Christmas Ever After Page 10

  “He came to my exhibition because our friends forced him to. We barely even know each other, and then—well, things happened and— I don’t know why he helped me.”

  It was a question she’d asked herself repeatedly.

  He could have walked away and she wouldn’t have given it a second thought. He owed her nothing.

  “If you don’t know the answer to that one then I believe you when you say you don’t know him. He couldn’t not help you. Alec would never walk past a person in trouble. That’s how he first met Selina. She was in trouble and he went to her rescue. What he didn’t know was that she was always in trouble. It was the way she lived her life. She’d had a very unsettled childhood, poor thing, and she couldn’t live without the attention.” Suzanne looked tired. “She exploited the kindness in him, drained every last drop of goodness until he was so empty and bitter there were days when I barely recognized my own son. He became hard, and my Alec was never hard. And I’ve said too much.” She gave an apologetic smile and Sky frowned.

  If she’d had questions before she had a million more now. “He rescued her?”

  “He hasn’t told you how they met?”

  “He’s told me nothing. We barely know each other.”

  Suzanne looked at her thoughtfully. “And yet he brought you here, and is very protective of you. He was adamant that no one was to come up here and wake you.”

  Sky felt a strange fluttering in her chest. “Yeah, well, from what you’ve been telling me, that’s the way he is. It’s not personal.” She wasn’t going to pretend for one moment that it was. And she didn’t want it to be. She had enough complications in her life. “He thinks I’m a brainless blonde. When he wants to wind me up, which is often, he calls me princess.”

  Alec’s mother laughed. “Wonderful.”

  “Is it? I confess I didn’t take it as a compliment.”

  “He’s clearly more affected by you than he’d like to admit, even to himself.” Suzanne picked up her tea and sat down on the sofa. “And he certainly doesn’t think you’re brainless. How could he? You’re very intelligent and he has made no secret of the fact he admires your work greatly.”

  “I’ve never heard him admire it before today. Mostly, he’s pretty hostile toward me. We mix socially from time to time because we have mutual friends, but we don’t know each other. We’re not … intimate.” Apart from seeing each other naked and knowing all the embarrassing details of one another’s families. “He only came to my exhibition because our friend Brittany asked him to. Then I found myself in trouble and he helped me.”

  And because she wanted to be clear about everything, because she owed it to Alec, she told his mother the whole truth, including details of the proposal and the fall.

  Suzanne listened without interrupting. “So this Richard cared enough to propose, but then he walked out? That’s shocking. You poor thing. You not only have a bruised head, you have a bruised heart.” Suzanne reached out and covered her hand with hers. “How are you feeling about it all?”

  It was the one question her own mother hadn’t asked.

  She’d asked why Sky had broken up with a man who was perfect for her, when she was going to start making good choices and when she’d be home for Christmas.

  She hadn’t once asked how her daughter was feeling.

  Sky looked at Suzanne. She didn’t even know this woman, but something in the gentle warmth of her gaze unlocked something inside her. “I don’t know. Part of me is mad with him, but I’m even madder with myself. I keep going back over all the time we spent together trying to work out if any of it was real. I’m probably supposed to feel heartbroken, but instead I feel—”

  “Betrayed?”

  “Yes.” It helped that she understood. “And so foolish for not seeing it. I thought we were close and it turns out I didn’t know him at all.”

  “Knowing someone isn’t just a question of spending time with that person. They have to let you in. Opening up must be difficult for someone who believes his career relies on him projecting a certain image.”

  “He wasn’t interested in the real me.”

  “Then he is the wrong man for you.” Suzanne straightened the covers. “Life is a big, exciting, sometimes scary adventure, and you have to choose the person you take that adventure with very carefully. You need someone who is going to cheer you on when you succeed and pick you up when you fall. Would he have done those things?”

  Sky stared into her tea. She didn’t bother trying to drink. She knew she wouldn’t be able to force the liquid past the lump in her throat. “No. I did fall. Literally. And I honestly don’t know if he would have hit me or not if I hadn’t moved. I hope he wouldn’t. But he didn’t even stay to check that I was all right.”

  “You’re not my daughter, but if you were I’d be telling you to run, not walk, from a man who stepped over you when you were injured, whether or not he was responsible for that injury.” Suzanne reached out and took the cup from her. “Don’t think about it now, dear. Just rest, recover and then see how you feel later on.”

  It was the type of conversation she would have loved to have had with her own mother.

  “I don’t know what would have happened if Alec hadn’t come to check on me. He was—” she swallowed “—he was so calm. I bled on him and I was horribly ill and he didn’t leave my side. The only reason he brought me here was because he didn’t want to leave me on my own in London.”

  “I’m glad he did. Because it shows that deep down my Alec is still there. I was worried he might have changed forever after what happened, but I see now he’s just buried that caring side of himself. And I suppose no one can blame him for that.” Suzanne handed her the scone. “Try this. It’s delicious.”

  Skylar nibbled the corner of the scone. It was warm and buttery and crumbled in her mouth. “It’s good.”

