Page 323 of A Merry Mountain Christmas

This is where I should tell you that I got accepted to Northwestern, early acceptance. I know you’re probably freaking out about the scholarships I probably wouldn’t qualify for. But let’s go back to the adult thing. I’m old enough to solve some of my own problems. I know you probably won’t approve, but I got in touch with my father. He agreed to pay for my tuition, all of it, as long as I sign a nondisclosure agreement the moment I turn eighteen. Easy, since the last thing I want anyone to do is associate my name with his. I know you turned down Prescott’s offer to send you away to school, so you probably won’t be happy about this. You’ll think I’m doing him a favor, but I wasn’t going to claim him anyway. Let him think he won. That’s not to say you should do the same thing. Your situation is different, and your deadbeat dad is making life miserable for your other siblings too. You want to fight him? Fight him. No one is as strong as you.

I love you, Jack. But I don’t need you to be my father anymore. I’d like you to be my brother instead.

—Iris

Sothatwas the good news Iris had received.

Maisie glanced up at Jack. His eyes looked glassy, like he was holding back tears. “Are you okay?”

“She’s right. About everything. It’s hard for me to see her as anything other than a kid. I’ve always thought things would beso much easier when she could take care of herself, but part of me feels a little lost when I think about her going away to school. Like I don’t know who I am anymore without that role.”

Which was the story of her life, really.

“But you came here anyway. You came to Asheville to stake a claim on your future. I know how hard that must have been, especially when you thought you’d have to leave her behind.” She reached out and smoothed his hair. “After my parents died, I felt like the whole world turned against me. Mary was in her second year of law school, and she was going to leave Virginia so she could come home and take care of Molly and me. Maybe I should have let her, but she was engaged to Glenn already, and it would have totally disrupted her life. I was just partway through a liberal arts degree, and I lived on the other side of town. It had to be me. Iwantedit to be me. Mary was always the responsible one, but I wanted to show her she didn’t need to take it all on her shoulders. But getting Molly through high school, helping her with her college applications, it helped me get through the worst time in my life. I put my grief aside so I could get her through hers.”

Suddenly self-conscious—was she talking too much?—she looked into his eyes, but his gaze was locked on her, his attention riveted. “I was only going to take a semester off, but then it became two and three, and then I got the idea for the shelter. By the time Molly left for school, I was fixed on getting the shelter up and running. So I had something else to focus on. I was worried that all the closeness we’d built would leak away, that we wouldn’t need each other anymore. But Jack, that part doesn’t change. Molly might live across the country, but we’ll always have a special relationship because of that time when it was just the two of us against the world. That kind of bond doesn’t go away. It’s for life.”

“You’re right.” He touched her cheek, his hand impossibly warm. “When did you stop putting it off?”

“Puttingwhatoff?”

“Your grieving.”

The words pierced through her, a ray of light that both hurt and brightened. It made her see what had been happening these last months in a way she previously hadn’t. The emotions she’d been experiencing were part of a process that had stalled out years ago.

“I guess part of it is happening now,” she admitted.

Clearing out the house. Letting go. Choosing to be happy.

His fingers trailed down to her chin and cupped it. “I’m glad you can be as strong for yourself as you were for your sisters.”

“So am I,” she whispered. “And I’m proud of Iris for being strong too.”

He looked down at the note, and his mouth ticked up into a small smile. “So am I. So damn proud. She’s smart, and it was her decision to make.”

“And what decision areyougoing to make?” she asked, tilting her head and studying him.

“About Prescott?”

“Yeah, because I’m pretty sure Dottie has some real dirt to dish. And I know exactly where they’re meeting and when.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Jack had never been a fan of sneaking around and secrets, likely because they formed the scaffolding of Genevieve’s life. “I’m not hiding behind some bush to eavesdrop on Prescott Buchanan. That would imply I give a shit about what he has to say, and I don’t.”

“Maybe so,” Maisie argued, “but I could tell Dottie has a reason for wanting you there. She may be a little eccentric, but there’s always some method to her madness.” When he didn’t answer, she added, “I think you have this picture in your head of us ducking beneath bushes like someone’s nosy neighbor. There’s actually a bar behind the greenery. Besides, I owe you a drink.”

“We’re supposed to be on the brewery tour you planned, which technically qualifies as you giving me a drink.”

“Aren’t you the least bit curious why Dottie wants us to come?”

Sheclearly was. It was hard to deny her when she looked at him like that, her emerald eyes sparkling, her mouth twisting with barely contained mischief. And, truth be told, he was a little curious too. Dottie had been with Beau Buchanan for decades. Who knew what kind of dirt she had on Prescott. A small partof Jack, inherited perhaps from Genevieve and Prescott, longed for the power to put Prescott in his place. In the end, though, he didn’t agree because Maisie looked especially sexy when she was up to no good, or because he wanted to ruin his father. He agreed because Prescott was determined to break up Georgie’s engagement. If Jack found some dirt on him, he could hold it over his head to get him to leave Georgie and River alone—and Adalia and Finn for good measure.

They got dressed, and he let Tyrion out to pee before he put the pouting dog in his kennel.

“Hey,” Jack said as he latched the door and then handed the dog a chew stick through the slats, “if I had my way, I’d be home with you all night. But you can’t always get what you want.”

Tyrion took the stick and seemed to forget his unhappiness, but Jack’s disquiet didn’t release its hold so easily. This thing with Maisie was new and exciting, but it still felt fragile. He wanted to let it evolve without bringing his messy family business into it. Then again, his messy family business was part of him. There was no escaping or hiding from it.

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