The Texas Christmas Gift (9 page)

Why indeed,
Derek thought. Except that he was jumping at just the thought of seeing Eve again...and his ego told him she was probably feeling the same way, even if she was too cautious and too stubborn to admit it.

“Are you sure Eve even wants to be involved in this?” Harvey continued with a beleaguered frown. “I mean, technically—”

Derek knew where the installer was going. “The sale is complete. Her job as a Realtor is done.”

Harvey nodded.

“I’d like Eve’s opinion.”
And I’d really like to see her again, even if it is only about business.
An answering text came through. “We’re in luck.” Derek grinned at Harvey, happy his hunch had paid off. “She’s on her way.” Even though—technically—she did not have to be.

Ten minutes later, Eve showed up, looking every bit the polished professional in a tweed jacket, red silk blouse, trim black skirt and heels. With her golden-brown hair glinting in the winter sunshine as she emerged from her Mercedes, Derek decided she was gorgeous enough to stop traffic.

Feeling a pang of guilt for objectifying her that way, he tore his eyes from her spectacular legs as she moved up the sidewalk.

With a concerned look on her face, she crossed the weed-choked lawn to where he and his contractor were standing next to the dual units on the rear wall. Like everything else, the big metal HVACs were rusty and out-of-date. Both were on and making hideous grinding noises.

Eve glanced cautiously at the whirling fans inside the units. Then at the two big boxes beyond, containing brand-new state-of-the-art machines waiting to be installed. “Hey, fellas, what’s up?”

Harvey Jefferson, the HVAC installer, winced. “I’d rather just show you both.” He motioned them inside, then led them through the mass of workers tearing up carpeting and damaged flooring, to the kitchen. The burly man stopped beneath a vent in the ceiling and lifted a hand. “Feel anything?”

Eve and Derek both raised their hands. Their glances met. “Nothing,” they murmured in unison.

Still grimacing, Harvey led them to the guest bath. “Feel anything here?”

Eve and Derek stood under the vent. It was faint, Derek thought, but he could feel a flow of air. So could Eve.

“Let’s try the family room,” the contractor suggested.

There, small, staticky bursts of air were coming out of the vents, although the slats in the grates were wide open.

“Do you think something might be blocking it?” Derek asked.

“Like a squirrel nest?” Eve interjected.

Derek looked at her.

She gestured matter-of-factly. “It happens in houses that have been untended for a long time. Our furry friends decide to move right in.”

Derek chuckled at her wry tone. He liked a woman who could not only take the most challenging situations in stride, but joke about them.

The HVAC guy was not laughing, however. “I only wish it was that simple,” Harvey muttered. He led them over to a ladder, beneath where an air duct grill had been removed. He took a mirror and a flashlight out of his shirt pocket. “It’s going to be kind of hard to see, but if you climb up the ladder and look that way...” He pointed in the direction of the HVAC units outside the house.

Derek gestured for Eve to go first.

She started to do so, then stopped, removed her black suede pumps and handed them to Derek. In stocking feet, she climbed the ladder. Squinting, she looked where the contractor had pointed. “I don’t... Ohhh.” Her voice turned as grim as her expression as she glanced down at the contractor. After inching back down the ladder, she wordlessly exchanged the flashlight and mirror for her shoes.

Derek offered his forearm in support as she slipped her heels back on. Despite the decidedly unromantic circumstances, he couldn’t help liking the way it felt to have her leaning on him, even for a second or two. Then, aware that neither Harvey nor Eve wanted to be the bearer of bad news, he went up the ladder and looked around. It took him a moment to figure out what was what, but as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he eventually saw the problem, too. “The ductwork inside the walls is collapsing.” And where it wasn’t collapsing, it seemed to be almost crumbling to bits.

Big sighs and more grave looks were exchanged between Eve and the contractor.

Derek came back down the ladder. “What does this mean?” Obviously, something bad. Harvey winced as if bracing himself for an angry reaction. “There’s no other way to say it. All the ductwork is going to have to be replaced. Otherwise, there’s no point to putting in new units. And the only way to get at it is to cut through the drywall and the ceilings. That will take time.”

Derek could only imagine. His dream of having Tiffany in their new home in time to celebrate the Christmas holiday began to fade. “How much time?” he asked grimly.