  “I hope I didn’t embarrass you by putting you in this room. It was a misunderstanding. Michael is an old family friend and he called his mother and she called me and—well, Alec is furious of course, but we’re full at the inn so I can’t give you your own room even if I wanted to. Alec can sleep on the sofa. It’s perfectly comfortable.”

  He’d already spent one night on a rock-hard sofa because of her.

  “I could sleep in the living room, or share with Olivia—”

  “The living room will be noisy with people coming and going and Liv has a tiny room in the eaves of the attic. On top of that, she sleepwalks. You need your rest and so does Alec. You’ll both be fine in here.” She picked up the tray. “Come down when you’re ready. We’re going to open champagne.”

  “Champagne? But now that you know that Alec and I—”

  “We have plenty of other things to celebrate. Alec being home for a start, and your success!”

  “Mine?”

  “Yes, your exhibition. Simon picked up a stack of papers and most of them have mentioned you. I know you’re feeling all mixed up about everything, but that mustn’t stop you feeling proud or enjoying your moment. It’s important never to walk past an excuse to celebrate. I’m sure your family feel the same.”

  No, Sky thought. No, they don’t.

  Alec’s family had been more supportive in a few hours than her parents had been in a lifetime.

  “Do you have many guests coming tonight?”

  “No guests, just family, and you’ve already met all of them. It will be very informal.” Suzanne left the room and Sky flopped back against the pillows and stared at the flickering fire.

  “No guests, just family,” she murmured to herself. “Informal. I can’t even imagine how that looks.”

  “It usually looks pretty untidy. Why? What happens in your house?” Alec’s voice came from the doorway and she sat up again, startled.

  “I didn’t see you there.”

  “I know. Because you were talking to yourself.” He closed the door and sat down on the edge of the bed. “How is your head?”

  It felt strangely intimate,
being alone in the bedroom with him.

  Remembering what his mother had said about him being unable to walk past someone in trouble, she produced her brightest smile. “Great. The sleep really helped.” Her head throbbed, but there was no way she wanted him to feel responsible for her. He’d already done more than enough.

  “Did my mother wake you?”

  “No. I was awake, and it was great talking with her.”

  He gave her a long look. “So tell me what Christmas looks like in your house.”

  Nelson whined and she leaned forward and stroked his head. There didn’t seem any reason not to tell him. “My parents entertain a lot, so Christmas is a busy time. Christmas Eve lunch is an intimate gathering of forty people.”

  “That’s a big family.”

  “It’s not family. It’s mostly colleagues of my father’s, a few of my mother’s, people they consider useful and interesting. Movers and shakers. They like introducing people to other people. Networking is an obsession for both of them.” She stroked Nelson’s soft ears, wondering how much to say. “When I was young, I had to memorize a file on everyone coming and my mother would test me.”

  His brows rose. “You mean they’d test you on how much you knew?”

  “Yes, she’d say, ‘John Brighton Junior’—and I’d have to summarize what he did and his interests. Then I was expected to do enough research to be sure that when we were talking I could hold a conversation.”

  “You did that for forty people?”

  “Forty is lunch. In the evening they have a bigger party and the numbers are closer to eighty. It’s the invite everyone in Manhattan hopes for.”

  “And you had to study the background of eighty guests?”

  “Pretty much. She divided the list into A and B. We all had to know all the A-list guests, but my brothers and I were allowed to divide the B-list guests between us.”

  “Because they were less important?”

  “Right.” Christmas was something she didn’t want to think about. Thank goodness it was still a few weeks away. “What did you do while I was asleep?”

  “Shoveled snow. I helped my dad clear the path and the drive outside the garage.”

  The sleeves of his thick black sweater were pushed back, revealing powerful forearms. The dusting of dark hair made her think of the moment she’d seen him naked.

  He smelled of the outdoors, of fresh crisp air tinged with a hint of wood smoke, of lemon and spice and man.

  Something stirred inside her.

  I could draw him like this, she thought, standing with the light behind him looking brooding and dangerous.

  “I told your mom the truth about us.”

  He rose to his feet. “Did she pay attention?”

  “I think so. I mean, I told her Richard proposed to me last night so that’s pretty good evidence that you and I couldn’t have anything serious going on.”

  “Not necessarily.” He stood with his back to her, his wide shoulders blocking her view out of the window. “Not everyone waits to end a relationship before they start another.”

  She wondered if he was talking from experience, but decided it was none of her business.

  “I do. Relationships are hard enough without having two at the same time. This dinner tonight—what should I wear?”

  “Wear anything. It’s just family. Tomorrow my older sister, Cathy, is joining us with her husband and the twins, Rosie and Tom. They live in the next village.”

  “Uncle Alec.” She slid off the bed, relieved to discover her head felt a little better. “I bet you’re good at that. Snowball fights and snowmen?”

  His eyes gleamed. “Occasionally.”

  “Then it’s only fair to warn you, you’d better get outside and practice. If there was a sport called snowballing, I’d win the gold medal.”

  “I wouldn’t have thought you were the type to enjoy getting cold and wet.”

