Christmas from the Heart Read online

  She murmured her thanks and they both fell silent. If they knew each other better, if she knew who he really was, and that he wanted to be more than he was... What would he say to her? Don’t commit to anybody just yet. Give me time to grow. I could change.

  He didn’t say anything. He simply couldn’t spit out what he needed to, couldn’t tell her what she should know about him. He had to get out there and do something to earn her respect.

  Of course, being the CFO of a large company like Hightower Enterprises would have been more than enough to earn the respect of most people. Sadly for him, Olivia Berg wasn’t most people.

  They turned onto her street. “I was going to watch a Christmas movie,” she said. “Maybe you’d like to join me.”

  Of course he would, because he’d been drugged with fruitcake. Don’t be stupid, he told himself.

  Too late. “Sure.” He was making a bad habit of not listening to himself.

  Back at the house they hung up their coats, then she disappeared into the kitchen to fetch cookies. Guy caught sight of the gift basket he’d gotten her sitting on the living room coffee table, all gussied up in cellophane and a big red bow. He’d bought it because he knew she’d like it. And maybe because he hoped she’d still like him when she learned his true identity? Could a gift basket erase a bad first impression? If only they hadn’t gotten off on the wrong foot.

  Ha! There was an understatement. He’d kicked her with the wrong foot.

  He went upstairs to wash up. The man in the bathroom mirror had a banged-up face and a dribble of dried blood under his nose.

  “You are such a fool,” Guy told him.

  Livi was just coming out of the kitchen bearing a plate of cookies when he came back downstairs. “I thought my dad might join us,” she said, “but he opted not to.”

  “Not into having company?” Guy asked as they settled on the couch.

  “More like recovering from politeness overload. He still misses my mom, and getting out there with people and pretending to enjoy the season tends to drain him. Christmas was her favorite holiday,” she added, and Guy noticed that some of the joy had dropped out of her voice.

  He understood. “I get it. The holidays weren’t the same after my dad died.”

  “How did your family cope?” she asked, setting the cookie plate on the coffee table.

  “I’m not sure we ever really did,” Guy said with a shrug. “We don’t get together much as a family anymore. My oldest brother’s on his third divorce. My mom’s remarried. We’re still trying to do Thanksgiving but...”

  It was difficult to put into words how their lives had changed over the years, especially during the holidays. They still made a point of doing Thanksgiving—ate turkey and stuffing, had some laughs, played with the kids, but it always felt to Guy as if their hearts weren’t in it. This year had been especially hard with Michael’s latest marriage mess leaving him far from being good company.

  As for mixing with Del’s family? Well, they’d never be the Brady Bunch. “I’m the only one going to see my mom for Christmas this year.” And even though he wanted to see her, he wasn’t sure how that visit was going to turn out.

  “I so miss having my mom with us. She made the holidays special.”

  “It looks like you’re doing a pretty good job of that yourself,” Guy said.

  “Not like her. There are times when I wish I could go back in time.”

  Him, too. He’d have made sure a big chunk of money got given to Christmas from the Heart. How different this all would be without that fateful decision hanging over him.

  “But since I can’t, I’m determined to continue living the best way I can and to try to keep our family together,” Livi said. “I want my mom to be proud of me.”

  “How could she not?” Guy couldn’t help wondering how proud his dad would have been of some of his choices. Would he have cared that Guy had told his CSR director to sever old ties with this small charity?

  Maybe not. But would he have been disappointed with his son’s cowardly duplicity? For sure.

  Guy remembered one of the last pieces of advice his dad ever gave him. “Sometimes you have to make hard decisions, son. Once you make one, stand by it and don’t be ashamed. And always be honest in all your dealings, no matter how hard that is. Nothing pays as high a dividend as honesty.”

  And nothing cost so much as dishonesty. Guy was seeing the truth of that now.

  Meanwhile, here was Livi, smiling at him as if his opinion mattered. “I’m sure trying to keep the joy in our lives,” she said. “I just wish my dad could try a little harder. I’m sure when my brother and sister-in-law come tomorrow, though, that will perk him up. Meanwhile, we have a movie to watch and Christmas cookies to eat. Would you like some milk to go with them?”

  Cookies and milk, like when he was a kid. “Sure.” Keep the holiday movie playing.

  She motioned to the gift basket. “Or we could have some champagne.”

  “Milk will do it for me.”

  She nodded. “All right then. I’ll be right back.”

  What are you doing here? Make some excuse and leave before this goes any further. Hide in the guest room until the car’s ready.

  Guy not only stayed put, he settled on the couch in the hopes that she’d join him there.

  She did, after putting in a DVD. She didn’t cuddle up right next to him—Livi Berg was too classy to get pushy unless it was for a good cause—but she did sit close enough to tell him it was at the back of her mind.

  Her phone pinged, signaling a text. She picked it up, looked at it, then turned off the phone and set it on the coffee table. Guy could guess who it was from by the irritated expression on her face. Bentley was still stuck on the outside looking in while Guy was snug in the living room, eating cookies and watching a movie with Livi. How long could his luck hold out?

