Page 49 of The CEO's Christmas Wife

When they left, my uncle looked at me and asked, “Why did you lie to us? You didn’t have to lie and say that girl was your wife, knowing that she wasn’t.”

I felt a panic rising within me, and my heart ached at the look of betrayal my uncle showed. I hadn’t meant to hurt him, and I wondered how he knew.

“I didn’t mean to lie to you, Unc?—”

“You disrespected me! I never lied to you about anything, no matter how hard it was to tell you things.”

“But Uncle JR, I only?—”

“I don’t want to hear it! No matter how hard I try to do right by you, you shove it in my face how little you could care.”

He spun away from me and refused to let me say anything. I felt the familiar rage of my youth rising within me again. I was tired of everyone writing me off, and it really hurt that Uncle JR was doing it. He was the one who always stood by my side, only making demands when he felt it was imperative to my survival. But I knew that I deserved this.

“JR,” Kandi called out as my uncle crossed the threshold.

His hands were bunched into fists at his side, and his posture was rigid but upright. He didn’t turn to acknowledge her, but he didn’t continue leaving either.

“You have every right to be upset with Kayn. What he did was wrong, but he only did it because I encouraged him to. It wasn’t his plan to come to Mistletoe. We were on our way to Atlanta when the car broke down, but you know that. We tried finding another place to stay. When we stopped at the diner, the waitress told us to come here.

“Kayn didn’t want to, and he didn’t tell me why at first. When he finally did, I encouraged him to come. But . . .” She swallowed and looked at me. Tears shone brightly in her eyes.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her back to me. “You ain’t gotta do that, baby. It’s all good.”

“No. I told you that I’d always have your back, and that’s what I meant.” She turned away from me and back to him. “Kayn has worked hard to build his business to prove to you all that your hard work for him wasn’t in vain. He did it so that you would see that he wasn’t a lost cause. The only thing he’s ever wanted was to be loved and accepted, especially by you two, since his parents couldn’t love or accept him. When you told him that he would never have love, he believed that. He’s worked hard to prove to you all that he isn’t a failure. Just because he didn’t get it right in his personal life doesn’t make him a failure. That’s why he didn’t return home. I came up with the idea to pretend to be Kayn’s wife so that you all wouldn’t judge him or he wouldn’t feel less than.”

“Honey, we never judged you,” Aunt Frances stated as Uncle JR turned around to face us.

“Is that how you felt, boy?” Uncle JR demanded.

Kayn nodded.

“I’ve never looked at you as being less than. You were equal to all the other kids around here, even if you had a chip the size of Texas on your shoulders. Frances and I loved you just the same. I felt you would never have love, not because you didn’t deserve it but because you were afraid of it,” he continued.

I nodded again. “I didn’t have love, Uncle JR.”

“You’ve got it right there, son,” he stated in a weary voice as he pointed at Kandi.

I knew that he was right. She was everything that I ever needed, but I wasn’t certain how long she could hang around with all the baggage I needed to unpack.

Uncle JR walked up to me, hugged me, and stated, “Don’t you ever lie to me again. You hear me?”

“Yes, sir. Unc, how did you find out?”

“It was my fault,” Chauncey spoke up. “But I didn’t intend for him to find out,” he rushed to say when I frowned.

“Nah, he was asking about our conversation on the sidewalk that day. He heard more than we knew, and he was asking if it was true. He was saying it was hard to believe because it seemed real and saying how y’all must have loved each other anyway, when Daddy walked in,” Byron explained.

“And you know Daddy ain’t no joke. When he hears something, he’s like a dog with a bone and won’t let go until you tell him,” Myra explained.

“It’s all good. I shouldn’t have lied,” I admitted.

“Now, come on and get some Christmas breakfast.”

“I’d rather not. I really need to get her home to her family,” I stated and nodded at Kandi, whose hand I held.

“Well, I’m fixing to-go plates. Come on, Myra and Libby, and help me,” Aunt Frances stated.

Within ten minutes, she had plates wrapped and ready to go for us. Everyone surrounded us, hugged and kissed us, and wished us a Merry Christmas again. I made sure to say goodbye to the twins again and gave them five hundred bucks a piece before we headed back out. Forty minutes after our arrival, we were back on the plane again and headed to Cherokee Springs.

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