Читать книгу The Home Is Where The Heart Is Collection - Maisey Yates - Страница 30
ОглавлениеELIZA HAD NEVER slept well on Christmas Eve.
When she was a little girl, she had always been too excited. She hadn’t necessarily wanted to catch Santa Claus in the act of hanging stockings or anything, she only wanted to stay up and capture every moment of the magic.
She would hide in her room with a flashlight under her covers, humming Christmas songs or reading one of her favorite Christmas stories or perhaps making one up in her head.
A quick check of her phone revealed it was past 3:00 a.m. This was becoming quite a habit during her stay at Snow Angel Cove.
Staying up all night on Christmas Eve might have worked when she was a little girl who could nap with her new toys tucked around her, after the rush and frenzy of opening presents was over. As a mother and as an employee, she didn’t have that luxury. She was going to be exhausted in the morning.
She could sleep in a little, assuming Maddie did, but that was far from a certainty. Her only real job in the morning was to preheat the oven about nine o’clock and then add the breakfast casseroles she had helped Sue prepare the afternoon before.
Each of the siblings was to spend Christmas morning with his or her own family before they all came together for a casual, no-frills brunch.
She rolled over, trying for a more comfortable position. Her body was certainly tired after a long day and an even more hectic week preceding it, but her mind wouldn’t seem to settle.
The evening had been wonderful. Her perfect image of a big, boisterous family Christmas. After Aidan’s announcement, the family had been upset with him but they had all forgiven him for withholding the information, as she had fully expected.
After the delicious dinner, she had seen his sister-in-law Christine—a pediatrician in Denver—peppering him with questions while Charlotte and Dylan interjected a few of their own.
When the meal had been cleaned up, Dermot read the Christmas story from the New Testament in his lilting Irish brogue and then the children performed the short collection of songs they had prepared: “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,” Maddie’s favorite, “Away in a Manger,” as well as a medley of angel-themed Christmas songs in honor of the house’s name—“Angels we have Heard on High” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”
It didn’t escape her attention that Aidan had slipped out shortly after the children sang and didn’t come back in again while the family was playing laughter-filled party games she had suggested or while they were all heading to bed.
Small doses of family worked best for him, apparently. She could understand that, she supposed.
She flipped her pillow and tried that side for a few minutes, then finally sighed and slipped from bed, surrendering to the inevitable. Sleep would continue to elude her until she managed to calm her mind. She would have some chamomile tea while she checked to make sure everything was ready for Christmas morning, then she would likely be able to drift off for a few hours.
Careful not to wake her daughter, she pulled on slippers and robe, then quietly made her way to the kitchen, where she plugged in the electric kettle and mentally went over the items on Sue’s menu for the day as she waited for the kettle to heat.
When it was ready, she poured it over her chamomile then carried the steeping tea through the house, pausing for a moment in the great room by the huge tree that reflected a kaleidoscope of colors in the huge windows.
The younger children had insisted they keep the tree lights on all night so Santa could find his way. Even the teenagers had chimed in to agree with that one.
It was beautiful, she thought again. The whole house was the perfect holiday gathering place for an extended family, with a wide variety of entertainment options and warm, welcoming conversation spots as well as more private nooks for those who might prefer their own space.
Would the Caines come here again next year? Perhaps they would make it a tradition—or perhaps they would alternate between here and their homes in Hope’s Crossing. Wherever they met, their Christmases would be filled with laughter and fun.
She felt a sharp ache in her chest at the thought and especially at the realization that she wouldn’t be there to enjoy those future holiday gatherings.
This season spent at Snow Angel Cove would probably spoil her for all other Christmases.
She sipped at her tea, trying not to feel too depressed about it. She and Maddie had been fortunate enough to be welcomed into the Caine family circle for the holidays and it would be sour indeed for her to already bemoan that she couldn’t have another with them.
