Kitabı oku: «Never Christmas Without You»

Chapter 1

Justin Morrison ran through the hallways of the hospital, nearly tipping over a gurney at the nursing station, narrowly missing an orderly and then actually tripping over a wheelchair someone had left in the hallway.

He scrambled to get back on his feet, his heart beating a frantic tattoo against his ribs. He had to get to her. After everything, he couldn’t lose her.

His cousin’s words on the phone still rattled around his brain. She’s in the hospital. You need to come quickly. He took the stairs two at a time to the fourth floor, where they’d directed him at the main reception desk. Oh God, please let her be okay. Please, please, please let her be okay. His grandma Lucy was the only person on this planet who understood him. Well, next to his best friend, Alexandra, whom he affectionately called Alex. But Grandma Lucy, she was his heart. She was the sole reason he was where he was today, even when no one had believed in him.

Growing up, she’d been his rock. She’d scolded him when she felt it necessary, hugged him when he needed it and always told it to him straight. She was outrageous and said the most inappropriate things. But man, she was fantastic.

Grandma Lucy had been the one to tell him to stop trying to seek his father’s approval and follow his own path. She was the sole reason that any banks would even talk to him when he wanted to build a boutique hotel.

His family was known for their hotels the world over. But investors didn’t want to finance the first solo venture from the prodigal son. So his grandmother had made sure that several banks knew that while his would be a separate business, he was backed by the matriarch of the family.

As family went, the only one he ever counted on was his grandmother. The rest of his relatives, he could take or leave. His mother hadn’t come from money and had left him with his father when he was eight because the old man could provide a more stable environment for him. Most of his family never approved of her. As an adult, he could see how being around the Morrisons had been very difficult for her. But as a child, he’d just missed her. She’d died in a car accident just six months after she’d left. A part of him had never recovered. As for his father, well, Jack Morrison wasn’t exactly warm. But up until the reading of the will, Justin would have said they got along well. Boy, were you wrong.

He and his cousin Martin had interned at the flagship property on Catalina Island. Justin’s father had always made it clear that Justin should be the one eventually running Morrison Hotels. Somehow Martin became the more favored and had shoved Justin out of what should have been his birthright.

That knowledge that his own father wouldn’t trust the Morrison legacy to him still burned, like a fire in his gut. It was what spurred him on. Prove the old man wrong. He’d always thought his father loved him. Then why cut you out? The fact that he could do that to him, shut him out without a word... The fact that Justin had to hear about it in the reading of the will, that was a special kind of hell.

Justin tugged open the door to the fourth floor from the stairwell and ran down to room 406. He found Martin, his uncle Lester, his aunt Mary and a few of the household staff who had been with his grandmother for years all around his grandmother’s room.

Grandma Lucy tried to push herself to sit straighter, but when she winced, he ran to her side. “I don’t think you’re supposed to move.” He turned his attention to Martin. “What happened? What did you do?” he yelled.

Martin rolled his eyes. “I didn’t do anything. I’m the one who found her collapsed in her office. I called an ambulance to get her to the hospital in LA. Then I called you, her precious grandson.” The note of jealousy rang clear as a bell.

From behind, a voice said, “If I were you two, I’d keep it down. Your grandmother needs rest. If you can’t give her that, I will have security escort you out.”

Justin turned to find a petite woman in a white lab coat, her dark hair pulled back off her face into a bun, her expression solemn. Her name tag read Dr. Jesslyn Wells.

“Are you my grandmother’s doctor?”

She gave a brusque nod. “Yes, I am. Now, can you and the rest of your family please give me some space so I can check my patient?” Her voice was stern, clipped. It told Justin that she was well versed in dealing with difficult people.

“I’m sorry.” The group backed away, but Justin moved to the foot of the bed. “I just don’t know what happened.”

Grandma Lucy waved her hand. “What happened is your cousin overreacted. My blood pressure’s just low, that’s all. I’m fine. I do not need to be in this hospital. Matter of fact, if you can get these IVs out of me, I’ll be on my way. I feel like a damn pincushion.”

Dr. Wells clucked as she checked his grandmother’s vitals, then wrote something on her clipboard. “Now, Lucy, we’ve had this conversation already. I’m not unhooking the machines. You need to stay for observation for at least a couple of days. You’re slightly dehydrated, and I’d like you to start eating a little bit more. Your blood pressure is low, and you’re fatigued. You really need to rest.”

