Holly And Mistletoe. Susan Mallery

I had to give them up. There was even this boy. Jimmy. We sort of dated. As much as one dates at fifteen.” Holly stared down at her hands and realized she was twisting her fingers together. Consciously she stilled the movement. “He dumped me because I had to spend too much time taking care of my mom.”

      “Tell me his last name. As soon as I’m better, I’ll find him and beat him up for you.”

      She smiled. “That’s sweet, but no thanks. It was ages ago. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

      “Sure it does. Some of those hurts never go away.”

      They stared at each other for a long time. Something in Jordan’s eyes convinced her that he really did understand what she was talking about. She wondered what hurts he carried around from his past.

      “Did your mother go into remission?” he asked.

      “For a couple of years. I got through high school. After I graduated, I went to work full-time. I’d wanted to go to college, but there were medical bills. Then the same week we got the news that we’d inherited the antique shop up here, Mom found a lump in her other breast.”

      Holly’s breath caught in her throat. She remembered hearing the sobs through the thin walls of their bathroom. She’d rushed inside and found her mother crouched down on the floor, crying and rocking. At that moment Holly had known the cancer had returned.

      “Mom was strong. She had another remission, but this one was shorter. Then they found the cancer had spread everywhere. She hung on for a couple of years. It was hard on her, but she was very brave.”

      “Sounds like you were, too.”

      “I didn’t do anything.”

      “You took care of her, didn’t you?”

      “I was her daughter. What else was I going to do? I was all she had.”

      She shifted in the chair and pulled her knees up to her chest. “Enough about this. I’m supposed to be entertaining you, not getting your spirits down. Let’s talk about something more lighthearted.”

      Jordan thought for a moment. “If you could have gone to college, what would you have studied?”

      “That’s easy. Business. I want to do a good job running the shop, but I don’t have all the education I need. I admire Louise for going back to school. That’s what I want to do. Next question.”

      “You never mention your father.”

      “I don’t have any contact with him.” She thought about the single conversation she’d shared with her father six years ago. She could remember everything about it, right down to the sound of the rain on the windows. “He had an affair with my mother. When she got pregnant, he disappeared.”

      She said the words matter-of-factly. Jordan stared at her and wondered how she’d managed to stay so giving and innocent in the face of so much tragedy.

      Holly had been abandoned by one parent and lost the other, yet she’d survived. More than that, she was happy and successful.

      “I know about fathers like that,” he said. “My dad stuck around, but I often think it would have been better if he’d left.”

      “Why?”

      She looked at him intently. After her shower she’d dressed in jeans and a dark blue sweatshirt. The soft fabric deepened the color of her eyes. Her hair was long and loose over her shoulders. He wanted to pull her close and bury his hands in the long silky strands. He wanted to kiss her and make love to her until she forgot the past and its pain. He could make her forget. He could even seduce her. But if he did, he would break her heart, and that was one thing he wouldn’t allow himself to do. So instead, he told the truth. If that didn’t drive her away, nothing would.

      “Haven’t you heard about the infamous Haynes brothers?” he asked.

      She shrugged. “Rumors, really. Nothing specific.”

      “Four generations of heartbreakers. Four generations of boys born into the family. Three generations of philandering men and bitter women.”

      “You and your brothers are the fourth generation?”

      “Yeah. We saw what our uncles did and how our father treated our mother. He was out with women several times a week. Earl Haynes believed everything he did was fine as long as he actually slept in his bed. Everyone in town knew about his affairs, including my mother.”

      She sucked in a breath. “You and your brothers knew, too?”

      He nodded.

      “How awful.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand how someone could act like that.”

      “It was easy.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “The men in my family have a natural ability to attract women.”

      She raised her chin slightly. “I hadn’t noticed.”

      “Gee, thanks.”

      She looked startled, then laughed. “Oh, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. What I meant was—” She paused.

      He waited, wondering what she was going to say. Would she claim to be completely unaffected by him, and if she did, would he believe her? He knew all the tricks, but he didn’t use them anymore. But he’d caught Holly staring at him a couple of times. She might not be swooning, but he doubted she was immune.