She sat for a while alone in the great room with the gleaming Christmas tree. When she finally rose to go, she noticed a light on at the end of the hall.
Aidan’s office.
Surely he wasn’t still working in the early hours of Christmas morning?
Though she knew he wouldn’t want to be disturbed, she couldn’t seem to help herself from walking down the hall and knocking softly on the door. He didn’t answer. Had he fallen asleep at his desk? she wondered. It wouldn’t surprise her.
After a moment’s hesitation, she pushed the door open slightly, just enough to peek in, and then paused in the doorway.
He wasn’t asleep. He was sitting with his back to her working on three different computers at once, his fingers flying over the keys. He had headphones on and was completely absorbed in his work.
She couldn’t tell what he was doing—for all she knew, it might be Spider Solitaire. Whatever it was, she was utterly fascinated by his single-minded focus.
“There you are, you son of a bitch. That’s it. That’s it!” he suddenly said with a delighted laugh.
As she watched him work, one firm, unshakable conviction seemed to settle over her.
She was in love with him.
The realization rolled over her like a snowball building up bulk and speed as it rolled down a mountainside.
She was in love with Aidan Caine.
It seemed an odd moment for the epiphany, while she spied on him cursing at a computer, but there it was.
The feelings had been building, like that snowball, for days. She loved his stubbornness and his dedication, his love for his family, his gentleness with her daughter.
Her heart ached as she watched his fingers dance over the keyboard. Okay, she loved him. So what? This, right here, was exactly the reason she could never do anything about that love.
She didn’t want a man who would be working with such single-minded focus at 4:00 a.m. on Christmas morning. She wanted a man who would be able to put her and her daughter first in his life.
He might go out and conquer the world all day long. She was fine with that—in fact, she loved that about him, too, his passion and his drive and his wild creativity. But she wanted to know she came first in his heart.
She had been married once to a man who had, in his efforts to give her and Maddie what he thought they needed, been unable or unwilling to provide what they needed most. His time, his heart.
She wouldn’t put herself through that again.
Her chest ached and her eyes burned with tears as she slipped from the room.
She loved him and leaving would shatter her heart into a million tiny shards but she didn’t have a choice. She had no place in his life, in his world.
Somehow she would stay until his family left. She had made a promise and she didn’t take promises lightly. When the holidays were over, she would take Maddie and leave Snow Angel Cove and would throw herself into doing whatever it took to put back together the pieces of her life.
* * *
“THIS WAS MY very best Christmas ever.”
“Was it?” Eliza smiled and hugged her daughter. A grand total of six Christmases—three of them spent in the hospital—wasn’t exactly a huge pool to choose from but Eliza still appreciated the exuberance.
“It has been wonderful, hasn’t it?” She had decided she would discount the heartache that had settled in her chest like a nagging cough.
“Bob says it’s his best Christmas ever, too.”
“I’m so glad Bob is enjoying the holiday season,” she said solemnly.
Maddie hopped around, apparently unable to contain her happiness in one spot. “Today after everybody opens their presents, we’re going to go sledding and Carter and me and Faith are going to build a snowman and take Daisy and Max for a walk and maybe go visit Cinnamon.”
“That sounds like a very full day and a wonderful Christmas.”
Everyone had been so kind to them. Maddie would miss this place and this family so very much.
“Santa found me here, too, just like you said! I was afraid he wouldn’t, since it’s not even our house, but he knew just where we were.”
“Santa is magic like that, sweetheart.”
“I wonder if he found Carter and Faith, too.”
“I don’t doubt it for a minute,” she answered with a tired smile.
As she should have expected, sleep had turned out to be impossible after she returned to bed. Heartache tended to have an insomnia-inducing effect, she had discovered, so she had still been lying awake when the first rosy fingers of dawn crept across the room to awaken Maddie.
“We should go see them. Carter and Faith.”
“We’ll find them in a bit. Let’s try to build something out of the magnetic blocks first.”