  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a couple of nutcracker Hessian soldiers on the end table on his side of the couch. He’d never liked nutcrackers, always thought they were creepy. These two seemed to be glaring at him, like characters from a Stephen King novel. It would serve him right if they came to life in the night and stabbed him with their bayonets.

  “I love this old movie,” Livi said, aiming the remote at the DVD player. “I watch it every Christmas.”

  Not It’s a Wonderful Life. That was his mom’s favorite and she’d made him and his brothers watch it with her every year—until they got old enough to make an excuse and escape. Corny and stupid. No man was poor who had friends, or something like that.

  Or maybe she was about to show him A Christmas Carol. The evil businessman. That would be even worse. He braced himself.

  The screen showed him The Family Man with Nicolas Cage. It was A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life melded together and wrapped up in modern clothes. He’d seen the movie once, years ago, with a girlfriend. He’d found it pretty entertaining. This time he wasn’t so sure he’d be able to watch it.

  Go now. Take a cookie and scram. He took a cookie and stayed put.

  And watched Jack Campbell, investment broker, learn a thing or two about life. Well, sort of watched. Between thinking about how much he’d like to pull Livi next to him and wishing he was the kind of man who deserved to do that, it was hard to concentrate on the plot. Not that it needed much concentration. The story was the same one writers brought out in some form or other every Christmas.

  “Wasn’t that wonderful?” she asked when the ending credits finally rolled, tears in her eyes.

  “It was okay.”

  “Just okay?” She looked shocked.

  “Well, it’s kind of the same old story told over and over again—man with no heart grows one.”

  “That’s a classic theme,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah, the theme that every businessman is a hard-hearted bastard.”
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  “Some are,” she argued, and he knew exactly who she was thinking of.

  So he’d screwed up. But he wasn’t all bad. “You know, Livi, most businessmen are trying to do something good in their own way, trying to make something of themselves, provide a better life for their family and their employees.” That was what his dad had done.

  “I know,” she said softly. “And without those businesses, Christmas from the Heart wouldn’t be able to do what it does. I guess I like these movies because they remind us that life is about priorities. All the success in the world doesn’t mean much if you lose the people in your life while you’re pursuing it, especially when that’s why you want the success in the first place. And I think all of us were put here on this earth to share. Did you ever see the old movie Hello, Dolly!?”

  Conversational whiplash. Where were they going now? He shook his head.

  “I watched it on TV with my mom and grandma when I was a little girl. It’s all about this widow who’s a matchmaker and she’s always talking to her dead husband.”

  “So, she’s a medium?”

  Livi smiled and shook her head. “No, she just likes to keep his memory alive. Anyway, she has this line in the movie where she talks about money being fertilizer, meant to be spread around to make things grow. I think that’s a good attitude to have, no matter what your business. Don’t you?”

  Livi Berg was exactly the kind of woman Guy’s mom would approve of. “You are something else,” he said, and slipped an arm around her and drew her toward him. She came willingly and she kissed him back willingly. And, oh man, life was good for that one moment.

  If only he could find a way to make it last.

  * * *

  A shower, some aspirin and a bag of frozen peas to his aching chin hadn’t left Morris feeling any better. He’d been an ass—there was no getting around it. And now Joe Ford, who’d done nothing more than eat some fruitcake and put away some chairs, was Liv’s new hero. And Morris’s moment of madness hadn’t helped.

  He had no excuse for his behavior other than... Okay, there was no excuse.

  He texted an apology to her, which she ignored, then tossed aside his phone and grabbed the TV remote in an effort to distract himself. Nothing worked, not even streaming Die Hard, one of his all-time favorite holiday movies. Instead of seeing Bruce Willis taking down bad guys, all he could see was himself, shoving Ford and starting that nightmare chain of disaster in the restaurant. He never got mad like that. Of all the times to start. He was an idiot.

  An idiot who’d been in love with Liv ever since he turned twelve and came to the realization that girls didn’t have cooties. From then on he’d done everything to win her heart from tugging on her hair or snitching her lunch sack from her and making her chase him to putting cheap Valentine candy on her porch on Valentine’s Day—yeah, he got smoother as he got older—and then running away so she wouldn’t catch him in the act. Okay, not that smooth. It had taken him clear until their junior year in high school to get up his nerve to ask her out, and then it had taken him three dates to get up his nerve to kiss her. But after that they’d been a couple. He’d hated it when she left for college and it had killed him when she broke up with him when she came home for Thanksgiving. He’d been patient, though, and after she returned to Pine River for good he’d convinced her to try again. The second try hadn’t worked and she’d relegated him to the friends corner. He hated the friends corner.

  But even that was better than where he was now. Now he was in deep shit.

  Okay, he may have been an idiot but Ford was... What? An interloper, a slick newcomer turning Livi’s head with his fancy clothes and his fancy car.

  It was more than that. There was something else about the guy, something Morris couldn’t put his finger on, but he sensed it in his gut.

  He grabbed his phone again, got on the internet and typed in Joe Ford. Up came a singer, a football coach, a funeral home and an insurance agent. Last up was a former CEO of a global communication company in another part of the country who had graduated from college before this Joe was even born. Morris searched Facebook, too, and didn’t find anybody who looked like Joe Ford.

