Holly And Mistletoe. Susan Mallery

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СКАЧАТЬ to the consistency of whipped cream. She leaned forward and set her coffee mug on the nightstand before she did something stupid like dropping it.

      “I’m concerned about that fever coming back.” She rose to her feet and leaned over the bed. She touched his forehead, then his cheeks. “You’re cool to the touch.”

      “You do that very well.” He raised his eyebrows. “Lots of practice?”

      “With my mom.”

      “How long was she sick?”

      Holly settled back in her chair. “Ten years. I was fifteen when she found a lump in her breast. It was cancer. At first they just took the lump out, but then the cancer came back.” She closed her eyes, recalling the terror of that time. Her mother had been her only parent. Because it was just the two of them, they were very close. She’d tried to be strong, but all she could think about was what was going to happen to her when her mother died.

      “That’s a lot to handle when you’re fifteen,” he said.

      She nodded. “She had the usual treatments, but she was really sick. I guess some people tolerate them better. There were a lot of times I missed school to be with her.”

      “What else did you miss?” he asked, his voice low and concerned.

      She opened her eyes and stared at him. “What do you mean?”

      “You were a teenager. Most kids have a hard enough time dealing with school and growing up. You had your mother to worry about. You must have missed out on a lot.”

      Her eyes burned, and for a brief second she was afraid she was going to cry. Then she sat up straighter and blinked several times until the burning went away.

      “Thank you,” she said.

      “For what?”

      “For saying that. No one really noticed before. I was just a teenager, but I was expected to act like an adult. There wasn’t anyone else to take charge. My mom couldn’t do it. The doctors and nurses were busy. Mom had a few friends, but she didn’t want them to know how sick she was. And my friends were young like me.”

      His dark gaze met hers. “You must have been scared.”

      “I was. I didn’t want her to die. It was hard because I’d just started high school and I was involved in a lot of activities. 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 СКАЧАТЬ