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Holly Hill Inn - late afternoon.
“I need to meet this kid,” Nathan told Coop in his friend’s room. “She’s only eleven or twelve, too young to stay at home. She’s most likely with Rainbow.” He grimaced and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He seriously didn’t want to deal with this. His mind and heart skipped to Kayley on an endless loop. “She believes the worst of me,” he muttered.
“The kid? Rainbow? Oh, let me guess, you’re back to Kayley.”
“Of course I’m back to Kayley. She’s the only one I’m worried about. I don’t want to lose her.”
“So you’ve said.” Coop laid him out with a steady pain-filled gaze. “Losing them is the worst.”
How could he be such a jerk? “Sorry, I shouldn’t whine.” Coop’s fiancé had died, and it was insensitive to remind him of his loss. “I’m an ass. I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
They’d knocked around various scenarios for Rainbow’s reason behind her demand for more money. She had to see there was no way he’d cave to the pressure. He wasn’t an ATM and while he’d inherited enough money to last a lifetime, his pockets were his and not open to a total stranger.
This was greed, nothing more. Rainbow wanted to rattle him to see if he’d cave to her extortion. “Seeing me with Kayley this morning must’ve made Rainbow think she’d been handed a golden ticket. This is a shakedown.”
Coop didn’t look as convinced as he should have.
They’d spread the documents and information from the file the private investigator had compiled across the second bed in the room. Nathan picked up the marriage license for the twentieth time and studied his signature again. But it looked the same as the other times he’d looked. Glaring harder wouldn’t change it.
“I signed this. I see myself doing it. But I’m sure someone else kept my hand steady. I just can’t remember if it was a woman’s hand or a man’s.” He squeezed his eyes shut, but again, he only saw disconnected flashes in his mind.
“If she contests the divorce, we’ll tear her a new one, don’t worry. You had grounds after a year of not living together.”
He could’ve been clear of Rainbow years ago, but he hadn’t bothered to deal with it. “To be honest, I wanted to forget it ever happened. Live as if it never happened. I never thought about her or about the marriage. It never impacted me before.” None of his other women had made him consider marriage. He’d wasted months of his life with women that never stole his heart. To be fair, he was almost certain that he hadn’t held theirs, either.
“I wish you’d told me the morning after. We could’ve gone to the police. The earlier the report, the better. You could’ve been tested for drugs.”
Shame made his face heat. “I was embarrassed, felt like a fool. I wanted to bury the whole night. Plus, they’d have found other drugs in my system, too.” There’d been a few first-and-last time events that night. All the more reason to live straight now.
Coop nodded in sympathy. “Yeah, I hear you. There’s no end to temptation when young men are in Las Vegas to party. Don’t be too hard on yourself. We were kids and you never got serious with another woman. Natural for you to ignore paperwork that meant nothing to you. There are lots of couples who never deal with divorce papers. Thirty years can go by and then, suddenly, their indecision causes problems with estates.”
“Still, what does it say about me that I didn’t give Rainbow a passing thought until there was money at stake?” His inheritance had been the only reason Nathan had started this search for his Las Vegas mistake.
“After drugging you and getting you to sign a marriage license while under the influence? She’s lucky we don’t go to the police to see how many other men she’s conned.” Coop frowned. “We should threaten her with exposure.”
Nathan was already tired of the ancient memories. He was more concerned with today and the coming weeks. And with Kayley. “I’m furious with the way she deliberately messed with Kayley. But I don’t want to destroy Rainbow because, however rough she’s living, she’s responsible for Feather.” He couldn’t forget that. There was more at stake than money or revenge.
Rainbow Dillinger could be a nasty witch if he let her.
He wasn’t about to let her, for her daughter’s sake. No kid needed to see her mother dragged through the mud, or the legal system.
“We need to know what she’s up to in Dickens. Let’s head to the Common to see if she shows up.”
Coop did a quick search on his phone. “I’ve found the cheapest B&B in the downtown area. We’ll start there.”
