A Perfect Bride For Christmas (24 page)

“I’m good at what I do. Besides, it’s an older

brother’s prerogative to learn all his little brother’s deep dark secrets.”

Mom laughed. “Summer of eighty-five—every

time I bought a family-size box of chocolate

cupcakes, they went missing.”

Alex felt the red creep up his neck. “Yeah, I

mean, yes ma’am. Guilty as charged. But Jesse

dared me.”

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After the giggles abated, his mother grabbed her crutches and stood. “I figured one of you boys had to be the culprit.” She turned to Heath with a smile.

“That’s why I had you keep a look out. You’d tell me the truth if it was one of the other two, and if you said no one took them, then you were the cupcake bandit. I figured Alex would get sick after a while and that would end the cupcake larceny.”

“Snitch,” Alex snarked.” To this day, he couldn’t stomach chocolate cupcakes.

“Go on, you three, turn on the television.” Mom checked the time. A quarter to six. Alex didn’t miss the way she chewed her bottom lip with worry.

The roads were bad, but Clint could drive in any condition. Hell, the man could drive across water if Jesus rode shotgun. “Don’t worry, he’ll be here.”

All three of them stared at Mom. “I’ll be fine.”

She pointed at the television with the end of her crutch. “Go on.”

“Hey, Ethan said
The Grinch
is on,” Jesse quipped.

“Arizona is playing K-State. I’d rather watch

that than a Grinch.” Heath turned on the large, flat screen television their father bought last year to watch the Super Bowl. But he didn’t sit. He moved to the line of photos decorating the fireplace mantel.

A deep furrow creased his brow and erased his

earlier smile. Mom and Dad’s wedding picture, a couple of the boys as they were growing up, Alex’s college graduation photo, and one of Heath and Dad on a fishing trip. Of the three brothers, Heath’s relationship with their father was the closest.

The whole Keeley Jacobs thing, on top of losing his best friend had to be messing with his head.

Giving his brother room to his thoughts, Alex

called dibs on the choicest seat and plopped down on the couch. Warmth filled his chest, expanded until he nearly burst with it. Love. He was home, family 189

Dyann Love Barr

around him, and now he had three little girls to call his own. And Zoe.

No, not Zoe. Sydney.

He fingered Zoe’s gold band hidden in his jeans pocket. Every time he thought of a way out of this hell he’d created, he found another knot.

“Alex.”

He stopped and looked over his shoulder as his

mother hobbled across the room towards the kitchen.

She wore the spooky ‘Mom’ smile again.

“Things happen in their own time.”

Her words were scary and reassuring at the

same time.

“Sure thing, Mom.”

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Zoe dished up beef vegetable soup for the girls and set it out to cool. She went to the bottom of the stairs and called up, “Ladies, put your toys away, we’re eating in five minutes.”

“But Mommy,” a chorus came from the playroom

upstairs.

“Hands on the clock are ticking.”

A scramble of feet accompanied by the sound of

toys being snatched off the floor and put away made Zoe smile. She felt blessed. They were her reward for all the years of humiliation and heartache. They were her treasures. Even with the talcum powder disaster.

Sydney Stanford could go to hell.

No visitation with Sydney present. It killed her to do it, but she had to watch out for her children’s best interest. The incident at Hollyfield

strengthened her resolution.

Three miniatures of Alex bounded into the room.

“We washed our hands.”

“Without me telling you to?”

They nodded in unison.

Tonight, they were dressed in pink, footie

pajamas with butterflies embroidered on the front.

To an outsider, they were identical, but Zoe could tell each one apart. Macy, the adventurer, the

instigator, sported a tiny scar over her right eye.

Michaela was more robust than the other two, her muscle tone tighter from all the activity. She wore Zoe ragged. And Mia, her thinker, her princess, said 191

Dyann Love Barr

it all in her body language. Mia walked, danced, and moved with pure grace.

“Well, that deserves something special.”

“An extra cookie?” Hope burned in Macy’s eyes.

“No.” Zoe shook her head. “You had enough

cookies today at Gramma’s. Besides, we don’t reward with food, remember?”

