We Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (24 page)

Rick’s chair scraped the floor as he scooted back to cross his legs. “So where are you going to live? Here?”

“No. Jackie likes the house at the end of Golden Leaf Court. We need to get it finished so we can move in come January.”

“The one with the big backyard?” Chad asked.

“Yeah. I’m going to put in a pool for the kids this summer.”

“Well, don’t worry about the house. I’ll get it finished before you’re even married. It’ll be my wedding present.” He downed the rest of his orange juice and headed to the door. “But for now I gotta run. Congratulations, big brother.”

Cole said good-bye and watched Chad go, then stared across the table at Rick. Silence fell, and for a moment Cole feared Rick would leave, too. He didn’t want him to. There was still some awkwardness between them, and he hoped to say something that would make it go away, for good. Something that would open the channels of communication between them at last.

But it was Rick who spoke first. “I’ve decided I’d like to come back to work on a part-time basis, if that’s okay,” he said, leaning forward again and pushing the last of his food around with his fork. “I’m draining my savings account pretty fast, and I’ve got more time than I thought I’d have.”

“Studies are going pretty well then, huh?” Cole asked, taking a chance.

Rick didn’t look at him. “Yeah.”

“When do you get your G.E.D.?”

“I got it a while ago.”

Cole tried not to show his surprise. Rick was acting as though he wanted his going to school to be taken in stride,
and Cole was doing his best to play along. “So this is college?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m proud of you,” Cole said, and he meant it. But he was a little amazed that such praise came so easily to his lips. Maybe he was making more progress where Rick was concerned than he’d thought.

Rick looked embarrassed, but Cole could tell he was pleased with himself, too.

“I’ll get another desk out front for Brandon,” Cole went on, so it wouldn’t seem as though he was making too big of an issue of it. “Are you eventually coming back to stay? After you graduate?”

Rick shook his head. “I doubt it. I know you want me to, Cole, but I’m not like the others. I have to do my own thing.”

Cole sipped his coffee. “And what’s that?” he asked.

There was a slight hesitation, but finally Rick met his gaze. “Computer Programming.”

Computer Programming. So his little brother, a high school dropout, had big plans indeed. “I understand,” Cole said, smiling in spite of his effects to act as though nothing had changed. “The job will be here if you want it, but whatever you do with your life, I know you’ll be successful. You’re one of those rare individuals with the ability to do anything.”

Surprise reflected in the depths of Rick’s blue eyes. Though Cole had said similar things over the years, this was probably the first time he wasn’t using it to beat Rick over the head for something he’d done wrong.
You have so much potential. You could do anything, be anything and, instead, you quit almost before you start….
Now Cole was on the level and simply meant what he said, every word of it, and somehow Rick knew the difference, because surprise wasn’t the only thing in his eyes. There was hope, as well, and a willingness, at last, to believe.

“I
’M BACK HERE
,
Jaclyn hollered when she heard Cole call her name from the front of the house.

His tread sounded in the hall, then he opened her bedroom door.

“Burt Wentworth just called here, trying to get hold of you,” she told him as he bent to kiss her. It was just days before Christmas, and she was sitting in the middle of the floor, wrapping the presents they’d bought for the kids on one of their many shopping excursions over the previous week. “What’s going on?”

“Why are you wrapping presents today?” he asked above the Christmas carols playing on her radio. “School’s out for the holidays. Alex or Mackenzie could walk in on you.”

“They know to knock first. Besides, Alex is next door having Mr. Alder help him raise his bicycle seat, and Mackenzie and Alyssa are at their baby-sitter’s house making gingerbread men.” She left the wrapping, stood and stretched her back. “Aren’t you going to answer me? Burt’s trying to reach you.”

He smiled. “I know. He’s been trying to reach me at the office, too. But I’ve been over at the Sparks project, meeting with decorators who are bidding on the models. Why didn’t you give him my cell phone number?”

“Because I wasn’t sure I wanted him to have it,” she said, bending to peel a piece of tape off the carpet. “What
do you think he wants? And why am I lucky enough to see you at this time of day? It’s just after noon.”

Cole shrugged. “I couldn’t go any longer without seeing you.”

“You came over for breakfast this morning,” Jaclyn said, laughing. “It’s only been four hours.”

“I know, but eight seems like an eternity. I decided to break it in the middle.”

She grinned and hugged him. “I love you.”

“You’re going to love me even more after I talk to Burt.”

“I am?”

He nodded, looking smug.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Burt’s had things easy for too long,” he told her. “I decided to give him a little scare, go on the offensive for a while and see if I can’t get him to drop this child custody issue before it ever goes to court.”

“How?” she asked, feeling a surge of excitement. Just talking about taking charge felt good after being on the defensive for so long.

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “I would have been able to threaten him with a libel suit, but someone I know tore the evidence up and threw it away.”

Her financé was wearing a suit today, a beautiful black one Jaclyn knew was hand-tailored, with a pair of Italian loafers. He looked suave and debonair, too sophisticated for the reflection she saw of herself in the mirror behind him: her hair was in a ponytail, she was barefoot and wearing sweats. But Cole didn’t seem to care. When he looked at her, he smiled as though she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Jaclyn bit her lip. “That wasn’t too smart, I guess,” she said sheepishly.

