Christmas at Holiday House - RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,3
Lucy left to work overseas, she had never met Ethan. She knew of him, though, and knew he had been living overseas, managing one of the family’s hotels in Dubai. She wasn’t eager to meet him now.
“He might not be able to force her, but Ethan can be persuasive. He says this is the perfect opportunity, while she is recovering from her accident. He’s been saying for years that Holiday House is too big for her and too much work. This latest accident will only reinforce his opinion. My brother can be stubborn. Like all the Lancasters, I guess. Once he makes up his mind, he can be immovable.”
The whole thing sounded tangled and ugly, the kind of family drama Abby had always tried to avoid and of which she had zero personal experience.
She glanced behind her and saw that Christopher still had his headphones on.
“Are we going to have to barricade ourselves inside Holiday House with your grandmother and fight off your brother like that kid in Home Alone?”
Lucy grinned. “As much as I would pay to see that, no. Just be your amazing self, that’s all. I talked to Ethan earlier today and told him the cavalry was on the way—namely you—that you were a nurse and amazing and would be the perfect one to stay with Winnie while she recovers, until I can get there. He’s not happy about it, but what can he do?”
What had Lucy dragged her into? She hadn’t said anything about her brother throwing a wrench in things during any of their previous conversations over the past twenty-four hours.
“I don’t want to referee a fight between you and your brother, with your grandmother in the middle. I can find a hotel for tonight and go back to Phoenix tomorrow.”
“I need you there. So does Winnie. Please, Abs. You’ll love her and you’ll love Holiday House.”
Abby had no doubt she would love the house, which might just be the most beautiful structure she had ever seen in real life.
She wasn’t crazy about the rest of it. She wasn’t good at family squabbles and didn’t want to be caught in the middle.
“Everything will be fine. I’ll be there in two weeks. At that point you can decide whether you want to stay and spend Christmas with Winnie and me, or go back and finish packing for your big move.”
She was here not only to help Lucy with her grandmother’s medical needs but also for Christopher, she reminded herself. She wanted this Christmas to be perfect for him.
Oh, she knew her hopes were probably unrealistic. No Christmas could be perfect, but it would have to be better than the past two she had been through.
Two years ago, she had spent the holidays still reeling from Kevin’s death, only ten days before Christmas, battling her own grief as well as that of a confused, sad toddler.
Her days had been busy dealing with the police investigation, paperwork and the hospital’s hollow apologies for their egregious security lapses that allowed an unstable patient to bring a loaded weapon into the facility and shoot the very resident who had been trying to help him.
The previous year, the hospital where she worked—across town from the one where Kevin had died—had been short staffed in the middle of a local influenza outbreak and she had been forced to work overtime through the entire holidays.
This year, she had vowed things would be different. Christopher had turned five the previous month, old enough to begin forming long-term memories. She wanted those memories to be good ones, not of a frazzled mom working long hours and too tired the rest of the time to have fun with him.
“I don’t want to battle your brother, Lucy.”
“You won’t have to. Ethan isn’t unreasonable. He might seem overbearing and bossy. Part of that is his personality and part of that is from his position as president and CEO of Lancaster Hotels. But underneath his gruff, he’s a reasonable guy. He adores Winnie and wants the best for her. We just differ a little right now on what that is.”
The man wanted to move his grandmother out of her home against her wishes. That didn’t exactly endear him to Abby.
“I guess we’ll see how reasonable he is,” she said, more determined than ever to stand up for Winifred Lancaster now.
Lucy’s face lit up with relief. “You’re staying. Oh, yay. I could hug you right now. I owe you big-time. Seriously. Anything I own is yours. I mean that. Which,