Justin’s grandmother was having none of that. “Listen up, young lady, I’ve had more years on this planet by three times longer than you have. I know how I’m feeling. I was a nurse when I was young. So I know that I’ll be fine. You don’t need to keep me in here. You just want to bill insurance.”

Dr. Wells’s lips twitched. “Lucy, this is my area of expertise. I want to make sure you stick around to see any future great-grandchildren you may have. So I’m going to need you to listen to me right now.”

Justin had never seen anyone handle his grandmother so effectively. Because Grandma Lucy did not offer an argument. She frowned, closed her mouth and sat back. Dr. Wells had used the magic words. Great-grandchildren. His grandmother had been after him, Martin and their other cousins to procreate as quickly as possible. Justin was in no hurry. Hell, he was only twenty-five. Martin was older by a couple of years. She needed to direct her energy at him. The rest of their cousins were scattered in age, but there were some who were over thirty, and Grandma Lucy really should have been focused on them doing the marriage-and-kids rodeo. Not him, never him. He wasn’t going to mess up some poor kid, like his father had screwed him up. No way, no how. Plus, children involved settling down and that was certainly not going to happen. He liked his women available, flexible and transient.

Except Alex. Alex was different. She had been his best friend since college and was the most influential female in his life besides his grandma. And he liked her. There had never been anything between them. Which was their saving grace. Not that she wasn’t hot. She was. With those big brown eyes and dusting of freckles on her nose, Alex was gorgeous. In the beginning, he’d flirted with her, but she’d ignored him. Told him she couldn’t take him seriously. Best thing she could’ve ever done for the two of them. They were closer now than they would have been if she’d tried to explore the possibility of a relationship. He’d have slept with her, then run...very far away.

“Dr. Wells, can you tell us what happened or what’s going on?”

She sighed as she clicked her pen and tucked it back into her pocket. “Your grandmother is suffering from exhaustion. She’s been doing too much and taking on too much stress. Her blood pressure is all over the place. It was low and that’s why she collapsed, but since she’s been here...it’s spiked up, then shot down. I need to take a look at her medication. She will be fine, but she has to cut back from her daily activities and relax. That’s very important.”

The steel bar constricting his chest since Martin’s call loosened, but only a bit. “Okay, so what do we need to do for her?”

“Keep her relaxed, and her mind off the hotel business.” She put a hand up to stop his grandmother from talking and continued, “We don’t need her experiencing anxiety.”

Justin nodded. “Yeah, we can do that.” The relief washed over him like a tidal wave. All they had to do was keep her calm. That was his new number-one mission. He resided in San Diego, but with his hotel up and running now, and profitable after only a year, he could take more time away to see her; Catalina wasn’t far. He’d make the drive to LA, take the ferry over to the island and put in the quality time with her.

It sounded simple enough, except for one little fact... He never went home. Hadn’t gone home in a long time. But for Grandma Lucy, he could do it. He could put up with Martin and the rest of his family. For her, he’d do anything.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to continue making my rounds. Visiting hours are over in ten minutes, so now might be a good idea to say your goodbyes.”

As soon as Dr. Wells was gone, his grandmother started tugging at her IVs, and Justin put a hand over hers to halt her. “You heard the doctor. And you agreed. So stop that.” She grumbled but sat back, crossing her arms. “Now, Grandma, tell me what you need.” Whatever she wanted, he would make it work.

“I want everyone out.” Martin looked like he was going to protest, but she set her lips, and he knew better than to argue. When Justin made to go as well, she reached out an arm and held him back. “Not you.”

With everyone gone, he turned his attention to her. “What’s up, Grandma?”

“I didn’t want to go embarrassing you in front of the rest the family. I know how difficult it is for you to be around them. Especially Martin.”

And that was why he loved her. She would always go out of her way to protect him. “It’s okay, Grandma. Whatever you need.”

“Well, the doctor’s right. I do want to be around to see my future great-grandbabies. And given what’s happened, we can’t keep procrastinating things. I want my family around me. You haven’t been home in a long time. I want you to come for the holidays.”

Shit. That was last thing he wanted to do. Checking on her from time to time was one thing, but a big old holiday-family-dinner type thing? Not his bag. But it was for his grandmother. And she never did ask for much. “Okay, I’ll make that work.”

She nodded with satisfaction. “Good. I may not be able to travel for a while, so our trip up to Hawaii and my surf lessons will have to wait.”