“So I had to come up with something else,” he went on.

“Like?”

“First let’s see if it’s going to work.” He unsnapped his cell phone from his belt and dialed the number to the ranch.

“Is Burt there?” he asked. “No, I’ll wait. He’s been trying to reach me. Tell him this is Cole Perrini.”

He winked at her, and Jaclyn moved closer so she could put her ear next to the phone and hear what Burt had to say. As it turned out, she didn’t need to get quite that close.

“You rotten son of a bitch, how dare you!” Burt’s voice blasted through the phone, causing Jaclyn and Cole to yank their heads back in an effort to protect their eardrums.

“I think I got his attention,” Cole said wryly.

Jaclyn was mystified. What was going on? She bent her head next to Cole’s to find out.

“Is there a problem, Burt?” Cole asked. “You seem upset about something.”

“You know what the problem is,” he growled. “You tied up my land. You tied up the land I was going to use to build my car dealership.”

“I did? That’s odd. Billy Hagler there in Feld said you’d let your option lapse. He said the property was available.”

“Available? He knew I still wanted it. He knew I was going to buy it, dammit.”

“Then, I guess you should’ve had something in writing. I’m afraid intentions don’t mean much in real estate.”

“They will when I take you to court!” he cried.

“For what?” Cole asked. “I paid five thousand dollars to option that land, and I have a contract. I negotiated for some very appealing terms, by the way. If I don’t decide to buy it in the next year, I have the right to option it again. The way I look at it, I can tie it up indefinitely, unless I see good reason not to.”

Jaclyn was smiling now, too. Cole had hit Burt where it hurt most. Terry’s father had wanted a car dealership for years. It was all he’d talked about when she was living with him and Dolores.

“You don’t want that land,” Burt said. “You’d go bankrupt trying to build houses out here in the middle of nowhere. It’s not zoned for it, anyway.”

“That’s why I’d probably put a car dealership there.”

“You wouldn’t.” This time Burt’s voice was flat, the bluster gone.

“Actually I might. It’s a prime piece of real estate, perfectly situated. And you’ve already gone to the trouble of meeting with the city planners and having the zoning changed. Everyone’s expecting a car dealership, everyone’s looking forward to it. And dealerships can turn quite a profit, from what I hear. Why
wouldn’t
I want to do it, Burt?”

Silence. Panicked silence, if Jaclyn had her guess. Burt was probably busy imagining Cole moving to town, stealing his status as the richest, most successful man in Feld. The Perrini name would go up in lights at the corner of Third and Main, instead of the Wentworth one.

Heaven forbid,
she thought mockingly, and slipped her arms around Cole’s waist to give him a squeeze, never happier to see someone get what they deserved.

“What do you want for it?” Burt finally choked out, sounding like a man with a gun to his head.

Cole didn’t answer right away. He kissed her forehead and then, as though intentionally prolonging his hesitation, said, “I’m not sure I
want
to sell the option, Burt. I mean, I just got it a few days ago. I haven’t had time to look into the full potential of the piece. And with Christmas only a week away, I won’t have a chance to do much until January. But if someone wanted it badly enough—” He covered the phone and asked Jaclyn how much she still owed in attorney bills from the divorce.

“About forty-six hundred dollars,” she whispered.

“Ten thousand would probably do it,” he told Burt. “If someone were to act quickly.”

It was Burt’s turn to pause. Jaclyn could easily picture
him pacing in his home office, grinding his teeth in agitation.

“Fine,” he said at last. “I’ll do it. I’ll give you the damn ten thousand. You just keep your nose out of Feld and away from my son.”

“I didn’t know I was any threat to your son, but now that you bring him up, we should probably discuss one other small matter,” Cole replied. “If you want the land, you’re going to have to drop the child custody suit, too. I don’t think Jackie would feel very good about marrying me in a few weeks with that hanging over her head. It’s kind of negative, if you know what I mean.”

“I don’t give a damn how negative it is. It’s Jaclyn and her self-pity that’s been the problem from the start. She had it good here, and she threw it all away.”

“And you’ve done your best to punish her for it. Tell me, did it make you feel like a big man, Burt, to push around a woman with three little children to support?”

“You dirty—”

“I’m going to hang up,” Cole said as calmly as ever. “We have a lot of Christmas presents to wrap.”

“Wait!”

Jaclyn could hear Burt’s labored breathing, could envision him clenching his fists and trying to rein in his temper. She knew it wasn’t an easy thing for him. He wasn’t used to having to curb his tongue for anyone. “Ten thousand dollars is more than enough to put that land back in my control. This has nothing to do with the children. I think we should keep them out of it.”

“Sorry, that’s the deal. You’re going to lose the case, anyway. You can’t prove abuse, neglect or abandonment, and that’s the only way a judge would give you what you want. You may as well get your land back and save us both the attorney fees and hassle of fighting about the children—because we will fight, Burt, and this time my attorneys will
be every bit as good as yours. If I’m lucky—and I’m usually pretty lucky—they’ll be better.”

