They were lucky, Leo mused wryly. No great soul-searching for them. Merely point A to point B. And again. And again.
He envied them their singularity of purpose, though he had no desire to be a hamster on a wheel. As a boy, his teachers had identified him as gifted. His parents had enrolled him in special programs and sent him to summer camps in astrophysics and geology and other erudite endeavors.
All of it interested and engaged him, but he never quite fit in anywhere. His size and athletic prowess made him a target of suspicion in the realm of the nerds, and his academic successes and love for school excluded him from the jock circle.
His brother became, and still was, his best friend. They squabbled and competed as siblings did, but their bond ran deep. Which was why Leo was stuck here, like a storybook character, lost in the woods. Because Luc had insisted it was important. And Leo owed his brother. If Luc believed Leo needed this time to recover, then it was probably so.
Rising to his feet and stretching, he shivered hard. After his strenuous exercise, he had sat too long, and now he was chilled and stiff. Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to see Phoebe. He couldn’t share his soul-searching and his minor epiphanies with her, because he hadn’t yet come clean about his health. But he wanted to be with her. In any way and for any amount of time fate granted him.
Though it was not his way, he made an inward vow to avoid the calendar and to concentrate on the moment. Perhaps there was more to Leo Cavallo than met the eye. If so, he had two months to figure it out.
* * *
Phoebe couldn’t decide whether to cry or curse when Leo finally came through the door, his tall, broad silhouette filling the doorway. Her giddy relief that he was okay warred with irritation because he had disappeared for so long without an explanation. Of course, if he had been living in his own cabin, she would not have been privy to his comings and goings.
But this was different. He and Phoebe were cohabiting. Which surely gave her some minimal rights when it came to social conventions. Since she didn’t have the guts to chastise him, her only choice was to swallow her pique and move forward.
As he entered and kicked off his muddy boots, he smiled sheepishly. “Have you already eaten?”
“Yours is warming in the oven.” She returned the smile, but stayed seated. It wasn’t necessary to hover over him like a doting housewife. Leo was a big boy.
Teddy played with a plastic straw while Phoebe enjoyed a second cup of coffee. As Leo joined her at the table, she nodded at his plate. “Your friend is a genius. Please thank him for me. Though I’m sure I’ll be ruing the additional calories.”
Leo dug into his food with a gusto that suggested he had walked long and hard. “You’re right. I’ve even had him cater dinner parties at my home. Makes me very popular, I can tell you.”
As he finished his meal, Phoebe excused herself to put a drooping Teddy down for his nap. “I have a white noise machine I use sometimes in his room, so I think we’ll be able to get the boxes down without disturbing him,” she said. “And if he takes a long afternoon nap like he sometimes does, we can get a lot of the decorating done if you’re still up for it.”
Leo cocked his head, leaning his chair back on two legs. “I’m definitely up for it,” he said, his lips twitching.
She couldn’t believe he would tease about their recent insanity. “That’s not funny.”
“You don’t have to tell me.” He grinned wryly. “I realize in theory that couples with young children have sex. I just don’t understand how they do it.”
His hangdog expression made Phoebe burst into laughter, startling Teddy, who had almost fallen asleep on her shoulder. “Well, you don’t have to worry about it,” she said sharply, giving him a look designed to put him in his place. “All I have on the agenda this afternoon is decking the halls.”
* * *
Leo had seldom spent as much time alone with a woman as he had with Phoebe. He was beginning to learn her expressions and to read them with a fair amount of accuracy. When she reappeared after settling the baby, her excitement was palpable.
“The pull-down steps to the attic are in that far corner over there.” She dragged a chair in that direction. “I’ll draw the cord and you get ready to steady the steps as they come down.”
He did as she asked, realizing ruefully that this position put him on eye level with her breasts. Stoically, he looked in the opposite direction. Phoebe dragged on the rope. The small framed-off section of the ceiling opened up to reveal a very sturdy set of telescoping stairs.
Leo grabbed the bottom section and pulled, easing it to the floor. He set his foot on the first rung. “What do you want me to get first?”
“The order doesn’t really matter. I want it all. Except for the tree. That can stay. Here,” she said, handing him a flashlight from her pocket. “I almost forgot.”
Leo climbed, using the heavy flashlight to illuminate cobwebs so he could swat them away. Perhaps because the cabin was fairly new, or maybe because Phoebe was an organized sort, her attic was not a hodgepodge of unidentified mess. Neatly labeled cardboard cartons and large plastic tubs had been stacked in a tight perimeter around the top of the stairs within easy reach.
Some of the containers were fairly heavy. He wondered how she had managed to get them up here. He heard a screech and bent to stick his head out the hole. “What’s wrong?”
Phoebe shuddered. “A spider. I didn’t think all this stuff would have gotten so icky in just three years.”
“Shall I stop?”
She grimaced. “No. We might as well finish. I’ll just take two or three showers when we’re done.”
He tossed her a small box that was light as a feather. In neat black marker, Phoebe had labeled Treetop Angel. When she caught it, he grinned at her. “I’d be glad to help with that body check. I’ll search the back of your hair for creepy-crawlies.”
“I can’t decide if that’s revolting or exciting. Seems like you made a similar offer when you were convincing me to let you stay. Only then, you promised to kill hypothetical bugs.”
“Turns out I was right, doesn’t it?” He returned to his task, his body humming with arousal. He’d never paid much attention to the holidays. But with Phoebe, suddenly all the chores surrounding Christmas took on a whole new dimension.
By the time he had brought down the last box and stored away the stairs, Phoebe was elbows-deep into a carton of ornaments.
She held up a tiny glass snowman. “My grandmother gave me this when I was eight.”
He crouched beside her. “Is she still alive?”
“No. Sadly.”
“And your parents?” He was close enough to brush his lips across the nape of her neck, but he refrained.
Phoebe sank back on her bottom and crossed her legs, working to separate a tangle of glittery silver beads. “My parents were hit by a drunk driver when my sister and I were in high school. A very kind foster family took us in and looked after us until we were able to graduate and get established in college.”
“And since then?”
“Dana and I are very close.”
“No significant others in your past?”
She frowned at the knot that wouldn’t give way. “What about your family, Leo?”
He heard the unspoken request for privacy, so he backed off. “Oddly enough, you and I have that in common. Luc and I were seventeen and eighteen when we lost our parents. Only it was a boating accident. My father loved his nautical toys, and he was addicted to the adrenaline rush of speed. We were in Italy visiting