Love Finds You on Christmas Morning (31 page)

He headed home. If he had any hope of making clear-headed decisions here, he was going to have to spend a little time in prayer.

Harvey happened to be walking through the front foyer of the mansion, accompanied by his valet, when Nikki walked in. She tried quickly to wipe her eyes dry before they could tell she had been crying. She noticed Harvey wince as he walked, and that was enough to distract her from her own problems.

“Are you in pain, Harvey?”

“Pardon?” He turned, placed his hand on Edward’s arm for support, and managed a smile for her. “Ah, welcome home, Nikki. No. I’m just stiff from sitting too long. Had an early-morning conference call with the Hong Kong office—”

Without thinking, Nikki checked her watch as she fell into the slow stride next to them. It was well past dinnertime.

“—Early morning for
them,
I mean,” Harvey said. “And they were all full of vim and vigor after a good night’s sleep.” He patted his chest. “This old fella has been working all day. Two hours of sitting still tends to make my body feel as if concrete has been poured into my veins.”

Edward said, “We were just going to spend a little time in the gym. A little walk on the treadmill to loosen things up.”

When she looked back at Harvey, he was studying her eyes.

“Why don’t you come with us? I have a few things to run past you.”

She nodded. It would be good to think about work right now, rather than going to her room and wondering if it was time to pack away the photo of Drew that adorned her nightstand. “Sure. Let me just hang up my jacket and put my purse away. I’ll catch up.”

Harvey chuckled. “At the pace I’m moving, I imagine you will.”

She ran up to her room, dropped her things on the bed, and checked her eyes in the mirror. If she truly let herself experience what was coursing through her heart, she could very easily break down in full-on sobbing. Instead, she took several deep breaths and ignored the picture frame on the stand near her pillow. She tugged her sweater straight as if she were wearing a suit and donned her pert, professional manner.

Edward and Harvey had picked up the pace, apparently, the longer they walked. Harvey must have been telling the truth. He was just stiff from sitting too long.

That’s right. Harvey tended to be frank about what was going on. Unlike her.

He was already on the treadmill, and he and Edward were pushing buttons to get it running. Usually Harvey had a trainer come work with him several days a week, so neither Harvey nor Edward ever paid much attention to how to program the treadmill. “Ah, Nikki. Come walk with me. Maybe you can figure out this contraption for us. It’s like programming a space launch. Oh! There, that got it, Edward.” The belt began moving before Nikki reached him.

Harvey had several treadmills side by side in his gym, since he often conducted business while doing his simple exercises and wasn’t averse to having his employees walk beside him. Sometimes his grandson, Nathan, and great-grandson, Paul, joined him for a generational walkathon, which Nikki found especially endearing.

For now it would be just Harvey and her.

“Edward, would you mind coming back in a few minutes so Nikki and I can have a little privacy?”

“Sure, Harvey. You two will be all right, then?” He tapped the face of Harvey’s treadmill. “Do me a favor and clip the emergency stop to your sleeve or something, will you?”

Rather than giving Edward a hard time for his mother-hen attitude, Harvey simply winked at Nikki and clipped the cord to the hem of his shirt.

“There you go, Edward. Give us fifteen minutes, and then I’ll be ready to head on to bed.”

Once Edward closed the gym door behind himself, Harvey gave Nikki a grandfatherly smile.

She smiled back. “Am I going to need to write anything down? Is this about the menus for this week? Are you craving something in particular?”

He held the treadmill handles, looked off into the distance, and pushed his lips out, as if he were giving great consideration to her questions. Then he looked at her and said, “No, I thought we might talk about you.”

She tripped over her own feet and had to grab the handles herself.

Harvey said, “Do we need to attach the emergency cord to you too?”

She laughed softly. “No. You just caught me off guard. What do you mean, you want to talk about me? Did I mess up somewhere?”

“You tell me. You came home looking pretty unhappy. I know it’s none of my business, but I’m sorry to say that seems to be the trend between us these days.”

She gasped. “Harvey, what do you mean? What’s the trend?”

“The widening gap. When you first started working here, it didn’t take long before you seemed very comfortable around me.”

