Patchwork Family (18 page)

“I don’t know, Dad,” Quinn began.

“Besides, I know you put several presents under
the tree for Sara, and Lydia and I got her something, and then, well, there’s a present or two for Lydia, and we got presents for Seth and Jenna and Brady. I know they brought some for us. So Santa will have a lot to do.”

Quinn didn’t really care about Santa. He wanted to get to Molly. “Whatever you think,” he said as he took another step toward the door.

“Good. Try it on.”

Quinn froze. “What? Me?”

“Of course. Why not?”

“Because Sara will expect me to be there. She’ll notice if I’m gone.” He hoped even more that Molly would notice his absence, but until he talked to her, he couldn’t be sure. He shook his head. She couldn’t have loved him as she had last night if she hadn’t felt something. Molly was too honest. Please, God, let him be right about that.

“Hey, Dad, what are you two doing up here?” Brady asked, stepping into his father’s bedroom.

Quinn seized on his brother’s presence. “Brady can be Santa.”

“What are you talking about? I brought presents, but—”

“I want to have a Santa here for Sara,” Elias said eagerly. “We need to think about Christmas in terms of children. After all, next year we’ll have a baby to think about,” Elias explained, his eagerness making it clear how he felt about their growing family.

Brady had a trapped look on his face. “Well, I think it should be someone Sara’s never met. Otherwise, she might figure out he isn’t real. She’s a smart little girl.”

Quinn kept silent, glad Brady had made sure
Quinn wouldn’t be pressured into the role. After all, he knew Sara better than anyone there.

“Cooper!” Elias almost shouted. “He’ll be perfect. I don’t think he’s even met little Sara. Is he here yet? Go get him, Brady.”

Again Quinn began edging toward the door, even as he gave a prayer of thanks that Cooper, their longtime friend, always joined them for Christmas dinner. It got him off the hook.

Quinn needed to see Molly, he needed to kiss her under the mistletoe his father had hung yesterday. He needed to hold her close.

“Wait, Quinn. I may need you to help convince Cooper. After all, you know Sara best of all. You can give him some hints about what to say to her.”

“Dad, I really need to—”

“Besides, you’re not going to wear jeans to our Christmas dinner, are you? I expect better than that.”

“No, I’m going to change. In fact, I’ll go do that right now.”

“Put on something nice,” Elias called as Quinn rushed from the room, glad to escape.

He ran into his room and hurriedly changed into navy slacks and a white shirt, topped by a navy sweater with rows of small green fir trees marching across it. His concession to the Christmas season.

After combing his hair, having shaved earlier when he’d showered, he was ready and rushed out of his room, finally on his way to Molly.

And ran into a fat Santa in the hallway.

“Quinn! I was coming to find you,” Cooper said, his deep voice in contrast to the jolly picture he presented.

“Later,” Quinn protested. “I have to go get Molly and Sara.”

“You can’t go get Sara until I know what I’m supposed to do. I’ve never even listened to a department store Santa. How am I supposed to know what they say?” The panic in Cooper Night Hawk’s voice would have amused Quinn at any other time. The big, strong deputy sheriff had always seemed confident. But all Quinn could think about was getting to Molly.

“Uh, ask Seth,” he suggested, and tried to get by Cooper.

“I did,” Cooper protested.

“And I told him I’m new to this stuff, too,” Seth said, over Cooper’s shoulder.

“Then ask Dad,” Quinn shouted, frustration consuming him. “He’s a father.”

“But he didn’t do much about Santa Claus, and you know it, Quinn. We all knew already that the jolly old guy wasn’t real. And none of us was in the mood for a happy-ever-after thing.” Seth frowned. “I want my baby to have a chance to believe in good things.”

“Besides, where are you off to?” Cooper asked. “It’s too late to be doing any shopping. What did you get Molly?”

Quinn turned into stone. Nothing. He’d gotten Molly nothing. He wished now he’d found
something
for her. Preferably, an engagement ring. But Coop was right. It was too late for shopping.

“Nothing,” he muttered. “We’re not—” But they were. They were involved. They were planning a future. But he couldn’t tell his brother and his friend that. Because he hadn’t told—asked Molly yet.

“Nothing?” Seth asked, raising his eyebrows. “You should’ve gotten her something,” he protested. “Maybe Dad bought her a gift.” He turned around and disappeared into his father’s bedroom. Quinn could hear the deep timbre of his voice.

“Do you know what Sara got for Christmas?” Cooper asked, still worried about his role.

“Molly said once that she was getting a doll and some storybooks. I’ll ask her as soon as I go pick them up.”

“You’re picking them up? I thought they were driving over. When she talked to Lydia a few minutes ago—”

Quinn reached out and grabbed the front of the Santa suit. “She talked to Lydia?” he demanded, frowning fiercely.

“Yeah, just as I arrived,” Cooper said, his eyebrows raised.

