Four For Christmas (10 page)

Was it bad timing or good? Was her holiday karma still going strong?

Chris turned and walked toward her. No. Toward Connie. “I told you she was fine, Connie. The last thing any of us want is for you to worry for no reason.”

Connie did something that, in Georgia’s memory, was very un-Connie-like. She started crying. “I know,” she sobbed. “I’m a nurse, I understand logically that it’s just hormones. But Georgia hasn’t had a Christmas since her grandfather died where she wasn’t a—“

“Connie,” Georgia interrupted, avoiding Chris’s penetrating blue eyes. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m fine. They’ve been gracious hosts. More than gracious. So stop worrying.”

Connie hugged her again. “I’m scaring you aren’t I?”

“A little.” Georgia looked at her frazzled friend and chuckled. “But isn’t this how all pregnant women act?”

Her friend’s jaw dropped. “You can tell? I’m not
that
far along.” She looked down at herself and started sniffling again. “It’s my breasts, isn’t it? Lori Ann said she couldn’t really notice the difference, but I could barely get that seatbelt across them this morning.”

She comforted her friend, acknowledging with a silent nod of thanks when Flynn brought out her jacket and placed it over her shoulders.

Simon was talking to Jimmy. “Good thing you took your vacation time this week. Some of your buddies spent the last few days snowed in at the station. You can imagine what a fun slumber party that was.”

Jimmy shook his head. “I’ll be hearing about it for months to come I’m sure. I should check on them. Make sure they aren’t planning any shootouts.”

Georgia patted Connie’s hand. “I’m just going to go get our things, then we can get you back home where it’s warm.”

She heard Jimmy’s sound of disagreement but kept walking. This was already going to be difficult. Now it would be difficult in front of a friend with matchmaking tendencies and wild hormone fluctuations, as well as a stranger.

It was no surprise when she turned around, her bag over her shoulder, to find the three men right behind her. Jimmy got to her first. “You’re going? Just like that?”

Georgia didn’t know what to say. “She drove here in a wildebeest of a vehicle, a day before your road would be cleared.
Pregnant
. Who knows how she’d react if I didn’t go.”

Jimmy opened his mouth to argue, but Chris shot him down. “She’s right, James. Connie is too early in her pregnancy to be this worked up. And she
did
come to spend Christmas with her…not us.”

Jimmy turned to Flynn. “What about you? Are you fine with this?”

Flynn glanced at Chris, then Georgia. “We knew she would be leaving us, Jimmy. And Chris is right. We don’t want to be responsible for turning a pregnant woman gray.”

Georgia’s vision blurred with tears. This was crazy. They were all reacting to the timing. That was all. Last night had been intensely intimate. It was bound to spill over into the next day. “Thank you all. For the snowmen. For bringing me here. For everything.”

She quickly kissed Chris and Flynn on the cheek, but Jimmy grabbed her arm. “What the hell is going on? What did I miss?”

“
I
missed it.” She tugged away from his touch regretfully. “I have to go.”

She walked out to find Roux poking her head out of Flynn’s bedroom. The snowcat, it seemed, had scared her. “Come on, girl. Time to take a ride.”

Her tail started wagging. She loved riding in the car. Roux had no idea yet that she was leaving her new best friends for good. That she’d never see them again. She’d be brokenhearted when she figured it out.

Georgia’s eyes were caught by a glimmer of silver. Her locket on that raggedy tree. Her throat closed. It was a gift from one of the most wonderful men she’d ever known, but she just couldn’t take it with her.

Nicholas deserved it far more than she did.

***

She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to face Simon again. Georgia sighed as she rolled out the pie dough with a bit more enthusiasm than she needed to. Not that she had any choice in the matter, since he and the rest of his quartet were coming over for dinner tonight.

Christmas Eve.

After they’d gotten on the road and headed out to the ski lodge, Connie’s hormones had calmed enough for her to realize something was very wrong with Georgia. It didn’t take much for the entire story to spill out into the air for Connie…and Simon to hear.

When she got to the part about her book, her reaction, Connie tried to be understanding, but it was plain to see she was just as confused as Chris had been.

Georgia had known she’d overreacted. That she hadn’t needed bad holiday karma to hurt three men who had been nothing but wonderful and kind and generous with her. She’d done the job just fine on her own.

Grandpa Bale would be ashamed to discover that his holiday happy granddaughter had become a Grinch.

She tossed more flour on the damp dough, peeling it off the rolling pin with absent-minded skill as she thought about him. And them. And the book.

If she had taken a moment she might have marveled at the synchronicity of it all. The tree. Their brother. Her book. In fact, someone without her grinchy blinders might call it fate.

She shook her head. Wishful thinking. She hadn’t been good enough for
that
stocking stuffer if you combined all her years on the planet. Who had? Three men just for her? Women everywhere would lead mass protests. Her name would be vilified. They would refuse to have sex with another man again unless she shared the wealth, and a national emergency would be declared.

“I think she’s daydreaming again,” Lori Ann spoke from the doorway. “That dough hasn’t got a chance.”

Connie’s laughter had her wanting to bury her face in the flour and hide. “She’s eccentric. Most writers are. She’s either been daydreaming or baking the last few days. Unless she’s daydreaming while eating what she’s baked. She saves me pieces, so I don’t complain.”

“Sorry, guys.”  Watching the happy threesome make baby plans wasn’t doing much to lift her spirits. She loved her friend, and she was truly happy for her. But she couldn’t stop thinking about the look of disappointment in Chris’s eyes. Their sadness when they read the letter from their brother.

Peppermint Schnapps.