He laughed. “Okay, I’ll take a rain check for now. But I think you’re gonna love it.”

“I don’t doubt it. Oh, and, Justin, make sure you bring that girlfriend of yours. I can’t believe I still haven’t met her. After all this time. I’d like to see the woman who’s going to be getting my ring one day.”

Oh no. He shifted on his feet. So what was the harm of one little white lie? And honestly, all he’d done was shield his grandmother from disappointment. Liar. He’d done it for himself. To keep her from meddling in his love life.

The woman was relentless. She kept insisting that he needed to be dating someone. Every time they’d been on one of their trips, she’d tried to set him up, so he’d made up a girlfriend. He never thought he’d have to produce her. But now she wanted to meet her. He was screwed.

“Oh, I don’t know, Grandma, she usually spends the holidays with her family.”

And then his grandmother pulled her trump card. Not only did she give him the big, sad brown eyes, but she sniffed. “You heard the doctor, Justin, I’m an old lady. I don’t need the stress. Now I want to meet her. I want to make sure she’s good enough for you.”

Damn it. “Okay, I’ll bring her with me over the holiday.” Now all he had to do was find someone who fit the bill. Because Grandma was too important for him to not make this happen.

* * *

Alexandra Winters was pretty sure this was not how osso buco was supposed to look. This wasn’t her fault. She didn’t cook. She did excellent takeout. Copious amounts of takeout. Cooking wasn’t her thing.

You have your first gallery opening to prepare for. You don’t need to be creating a dish for this man. Or rather, if she cared about him at all, she wouldn’t be attempting to make a meal.

His grandmother was in the hospital. And, since Justin was the closest thing to family that she had, she had to at least try to look out for him. Cooking was what you did, right? She’d learned about this ritual from movies. Not from her parents.

Her mother was always gallivanting around the world for her photographs, leaving Alex in the care of nannies when she was a child. And her father, he’d preferred his string of girlfriends to parenting, so she rarely saw him. She stared into the pot. Damn it. She’d screwed this up. But hey, it was the thought that counted, right? Besides, it wasn’t like Justin didn’t know that she couldn’t cook. They had no secrets. Except for the one she’d been holding on to for years.

From the moment they’d met, when he and his stupid frat brothers were trying to steal the fine-arts department’s founder’s statue, he’d known her through and through. And he’s been dragging you into his antics ever since.

Justin was good for her. She might be an artist, but most people told her she was far too serious. She never let go. Except in her art. Never had any fun. Yeah, fun was reserved for people who knew what the hell was going to happen the next day. Since she never knew growing up, she liked to have control over her destiny. Justin was the risk taker. He could go into any scenario without a plan and still come out smelling like roses.

The door to Justin’s condo swung open and immediately Justin started to cough. “Oh my God, did someone break in here and try to smoke me out of my own apartment?” He dropped his bag by the door and came running into the kitchen. “Alex, what the hell are you doing?”

She stopped stirring and turned to him. “I’m cooking?”

“Is that what we’re calling it?”

Alex wiped her hands on the apron, which had an attractive nearly naked guy on the front. “I was trying to make dinner so you didn’t feel too much pressure with everything happening.”

Justin stared at the stove for a long moment. Then his eyes darted to her, then back to the stove again. And finally, he just came over and wrapped his arms around her.

Alex automatically hugged him back. She didn’t normally do emotional displays. She wasn’t much of a hugger. The one exception was Justin. If he was giving out hugs, she was first in line to get one. Because you’re pathetic.

No, she wasn’t pathetic. They were friends. Best friends. Which is why you’ll never, ever be with him. She shook off the thought. She didn’t want to be with Justin. Liar. Okay, so there was a part of her that at one point had thought she could be with Justin. That part had died a long, slow, lonely death. It was never going to happen. Justin was not hers. He was her best friend, and she’d seen what happened to a woman who got too close to the flame. She was never getting burned like that. And the more honest she was with herself about that, the less getting embraces from Justin hurt on an emotional level.

“I’m so sorry about your grandmother.”

He shook his head, moving his chin back and forth over her hair. Her wild mane of curls was already a mess. She was dreading wash day, but she didn’t complain that his actions were inducing more tangles. “What do you need me to do?”

“You’re already doing it. Just being here. And even though your culinary skills need major help, the thought is really what counts. How do you feel about takeout?”

