One Big Happy Family

Chapter 21

21

After lunch Julie sat at the kitchen table going over her notes. The menus were set for tonight and tomorrow. They would eat Christmas dinner about two—a ridiculous time but a tradition. On the bright side, it meant only cooking two meals instead of three. She was going to need help with the turkey. Given her fractured arm, there was no way she could prep it herself, let alone get it in the oven.

But for today, she needed someone to take the turkey out of the wrapper, pull out the weird bits from inside, rinse the inside and outside of the bird, dry it and set it in the roasting pan. Once that was done, the uncovered turkey would go back in the refrigerator overnight so the skin would dry out. It was the secret to crispy skin out of the oven.

A loud shriek came from downstairs. She knew eventually Madeline and Wyatt would run out of energy, but it hadn’t happened yet. Oh, to be young and that wired about Christmas, she thought with a smile.

Once she knew she had all the ingredients she would need, she turned to her other lists. As far as she knew, all the presents were wrapped. The ones from Santa were locked in the storage closet downstairs. They would be set out after church. The funny doggy coat she’d ordered for Rufus had been delivered that morning. Heath had wrapped it for her and slipped it under the tree. There were plenty of logs for the fire, the board games they always played Christmas Eve afternoon, and the special reindeer mugs for the obligatory hot cocoa had been washed in readiness. Dana had already helped her get out all the serving pieces they would need.

“Hey, Mom.”

She looked up and saw Nick walk into the kitchen. He took a seat at the table.

“How are you feeling?”

She stared at him, thinking she should ask the same thing. He wouldn’t look directly at her, and he had an air of...expectancy. No, that wasn’t right, but all her mom-senses were tingling.

“What?” she demanded. “There’s something on your mind.”

He gave her a faint smile. “I can’t just be here to make sure you’re all right?”

“No. Tell me.”

He glanced at his hands, then back at her. “I’m sorry I made you fall down the stairs.”

What? “We talked about this. It’s not your fault.” She raised her hand, showing him the pen. “Look, I can write and everything.”

“I still feel bad.”

“You shouldn’t. I’m healing nicely.” Sure, there was still pain and she would get her cast on in two days, but other than that, she was totally herself.

He finally met her gaze. “I’m sorry about Paul and going into business with him. I know it’s not what you wanted.”

Ah, so this was what he really wanted to talk about. She felt her tension ease. Kid guilt she could handle.

“It’s not,” she said bluntly. “I always assumed you’d do what I did—take over the business.”

He flinched. “I know. I should have said something sooner.”

“Yes, you should have and I still feel bad that you weren’t comfortable coming to me, but I also understand that you didn’t want to disappoint me.”

He groaned. “Can’t you talk in euphemisms and generalities? Do you always have to cut to the heart of every issue?”

She laughed. “I try to be honest, but what you’re reluctant to say is that I can be too blunt. I’m sure that’s true.” She set down her pen and reached across the table. He grabbed her hand in his.

“I wish I could care about the business like you do.”

“I know.” She squeezed his fingers before releasing them. “But you don’t, and while I would have loved to work with you, I want you and Blair to be happy. Paul’s giving you a wonderful opportunity. He’s a good man and he’ll teach you what you need to know. So go and be successful.”

She smiled. “I mean that, Nick. I want everything for you and your sister.”

“What about Parker Towing?”

“That’s a question without an answer.” She honestly didn’t know what to do. “I’m too young to sell the business. What would I do with myself? But I don’t want all the responsibility.”

“Maybe you could—”

She held up her hand. “Nope. Not your rock. You have your own future to worry about. I’ll figure out this one.”

He rose, circled the table, then kissed the top of her head. “You’re the best, Mom.”

“Thank you. So are you.”

He left. Five seconds later, she remembered she hadn’t asked for help with the turkey. She was about to get up and follow him when Axel walked into the kitchen.

“Hey,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “You have a minute?”

She eyed him. He was certainly strong enough to help, and she would be right there to talk him through turkey prep.

“I do.”

He pointed to the back of the kitchen. “I thought we could step into the craft room.”