“You should talk to Charli.” Connie squeezed her from behind, kissing her shoulder affectionately. “If you’re wondering how one woman can have a happy ever after kind of relationship with three men, she knows better than anyone.”

Georgia shook her head. “It’s an entirely different situation. They were all best friends from childhood. They knew each other. Trusted each other. Had matching sets of familiar looking luggage. We just had a few days. One night. Plus they’re brothers.”

“Foster brothers, honey, that’s a really important distinction.” Lori Ann smirked, leaning on the counter beside her. “You think that friendship makes it easier? In Charli’s mind, it only made things harder. Taking a chance on ruining something vital for something that might not work out.”

Connie nodded. “Exactly. And I’m sure I’ve told you this, but she didn’t even realize that they had feelings for her until we pointed it out. You’re welcome, Charli. And yes, she still owes us one. I’m thinking babysitting. Lots of babysitting.” She tugged one of Georgia’s curls and smiled. “Or you could always look at us. I know, it’s weird for some people, but we are blissfully happy together. And we didn’t grow up together like Charli and Company. The point is, if you find something or someone that makes you happy, how can it be wrong?”

Jimmy had said something almost exactly like that about them. Come to think of it, it reminded her of something Grandpa Bale would say. Had said. It’s how he’d always explained marrying her grandmother, even though interracial relationships had been frowned upon back then. Because he’d known, the instant he saw her. And that kind of feeling—even the chance at that kind of a feeling—was worth changing your life for.

Only a coward would run before at least giving it a chance.

She wouldn’t be surprised if a frying pan appeared out of thin air and whomped her on the top of her head. “I have to go.”

“
What
?” Lori Ann and Connie spoke in unison.

“Last minute shopping. I’m sorry about the kitchen. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Oh, is it okay if Roux stays here?”

She was already on her way out the door before Connie could answer. “Yes, of course but…oh hell.”

Chapter Eight

“
Recalculating…Recalculating…
”

“You have got to be kidding me, lady.” She was driving down a recently cleared road that seemed precarious at best, her face and hands still covered in flour, and the GPS decided, yet again, that it wanted to send her off on a wild goose chase. Or off a cliff.

And she’d been relieved when Lee and Simon had brought back her rental car.

Maybe she should turn around. The weather report said clear skies, but it would be dark soon. She hadn’t even brought her gloves. She had no idea what she was going to do when she got there anyway.

“Don’t be a coward, Georgia. You were brave enough to call Connie and tell her what you were planning. You couldn’t tell her to her face of course, but still, you did it. Now you just have to
not
crash and die on a hillside before your next Christmas.”

She missed her dog. Roux not only made her feel safe, but she was the perfect excuse when people accused her of talking to herself.

Connie
had
been wonderful. She’d cried a little bit, taken over by the romance of the moment. In the end she believed Georgia was making the right decision. At the very least, she owed them an apology. A conversation. Georgia didn’t want to be another person who just left them behind with no explanation. They deserved better.

There was a sharp curve, then the road split off in two directions. The GPS was still recalculating, and Georgia wanted to cry. She pulled over instead. Maybe the thirty miles between here and their cabin was the Bermuda Triangle of Colorado. Maybe an alien mother ship, bored while waiting for the battle on Earth, was screwing with her for laughs.

Maybe the GPS lady was a sign of the coming apocalypse.

She took a deep breath and reminded herself that imagination had a time and place. This was neither.  “Let’s just give the evil piece of technology a few more minutes, then I’ll make Connie put Lee on the phone. He’s good with directions.”

Here she was again. On the side of the road, with snow all around her and no car in sight. Had it only been six days? One week away from home and it seemed like everything had changed.

Jimmy, Chris and Flynn had changed her. Had reminded her about family, when she had literally written the book on it.
Southern Tales
had been more than a retelling of Grandpa Bale’s best stories; it had been what she’d learned growing up with him. It had been about the kind of person she wanted to be, and how she knew she could do it, because she would never be alone. He would always be there.

And then he wasn’t, and Georgia felt betrayed. It had taken her years to figure it out…it had taken three men, three days to show her.

She saw movement in the distance. Something or someone walking toward her from the road that veered off to the left. It was coming closer. And it was big.

Sasquatch?

She grabbed her cell phone, ready to take a picture just in case, when she recognized the auburn beard and heavy flannel jacket. “Chris?”

What was he doing so far from the cabin on foot? She honked her horn once and flashed her lights. He paused, then started jogging in her direction. She put her hand up to her hair. It was a sloppy mass of curls in a loose knot. But there was nothing to do about it now. Maybe he’d be so grateful for the SUV’s heater that he wouldn’t notice what a mess she was.

He came around the passenger’s side and opened the door. “Georgia? What are you doing out here alone?”

She gestured him inside and he sat down, his body twisted so he could face her. Was that worry for her in his eyes, or shock at seeing her again? “I could ask you the same thing.”

He shook his head, looking completely bemused. “My truck broke down, which it never does, and I forgot to charge my cell phone so I couldn’t call anyone.”

“So you decided to walk?”

Chris nodded. “I have a patient who lives less than a mile down that road, and I was going to use her phone to call James. See if I could borrow his car.”

Georgia nervously wiped flecks of flour off her hands. “Where are you so determined to go on Christmas Eve? I mean, it’s none of my business, but I could take you if you need a ride.”

He sighed. “Georgia why were you on the side of the road again?”

She bit her lip. “Aliens?”

“Try again.”

She might as well try the truth. “I was trying to get to the cabin and my GPS went all crazy and got me lost.” Again.

He took off his gloves and placed his large hand on hers, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Why were you coming to the cabin?”