Christmas at Holiday House Read online

  He loved Holiday House, too. This place, despite its quirks and problems, had always been a port in the storm for two lost children. Winnie and Clive had opened their home to him and Lucy whenever their parents had needed time away from the pressure of parenting. Which had been often, unfortunately. Divorces, new relationships, personal crises. Rick and Terri Lancaster didn’t need much of an excuse to drop him and Lucy off with their grandparents.

  The rest of their world might be filled with chaos—fighting adults, slamming doors, angry words. Here at Holiday House, he and Lucy had been free to be children and all his very best childhood memories had taken place here.

  That did not change the fact that Winnie was approaching eighty years old. This house was too vast for her and she refused to accept help maintaining it, other than the cleaning crew she let in twice a month.

  He had tried to convince her to hire a companion, but she said she refused to have her space invaded by an unnecessary babysitter.

  At least she had allowed Abby Powell and her son to stay. Maybe this would be the impetus she needed to change her frame of reference. If she wasn’t going to move out of Holiday House, at least she could have someone here to keep an eye on her.

  He wasn’t entirely sure Abby was the right person for the job, though. She looked almost elfin, with red curls and green eyes, as if she would blow away in the first hard Colorado wind. She was petite, probably no more than five feet three inches tall, and she seemed too slight to even help Winnie back up if she fell again.

  Likely she was tougher than she looked. She was a nurse. He knew that much. According to Lucy, her former roommate had been working at a hospital in the Phoenix area but had left the job only days earlier in preparation for a move to a new city after the holidays.

  He still wasn’t sure why she would make the trek all the way to Colorado to stay with a woman she didn’t know. Ethan had plenty of good friends but wasn’t sure he would be comfortable asking any of them for such a favor.

  “The timing couldn’t have been more perfect,” Lucy had told him when she called to tell him she had figured out a way to care for Winnie after her fall, with help from her friend. “Abby is totally free to come and stay with her for two weeks, until I can get there. And don’t worry, though I think she would have come anyway, Winnie insists on paying her a nice salary. You won’t have to worry about a thing.”

  Only that a strange woman was coming to live with his grandmother in a house filled with valuables. No problem.

  His sister never thought about things like that. Lucy went through life without considering the consequences. So did Winnie.

  He wanted to think Abby Powell’s motives were entirely altruistic, but he didn’t know the woman. He had to view everything with suspicion.

  She was a widow. He knew that much. Her husband had been an ER doc killed by a patient. Lucy had been pretty broken up about it and had flown home from somewhere—Estonia, maybe—to attend the funeral. Was it two years ago? Three? He couldn’t remember, and it didn’t seem the sort of thing one just bluntly asked about.

  “Are you sure this won’t be a problem?” Abby asked him now. “I would rather not even unpack our suitcases if you’re only going to come back tomorrow and tell me my services are no longer needed.”

  She had a slight Southern accent, almost imperceptible, like a teaspoon of honey mixed into iced tea.

  He didn’t want to find it charming. He also didn’t want to find that combination of auburn waves and wide green eyes so alluring.

  He wanted to tell Abigail Powell to jump back in her car and drive away, but doing that would risk alienating both his sister and his grandmother, something no sane man would willingly do.

  That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be keeping his eye on the woman while she was here at Holiday House.

  “My grandmother’s mind is apparently made up, which is basically the last word on the subject around here. I hope you know what you’re getting into.”

  She smiled slightly. “I’ve dealt with worse, I can assure you. I’ve spent the past five years working in a pediatric unit. Your grandmother is nothing compared to a four-year-old having a meltdown.”

  He was willing to bet she would find strong similarities.

  “Is your car unlocked? You can wait inside while I carry in your suitcases.”

  “I can help.”

  He decided arguing would just be a waste of breath so he walked with her outside. She drove a small pewter SUV that looked to be about three or four years old, serviceable but nothing fancy.

  The hatch was loaded with two large suitcases. He grabbed both of them as she went to the back seat and pulled out a couple 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 November at The Lancaster Silver Bells, the crowning jewel in his family’s hotel group?

  He also couldn’t forget the ugly implosion of his engagement just a month before the celebration.

  “Brooke was never the right woman for you,” Winnie said. “I knew it from the beginning. The two of you never acted like an adoring couple, more like you were finalizing a pesky contract clause of some multimillion-dollar merger. You’ll find the right woman someday. A woman who can see beneath that all-business attitude to the sweet boy inside you.”

  Perish the thought.

  He did not want to talk about his broken engagement or his nonexistent love life with his grandmother right now.

  “Get some rest. I’m going to move Abby’s car and then take off. If you need me, just call.”

  “You’re coming tomorrow, right? You can’t miss Thanksgiving.”

  “I’ll try. Don’t overdo.”

  “When have you known me to overdo?” she asked rhetorically.

  “I think we’re both too tired for me to start going through the list. I love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  With one more kiss on the cheek, he left the room. Abby’s door was still closed. He was glad he didn’t have to deal with this inconvenient and unwanted attraction, he told himself as he headed out into the lightly falling snow.

  After moving her vehicle, he walked back out into the night and was almost to his SUV when his phone rang that he had a video call coming in. He recognized his sister’s distinctive ringtone and quickly answered just as he slipped inside the driver’s seat, out of the snow.

  Bright sunlight filtered across her features and she looked to be dressed for the day. Chiang Mai was thirteen hours ahead of mountain time, which meant it must be early morning there.

  “Are you furious with us?” Lucy asked.