Forty-five minutes later, he and Coop sat in his SUV, watching Rainbow and her daughter stroll the square. It had been simple to watch the front door of the B&B until they made an appearance. Feather seemed overly excited by each item in every shop window, clapping her hands in delight with each step.
“Is it just me or does she seem too big to be reacting this way?” Nathan mused aloud.
Coop tilted his head, observing the pair. “She’s a pre-teen girl.” He frowned. “Other kids that age are too cool to love this much Christmas. Dickens is drowning in holiday cheer and my nieces wouldn’t be caught dead ogling elves at work in shop windows. The eyerolling and sighing in disgust would ruin the evening for any adult foolish enough to walk with them.”
Nathan snorted. “Never had a sister and Jamie’s girls are still young and lots of fun.” He watched the child for a few more minutes. “Do you think—maybe—she’s twelve in years but not in development?” Something was different about the child.
Coop turned and looked at him, light dawning behind his eyes and Nathan returned to observing the child. “She was an infant that night I met her mom,” Nathan reminded him. “Maybe Rainbow didn’t know there was anything different about her baby at that point. She was inexperienced, a new mom.” Alone with a baby.
“There’s one quick way to find out what’s going on with the girl.”
They exited Nathan’s SUV and set off around the square so they could walk behind Rainbow and her daughter. As they drew near, Nathan heard excited, loud comments from Feather. The girl spoke in exclamations, like a much younger child.
He wasn’t the only one to notice. A boy around four stared at Feather, a curious look on his face. The mother gave her boy a gentle warning to shush him, apparently aware that he could burst out with comments any second. The woman gave Rainbow an apologetic smile.
Rainbow turned her back to the woman and focused on Feather. She encouraged her high-pitched giggles by clapping her hands in time with her child.
He glanced at Coop, but there was no need. He watched everything and nodded back at Nathan. They hung back a few feet while observing Rainbow and her daughter.
They moved on to the next shop window and the girl tapped the glass. She exclaimed at the prettily decorated trees. “Ooh! There’s pink! A pink one, Mommy.”
“What’s this color, baby girl?”
“Gold! That’s a golden tree,” the child replied in awestruck wonder. “Pretty.”
“Yes, it is pretty.”
“I want a pretty tree!” The declaration was clear and wrapped in demand.
“We’ll have one this year, I promise,” Rainbow replied indulgently.
* * *
STILL REELING FROM what he overheard between Rainbow and her daughter, Nathan dragged his feet as he walked up to the house. Coop had decided to return to the inn and get some work done, but not before they’d burnt off some energy in an old-fashioned snowball fight. They hadn’t done that since they were kids together and when Coop lied and declared himself the winner, Nathan let him. It was the least he could do to make up for whining about losing his girl.
As he pulled out his door key, he heard Kayley’s door creak open. Her head popped out of the narrow opening. “What happened to you?”
He looked down at his slush-covered jeans and beat some of the wet stuff off, but it was useless. He was chilled through by the melt. He hadn’t even bothered to turn on the truck’s heater and the snow had clumped together on his legs. His mind hadn’t been on his physical discomfort, but on Kayley’s hurt feelings. And here she was, with a concerned, quizzical look on her face, asking about him.
Nathan shrugged. “Turns out Coop has other clients that need his attention,” he quipped. “When I expressed my disbelief that he had other work to do, he punched me in the shoulder.” He rubbed it for effect.
She crossed her arms and leaned on the doorframe. “Do tell.” A severe expression crossed her face, but Kayley couldn’t hold it for long.
“Naturally, I couldn’t let that go, so I shoved him.” Right on lawyerly butt. He smiled as he recalled Coop windmilling his arms before he landed in a snow pile left by a plow.
“Naturally,” she drawled. “Since violence begets violence, I can only imagine that he shoved you back.”
“Of course he did. But I won the snowball fight that erupted when I dropped him off at the Holly Hill Inn.”
She waved her index finger up and down to indicate his entire body. “This is a win? You’re soaked through.” She inspected his face with her gaze. “No black eyes, though, so that’s good.”
