Holiday Affair (16 page)

“Nah. We should bet real money!” Michael’s eyes lit up again. “I’m pretty good at games. Even aggravating ones, like Chutes and Ladders. I think I could win. And I
don’t
want any boring old pinecones either. Who wants to win pinecones?”

Reid laughed, shaking his head. “I think your mother might have something to say about us playing poker for real money.”

“I doubt it.” Josh neatened the edges of a block of snow. “You wouldn’t
believe
what it takes before our mom even notices what’s going on! She’s been pretty distracted lately.”

“Yeah.” Michael nodded. “She took us to school when she was wearing her PJs.”

The boy made a face, clearly aggrieved at the memory.

“Shut up, Michael!” Josh frowned at him, then shot a self-conscious look at Reid. He gave his brother a shove. “It wasn’t a big deal. At least we
have
a school. Alexis and Nicole don’t. We’re not supposed to rub it in, remember? Olivia told us—”

“I
wasn’t
rubbing it in!
I
think it’s cool that Alexis and Nicole have their own teacher all to themselves. Amanda is nice. If Mrs. Wheeler would be just
my
teacher, that would be great!”

Josh glanced at Reid. “He’s in love with his teacher,” he explained, rolling his eyes. “It’s a stage. We’ve all been through it. But Mrs. Wheeler is
not
exactly thrilled.”

At Josh’s world-weary tone, Reid stifled a grin. “Mrs. Wheeler is probably just playing it cool, that’s all,” he said. “First-grade teachers are famous for being especially lovable. So it’s no wonder Michael’s fallen for this one.”

“See, Josh?
Reid
understands!” Michael crowed. His gaze, glowing and happy, settled on Reid. “Thanks, Reid.”

“No problem. I’m happy to help,” Reid told him. “Just remember, when the time comes to move on from Mrs. Wheeler—”

“I’ll
never
move on!” Michael vowed, eyes wide. “Never!”

“—just promise me you’ll let her down easy, okay?”

Michael appeared to consider that. Then, solemnly, he gave Reid a nod. “Okay. I promise I’ll be gentle with Mrs. Wheeler.”

“Good man.”

“But I still won’t ever quit loving her!”

“I know.” Reid gave Michael’s knit cap an affectionate tug. He smiled at the boy. “Once you give a woman your heart, you don’t ever get it back. Not all in one piece anyway.”

Josh nodded. “He means because it’s broken,” he informed Michael in a sophisticated tone. “Women break your heart.”

“Not all the time,” Reid surprised himself by saying. “Sometimes, a woman makes your heart feel bigger too.”
Like your mom does to me.
“Sometimes, I feel as though my heart is just pushing at my chest, growing way too big to be contained.”

Josh squinted. Nodded. “That’s just a hard-on, Reid. It happens to every guy some of the time. You’ll get over it.”

Straight-faced, Reid looked at him. “You think so?”

“Yeah. It’s not a big deal. My mom told me so.” Josh sighed. “She wanted to give me a book about it too, but she decided to wait until my dad was around to have a ‘discussion.’”

Josh shook his head, as though the vagaries of adult interaction were beyond ridiculous. Reid smiled at him, wondering if Karina knew exactly how far afield her motherly attempts to explain love and anatomy to her son had gone.

“I have to disagree with your mom on that one,” he said. “It’s
always
a big deal.” And not in a ribald sense either. Love—and hard-ons—were nothing to joke about. “The first time a girl makes you feel as though your heart is getting bigger, Josh…Well, you won’t ever forget her, that’s for sure.”

“Like Mrs. Wheeler!” Michael piped up.

“That’s right,” Reid agreed, adding another snow block.

“Sure,” Josh declared. “Maybe. Until you go and get divorced from her. Then I’ll bet you forget all about her.”

And the three kids you had with her too!
his wounded expression said. Saddened by his tone, Reid frowned. He couldn’t help whatever hurt feelings Josh had about his parents’ divorce. But he could tell the truth now. So that’s exactly what he did.

“Some people are way too special to be forgotten about,” Reid said. “I’d put the two of you firmly in that category.”

Michael grinned openly. Shyly, Josh ducked his head.

