Page 51 of The Christmas Eve Delivery

“Well, he’s trying to seduce the Sweet Mountain Inn out from under me,” I practically wailed. “And he tells everybody that the pie at the diner is so good.” I continued crying.

“The pie at the diner is good,” Evie said. “I’m surprised he didn’t try to compare it to some Michelin five-star dessert experience in New York City.”

“He said it reminded him of where he grew up, and it was the only good memory he had of that place.”

How could a man who liked cherry pie that much lie to my face the way he had?

“Are you telling me JM Carlisle is from a small town?”

I nodded. “I got the impression it wasn’t a good experience for him,” I said. “But he always seemed so interested in how I saw Brookdale. You know, he asked me to show him the town from my point of view and to show him all the good places.”

“As opposed to the bad places?” she asked. “It would be nice to have a few more amenities, like a movie theater or some more restaurants. I love Brookdale and I know you do too. So he got to see the town from your eyes. Maybe that will convince him not to build here.”

“Or maybe it convinced him how great Brookdale is and that he should build here. I never would have let him seduce me if I’d known who he really was,” I admitted.

She pulled the hanky out of her cardigan pocket and handed it to me. I dabbed in my eyes and blew my nose and tried to hand it back, but she told me to keep it, and then she stepped in close and wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

“Oh, Evie, what am I supposed to do? I can’t have the enemy’s baby.”

“JM Carlisle is definitely the enemy around here, isn’t he?” She half chuckled.

“But I think I was in love with him,” I admitted. “And I think Miles was in love with me. He went back to the city to get stuff so he could be here more. He was going to move here to be with me and the baby.”

“That doesn’t sound like some land grabbing developer,” she admitted. “Your Miles sounds like a completely different person from the JM Carlisle I met.”

“Are you sure it was him?” I asked. I felt tiny and small and like I wanted to disappear in a puff of misery.

“I’m sure it was him—tall, thick, dark hair. And if I weren’t so mad at him, I’d have to admit, he’s probably attractive.”

“What do you mean? Probably attractive? Miles is ridiculously handsome.” I was instantly defensive on his behalf, which I didn’t understand. He had been lying to me. Why was I defending the man?

“Yes, well, you’re the one in love with him, and I’m the one who wants to string them up by his toenails for even thinking about coming into this town and conning the older generation out of their homes.”

She wasn’t wrong. If Miles really was JM Carlisle, he had been nothing but a lying, manipulative jerk who was trying to seduce my history, my memories, my life away from me. Well, he couldn’t have them. He couldn’t have the inn. He couldn’t have me. He couldn’t have this baby. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to get his claws into Brookdale.

26

MILES

“Where the hell have you been?” Diego asked as he strode into my office.

“Out,” was all I said. He didn’t need to know my personal business.

“No, seriously, where have you been? You told Sarah you were going to be gone for a couple of days, and then you disappeared for almost an entire week.”

“I wanted to confirm a few things about Brookdale.”

“There’s nothing to confirm,” he said. “It’s a small town. They’re organizing to resist any kind of a buyout option we present to them. How was your presence up there for a full week going to change any of that?”

I shrugged. I wasn’t exactly going to tell him anything about Lydia, and if I could change her mind, then I suspected everyone in Brookdale would follow her lead. But that was the story I was trying to tell myself.

I was up there because Lydia was up there. And I stayed up there because she was going to have my baby.

Crap.

I was going to be a father.

“Hey, Diego,” I started. “Your brother went through a whole paternity suit thing, didn’t he?”

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