Kissing Under The Mistletoe: The Sullivans (Contemporary Romance) (2 page)

Mary remembered the two of them, standing
side by side, focused intently on the job at hand. She recalled how
Jack took absolute care to make sure his son didn’t get hurt, just
as he always had with all of his children and her, as well.

The resulting small glass ornaments were
lopsided and imperfect…and utterly precious to her as she hung them
on the tree now and every year.

When Mary returned to the box and pulled out
a large ball wrapped in pink paper that rattled in her hands, she
knew exactly whose this was. Lori—aka “Naughty”—was one of her twin
girls. Mary and Jack had already had six boys, who were more than
enough to keep them busy from sunup to sundown, but that didn’t
stop both of them from longing for a girl.

She stopped unwrapping the ornament as she
thought about that Saturday morning so long ago when Jack had
realized Mary was pregnant again. The house was still quiet—an
amazing and rare feat with so many rowdy kids. Jack woke her with
his sinfully sweet lovemaking, and, oh, how she’d loved those
sleepy moments in his arms, when pleasure would drift over and
through her in gentle waves.

She had almost fallen asleep again in his
arms, when she heard Gabe call out from his bedroom down the hall.
Only two years old, he was the earliest riser in the house,
especially when he was hungry. And as a little firefighter in
training, he was
always
hungry.

She was just climbing out of bed when Jack
stopped her with a gentle arm around her waist. His dark eyes were
full of so much love it stopped her breath.

“You’re pregnant.”

She had been so busy with her six boys that
she suddenly realized she’d missed the signs this time around. Now
she could see that her breasts were fuller, her waist slightly
thicker.

Jack splayed his hands over her belly.
“You’ve always glowed during pregnancy, but this time you’re more
beautiful than ever.” He drew her close and whispered against her
lips, with utter certainty, “We’re finally going to have a girl.”
It was crazy, but she swore she felt it, too—the slightly different
energy inside of her compared to the six boys she’d carried.

But there were more miracles to come when
they found out they were having twins! And what lucky little girls
Lori and Sophie were to have six older brothers to protect and care
for them.

A gust of wind through the trees outside the
cabin brought Mary back to the present. Realizing she was still
holding Lori’s wrapped ornament in her hands, she laughed with
delight when she finished opening it.

Dozens of plastic goggle eyes stared out at
her from the round ball. Only Lori would think to glue moving
eyeballs all over an ornament. As a professional dancer and
choreographer, Lori was always in motion—but, at the same time, she
didn’t miss a thing. More often than not, she was the one moving
from one sibling to the other giving expert advice. Neither her
twin sister nor her older brothers escaped her notice. Her
intuitive comments were always delivered in her typically sassy
way, of course.

Mary hung Lori’s ornament on the tree, then
moved back to the box to take out a small, white felt bag.
Sophie—aka “Nice,” as Chase had christened her so many years
ago—had quite possibly put the most thought into her ornaments.
Sophie was now a librarian, but even as a small child she’d think
things over for a long time before taking action. She was quiet
enough that people sometimes made the mistake of discounting her.
But Mary never had. Sophie was incredibly sweet, extremely wise,
and she’d always had a gentle patience that Mary still worked hard
to attain most days.

She remembered the day Sophie had asked to be
taken to the local sewing shop, right before Christmas. Mary had
tried to teach all of her kids to sew, but the only two who had any
interested in needles and thread had been Smith and Lori, probably
because they were always putting together costumes for plays,
musicals and dance recitals. Of all her kids, Sophie had had the
least interest in sewing, so when Sophie made her request Mary
wondered if her daughter could have had a sudden change of
heart.

The minute they walked into the store, Sophie
made a beeline for the button drawers. One by one, she carefully
studied the buttons before making her choices.

Mary loved to sit back and watch her
children’s minds work. They never ceased to surprise and delight
her. Keeping an eye on her daughter as she chose new fabric for
bedroom curtains, Mary watched Sophie take her pile of buttons to
the counter to pay. When the woman at the register asked what they
were for, Sophie told her, “They’re a Christmas surprise for my
family.”

