Tanya Michaels - Mistletoe Mommy

“Morgan!” Her brother’s voice cracked on the second syllable. He leaned forward, poking his head between the front seats. “Please excuse my sister. She’s too young to understand adult matters.”

Brenna managed to keep a straight face as she nodded, but his sister Eliza didn’t bother hiding her derisive snort.

“Adult?” She chortled. “You just turned fifteen. You can’t even get a driver’s license until your next birthday.”

“I have my learner’s permit,” he said stiffly, “and I’m a lot more-”

“Kids,” Adam interjected warningly, “can’t we-”

“-grown up than you,” Geoff finished. “You cry half the time for no reason at all. Even Morgan doesn’t-”

“That’s enough,” Adam said, this time hitting the palm of his hand on the steering wheel for emphasis. “I don’t want to hear another word for the rest of the ride. Does everyone understand?”

Eliza, who was either fearless or harbored a death wish, muttered, “Are we allowed to answer that?”

Despite herself, Brenna was fascinated by the ill-mannered girl. Brenna herself had possessed more reason for anger than most adolescents, yet she’d remained unnaturally well behaved. It had taken her years to shake the terror that her stepfather and his new wife-who was actually his old wife, long story-might decide they didn’t want her.

After all, Brenna’s own mother hadn’t kept her, not only leaving her husband, Fred Pierce, but leaving Brenna behind in Mistletoe. Brenna hadn’t known whether to feel betrayed or relieved.

“Sorry about all this,” Adam said to Brenna.

“No worries. You’re doing me the favor,” she reminded him.

He jerked his head back, indicating the three now-quiet passengers behind them. “I would say they fight like cats and dogs, but cats and dogs probably get along better.”

Her lips twitched as she thought of her own two pets, a wickedly smart border-collie mix and a cat who thought she was a dog. They were the best of friends.

“Their mother, Sara, assures me sibling rivalry is natural, so I’ll take her word for it. I’m an only child myself,” Adam told her, no trace of conflict in his voice when he mentioned the ex who’d remarried. “You have any brothers or sisters?”

“A younger stepbrother, but we never fought.” She said it automatically, regretting that she’d added it. It would only make Adam feel more conscious of his own brood, which was a lousy way to repay him for taking the time to help her.

To fill the embarrassed silence, she gave directions and commentary on the town. “Up here at the corner, we’ll turn left to get to Patch’s house. If you make a right on that same road, you can follow the signs to Kerrigan Farms. It’s a great place. They have a Fourth of July barbecue and blueberry picking all year round, as well as hayrides. We’re also just a couple of blocks from the Dixieland Diner. They have phenomenal food.”

“Food,” Geoff moaned, his apparent starvation prompting him to break the not-a-word edict.

Brenna impulsively turned to Adam. “After I take care of Patch and drop Lady E at home, would you let me buy you an early dinner?” He was going out of his way to help her, and being indebted to anyone else left her squirmy and anxious. “Please? It’s the least I can do for you guys.”

Geoff let out a whoop of delight, which his father quickly overruled.

“I can’t let you pay for the four of us,” Adam objected. “Especially since one of us, who shall remain nameless, eats like a horse.”

“But…” She trailed off as common sense reasserted itself. Aside from her almost pathological need to repay him, it was probably for the best if they didn’t have dinner together.

She had a ton of phone messages to catch up on this evening and invoices to type into her computer. This was supposed to be the summer when she worked as many long hours as humanly possible so that she was solvent by fall, when schools were back in session and her customers’ travel plans slowed down. Buying dinner for large families she didn’t know was not in her meager budget.

“Wait,” she said, suddenly realizing where they were, “that’s Martine Street! We’re supposed to hook a left here.”

He immediately obliged.

“Thanks. Sorry about the short notice.” She was already fishing through the lockbox she’d retrieved from her car for the key to the client’s house. “Patch lives in the big blue two-story at the bottom of the hill. I promise not to take too long.” Next stop, Lady Evelyn’s house. The Yorkie’s owners would be back from Florida tonight. They hadn’t wanted the pampered dog to miss her standing appointment at the groomer, so Brenna had taken her.

Adam parked the SUV at the curb. “Does your offer of dinner with us hold even if I don’t let you pay? We’d love the chance to hear more about the town, wouldn’t we, kids?”