Her daughter was easily distracted. “Okay. Maybe the rocket ship.”
“Perfect.”
They were reading the directions to figure it out when Eliza heard a soft knock on the door. Perhaps Sue needed her help earlier than expected.
She rose from the little table in their room to open the door and was stunned to find Aidan standing there, his eyes bleary and his hair sticking up in every direction.
“Aidan. Hi. Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas.”
An odd intensity seemed to seethe and froth around him. Through the lenses of his glasses, his eyes seemed to glitter with barely suppressed excitement.
“Sorry to interrupt your morning with Maddie. Should I come back?”
“No. We’ve opened everything. Santa must have a big backache this morning from carrying all of Maddie’s gifts, right, sweetheart?”
Her daughter giggled and rushed to hug him. After a surprised moment, he hugged her back.
“Merry Christmas. Did Santa find where you live, too?” Maddie asked.
“Why, yes. Yes, he did. And he left a present for you under my tree. He must have made a mistake, since our names both have an A and a D in them.”
He held several presents in his arms, two large gifts and a smaller one.
He handed the two bigger presents to Maddie.
“Are those for me?” she breathed.
“I believe they do have your name on it.”
She took them, eyes wide. “Mama, can I open them? Right now?”
“Of course.”
Aidan sat down on the sofa beside her, stirring the air with that luxurious, delicious scent of him. She tried to ignore it, ignore him, as together they watched Maddie handle the first clumsily wrapped package, trying to figure out what might be inside.
Had he wrapped it himself? Eliza wondered. She couldn’t imagine him going to that kind of trouble but she suspected he had. Most of the presents he had ordered for his family had been wrapped by his assistant in California or had been delivered pre-wrapped.
It seemed significant, somehow, that he had taken the time himself to wrap this one for her daughter.
The first gift was a doll she remembered Maddie admiring at the town festival. Her daughter shrieked with glee and hugged him.
“Now the other one,” he said.
“Is it another doll?” Maddie guessed. “Or maybe a game? Or a bunny?”
She continued to list about a dozen possibilities, growing increasingly more ridiculous as she went, and Aidan finally tugged at her braid gently. “Open it and find out, silly.”
“Okay.”
She ripped the packaging with care and a moment later unearthed a beautiful leather-bound art set that Eliza would have been envious to own, filled with charcoals and watercolors and crayons, along with several pads of sketch paper.
“You’re so good at art,” Aidan explained. “Every artist needs good tools.”
“I love it! I love, love, love it. Thanks. Thanks a lot.” She gave him a wildly exuberant hug and Aidan laughed a little as he returned it.
“You are very welcome, sweetheart.”
“Where’s my present for him, Mama? Can I give it to him now?”
Eliza forced a smile, feeling foolish about their gifts after he had given Maddie such an obviously expensive art set. The two gifts were curiously symbiotic, she had to admit. “Sure. It’s over behind the chair.”
Maddie found her present and the one Eliza had made and brought them over to him.
“I get two? Wow. Thank you.”
He opened the larger one first, Maddie’s gift, and exclaimed with delight over the elaborate picture she had colored of Snow Angel Cove, with the lake in the background and little horses—of course—grazing in the meadow. Eliza had matted and framed it and thought it actually was quite good, for a drawing done by a girl who wasn’t quite six.
“You did this? Seriously?”
Maddie nodded, clearly thrilled at his reaction. “It took me a whole half hour to do the barn.”
“I love it! It’s perfect. Do you know what? I’m going to take it back to California and hang it in my office, so I can always remember this Christmas with you.”
Eliza’s heart gave a little squeeze at the thought of him, years from now, looking at the picture and trying to remember the little girl who had once drawn it for him.
When he started to open the other one, she wished she could yank it away and tell him not to bother opening it but she couldn’t figure out a graceful way so she sat mutely while he tore away the wrappings to uncover the scarf she had clumsily knitted to match the hat his sister had made him.
