“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Not at all. Do you mind showing me to the room and bathroom I’ll be using?”
“Shit. Sorry. I’ve got no manners. I’ll be in the primary off the living room. The other rooms are upstairs, but I’ll show you where I am in case you need me at night.”
Her face might be as red as Rudolph’s nose with those words.
Not that he meant anything by them, but maybe he was silently thinking them.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine.” She followed him off the living room, into the primary, and looked around. “Holy cow. You can lie in bed and just look out the doors at the view.”
“It’s pretty sweet. Not that it looks all that great out there.”
The rain was coming down and freezing on the deck already. They’d gotten here just in time.
“Dark and moody,” he said.
“I’ve felt like that a lot in my life,” she said, laughing. “I can safely say I’m not there anymore.”
He didn’t know what she meant by that, but since she turned and walked out, he decided it was best to let it go.
Hell, he knew little about her other than her name, what she did for a living, and where she grew up. Oh, he knew her medical status.
Guess it was more than she knew about him. She knew his name, his relatives, and his residence. Nothing more. She hadn’t even asked.
Women always asked him all those things.
He scratched his chin over the confusion and followed her to the living room.
She was already climbing the stairs and had her other bag over her shoulder.
“There are three rooms up here. Two share one bathroom between them, the other has its own. You can take what you want. There is also a room in the basement with a bath too. Just a shower.”
“As nice as that basement was, I’ll stay up here just the same.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I get it.”
“This place is massive.” She moved to the room with its own private suite. The one his mother often stayed in. The other rooms had more than one bed in them for even more guests. “I remember when West got married. That’s really the only reason I recognized him, because I was in New Jersey at the time and it was big news. Otherwise I might not have known him by sight. Anyway, he doesn’t have kids, right?”
“They had my nephew in September. My mother gave me shit about missing his first Christmas. Not like I have much of a choice in the matter.”
“No,” she said. “Have you met him yet?”
“I have. Samuel. Named after my father. I was there right after the birth. Then I saw him again when my sister Talia got married the day after Thanksgiving.”
His mother was annoyed he was missing Christmas, but she’d seen him more this year than she had any other year.
Laken was married in March in New York, so he was with family then. Samuel’s birth. Then he was ordered to arrive in North Carolina in October when Talia found out she was pregnant by an older man. If he’d known that his sister was being the stubborn one and not Jace, then he wouldn’t have flown there.
Add in Thanksgiving with the full family and Talia’s wedding the following day.
Yeah, he wasn’t feeling much guilt over missing Christmas.
Though it was the first one he wasn’t home for.
He’d survive.
He got too much family overload this year as it was and next year was going to be just as crazy.
“There are a lot of people in the wedding picture. Your family looks big.”