“Yes!” Geoff agreed vehemently.

Brenna got the impression that Adam’s son would agree to anything that led to getting fed. She hesitated, thinking of everything she needed to get done at her home office. Then again, how could she refuse when dinner had been her idea in the first place?

“I’ll let you pick up the tip,” Adam said, adding under his voice, “I’m not sure I’m ready to be left alone with these three again. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

She laughed. “All right,” she agreed as she climbed out of the car.

Even though he’d had a joking tone, she believed him when he said he wasn’t ready to be alone with the kids. Though he was an intelligent, funny man-and a surgeon, for pity’s sake, which indicated a high level of capability-he did seem a bit awkward with his own children. Parenting just didn’t come naturally to some.

Brenna knew that better than anyone.

Bracing himself, Adam prepared to lay down the law if the kids resumed their bickering now that Brenna had disappeared into the blue house. But Morgan seemed content telling Lady Evelyn how cute she was, and Eliza had her eyes closed and gave every appearance of napping. Geoff, in contrast, was practically vibrating with excitement.

“Way to go, Dad! She’s a babe.”

Adam choked. “Geoffrey, that’s not an appropriate way for you to discuss Ms. Pierce.”

“Oh, but-” his son looked more bemused than chastised “-didn’t you see her?”

What was more disturbing? That the kid who’d thought girls were gross a few years ago was now scoping out older women, or that Adam wholeheartedly agreed with the fifteen-year-old’s assessment?

“I saw her. And she is attractive,” he admitted in a vast understatement. “You need to show more respect, though.”

“Sorry,” Geoff mumbled. “I just wanted to be, you know, supportive. Do you ever date?”

Rarely. His job occupied most of his waking hours, and more than once he’d sat up in bed realizing he’d been going through a case or procedure in his sleep.

“Are we gonna have two mommies like we have two daddies?” Morgan asked.

“What?” Adam spun in his seat so that he could better face his children. “No, pumpkin. Of course not. I only met Ms. Pierce a few minutes ago.”

“But Geoff said you might date. Mama and Daddy Dan used to date and now they’re married.” She concluded her observation with a nod, agreeing with her own logic.

“That’s true, but-”

“If we get more parents, do we get more presents?” Morgan wanted to know.

She was turning five at the end of next week, so birthday presents were uppermost in her mind. Sara and Dan had hosted an early party for her, not wanting her big day to be eclipsed by their recent mid-June wedding. Sara had told Adam it was up to him to figure out a way to celebrate the actual day on vacation. She wouldn’t even advise him what gift to get, as she had for most previous birthdays and Christmases.

“It should be from you,” she’d insisted gently.

“How about just a hint?” he’d wheedled. She’d laughed but hadn’t answered. Some of Morgan’s interests were obvious, of course. She loved pink and she loved animals, but he had no idea what toys she already owned, or if certain brands of adorable puppy figurines were preferable to others.

Before Adam could repeat that no one was getting additional parents anytime soon, Eliza straightened, opening her eyes just enough to glare at him. Naturally.

“Dad is not here to date,” she informed her siblings. “Mom promised this trip would be all about him spending time with us. Right?” She hurled the one-word question at Adam like a shot put.

Underneath the hostility was so much vulnerability that Adam wanted to scramble over the seat and hug her.

As if she’d let you. This was one prickly kid. He couldn’t help wondering if Sara had shielded him from this, sighing and taking care of the preteen’s attitude, instead of calling to yell at him for the monster he’d created. Had she talked to the kids before he came over last Thanksgiving, admonishing them to be on their best behavior? Or had Eliza simply bottled all this up, saving it for the right target? Not having any brothers or sisters himself, he couldn’t determine whether being the middle child was truly the most difficult family position, but it seemed accurate in Eliza’s case.

Morgan had been so young when he and Sara split up that she didn’t clearly remember a time they’d been married. Geoff had been old enough to understand how critical Adam’s job was, that sometimes it really was a matter of life or death, and he’d been coming into more independent years, so he hadn’t been as bothered by Adam’s absences. At least, that was the mature stance he projected; Adam had let himself buy into it because it was comforting. But Eliza…She’d fallen somewhere in between, and the divorce had wounded her badly.