“You made this?”
“Yes. I’m worse than Charlotte, as you can see.”
“No, I love it, especially because you made it. Thank you.”
He gave her a genuinely thrilled smile. Suddenly, foolishly, she had to fight the urge to burst into tears.
How on earth was she going to leave this place? Leave him?
“Can I draw something right now?” Maddie asked. “Bob wants his picture with a wreath around his neck.”
“I would love to see that picture,” Aidan said.
“Okay.” Doll in hand, she raced over to the small table in the corner, flipped open to a page in one of the sketchbooks and immediately went to work.
“That was very thoughtful of you,” Eliza said. “The perfect gifts for her.”
He was silent for a long moment and she watched his throat move as he swallowed. If she didn’t know better, she would suspect he was nervous.
“I have one for you, as well. Two actually. Here. Open this one first.”
It was wrapped just as the other one had been, with the addition of a lopsided bow. He held it out with a strange, expectant look on his face. Intensely aware of him watching her, she unwrapped the bow and then tore away the wrapping paper. It was a small white box, about the size of a cell phone.
When she opened it, she could only stare. It was a cell phone. His phone.
“You’re...giving me your phone?”
He made a face. “Well, no. Sorry—I need that part back. Your present is on the phone.”
He leaned over her and pushed a few buttons to unlock the device and then held out the screen to her. She didn’t know what she was supposed to be looking at.
“We can change the name and the icon and everything. This is just a prototype. I’ve still got quite a bit of work to do but the bones are there and they’re solid.”
She looked at the screen and then back at him, feeling stupid. “I don’t... I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”
He pointed at the phone. “This is your app. Trent’s big idea. The productivity app he wanted to sell to Caine Tech.”
She stared at him as a little trickle of nerves started at the base of her spine and worked up. Something was happening here, something so big she couldn’t manage to wrap her mind around it. Trent’s app?
“But...he never did anything. It never went beyond the initial concept and, maybe, I don’t know, a few lines of code from his programmer friend.”
“Cory Dykstra. I know. I’ve been in touch with him. He sent me everything he had, which wasn’t much but was at least enough to get me started.”
She felt as if she were swimming through some of Pop’s hot cocoa, thick and sweet and totally impenetrable. She was completely exhausted and had awakened feeling so very sad, despite the wonder and the miracle of the holiday. Perhaps that explained why she couldn’t seem to make her brain work well enough to figure out what on earth was going on here.
“It was actually a really great idea,” Aidan went on, when she didn’t respond. “Your late husband was right. Three years ago, I’m not sure we would have been able to pull it off with the limitations of existing technology at the time. I understand why my team didn’t bite on the idea, but conditions right now are perfect. I think when this hits, it’s going to hit big. After the holidays, I’ll fast track my best development team on it to work out the bugs of what I’ve come up with so far, but I can see us taking it to market by summer and being at full throttle this time next year. Eventually I see this becoming one of those apps everybody has to own.”
“Okay, stop!” she finally burst out. “What are you talking about? This isn’t even a thing, Aidan. It was just a...a vague idea.”
“It’s a thing now. This is what I’ve been working on the last few days. It’s raw, sure, but we can work with raw, right?”
She thought of him holed up in his office while his family was here, of the food he didn’t eat and his hair standing up and the frenzied dance of his fingers on the keyboard.
“Why?”
He was starting to look perplexed, as if he couldn’t quite figure out why she wasn’t more excited about it. “What do you mean, why?”
“Why did you do all this?”
He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “It’s what I do.”
He glanced at Maddie who wasn’t paying them any attention. “After you told me about Trent, I was curious. I tracked down the minutes from the meeting Trent had with Caine Tech and the report my guys did about the idea. It intrigued me enough to search for Cory Dykstra to see if he had pursued it. He had basically back-burnered what he had done, hadn’t touched it in years, since Trent was the man with the vision behind the idea. He was happy to send me all he had and after that, it was just a matter of playing around with the idea and tweaking a few things here and there. Like I said, I could tell at once we were onto something.”