“Not just anyone learns how to make an igloo this quickly,” Reid pointed out as proof. “You boys are geniuses at this.”

This time, Josh did look up. Then he grinned too.

More importantly, though, he also withdrew from his pocket Reid’s B&B keys. With an oh-so-casual movement, Josh dropped the keys on the snow, just out of sight behind their miniature igloo. At the movement, Reid raised his eyebrows.

He’d noticed when Josh had pinched his keys, of course, right before the boy had lofted that diversionary question about eating whales. Josh might have the makings of a budding poker player, as Reid had pointed out, but he was hardly a master thief. His actions had been easy to track—especially for Reid, a man who’d traveled among the world’s best pick-pockets.

“Hey, you found my keys.” Reid plucked them from the snow.

Josh’s cheeks colored scarlet. “Uh, yeah. I did.”

“In your pocket,” Reid clarified. “You stole them.”

“No, I didn’t! I borrowed them, that’s all.”

“You stole them. That’s wrong.”

“I couldn’t help it.” Josh gulped. “I was upset.”

“Learn to help it,” Reid told him. “Practice. Whenever you feel like sneaking something into your pocket, just wait. Thirty seconds, two minutes…whatever you can manage. You can do it. Eventually, you won’t feel like taking anything anymore.”

“Oh yeah? Well, maybe I don’t want to.” Stubbornly, Josh stared at the igloo. He folded his arms, his parka crinkling. “Maybe that’s a stupid idea, and I’m not going to do it.”

Reid shrugged. “Okay. Suit yourself.” He nudged Michael, jolting the boy out of what appeared to be a growing fascination with his miscreant brother. “Hey, good job on that last ice block. How about if we take a break for some hot cocoa?”

“Yeah!” Michael leaped to his feet, snow pants and all. His knees were caked with snow. “Do you have marshmallows too?”

“I think so. We can check with the cooks.” Reid smiled at him. Then he turned to a sulking Josh. “You coming, Josh?”

The boy ignored him, his butt firmly planted on the snow.

“If you’re going to stay out here,” Reid said, “see if you can straighten up that bottom row. Our igloo looks crooked.”

With relish, Josh kicked his booted foot through one of the snow blocks they’d made. It shattered upon impact.

Blandly, Reid examined the damage. Beside him, Michael goggled. He took Reid’s hand. Reid squeezed it reassuringly.

“You can join us inside whenever you want, Josh,” he said.

Then he guided Michael back toward The Christmas House for that cup of cocoa. Behind them, snow blocks disintegrated under Josh’s kicking feet, sending powdery flurries into the air. Reid just kept going. Next to him, Michael glanced back worriedly.

“Josh looks mad,” he said. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Yep.” Reid tossed his keys in his gloved hand, listening to the grunting and kicking behind him. A clump of snow sailed into the air, then shattered on Reid’s head. Brushing off its remnants, Reid gave a nostalgic grin. He couldn’t help being reminded of his own childhood…all over again. “Josh is going to be fine. Just as soon as he gets whatever’s bugging him out of his system.”

“But…wait.” Michael’s worried gaze met his. “Don’t you think we should stay here and talk to him about it? That’s what my mom does. She talks. A lot. About everything. She says talking helps people.”

“Talking is good,” Reid agreed. “But maybe not this time.”

“Not this time?” Michael seemed flabbergasted at the very idea—and a little thrilled too. “Why not?”

“Because we might need to save our energy,” Reid said, still listening to Josh’s destructive fury as they walked toward the B&B. “We might need to build Josh more than one igloo.”

…From the desk of Betty Sullivan
D
ECEMBER
21
ST
L
OCATION
: T
HE
C
HRISTMAS
H
OUSE
S
CHEDULED
E
VENT
: “O
LD
-F
ASHIONED
G
ARLAND
M
AKING
: P
OPCORN
& C
RANBERRIES
”—2:00 P.M.
TO
4:00 P.M.

By the time Reid encountered his fourth mishap in two days’ time at The Christmas House, he started feeling fed up. First, someone left on a hose outside overnight, causing the B&B’s pipes to freeze and creating an impromptu ice patch in the front yard. It looked dangerous—and it was—until Reid recruited Nate and a few other locals to purposely thicken the ice and turn it into a bona fide (if pint-sized) ice-skating rink. Then it looked like fun, especially to his more adventuresome guests.

