Mistletoe Mommy

get their mani-pedis.

“And if you have to come back here to pick him up, anyway, we could have…” She covered her face with her hands, making the rest of her sentence difficult to decipher.

“Sorry, I didn’t get that.”

She lowered her hands. “If you think it would add to the festive atmosphere for Morgan, we could have cake and balloons waiting here for her. I could also invite over Josh and Natalie.”

He was dumbstruck by her generosity. “Not that I’m ungrateful for the offer, but why? I got the impression we were already a bit too…underfoot.”

“I guess I just really like your kids.”

She said it so grudgingly that he knew it was nothing less than the truth. This wasn’t an instance of some woman telling him he had cute kids because she wanted to score brownie points with the affluent surgeon. Brenna had seen his children cranky, belligerent, hungry, needy and tired; yet she liked them, anyway.

It really stank that they were being so adult and reasonable about keeping their hands to themselves, because he’d never wanted to kiss her more.

ADAM WAS PROUD of himself for not having to use the “in case of emergency” number Sara had given him. As per her request, the kids had left her a message when they’d reached Mistletoe and checked into the Chattavista, but other than that, they hadn’t really spoken to their mother until today. He’d known that she wouldn’t miss calling on Morgan’s birthday.

The phone rang first thing in the morning as they were all getting ready to go down for breakfast. He would have let Morgan pick it up if she hadn’t just started brushing her teeth. Instead, he answered.

“Hello?”

“Adam! It’s Sara.” She hesitated, as if wanting to ask how things were going but not wanting him to feel interrogated.

“I know three people who are going to be very glad to talk to you,” he said, hoping she was enjoying her honeymoon and not worrying about them too much. He passed the phone to Geoff first.

“Hey, Mom! We miss you. But we’re having a good time. Like, yesterday, when Morgan had to be rushed to the emergency room and-Oof! Dad has no sense of humor,” Geoff complained. “He’s throwing things at me…A pillow, but still. Of course I was kidding. Not about the good time, though. We got a cat.”

“Hey!” Morgan bounced out of the bathroom, her features scrunched into an expression of indignation. “I want to tell her about that. It’s my birthday.”

“All right, squirt.” Geoff ruffled her hair and told his mother goodbye.

Then Morgan was off and running, telling their mother about how they’d adopted a stray cat who would live with Adam in Tennessee, but for now was staying with “Ms. Pierce, the pretty pet-sitter.”

That part made Adam flinch a bit.

“Mommy, you won’t guess what me and Daddy and Liza are doing today! We’re having our toes and fingers painted. They said I could pick any color I want and even pick what music they play in the beauty salon while I’m there.”

After that, Eliza took her turn, although she didn’t have nearly as much to say as the other two. Her mother must have noticed, because there was a long silence on the Mistletoe end while Sara spoke. Was she giving her daughter a pep talk?

“She wants to speak to you,” Eliza said a few minutes later.

Adam put Geoff temporarily in charge and gave the kids permission to go downstairs and start enjoying the breakfast buffet without him. “Keep an eye on Morgan, and I’ll be there soon,” he told them.

“They’re gone?” Sara confirmed. “So. How’s it really going?”

He sat on the edge of his bed. “I swear no one’s been to the ER. When exactly did Geoff develop such a warped sense of humor, anyway? Sara, I have to tell you, I’m amazed by the job you do. You deal with lost socks and painful crushes and battles of wills every single day, and you’re obviously doing something right because they’re turning out pretty damn well.”

His words of praise were met with shocked silence. “Th-thank you. Guess we all have our skills. I mean, I can sew a Halloween costume with the best of ’em, but you should see my pitiful attempts at coronary-artery-bypass grafting.”

He laughed aloud, impressed that she could rattle off the terminology. That probably meant she’d done a better job of listening during their marriage than he had.

“Dan’s a lucky man,” he told her without rancor.

“Wow. You’re just full of pleasant surprises today. Mistletoe must agree with you.”

“It’s a nice place.” Brenna’s smile flashed in his mind. “Nice people, too.”

“Such as the ‘pretty pet-sitter’?” she prodded.

“Brenna Pierce, the woman boarding the cat for us. You’d like her.”

“Ah, but the question is, how much do you like her?”

“I don’t know what you’re imagining, but I haven’t even been here a full week.”

“That is so not an answer,” she said, sounding just like Eliza.

He flopped back on the bed. “We probably discussed it at the time, but remind me. How did the kids take it when you and Dan started dating?”

“Pretty well, but I think they were excited to have…” She paused.

“Yes?”

“A father figure in their lives,” she concluded apologetically. “I’m thrilled you’re taking this vacation with them, I am, and it sounds as if it’s going really, really well. But there were birthdays you missed, sporting events you couldn’t attend. And they liked having a guy up in the bleachers rooting for them.

“Even then, there was some backsliding,” Sara added. “You may have noticed how Eliza can be a tad moody?”

And the Titanic’s maiden voyage was a tad choppy. “You don’t say.”

“The point is, we muddled through. I sat them down and had frank discussions with them about Dan, kept them apprised of where the relationship was going. You and the kids will just have to find your own way. I believe in you.” She sounded sincere.

“But just to clarify, you don’t have a problem with my getting romantically involved with someone?” He had that same involuntary mental image of Brenna again. This time his chest tightened in a not-exactly-painful way.

“Of course not!” Sara said. “As long as you keep the kids’ best interests first and foremost, I’d be thrilled for you.”

When he got off the phone, he immediately left the room to join the kids. But today, he barely heard the way they ribbed each other or the observations they made about other diners. He was too preoccupied with seeing Brenna later in the day and wrestling with his growing attraction to her. He supposed that, as far as come-on lines went, “Good news! My ex-wife says we can hook up” wasn’t very debonair.

“IT MUST HAVE BEEN so cool growing up in your family,” Geoff commented from behind the desk.

Surprised by the non sequitur, Brenna studied her office, trying to spot any telltale signs of coolness. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, there’s Josh, who’s taking us rafting next week.” Geoff had explained that Lydia at the lodge would look after Morgan for the afternoon; Brenna had felt inexplicably bereft at this news. Even though she did not have the time to sit with Morgan and lose potentially hours of work, it had occurred to her that the Varners would be gone before she knew it. Would she wish later that she’d had an extra afternoon with the adorably high-spirited girl? “And of course, there’s you.”

“Of course,” Brenna said, grinning.

“So I figured with the way you guys turned out, your family must have been pretty great.”

“It was. Is,” she admitted. “But it’s easier to appreciate those things in retrospect, now that I’m out of the house.”

Geoff fidgeted, worrying at his thumbnail. “I probably didn’t appreciate my family enough when I had them. You know, before the divorce. I like Dan, my stepdad, but just sometimes I miss…”

She found herself wanting to hug him. “You still have your family, you know. Your mom and dad may not live together, but that doesn’t mean they love you any less.”