  “Yeah, I prefer to stay indoors and file my nails.” She kept her tone light but felt a flicker of frustration. “I thought we’d got past this, but you’re still treating me like a delicate fairy princess, Alec.”

  “I know you’re not delicate.” His gaze dropped from the bruise on her head to her mouth and lingered there. “The past twenty-four hours have been tough on you.”

  Her heart bumped a little harder. “Tough on you, too, being stuck with me.”

  He didn’t comment on that. “Do you think you’ll get back together?”

  “With Richard? No.”

  “He asked you to marry him.”

  “But when I needed him, he stepped over me.” It was still the thing that shocked her the most and she agreed with Suzanne; you ran from a man like that. “Who does that? I wouldn’t step over a stranger if they were injured and in need of help, but to do it to someone you supposedly cared about enough to propose to—”

  “And your parents wanted you to marry this guy?”

  “They introduced us. They were hoping—” She shrugged. “Let’s just say they have ambitions for me.”

  “You can have ambitions about relationships?”

  “I’ve failed at the career ambitions,” she said, “so relationship ambitions are about all that’s left.”

  “I’m sure they just want you to be happy.”

  “No. That’s your parents, not mine. Let’s not pretend you didn’t hear that phone message. If we’re going to be utterly humiliated by our respective families, the least we can do is laugh about it.” She walked to the windows and stared across the fields. The snow was luminous, bathing the countryside in a ghostly glow. “Both our families interfere, the difference is that mine do it because they have ambitions for me that I refuse to fulfill. They don’t care whether I’m happy or not as long as I make them proud. That’s the only thing that interests them. It’s all about achievement. Christmas is my least favorite time of year because it’s when they put the most pressure on.” It depressed her to think about it.

  “So don’t go home.”

  “I have to. They’re my family. It’s tradition.” She swallowed. “I guess I’m not alone in dreading it. Plenty of people find Christmas stressful. For once I’m almost glad I’ll be sharing it with dozens of strangers. My parents will want to talk about Richard. I don’t know what I’m going to say.”

  “You could start with ‘he scares me.’ That should be the only explanation they need.”

  Skylar stilled. For some reason she didn’t understand her eyes filled. “Yeah, that should do it.” Oh, God, she was going to cry. “Excuse me.” She turned to walk to the bathroom but Alec stepped toward her and closed his hands over her arms.

  “Wait.” His tone was raw. “You’re upset.”

  His chest was right there, broad and powerful and she had a crazy urge to lean her head against all that hard muscle. Holy crap, she was turning into the type of woman she usually wanted to strangle. Maybe the blow to her head had been worse than she thought. She stood still, fighting the impulse. His mother was right. He wasn’t the sort of man who could walk past someone in trouble, even if he wanted to. And she didn’t want that to be their relationship dynamic. She didn’t want him to have to keep throwing her a life preserver. “On reflection, I think I’ll stay up here with Nelson tonight.”

  “I’m not leaving you up here on your own.”

  “Alec—”

  “That’s not going to happen so you can forget it.”

  “Don’t be nice to me.” She could feel the strength of his hands, holding her steady. She sensed something had changed between them and wasn’t sure it was a good thing. “It was easier when I hated you.”

  “If it would help, I’ll try harder to be a—what do you call me? Asshole.”

  She gave a choked laugh. “Asshat. Dumbass.” Worried she might howl, she eased away from him. “Fine, I’ll come down if that’s really what you want but you’d better do something stupid fast, or I’ll start to think you’re a good guy. Then where would we be?”

  He gave her
a long, disturbing look. “We’d be in trouble.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “AREN’T YOU A little old to be poking presents?” Alec watched as his sister crawled under the tree, covering herself with pine needles as she shook and prodded the prettily wrapped parcels under the tree.

  His mother had left the curtains open and snow glided past the window like silvery tears, dissolving against the glass. A fire crackled in the hearth and a basket of logs stood ready to keep the flames topped up.

  Skylar was still upstairs in the shower. He hoped she wasn’t upset. The thought made him shift uncomfortably in his chair. She was obviously determined not to lean on him and he should have been relieved about that.

  He was relieved.

  “You’re never too old to poke a present.” Liv held one up to her nose and sniffed. “Smells good. What have you bought Skylar?”

  “I haven’t bought her anything. Why would I? I’ve told you repeatedly—”

  “You’re not together. I know, but I wish you were. She’s a million times nicer than anyone you’ve brought home before. And she is sooooo beautiful, Alec. Her hair could be in a shampoo ad.”

  He thought about the silken flow of Skylar’s hair and the way it had felt in his hands. “I hadn’t noticed.”

  Liv retied a bow that had come loose on one of the parcels. “For two people who supposedly don’t like each other, the pair of you are like an experiment in a science lab. Not that science is exactly my thing, but I’d say the two of you are one small spark away from a serious chemical explosion.”

  “You’re imagining things.”

  “Don’t treat me like an idiot, Alec.”

  “You’re my little sister, and we’re not having this conversation.”

  “I’m a teenager. I think about boys a lot, or didn’t you get that memo? I’m old enough to recognize sexual tension.”