“You’re lucky you caught this.” Nate shook his head as he watched their winter visitors glide across the ice on borrowed skates. “Someone could have slipped and fallen out here.”

“And sued the B&B for all it’s worth!” Vanessa added.

“It’s fine now,” Reid said. “Especially with the warning signs and temporary fencing we put up.” Then he went on to deal with the next disaster: a huge, black gash of graffiti plastered on one of the B&B’s signature transport vans.

Standing beside Reid as he examined it, Josh woefully shook his head. “It looks like the van that takes you to prison.”

Feeling concerned despite himself, Reid frowned. “How do you know what the van that takes you to prison looks like?”

“Easy.” Josh affected a macho pose. “Video games.”

“Huh.” Warmly, Reid tugged on the boy’s hood. “Figures.”

“We could have it repainted,” one of Reid’s staff members suggested. “But the van would be out of service for a few days.”

“That won’t work. We’ve got our annual holiday lights tour tonight!” Agitatedly, Vanessa consulted their grandmother’s schedule. “It’s one of the biggest events of the year in Kismet, aside from the Christmas parade. How are we supposed to transport all our guests to Glenrosen”—the neighborhood most famous for its holiday lights display—“if we’re short a van?”

“I dunno.” Then the staff member suggested, “Travel in shifts?”

“That could work,” Reid agreed. He didn’t understand the appeal of staring at other people’s yards full of Christmas lights anyway. Boooring. But then he glanced at Vanessa, who was worriedly scrutinizing her clipboard, and knew he had to solve this issue. For her. “I have another idea,” he said. “Wait here. I’ll be right back. I need to consult with an expert first.”

Ten minutes later, upon Reid’s instructions, Amanda was leading all their guests—children and willing adults alike—in a spontaneous decoupage session. Armed with a full contingent of craft supplies, a couple of stepladders, and a great deal of holiday cheer, Nicole and Alexis’s nanny/tutor tackled the job with her usual vigor. In a surprisingly short period of time, the offensive graffiti was gone—replaced by cheerful, handily shellacked holiday gift wrap, completely covering the van.

Dubiously, Michael peered at it. “It looks like Christmas barfed all over the van.” Slowly, he grinned. “I
love
it!”

“It’s…unique,” Karina said when she saw it. Alexis and Nicole, who hadn’t strayed far from her side for days, nodded in agreement. They twirled their pink spangled scarves. They bobbed their heads, making their glitter-covered, felt reindeer-antler headbands wiggle. “It definitely says ‘The Christmas House.’”

At their headgear, Reid did a double take. His daughters usually weren’t fans of girly, froufrou accessories. But for the duration of their time stateside, Reid had decided not to bug them about it. Alexis and Nicole were getting older. Maybe they were enjoying having Karina’s feminine influence in their lives. They definitely seemed to be enjoying Olivia’s “sisterly” influence. The three girls had become nearly inseparable.

Besides, it wasn’t long before the third problem popped up, and Reid had to deal with that. It started out innocently enough. He came downstairs one morning, feeling as though he’d slept surprisingly well for a man who’d spent several consecutive nights celibately alone in his big, empty sleigh bed, and found himself stepping on…something. Frowning, he lifted his booted foot and plucked off a shard of…something.

Squinting, Reid identified it. A piece of gift wrap.

It felt wet and sloppy, and it looked frayed at the edges, too. Realizing it was probably a remnant of the van decoupage session, he threw it in the trash, then went to get some coffee.

Partway there, he ran into Vanessa. His cousin already had her coffee. She held her cup aloft as she scrutinized the hall floor. As he watched, she balanced on one foot, then pulled a scrap of red and green gift wrap from the sole of her boot.

“There’s gift wrap out here too, huh?” Reid asked.

“Yeah. It’s weird. I’ve been finding these bits of paper all over the place today.” Vanessa crossed the hallway to discard the errant gift wrap in a bin. Then she directed her gaze higher, to his darkly stubbled jawline. Her grin broadened. “You too, Sasquatch?”

