A Mountain Springs Christmas

Chapter 5

five

RACHEL

Rachel parked in the nearest parking stall and hurried into the school. She had told Bria not to worry about picking up Aiden since she planned to be there the moment that class got out. Instead, she had to call the school to get a message to Aiden’s teacher that she would be fifteen minutes late. She thought she’d be able to get off work early enough, but then a client had an issue with the layout of an ad that was super urgent, and there she was, looking irresponsible to her child’s teacher.

She turned down the hallway that led to Aiden’s classroom and saw him standing in the hall outside his door, arguing with a girl she could only assume was Holly. Not that they were being loud enough for her to hear what they were saying, but their rigid postures and clenched fists at their sides said that it wasn’t exactly a pleasant conversation.

She hurried down the hall, but before she reached them, Miss Goodrich and a man came out of the classroom.

“Whoa,” their teacher said. The woman was probably in her late thirties and for spending all day with a couple of dozen six-year-olds, was always dressed immaculately and her hair was always pulled up neatly. She was the most organized person Rachel had ever met. “What is going on here?”

The girl pointed at Aiden and said, “He’s being mean” at the same time Aiden pointed at her and said, “She’s being mean.”

“Okay, I think you both could use a moment to cool down while I talk with your parents. Follow me.”

The man stayed in the hallway, and as she neared, they met gazes. So he was the girl’s dad who Aiden said was trying to “take over” the project. Somehow, she hadn’t put two and two together and imagined he’d be present at this meeting to talk about the project, also. She gave him a small smile of commiseration that their kids’ attentions were currently being redirected to avoid them fighting, making it feel—at least to Rachel—that she and Holly’s dad were getting called to the principal’s office.

As the teacher got the kids seated at desks away from each other, working on a word search paper, Rachel tried to figure out why the man looked so familiar. She didn’t have time to figure it out, though, before the teacher re-joined them in the hall.

“Rachel,” Miss Goodrich said, “this is Nick Stewart, Holly’s dad. Nick, this is Rachel Meadows, Aiden’s mom.”

She suddenly realized why the man—Nick—looked familiar. He was the guy trapped in the Christmas wreaths at The Home Improvement Store. Great . She would be working on a Christmas set piece with a Christmas hater.

Nick looked like he was about her age, fairly tall, nice build. He had auburn hair that was long enough on top that it showed that it had a slight curl. It was a color she didn’t see often on a man but went so well with his skin tone. And his eyes were striking. They were the color of the sea on a cloudy day, with a rim of darker blue, leaning toward teal. And right now, she was seeing the concern in them.

Miss Goodrich brought her hands together in front of her. “You probably already know that your kids aren’t getting along with each other so well.”

Rachel nodded.

“I’ve been worried that Holly isn’t making new friends,” Holly’s dad said. “I thought kids forgave each other like two seconds after a disagreement and then were practically inseparable.”

Miss Goodrich lifted one shoulder in the slightest shrug. “And maybe they’ll get to that point. But I think other issues are going on that’s stopping that.”

Rachel could guess what Aiden’s issues were. And they were probably all related to it being Christmastime and the fact that she was so sick from the cancer and treatments last Christmas.

“I’ve pulled them aside separately to try to get to the bottom of the issue. There might be multiple issues, but it seems like the big one is jealousy. And a bit of insecurity.”

Rachel’s eyebrows shot up and she pulled back in surprise. Nick’s reaction mirrored hers. “Jealousy?”

“I hope I’m not offending either of you by saying this, but I do think you need to know.” She turned to Rachel. “Aiden doesn’t have a dad, right? He isn’t in his life?”

Heat crept up Rachel’s neck and she hoped she wasn’t blushing. It was just a fact. A fact that rarely embarrassed her. But she normally wasn’t in the position of talking with a teacher about an issue with her usually sweet, thoughtful son and getting called out on it.

She cleared her throat. “No. He never has been.”