  “Why would I be?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. The high-handed Lancaster women are at it again, arranging things behind your back.”

  He shrugged. “What else is new?”

  Lucy made a face, looking more like the baby sister who used to follow him around when he would hang out with his buddies. “Don’t be mad. I know you want Winnie to move into a rehab center while she recovers, but she would have hated that so much, especially over Christmas. You know how much she loves the holidays. They’re kind of her jam.”

  Anyone who had ever looked through the rooms at Holiday House would know that, since each room was packed full of Christmas-themed knickknacks.

  “I’m not mad. The two of you act like I’m some kind of tyrannical monster who is going to stomp around destroying everything if I don’t get my way.”

  She winced. “You know we don’t think that. You just...like to have your own way.”

  Because his way was usually the right one. “I’m not completely unreasonable. I’m willing to give your friend a chance.”

  “I trust her with my life. And with Winnie’s, for that matter. You won’t find anyone more compassionate or kind. Didn’t you find her nice?”

  “I spoke with her for possibly five minutes total, so it’s a little soon to make a final decision on that. But, yes, she seemed nice.”

  “She is. If I had the kind of hard knocks in life she’s had, I would be a bitter old crone by now, but Abby just seems to have more love to give everyone. You’ll adore her, I promise.”

  Ethan was careful to keep his expression clear. “It doesn’t really matter whether I like her or not, does it? The question is whether Winnie will listen to her and take better care of herself. Our grandmother is getting older, Luce. Like it or not, she’s not as strong as she used to be. This tumble banged her up pretty good. The next one will likely be worse.”

  “I know. I want her to be around forever. I know she doesn’t have that many Christmases left. That’s why I wanted her to be able to stay in her house for this one.”

  “I get it. Again, I’m not completely heartless. I said I was willing to give Abby a chance. But you know as well as I do that Winnie won’t be the easiest patient. Nice or not, I hope Abby can be tough enough to stand up to her.”

  * * *

  After Ethan hung up, Lucy shoved her phone into the pocket of her trim sundress and opened the door to her classroom, where the students of her first class of the day were already waiting, though school didn’t start for another half hour.

  “Good morning, Miss Lancaster,” they all said in perfect unison, and she couldn’t help but smile at their cheerful, eager faces.

  Of all the positions she’d held, paid or otherwise, since leaving college, this was by far her favorite. This was her second year teaching English in Thailand, which was definitely a record for her.

  “Good morning,” she said. “Until class starts, your vocabulary is on the board. I want you to have a conversation with a partner using all the words listed there. We have fifteen minutes. Go.”

  She walked through the classroom, correcting pronunciation and verb conjugation while her mind was busy thinking about what was happening right now at Holiday House.

  Abby really had saved the day for her. While it would have been possible for Lucy to find a substitute to finish her classes until her Christmas break, it wouldn’t have reflected well on her. She liked this job and wanted to at least finish the school term in March, after she went home for the holidays.

  A sudden longing for Silver Bells hit her hard, probably because she had been on the phone so much to her family and to Abby, who was now there. She could picture the town now, the picturesque downtown, the soaring mountains, the stately Victorian homes.

  And José.

  Her heartbeat quickened a little at the thought of him.

  She had numerous pictures of José Navarro on her phone but did her best not to look at them obsessively every day. She didn’t need to look, anyway. She could picture him perfectly. The high cheekbones, his wavy dark hair that he sometimes let get a little too long, the thick-lashed brown eyes that could sparkle with laughter one moment and just as quickly become intense and passionate.

  He had been Ethan’s good friend and trusted executive at Lancaster Hotels for years. She had been friends with him, too, but more casually, until about five years ago, when he was traveling for Ethan more as a troubleshooter and location scout.

  Whenever he was anywhere close to where Lucy was working, they would meet up and spend a few days sightseeing.

  It started when she was working with refugees in Albania. He had been tr
aveling to a Lancaster property in nearby Greece, so it was a relatively easy thing for the two of them to meet up and travel the countryside for a few days.

  After that, they began to email or message each other frequently until she now considered José among her closest friends and her strongest single connection to home outside of Winnie and Ethan.

  Or at least he had been among her closest friends.

  She thought it was only friendship. That’s what she had been telling herself, anyway. In retrospect, she could see she had been fooling herself, ignoring the growing attraction that seethed just under the surface of their friendship.

  Three months ago, everything between them had changed.

  José hadn’t traveled much for Ethan since his father died a few years earlier, but had made an exception to check on one of the company’s newest hotels, in the resort area of Koh Samui on the stunningly beautiful Gulf of Thailand.

  Because it was a quick plane ride from her teaching gig, she had flown down to meet him and they had spent three days together after his business was done. They had snorkeled, hiked, even visited a secret Buddha garden hidden away in a jungle containing dozens of statues.

  They had laughed together, talked together, shared dreams. And finally on their last night, José had walked her to her villa and shocked her by kissing her.

  It was a kiss unlike anything she had ever known before and had rocked her to her soul.

  Even now as she walked among her first-year students, listening to their sweet voices, when she closed her eyes she was immediately back in those lush tropical grounds at the Lancaster Koh Samui. She could smell the flowering jasmine, almost taste the sea air.

  José had drawn away, those beautiful eyes blazing with emotions she wasn’t ready to see.

  “I have feelings for you, Lucy. You have to know that. I love being your friend, but I want more.”

  She should have smiled politely, wished him good-night and slipped into her villa. That’s what she would have done with every other man who might have expressed any serious kind of feelings for her. She couldn’t. Not with José.