Several seconds of silence passed, then Burt muttered a curse and said, “If I pay the money and drop the case, you’ll assign the option to me?”

“I will.”

“When? When will you meet me so we can put everything in writing?”

“Call Brandon Johnson at my office and set up a time. And don’t forget your checkbook.”

“I hope you rot in hell for this, Perrini.”

Cole’s laughter was genuine. “You can thank me later, after the wedding,” he said, and hung up.

With a scream of delight, Jaclyn threw herself into Cole’s arms. “You did it,” she cried. “We’ve won!”

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart,” he said.

T
ERRY WAS ON THE PHONE
.
Jaclyn grimaced at the sound of his voice, thinking his intrusion the only defect in an otherwise perfect Christmas morning. Cole had arrived early, before the kids were even up, and built a fire. The smell of it mingled with that of the fir tree and the freshly backed cinnamon rolls to create a scent that brought back all the Christmases of Jaclyn’s youth.

She and Cole and the kids were sitting in a circle as if they were already a family, unwrapping presents. Alex’s favorite gift so far seemed to be his new Gameboy, which Cole had insisted on buying for him. Alyssa and Mackenzie were thrilled with their play kitchen, which had been Jaclyn’s idea. Cole had wanted to build them an entire playhouse, but Jaclyn had asked him to wait until next year, or at least until summer. With the upcoming move, they had enough going on already.

“It’s your father,” she told the children, holding the phone out for whoever grabbed it first.

Mackenzie was closest. She took the receiver and started
to list everything Santa had brought and to tell Terry about what Mommy and Cole had given her, then Alyssa did the same.

Meanwhile, Jaclyn listened to Cole, who was sitting next to her in a pair of jeans, a flannel shirt and a Santa hat Mackenzie had brought home from school and insisted he wear. He was helping Alex figure out the new game for his Gameboy. She felt a profound sense of gratitude to him. She wouldn’t have been able to provide this kind of Christmas for the children on her own. It was Cole who had made the difference—not just because of his generosity, though the presents were wonderful, but because of the feelings of contentment and unity that his presence seemed to nurture in them all. Terry was coming to pick up the kids this evening, but Jaclyn didn’t mind. She knew they’d be happy to see their father.

And she wouldn’t be alone. She’d be with Cole.

She put her hand on his leg, and he took it immediately, glancing back to smile at her before finishing what he was saying to Alex.

“It’s Daddy, Alex,” Alyssa said, passing him the phone.

Jaclyn had just begun gathering up the jewelry, sweaters, perfume and shoes the kids and Cole had given her, when Alex said goodbye and handed the phone to her.

“Dad wants to talk to you,” he said, going right back to Cole and his Gameboy.

“Would you rather I handle it?” Cole asked, at her slight hesitation.

“No, it’s fine.” She put the receiver to her ear. “Hi Terry.”

“Hi, Jackie. Are you having a nice Christmas?”

“Yeah. You?”

“It would be better if I had my family here.”

“Terry, you’re picking the kids up today, so you’ll see them soon, right?”

“What time can I come?”

“Is six o’clock okay?”

“Six o’clock? The day will be over by then.”

“You had the kids for Thanksgiving. Anyway, I’m fixing dinner for Cole and his brothers, and I don’t want the kids to miss it.”

There was silence, then he said, “Oh, we wouldn’t want that.”

Jaclyn ignored the sarcasm. “Two of his brothers are only home from college for a few days,” she explained. “They have a ski trip planned, then they have to go back to school. This may be their only chance to get to know the kids before the wedding.”

“So you’re going through with it?”

“The wedding?”

“Yeah. I bet it doesn’t last a year.”

“I wouldn’t put a lot of money on that if I were you.”

He chuckled. “Why? The odds are with me. Eventually he’ll treat you just like he treated Rochelle. He’s a man, Jackie. A man doesn’t change that much.”

“Yes, that’s what I found out,” she said, turning his words back on him. He was still bitter and trying to undermine her happiness, but Jaclyn refused to let him. She’d already given Cole her heart. She was going to give him her complete faith and confidence, as well. Sometimes it still felt as if she was gambling everything on one big roll of the dice—Cole’s word against the rumors, against Burt’s claims—but her love for Cole made the risk worth taking.

“We’ll see,” he said. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” she replied and hung up.

“Everything okay?” Cole asked, watching her curiously.

She smiled, telling herself to shake off the pall Terry’s words had cast on her spirits. “Fine.”

“Then, it’s time.”

“Time for what?”

“To give you your big surprise,” Alex interjected.

Jaclyn surveyed the gifts already stacked around her. “There’s more?”

“This one’s special,” Mackenzie said. “It’s from all of us.”

“Where is it?” Jaclyn asked.

“You’ll see,” Cole said. “Everyone get dressed.”

T
HEY WERE HEADING
to Oak Ranch. Evidently Cole’s big surprise had something to do with the new house. Maybe he’d put in a hot tub or upgraded the carpet or drapes or something, but Jaclyn couldn’t really believe he’d do that. She’d already picked out everything she wanted, and she was happy with her choices. So what was it?