Quinn didn’t care what Cooper thought about his behavior. He shoved past him and ran down the stairs to the kitchen, even as Cooper yelled for him to come back and answer his questions.

Quinn burst into the kitchen. “Lydia? Did you talk to Molly?”

Lydia, stirring something on the stove, looked up, surprised. “Why, yes, I did. Why?”

“When? When did she call? Where was she? Is she still coming? When was she leaving?”

Jenna was tossing dressing into a big salad, but she stopped and stared at him. “Can you put those questions in order? And explain what’s going on?”

Quinn waved a hand toward her, dismissing her smiling demands. “Lydia?”

“Well, let’s see. She was at home. She said they
were almost ready and would be leaving in a few minutes. She wanted to know if she should bring anything else. What was your other question?”

Even Quinn had trouble remembering exactly what he’d asked. As he frantically paused to think, Jenna said, “I think he wanted to know exactly when she’d called. I think it was when we were checking on the turkey, about fifteen minutes ago.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Lydia said, beaming at him.

“Damn!” he muttered. He must’ve just gone up the stairs with his father. He strode to the kitchen phone and quickly dialed her number. It rang and rang. No answering machine. No nothing. Just as it had been all morning.

He checked his watch. It was almost twelve. If he went to find her, he could miss her and she’d arrive without him there to greet her. To hurry her off somewhere where they could be private. Where he could ask her—

“What’s going on?” Elias asked as he entered the kitchen.

“We don’t know,” Lydia said. “Quinn seems upset about something.”

“He’ll get over it,” Elias said with a chuckle. “Uh, Jenna, could I see you for a minute?”

“Well, I have to finish fixing the salad,” she said, staring at the huge bowl.

“Quinn can do that. Take care of the salad, son, while I borrow Jenna for a moment.”

He winked at Quinn, and Quinn bowed his head in acquiescence. He might as well help out. He’d have to wait until Molly arrived. She’d be there any minute.

“What was that all about?” Lydia asked when only the two of them remained in the kitchen.

He didn’t know if she was asking about his questions or his father’s abduction of Jenna. Either way, he didn’t have an answer.

Molly was dressed in her royal-blue sweaterdress that she’d worn at the open house, and Sara was in her green taffeta.

“I like our new dresses, Mommy,” Sara said as she sat beside Molly in the car.

“Yes, sweetie, and you look wonderful. Do you have Jeremy’s present?”

To insure they didn’t arrive early at the Spencers’, she’d told Sara they would delivery Jeremy’s present to him on the way.

By the time Sara and Jeremy exchanged their presents and they left the Kelseys’, it was almost twelve-thirty.

They definitely wouldn’t be early.

She’d prefer that they arrive just as everyone was sitting down to eat. She didn’t want any private confrontations with Quinn. Though she longed to see him. And touch him.

“Are we almost there, Mommy?”

“Yes, sweetie, we are,” she said as she turned into the driveway at the stately mansion where Elias and Quinn lived. “In fact, we
are
here. Remember to use
your best manners,” she added as Sara undid her seat belt.

She slid the large tray of cookies and candy out of the back seat and guided Sara to the back door, where she suspected the kitchen was located.

Jenna and Lydia were both there.

“There you are!” Lydia exclaimed. “Quinn has been going crazy looking for you.”

She’d been right. He didn’t want her there and had been trying to tell her to stay away. Molly tightened her lips and raised her chin. “Sorry if we’re late.”

“Oh, you’re not late,” Jenna assured her. “The guys are in the living room gobbling up hors d’oeuvres, and I’m going to kill them if they don’t leave any room for turkey. Go on in and visit.”

Molly set down her tray. “I also have a cake in the car. I’ll go get it first. I’ll be back in a minute, Sara,” she assured her child, and hurried out the back door.

When she came back in with the cake, she didn’t see Sara. “Where—”

“I told her to go on in,” Lydia said. “She was reluctant to until I reminded her that Quinn was in there.”

Molly hurried to the door, anxious to check on her child, just as she heard a shriek. She began to run.

When she reached the doorway to the living room, Quinn was in the middle of the room, heading her way. But Sara had already discovered a special guest.

“Mommy! Mommy, he’s here. He hasn’t gone home yet!” Sara shouted, absolute joy in her voice.

Though she was distracted by Quinn’s intense stare and his hands reaching out for her, Molly turned her attention to Sara. She discovered her sitting on
the knee of a Santa who was anything but a jolly old soul.

“Santa’s here. And he’s got more presents for me.” Sara’s little face beamed with anticipation. “I bet it’s the one I asked for. I just know it!”

Molly’s heart clutched. She’d known this morning that something was missing from Sara’s Christmas, but she hadn’t figured out what. She hoped she was wrong about her guess now.