He pulled an envelope from his pocket and handed it to her. “You’re going to want to open this now.”
She stared at him and then, with hands that shook, she opened the envelope. A single piece of paper slipped out onto her lap and she knew in an instant it was a check.
She stared down at it and the staggering number blurred in front of her eyes.
“What is this?”
“It’s your initial payment from Caine Tech for rights to the idea. I know it’s not much for now, mostly because we still have a lot of work to do to bring it to market. There will be an additional revenue stream down the line, I promise, with in-app purchases and possibly some subsidiary rights. You’re going to want to get some good intellectual property attorneys on your side. I can put you in touch with some reputable ones. Cory will, of course, get a cut for his initial work.”
He might as well have run her down with his car again. Somehow her lungs couldn’t draw enough oxygen and she felt light-headed and shaky and stupid.
“And for the record, this isn’t just me,” he was saying. “I vetted it past my inner circle at the company and everyone is really excited.”
He reached for her hand and held it in both of his. “It’s not a ball gown or those glass slippers I know you had your eye on. But it’s freedom, El. You can do whatever you want now. You can buy that bed-and-breakfast you were talking about or put it away for Maddie’s future medical bills or just chuck everything and move to Hawaii and surf for the rest of your life, if you want.”
Aidan looked drawn and exhausted but brimming with excitement at being able to give her the gift of choice. She was stunned. Completely overwhelmed. No one, in all her life, had ever done such a thing for her and the magnitude of it awed and humbled her.
It wasn’t the amount on the check that overwhelmed her—though that was certainly life-changing. No, she thought of standing outside his office in the night, watching his excitement and eagerness and energy. All of that had been for her, because he wanted her to feel like she had options. Possibilities. He had taken the bare bones of an idea and literally worked day and night on her behalf to turn it into a reality.
Oh, she loved this man.
He was brilliant and driven, yes, but also generous, kind, loving.
And he needed her, she suddenly realized. As much as he had craved having his family around him this Christmas after his brain tumor taught him what truly mattered, he needed her and Maddie to tug him away from the computer sometimes. To make him laugh, to watch sparkly boat parades, to help him live.
He needed her and he loved her, too.
She knew it with sharp, stunning clarity. She looked at the phone on her lap again. If he didn’t care about her, he never would have gone to so much effort for her.
She would likely have to deal with these bursts of wild creativity sometimes, where he worked night and day on something that filled him with passion. She could accept that, as long as he, in turn, took time to pause and breathe and embrace the world around him with her and Maddie.
He squeezed her fingers. “Say something,” he said, looking nervous all over again.
She couldn’t seem to get any words out so she did the only thing she could manage.
She burst into tears.
* * *
OKAY, HE HADN’T expected that. As Eliza started to sob, Aidan switched instantly from wired, edgy, caffeine-fueled energy straight into panic mode.
“It’s a good thing, El. I promise. A really good thing.”
Instead of calming her, that only made her sob louder and he sat there like an idiot, not knowing what to do. In desperation he finally pulled her onto his lap, just as he would Maddie. “Don’t cry, sweetheart. Please don’t cry. I’m sorry. Whatever I did, I’m sorry.”
Why wouldn’t she say anything? She only kept looking at the check and then at him and then sobbing all over again.
Maddie, drawn by the commotion, marched over with a frown. “Why is my mama crying?” she demanded. “It’s Christmas. You’re not supposed to cry at Christmas.”
Aidan swallowed. “I’m not quite sure, to tell you the truth. Why don’t you go get her a drink of water? That might help.”
Maddie looked at her mother uncertainly then hurried out of their rooms to the kitchen.
“What is it?” he asked Eliza, after her daughter disappeared. “Do you completely hate the idea? We haven’t gone forward with anything, as of now. It’s just a concept. I can stop the whole thing this minute.”
