Christmas from the Heart Read online

  He shrugged. “Just life, I guess.”

  “The business?”

  He shrugged again. That was as good a reason to not be happy as any.

  She studied him. “Did something happen in Pine River I don’t know about?”

  A lot had happened in Pine River she didn’t know about. “I met someone.”

  “And?” she prompted.

  “And it’s not going to work out.”

  “Why on earth not? Why wouldn’t any woman in her mind want my wonderful son?”

  “Because he’s not that wonderful.”

  “Nonsense,” she said crisply. “Now, tell me about this someone.”

  He did. He spilled the whole ugly tale, ending with his and Livi’s parting words on her front porch.

  “You should have been up front from the beginning,” Mom said, telling him what he already knew.

  “Yeah, I should have. But she was so nice and so happy to give me a lift into town. And then, the more time I spent with her the harder it got. I wanted to say something, wanted to explain why we didn’t give to Christmas from the Heart this year.”

  “And why didn’t we?”

  “Because we didn’t have as much to give and went with other nonprofits. What’s so wrong with that?” Nope, not defensive. Not him.

  “Nothing, if your motives were pure. Who were you trying to help the most, those nonprofits or Hightower’s public image?”

  “Both,” he said.

  She didn’t say anything, just cocked her head and studied him.

  “Why does everyone have to make business owners out to be shits?” he demanded in exasperation. “I’d like to see Olivia Berg step in and run the finances of a company. Then maybe she’d see the big picture.”

  “She is running a company,” his mother pointed out. “And maybe she saw more than made you comfortable.”

  “Thanks, Mom. You’re really helping,” he said bitterly.

  She laid a hand over his. “You know I think you’re wonderful. But, like all of us, you’re not perfect.”

  “I never said I was.”

  He didn’t claim to be a saint. He sure hadn’t made any such claim to Livi. He’d only claimed not to be a shit.

  “But you do tend to get your back up when criticized. Do you think you might have gotten a little defensive when you two had that last conversation?”

  Conversation? It had been an argument, and a heated one at that.

  “You’re right,” he said, and pushed away his glass. That so-called apology on Livi’s porch had been a disaster.

  “No one likes humble pie, but a wise man knows when to eat it,” his mother said gently.

  Too late for that. He’d already consumed a double helping of high horse.

  “This woman sounds special, worth getting to know better.”

  “That won’t be happening now,” Guy muttered. He shook his head. “I really blew it.”

  “People do change their minds, Guy. When there’s a reason to. Sounds to me like you have to give her a reason.”

  Easier said than done, but he nodded.

  “You’ll find a way to work things out,” she said, giving his arm one final pat. “Now, come on out in the living room and be sociable. We’re going to play Christmas twenty questions with Kimmy.”

  Twenty questions, great. Animal, mineral or vegetable. He knew what he was: mineral, a walking lump of coal. And nobody ever wanted a lump of coal in her stocking.

  He did his best to be sociable but the evening stretched on forever. First thing the next morning he was ready to leave.

  “I hate to see you go so soon,” his mom said when he told her. “You just got here.” Once more, it was only the two of them at the kitchen table.

  “I can’t take any more,” he said, and took a final swig from his coffee mug. “I’ll come back when it’s just you and Del.”

  She nodded her understanding. “I don’t blame you. You didn’t marry them. I did. And that’s how it goes when you say yes to someone. You say yes to all the people who come with that person.”

  Guy thought of all the people who came with Livi. He’d happily say yes to all of them. Well, all except Bentley.

  The rest of the household was still asleep when he slipped down the stairs with his duffel bag and computer, even little Kimmy, who’d finally gotten worn-out from her holiday high. His mom was waiting at the front door with a thermos of coffee to keep him going, and something else, as well.

  “You have some repair work ahead of you. Maybe this will help,” she said, and gave him a check for five thousand dollars made out to Christmas from the Heart. “But when you go back to that girl, make sure you bring her more than a check.”

  He wasn’t going to go back. She wouldn’t want to see him. She would be happy to see the check, though. He’d mail it as soon as he got home.

  And wish he had the guts to take a chance on delivering it in person.

  Really, though, what good would it do? Money could buy a lot of things. But respect wasn’t one of them.

  16

  Livi took down all the inside Christmas decorations the day after Christmas. It was what her mother had always done. “They’re never as much fun after the holiday celebrating is done,” Mom used to say. “They’re like guests who nobody told the party’s over.”

  Livi agreed. It always seemed to her that the tree never knew what to do without presents under it, as if it had lost its purpose. All that festive gaudiness had seemed to mock her anyway. Especially the mistletoe. She threw that in the garbage.

  It seemed almost wrong to throw away a Christmas decoration, but this one was something she’d purchased back when she was young and silly. It had no sentimental value and the memories attached to it hurt her heart.

  The rest of the holiday treasures she packed up with loving care. “Until next year,” she said, as she stuffed the last one in its box.

  What did the new year hold? A new baby in the family, that was for sure. And maybe a new beginning for her, too.

  “Have you heard from Joe yet?” Bettina asked when they were in the office a couple of days later.