“I was pondering getting some hot chocolate from Margot and Iris to warm up.” He raised his brows and widened his eyes, but it wasn’t until he tilted his chin down that she opened the door wide enough for him to enter.
“My fireplace is on, and the front room is cozy.”
He feigned reluctance. “But can you make hot chocolate?”
“Only with those tiny marshmallows. I prefer candy canes, myself.”
“I love tiny marshmallows.”
“I know.”
And just like that, he was in.
“Don’t think for a second that you’re back in my good graces,” she said as she watched him pull off his boots and leave them in the tray by the front door. He yanked off his jacket and other gear. “Pass me that. I’ll hang your wet things in the front room to dry while we talk.”
“Thanks.” He may not be back to where he’d been this morning before Rainbow showed up, but Kayley seemed willing to hear him out. Under the circumstances, he was grateful. Fall-on-his-knees grateful. “Thanks are inadequate. I don’t deserve to darken your door.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” She took his jacket, scarf, and cap and hung them on hooks he hadn’t installed. He wondered who’d seen to her request or if she’d put them upon her own. “We have a lot to talk about.” She sounded like a determined woman.
At last, they could clear the air.
“I don’t know who I have to thank for this chance to talk, but I’m grateful.”
She hmphed and marched off for the kitchen.
He decided against asking her to wait while he went home to change out of his wet jeans. She may not let him back in. Better to stand in front of the fireplace, warming his hands while she went for the drinks. As much as he wanted to follow Kayley, pushing her, or rushing into hearing an explanation would be a mistake.
He decided to let her lead the conversation and hope for the best. And he’d stay until he’d told her whatever she wanted to know and more.
* * *
RELIEVED NATHAN HADN’T followed her, Kayley appreciated having a few minutes alone. She shouldn’t have invited Nathan into her apartment without due consideration. But the man looked half-frozen and in need of serious TLC. Her sympathetic heart had kicked into high gear the moment she’d seen his forlorn state. At least he’d had enough sense to stay in the front parlor to warm up by the fire. Was he being sensitive or just afraid of what she’d say to him? He probably needed time to gather his thoughts, too.
After Brenna and Jett left earlier, she’d prepared to watch a happy holiday romance movie. She’d made a bowl of popcorn and was setting it down on her coffee table when she’d heard the thud of Nathan’s feet as he’d stamped them by his front door. Going to her door and opening it had led her here, to the kitchen, with him waiting to talk in the front room.
She scooped hot chocolate powder out of the container and into a saucepan of cold milk. She liked to warm and stir the milk the old-fashioned way rather than using the microwave. The repetitive motion calmed her and made the hot chocolate experience an event rather than a rushed preparation.
Also, she’d decided impulsively to talk to Nathan without her brother-in-law standing by. But Jett wouldn’t be surprised. They’d discussed Nathan and this Rainbow woman thoroughly. Despite her poor judgement with other men, her decision to talk to Nathan alone was a good one.
After all, Rainbow Dillinger had tormented her Las Vegas husband as well as Kayley and she deserved to know why. And Nathan deserved a chance to explain his side.
The marshmallows in the powder plumped up as they absorbed milk, and the chocolate scent filled the kitchen. Pouring Nathan’s mugful gave her a sense of rightness. This was the kind thing to do. Giving him a chance to explain was an act of trust and she was happy to offer it. She scooped all the remaining marshmallows out of the saucepan and added them to Nathan’s mug. After setting a candy cane into her mug she poured the rest of the hot chocolate for herself.
For her own peace of mind, she’d take what Nathan said with a grain of salt. After all, he’d want to make himself look blameless, but he married a woman and then years later had paid her off. That alone gave her pause, despite forming an impression of the woman this morning that wasn’t complimentary.
With her lively Christmas-red mugs in her hands, Kayley walked back along the hall toward the most important conversation of her life.
Her steps felt certain, and her heart settled. No matter how this conversation played out, she’d survive. Kayley James was no one’s fool.
Not anymore.