“Now, that I can do. Sorry I tried to poison you.”

He chuckled. “It’s not the first time. I don’t know why you insist on trying to cook me anything ever.” Then he added, “Not to worry—bag’s by the door. I had a feeling you’d be here.”

And just like that, Justin had reversed the roles. The man was all things to all people. “You weren’t supposed to do that. I was supposed to be looking after you. Not the other way around.”

He shrugged. “For the record, we’re best friends. So we take care of each other. When I moved out here after grad school, who actually had a place to stay and let me crash on their couch for six months?”

Yeah, the early days. She’d been apprenticing to a painter, Peter Maine, at his gallery here in San Diego. She’d sold a piece early and those proceeds covered school. She’d saved all her money and was able to afford a decent place to stay. It had been like summer camp.

“How is she?”

Justin let her go, then leaned back against the fridge, one leg propped back against it. “She’s actually not terrible. She’ll stay there a few more days for observation. But the doctor thinks there might be a problem with her medication, so they’re trying to figure out the right dosage. Until they do that, they said no stress, no running around, she’s to take it easy.”

Alex snorted. She might not know Grandma Lucy personally, but from everything Justin had told her, the old lady was never slowing down. “How’d she take that?”

Justin shook his head. “About as well as can be expected for her. She was in no kind of mood for that noise.”

Alex cocked her head and studied his face intently before hopping up onto the counter. “Okay, spill, Justin. You always have that look when you aren’t sure how to get out of a problem.”

He rubbed the end of his nose, and Alex wondered just what kind of trouble he’d gotten himself into.

“So you know how Grandma has been trying to get me to settle down?”

She nodded. And every time Justin brought home some blonde with big boobs and an attitude, she often had to bite her own tongue. But that was neither here nor there. “Yeah, what’s that have to do with anything?”

“Well, I might have told her I had a girlfriend to get her off my back.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Of course you did. Why would you do that? Because at some point, she’s going to request to see this girl.”

The look on his face told her that something just like that had happened. “Justin. Spill it.”

“I know it probably wasn’t a good idea, but I was desperate. She was constantly trying to set me up with girls. They would show up at the hotel. At my gym. I had to get her off my back. So I made up the perfect girl that would never have to be seen. One that was so busy with her career. Problem is, now Grandma Lucy wants me home for the holidays. And she wants me to bring said girl.”

Alex stared at him for a long moment. Blinked several times, tried to open her mouth to say something, anything. But nothing came out. Finally, she managed, “Justin. She’s sick. What are you going to do now? You clearly can’t tell her that you made up a girlfriend. That will stress her out.”

“I know. I know. I should never have lied. But now I can’t just tell the truth because she’s sick. She’s supposed to stay calm. So I’m caught between a rock and a bad situation.”

Alex tried to force her brain to work. “You need to figure this out. Is there someone in your roster? Is this a couple of days including Christmas?”

“Christmas.” He nodded.

“Well, I’ll think of something before then.”

“You don’t have to think of something. I already have a solution.” Justin grinned.

“Yeah? What’s that? If it involves hiring a hooker, you’re crazy. Maybe it’s better to tell her the truth and not dig a bigger hole for yourself.”

Justin’s brows snapped down. “No. I’m not telling her the truth. She needs me to have a girlfriend, so I’m going to have a girlfriend. I’ll do anything to make sure she gets better and on the road to recovery.”

And that was part of Justin’s problem, he was always wanting to be all things to all people. But he never spent too much time worrying about what would actually make him happy.

“So what can I do?” she asked.

“Well, since you’re trying to make me feel better and you are my best friend in the entire world, I was sort of hoping you’d pretend to be my girlfriend.”

Her heart leaped in an attempt to escape from her chest, beating so hard and so fast, Alex was sure there would be splinters and shards of her rib cage floating around. He was asking her out? No, silly. Listen to his words. Pretend. Girlfriend. And suddenly her heart stuttered and skipped to a stop. The pain was so immediate and so hot, she had to fight to not show any expression.

He wasn’t suddenly going to ask her out. Out of the blue. No, he was asking her to be his girlfriend because he needed a way out of this mess. Under normal circumstances, she would do anything for him. Except this. Because if she did this, then he would know.

He’d know that she’d been lying this whole time. And she wasn’t going to expose her soft side. “Justin, I love you. And you know that. But I’m not going to pretend to be your girlfriend.”