Page 193 of A Merry Mountain Christmas

She’d take one look at his aura and say it’s black. She wouldn’t even need to look at his tea leaves.

I’m overstepping. No, this is way beyond overstepping, but I do it anyway. I send Lester Montague’s name and basic info to Dennis and ask him what he can dig up. I’ll cover the expense, ofcourse, not the firm. Dennis is quick to agree. He’d already told me that he’s saving up to get his son an Xbox, so I know the extra hours are welcome.

Then there’s a knock on the door, and my heart leaps into my throat, as if I’m about to get caught doing something wrong. I open it to Aidan, who gives me a sullen look.

“Is Jace here?” he asks. For a second, I’m confused. Does he want him to be here? It’s hard to tell. I think about what Molly and Maisie said—how, if it worked out between me and Jace, great, and if it didn’t, he and Aidan could still spend time together. But I’m not sureIcould take it.

I shake my head, wanting to pull my son into a hug, but I can tell he won’t tolerate it now. Sometimes he loves being hugged, and sometimes to touch him is to invite a meltdown—or a rejection as casual for him as it is heartbreaking for me.

He wanders off and proceeds to search the house, as if I might have hidden Jace in a cupboard somewhere, and Tom and Ruth step into the doorway. Ruth gives me a sympathetic smile. “We had a good time last night, but I think it might have been a little overstimulating. He’s wanted a lot of quiet time today.”

It’s her way of telling me not to take it personally.

“Come on in,” I say, waving them inside. “I know it’s a long ride. You really don’t need to drive both ways. We can split it up maybe, on these weekends. You can get him, and I can pick him up from your place.”

“No,” Ruth says immediately. “No, we know how hard you work. We’re both retired, and it’s the least we can do.”

She doesn’t need to say why. We both know.

“Now, I’ll apologize in advance,” Tom says, shuffling a little on his feet, his face puckered. “But I’m desperate to use your bathroom.”

I wave him toward it, and he practically runs inside and shuts the bathroom door behind him.

“You know Tom,” Ruth says with a wince. “Milk doesn’t agree with him, but last night, he practically drank a jug of hot chocolate. Besides, this gives us time to talk.”

Oh, crap.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out she wants to know about Jace. Still, she’s good to Aidan—good to me too—and I can hardly blow her off after she drove all this way. Especially since I’ve been around them often enough to know there’s a very good chance Tom will be in our bathroom for half an hour.

“Of course,” I say, surreptitiously glancing around, as if there’s a chance there’s been a condom wrapper on the floor this whole time and I somehow missed it. “Let’s sit down.”

Her gaze catches on the bare Christmas tree.

“We’re decorating it this week,” I hear myself saying. “Aidan’s buddy, Jace, is going to come over. I’m sure he must have mentioned him to you. The school put us in touch with a volunteer organization, Butterfly Buddies, which pairs kids with older mentors. I was over at his apartment on Saturday organizing the whole thing.”

Might as well get ahead of the whole Jace discussion.

An arrangement like that could easily be made over the phone, of course, but Ruth is too polite to say so.

Aidan bursts into the room, a smile blooming on his face. “What day is he coming over, Mom? Do you think he’ll want to do that model with me too?”

“Maybe the model can be for a different day, sweetie,” I say, both because it feels unfair to bombard Jace with requests and I haven’t bought one yet. I’ve been a little distracted. “It’ll take us a long time to decorate the tree.”

“Can we make Jace ankylosaurus cookies?”

“Maybe I can make them while you guys work on the tree.” I don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen while they decorate—everybit of me wants to be with them—but maybe it’ll give me an excuse if it’s too hard to keep my hands to myself.

Ruth gives me a long, weighing look that tells me she’s not convinced by my story.

“I’m glad you’re both making friends,” she says, and leaves it at that.

“Me too, Nana,” Aidan says. “Jace is the best man I know.”

Glenn is the one who’s putting that look of pain on her face, so why do I still feel responsible?

Quit apologizing,Nicole seems to whisper in my ear.

So I listen. We spend the rest of Tom’s very long trip to the bathroom discussing dinosaurs, Christmas, my new arrangement with the dance studio—Ruth reacts with surprise, as it turns out she didn’t even know that I used to dance, because neither Glenn nor I ever told her—and basically everything except the very big, very handsome elephant in the room.

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