“Sometimes you do.” Macy had a mind like a

steel trap when it came to desserts.

“Okay, sometimes, but not tonight.” She placed

the bowls of soup on the table, and the girls

automatically got out spoons and napkins. “What do you say we watch a movie tonight? I’ll let you stay up an hour later, but you have to promise me you’ll get ready for school.”

“I want to watch Dora the Explorer.” Macy

jumped into her chair with a bounce of excitement. “I love Dora the Explorer.”

Mia placed her napkin in the neck of her

pajamas. “No, how about the one with the little girl and Santa?”

“Snow Queen?” Michaela stuck her finger in the

soup to test its warmth and licked her finger clean.

The girls argued over the movie, each trying to convince the others in loud, boisterous words.

Zoe held up her hands. “How do we decide

things?”

“The buttons.”

“That’s right. As soon as we clean up after

supper, we’ll get out the buttons. Right now, let’s say grace.”

The meal passed in relative peace and quiet

with each girl chattering on about their first meeting with their grandmother. They begged for Walter, promised they’d take care of him talked about their father and grandmother, but no one mentioned the incident with Sydney. Just as well.

“I think it’s time to get out the buttons, don’t 192

A Perfect Bride for Christmas

you?” Zoe pointed to the junk drawer that held all manner of odds and ends.

They scurried to a drawer in the kitchen

cabinet. Macy reached in and pulled out a small velvet bag. Inside were three large buttons, one pink, one yellow, and the other blue.

Macy ran, with Michaela and Mia following like

a school of little fish. Zoe held out her hand for the bag. “I want pink,” Mia called out.

Macy frowned and gave Mia a small push. “I

wanted pink.”

“Me, too,” Michaela whined.

“Well, I think we have our decision.” Zoe placed the bag on her lap and waited. The girls looked up at her in puzzlement.

“If you’re going to be crabalicious, that means bedtime instead of movie time.”

Their eyes grew round with understanding.

“I’ll take yellow.” Michaela shot Macy a warning look. “That leaves Macy with blue.”

“Okay, I’ll use the blue button,” Macy

harrumphed with an exaggerated shrug..

Zoe handed the girls the bag, and they each took turns, giving it a good shake. When they were done, Macy handed the bag back to Zoe.

“Now, let’s see which movie we watch.” She

reached in the bag and pulled out the pink button.

“Miracle on 34th Street it is.”

“Yay,” Mia shouted as she jumped up and down.

“Can we have popcorn and juice?”

Three sets of hope-filled eyes pleaded with her.

Sucker punched, as always.

“Okay, but just a little juice. I don’t want any accidents in the middle of the night.”

With that understanding, the four of them sat

on the couch and watched the story unfold. The girls 193

Dyann Love Barr

snuggled close, the smell of their baby skin filled her nose. Zoe laid her head on top of Mia’s, enjoying the feel of her on one side and Macy on the other.

Michaela had pulled a cushion off the couch and leaned against her leg. The popcorn bowl sat empty.

Eyes began to droop.

Soon the movie ended. Macy had fallen asleep,

snoring away with a half smile on her face. Michaela ended up on the floor with the pillow under her head.

“Does Santa bring you what you want for

Christmas?” Mia asked with a hint of sleep

whispering through her voice. She yawned. “If you really believe—will he?”

Zoe struggled to find the right words, to explain that Christmas wa
s
n’t about gifts. It was about love, the greatest love of all. “Baby, Santa is the spirit of Christmas. Jesus is the real reason we celebrate Christmas.”

“I know about baby Jesus.” She wriggled closer, and reached for Zoe’s hand. Her small fingers

worried her mother’s as she spoke. “He already

knows what I want for Christmas, but what if Santa doesn’t know?”

“Tell you what.” Zoe gave Mia’s hand a loving

pat and sat up straighter on the couch. The girls struggled to wake up. “Why don’t we take a trip to ToyTown, okay? Then you’ve covered all your bases.

Deal?” She kissed the top of Mia’s head.

“Deal.” The three girls nodded, groggy and ready for bed.

