starting to feel a little awkward...” Understatement of the century. “Say something. Anything.”
There was only silence on the end of the phone.
Samantha felt a rush of exasperation, but also a growing sense of conviction that she’d done the right thing by breaking up with him. She’d spilled every one of her emotions all over him. She’d been honest and open, the way all those relationship books said you should be, and what had she got in return? Not warmth and understanding, but silence.
“Kyle? What do you think?”
“What do I think?”
The voice on the end of the phone was deep, rough and entirely unfamiliar.
“I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. We’ve never had dinner, boring or otherwise, and we’ve also never had sex, so I wouldn’t know about the chemistry, but drinking champagne naked in bed sounds like a pretty good date to me. And I have no idea who Kyle is, but clearly he’s a guy who needs to get his act together. Because you’re right—no one wants or needs a bland, neutral, polite relationship.”
Samantha sat without moving. Without breathing.
Who...?
Charlotte was supposed to be calling two people for her: Kyle, and Brodie McIntyre, the guy who owned the lodge in the Scottish Highlands.
If she hadn’t been speaking to Kyle, then that could only mean...
Without saying another word, she reached for the vodka and downed it in one gulp.
Ella
“One mouthful.” Ella Mitchell sliced the broccoli into smaller pieces and gave her daughter an encouraging smile. “Just one.”
“Want a hug, Mommy.”
“Oh no—” Ella gave a firm shake of her head. “You are not hugging your way out of this one. First comes broccoli. Then comes the hug.”
Tabitha screwed up her face. “Why?”
Everything was why. Why, why, why.
“Because it’s delicious and it’s good for you.”
“It’s yucky.”
“Not yucky. It’s a superfood. It will make you strong and healthy.” Using all the wrong arguments, Ella. “Also, most importantly, it looks like a Christmas tree.” Seeing Tab’s frown, she held up a stalk of broccoli as evidence.
“A Christmas tree has more needles.”
“True. But from a distance—”
Tab shook her head. “A Christmas tree is bigger.”
Ella abandoned that line of persuasion. “How about because if you eat your veggies, I will feel like a good mom. And I want to feel like a good mom.”
“I want to be a unicorn.”
Ella laughed and filed that remark to share with Michael later. They’d laugh about it over dinner. Childhood goals. “Unicorns eat broccoli.”
Tab’s eyes, the same hypnotic blue as her father’s, narrowed suspiciously. “Why?”
“Because they know what’s good for them.”
Tab poked at her broccoli. “How do you know they eat broccoli?”
Ella wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or frustrated that her daughter didn’t take anything at face value. “Their diet is as mythical as the creature, but it is widely assumed that in order to grow a horn and have magical qualities they need to consume good levels of Vitamin D, calcium, potassium and phosphorus.”
Tab nibbled the corner of a single stalk. “Can we make more Christmas cards this afternoon?”
“I was hoping you’d want to. It’s my favorite thing, and we have all that glitter to use up.” Anticipation warmed her from the inside out. She loved Christmas. Loved everything about it. The chaos, the excitement, the anticipation. Most of all she loved the fact that they all spent time together.
She leaned across and kissed Tab’s hair. “I love you. Do you know that?” It was important to her to say it, and she said it often. She never rationed or withheld her affection.
“Love you, too. Can we get a Christmas tree?”
“Not yet. Soon.”
“Why not now?”
“Because if we get it now, it will be dead by Christmas Day.” And that was the only reason. Given the choice, Ella would have a Christmas tree in their apartment all year round. There was something warming about tiny lights wound through the branches of a fir tree. It was a symbol of family time.
“Can we spend Christmas in a snowy forest?”
“I—No, we can’t. Why would you want to do that?”
“It’s in my book. And it looks snuggly.”
“It will be snuggly here, too, I promise. We’ll have a huge tree, and we’ll light the fire and decorate the whole house. And Aunty Sam will be here, and we’ll bake cookies—” She already had a list of all the things she planned to do. And she and Tab were going to make decorations, which she intended to store carefully and bring out every year until they fell apart.