Reid rubbed his face. “I’m on strike from shaving.”

“Hmmm. Any particular reason?”

Reid thought of Karina—and the way she’d all but purred as she’d stroked his shadowy beard, the one night they’d been together. “It reminds me of happier days. Until they come back, I’m not shaving again. It’s…a Zen tactic I learned in Tibet.”

“Uh-huh. Since when is a nookie beard ‘Zen’?”

Busted. Reid decided to play dumb. “Huh?”

“If Karina is over you already,” his cousin opined regretfully, “then growing a gnarly nookie beard won’t help.”

“It’s not gnarly.” And the idea of Karina being over him didn’t bear thinking about. Offended, Reid frowned at the floor. He spotted a few more scraps of gift wrap. He bent to pick them up. “And I’ve never heard of a nookie beard. You made that up.”

“Hmmm. Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t.” Giving him a contemplative look, Vanessa slurped more coffee. “Either way…do Alexis and Nicole know you’re pining over their new best friend? They might have something to say about your hooking up with Karina, now that they’re so close with her and Olivia.”

“No. But who knows?” Reid said semidefensively. “They might be fans of the idea of my hooking up with Karina.”

Which was ridiculous, it occurred to him. His daughters didn’t even know about him and Karina. As far as he knew, they hadn’t even guessed about his onetime liaison with her. But Reid sure as hell hadn’t asked Alexis and Nicole if he could do the wild thing with Helene. So why was he considering what his daughters’ reactions to another hookup with Karina might be?

He’d always shielded Nicole and Alexis from the romantic side of his private life. Over the past few years, Reid had turned down more invitations than he’d taken advantage of. He hadn’t wanted to create conflicts with his daughters’ needs or compromise the time he wanted to spend with them. Thinking about things now, though, Reid realized it might be nice if he could have a relationship with a woman openly. Lovingly. Enjoyably.

“For all you know,” he told his cousin, “Nicole and Alexis might give their blessing to my being with Karina.”
So there.

His triumph was short-lived. Vanessa gasped.

“Aha! You’ve thought about it then!” she said. “You’ve thought about what Alexis and Nicole would think if you and Karina got together full-time.” Vanessa’s know-it-all grin broadened. Aggravatingly. “That means you’re serious, cuz!”

He was? “I never said that. You’re getting ahead of—”

“You’re really into Karina! Oh. My. God!” Vanessa put down her coffee cup, then busted into a dance move. “Alexis and Nicole are going to have a stepsister! And stepbrothers! Cool!”

Belatedly, Reid realized he had to ignore this outburst. Vanessa was only upping the ante in an effort to make him confirm or deny her suspicions. This was a fishing expedition, pure and simple. He couldn’t play along. It was better, he’d learned,
not
to encourage Vanessa’s matchmaker tendencies.

His cousin thought she was a master relationship builder. In reality, she was terrible at knowing who might be happy together. She would do better as a professional
breakup
artist. But everyone who knew Vanessa loved her too much to put an end to her “hobby.” When confronted with Vanessa’s joyful pride in her “skills,” everyone who knew her simply caved in…and let her go on believing in her supposed romantic expertise.

One of these days, Reid knew, someone would regret that.

“It’s about time you quit gallivanting all over the place and settled down to a regular life,” Vanessa said. “We’ve all been waiting for you to come to your senses, you know.”

No. Reid hadn’t known that. But he should have guessed, given the thinly veiled criticism he’d been getting from his Kismet friends, neighbors, and relatives about “being responsible” and “getting on board” with a “normal job.” Even Karina had jumped in with both feet, Reid remembered, on the day of her sleigh ride accident. She’d all but come out and said his globe-trotting ways were selfish and unfair to his daughters.

He hadn’t liked that much. That’s why he hadn’t given it any further thought. Although he
had
thought about Karina….

“Does Karina know how you feel?” Vanessa prodded. “Did you tell her? What did she say?” She hugged herself. “I
knew
it! I knew the two of you would be a perfect match. Yes! Score!”

Uh-oh. On second thought, if Vanessa thought she’d put together him and Karina, they were doomed for sure.

Uneasily, Reid frowned. He needed to end this. Now.

