head from his shoulder and caught the bewildered look on his face. “Yeah, Carter,” she said to egg everyone on. “You mean to tell me you’re not willing to come back and do this all again? What in the world?” Her smile was pure mischief and when he pinched her, she cried out before bursting into a fit of giggles.
By the time they calmed down, it was decided that Carter was, indeed, coming home for Christmas and making dinner for however many people happened to show up.
“Glad that’s decided,” Christian said, standing with his wife in his arms. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to bed.”
Alex stood with Megan in his arms and grinned at them. “Same here. Good night!” Megan waved while grinning from ear to ear as they walked out the door.
When it was down to just the three of them, Eliza rose and kissed them both on the cheek. “Thank you again,” she said softly. “Get some sleep. Brunch is in less than twelve hours.” With a small wave, she was gone, closing the door behind her.
They sat on the corner of the bed for a minute before Carter got up holding Emery in his arms and took them to her side of the bed. “Carter, what in the world?”
“Seemed like the thing to do,” he said mildly. “Everyone else did it.”
“You also said everyone else was having sex earlier and see how wrong you were?”
Slowly, he let her slide down his body before untying her robe and slipping it off her shoulders. “Well, I’m confident they’re doing it now. Trust me.”
She rolled her eyes but wasn’t about to debate with him.
Then his lips were on hers and his hands were holding her hips. Carter was the master of seduction and it didn’t take much. She was more than a little needy for him. The urge to be close to him and loved by him was growing stronger by the minute.
When he lifted his head, he had a triumphant look on his face—like he could read her mind.
He knew her well enough by now that he probably could.
He tugged her closer and she could feel just how ready he was. “You know we’re going to have to be quiet,” she whispered against his lips. “And we have no idea how squeaky this bed can be.”
“The headboard might bang against the wall between us and the laundry room,” he said, raining kisses along her jaw before lightly biting her earlobe. “But if it makes you feel better, we can stuff a towel or something between it and the wall to buffer the sound a bit.”
She couldn’t help it.
She giggled.
Carter pulled back and looked at her as if she was crazy. “What’s so funny about that?”
Emery shook her head and laughed a little more. “It just struck me as comical—like we’re kids sneaking up to your room to fool around. We’re adults!” Now she had to wipe away tears of mirth. “I mean, it just seems crazy.”
“Em…”
“Although, knowi
ng you, you did this a lot when you were growing up. Go ahead, admit it. You did this with a lot of girls, right?”
She knew she was teasing and they were just joking around, but part of her really didn’t want to know the answer. It wasn’t hard to remember how many girls Carter had dated in high school, and she had hated each and every one of them. Thinking about that now wasn’t helping with the mood, but…
Carter’s hands left her hips as he reached up and cupped her face. “Never,” he said fiercely. “You may not believe this, but you are the first and only woman to be in this room with me.”
Gasping softly, she looked at him with disbelief. “But…how? I mean…why?”
But really, it didn’t matter, and she didn’t want to know—and it seemed as if Carter didn’t want to talk about it either.
This time when his lips claimed hers, Emery was more than willing not only to let him take the lead but for him to take her to bed and have his way with her.
Quietly.
Perfectly.
Chapter 9
Carter stood on the driveway Tuesday morning and watched as the cab carrying Emery pulled away.
A cab.
After multiple heated discussions, he had finally agreed to her ridiculous request that he not drive her home. She wanted to say her goodbyes here at his mother’s and go back to her place alone. From the moment she’d first mentioned it, he’d hated the idea. So much so that they were barely speaking when she left.
“We were taking bets on whether or not you were going to haul her out of the cab before it pulled away.”
Carter turned to face his brother and nearly growled.
Christian wasn’t deterred. He stepped up next to Carter and stared at the end of the driveway, just as Carter was doing. “You knew this was going to happen. Why are you fighting it so much?”
Now he did growl as he raked both hands through his hair. Turning toward Christian, he snapped, “Because it isn’t right! There is no one waiting there for her—there are no good memories for her to go back to! Why would she want to face all that alone?”
And damn if he wasn’t breathless by the time he got that out.
He and his brother were alike in so many ways, but right now, their differences were blazingly obvious. Where Carter was looking frazzled and out of control, Christian was the picture of the mild-mannered gentleman.
“I know you’re not really looking for an answer—because you think you know what’s best for everyone—but I’m going to tell you why,” Christian explained mildly.
“Dude, come on.”
“Maybe she’s ready for a little alone time. Ever since you went to the city and brought her out to Montauk with you, she hasn’t had a moment to herself. I mean, think about it.” He paused briefly before continuing his theory. “And while there’s no doubt it’s going to be hard for her, you can’t say there aren’t any good memories for her at her place. It wasn’t like she was living with her ex there. The house is hers and hers alone, and while it may not be her dream house—I’m completely theorizing here—it’s not like the house itself is the reason for all of her troubles.”
“Okay, I get that, but—”
“And most important…”
Carter exhaled loudly at the interruption, but let his brother speak.
“You forget that Emery was a fiercely independent woman at one time. The last several years have done a number on her, between this scandal with her ex and her overcontrolling parents, but…dude, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t want to take control of your life back if you were in that situation.”