“Why?”

“Because it has a door.”

She laughed as she remembered the acoustics in the house. “So you heard my entire conversation with Nick.”

“We all heard it.”

She and Axel went into the craft room and shut the door. She assumed he wanted to talk about Dana or the wedding. Her daughter had said something about a spring wedding, which didn’t give them much time to plan.

Once they were seated across from each other, Julie said, “Even May is a little early for a backyard wedding in Seattle. It’s still cool and we can get a lot of rain.”

Axel’s mouth twitched. “I’m not here to talk about the wedding.”

“Oh.” She drew in a breath as another thought occurred to her. “Are you quitting? Of course you have to do what’s right for you two, but I thought you liked working at the company. We’ve already talked about the repos. Those are going away.”

But maybe he, like Nick, wanted a different life. Something easier and possibly safer.

Instead of answering her question, he asked one of his own. “Did you mean what you said to Nick? About not wanting all the responsibility of the business?”

Oh. Not what she’d expected. “Sometimes it’s a lot. I’ve been running the place for over twenty-five years. Are you worried about me selling? I can see where that would be a problem. I’m not ready for that. I honestly don’t know what I want to do.”

His dark gaze was steady. “Ever thought about taking on a business partner?”

“No.” The response was automatic. “Okay, I haven’t really thought about it. You mean work with someone? I don’t know. It would be a way to share the workload, but I’m not sure. It’s never been a thing for me.”

“Would you consider it?”

“Why are you asking?” She laughed. “Right, because you’re sitting on a million dollars.” She paused. “I have no idea what the business would be worth, let alone what a partner would have to pay to buy in.”

“About one-point-three. Give or take. I had to have the evaluation done without you knowing about it, so there’s some guesswork in that number.”

Julie was grateful she was sitting down. Her head was spinning and she couldn’t quite catch her breath.

“You’re saying my business is worth two-point-six million dollars?”

Axel’s gaze was steady. “That’s a rough estimate.”

“I had no idea.” She smiled. “I’m rich.” Of course, all that money was tied up in a business, but still. “Wait, why would you know that?” The obvious answer to that question slammed into her. “Are you offering to buy into the company?”

“Yes.”

“Just like that?”

He shook his head. “No. It would take time. We’d do a real evaluation and then come up with a number. We’d have to discuss sharing responsibilities.” He gave her a faint smile. “You can be bossy.”

“That’s hardly news,” she murmured, still trying to take it all in. Axel was talking about being her business partner.

“We’d write up a contract.”

“As business partners,” she confirmed.

“If you’re interested in working with me. We’ve had a bit of trouble in the past.”

“You were stomping on my daughter’s heart. I get to be protective.”

“As you should.”

She leaned back in her chair and studied him. Except for the Dana thing, she’d always liked Axel, but she still had a lot of questions.

“If you’re so rich, why are you working for me towing cars and doing repos?”

The smile returned. “I got an unexpected inheritance a few months ago. Two million from my father.”

Well, that was serious money, she thought. “You never said anything. Wait! You never mentioned your dad. I didn’t know your parents were still alive.” Come to think of it, she didn’t know much about him at all. As he was marrying her daughter, she was going to have to change that.

“My mom’s been gone for years, and my dad and I have never had a relationship.” He paused. “My parents weren’t married. My dad came from money and my mom was his longtime mistress. When she got pregnant, he ended things. He never wanted a kid with her. She shamed him into showing up a couple of times, but that was it. I sure as hell didn’t expect him to leave me anything.”

The ghost of a smile widened. “I’m sure the inheritance came as a shock to my half brothers and sisters.”

Julie thought about Dana telling her that Axel never felt good enough. Maybe this was the reason.

“Dana hasn’t said anything to me.”

“She knows about my dad, but not the inheritance.”

Julie stared at him. “Then why are you telling me?”

“You asked where the money came from.” He rested his hands on the table. “I wasn’t sure I was going to ever use it. It’s been sitting in the bank. I had this twisted idea that touching it meant my old man won. But then I started thinking about the business and the possibility of buying in as a partner. Only I didn’t want to do that without Dana in my life, and I wasn’t sure I could be with her.”

