Christmas in Angel Harbor - Jeannie Moon Page 0,30

just exhausted. When Melinda yawned wide and loud, he had his answer.

“Long day?” He found a seat on the other side of the hearth, feeling the fire’s heat immediately.

The two of them nodded in time with the other, looking like they had been to hell and back.

“The kids were difficult tonight,” Peter said. His emphasis on difficult was a tell. His brother-in-law taught middle school science and not much spooked the guy. Considering he worked in a place that was a vat of cooking hormones, to hear the kids were “difficult,” meant they were far worse.

“Oh, boy.” Dan had seen the normal bickering you would expect from three siblings, but it was never so bad that his sister had the tortured expression of a refugee from a war zone. Tonight, as she sipped whatever was in that mug, her face stayed frozen, her eyes fixed.

“Yeah, they started fighting the minute they sat down at dinner and didn’t stop until we closed them all into their bedrooms two hours later. That was after Ella blew a gasket and dumped water on Jamie’s head. There was sporadic screaming through the walls until about forty minutes ago. It was heated.” Peter chuckled, but it was that nervous I-need-another-drink kind of chuckle.

Hearing that Ella—sweet, docile Ella—had lost her temper proved once again, you never really knew a person until you pushed all her buttons. It was probably good for the family to see she had limits.

They sat quietly for a moment, Dan not knowing what to say. He didn’t have kids of his own and didn’t feel qualified to weigh in. He looked down at his hands, trying to think of something wise or pithy, when his sister broke the silence.

“How was your date?”

Dan looked up to find Mel staring at him, waiting for an answer.

“Uh. Good. We had a nice dinner. Took a walk.”

With a wave of her hand she motioned for him to go on. “And?”

And? What did she want to know? “I’m not sure what you expect to hear. We had a nice time. It was good to get out.”

Peter pulled a bottle of Glenlivet from a basket next to the chaise and poured a finger in a glass that appeared from the same stash. He handed it to Dan, who accepted it, but he still didn’t know what to tell them.

“Well,” Peter began, “Jane Fallon does not date. More than a few men in town have tried to get her to go out with them. She’s not interested.”

“I don’t see how it’s relevant.” Sipping the Scotch, Dan was surprised at how happy that revelation made him. “Jane has a very full plate.”

“Obviously, she found time for you.” His brother-in-law was never cagey. He was getting at something.

“She did. Just lucky, I guess.” Damn lucky.

“So, it was dinner. You aren’t trying to rekindle your old romance, are you?” Mel asked.

Where the hell had that come from? “We never had a romance. We were very close friends. We still are…friends.”

And maybe a little bit more. Hopefully.

Not knowing which of his statements triggered it, his sister burst out laughing. “Are you serious? You two were inseparable. Of course you had…” Melinda trailed off and leaned in, locking her gaze on him. “Jesus. You can’t be that obtuse. Do you really think that?”

The truth was he never really thought about it much until recently. So, the answer to the obtuse question was probably “yes.”

Before leaving for law school, Dan knew his relationship with Jane was more than friendship. Mel was right. That summer, they had spent every minute they could together, and while things never got physical, they were bonded on every other level. Then he left.

He never came back, even though she’d admitted to him that she wanted more. Felt more. A relationship with Jane would have upended both their futures. They were thousands of miles apart, and it’s not like they had cell phones to keep in touch back then. Long distance was truly long distance. It was an impossible situation that would have ultimately led one of them to give up on his or her dream, for the other.

“It was complicated.” Yeah, that was lame.

“Complicated? No. You were an ass.”

“Mel, this is in the past.” He knew he’d been a jackass, but that didn’t mean he wanted to kill the buzz from his evening by rehashing all the ways he’d screwed up.

“For you it’s in the past. But Jane lives with her father’s death every day. Every single day. Mom and