Quinn had reached her side and taken hold of her arm, but he, too, turned to face Sara. “What did you ask for that he didn’t bring you, sweetheart?”

Sara slipped off Santa’s lap and raced across the room to throw her arms around his legs. “You! I asked him for you to be my daddy. Mommy said it was all right to wish for it, but she said it couldn’t happen. But Santa can do anything.” As if remembering her manners, her eyes rounded, she spun on her heel and raced back across the room to reach up and hug Santa’s neck. “Thank you, Santa. I love you!” Then she raced back to Quinn and Molly.

Molly thought she’d die a thousand deaths. And none would be so torturous as knowing she’d failed her child so completely. She should have found a way to refuse the invitation. She should’ve taken Quinn’s call this morning and opted out of the dinner. She should’ve never let Quinn Spencer into her heart.

Silent tears slid down her cheeks and she knelt to embrace her child. “Baby, Santa can’t— It’s not true. Remember,” she said, sniffing back the tears, but they were falling faster than she could control them. “Remember, we’re a team, you and me. It’s
just the two of us. That’s all it will ever be. Quinn can’t—”

A strong arm tugged her to her feet and she turned a fierce glare his way.

“I think I can speak for myself,” Quinn assured her.

“Don’t hurt her,” she pleaded in a whisper.

Quinn knelt and picked up Sara. Her little face had lost its glow and she stared at her mother’s tears. He whispered in Sara’s ear, and the glow, the smile returned. Then she leaned toward Molly and hugged her.

Before Molly could respond, shocked at the rapid change in her daughter, Quinn had set Sara down and she was running back to Santa.

“What did you say?” she demanded, anger rising in her. He’d made false promises to her daughter. She couldn’t believe she’d trusted this man, given herself to him, because she thought he was a decent man, because she thought he loved Sara, because she loved him.

“Excuse us, folks,” Quinn said, a smile almost as brilliant as Sara’s on his lips. “Molly and I have something to discuss.”

“No! No, I have to leave. We have to—”

He didn’t give her a chance to finish. Scooping her up into his arms, as he’d done last night to go to her bedroom, he walked out of the living room.

She struggled against his hold, afraid if she didn’t she’d forget that she was breaking Sara’s heart. “Put me down! We have nothing to discuss. How could you hurt Sara like that?”

“The only one who will hurt Sara is you, Molly, if you turn down my proposal.”

Stunned, afraid to believe she’d heard correctly, she stared at him and said nothing. He slid her down his body in the hallway and covered her lips with his in an all-consuming kiss that reminded her of their embraces the night before.

She tried to summon her control, to resist his touch, to clear her head and deny the hope that rose in her. “You can’t—” she said as he lifted his lips from her.

“I not only can, I’ll die if I don’t,” he muttered, and kissed her again.

A kiss so gentle, so tender, so committed, she almost believed her dreams would come true. When he stopped kissing her this time, she buried her face in his sweater and sobbed, “Don’t.”

“Don’t kiss you? Don’t hold you?” He took a deep breath. “Or don’t ever let you go?” He bent and kissed her neck. “Because the last one is the only one I can agree to.”

She shoved against him and lifted her head. “But you don’t want forever. And I can’t let you hurt Sara that way.”

“Oh, but I do. And I love Sara with all my heart and I don’t want to hurt her. But what about you? How does forever sound to you?”

She sobbed and hid against him again. “Quinn, I’m not teasing.”

“Neither am I, Molly. I left this morning because I didn’t have any more condoms. And because I wanted to be sure about everything before I faced you again. I knew I’d made a mistake by the time I left your house. Leaving was wrong.”

She nodded, but she didn’t lift her head.

“I tried to call all morning.”

“I thought you were calling to ask me not to come,” she confessed.

“I’m encouraged that you wanted to see me.”

She looked up then, tragedy on her face. “I wanted to see you one more time, to touch you, to—to remember. I knew you didn’t want—”

He stopped her with another shattering kiss. Then he said, “Oh, but I do. With all my heart, all my life, forever and ever. I can’t live without you and Sara. Please say you’ll give Sara her Christmas wish. Tell me you’ll give me a chance to be the best husband and daddy there is.”

Molly raised her hand to stroke his cheek. “I want that more than anything, Quinn, but are you sure?”

“More sure than I’ve ever been.” He kissed her again, a kiss full of promise, of love, of Christmas.

“Now let’s go inform our daughter that she must’ve been extra good this year, since Santa brought her exactly what she wished for.”

There was a collective gasp when they entered the living room again, all eyes focused on them. Sara, who had again occupied Santa’s knee, slid down from her perch and stared at them.

“Sara, my girl, I’m your special Christmas present,” Quinn announced, a big smile on his face. “But you have to promise to share me with Mommy. Okay?”

Sara rushed to them again, the glow firmly in place, and everyone in the room gave a cheer as a new family was born on Christmas Day.