“What changed your mind?”

“I got shot. Lying there on the street, in the rain, I looked at my past and how I messed up. I walked away from the only woman I’ve ever loved because I didn’t feel worthy. I knew I had to figure something out. I was going to buy into the business first, but then I heard Dana saying she was still in love with me, so I knew I had to put myself out there. I had to take a chance.”

“But you’ve proposed and she said yes, so why doesn’t she know about the money from your dad?”

His mouth twisted. “I didn’t want her pressuring you about me buying in. I wanted that to be between us. If you want to consider taking me on, I’m ready to move forward. If you don’t want to, no hard feelings.”

Her heart ached for all he’d been through. So much made sense now, and she found herself just a little bit less pissed at how he’d treated Dana. Oh, she wasn’t over it, but she could see eventually letting her anger go.

As for him being her partner—it was an unexpected solution to a complicated problem.

“Let’s talk next week,” she said. “Just you and me. About the business and what you’d want to change.”

“Who says I’d want to change anything?”

She grinned. “Oh, please. You’re going to come in with enthusiasm and about five hundred ideas. Between now and when we get together, I suggest you rank them in order of importance. You’ll be lucky to convince me to agree to ten percent of them. If I were you, I’d start with the important ones first.”

Axel was never one to show emotion—at least not in front of her—but just then she saw surprise, happiness and gratitude in his eyes.

“You’d consider a partnership?”

“I would. Plus, then I get all that money. It could be a real win for me.”

She stood and motioned for him to come close, then hugged him. At first he was all stiff and A-frame, but after a couple of seconds he relaxed.

When they stepped back, she pointed her finger at him. “You need to tell Dana all this. No keeping secrets. It doesn’t help.”

“I’ll go talk to her right now.”

“Actually, you won’t. First you’re going to help me with the turkey.”

He frowned. “I thought we were eating it tomorrow.”

“We are. But it has to be prepped.” She smiled. “Ever touch turkey guts?”

“No.”

“Good. Because you’re about to.”

Julie slid into bed, careful to keep her arm close to her body. It was late—nearly midnight. After evening services, they’d all come back to the house and had cocoa and cookies before prepping for Santa’s visit. She had no idea how quickly the kids had gone to sleep, but knew Tiffany would do her best. Hopefully they weren’t up too early in the morning.

Heath rolled over to face her. “Merry Christmas,” he said, before lightly kissing her.

“Merry Christmas.” She smiled at him. “This has been a good holiday.”

He chuckled. “You know it’s not over, right? We have about twenty-four hours to go.”

“Yes, but I doubt it can get better.” She shifted her pillows so she could sit up. “Nick and I made up about the whole buying-Paul’s-business thing. I was already fine with it, but he had things he needed to say. Axel proposed to Dana, so it’s official.”

“You’re all right with that? He’s been a jerk for a while.”

“He has, but I feel better about him.”

Especially now that she knew his past. She would tell Heath, just not right now. First she had to make sure Dana knew about the inheritance. Plus, it was better to be shared privately—when they weren’t in the middle of a big family Christmas. All she’d told him was that Axel had unexpectedly inherited some money.

She grinned. “It would be really awkward if I wasn’t willing to welcome him into the family, what with him wanting to be my business partner.”

“That came from nowhere.”

“It did.”

“And you’re okay with sharing Parker Towing? You’ve been the one in charge for a while.”

She considered his question. “I’d always planned for Nick to come on board. Having Axel in the business will be different because I don’t know him as well and I won’t be able to boss him around as much.”

Heath laughed. “You were planning on bossing Nick?”

“I don’t think it was a plan, but it could have happened. Nick is more of a go-along-to-get-along guy. Although he went his own way with his future and that’s for the best. I want him to be happy.”

She touched Heath’s arm. “You’re still in your early forties, so you don’t feel this way, but I’ve been running the company for a long time. I’d like a break from getting a call at three in the morning or having to deal with a thousand different problems. I have a great staff. I’d be lost without Huxley, but he’s not going to work forever. Replacing him will be difficult, if not impossible. With a partner, it’s not all on me.”

