1
Jacquelyn
Ismiled when I saw the name flashing on my cell phone. “Hello, my darling Gabby.”
“Gigi!” my granddaughter squealed in my ear. “Can we do the Christmas village this weekend? Pleeeeaaasssseee.”
I laughed at her enthusiasm. “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, sweetie.”
“But I’m out of school this whole week. Please, Gigi,” she begged.
I couldn’t refuse her anything, and she knew it. She had me wrapped around her little finger the first time I met her. I’d once been best friends with her mother, but we lost touch many years ago, and then she died six years ago while giving birth to Gabriella. However, fate stepped in last year and my son fell in love with Gabby’s older sister, Keegan. Well, he married her first, then fell in love with her, but that’s their story to share. When Gabby’s father was sentenced to life in prison, Keegan and Jacob adopted Gabriella, giving me a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter in just a few short months.
“Have you asked for permission?”
“Not yet, but I know they’ll say yes,” she said excitedly.
“Okay, let me speak to one of them and we’ll see if it’s okay.”
“Okay, Gigi. Just a second,” she said and failed to move the phone away from her mouth before yelling for her sister. “Here, Sissy. It’s Gigi.”
“Hey, Jacquelyn,” Keegan said.
“Hello, my dear. I was just chatting with Gabby and we were wondering if she could come help me set up my Christmas village this weekend.”
Keegan laughed. “Yes, please. I don’t think she’s talked about anything else since Halloween.”
“Really? I knew she was excited about it, but I didn’t realize it was that much.”
“Oh, Jacquelyn, you have no idea. She’s questioned Jacob on a daily basis about the buildings and houses you have so she could plan the layout. I think she has fifteen, maybe twenty, potential layouts drawn in her notebook.”
“I can’t wait to see what she’s come up with. When would you like her to come? I don’t have any plans until Thanksgiving Day, so I can drive down and pick her up, or we can meet halfway,” I offered.
Keegan snorted. “Are you kidding? You know Jacob is always looking for a reason to fly that helicopter of his.”
I sighed. “Yes, I know. He makes me a nervous wreck with that thing.”
“He should be home around five or six. Do you want us to come tonight?”
“Oh, no. I’d rather him fly during the day. Could you come tomorrow morning?”
“That’ll work. I’ll go tell Gabby the good news.”
With that, I ended the call and went up to my bedroom to change into something I didn’t mind getting dusty and dirty. Dressed in an old pair of jeans, a flannel shirt, and a pair of work boots, I opened the door to the storage space where I kept my Christmas decorations and began shuffling the boxes around to get to the ones containing my Christmas village.
I’d just finished moving the boxes out of storage and was heading back to pull the tables out when my head of security materialized out of nowhere and nearly gave me a heart attack. “Ronan!” I gasped and pressed my hand over my pounding heart.
“Sorry, Jacquelyn, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said and held his hands up in a placating manner.
“I’ll never understand how someone of your size can move around without making any noise.” I let my eyes drink him in for a few seconds before I quickly turned away. Ronan was a very attractive man, and his physique was certainly something to admire, which I found myself doing more often than I should.
He grinned. “And I’ll never understand how someone of your small stature can sound like a herd of elephants running through the house.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m moving boxes. Of course, it’s going to be noisy.”
“I know. Did you forget what’s below this room?”
I felt my cheeks flush. It had slipped my mind that Ronan’s section of the house was directly beneath where I was standing. After my husband died, I had three rooms converted into a built-in apartment for my head of security—at my son’s request. Prior to that, the guards on duty stayed in the three-bedroom, three-bathroom guest house on the property. Personally, I thought having twenty-four-hour security guards on staff was a bit excessive, but it was something Jay had arranged for me when business kept him away more than he was home, and my son made me promise to continue it after Jay’s death. I had to admit, it was nice to know there was another living being somewhere in the house.