“There’s more wrapping paper under that table.” He headed in that direction and picked it up. “It’s forming a trail….”

He tracked the remnants of tattered, twisted, occasionally sodden bits of colorful paper. Some were gilded. Some were textured. Some were stuck together with tape fragments. All led down the hallway toward the B&B’s front room.

“I can tell by your stupid macho silence that you haven’t said a word to Karina about how you feel.” Vanessa trailed him, her voice and footsteps right behind him. “You’ve got to tell her that you love her! You were just like this before you and Gabby got engaged. Do you remember? You were moody and curt—”

“Shut up. Pick up the paper.”

“See?” Vanessa crowed. “Moody! And curt! It’s love!”

“It’s not love.” Abruptly, Reid brought a larger scrap of gift wrap to his nose. It smelled familiar. “It’s liver treats.”

His cousin laughed. “Look, I know you’ve been living in some pretty remote locales lately, but if that’s your idea of a romantic declaration, we have a
lot
of work to do. What if Karina is vegan? Liver treats won’t exactly endear you to her.”

“No.” Impatiently, Reid waggled the paper at Vanessa. “It’s liver treats. On the gift wrap.” He took a few more steps, all the way into the B&B’s front room. “Somehow, for some reason, someone smeared liver treats all over this wrapping paper.”

A rhythmic thumping sound alerted him to a possible outcome of that action. Reid followed it…all the way to Digby the dachshund. The dog lay amid dozens of ripped-apart gift packages, tail wagging madly, as he tore into another box.

“Oh. No.” Vanessa exhaled. “Look at all the packages!”

“Or at least what’s left of them.” Peering through the wreckage of chewed-up gift wrap, Reid identified sweaters and scarves, toys and books, CDs and games and bottles of perfume. Swaddling them all were festively colored drifts of slobbered-on wrapping paper, courtesy of Digby. “No wonder I slept so well last night,” Reid said. “My hyperactive roommate was—”

“Stop!” Vanessa held up her palm. “Don’t shatter my illusions! Now is
not
the time to reminisce about your hot date.” She added encouragingly, “Unless it was Karina?”

“—down here destroying all our guests’ Christmas gifts.”

Without Digby snoring, pacing, and playing with his chew toy all night, Reid realized, he’d been able to snooze freely.

Appearing baffled, Vanessa picked up a floating scrap of gift wrap. She sniffed it. Winced. “Phew. This stuff stinks!”

“Digby seems to like it.” Reid patted the dog. He shooed him outside, then methodically began cleaning up gift wrap.

When his guests got wind of this destruction, they wouldn’t be happy. They’d entrusted the B&B with their gifts, which had been accumulating under both Christmas trees for days now, following several B&B-sponsored shopping trips. The Christmas House had promised to keep those gifts safe. Instead, they’d inadvertently allowed them to be strewn far and wide, separated from their identifying tags, and dappled with dog drool.

How, Reid wondered, was he going to explain this?

“Did someone actually smear liver treats on wrapping paper and leave it under the tree?” Mystified, Vanessa picked up an empty box lid. She used it to corral the paper she gathered. “If so, we’d better keep that in mind for next year. No dog treats allowed. Nothing edible, period. That way, next year—”

“We won’t be here next year. Edgware will be.”

“Oh. Yeah.” His cousin sighed. “Still…What a mess!”

“And nobody wrapped up liver treats.” Reid extracted a piece of gold foil from beneath a chair. “This stuff is all over the packages. It’s tucked into the folds, made into a paste and smeared all over the outside edges. It’s sabotage. Again.”

“Sabotaged by liver treats?” Vanessa sighed. “Come on.”

“Do you have a better explanation?” Reid asked.

“No, but—” Vanessa broke off, shaking her head. “Our guests are going to be disappointed when they see this. And the Edgware evaluator…Ugh. This makes us look totally inept. We’d better get busy.” His cousin dropped to her knees beside the closest Christmas tree. She scooped up more paper, then stuffed it in the rapidly filling box lid. “If we hurry, we can replace the most ripped-up gifts with empty boxes. You know—stand-in gifts. That will buy us time to replace what needs to be replaced, surreptitiously identify which gifts belong with which guests—”