  Livi shook her head. “There is no Joe.”

  “What? I don’t understand.”

  “That man we all thought was so nice? His name isn’t Joe Ford. It’s Guy Hightower.”

  “Guy Hightower,” Bettina stuttered, and stared at her. “That nice man was Guy Hightower?”

  “That man pretending to be nice was Guy Hightower,” Livi corrected her.

  “I don’t believe it.”

  “Believe what?” asked Kate, walking into the office.

  “We’ve been had,” Bettina informed her, and shared the shocking news.

  “OMG,” said Kate. “That is just too weird. Of all the people in all the world...”

  Livi scowled at her. “Don’t go quoting old movie lines to me.”

  “Sorry,” Kate muttered. “I just can’t believe it. And he seemed like such a great guy, er, man. Talk about a holiday Jekyll and Hyde.”

  “He’s worse. Hyde experimented on himself and took something that made him evil. Guy didn’t have to take anything.”

  “No, and he still managed to be good while he was here,” Bettina argued. “For such a Scrooge, he sure did a lot of nice things.”

  “Only because he didn’t want to be found out,” Livi insisted.

  “Maybe he wanted to make a good impression on you,” said Bettina. “Maybe he wanted to change.”

  “Or maybe he just wanted to get laid.” Kate shook her head. “Men are such farts. Well, except for yours and mine,” she said to Bettina.

  “And Morris,” said Bettina, looking to Livi. “At least you know where you stand with him.”

  “Are you arguing for Morris?” Kate demanded. “After what a jerk h
e was that night at Family Tree?”

  “Cut him some slack,” Bettina said. “He’s a nice man. And there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for you, Livi. He’s got a good heart and he’s loyal.”

  “So’s a dog, for heaven’s sake,” said Kate. “Were you not present when we were talking about the perfect man for Livi?”

  “I thought I’d found one,” Livi said, “and look what I got.”

  Kate settled in front of the computer where she worked on the books. “You don’t want to settle.”

  “Well, she doesn’t want to go through life alone, either,” Bettina argued.

  No, she didn’t.

  “But Kate’s right,” Bettina said. “You shouldn’t settle. Love’s too important and life’s too short.”

  * * *

  It seemed everywhere Livi went people wanted to talk about Joe Ford. Suz at the grocery store said, “Hey, your friend was in here on Christmas Eve.”

  “Oh?” Which friend?

  “He bought an awful pretty floral arrangement for someone,” Suz said with a sly grin.

  “It must have been for someone else,” Livi said shortly.

  Suz blinked in surprise. “Oh. Well, uh, whoever he got them for, it sure was nice.”

  Yeah, nice. There was nothing nice about Guy Hightower. He only pretended to be nice.

  Still, no one had twisted his arm to buy all those extra turkeys and hams. Was he a holiday Jekyll and Hyde, the corporate Guy ready to act one way while Joe, his nobler version, kept trying to be generous? She had his email. She could ask.

  He had hers. He could grovel.

  Morris called just as she was depositing her groceries in the car trunk. “Want to grab a burger and see a movie? That new musical’s playing at Pine Cinema.”

  Morris was not crazy about musicals. It spoke—or rather sang—volumes that he was willing to sit through one with her.

  “Sure,” she said. She certainly wasn’t going to mope around over someone who’d come into her life for such a short time. “That sounds fun.”

  And it would be. She and Morris always had fun together.

  They didn’t go to Family Tree, which had the best burgers in town. Instead they wound up at a popular chain. After the scene Morris had created in Family Tree she couldn’t blame him for not being in a hurry to venture back yet.

  How had he known Guy wasn’t who he said he was? And what had been wrong with her woman’s intuition that she hadn’t sensed something was off? Did she have a faulty intuition?

  They finished their burgers and were dredging the last of their fries through ketchup when he brought up the subject they’d been avoiding. “Liv, I’m sorry about Hightower. Are you okay?”

  She focused on a french fry. Was she? “I’m still mad. I feel like an idiot.” And she was disappointed. It didn’t seem right to share that with Morris.

  “He was smooth.” Morris shoved away the last of his fries, a very un-Morris thing to do. “Look, I know I’m not rich. I can’t compete with someone like that.”

  “You don’t have to. You’re honest. And kind.”

  “I acted like an ass.” He made a face. “But damn it all, Liv, I was so jealous. Look, I can’t give you a mansion in Seattle.”

  “I don’t need a mansion in Seattle,” she said firmly.

  “I can’t give you a ton of money and trips around the world.”

  “Travel is overrated.”

  “It is. You know what they say, Liv, there’s no place like home.”

  Of course, he was right.

  “I’ll be there for you whenever you need me. We could have a good life.”

  Here was where she should say, “Let’s do it then. Let’s start planning a future together.”

  He rushed on before she could speak. “I just want you to think about it. Okay?”

  She nodded. “Okay.” Then added, “I don’t know what my problem was, Morris.”

  “Me, either,” he said with a half smile. “Are you over it?”

  “I’m working on it.”

  The half smile turned into a whole one. “Hey, maybe there really is a Santa,” he joked.

