“How do you know so much about community dynamics?”
“I don’t. I just know from working in management and trying to motivate a team how important it is for everyone to feel like they have some skin in the game, you know?”
“You’re right, which is why stock shares are an important part of the benefits package for all my employees.”
“Whatever you decide, you definitely want to do whatever you can to get McKenzie Shaw on your side. She is not only the new mayor of Haven Point but I get the impression she’s also a natural leader. It wasn’t hard to see that she’s the driving force behind the service group and though she’s young, she’s a firecracker. And watch out for a woman named Linda Fremont, the one I mentioned before. She is one of your tenants. She seems a little sour and not afraid to share her opinions. Her daughter Samantha seems pretty reasonable-minded, though.”
“I will keep that in mind. Thank you for the suggestions. Very valuable insight.”
Out of nowhere, Eliza blushed. “Sorry. It’s a habit. I try to read people so I can determine how best to meet their needs as my guests. Sometimes I go overboard.”
He was willing to bet she had picked up that habit while she was a young girl trying to make new friends in move after move to a new town.
“Don’t apologize. It’s a skill I envy. I’m much better at analyzing data and working with code than I am with personal relationships. They give me a headache, if you want the truth.”
“Or maybe that’s from the brain surgery you had three months ago.”
He laughed, surprised and delighted somehow that she could joke about it. Most people in his world who actually knew about the surgery treated it as some dark, mysterious, rather embarrassing off-limits subject, as if he had a huge hairy wart on the tip of his nose. “Good point.”
She cast him a sidelong look as she pulled up to the security gate and pressed the remote in the car so the gates swung open. “Did you try to see anybody about your headaches while you were in California?” she asked.
Her concern felt like a soft blanket tucked around his shoulders, warm and comforting. “Yeah. The neurosurgeon gave me another med to try.”
“Good. I hope you’re able to enjoy the holidays with your family without too much pain.”
“I should be fine.”
She pulled her SUV in front of the house, shifted out of gear then turned to face him, her eyes serious. She was so lovely, prettier than a Christmas ornament, with those bright green eyes, and the little smattering of freckles over the bridge of her nose, he wanted to just gaze at her all day, his headache be damned.
He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that kiss. No other woman had ever jumbled him up inside like this. The whole flight back from California, he couldn’t seem to shove down the anticipation bubbling through him, the feeling that he was, at long last, coming home to her.
“You know you’re going to have a tough time keeping this from your family, right?”
“That’s your opinion,” he said, his voice more terse than he intended as he reminded himself he wasn’t coming home to her or to Maddie. Eliza was his employee and Maddie was his employee’s daughter. That was all.
She didn’t seem to be deterred by his cold tone. “Think about it. Unless your family members are stupid or just completely oblivious, they’re going to suspect something is wrong.”
“Why would they?”
She gave him an exasperated look. “You had brain surgery, for heaven’s sake! You have headaches that just about knock you to the ground. You’ve got a four-inch scar on your head that all the hair product in the world can’t completely hide, once somebody knows where to look. With a house full of people, someone is bound to notice something.”
He frowned. “I know what I’m doing when it comes to my family.”
“I don’t get the big secrecy, especially keeping something this big from your family—the people you’re supposed to turn to when times are hard.”
“It’s not your job to understand anything.” The headache sharpened his voice. “For the next week, your only job is to keep my family happy. That includes not divulging my confidential medical issues.”
She recoiled a little as if he had smacked her and pressed her mouth together. “I overstepped. I’m sorry. You’re right, your family dynamics are your own business.”
“Eliza—”
She shook her head. “I’m going to pull into the garage but this is probably the most convenient place for you to get out.”
She put a little more emphasis on the last two words than strictly warranted, not quite making them an order but close enough.
He gazed at her for a long moment. He wanted to tell her he was sorry for his abruptness but he wouldn’t apologize for the motive behind it. He didn’t want his family to know about his surgery. He had told her so. It would cause unnecessary drama and would make him the object of concern to his father, unwanted compassion to his sisters-in-law and deplorable pity to his brothers.
“Fine. Thank you for the ride.”
“Just doing my job,” she answered with a polite smile, in a perfectly pleasant voice he hated.
Aidan climbed out of the vehicle and headed into his house. Yeah. Give him an uncomplicated computer any day over people and their messy, tangled feelings.
* * *
THROUGH THAT EVENING and the next day, Aidan could tell she was avoiding him. She had plenty of excuses. The house. Her responsibilities. Her daughter.
An awkward tension seemed to crackle through the house like static electricity and he didn’t know how to ease it. She was polite enough but not the warm, sweet woman whose company he had craved while he was in California.
He and Jim spent Saturday morning at a ranch twenty miles to the west with the horse trailer and the flatbed pickup, arranging for the loan of a large ten-person sleigh and a couple of sturdy draft horses so he could take his family around on Christmas Eve.
After unloading the horses and the sleigh, he headed inside to take off his hat and his coat in the mudroom. His stomach growled at the delicious scents coming from the kitchen—fresh bread mingling with some kind of hearty smelling dish. Vegetable beef soup, if he had to guess.
“Sue, my dear, I don’t pay you nearly enough,” he called out.
He heard her whiskey-rich voice laughing. “Da— er, darn right you don’t,” she answered.
Maddie must be in the kitchen with her, he thought when he heard Sue temper her typical salty language. He was smiling as he walked into the kitchen, until he found Eliza and Maddie at the table with bowls in front of them.
Maddie beamed at him. “Hi, Mr. Aidan.”
“Hey, kiddo,” he said with a smile.
Her mother’s smile lacked both warmth and sincerity. What would she use as an excuse to escape his presence this time?
“We’re almost finished,” she said with some predictability. “We’ll be out of your way in just a moment.”
At her stiff tone, he mentally uttered the curse word Sue had swallowed back, and a few juicier imprecations along with it. He didn’t like this stilted, cool Eliza. He wanted the one who freely offered advice, who was sweet and appealing, who kissed with her whole heart.
“Don’t hurry off,” he said. “I would enjoy the company.”
Her mouth tightened and he realized that as her