Mary nearly laughed out loud at the confusion
on the woman’s face. Clearly, the woman believed Sophie would be
giving out buttons for Christmas presents. Mary couldn’t wait to
discover Sophie’s plans.

When they returned home, Sophie disappeared
into her bedroom with her bag of buttons and Mary’s sewing kit. For
the rest of the day, Mary was so busy baking treats and wrapping
presents in preparation for Christmas Eve that she was surprised
when Sophie stood up after dinner and announced, “I’ve made a
special Christmas ornament for everyone in the family.”

Reaching into a little bag she’d made out of
white felt to hold the buttons, Sophie walked slowly around the
table and placed one button on a string in each of her siblings’
hands.

Marcus was the first to hold his up. The
large black button with flecks from all the colors of the rainbow
swung from a dark string Sophie had threaded through one of the
holes. Smith’s button ornament was a bright red and silver that
caught the eye at every angle. Chase’s was a simple yet masculine
navy blue. Ryan grinned at the way his button had been painted to
look like a baseball. Zach’s button was sleek black, like one of
the race cars he dreamed of driving. Gabe’s button had flames
etched onto the front of it. Lori’s was the flashiest of all,
covered in sparkles and glitter. The button Sophie had chosen for
herself was a rectangle that looked like a miniature hardcover
book.

“What a fantastic surprise,” Mary said as she
marveled at the way Sophie had managed to brilliantly capture each
of her siblings’ personalities with buttons, of all things. Each of
the kids agreed as they headed over to the tree to hang up the
ornaments.

Sophie slid onto Mary’s lap. “This one’s for
you, Mommy.”

Sophie had placed a heart-shaped button in
Mary’s palm. Her eyes were already full when Sophie took one more
button out of the bag.

“I made one for Daddy, too.” This final
button was covered in brown corduroy and was warm and solid in
Mary’s hand. “Do you think he’d like it?”

Mary hadn’t been able to prevent two tears
from spilling down her cheeks. “He would have
loved
it.”

As a burst of wind shook the tall pines
outside the log cabin and Mary came back to the present, she
realized she was standing in the middle of the living room, holding
the felt bag against her chest, over her heart. Moving back over to
the tree, she carefully hung each of the buttons in a group on the
thick green branches, then placed the bag back into the box.

Only two ornaments were left—the first ones
that Mary and Jack had ever given each other as a young married
couple. She lifted them out and went to sit in the chair by the
fire. After unwrapping them carefully, she placed them side by side
on her lap and ran her fingers over the familiar contours.

And as Mary closed her eyes to savor her
memories of falling in love with Jack Sullivan, the first
snowflakes of winter began to fall….

Early December, nearly forty years ago…

Jack Sullivan needed a Christmas miracle.

“There’s no question that the Pocket Planner
is a great and cutting-edge product. That’s why we agreed to
manufacture thousands of units in anticipation of big Christmas
orders,” Allen Walter explained. The distinguished gray-haired man
who had founded Walter Industries held Jack’s invention in his
hand. “Unfortunately,” Allen said as he put it on the table and
slid it a couple of inches away, “our sales reps have all reported
in to let us know that their accounts are far more interested in
ordering toys like the Pet Rock and posters of sex symbols such as
Jacqueline Bisset for the holiday sales rush. My company has
already lost a great deal of money on several great products this
year. What we need to sell this Christmas is a sure thing, so we’re
going to have to cut our losses now. I’m afraid this is the end of
the road for the Pocket Planner.”

Ten years ago, Jack had just begun the Ph.D.
program in electrical engineering at Stanford University when he’d
woken up in the middle of the night with a crystal-clear vision of
a portable electronic device that would help people keep track of
their appointments and to-do lists. His colleagues had thought he
was crazy at first, but he’d held on to that vision with unwavering
focus. By the time he’d graduated with his doctorate, three of his
fellow Ph.D. candidates had joined his quest to develop the Pocket
Planner.