“Maybe.”
“No maybes about it,” Christian argued. “There was a time not so long ago when we were all about going and confronting Dad about the way he treated us. Are you telling me you would have been okay with someone doing it for you?”
Now he was beyond frustrated. “If memory serves, Christian, we never got to do that, so it’s kind of the same thing, isn’t it?”
Rather than argue, his brother laughed. A full-blown, hearty laugh. When he finally stopped, he looked at Carter with a smug grin. “You know what? Yeah, it is kind of the same thing, except we are never going to get the chance to stand up for ourselves or have our voices be heard. We got our way by default, and believe me, that was a bitter pill to swallow.”
Carter remembered how hard that reality was on his brother and felt bad for bringing it up. However…
“We would have had each other’s backs, given the opportunity, Chris. Emery has no one. She’s all alone, going in there to fight with these people who have proven that her feelings don’t mean a damn thing to them! Someone should be with her!”
Rather than agreeing or disagreeing, Christian placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a small smile. “I think it’s great you want to fight this battle for her, but in order for her to move on and have some peace, you’re going to have to let her do this her own way, on her own terms.”
“But what if…what if it goes badly? What if they convince her to go back to this guy or…or…?”
“Carter, are you afraid she’s not going to come back to you?”
Yes.
That realization was so hard and so painful that his chest actually hurt.
“I’m going to be fifteen-hundred miles away,” he said sadly. “I can’t hop in a car and be there if she needs me. And because I know how damn stubborn she can be, I don’t know if she’d tell me if she did.”
“The two of you have known each other for a long time, and this new part of your relationship has got to be a bit tricky,” Christian said carefully. “You talked to Emery. She knows how you feel. Now you just have to trust.”
“It’s not her I don’t trust.”
“I think it is,” he countered. “You don’t trust her to be strong enough to stand up for herself. You don’t trust her to go back there and keep on being the woman you brought out in her.” He paused. “I’m going to ask you something and you need to be honest.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to be difficult, but he opted against it.
“Fine.”
“Do you love her?”
“Yes.” There was no hesitation. Carter knew he loved her, only…he still hadn’t told her. There never seemed to be the right time, and now? Now he regretted not saying it.
“Does she know that?”
He shook his head. “I kept thinking I needed the perfect moment, that the timing had to be just right.”
“To be fair, it was chaotic this weekend. Between the mock Christmas dinner, the brunch, the girls going out all day yesterday…I get it. But sometimes there isn’t a perfect moment. Sometimes you just have to put it out there!”
They stood there for a long moment without saying a word. Finally Christian placed his hand back on Carter’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Faith. You have to keep the faith.” Stepping back, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the time. “Our ride will be here in fifteen minutes. You sure you don’t want to share?”
But Carter shook his head. “My flight isn’t until four and I figured I’d hang out here a little bit longer with Mom and Uncle William and Aunt Monica.”
“All right. But call me if you start to freak out—before you take it out on Emery, okay?”
“I’m not going to freak out.”
“Carter, you’re already freaking out and her car left five minutes ago. So promise to call me when you’re feeling stressed.”
Agreeing was easier than continuing this conversation. “I promise.”
With a smile and a curt nod, Christian turned and walked back into the house, leaving Carter alone in the driveway.
Not that he stayed that way for long.
Surprisingly, it was his aunt who came out and stood beside him. She gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. When she pulled ba
ck, her smile was one of total peace and happiness.
Oh, how he envied her in that moment.
“You’re missing her already, aren’t you?”
It was pointless to pretend he didn’t know who she was talking about.
“Yup.”
“You know it’s not a bad thing to have a little time apart, right?”
He nodded.
“I watched all three of my sons let the women they loved walk away,” she said with a bit of a sigh. “And not like what you just did here with Emery, but let them walk away because of their own stubbornness. Learn from their mistakes.”
“I don’t think I’m being stubborn, Aunt Monica,” he said casually.
“Not yet. But trust me, you will. I think it’s genetic.” She gave him a sassy wink before kissing him on the cheek and going back into the house.
“Wow. That was…short and almost painless,” he murmured to himself as he went inside.
Within minutes, Sophie and Christian were saying goodbye and Megan and Alex were right there with them doing the same. In a matter of weeks they’d all be together again for Thanksgiving—this time in Portland with Megan hosting this year. She’d already asked Carter to come a few days early to help with the menu and he’d agreed. Emery had said she’d like to go with him, but hadn’t firmly committed.
That also had come up during the last few days’ discussions.
The thought didn’t get to take hold fully because he got swept up in seeing his siblings off and then he was with his aunt, uncle, and mother all chatting incessantly about what was next for all of them. They were determined to include him in the conversation no matter how hard he tried to get a few minutes to himself.
But maybe it was for the better. At least this way he was focusing on the positives and not the possibility of all that could go wrong in the coming weeks.
* * *
Emery stood on her front walkway and stared up at the home she hadn’t stepped inside of in nearly two months and felt…nothing. There were no It’s good to be home or Can’t wait to sleep in my own bed feelings. Just…nothing.
A Dash of Christmas Page 21