She was pretty sure that Nick just stole a glance at her ring finger.

Miss Goodrich held out a hand like she was presenting Nick. “And Holly has a dad who’s always there for her.”

The revelation shocked her even more than the jealousy comment did. Aiden’s dad had never been in the picture. Aiden did have an uncle who he loved and who was great with him, though. She had always promised her son that she would find him a dad someday, but he had never even mentioned being sad that he didn’t have one. Between that and the fact that Rachel had grown up with a dad who wasn’t the nicest guy even when he wasn’t drunk, it had somehow never occurred to her that Aiden would feel that loss.

Yet Rachel knew that dads were important and made a big difference in a child’s life. She knew he needed one, but she hadn’t realized he had gotten to the age where it had become so important.

She did want to find someone and get married. She did want him to have a dad. But like so many things as a single mom, it just never really fit into her plans.

Miss Goodrich turned to Nick. “Holly’s mom passed away, right?”

Rachel sucked in a breath as a pang of sadness hit her. She found herself glancing at Nick’s ring finger and the gold band that was there. He seemed to sense Rachel’s gaze on it because he twisted it around his finger somewhat self-consciously before he pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants.

“Yes. Just before Thanksgiving last year.”

Miss Goodrich gestured to Rachel. “And Aiden has a mom who does everything with him.”

Nick shot Rachel a glance before looking back at the teacher. “You really think that’s why they’ve been fighting so much?”

She nodded. “I do. I’ll keep helping all I can at school, but I just wanted you two to be aware in case opportunities come up at home where you can discuss it with your child.”

Both she and Nick nodded. She wondered if his head was as full as hers was right now.

“Now come in,” Miss Goodrich said as she waved them into the classroom, “I got both of your papers saying you are willing to help with the set, so let’s talk about the project.”

Aiden and Holly joined the three of them at the table in the back of the room, and Miss Goodrich talked about their Christmas program. Rachel kept glancing at her son, trying to guess what was going on in his head, and had to force herself to focus on what his teacher was saying.

Miss Goodrich said that several parents had filled out the request for help form. Parents had offered a padded armchair and a rug for their stage living room, and some parents donated cash, so they should have enough for the supplies they needed to make the fireplace.

“Neither of you has a Santa costume that will fit a six-year-old, do you?”

She and Nick both shook their heads.

“That’s okay; we’ll get that taken care of. So all we need the two of you to do is to make a fireplace and chimney about four feet wide and about eight feet tall.”

Rachel gave Nick a smile, mentally crossing all her fingers that this guy knew the first thing about making a large fake fireplace because she sure didn’t.

Apparently, what they needed was to have all four of them go to The Home Improvement Store and get a four-by-eight-foot piece of plywood and several two-by-fours, which Nick arranged with the store to have delivered to his house before the four of them set off to shop for the other supplies. Aiden and Holly wanted a brick fireplace, and they found some 3-D Styrofoam brick panels that looked like real brick and were lightweight enough that they wouldn’t make the project unmanageably heavy.

“Okay, construction adhesive…” Nick said after he turned the cart onto an aisle with dozens of options. Rachel scanned the columns of products, trying to land her eyes on anything that said construction adhesive but finding nothing.

Holly picked one up, her eyebrows drawn together, and looked at her dad. “This is caulking, right?”

“What’s caulking?” Aiden asked, tripping over the unfamiliar word.

Holly turned to him. “After you put in the baseboards, you squirt a line of this along the top of it and smooth it out all pretty. It makes that little space disappear.”

Aiden turned to Rachel. “Disappear?”

“Not disappear,” Rachel said. “It just hides it.”

“Some of these are just used for one thing,” Nick told both kids. “Glue or caulking. But some, like these over here, can be used for both.”

