‘David, I really don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be—’
‘Lydia, I have no intention of pulling the sledge myself,’ Meg’s father cut lightly across her mother’s protest. ‘Jeremy obviously can’t do it either, with his sprained ankle, but I’m sure Jed will oblige.’ He gave Jed a smile.
‘Sounds good to me.’ Jed nodded in agreement. ‘Meg?’ His gaze was unreadable as he looked across the table at her.
What a position to be in. She couldn’t possibly say no, and so ruin Scott’s fun, even though a part of her dearly wanted to.
For three and a half years this family had all but ignored Scott’s existence, and now they were all fussing over him as if he were a treasured part of that family—it took a lot of getting used to.
She had no idea what she had expected to happen during this three-day visit, but it certainly hadn’t been this.
‘Yes, of course we can go sledging,’ she confirmed quickly as she realized Jed was still waiting for an answer, receiving a whoop of joy and a hug from her son before he hastily began to eat his breakfast, anxious to get outside and begin.
‘Are you really okay with this?’ Jed caught up with her as she went upstairs to get her own and Scott’s outdoor clothing.
She looked at him sharply as he fell into step beside her, obviously going upstairs for his own coat. ‘Yes, of course I am. Why shouldn’t I be?’
‘I have absolutely no idea.’ He sighed. ‘I just thought I noticed a slight reluctance on your part earlier. But as far as I’m concerned this is the first normal thing this family has done since we arrived here.’
And he didn’t even want to be here, she reminded herself, was only here at all because he had tried to help her and Scott.
‘What would your own family be doing now?’ she questioned huskily.
He shrugged. ‘Sleeping, I guess. There’s several hours time difference, Meg,’ he added teasingly.
‘I totally forgot that.’ She gave a slight smile. ‘Maybe you would like to call them all later? To wish them all a Happy Christmas? I’m sure my parents would be only too happy for you to use the telephone here.’
‘Thanks.’ He nodded. ‘I’ll think about it.’
She had no idea why there was this awkwardness between them now, their conversation so stilted; they had seemed perfectly okay together earlier when they had watched Scott open his presents. Before Jed had left so abruptly on the pretext of getting her coffee.
Because he never had come back with the coffee, her father bringing her a cup half an hour later when he’d come to see how Scott was doing with his presents, lingering to play with his grandson while Meg took a shower.
Not that Meg ever intended mentioning that forgotten cup of coffee; this Jed was nowhere near as approachable as the previous one.
How odd that the relationship with her family, certainly her father and Sonia, had become less strained, and now she and Jed had a distance between them that seemed insurmountable.
She grimaced. ‘I’m afraid I don’t have a gift to give you later today.’
‘That’s okay. I don’t have one for you, either,’ Jed responded lightly as they walked down the hallway to their bedrooms. ‘How could we have?’ he added harshly. ‘We didn’t even know each other until two days ago.’
Meg stopped, her hand on her bedroom door, looking up at him uncertainly. ‘Jed, if I’ve done something to offend you today—’
‘Why should today be any different?’ he cut in dryly. ‘We’ve been offending each other, one way or another, since the moment we met.’
She gave a pained frown. That wasn’t quite true. Was it?
Admittedly, they snapped and snarled at each other occasionally, but in between that snapping and snarling they usually ended up in each other’s arms.
‘Don’t look so worried about it, Meg,’ Jed advised with a rueful smile. ‘It’s Christmas Day, after all.’
Yes, and, Jed apart, it was a much better Christmas Day than she had envisaged when she’d left London two days ago.
Jed apart.
Three days. That was all she had known this man. And yet already she knew he would leave a huge gap in her life when he left.
She felt herself pale, her eyes widen, as a startling truth suddenly hit her.
She was falling in love with Jed Cole.
She blinked up at him dazedly, not sure how, or even why, only knowing without a doubt as she looked into the rugged handsomeness of his face that she was falling in love with him. If she wasn’t already in love with him.
And that, without a doubt, had to be the most reckless thing she had ever done in her life.