Again, Harvey seemed to brace himself. “Two, three more days than what we figured.”

Eve added, “The interior painting can’t be started until they’re done and the drywall is repaired or replaced.”

And every day counted. Derek turned to Eve, knowing she would have a good overview. “How many more issues like this can we expect?”

She kept her gaze locked with his and replied with a frankness he admired, “I don’t know. If you’d opted to have an inspection, we’d have some idea.”

But he hadn’t opted for one. Hadn’t wanted to take the time to get one done, or let the results in any way infringe on his purchase of the property.

Derek silently racked his brain for a solution that would keep them on schedule. “Can your crews work around the clock if I pay double time?”

Eve tensed and stepped in. “There is a city ordinance preventing that. And even if there weren’t, Derek, it’d be a bad idea to disturb your neighbors or their kids with construction when they’re trying to sleep. Never mind disrupt the horse-drawn carriage tours of the holiday light displays.”

Derek hadn’t thought of that. He had simply been focused on his goal.

Harvey added, “The best we can do is work seven days a week with as many guys as I can round up. And have the other contractors do the same.”

“We’ll find a way to have you and Tiffany in your new home by Christmas,” Eve promised.

Derek hoped so. Failing in his marriage was one thing; failing his child was something else entirely. This was Tiffany’s first Christmas with him, as a divorced single dad. He did not want her spending it in a hotel.

* * *

“
H
OW UPSET WAS
Derek McCabe?” Marjorie asked later that afternoon, after Eve had filled her in.

Eve took a seat next to her in the solarium on the roof of the hospital annex. Glad Marjorie was well enough now to handle small amounts of stress, she paused.

“It was hard to tell.” Sometimes she was able to read Derek like a book. At others, she hadn’t a clue. And when he had departed he had seemed unusually quiet and more brooding than she had ever seen him, even during that frustrating house-hunting search that had repeatedly left him empty-handed.

Marjorie put down the novel she had been reading when Eve arrived for her daily visit. Another first. Before her heart attack her mom had never taken time for leisure reading. Or any other hobby or relaxing activity. It had been nothing but work, work, work for Marjorie.

“But you suspect he was unhappy,” the older woman said.

Sighing wearily, Eve sipped some of the decaf peppermint tea she had brought them from the hospital cafeteria. “Wouldn’t you be if you had news like that?” She searched her mother’s face, heartened to see she was looking a little less pale and drawn every day now. “Especially because we don’t know what else could go wrong with the house. I mean, for all we know, it could be a real money pit.”

Marjorie reached for her teacup. “Fortunately, Derek is a man of means and steely determination.”

Aware what a good judge of character her mother was, Eve nodded. “He is that.”

“And it was his decision not to have an inspection. I don’t think he’ll blame you for that.”

“You’re right. He isn’t the kind of man to push responsibility for his actions off on someone else.”

Both women smiled.

“But you’re wise to be concerned,” Eve’s mom continued. “When a buyer is unhappy with the home they’ve purchased, the Realtor involved invariably ends up taking the blame.”

“I’ve done everything I can do to help when it comes to Harvey Jefferson and the other contractors,” Eve said. And though she knew she was becoming too personally involved, she couldn’t help it. She had promised a client he would be able to spend the holiday with his baby girl in their new home. It was a promise neither she nor Derek had taken lightly. A promise that, if broken, would have lasting repercussions.

“Then there’s only one thing left to do,” Marjorie advised with a maternal pat on the forearm.

Eve grinned, recalling the business training her mother had given her. “The triage approach. Identify the problem, come up with a solution and apply it.”

Marjorie beamed with pride. “Exactly! Glad to see you were paying attention, after all.”

Suddenly eager to put her plan into action, Eve stood and kissed her on her cheek. “Thanks, Mom. I knew you’d have the answer.”

And the answer, Eve thought, was finding Derek, and making sure that their relationship, business and otherwise, was still okay.

* * *

A
N HOUR LATER
, Eve arrived at Derek’s hotel, determined to not only bring tidings of good cheer, but find out if anything else was wrong that he had yet to tell her about. If there was, she was resolved to do what she could to help him rectify the situation.