With the triplets abed, Zoe finally had a few

minutes alone. The house was quiet. The lights on the Christmas tree twinkled and reflected off the ornaments until they seemed to glow on their own.

She stared at the tree, thinking back to the time when she’d been so despondent, so in hopeless in her love for Alex. She cast her eyes towards the stairway 194

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and upwards. Her love lay up there in the hearts of her children, children given to her by Alex. Maybe she got what she needed, instead of what she

wanted, that strange, hurtful Christmas morning.

She pulled a lap robe over her feet and leaned

against the pillow she’d retrieved off the floor.

“Alex,” she whispered in the dark. She closed her eyes. The living room slipped away, running and fading like a ruined watercolor. Her hand rested over her racing heart, heat pooled between her legs.

The tips of her fingers traced the path his hands used to stroke her to madness. Her nipples hardened with need.

Zoe wanted to remember the last and only time

they could be together. The way his skin felt under her hands, the bunch of the hard muscles of his butt, and the rasp of the hair on his legs against her smooth skin. She licked her lips, her mouth thirsty for the kisses that would never come.

She burned with need. He’d touched her, set her on fire, and left her to burn. Her fingers reached down to touch the sensitive nub between her legs, to stroke it, but no amount of wetness could quench the flame Alex started. Still, she tried, harder and faster until she had to bit her lip to keep from screaming out his name when she tumbled over the edge

without him.

Stunned, Zoe threw the lap robe away and raced

to the downstairs powder room. She splashed water on her heated face and gripped the edge of the sink for support.

Zoe stared at her reflection. The wide-eyed

woman in the mirror had flags of red staining her otherwise pale face. She turned away to reach for a towel, still aching inside.
What a pathetic mess you
are, Zoe Bennett. Mooning over a man you can’t have.

She patted her face dry and wondered what Alex

was doing right now. Making love to Sydney? The 195

Dyann Love Barr

thought made her eyes burn with unshed tears.

She’d have to get through the wedding reception, then try to figure out a way to live without Alex.

It would be hard. Amelia made it clear she

considered Zoe family and nothing mattered more to Amelia than family.

****

filled the room when he walked through the door, along with a gigantic chip on his shoulder. Alex watched Clint, the way his eyes surveyed the room.

Clint seemed tense, as if he half expected their father to come through the door and start butting heads with him from the get-go.

“Clint,” Jesse shouted in the middle of giving

Heath a major frogging. Heath yelped and lunged at her. Jesse rolled out of his reach with a well-practiced move. She scampered off the couch to give Clint a hug.

Surprise filled Clint’s eyes. He collected himself enough to return her hug. “I’ll be damned, Jesse. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Is that Clint?” their mother called from the

kitchen. She wa
s
still on the phone, yammering away to one of her sorority sisters about a New Year’s fundraiser. She’d made the excuse she needed to make the calls, right that very minute, but didn’t fool any of them. Mom needed a distraction to keep from worrying about Clint driving over the icy roads.

A chuckle preceded Clint’s response. “Yeah,

Mom. I’m here.”

“Clinton, come give your mother a kiss.”

Clint’s eyes zeroed in on Jesse. His amber gaze skimmed over her, not in the way a man looks at someone they’d known since they were in diapers, but like he’d been hit by a semi full of hopping lust monkeys.

Alex glanced over at Jesse. The lust monkeys

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got her too.

Clint nodded and looked everywhere but at

Jesse. “Be right back.”

Jesse settled on the couch next to Heath to

watch the game, but Alex leaned back in his chair and observed his friend. She twirled the fringe on the pillow, her eyes unfocused. Jesse had never twirled fringe in her life.

K-State fumbled the ball.

“Arizona is going to beat K-State’s ass back to the Stone Age.” Heath gave Jesse a little nudge.

“They’ll rally.” He glanced at Jesse. “Don’t you think, Jesse?” Jesse acted like her Alma Mater danced
the Nutcracker Suite instead of playing down and dirty football. She blinked and stammered, “Oh. Ah,

yeah.”

“See, little brother,” Heath crowed.

Alex tossed a rolled up paper at Heath. “No way can Arizona beat K-State. Don’t you know Jesse’s never wrong about football?”