Somebody to Love

by Ann Christopher

  Sure enough, she raised her brows as she sent him a sidelong glance. Pursed her lips. “Busy sidewalk outside the restaurant yesterday, wasn’t it? You announcing your feelings for Amber in front of God and everybody. Me meeting Amber for the first time—”

  Sean did a double take. “Hold up. That was your first time meeting her?”

  “Yep,” Reeve said with a wry smile. “The whole thing was like an episode of some campy talk show.”

  Sean absorbed this news in silence, wondering why Amber hadn’t mentioned it to him. For right now, he had bigger fish to fry and limited time with Reeve, judging from the speculative looks Edward kept shooting in their direction.

  “You probably noticed that your boy Ed and Amber had a fairly intense conversation out there on that busy sidewalk,” he said with as much nonchalance as he could muster, which was about .2 micrograms.

  With that, she turned to face him, her eyes narrowed and shrewd, maybe with a glimmer of amusement.

  “I did notice. Why do you ask, fellow outsider?”

  Sean managed an offhand shrug.

  “I’m just wondering what we should make of that.” He paused. “As outsiders who presumably don’t want our guts kicked in.”

  “I see. And are you asking me as the mature woman you see standing before you, or as the scared little girl hidden deep inside?”

  “Both.”

  Reeve took a deep breath, finished the rest of her champagne and set her empty glass on the railing with the firm thunk.

  “The mature woman in me is confident in her relationship with Edward. She knows that she loves him and he loves her. She knows that everything will work out for the best in the end.”

  “And the scared little girl?”

  “She snuck out of bed in the middle of the night and ate an entire pint of rocky road ice cream while curled in the fetal position. Which is not easy to do. It’s all well and good to be confident and mature until you get a good look at Amber and see how beautiful she is and remember that she’s the mother of his child. And I will deny to my dying day that I ever said that.”

  “I would never violate the seal of the confessional deck,” he said grimly.

  “Good,” she said with open relief.

  “He’s not jealous, is he?”

  Reeve looked stricken.

  “God, I hope not. I hope he’s just taking a minute to adjust to the new landscape. The same way it took me a minute to adjust to seeing him with Amber yesterday. You seem very smitten, by the way.”

  A sheepish flush overtook him from head to toe, making him grateful for the relative darkness outside. He tried to look sufficiently shocked and outraged.

  “Smitten?”

  “Smitten.” She narrowed her eyes to study him a little more closely, then nodded sagely. “You want to hear my prediction? We’ll all be together for the holidays next year. Edward and I. You and Amber. Ella. We’ll be like one of those blended Hollywood families, where everyone wears matching footed pajamas at their joint Christmas breakfast table every year. You’ll see.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Sean held up his hands and backed up a step, as freaked out by the idea of a joint holiday as he was by how much the idea appealed to him. And all over a woman he barely knew and may or may not even be dating. “Let’s not get crazy. Why don’t we keep things a little more realistic? Let’s just hope they don’t decide that they want each other back,” he said, the mere thought tying his gut up in knots.

  “Yeah,” she said, matching his funereal tone. “Let’s. Way to kill the holiday spirit.”

  “That’s what I’m all about. Keeping expectations low.”

  She rolled her eyes, smothered a laugh and whacked him on the arm just as running footsteps announced the arrival of—

  “Sean! Hi, Sean!”

  “Hey, Ella!” He scooped her up and settled her on his hip, as thrilled to see her as she evidently was to see him. She wore a cute little red velvet dress with lacy trim, matching socks and shiny black shoes. The whole toddler holiday deal. She looked adorable, especially with those giant brown eyes designed solely for the purpose of melting hearts. Exactly like her mother’s, which made him wonder how he’d ever missed the fact that Ella had to be Amber’s daughter and no one else’s. “How’re you doing, Munchkin?”

  Her little mouth popped open, giving her the fat-cheeked appearance of a startled chipmunk. “What’s munchkin?”

  Sean frowned, running a few quick computations in his head and deciding that she might be a bit young for the Wicked Witch of the West and all her shenanigans. “The munchkins are in the movie The Wizard of Oz.”