“No. No. I love it. It’s amazing. You’re amazing.”
Well, that was something. He tipped her chin up to search her gaze. “So why the tears?”
She looked at him out of green eyes that looked soft, dazed, overwhelmed. “You did this for me.”
He shrugged, uncomfortable. “I investigated it for you, initially. But I followed through because I could see the potential right away. It’s a good idea. It’s going to make me a lot of money, El.”
She gave a watery laugh. “Well, that’s something. It’s not the only reason, though, is it?”
The way she was looking at him made him feel as if he could race to the highest peak of the Redemption Mountains and back without breaking a sweat, even as tired as he was.
“Like I said, I wanted you to have options. I don’t want you to ever again feel like you have to go to work for the next idiot who runs you down in the street.”
“Oh, Aidan.” She gave a soft, sweet sigh. “Is it any wonder I love you so very much?”
He almost toppled her from his lap onto the floor as shock and joy burst through him like exploding Christmas tree bulbs. “What?”
She laughed. “I love you. But then you’re the genius. You must have already figured that out.”
Love. A short time ago, just the word might have sent him running. Now he wanted to hold her close and have her whisper it in his ear, over and over.
“I hoped. I didn’t know.”
“Now you do. I love you. I woke up this morning, hating that my time here was ending and I was going to have to leave Snow Angel Cove and you.”
A soft, seductive peace seemed to settle over him and he wanted to close his eyes and savor every moment of it. “You can’t leave. As your boss, I’m ordering you to stay.”
“Ha. Too bad. I quit. You’re not the boss of me anymore, to quote your sister.” She held up the check. “Rumor has it, I don’t have to work a day in my life, if I don’t want to.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
He hesitated as the other idea that had been running through his mind since the night of the Lights on the Lake Festival pushed its way to the fore. “I do have another job for you, though, if you’ll take it.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ve done wonders at turning Snow Angel Cove into a warm, welcoming home. How would you feel about doing the same thing to a town?”
Her eyes widened. “Haven Point?”
He nodded. “This town needs help, someone to pour life and joy and hope back into it like you’ve done for this house and for me. I can’t imagine anyone better suited to the task. What do you think?”
“Oh. Yes! I would love that!” She gave a happy little laugh and he couldn’t help himself, he kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him eagerly. It was Christmas morning, he remembered, and right now he felt like a kid who had awakened to find every single thing he had ever dreamed of asking for and a whole hell of a lot he never even knew he wanted.
“For the record, I love you,” he murmured. “And Maddie, too. You do know I’m never going to let you go now, right?”
Her smile was incandescent with joy. “I’m counting on it, Geek Boy.”
He laughed and kissed her again. He wasn’t sure how long they sat that way by the twinkly lights of her little Christmas tree, but sometime later, he heard a throat being cleared nearby.
He wrenched his mouth away and found Maddie in her little red nightgown standing in the doorway. She was holding a glass of water with one hand and his father’s fingers in the other. Dermot beamed at him, looking pleased as pie.
“Can I come in now?” Maddie demanded. “Grandpop said I have to make sure you’re done kissing.”
Aidan grinned. “Oh, we are not done kissing, kiddo. Not by a long shot. I suppose we can stop for now, though.”
Eliza hopped off his lap, fiery red, and accepted the water glass from her daughter and a hug from his father.
“Merry Christmas, my dear,” Dermot said with his Irish brogue more pronounced than usual.
“And to you,” she murmured.
As he watched them, Aidan thought of the gnarled, twisted journey he had traveled the past five months and how it had changed him. He hoped he never had to endure the uncertainty, the pain, the fear of anything like that again.
He thought of what his father had said, that a person had to survive the dark in order to fully appreciate the light—the joy and love and miracle of life.
Eliza was his light, his miracle, his joy.
His love.
* * * * *
