warmth in those tired blue eyes.
“El. I need to—” he started to say but the doorbell rang before he could finish the thought.
“Probably a last-minute delivery,” she said, grateful for the distraction. “Those poor drivers, having to be out on Christmas Eve. I’ll grab one of the gift bags of cookies for him.”
She picked one up off the console table in the hallway where she kept extras and pulled open the door.
It wasn’t a delivery driver. It was a man in a uniform, looking handsome and friendly and delighted to be there.
“Jamie!” Aidan exclaimed. The happiness on his face as he spotted his brother just about took her breath away.
The other man just had time to give Eliza a flirtatious grin before Aidan grabbed him hard in a bear hug.
“You always have to make an entrance, don’t you? Last I heard, you couldn’t get leave.”
The guy extricated himself and picked up his suitcase to come inside. “It was a last-minute thing. I didn’t know until late last night, so I’ve spent all day catching stand-by flights.”
“You should have called! I could have sent transportation for you.”
Jamie—just younger than Aidan, she remembered—gave a cheeky grin. “Then it wouldn’t have been a surprise, right?”
She could tell right away this one was a troublemaking charmer. Good thing her heart was no longer available.
“Your father is going to be over the moon,” Eliza predicted with a smile.
Jamie turned to her and aimed all that mojo her direction. “Hello, there. I don’t think we’ve met. I’m James. Younger brother to Geek Boy, here.”
“I’m Eliza Hayward,” she said with a polite smile. “Aidan’s housekeeper. For the sake of the family, I’m glad you’re here. But you have no idea how hard it’s going to be to find a bed for you.”
Jamie raised an eyebrow. “Do you know, I believe that’s the first time any woman has ever said that to me before.”
He was obviously a player, an uncomplicated flirt—at least on the surface. Because she caught just a glimpse of deeper layers beneath the lightheartedness—and because Aidan was so obviously thrilled to have his entire family intact and at his home—she decided to like the man.
“I’m not picky,” he said. “I can sleep on an unused sofa or a couple of blankets on the floor. Even a pile of hay would work. Wouldn’t be the first time somebody in a pinch had to make do with that on Christmas Eve.”
“I think we can probably manage to keep you out of the stable,” she said dryly.
He grinned and draped an arm over his brother’s shoulder. They went in search of the rest of the family while Eliza hurried off to add another place setting and make arrangements for one more guest.
* * *
“THIS IS GREAT, AIDAN. Really great.”
The rare sentiment coming from Dylan as they looked at the packed table touched him. He loved seeing his youngest brother smile again after so many months when they weren’t sure he would survive his injuries sustained in an ambush in Afghanistan.
His stomach growled. “Everything looks delicious, doesn’t it?”
“Hope there’s enough to go around now that Jamie rolled in. I would hate to have to fight you for the last piece of ham.”
“You know you would lose, brother. I have no mercy and I fight dirty.”
Dylan grinned. “You always did, which is one of the things we love about you.”
The rest of his family had started to gather in small groups and take seats at the big dining table. Everyone looked so happy that his heart seemed to expand in his chest—just like the Grinch in the book he had read to the little ones the other day.
Down at the other end of the table, he saw Eliza sit down with Maddie sandwiched between her and Charlotte.
With all the in-laws and grandchildren, his family didn’t fit all together anywhere else, even in Pop’s big house in Hope’s Crossing. Usually the children complained about having to be separated into another room. He had purposely had a huge table made from planed hickory logs so that he could have everyone together—though it was still tight, he had to admit. He might have to commission a second table to go next to it, at the rate the Caines were growing.
When everyone sat down, he turned to his father, whom he had seated at the head of the table out of respect. “Pop, do you want to say a few words before we eat?”
Silly question, he knew. Dermot was Irish. He always had something to say.
His father stood and smiled at his progeny. “Only this. What a year we have had.”
He smiled at Katherine, elegant and graceful. She blushed and smiled back and Aidan couldn’t help thinking how perfect they were. Their courtship had taken more than a decade but perhaps that only made it all the sweeter.
“Three weddings and another in the New Year. Our table is more crowded every year, just as it should be.”
“Get your elbow out of my plate,” Jamie teased to Charlotte, who made a face.
Dermot smiled at his squabbling children, then grew serious again. “Every family goes through struggle. Alas, nobody escapes pain in this world, like it or not. We are no different. We have suffered loss and sorrow, sometimes so great we didn’t know how to get through it. But we are the stronger for our pain. It is our trials that bind us together. They remind us we must walk through the dark times so we can fully appreciate the light. The joy and love and miracles around us. I hope we never lose sight of how much we need each other, in good times and bad. Slàinte.”
Everyone toasted each other. As he looked around the family at his brothers, at Charlotte, at their spouses and children and stepchildren, Aidan suddenly knew what he had to do. I hope we never lose sight of how much we need each other, in good times and bad. He had lost sight of that. Eliza was right. He had been selfishly confident he could handle anything life threw at him.
He had been so wrong.
He stood up quickly. “Before we eat, I...need to say something, as well.”
Carter, the kid who was always hungry, made an impatient little sound but was quickly shushed by Lucy.
Everyone looked at him with expectant faces. His gaze traveled the table and finally stopped on Eliza, watching him with a curious expression on her lovely, calm features.
“Thank you all for coming. I know it’s a little different having the holidays somewhere besides Hope’s Crossing.”
“Different but wonderful,” Charlotte assured him.
“Right. Well, I just wanted to say how happy I am that you all took time out of your busy lives to come here at my request. Also...I owe you an apology. In retrospect, this might not be the appropriate
