By the time Adam and his father returned to the house in the late afternoon, all the decorations were hanging and the tree was lit up with hundreds of tiny lights. They blinked on and off to the sound of the Christmas album, while Jonas and Kitty sang along.
Adam’s expression of shock when he walked through the door made Kitty want to smile. He looked around, his eyes wide, as if full of childlike wonder. Mr Klein’s eyes filled with tears, and he shook his head.
‘Did you do this?’ Adam asked Annie, his voice gruff.
‘The three of us did. Though I have to admit with my knees being as bad as they are, Kitty did most of the hard work.’
‘You should have seen her climb up the ladder to put the star at the top of the tree,’ Jonas told him. ‘She was so wobbly I thought she was going to fall off.’
‘I’m not good with heights,’ Kitty admitted, looking at the floor with embarrassment. ‘I got a little dizzy up there.’
When she looked up again, her eyes met Adam’s. Like earlier, when they were talking about the dog, he had a softness in his expression that almost took her breath away.
‘Thank you,’ he finally said. ‘It means a lot.’
‘Kitty had another idea as well. She suggested we move the big screen TV up to Mrs Klein’s room so we can all have movie nights together. You know how much Mary loves her Christmas films.’
‘It was your idea, too,’ Kitty protested. She felt uncomfortable in the spotlight of everybody’s stares. ‘You were the one who said she loved It’s a Wonderful Life, so don’t give me all the credit.’
Adam was still looking at her. Kitty had to admit there was something about his scrutiny that made her feel warm from the inside out. There was also something about seeing him up here in the house that confused her; surrounded by civilisation he looked less angry and feral than he did when she saw him down by the lake.
For the first time she saw a resemblance to Everett in him. As much as she disliked her boss, she had to admit he was a good-looking man. Not attractive, though. That took more than simple skin-deep beauty. To be attractive you had to have a beautiful soul. With his angry temperament and heated outbursts, Everett clearly didn’t have that.
‘I think it’s a great idea,’ Adam said, his voice still soft. ‘I’ll get the TV carried up to her room. Her ambulance should be here in an hour or so. It will be good to have her home for the holidays.’
Something about his expression tugged at Kitty’s heartstrings. His eyes were clouded and distant, like a little boy lost.
Memories of her own mother popped into Kitty’s mind. Faded photographs of a woman who always had the biggest smile, surrounded by four young girls and the chaos they brought with them. With her family around her, Milly Shakespeare always seemed in her element.
Maybe he noticed the tears springing to Kitty’s eyes, or perhaps he was just grateful for her suggestions. Whatever it was, Adam walked over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly within his calloused palm. The unexpected shock of his touch made Kitty’s heart stutter.
‘Thank you,’ Adam said again. ‘It will mean everything to Mom.’
Her breath still caught in her throat, all Kitty could do was nod, biting her lip to stop the tears from forming. Adam let her hand go and turned away, walking out of the kitchen and into the hallway. She watched him intently, trying to work out exactly who he was. Angry deer-killer, gruff bearded man, kind uncle… None of them quite described the man whose touch just set her on fire. He was multifaceted and complicated as hell, more difficult to work out than a quadratic equation.
Yet he was a puzzle she was desperate to solve.
Adam walked into the living room and over to the wide picture window, leaning against the wall in an effort to catch his breath. He had to leave the kitchen before he did something stupid… like cry, or possibly hug the hell out of Jonas’s English nanny. There was something about the way she was staring at him, her eyes wide and glassy, her expression full of emotion, that made him want to gather her in his arms and hold her tight.
It was just the excitement of the day playing tricks on his mind. Even when he was filming, and having to deal with the horrors of drug dealers or traffickers, he always managed to find succour in the warm arms of a willing woman. This need for Kitty Shakespeare was no different to that.
A distraction, that’s all she was. Not an unwelcome one, either. But it took a lot for him to drag his mind away from the way she’d looked in that hallway, her blonde hair haloed by the flashing tree lights. A conflict raged inside him, and he tried to remind himself that she’d driven him crazy ever since she’d arrived on the mountain, from the moment he’d climbed out of his truck and seen her leaning over that dying deer.
But that wasn’t all she was. He’d seen her play with Jonas until the kid was howling with laughter, take care of a puppy that she hadn’t asked for, and now she’d decorated a house that didn’t belong to her. She was kind, that much was obvious, but there was so much more to her than that. It was taking every ounce of strength he had not to want to find out what that was.
His father walked into the room and came to a stop on the rug in the centre of the wooden floor, looking all around at the festive decorations. He had an air of frailty that wasn’t there before. His wife’s accident had taken its toll on his father, too. The man Adam remembered from his childhood – that vibrant, alpha male who spent his daytime hours in the corporate rat race and yet still managed to find quality time for his sons – was long gone.
‘Your mom’s going to love this,’ his dad said, finally resting his gaze on Adam. ‘She always did like to go all-out for the holidays.’
Adam flashed his father a stiff smile. ‘She will. Do you remember the Christmas I broke my arm? She still insisted I climb up the ladder and hang the decorations one-handed. She said that just because I was stupid enough to get caught on the football field, didn’t mean I got excused from doing the hard work at home.’
Not that he’d minded. Adam was always too active a child to willingly sit on the sidelines.
‘It’s going to mean a lot to her, spending this Christmas surrounded by her family.’ His father’s look was pointed.
‘It will,’ Adam agreed.
‘But there’s something that would mean more to her, something that’s been worrying at her for these past months.’