  Later that night, after he’d walked her to her door, she let him kiss her. And she kissed him back, really putting herself into it. This wasn’t so bad. She could get used to this. And she and Morris could be happy together. Morris would never lie to her or break her heart. He may not have been as smooth and charming as some men, but charm was deceitful. He also didn’t come with any fancy trappings, but fancy trappings were overrated. Very overrated.

  Guy Hightower had turned her head, but thank God she had it on straight again.

  * * *

  “How was the fam-damnly?” Mike asked Guy as the three brothers settled around the conference table with their morning coffee. Neither brother knew about Guy having been stranded in a small town in the shadow of the Cascades and he wasn’t about to share his experience with them. They’d be bound to mock his attacks of altruism, writing them off as a case of a man trying to get a woman into bed.

  “The same as always,” he said. “It’s somebody else’s turn to do Christmas with the steps next year,” he added, putting them on notice.

  “Oh yeah, sign me up,” said Mike.

  “Now that you’re about to be single, Melianna will be more than happy to see you,” Guy teased.

  “Like I said,” Mike retorted. “So, how’s Mom?”

  “She’s good.”

  “I’m glad somebody’s good,” Bryan said with a scowl. “Gina wants a divorce. Counseling didn’t work. She says I’m not making her a priority.”

  “Saw that coming,” muttered big brother Mike.

  “She’s gonna take me to the cleaners,” Bryan predicted miserably.

  “Of course she is,” Mike said. “Women are not worth it. They steal your money and eat your soul.”

  Was that what had happened to Guy in Pine River? He’d felt like crap ever since he got home. Had Livi Berg eaten his soul?

  No. First he had to have a soul to eat. The only problem with Livi, not to mention his brothers’ wives, was that they wanted more from their men than success.

  Guy went through the motions during the meeting, went through the motions at his desk, went through the motions the rest of the week, running on autopilot. Was this what he wanted the rest of his life to look like?

  Every night he came home and saw the check from his mom sitting on his bedroom dresser. He’d planned to send it off right away. Then he’d hesitated, trying to think of some grand gesture he could couple it with. No grand gesture had come to mind. The year was almost at a close and he was miserable. What to do? What to do?

  Go out on New Year’s Eve with a couple of pals he sometimes went snowboarding with. Drinks, pretty girls, dancing.

  Boring.

  “So, who’s making a new year’s resolution?” asked Jessica, his date.

  “Not me,” said one of his pals. “Too much work.”

  “I am,” said one of the women.

  To be more organized? To get fit? Give more to charity? I can recommend a nonprofit.

  “I’m going to lose ten pounds,” she announced.

  She didn’t look like she could spare ten pounds. Guy said as much.

  “You haven’t seen me naked,” she replied, and giggled.

  He didn’t think he wanted to.

  “I’ve got a resolution,” said his date. “I’m going to ask for a raise. No way am I getting paid what I’m worth.”

  Neither was Olivia Berg. What was she doing tonight, and who was she doing it with? As if he couldn’t guess.

  * * *

  Livi and Morris were at Family Tree, ringing in the new year with Kate and Tom and Bettina and Danny, who were trusting their baby—barely—to the care of Danny’s sister, who had two kids of her o
wn. Morris had survived some light razzing when they came in, a sure sign that his earlier brawling was forgiven. Livi was dressed up in a clingy black dress she’d ordered online and a vintage silver sequined jacket that had been her mom’s and wearing the requisite New Year’s Eve party hat. After dinner, they’d move into the lounge and dance in the new year.

  They sat squeezed into a booth, Morris’s arm draped possessively over her. She smiled and he beamed. They looked like the perfect couple.

  “This is the best way to ring in the new year, with friends,” Livi said. Unbidden, the memory of sitting at that very table with Joe, no, Guy the deceiver, came to mind. She’d liked him so much when he was Joe.

  Who was she kidding? It had been more than like. Much more. It had been love, budding and waiting to bloom.

  The bloom is dead. Forget it.

  Good advice. She needed to listen to herself. In only a few hours it would be a new year and she wasn’t going to waste so much as one minute on thinking about Joe. No, Guy. Mr. Two Face. She’d gotten carried away with silly fantasies. She was done with that now, over her Belle complex. There was nothing at all wrong with her provincial life. It was a nice life with good people in it. And a good man who was crazy about her.

  People said you could always tell what kind of a husband a man would make by watching how he treated his mother. Morris was definitely husband material. He was a great son, always doing handyman chores for his mom and taking her to church every Sunday. Who knew how Joe/Guy Two Face treated his mom? He probably lied to her all the time.

  “It’s going to be a great year,” Kate predicted, grinning at her fiancé.

  “It sure is,” Tom said, and they kissed.

  “Yep,” agreed Morris, and gave Livi a one-armed hug.

  Of course, he, too, expected a kiss and Livi obliged. Yes, indeed. It was going to be a great year.

  After dinner they all moved to the lounge, where the band was tuning up. They grabbed a table and ordered drinks, confetti cocktails for the girls—champagne served in glasses rimmed with Pop Rocks candy—beer and Scotch for the men.