  “You show it to me,” she commanded Sean, anointing him for the task with a firm pat on the chest.

  “You may not be ready for that one, Little Girl,” said Edward, looking beleaguered and shooting Sean a flinty look as he met up with them at the railing and started to take Ella with his free arm. “And kindly stop running away from me all the time. You forgot your book.”

  “No, Daddy.” Ella tightened her grip around Sean’s neck and stayed where she was as she took the book from Edward. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Sean noticed when she held it out for him to see. “You read it, Sean.”

  Sean and Reeve exchanged a veiled oh, shit look, knowing that this innocent request was the rough equivalent of a gallon of gasoline thrown onto their simmering fire. Sure enough, Edward’s jaw tightened as he reached out and firmly took his daughter from Sean.

  Sean tried to keep his face blandly polite, but that was like trying not to wince when you sucked on a lemon.

  “I can read it to you later, Ella,” Edward said, passing the girl to Reeve, who immediately smoothed her hair and kissed her fat little cheek. “I want to talk to Sean for a minute.”

  “Wait!” Ella kicked her feet for emphasis, reached into some hidden pocket of her dress and withdrew a strip of stickers. Sean watched, lump in his throat, as she carefully unstuck one and handed it to him. “It’s a Christmas sticker, Sean.”

  It sure was. Sean noted the smiling panda with Santa Claus hat as he put the sticker over his heart and rubbed it hard to make sure it stayed put. He couldn’t have been more touched if she’d gifted him with the keys to his own restaurant.

  “Thanks, Ella,” he said gruffly. “I love it.”

  Ella beamed at him, carving another little chunk of his heart for herself.

  “Let’s go over here, Ella,” Reeve said smoothly, shooting Edward a narrowed Behave! look and Sean a look of dark significance, as though she fully expected him to do his part for their cause and talk Edward out of it if he announced that he planned to reconcile with Amber. Then she took Ella and walked over to where Ada, Nigel, Daniel and Zoya all stood whispering amongst themselves and watching the proceedings with keen interest. Ada immediately clapped her hands and took Ella, who seemed only too happy to perch on her grandmother’s hip. Reeve and Sofia put their heads together to talk and went inside, lobbing a final concerned glance in Sean and Edward’s direction.

  Edward focused on Sean. Sean waited, brows raised.

  Edward cleared his throat. “So that was awkward. Yesterday.”

  “I’d say so.”

  Edward nodded grimly. “We cool?”

  “We should be,” Sean said, keeping a tight grip on the unstated end of that sentence, something along the lines of as long as you don’t get any funny ideas about getting back together with Amber, which wasn’t easy. It was early days yet. And while he may have made his intentions perfectly clear, he didn’t have any rights here and he knew that.

  Edward studied Sean’s face for a beat or two, then shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded, looking mollified.

  But Sean wasn’t quite there yet. “Funny how you have a problem with me holding Ella all of the sudden. That was never an issue before. What gives?”

  “What gives is that one of these days, probably sooner rather than later, Amber will find someone. Get married and start a new family. Which she deserve
s. But that means that some new man will be playing a giant role in my kid’s life.” Edward ducked his head, having the grace to look ashamed. “And I just got a good look at that up close.”

  Sean thought it over and decided that he’d also probably be sub-thrilled at the prospect of some new man as a potential father figure for his children. Not that he had kids. Yet. Or that he considered himself a potential father figure for Ella. Of course not. Any thoughts along those lines would be absurd this early in the proceedings.

  Wouldn’t they?

  “Fair. But you and I are cool. We’ve never had any problems with each other. Don’t forget that.”

  Edward thought that over. Nodded. “Fair.”

  Sean let out his breath, feeling that they’d cleared the air, mutually dodged a bullet and were now free to enjoy the holiday weekend in peace and harmony. But then Edward had to open his big fat mouth.

  “I don’t know what’s going to happen with you two but… Just be good to Amber,” he said.

