***
John hauled another basket of wood into his living room and passed it to his brother.
“Tell me your new home is going to have a gas fireplace?” Grant started stacking the wood beside the pile he’d just brought inside.
“You’re getting old.”
“Not so old that I don’t see what’s in front of my face.”
John wasn’t sure that he wanted to hear what his brother had to say. It was six days until Christmas, Bella was beyond excited, Rachel was driving him crazy, and someone was threatening to kill him.
“What are you talking about?”
Grant threw another log on the fire before going back to John’s basket of wood. “Since Jacinta died you’ve hardly put one Christmas decoration in your home. Now look at the place. You can probably see the glow from the moon with the number of lights strung outside.”
John cleared his throat. “We went overboard at Walmart. They had a sale.”
Grant’s eyebrows nearly shot off his face. “A sale?”
“Rachel wanted to go back there. The sale ends tomorrow, so we bought extra decorations for next Christmas.”
“Next Christmas?”
John glared at his brother. “Would you stop repeating everything I say?”
“So there are more decorations packed away in your garage?”
“Not exactly,” John muttered. “We got carried away when we started to hang the extra decorations around the house. Bella wanted to put all of the lights up, so we did.”
“What about the blow-up monsters on your front yard. Were they Bella’s idea, too?”
John knew they’d gone a bit far with the blow-up figures, but as Rachel had told him, Christmas only comes once a year. It was just as well no one could see his home from the street. Otherwise, they’d have cars and trucks parked along the sidewalk at all hours of the night, watching what was going on in his front yard.
“They aren’t monsters.” He took a couple of logs out of the basket. The sooner it was empty, the sooner he could get away from his brother’s close scrutiny. “We’d already bought the Santa and the reindeer. The snowman, seven dwarfs, and Sleeping Beauty were last minute additions.”
“Who wanted Shrek?”
“That would have been me. It’s Bella’s favorite movie.”
Grant shook his head. “Bella, huh? Are you sure it isn’t your favorite?”
He decided not to answer his brother. He was a successful businessman, an ex-Navy SEAL, and a security specialist. He had a reputation that needed to be maintained, and Shrek wouldn’t win him seven-figure contracts.
John zipped his jacket to his chin. “I’ll fill one more basket. That should give us enough wood for the next few days.”
“Not so fast, twinkle toes. I went into Angel Wings Café the other day. Tess was behind the counter talking to someone. They mentioned Rachel and the Christmas play. Your name came up in the conversation, too.”
“Eavesdroppers never hear good things about themselves.”
Grant snorted. “They weren’t talking about me. Tess is worried that Rachel’s getting too involved in your life. She thinks Rachel has taken more than a professional interest in Bella.”
He glared at Grant. “Says, Tess. There’s nothing unprofessional going on here.”
Grant’s gaze sliced through all of the Christmas decorations, the sparkling tree that stood taller than either of them, and the Christmas cakes sitting on the table, waiting to be boxed.
John picked up the empty wood basket. “Rachel normally makes food parcels for families around Bozeman. Bella and I decided to help her this year. We made a few Christmas cakes to go with the non-perishable items.”
Grant counted the fruit cakes. “Thirty isn’t exactly a few.”
“The families will appreciate it.”
“You’re right. If you need a hand to deliver them, I can help.” He picked up two more logs and stacked them on the pile. “I still haven’t met Rachel. What’s she like?”
John knew how his brother’s mind worked. He’d psychoanalyze what he said about Rachel, put two and two together, and come up with twenty. “You’ll meet her on Christmas day.”
“She’s coming here? Isn’t that going above and beyond what you’d expect a teacher to do?”
He’d conveniently forgotten to tell his brother that Rachel had been living with him. Grant only came around once or twice a month. He’d figured that by the time his brother came back, the people sending him death threats would have been caught and life would be back to normal. But in all of his plans, he’d forgotten one thing. Christmas.
“Rachel’s living here.”
Grant dropped a log on his foot and said something short and not so sweet. “You want to repeat that?”
“She’s not living with me…well, she is, but not how you’re thinking. I’ve been away a lot. I’ve got a problem I’m dealing with at work. Rachel offered to look after Bella. It made sense that she stay here instead of going backward and forward between her apartment and my home.”
Grant looked at him as if he’d just come up with the lamest story he’d ever heard. “Are you sure she doesn’t want to be the next Mrs. John Fletcher? You’ve got a few more zeroes behind your name now.”
Someone cleared their throat behind John. Someone that sounded like Rachel.
He turned around. Rachel was standing in the doorway.
“I don’t know who you are, but I’m not a gold digger,” Rachel said frostily to Grant. She looked at John and her expression didn’t change. “We’ve arrived back from Safeway. I’ll be in the kitchen sorting through the groceries if you need me.” She turned quickly away and left the room.
John rushed into the hallway. “Rachel, wait. Grant didn’t mean what he said.” He heard the kitchen door slam and he turned back to his brother. “Look what you’ve done now.”
“She’s pretty. All that blond hair and big blue eyes. A man could get lost in the girl-next-door thing she’s got going on.”
John clenched his jaw. “Keep away from her. Rachel’s off limits.”
“Because you like her?”
He closed the living room doors. “No. Because she’s my employee.”
“Oh, sure. Is that why you closed the doors? So your employee couldn’t hear you?”
“Sometimes I wish you weren’t such an idiot. You’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.”
Grant sent him a wide-eyed look. “Yeah, but Tess does. And I’m telling you now, Rachel likes you. Although from what I just saw, you may not have any relationship to salvage.”
“We’re friends, that’s all.”
“If I had a friend who looked like her, she wouldn’t be my friend for long.”
John picked up the heavy-duty basket he’d been using. “That’s why you’re still single. I’ll be back soon.”
He went outside and headed toward the woodshed. He’d talk to Rachel later, try and explain his brother’s overprotective streak. After what Grant had said about Rachel, he was glad he hadn’t told him about what was happening at work. He’d end up with a neurotic brother following him everywhere.
His cell phone beeped. He looked at the screen before answering the call.
Tanner’s voice echoed through the woodshed. “Rachel’s here, boss. Apart from Tank getting an even bigger complex about being her personal shopper, everything went well.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you later.” John ended the call. If Tanner had called ten minutes earlier, he could have stopped his brother from making an idiot of himself. Rachel wouldn’t have heard his comments about gold-diggers and he wouldn’t have another apology to make.
With thirty food parcels to wrap and a brother who’d decided to stay for dinner, it was going to be an interesting evening.