A Bramble House Christmas (Carrigans of the Circle C Book 6) (6 page)

I
t was nine o’clock by the time Willa had her son back to the B&B, where he ate his snack, took a shower, and then sat through several bedtime stories. He could read most of his books himself now—a byproduct of those hours spent in hospital beds—but he still preferred to have Willa read to him at night.

It was a routine Willa cherished, because in so many other ways her son was growing up fast. They’d had to have a rollaway bed brought up to their room, for instance, because he now insisted he was too old to sleep in the same bed as her.

As she tucked him in, she brushed her hand over his new crop of hair, resisting the urge to check his temperature...just to be sure.

“What was your favorite part of the day?”

“The petting zoo,” he murmured.

“Savannah seems like a nice girl.”

“She’s okay. I really liked the puppies. And the little goats.”

Willa kissed his cheek. “I’m going downstairs to read so I don’t disturb you. I have the monitor with me, so just call out if you need me?”

He groaned, then turned over on his side. She knew he hated when she used the monitor—he was too old! He didn’t need that baby stuff—but he was also too tired to argue with her.

So she took her book and the receiver end of the monitor and, leaving the door a little ajar, went out into the hall. Eliza was coming up the stairs carrying an armful of towels.

“Oh, hi. I’ve left Scout sleeping in our room. I just wanted to check whether any other guests have booked in to the vacant rooms?” She trusted Finn, and if Santa really was staying here, she trusted him too, but she wouldn’t leave Scout if strangers were going to be milling around.

“Don’t worry, Scout will be fine. We have a woman renting out the mini apartment above the garage—but Whitney is a workaholic, we hardly ever see her. Our only other guest right now is Emma McGregor. She arrived in Marietta a week ago, alone and in her wedding dress.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“No, poor thing. She’s a lovely girl. But you won’t see her often, either. She works long hours at the Graff—plus our local high school varsity football coach has been keeping an eye on her.”

Willa’s eyebrows went up. “Oh? Is romance in the air?”

“Of course. It’s a house specialty. Hasn’t anyone warned you?”

Willa laughed, assuming she was joking.

“How did you enjoy the Christmas stroll? Did Scout finally meet Santa?”

“We had an excellent time. And Scout and Santa had quite the chat.” Willa was a little worried about it, though. How was she going to follow through on that promise Santa had made to her son?

In the sitting room Willa settled into a love seat close to the crackling fire. Ace lifted his head, found the gap between her leggings and her ankle socks, and gave her leg a lick.

She laughed. “That tickles, Ace.”

As she was petting the dog, Marshall wandered past the door. He paused, stuck his head in the door.

“Ace isn’t causing any trouble is he?”

“No, he’s adorable. How old he is? He seems to spend a lot of time resting by the fire.”

“Ace and I kind of found each other one day so I’m not sure how old he is. But he’s healthy. Eliza and I take him out snowshoeing or cross-country skiing with us almost every day. It’s just an hour—that’s all the time we can spare—but Ace gets a good workout, so he enjoys his downtime.”

Willa was impressed. “That’s great that you and Eliza make the time for each other.”

“I’d never see her otherwise. Even when you have hired staff—and Jo and Ella are great—running a B&B is more of a lifestyle than a job.”

“I haven’t met Jo or Ella yet.”

“They’re local women who do all the cleaning and the laundry. We couldn’t run the place without them.” He gave her a friendly nod. “Right now, though, I’m going out to shovel snow one more time. Hopefully it will be the last for a while. The sky is finally clear and there’s no snow in the immediate forecast.”

Once he was gone, Willa picked up her book. She’d started it on the airplane and was really getting into it. She was a few pages into Chapter Seven when Finn entered the room with a sketchbook in hand. He was wearing jeans and a gray sweater. His dark hair looked thick and soft, as if he’d just washed it.

“Mind if I join you? It looks nice and warm by the fire.”

“One of the things on my list for this vacation was to sit and read by the fire. It’s not something I get to do often in Phoenix.”

“And does it live up to expectations?”

She could feel the warmth from the fire on her toes and legs, smell sweet hickory scent in the air and hear the occasional snap and crackle from the logs. “Oh, yes.”

“I bet a cup of coffee or tea would make the experience even better. Which would you prefer?”

“Tea, thanks. Mint if they have it.”

She glanced down at her book, but the words on the page held no interest for her, anymore.

As he poured hot water into mugs and selected tea bags from the canister on the sideboard, he mentioned he’d seen her and Scout at the Graff Hotel. “I got a really good shot of Scout when he was talking to Santa. I’ll email it to you after I fix it up a bit.”

“You were there?” She hadn’t seen him. And she’d been looking.

“I took a lot of photos of the hotel. It’s a pretty neat place. I hear it was restored recently.”

“Yes, by Troy Sheenan. According to Sage from the chocolate shop he spared no expense.”

After he passed her the tea, Finn sat in a chair opposite hers and opened his sketchbook. Willa would have loved to see what he was working on so intently. But after a few moments of silence, she tried again to focus on her book. After fifteen minutes or so, she no longer had to try.

She was deep into the story when a snappy comeback from the heroine made her laugh.

Finn looked up. Their eyes met and Willa felt a zing of awareness pass between them.

She shifted in her seat. He was such an attractive man. There’d been lots of sexy cowboys at the Marietta Stroll today, but none of them were as appealing to her as this guy from Colorado sitting across from her.

Now was her chance to find out more about him.

“It’s too bad your job requires you to be away from your family at Christmas.”

“This year I actually don’t mind.”

Well that didn’t tell her a lot. “Do you travel often with your job?”