What she didn’t say, because she was afraid it would make her sound too old, was that she was hoping in ten years or so, Axel would buy her out and take over the business completely. Yes, it would be tough to figure out how to have a life without Parker Towing, but by then she had a feeling she would be ready.

“You’re amazing,” Heath said.

“Why would you say that?” She laughed. “I mean, I am, but what specifically brought this on?”

“Look at you. A week ago you didn’t know your only son wasn’t interested in taking on the family business. Now you’re fine with it and have a new business partner. You’re not pissed, you’re not emotionally devastated. You fell down the stairs, and yet you’re fine. You’ve forgiven Axel for all he’s done because it’s what Dana needs you to do. You would have been completely in your rights to have a total meltdown after all you’ve been through, but that’s not your style, is it? You do what needs to be done and you move on. You don’t blame, you barely accept help from anyone. You show up and you do what needs doing, whether it’s telling your son he’s making the right choice or being happy that Dana and Axel are getting married.”

She didn’t think she deserved the praise, but it was nice to hear. “What else is there? They’re my kids and I love them. I have to do the right thing.”

“You don’t have to, but you always do. You’re strong, Julie, and you don’t take crap. You’re beautiful, you’re sexy and I admire you.” He met her gaze. “I’m also in love with you.”

And just like that, all her warm fuzzies evaporated.

She glared at him. “Don’t say that. Don’t. I don’t want to hear those words. It’s too soon.”

He loved her? He loved her ? No. Just no. She could barely deal with him being her boyfriend, a title she wasn’t completely comfortable with.

He sat up, exposing his gloriously naked chest, but what really caught her attention was the hurt in his eyes.

“I didn’t think you’d say it back, but I wasn’t expecting that reaction. Why are you pissed?”

“I’m not. I’m just...” She waved one hand. “Like I said, it’s too soon.”

“You don’t get to tell me how I feel.”

The need to put distance between them had her scrambling to her feet. She glared at him, careful to keep her injured arm against her chest.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you pushing?”

“Why are you so freaked out by me saying I love you?”

If she’d had two good arms, she would have raised them to cover her ears. Why did he have to keep saying that?

“I just am.” She pressed her lips together to avoid pointing out for the third time! that it was too soon.

He shook his head. “I don’t get it. Don’t you want love in your life?”

“Not like this. Not, you know, romantically.”

“Where did you see this going?”

“What this? Us? I don’t know. It’s only been a few months. We were taking things slow and that was better for me. Suddenly we’re thrown together in a family situation and it’s been fine. Good, even. I like your kids, I like Tiffany. Why can’t that be enough?”

As she spoke, her chest got tight, and she both wanted to run and to throw something. She was uncomfortable and uneasy—and wasn’t sure why.

“You don’t see a future for us?” he asked, his voice quiet. “You never saw yourself falling in love with me?”

A voice in the back of her mind whispered she’d just stepped into very dangerous territory.

“I don’t think like that,” she said defensively. “Why are you pushing me? You’re ruining everything. We were doing great. Why does that have to change? Why do we have to label everything?”

“You’re overreacting, Julie, and I can’t figure out why.”

“I’m not.” She glared at him. “I can’t do this. I can’t be with you anymore.”

The words came from nowhere, and the second she said them, she wanted to call them back, only she couldn’t.

Heath’s expression shifted from concerned and unhappy to unreadable.

He rose. “If that’s what you want, I’ll get the kids and Tiffany and we’ll leave.”

“No. Don’t do that. You’ll ruin everyone’s Christmas.”

“Mine already sucks pretty bad.”

She ignored that. “Just stay and we’ll have the holiday. We can deal with this after.”

She grabbed a blanket from the chair in the corner and draped it over her shoulders. “You stay up here. I’m going downstairs.”

She walked to the door. There was more to say, she thought. More she should say, only she couldn’t find the words. Telling Heath she didn’t want to end things made the most sense, but somehow she found herself on the landing without having said a single thing.