  Sean paused to make sure he’d heard correctly, ran this directive through his mind a third time and almost choked on his sudden outrage.

  What the fuck?

  The dude who’d wasted nearly a decade of Amber’s life before cutting her loose, breaking her heart and hooking up with someone else wanted Sean to be good to her?

  “You want me to be good to her? Are you serious?”

  “Dead serious,” Edward said, maintaining eye contact although he had the decency to look uncomfortable. “She deserves a good guy after all she’s been through—”

  “All you put her through, you mean?” said Sean, who couldn’t help himself.

  “—someone who really appreciates her, yeah,” Edward said, holding his gaze.

  “Well, luckily that guy is now on the job,” Sean said, his voice deathly quiet.

  Edward studied him for a lengthy beat or two, evidently choosing to overlook these shots fired over his bow. He also ignored Sean’s desire to bloody his lips with a nice right jab, which had to be written all over Sean’s face at this seething juncture.

  Instead, Edward nodded. Eased back a little.

  “Good,” Edward said with unmistakable satisfaction just as their audience, who evidently scented danger on the wind, hurried over.

  “We just had a big fire at the restaurant yesterday,” Ada said worriedly. “The whole family is trying to smooth things over with Isaiah. Ethan and Isaiah may kill each other before the weekend is over. The last thing my fragile nerves need is more conflict between two of my boys.”

  Sean flushed with pleasure at being included as one of Ada’s “boys.” The designation meant the world to him because God knew he considered her a surrogate mother. But then things took a turn.

  “And Amber is like a daughter to me,” Ada continued sternly. “I don’t want her hurt again. So you boys get your act together. And I expect you to be on your best behavior with her, Sean. If you acted a fool with the women back in Napa, you’d better unlearn that behavior quick, fast and in a hurry.”

  Sean, who had indeed let the dog in him run free whenever possible back in Napa, not that he wanted to be reminded of that now, turned accusatory eyes on Daniel, his big-mouthed best friend.

  “What the hell, man?” Sean cried. “Will you stop singing like a canary for once in your nosy life?”

  “I could. But why?” Daniel said with unrepentant glee.

  “Zoya, will you lock this kind of shit down when you marry this clown?” Sean asked Daniel’s fiancée.

  “You and I both know that’s probably impossible,” Zoya said sadly.

  Everyone laughed except Nigel.

  “Are you telling me that Sean is hooking up with Amber now?” he asked his wife, his expression befuddled. “Why doesn’t anyone tell me these things?”

  “Daniel does his best to tell everybody everything,” Sean said darkly. “All the time.”

  More laughter all around.

  “Come on, gang,” Ada said, passing Ella back to Edward. “I’m getting cold out here. And we have pizza to make.”

  They all streamed through the French doors and into the welcome warmth inside, where Nigel clapped his hands.

  “Let’s get this party started,” he said happily.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Though Sean had seen the lodge’s open concept interior when he arrived earlier, there was just no getting used to it. The place had a massive foyer and staircase. A vaulted first floor that was roughly the length of a football field. A white-uniformed chef bustling around the gourmet kitchen, a breakfast area and dining area built to accommodate around fifty of your closest friends, a massive stone hearth with a crackling fire, a family room area with a foosball table, ping-pong table, several sofas, recliners and love seats and a wall-mounted big-screen TV that had probably been borrowed from the local multiplex. God knew how many bedrooms upstairs. Topping it all? A spectacular Christmas tree with white lights sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the mountains.

  Several pets participated in the festivities, including James’s blue-eyed husky named Frank, Raymond’s Jack Russell Terrier Bobsy, both of whom were outfitted in Christmas bandannas, and Isaiah’s surly new Maine coon cat, who was thankfully confined to his carrier for the moment, but managed to convey his hostile mood by turning his yellow-eyed glare and hiss on anyone who came too close.

  “Hey, Sean.” The eight-year-old-ish twin with the glasses—Noah—sidled up to Sean during the pizza making, just as Sean helped himself to a handful of pepperoni slices. Sean had gotten to know Noah and his brother Jonah, who were James Harper’s new stepsons, quite well over the last few months and was always eager to see what kind of mischief they stirred up on any given day. “Did you get your Christmas pajamas from Isaiah?”

