Christmas at Holiday House - RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,8
of backpacks, as well as a pet carrier. Great. Was it another corgi?
A meow from inside told him otherwise. He frowned. “Does Winnie know about the cat? Her corgis aren’t always the most gracious to newcomers.”
In the exterior lights of the porch, he could see a worried expression cross her features. “I told Lucy and she said it would be fine. We can keep Mr. Jingles in our room.”
He shrugged. “I never know how they’re going to behave. They might love, er, Mr. Jingles.”
After she closed the hatch of her SUV and locked it, he carried the suitcases upstairs. “You can probably park in the garage. There should be plenty of room since Winnie only has her old Cadillac, which she won’t be driving for a while. I can give you one of the remote door openers.”
She looked surprised by the offer. “That’s very kind of you, but I don’t mind parking in the driveway.”
“You will when you have to clear a foot of snow off your windshield. If you want, I can move it for you after we drop your bags off.”
“I... Thank you. That’s very kind of you.”
He wasn’t being kind, it was simply good manners. He was in the hospitality industry, trained to be polite.
He led her back inside to the guest room his grandmother had told him would work for Abby and Christopher. It was a set of two connected rooms that shared an en suite bath, just down the hall from Winnie’s room.
With no idea about the condition of the room or when it might have last been used, Ethan opened the door somewhat warily. To his relief, it smelled of vanilla and apples, and he could detect no obvious signs of neglect. His grandmother did have a good cleaning service, at least.
“Oh,” she exclaimed. “This is lovely.”
“There is another room connected to this one, through that door. I think it was designed as a sitting room originally. There’s a foldout bed in there. If you wanted, you could use that as a bedroom for your son or keep it as a sitting room.”
She gestured to a daybed alongside the main bed. “This should work for Christopher. He likes to be close to me, especially when we’re in a strange place.”
“Whatever you decide is fine.” He set the suitcases in a corner of the room.
“Thank you very much, Mr. Lancaster.”
“Please call me Ethan.”
She offered a tentative smile. It wasn’t much of one, but it still sent heat sneaking through him.
He frowned, uncomfortable with his reaction, which made her smile slip away.
“I’d better go rescue Winnie from Christopher.”
“Or the other way around,” he said.
Her son beamed when they reentered Winifred’s bedroom. “Guess what, Mommy? Winnie told me there’s a train set in one of the rooms upstairs and I can even play with it sometime.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“It belonged to my son first and then his son played with it.”
Ethan shifted, uncomfortable with the appraising look Abby sent him, as if she couldn’t quite imagine him as a child.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Christopher informed his mother, jumping up from the floor where he had been playing with one of the dogs and dancing around in a way that indicated the need was rather urgent.
Abby looked alarmed. “Hold on. I’ll show you where our rooms are so you can use the bathroom there. I’ll come back to talk to you shortly,” she told Winnie.
“Take your time,” his grandmother said with a wave of her hand.
“Did you want me to move your SUV into the garage?”
She looked a little disconcerted but handed him the keys. “Thank you. You can just leave the keys inside.”
When they disappeared through the door, Ethan felt strangely as if the light in the room seemed to dim a little.
“So. What do you think of my guests?”
“They’re not guests, Winnie. Abby is here to help you.”
“I know that. But she’s lovely, isn’t she? And it’s so nice to have a child in the house again. Heaven knows, neither you nor Lucy are going to give me great-grandchildren anytime soon.”
As soon as the words were out, she winced. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s the pain medicine. This month would have been your anniversary, isn’t that right?”
Yes, and thank you for the reminder.
He gave a cool smile. “Is it? I guess I’ve been too busy building my hotel empire to pay attention.”
He was lying, of course. How could he forget the grand wedding that had been planned for the previous