  “You’re a fake,” he muttered. Whoever this man was, whatever he was hiding, Morris hoped he could find out before it was too late and Liv got her heart broken.

  We Wish You a Merry Christmas

  13

  The next morning Livi had eggnog coffee cake waiting for her father and Guy. Guy had hoped not to see her dad. His face was a mess and he wasn’t sure Mr. Berg would be impressed on hearing about his brawl with Bentley outside Family Tree.

  The man was sitting at the vintage kitchen table with his paper, sipping his morning coffee. He said nothing about Guy’s face, instead giving him a friendly nod and informing him that the weatherman was predicting clear skies for the next couple of days.

  “Should make things easier when you get on the road.”

  Either Mr. Berg was the most unobservant man on the planet or the most diplomatic. Either way, Guy was grateful he didn’t say anything about the purple swelling under one eye and his swollen nose.

  “It looks that way,” he said, and helped himself to a piece of coffee cake. “This looks good,” he said to Livi.

  “It’s one of my specialties. I hope you enjoy it,” she said, and laid a platter of bacon on the table, as well.

  “I will,” Guy said. He was enjoying everything about being with the Bergs.

  Except for the pressure his guilty secret was putting on his conscience. That was taking on glacial proportions.

  “I wish you’d come home for the volunteer luncheon,” Livi said to her father as he stood to leave.

  “You’ll have enough people to feed without adding your old man to the list.”

  She shook her head. “You need to be thanked, too.”

  “No need to thank me for putting out a few chairs.” He stood and kissed the top of her head. “I’m sure Joe won’t mind standing in for me.”

  “If I’m still here,” Guy said, and noticed that Livi didn’t look as happy as she had a moment ago. Maybe the belt wouldn’t come in.

  What was he saying? That part needed to get in and he needed to get gone.

  Mr. Berg shook hands with him. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you need. If you do get your car going, have a safe trip and feel free to come visit anytime you’re on your way through town.”

  Olivia’s father was a nice man. Nice to Joe Ford, anyway. But Guy Hightower, the creep who’d insulted his daughter and left her charity hanging in the wind? The man would be fighting Bentley for the privilege of ripping off Guy’s head and using it for a bowling ball.

  Her father left and then it was just the three of them, Olivia, Guy and the glacier. “I’ll help you,” he said, grabbing a plate.

  “No need,” she assured him.

  Yeah, there was. He needed to prove he was no Christmas monster. As if clearing the table and helping load the dishwasher would do it.

  He did anyway. Then he left her to get ready for her party and went to his room to call Bob’s Auto Repair. If his car was ready, he could leave while everybody still liked him. Then, once he got to Idaho, he’d get his mom to advise him on how to proceed with Livi. That was the smart thing to do. Still, part of him hated to leave.

  He got Morris. Where was good old Bob, anyway? “It’s Joe Ford. Did that belt come in?”

  “Not yet,” Morris growled.

  “Are you going to get it today?”

  “We should. The sooner you’re out of town the better.”

  Sadly, truer words were never spoken.

  * * *

  He’d barely ended the call when his phone announced a text from Mike. You at Mom’s? Call me. We’ve got a situation.

  Guy much preferred to deal with a million situations at work rather than the
awkward one in Pine River. Any business-related problem would be a piece of cake in comparison.

  Cake. The great flying cake incident at the restaurant, the fight in the parking lot. Good Lord. He wasn’t in a holiday movie anymore. He was in a reality show.

  He called Mike. “What’s up?”

  “Hey, I know Mom’s gonna be pissed if you’re doing business down there instead of family stuff but we’ve got a major fire that needs to be put out,” Mike said.

  Guy didn’t bother to tell his brother that he wasn’t at their mother’s house yet, that he was stuck in a small town, the resident Grinch incognito as a man with a heart. No sense going into all that. Mike had problems of his own. Besides, Guy wasn’t sure his big brother would understand what he was feeling.

  “Breville wants to back out of buying the business park on Aurora.”

  “He’s a real estate broker. He should know what a sweet deal this is.”

  “He’s got cold feet for some reason. Bry and I have finessed him all we can. I think you need to talk numbers with him again.”

  “Okay, I’m on it.”

  Guy spent the rest of the morning dealing with Hightower issues. It was a relief to focus on something other than his personal life.

  The problem was on its way to being resolved when voices began to drift upstairs. Soon Livi was tapping on his bedroom door.

  He opened it, ready to give her some excuse for why he couldn’t come down, but seeing her, the words mutinied and ran away. She was wearing a green sweater over black leggings and some little red shoes that made her look like a ballerina. She looked so happy, he wanted to be with her and let that happiness spill over onto him. He followed her downstairs.

  On the way down he noticed a new holiday decoration had been added—a jewel-shaped acrylic crystal topped with gold-glittered mistletoe hung from the hall chandelier.

  “A new decoration?” he asked.

  “I always put up mistletoe,” she said in an obvious attempt to sound casual. “I almost forgot this year.”