and the cool shoes.
The truth was deeper than that and far more serious. She was falling for him, just as she feared she would. She was coming to care for his kindness, his funny sense of humor, the rare vulnerabilities he showed.
For her own self-preservation, she ought to pack up her daughter and her things and drive away from Snow Angel Cove and Lake Haven.
She could find a short-term lease somewhere in Boise and start seriously looking for another job.
That would be the wisest choice.
She had made a commitment, however, and she was a woman of her word. Aidan was counting on her to see to his family’s needs while they were here and at this late date, he wouldn’t be able to find someone else.
Oh, Aidan and his family would survive if she wasn’t here. Between Sue and the cleaning crew that would be coming in daily to help, she didn’t doubt the house party would run magnificently without her.
They would go on to have a wonderful holiday without her. She, on the other hand, would know she had made a commitment and then reneged on it. She knew too well what being on the losing end of broken promises felt like.
Beyond that, Maddie had been through enough tumult these past few weeks. She didn’t need another upheaval. Her daughter was happy here and was looking forward to spending the holidays at Snow Angel Cove. Her heart would be broken if Eliza packed her up again and hauled her to some impersonal hotel.
For her daughter’s sake and for Aidan’s, she would be a professional and do her job. No matter how difficult, she would keep her relationship with him professional, casual, friendly—and do her very best to protect her heart.
If she wasn’t already too late.
AIDAN SAT BY the fire for a long time after Eliza left, trying to sift through the past few moments.
He felt like a different person than he had been earlier in the evening—as if everything he was and everything he wanted had just undergone a radical shift.
After the doctors found his brain tumor, he remembered walking out of the office and into the August sunshine, amazed to see people going about their business, driving down the road, walking into stores, eating in restaurants. How could life just go on around him like normal when his world had just been completely rocked on its axis and nothing would ever be the same?
This evening spent with Eliza and Maddie felt much the same, for reasons he didn’t quite understand.
He had feelings for her. He wasn’t sure how or when they started, but he was coming to care deeply for her courage and her strength, her sweetness and warmth.
He didn’t want to think about her and Maddie leaving. But how could he convince her to stay when she was throwing up barriers between them as fast as she could come up with them?
You’re like a fairy-tale prince and I’m Cinderella without the godmother and the cool shoes.
He smiled a little at the silly analogy, though it bothered him that she saw the two of them through that filter.
He was no Prince Charming. His brain tumor had forced him to take a hard look at his life and he wasn’t sure he liked what he saw. He was driven and focused, which could sometimes come across as cold and uncaring.
He might live in a nice house—a few of them, actually—and have a private jet at his disposal but that wasn’t the heart of him. He would never argue that he liked the luxuries he could afford now. More than that, he liked that his family members were all comfortable financially because he had given them stock in his company early on.
If Pop didn’t want to work another minute at the Center of Hope, he could have a more-than-comfortable retirement. Charlotte had been able to buy her candy store in Hope’s Crossing and a nice house in a very expensive resort town real estate market. Dylan had bought his property in Snowflake Canyon. Jamie could leave the army right now if he wanted and never fly a helicopter again for the rest of his days.
All of Pop’s grandkids could have their pick of any university, thanks to the education trust funds he had set up for each of them.
He liked the trappings of his amazing success but beneath it all, he was a man who had come face-to-face with his own mortality in recent months and had come to realize it wasn’t enough anymore.
He wanted a family.
He wanted someone to share his life with. He wanted someone sweet and warm and generous, who would light up when she saw him like Lucy did when she saw Brendan, like Genevieve for Dylan or Charlotte for Spence.
He remembered talking to Dylan shortly after he and Genevieve started seeing each other. Though he had known he was risking a right hook, he had asked his brother what he possibly saw in Gen, the spoiled society belle who had finally managed to make his wounded warrior brother smile again. They were the most unlikely of couples but somehow they just worked together.
Instead of reacting with his fists—or fist, in these days, as his arm had been amputated—Dylan had shrugged with that slightly besotted look he wore most of the time these days.
“She calms the crazy,” he had said simply, looking a little embarrassed to admit such a thing to his brother.
Aidan hadn’t known what the hell his brother was talking about until right this moment. He was not only drawn to Eliza on a physical level but on a deeply emotional one, as well.
When he spent time with her and Maddie, the usual frenzy of his thoughts—constantly racing from idea to idea and project to project—seemed to quiet to a low murmur, allowing him to simply be. It was a rare luxury, indeed, and one he suddenly craved with a fierceness that shocked him.
He sighed and sipped at what was left of his chocolate. It was cold now, congealed in the cup, and he quickly set it down again.
What was he going to do with her?
She had said one thing that rang with resonance. She worked for him. Yes, it had been a cobbled-together job offered more out of guilt and obligation than any real need, but she had proven herself indispensable.
He had a dilemma, then. He didn’t want her to leave but he didn’t want her to stay on as his housekeeper-slash-hostess, either.
Okay, solving problems was what he did best. He would set his considerable mind to it and figure out a way to convince her a relationship between them was not only possible but inevitable.
She might not have a fairy godmother, but she had him.
* * *
“SUE, YOU NEED to see a doctor.”
Eliza frowned at Aidan’s cook, who stood at the big six-burner stove with her foot on a stool. She was pale and drawn, with lines of pain around her mouth.
“I’m fine. This is stupid. I’m just such a klutz.”
“You told me you tripped. What exactly happened?”