Rachel just watched as Nick, crouched down on the balls of his feet, answered all of both kids’ questions. He answered so patiently, too, even though the kids seemed to be in a competition for who could ask the most questions. And she watched Aiden’s face as he ate up every single word that Nick said. Aiden hadn’t even shown any kind of interest in home improvement or construction-type stuff before, so it wasn’t like he finally had someone to answer his questions.

But who knew? Maybe he hadn’t shown any interest because he hadn’t been exposed to it before. He did enjoy doing crafty things—maybe this was just a bigger version of that passion. Or maybe he was just showing interest because Miss Goodrich had been right in guessing that Aiden wanted a dad in his life.

She tried to think back to her second impression of Nick—she’d already decided that she was going to pretend the first impression with the wreaths hadn’t happened—when she’d hurried down the hall to where Aiden and Holly were arguing earlier. Had she noticed then just how attractive he was?

Yeah, she’d noticed. So maybe it was how adorable he was, crouched down and talking with her son that made her heartstrings stand up and take notice. This was her Season of Yes. She should say yes to being attracted to this man. It was practically part of the bet, right?

The man grabbed two tubes of what must be construction adhesive and tossed them into the cart with the panels and some screws they’d added along the way. Rachel took the break in conversation to ask what she’d been wondering on and off for most of the shopping trip. “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a computer programmer. I help make the software used for many online courses.”

“Software? I assumed you worked in construction.” Especially because the first time she’d seen him, he’d been at a hardware store.

He laughed. It was a nice sound—the kind that made her chest feel instantly lighter. “No. Don’t mistake my ability to explain caulking to a couple of six-year-olds for expertise. I know just enough to be dangerous.”

“You’re not dangerous, Daddy,” Holly said, walking alongside the cart with one hand on it. She looked at Rachel. “He’s not—he’s really careful. We got a new house and he’s redoing everything in it. It’ll be all done just in time for Christmas.”

Rachel raised an eyebrow. “It sounds like you know a lot about this stuff.”

“My dad was in the military,” Nick said. “And although we lived on plenty of bases all over the world that really could’ve used some home improvement, we never did any ourselves. But my in-laws practically built the house they live in, so my wife, Clara, grew up helping with every project imaginable. When we bought our first home—a place that had seen better days—Clara and I did all the work of fixing it up ourselves. I learned as I went.”

He glanced down at his wedding ring, seeming… uncomfortable, was it? Self-conscious? Rachel couldn’t quite tell. Either way, this was clearly a guy who was still grieving, and Season of Yes or not, she had no business checking out how nicely those shoulder muscles filled out his t-shirt.

“Look, Dad!” Holly said, pointing. “The wreaths! Let’s turn down that aisle.”

Nick chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, that aisle is dangerous to take a cart down.” He shot a glance at Rachel. “Sorry for the other day, by the way.”

She hadn’t realized that he’d recognized her from that brief interaction. She figured his mind had only been on freeing himself from the wreaths. They were all hanging nicely on their hooks now. “I’m glad to see you and the wreaths both made it out of the tussle unscathed.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say entirely unscathed. My ego left here looking like it had been in a fight with an alley cat.”

The expression on his face was adorable, and she couldn’t stop looking into those striking eyes.

Nick cleared his throat. “So, when are you free to start working on this?”

Rachel opened the flap of her purse as they walked and pulled out the planner from the “records” tab. She glanced through the things they had coming up—and there were a lot of them—and only saw one opening over the next few days. “We are available tomorrow.”

Holly put her hands together, pleading. “Aiden has a dog.”

“Bailey,” Aiden said.

“Can they please bring her, too? Then Rosy will have someone to play with.”

Nick looked at Rachel and she nodded, so he told Holly yes. Then he scratched down his address on the note paper they’d been using as a shopping list and handed it to her. “Tomorrow it is.”

Okay, tomorrow. She wrote it down in her planner. And since he was right next to her, she didn’t write down what she knew she should—a reminder to not notice how attractive he was or what a good dad he was.

Of course, that ring on his finger was its own reminder that he was every bit as unavailable as if he was actually married.