I have something for you and Tiffany,
she texted him.
Shall I leave it at the front desk?

He texted back,
It would be better if you brought it up.

Well, that was a good sign, wasn’t it? Eve took the elevator to his floor, determined to help him start celebrating the holiday season more fully.

Derek was waiting for her when she stepped off with overflowing shopping bags in both hands. She smiled at him, then at the baby girl cuddled in his arms. Tiffany’s cute little face was red, her lower lip trembling, her cheeks wet with tears.

Derek shot Eve a grateful glance. He looked so harried and distraught that her heart went out to him.

“You couldn’t have come at a better time.” Tiffany still in his arms, Derek opened the door and ushered Eve into his suite.

She set her bags down, gifts momentarily forgotten. “What’s going on?” she asked.

Derek pursed his lips in concern. “She wants her
m-o-m-m-y.
”

Oh, dear.

Tiffany’s lower lip thrust even farther out. Abruptly, she started to cry again. “Mommy. Mommy. Mommy...”

Derek murmured, “It’s all right, honey,” and patted her back consolingly. To no avail. Tiffany wailed on, clearly miserable, and Eve’s heart went out to the child, as well. This was the part of divorce and split custody that no one wanted to talk about.

“What can I do?” Eve whispered.

Before Derek could reply, Tiffany looked at her, said “Mommy!” again and stretched out her arms. After shifting her weight, she lurched unexpectedly toward Eve. Derek made sure she had caught his little girl before letting her go. Then he stepped back, clearly exhausted and grateful for the emotional backup, while Eve cuddled the infant close.

“Mommy!” Tiffany squealed, happier now. With a giggle, she wound her hands in Eve’s hair and tugged.

Derek made a face, as if knowing how uncomfortable that must be, and stepped in to try and extricate the tiny fists. While he worked at it gently, the warmth of his body so close by flooded Eve’s.

“It’s a new thing, apparently.” Derek untangled one fist, only to have Tiffany reach again for Eve’s mane when he went to work on the other.

Still untangling carefully, Derek continued, “It’s been going on the past two days. Whenever Carleen and Craig are both there, Tiffany is fine. But if Craig leaves, Tiffany cries for
d-a-d-d-y.
And now she’s started doing it with me. If Carleen isn’t here, or it would seem, you, she wants an
m-o-m-m-y.
”

“Or, in other words, an adult female, and a male presence.”

“Right.” Derek gave up on extricating Tiffany’s hands and went to get two toys. He held them out in front of his daughter. Tiffany thought about it for a moment, then let go of Eve’s hair so she could reach for them.

With Eve more comfortable, Derek continued with what he’d been saying. “Carlene talked to Tiffany’s pediatrician—Dr. Maydew—and she said it’s no wonder Tiffany’s confused, with the recent moves, in addition to growing up in a split-custody arrangement. Dr. Maydew said Tiffany is old enough to be aware of her surroundings, and is just reacting to being in a hotel one moment, Carleen and Craig’s huge new house the next....”

Eve gazed down at the sweet little girl in her arms, wishing there was something she could say or do to help.

“Eventually, the pediatrician said, Tiffany will be fine wherever she is, as long as she’s with people who love her. But right now, she just wants what every child wants.”

“A mommy and a daddy and a secure place to call home,” Eve guessed, privately sharing Derek’s worry and anxiety. This had to be tough.

Well, she’d been right about one thing at least, Eve thought. It hadn’t been just the failing HVAC ductwork that had been bothering Derek today.

Glad she had come, she bounced the baby girl in her arms, noting that the brooding look was back in Derek’s eyes. “Well, then it’s a good thing I brought a distraction,” she said cheerfully, smiling when Tiffany started wiggling, signaling she wanted down.

Eve set the toddler gently on the floor, and she scampered off in the direction of the shopping bags.

Derek inclined his head. “What’s all that?”

Eve grinned and sashayed forward. “You’ll see,” she promised with a wink.

With Derek and his little girl watching intently, she opened the first oversize bag and pulled out a box. Inside was a two-foot-tall artificial Christmas tree with battery-run lights. Made to sit atop a table or desk, it added instant holiday cheer to the otherwise bland hotel room.