Take Me Home for Christmas

That confirmed it. There was recognition in that greeting. “Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.”

Normally, Eve loved this time of year. They were heading into December, which was her favorite month. It was a tradition that she and Cheyenne decorate the B and B for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. Once they came back from coffee, they’d drag the wreaths and garlands out of the attic and, by Sunday night, Little Mary’s would look like the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting, with a fire burning in the hearth and the old-fashioned Victorian Christmas tree in front of the window. The competing B and B at the other end of town spent a lot of money when they remodeled a couple of years ago, but Eve didn’t think they came close to the quaint charm of her place—not during the holidays. Even the cemetery next door, with its lovely iron filigree fence and century-old tombstones, added to the ambience. And if they were lucky, there’d be snow....

But after her last conversation with Ted, decorating the inn didn’t sound half as appealing as it had before. She’d thought that for the first time in a long while she’d have someone special, someone besides her family, to share Christmas with. And now it would be awkward at coffee on Fridays, too, especially once everyone learned that they’d already ended the relationship.

“Did you spend the day at Ted’s mother’s place?” Eve asked.

“The last part of it. The first part we spent with my parents. What about you? Did you have the Amos boys over like you were planning?”

“They had dinner with us, but...it was a little uncomfortable.”

Eve slid beneath the covers of her bed. “Why’s that?”

“Presley told me she’d be with her boyfriend, but they got into a fight and she ended up calling me. She was lonely and wanted to come over, but...I had Aaron here.”

“They can’t get along well enough to have a Thanksgiving meal together?”

“She wants no contact with him. And...it’s not just that.” Eve heard a door open and close, then Cheyenne’s voice dropped. “There’s something else going on, something even more difficult.”

Cheyenne’s behavior pulled Eve out of her own sadness for the moment. “What is it?”

“I’ve never told you this. I’ve guarded the secret carefully because...because I haven’t even told Dylan. I can’t tell him—”

“You’re keeping a secret from your husband? The man you love more than anything in the world?” She sat up. “About what?”

“You have to promise me—swear to me—that you’ll never breathe a word of this to anyone.”

“Of course! Surely, we’ve been friends long enough for you to trust me.”

“I trust you with my secrets. But this isn’t my secret, and I haven’t told a living soul.”

Eve had no idea what to make of this. The two of them had been through a lot of ups and downs ever since Cheyenne’s mother had dragged her and Presley to town in that beat-up old car they’d been living in twenty years ago. Not only that, but Eve and Chey worked together five days a week. How could there be a secret Cheyenne hadn’t shared—with her or Dylan? “Whose secret is it? Presley’s?”

“Yes.”

“And it involves...”

“Wyatt.”

“Why would you have any reason to keep a secret about Presley’s son from—” Suddenly, Eve realized what had been right in front of her all along. “Oh, shit! Aaron’s Wyatt’s father!”

She’d asked if that was a possibility before. Most of the town knew that Presley had been sleeping with Aaron around the time—or not long before—Presley got pregnant. But they’d never been an item. And Presley had insisted that a man she met in Phoenix after she left Whiskey Creek was the father of her child.

“Wait. Aaron knows Wyatt exists—” she started but Cheyenne interrupted.

“He knows Presley has a child. But he thinks the father is from Arizona, like everyone else. They always used birth control.”

“It just didn’t work.”

“Apparently.”

“Isn’t she ever going to tell him?”

“I’ve asked her that repeatedly. She says she probably will—one day. But she keeps putting it off. She’s terrified Aaron will ruin her happiness and maybe Wyatt’s, too. But it’s getting harder and harder for me to be ‘family’ to both sides. I feel disloyal to my husband because this is his brother we’re talking about. I feel disloyal to Aaron, too—as his sister-in-law. And yet...I understand exactly where Presley is coming from. Aaron’s never been stable. He wasn’t ready for a child when she got pregnant. He wouldn’t have been interested, anyway—so she did him a favor by letting him off the hook.”

“I sure hope he looks at it that way when he finds out,” Eve breathed. “Dylan, too.”

“I’m afraid they won’t see it that way at all. And I can’t blame them. Part of me believes Aaron has the right to know, especially now that he’s changing, growing up. He still has his moments. He may deal with anger and resentment his whole life. But I’m seeing some maturity there. And I love him. It’s almost impossible not to love him.”

“You love your sister, too.”

“Exactly. I tell myself she’s never had anything. That she deserves Wyatt. You know how we grew up, what happened with our mother.”

“But Aaron’s led a hard life, too.”

“And what if Wyatt could make a positive impact on him—get him to change his priorities and settle down?”

“You think he might try to get custody or cause problems for her?”

“Maybe. It’s common knowledge that he’s something of a loose cannon. If I told him, and he did wind up making her life hell—or demanded even partial custody—she’d never forgive me. I’m so torn, I don’t know what to do!”

“God, you’ve been carrying this secret for what—two years?”

“Wyatt’s fourteen months old so...yeah, two years, including the pregnancy. I’m telling you, it’s harder every day. As Wyatt gets older, he’s looking more and more like his father. I’m scared that Dylan will eventually see the resemblance, and that no matter what I say, I won’t be able to refute what’s staring him in the face. It’s not as if he hasn’t asked me if I thought there was any chance Wyatt could be Aaron’s.”

Eve tightened her grip on the phone. “When he asked, you told him no?”

“I had to! He’d tell his brother. I have no doubt of that. Maybe they don’t always get along, but he raised Aaron.”

“You’re caught in the middle, all right.”

“And the pressure is mounting. This was just Thanksgiving. What will Christmas be like? Again, Dylan and I will have to work out a way to see Presley separate from Aaron, which’ll leave one or the other alone.”

“Surely Presley understands. She can’t expect you to always accommodate her.”

“She does understand. She tells me all the time that she’ll be the one to bow out. But she needs my support so badly. She’s hardly making ends meet working at that thrift shop while she’s going to massage school. And now she’s hooked up with a guy who’s worse than Aaron ever was. I live in fear that she’ll slip back into her old habits.”

“Gee. Now I feel better about my own problems.”

“What problems?” Cheyenne asked. “We’re going into the Christmas season, which we both love. And you’re dating one of the most eligible bachelors in Whiskey Creek.”

“Was dating,” she clarified.

The phone went silent. Then Chey said, “You just told me you went to his mother’s for Thanksgiving.”

“That’s true. But afterward, we had a talk and decided that...that it’s not working,” she said, coming out with it.

“What part of it isn’t working? What went wrong?”

“You can’t guess?”

Cheyenne sighed. “I doubt you really want me to. It’ll sound too much like ‘I told you so.’”

“I think he’s still in love with Sophia.”