She had gone to art college at great opposition from her mother, had kept Scott to even greater opposition, and now she had managed to fall in love with a man who was totally out of her reach. Totally out of any woman’s permanent reach if the things he had said to her yesterday, and his bachelorhood at the age of thirty-eight, were anything to go by.
‘Are you okay?’ Jed frowned down concernedly, blue gaze searching the paleness of her face.
No, she certainly wasn’t okay, might never be okay again, had been stupid enough to fall in love with this man.
But it was her stupidity, and she intended keeping it to herself. There would be plenty of time to feel sorry for herself once Jed had gone.
‘Just too early a start to my day, I think,’ she dismissed with a shake of her head. ‘Sonia’s right, a walk in the fresh air is exactly what we all need.’
Jed gave her a puzzled look. ‘Are the two of you okay now? I noticed the two of you seemed a little friendlier towards each other at breakfast.’
She wished she could talk to someone, to him, about the reason for the estrangement between herself and Sonia, to ask his advice about what she should do. But she had made a promise long ago, as Sonia had made one to her, and she couldn’t, wouldn’t, ever break that promise. Too many people could be hurt if she did.
‘Things are—better,’ she answered cautiously. ‘Thank you for asking.’
‘That’s good,’ he nodded approvingly.
But he made no effort to go into his own bedroom, his gaze guarded as he continued to look down at her.
‘They’ll be waiting for us downstairs,’ Meg mentioned huskily.
‘Yes.’ Still he made no move to leave.
‘You have a sledge to pull up a hill,’ she reminded teasingly.
His mouth curved into a smile. ‘Did you see the look on Scott’s face when he opened his gift and saw the sledge?’
Yes, she had seen it. And worried over it. If Sonia’s idea of being Scott’s aunt was just to shower him with expensive presents, then this was never going to work.
‘It’s what it’s all about, isn’t it,’ Jed added softly at her silence. ‘Kids at Christmas.’
Yes, it was, and perhaps she was being unfair to her sister.
‘Sonia wants to start being Scott’s aunt.’ She only realized she had spoken her thoughts out loud as she heard herself speak, biting her bottom lip as she realized what she had done.
Jed looked at her searchingly. ‘Is that going to be a problem for you?’
She drew in a sharp breath, straightening her shoulders before answering him. ‘No, of course not,’ she said brightly, finally turning the handle on her bedroom door and opening it. ‘One big happy family at last.’ That didn’t come out right, she realized with a wince.
Knowing Jed had picked up on it too as his frown deepened. ‘Meg, what—’
‘We really do need to get back downstairs, Jed.’ She gave him a bright, meaningless smile before going into her bedroom and closing the door firmly behind her.
None of this had turned out as she had expected.
None of it.
There was that difference in her father, his quiet determination to do exactly as he wished. Her sister’s efforts to be friendly. And nowhere, absolutely nowhere in her imaginings had she taken into account meeting Jed Cole.
And falling in love with him.
‘Need any help, Lydia?’ Jed offered as she trailed behind as they walked up the hill, the other three almost at the top, Meg and Scott having insisted on pulling the sledge, Sonia pushing from behind, Scott chattering excitedly. David and Jeremy had stayed at the bottom of the hill to catch the sledge when it came down.
Jed had to admit he had been surprised when he’d returned downstairs to find Lydia Hamilton had opted to join in the sledge expedition. She seemed more the type to stay in the house where it was warm and watch from a window, if at all.
‘Thank you, Jed.’ She took his arm gratefully, her fashionable boots not made to climb hills slippery with snow. ‘David used to do this with the girls when they were small.’ She made stilted conversation.
‘Did he?’ Not David and I, just David, Jed noted.
Lydia gave him a quick glance, as if sensing his unspoken question, cosily warm in a long coat and hat. ‘I usually stayed indoors and waited to dry them out and supply them with warm drinks when they came back in.’
Her tone was almost wistful, Jed noted, as if she longed for the days when her daughters had been small and life had been less complicated.
‘Still, you’ve made the effort today,’ he encouraged lightly, wondering if perhaps he hadn’t misjudged Lydia Hamilton. When that haughty mask slipped he caught glimpses of a very lonely woman who had always stood outside her family looking in, almost as if she were afraid of the emotion held within.