“That’s true. That’s because of you. You’re easy to be around.”

“Thank you, dear. But over the past several months, I’ve noticed that you seem to keep more to yourself. Oh, I’m happy to see you going out with your young man. That’s a definite improvement. At least I think it is.”

She looked away from him. She really didn’t want to be the crybaby on the treadmill.

“Nikki, is there something about your relationship with…Drew, is it?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, well, I notice you’ve never had him over to meet anyone here. Edward tells me he’s chatted briefly with him out front a few times and he seems like a pleasant fellow. Is there something about Drew that you’re ashamed of?”

She was perspiring now, even though they were walking as slowly as a New Orleans funeral procession. She wasn’t sure why she had kept Drew at a distance with regard to Harvey and her parents. And Drew had never complained, even though he had included her several times in social events with his local friends. He seemed to assume that she preferred to take everything very slowly.

“No, not Drew. I’m ashamed of myself.”

“It takes
two
to make some bad decisions, Nikki. And I want to be sure no one is treating you in an ungentlemanly way.”

She had to walk for a while before she realized what he was saying. She gasped and felt a rush of heat in her face.

“Harvey! Oh, no. Drew is a perfect gentleman with me. I’ve been the one to treat him unfairly. But that wasn’t my intention. Ever.”

And she spilled out her circumstances. She told him about her discovery that Drew was the person who bought “her” house. She explained that she had tried all along to keep separate her feelings of loss and her growing affection for Drew.

“But by putting off telling him about the house’s history, I put a strange tweak on our relationship. I kept a distance between us. I made too big a deal out of what might happen if I told him I had always planned to buy the house he bought. And by keeping him in the dark, I actually did make it a big deal. When he found out today, he was really angry that I hadn’t told him all this time. Or hurt, I guess.”

Harvey nodded. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell one from the other with us men. At least that’s what Louise used to tell me.”

“I think one reason I kept Drew separate from my work family and my own family was because I knew sooner or later someone would slip up and he would hear how he took away my dream for Grampa and Granny’s house. I always thought I’d tell him myself first. But I never did.”

There was a tap on the door before Laura peeked in. “Sorry to interrupt. May I come in?”

“Certainly, Laura.” Harvey waved her in. “What can we do for you?”

“I just needed to make sure we were definite on the meeting with the Canadians tomorrow. Earlier you sounded as if you preferred to put that off. But I’ll need to call them first thing if we want to reschedule.”

Harvey shook his head and searched the array of buttons on his machine before he finally turned it off. “I was just being crotchety. I’m fine with the meeting. Thank you, though, Laura, for double-checking with me.” He looked from Laura to Nikki, who turned her treadmill off as well. “You ladies are absolute gems, you know.”

Nikki smiled at Harvey before she looked at Laura. She was surprised to see that Laura had done the same thing. And then Laura gave Nikki a genuine smile of camaraderie.

“The chicken Parmesan was delightful tonight, Nikki,” Laura said.

The compliment was not only out of the blue, but it was probably the nicest thing Laura had ever said to Nikki.

“Oh. Well, thanks. I made that last night, though. You didn’t have it until tonight?”

Laura looked positively friendly. “I wasn’t home for dinner last night. It heated up beautifully tonight. A real treat.”

“Thanks.”

When Laura left, Nikki gave Harvey a look of incredulity.

He lowered his head and looked up at Nikki with a sage lift of one eyebrow. “I believe love has done wonders for Laura’s demeanor.”

Nikki smiled. “Good for her. I’m happy to see it.”

“And I would be happy to see that for you too.”

They stepped down from the treadmills.

Harvey said, “How do you feel about this young man, this Drew fellow?”

She inhaled deeply and sighed her breath out. “We haven’t
said
the
L
word, Harvey. But I have to admit I feel it.”

“You feel it, but you can’t say it?” His smile went crooked.

She pressed her fingers against her forehead. “At this point I don’t know if he wants to hear it.”

Edward walked in as Harvey responded, but Harvey held up his hand to signal that he should wait a moment. Edward gave a nod and stepped out.