In classic Silicon Valley style, Jack, Howie
Miller, Larry Buelton and James Sperring had left the campus labs
and set up shop in the garage of a house Jack was renting on a
suburban Palo Alto street. James married a year later and left the
group to take a steady job with a paycheck. But Larry and Howard
had stuck with Jack through hundreds of cold slices of pizza and
cups of coffee while they sweated it out over their computers and
calculators. They’d had plenty of failures and had made endless
mistakes over the years, but there’d been enough success—along with
part-time engineering jobs to keep the bills paid—to continue
moving forward with their plan.

This morning, when the three of them had put
on suits and ties to come to this meeting with Allen Walter, they’d
assumed he had great news to share with them about how things were
shaping up for their big holiday product launch. Walter Industries
had been one of the early investors in Hewlett Packard and, as far
as Jack was concerned, they were the only partner he would have
trusted with his baby. It had been a thrill when Allen’s company
had signed on earlier in the year to manufacture and distribute the
Pocket Planner to retailers this Christmas.

Jack had worked too long and hard to let
Allen and Walter Industries pull the plug. Even if several other
new products had underperformed this year, he knew his wouldn’t.
Fortunately, he’d done extensive research and he knew exactly what
had underperformed and why.

“The Factomatic doesn’t appeal to a broad
enough market," Jack said. "And the Playerphone is too similar to
the Stylophone. But our Pocket Planner isn’t just a gadget for men
to get their tech fix with. Women will love using it, too, because
it will make their busy lives easier. Even kids can use it to keep
track of homework and after-school games.” Jack remembered how busy
his mother had been raising four boys while putting in part-time
hours at the school district office. She would have loved having
his invention at her disposal to keep track of household purchases
and school schedules. His father would have used it to track his
favorite sports teams and investments.

“I don’t doubt that you’re right, Jack,”
Allen agreed. “The problem isn’t whether or not people would enjoy
using your invention. I’m sure they would. The issue is getting the
retailers to stock it in the first place. Between rising inflation
and slowing economic growth, we’re finding it more and more
difficult to get stores to give a new product a chance. They truly
have to believe that people will want to part with their
hard-earned dollars to buy it.”

Jack could see his partners, Larry and Howie
deflating more and more with every word out of the chairman’s
mouth. But it would take a heck of a lot more than a couple of
lukewarm sentences to make a Sullivan give up.

“We appreciate your concerns, Allen, and
would like to come back in twenty-four hours with a marketing and
publicity plan that will convince you that our invention can be
extremely profitable for your retailers.”

Howie shot Jack a look that he could read
without needing to hear him speak aloud:
Why are
you volunteering to come up with a marketing plan? We’re engineers,
not PR people.

Larry’s expression was even easier to read:
It’s over.

Allen shook his head. “I admire the work
you’ve put into this, Jack, but times have changed—too fast, if you
ask me. People aren’t interested in wholesome or helpful anymore.”
He picked up the Pocket Planner again. “Tell you what—if you can
figure out a way to give this device sex appeal, we may be able to
continue the conversation.”

Jack could have easily proved its usefulness.
And he could have definitely detailed its time-saving benefits.

But sex appeal?

Even Jack knew when he was staring straight
into a dead end.

Still, he’d bought them twenty-four hours.
Now it was time to use those hours to make absolutely sure he and
his two partners came up with something big enough, reassuring
enough, and “sexy” enough, that the retailers couldn’t say no.

Careful not to let his doubts show, Jack
stood up to shake hands with Allen and the other board members.
Then the clock began to tick.

In silence Jack and his two partners took the
elevator down from the twentieth floor to the lobby. None of them
said a word until they’d stepped out of the large glass doors and
onto the sidewalk. Ten in the morning was a busy time of day in San
Francisco’s financial district, and they had to speak loudly to be
heard over the noise of the traffic and the suited businessmen and
women rushing around them.