  “They’re just like ours.” Jonah, the other twin, spun and showcased his own plaid flannel pajama bottoms in an impressive Vanna White imitation. Then he pointed to the collection of gift bags lining the sideboard. “Make sure you put them on with your slippers after dinner. Before we watch Home Alone. We can’t start the movie until everyone has their pajamas on. Don’t ruin it.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Sean said, stifling a laugh.

  “So listen,” Noah said, leaning closer and adopting a conspiratorial air that immediately made Sean suspicious. Especially when Noah cast a furtive glance at his mother, Miranda, James’s new wife, evidently to make sure she remained out of earshot down at the other end of the counter. “We couldn’t help but notice that you brought us a present.”

  “Is that right?” Sean said, working hard to look stern as he arranged pepperonis on his pie. “And how would you have noticed that if you were minding your own business and behaving like all kids are supposed to do before Christmas?”

  “We were putting the presents under the tree,” Jonah cried, outraged. “We didn’t do anything wrong!”

  Miranda paused in her own pizza making to frown over at them.

  “Is there a problem, Jonah?” she called.

  “Nope!” the twins said in stereo, flashing cheesy grins and looking as convincing as if they were trying to pass off Monopoly money as the real deal.

  “Keep it that way,” Miranda said, narrowing her eyes at them.

  The twins ducked their heads and froze until she went back to what she was doing, then immediately refocused on Sean.

  “So how come there’s only one present for both of us?” Noah asked in his stage whisper.

  “Everyone else is giving us two presents,” Jonah said. “Not that we’re greedy or anything.”

  “It’s a present that both of you can share,” Sean said, now applying mozzarella to his pizza.

  “What, you mean like waiting our turns?” Jonah asked in open dismay. “We suck at that. Ask anyone.”

  “No,” Sean said, losing his battle not to laugh. “It’s something you can do together.”

  “Oh,” Noah said, looking slightly mollified. “Can we take a peek? I
t’s in a gift bag. We could just push the tissue paper aside and check it out.”

  “There’s no peeking before Christmas,” Sean said, deciding that now was not the time to mention the year that he’d discovered his wrapped Christmas presents hidden in the attic, unwrapped them, played with them and then rewrapped them and feigned surprise on Christmas morning with his parents none the wiser.

  “Please!” Jonah said, hitting Sean with a dose of those soul-melting kid’s eyes. “We won’t tell! What could it hurt?”

  Sean heaved a harsh sigh and made a show of scrunching up his face to think it over. “So you two are going to be cool, right? Best behavior through the weekend? Listening to your mom and all that?”

  “Of course,” Noah said, his eminently reasonable tone capable of fooling only those people who had never met the twins.

  “Okay,” said Sean. “Don’t make me regret this.”

  The twins stifled a squeal of triumph.

  The three coconspirators hastily finished their pizzas and handed them to the chef for baking in the pizza oven outside, whereupon the dogs intercepted Sean. He’d just taken a step toward the living room and the Christmas tree when Frank appeared out of nowhere and sat at his feet, blocking him as he raised a paw to shake. Bobsy, not to be outdone by his comrade, sat back on his haunches and raised both paws to beg.

  “What the—?” Sean said, bemused.

  “It’s fine,” Jonah said, breezily flapping a hand. “They just want their share of your pizza toppings. Just give them a little bit of cheese and they’ll go on to the next person.”

  “Sounds like extortion,” Sean said darkly, tossing each dog a tiny piece of mozzarella. Sure enough, the dogs yapped their thanks and headed in Miranda’s direction. Sean wiped his hands and continued on his way with the twins. “I wasn’t aware that dogs could join the Mafia.”

  “Hurry.” The twins each took one of Sean’s hands and hustled him to the tree, steering him around to the back side and out of everyone else’s line of sight in the kitchen. “Before Mom sees us.”