“No. It takes a lot to get me to leave my chalet. I live on the outskirts of Boulder, in the mountains. Really beautiful and peaceful.”

“That sounds wonderful.” A lot like Marietta. And so different from her home in the desert.

“It is. What’s your home like?”

“Scout and I live in a gated community connected to the golf course where my father works.” They’d moved there at her parents’ suggestion after the breakdown of her marriage. Being so close to family support when Scout was ill had been a blessing.

But lately Willa had been wondering if it might be better for her parents—as well as her and Scout—if they moved a bit farther afield. Hopefully to a younger community with kids Scout’s age.

“What does your father do at the golf course?”

“He’s the manager. He loves the sport, almost went pro when he was younger.”

“Does your entire family golf?”

“I never took to it. But my mom has played twice a week for as long as I can remember. My older sister Thea played a lot too, before she married and moved to Boston. Now she has a one-year-old daughter and absolutely no time for the game.”

“Sounds like you have a close family. Why aren’t you and Scout spending Christmas with them? If you don’t mind me asking.”

She sort of did, because it was a touchy subject. Her parents had helped her so much over the years Scout was sick. Her sister said she understood, but Willa suspected Thea felt left out, especially when their mom hadn’t been able to fly to Boston to help her after Aria was born.

But Scout had been really sick at the time. Willa was with him as much as possible. But she still had to work. And sleep. Her parents had filled in the gaps, God bless them.

“Since Scout was born, we’ve spent every Christmas with my parents. This year they decided to fly to Boston. My sister would have welcomed Scout and me, as well, but her house is small, so here we are, on our own adventure.”

More importantly, Willa knew if she and her son had travelled to Boston, her parents wouldn’t have been able to resist fussing over Scout, which wasn’t what either Thea or Scout needed right now.

Spending Christmas on her own, wasn’t Willa’s first choice.

But it had seemed the fair thing to do. At least, thanks to Mr. Conrad’s generosity, they weren’t stuck at home, where being without family would have been so much harder.

“So you mentioned you’re a nurse. Which hospital do you work at?”

“I’ve been doing private care since—” She stopped herself from saying, “since Scout got diagnosed with leukemia,” took a sip of tea instead, and then reworded her answer. “While Scout was little it was easier to work as a private nurse, for older patients. Now that he’s in school full-time I do want to go back to hospital work, hopefully as a neonatal nurse.”

She loved helping babies, and thought her own experiences with Scout would help her be compassionate and understanding with the parents.

But here she was, talking about herself again, when she’d been hoping to find out more about him. “So where is your family this Christmas?”

He shrugged. “In Seattle. My mother and sisters all live there. I left as soon as I finished college. Not a fan of rain.”

“And your father?”

He hesitated. “It’s just my mom now.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

He glanced down, and she got the feeling that his loss was new. “Would you like to talk about him? It can help when you’ve suffered a loss.”

His dark gray eyes sought out hers and she sensed something in her question had set him aback...and not necessarily in a bad way.

“Thank you. That’s kind of you. But right now I’m still processing the loss.”

“Of course. I didn’t mean to pry...” She and Scout had both gone to support groups during his years of treatment and it had helped. “If you change your mind, I’m happy to listen.”

“I’ll remember that.” He hesitated, then went on, “Feel free to tell me to mind my own business, but is Scout’s father in the picture?”

“We’ve been apart for over two years, divorced for one. Jeff does a lot of...traveling. I’m afraid Scout doesn’t get to see much of his father anymore.” Now was her chance. Before she lost her nerve, she plunged onward, “What about you? Have you ever been married?”

“Not even close.”

“Oh.” He sounded so definite.

“I’m afraid my personal observations of marriage have made me quite happy to be on my own.”

“Since my own marriage ended in divorce, I guess I can’t make an argument against your position.”

“Yet something tells me you’re not nearly as cynical about it as I am.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “That’s probably true.”

He smiled back, and she felt that same spark between them, an odd reaction given the subject of their conversation. Perhaps he was liking her despite himself.

But as she reached for her tea cup she noticed his eyes land on her ring, and, just like that, something shifted between them.

Quickly she retracted her hand. As she did so, she noticed him glancing at the Christmas tree by the window and the photograph of Mable’s mother.

“Quite a coincidence, isn’t it? That my ring looks so much like the one in that photograph?” Realizing she was playing with the band, she stopped and forced her hands flat on her thighs.

“I wonder if it is a coincidence. Didn’t you say your client mentioned Marietta to you? Maybe he had a family connection here. Possibly with the Brambles?”

Gone was Finn’s lighthearted tone, he sounded quite intense now.

But why would he care about her ring, or if it was connected to the Brambles? “The ring and my patient’s desire to visit Marietta are two separate things. I never heard him talk about them as if they were connected.”

“Can you think of another reason the rings would be virtually identical?” As he spoke, Finn leaned forward. She’d thought his eyes were gray, but the flickering light from the fire brought out flashes of silver and green. He seemed...on edge. But why?

“Maybe this ring—” she touched the band on her finger—“and the one in that photograph were purchased from the same jeweler. That would explain why they’re so similar.”

“Interesting idea.” Finn sat back as if contemplating the possibility.

“I have to admit I don’t understand why you find all of this so fascinating.”

“I’ve never been able to resist a good mystery. Given your choice of reading material,” he glanced at the book in her lap, “I figured you might feel the same.”

F
inn was so caught up in his conversation with Willa that she caught him by surprise when she suddenly made an excuse about checking on Scout and left.

He must have pushed too hard on the ring.

Maybe her conscience had started to wear on her.

He had to admit she was a lot different than he’d expected. If he hadn’t known she’d taken advantage of his father, he might actually admit to liking her. A lot.