Page 4 of Holiday Hearts

CHAPTER 3

AINSLEY

“Uh, Mom,” I say, twisting my handkerchief in my lap, “actually…I’m not.”

“What?” She seems stunned.

“Jake and I broke up six months ago. We’re not getting married.”

She seizes my left hand and stares at the ring I’m wearing. It’s one that Aunt Nell herself gave me when I turned eighteen; my birthstone is a pink tourmaline. Guess Mom hadn’t noticed the difference. “Not getting married?”

“Can we talk about this later?” I beg. “We’re wasting Mr. Turk’s time.”

“You can take anyone you want on your vacation,” the lawyer points out. “I think your great-aunt expected it to be a honeymoon trip, but there’s nothing that says it has to be.”

“I guess I could take you, Mom,” I muse.

She and Mike look at each other. “Well, you see,” Mom starts, only to have Mike cut in. “Your mother and I have already booked a Caribbean cruise for this summer,” he says apologetically. “Since we couldn’t take a honeymoon ourselves right after we got married.”

“And I really can’t take any more time off from work,” Mom explains.

Their identical worried expressions tell me it’s really not going to work. I’ll have to find another solution.

And then it hits me. Of course. “I’ll take Jordan with me,” I say with relief.

“Jordan. Of course,” Mom says, with her own relief.

“Of course,” Mike echoes, starting to smile.

“Just let my assistant know when you want to go, and we’ll make the arrangements,” Mr. Turk says. The lawyer wraps things up, telling us that he’ll let us know about the final disposition of Aunt Nell’s material wealth within a few months or so.

From his office, we go and get lunch at Mindy’s, which is a fun lunch place where all the sandwiches are named after classic TV characters.

I really don’t want to talk about Jake, but I’ve been putting this off long enough. I’d gotten through Aunt Nell’s funeral by explaining that Jake was out of town at a conference he couldn’t miss, but there’s no way to get around it now.

“So tell me about Jake,” Mom says gently just before I bite into my Ralph’s Big Malph turkey sandwich.

I set it down with a sigh. “It’s over. He just…got tired of not being first in my life, and he wasn’t willing to wait anymore.”

Mom puts down her Meathead’s Meatloaf sandwich, too. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.”

I look into her eyes. “I’m not sad. Not anymore. Honestly, Mom, I just wish I hadn’t wasted time dating him. He was never going to be there for me.”

Mom’s quiet for a moment, then reaches for her husband’s hand. I see Mike’s tiny smile at her. Mike’s there for Mom, and she’s there for him too.

It should be this easy, I think. Love should be easy like this.

Jake seemed patient with the situation at first. I think he thought that I’d get tired of taking care of Aunt Nell, because after a few months he started asking when I would be free on the weekends. I’d explain that I could take an evening off three or four times a month, when we could manage to find a fill-in caretaker, but weekends would be too tough.

No elegant dinners out at The Library or La Maison. No fancy-dress charity balls. No weekend jaunts to local wineries. He’d been disappointed.

I can remember several phone conversations with him when he’d bitch about my limited availability. “You always seem to have enough time to spend with Jordan,” he’d sneer.

“That’s because Jordan comes over here and hangs out with us,” I’d explain over and over.

“Yeah, because playing board games with shut-ins is the highlight of his social agenda,” Jake would snarl, laughing meanly. “Such a nerd!”

“Board games are fun! And Jake, I’m a nerd.” I’d spent my teenage years obsessed with LOTR and Broadway musicals (to this day, I can sing every word of “Defying Gravity”).

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