“My dear,” Harvey said, “if I have a proper read on what you’ve just told me, I’d say that’s exactly what the young man
needs
to hear.”

“He’s pretty upset, Harvey. What if he shoots me down?”

He rested his hand, wrinkled and spattered with age spots, on her arm. “Nikki, in my many years, I’ve learned it’s always best to be as forthright as you possibly can without inflicting harm or unnecessary hurt on a person. Even when your comments might cause you or the other person some discomfort…there’s a funny thing about that kind of discomfort. If you grip what you need to say closely to your chest and try to hide it, it tends to gain power. But if you release it—put it right out there in the open—eventually its power weakens. Eventually it won’t seem uncomfortable at all. Your secret about Drew’s house is out there now, and the main reason it was a big deal is because you held it too close for too long.”

She nodded. “Mmm-hmm.”

“Now, if you honestly do believe you’re in love with Drew, I would suggest you tell him and take your chances about his shooting you down. You owe him that much honesty, don’t you think?”

“I’m telling you, Phillip, I feel like I don’t know who she really is.” Drew ran his hand through his hair and looked up to see Gigi watching him from the kitchen. Judging by the look on her face, he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what she had to say.

Phillip, on the other hand, was a guy. He could identify with how poorly Nikki had treated him. “I hear you, man. Women are supposed to be all about talking.” Phillip followed Drew’s gaze and laughed at Gigi’s cutting expression. “I’m sorry, honey, but you know it’s true. You know you blow out ten words for my every one.”

“Blow out,” Gigi said. She put a bowl of corn chips and guacamole on the coffee table in front of the men. “I feel
so
appreciated.”

“Thanks, Gigi.” Drew took a chip and was unable to break eye contact with her. “All right, I know you want to
blow out
a few words about this topic. I can see it all over your face. Am I
wrong
to be mad at her?”

“Honey, here’s what I see. You can be wrong. Or you can be right. Or you can be happy.”

Drew stopped chewing and swallowed.

“Be careful here, Drew,” Phillip said. He reached forward with a chip and scooped a big dollop of guacamole from the bowl. “She’s going all Yoda on you.”

“I’m doing no such thing.” Gigi walked over to the kitchen counter and came back right away with a pitcher of limeade. She filled their glasses as she spoke. “The girl had her reasons for not telling you. I mean, how did you react when you found out what was going on behind the scenes?”

Drew didn’t like how convicting his silence was, but he couldn’t help it. His response was obviously going to feed right into Gigi’s argument.

“Mmm-hmm, I thought so.” Gigi set down the pitcher, picked up a chip, and stuck the entire thing in her mouth with no problem. Everything she did seemed like punctuation.

“All right, I got upset with her. But that was only because she… I mean, we’ve been dating for what, eight months? She’s had eight months to tell me. I’ve never done anything that would signal anger about the house being some big family legacy. I’m a pretty cool customer.”

“You said it, bro,” Phillip said.

“I always spoke so positively about the house. I put so much love and attention into the remodeling. It was obvious—”

“It was obvious how important the house was
to you.”
Gigi used a corn chip to point at Drew with those last two words. “You probably spent the past eight months gushing about how excited you were about
your
house. Am I right? I’m right, aren’t I?”

Phillip said, “Now, baby, you can be wrong. Or you can be right. Or you can—”

He abruptly stopped talking when Gigi tilted her head down and gave him a look that said, “Do you really want to go there?” They both laughed for a moment before Drew spoke.

“You’re right. I shared every bit of excitement I felt with her. But that’s only because I wanted her to feel what I was feeling.”

“And you see how she responded?” Gigi set her hand on her hip. “The girl was totally supportive of your buzz on the house. Listen to this, Drew.” She leaned forward to deliver her next comment. “The girl helped you decorate the house you had ripped out from under her. Can you imagine how painful that might have been?”

Drew was in the middle of sipping a glass of limeade. He stopped and sat up a little straighter. “So why didn’t she just come out and tell me? The whole reason I got upset with her was because I felt like such a jerk for raving about the house she’d set her dreams on. I wouldn’t have hurt her for the world.”