deep voice sounded behind her. “If you can’t join us, I’ll get him home early.”
Crystal remembered that was the deal. “All right.” She kissed both boys and waved them off before getting in her car without looking at Raoul.
After she drove home, she put the presents in the storeroom and hurried upstairs. Arlette had dinner waiting. They talked about Jules and Philippe, especially about the hard year he’d had. Right in the middle of their conversation, Philippe came running in the kitchen ahead of Raoul.
She prayed they hadn’t heard anything. Her son hurried over to her. “Are you crying?”
“Yes.” She smiled and gave him a hug. “We were talking about what a terrific boy you are. That always makes me cry.”
“Your mother’s right.” Arlette reached for him and gave him a kiss. “You’ve been gone all day and I’ve missed you. Did you have a good time?”
“Yes. We went skating. Uncle Raoul says I’m awesome.”
Crystal rubbed his dark blond head. “That doesn’t surprise me. Have you thanked him?”
“Yes.” He turned to Raoul. “Didn’t I?”
“Several times.” She felt his gaze on her. “Maybe next time you’ll come with us.”
“I’d love it.”
Since coming back to Chamonix, she’d made a resolution to be more active with her son instead of taking a backseat. If it meant being with Raoul in the process while they were here, then she’d do it. She didn’t want Philippe thinking she was purposely avoiding his uncle.
Christmas would be here soon. Hopefully her father-in-law would be well enough by then that she could take Philippe back to Breckenridge and start a new year free of pain. With the understanding that they would come again in the spring, she was counting on her son not having a complete meltdown.
She turned to Raoul. “Thanks again for being the greatest uncle on earth, as Philippe always says. Now it’s time for a young man I know to get ready for bed. I’ll go upstairs and start your bath. Say good-night to everyone.”
After leaving Crystal, Raoul drove on home. He pulled off his boots and opened the fridge for a beer, but he was out. Not wanting anything else, he shut the door and wandered into the living room without turning on the lights.
At night he often left them off to enjoy the natural snowscape outside his window. Though he’d lived here all his life, the scenery always blew his mind. It reminded him of those deeply crevassed glaciers of the Himalayas, only these glaciers angled toward the Chamonix valley from Mont Blanc.
Tonight the vista reminded him of his earlier conversation with Philippe. When he’d brought his nephew home for dinner, Philippe had pointed to it. “I think that mountain looks like a king with a huge crown of ice on his head. Don’t you?”
Raoul had squeezed his shoulder. “That’s exactly how it looks.” He glanced down at the boy who noticed everything and had a reverence for nature. Somehow without him realizing it, Philippe had climbed into his heart a long time ago and had taken up residence.
“How come you don’t have a tree yet?”
“I was waiting for you to come. Day after tomorrow I’ll be free and we’ll go find one. You can make some decorations for it. How does that sound?” He hadn’t had the Christmas spirit for years.
The boy rested his blond head against Raoul. With a sigh he said, “I wish Mommy and I could live with you all the time and never have to go away.”
In that instant, those words had wrapped Raoul in their sweet tentacles and wouldn’t let him go.
“I’d like the same thing,” he whispered in a moment of truth. Deep down he’d wanted it for a long time, but had fought it with everything in him.
Philippe lifted hopeful blue eyes to him. “Please, will you ask Mommy? She’ll listen to you.”
Raoul’s body gave up a shudder. He couldn’t believe he’d just said those words aloud in front of Philippe. It was like lighting a fuse. “I wish it were that simple, mon gamin, but I’m not your daddy.” As Crystal had said, But Eric isn’t here. Had she said it thinking of Philippe’s feelings, or had she expressed them for her own sake? That was the question he needed to have answered.
“I don’t care,” Philippe answered right back.
“Talitha’s mommy lives with her boyfriend and he’s not her daddy.”
“The girl on oxygen?”
“Yup.”
He looked down at Philippe. “Did her daddy die?”
“She doesn’t have a daddy.”
Out of the mouths of babes. “I thought you didn’t make any friends at your school.”
“Talitha’s not my friend. I heard some kids talk about her.”
Raoul’s heart thundered in his chest. He was in such deep water already, he didn’t dare let this subject continue. “Come on. Let’s put your parka on so we can go ice skating. We’ll have to hurry since you’ve got school in the morning.”
All along he’d planned to drive Philippe to school every day. It would give him an excuse to be with Crystal, who never lighted long enough for them to have an in-depth conversation. Unfortunately her move to get a rental car had thrown him, but it didn’t change his intention of being there for his nephew. If she didn’t like it, that was too bad. Philippe wanted and expected to be with him now that he was here.
Like a wound that had been torn open again, his conversation with Philippe had brought all his agony to the surface, leaving him bleeding all over the place. He needed to do something about his turmoil or he honestly didn’t know how he was going to make it through the night, let alone the rest of his life.
AFTER DROPPING Philippe off at school the next morning, Crystal drove to Broussard’s and parked around the side entrance reserved for the staff. The famous mountaineering shop looked like a giant chalet and catered to everything for the mountain climber, but it also carried ski clothes and equipment. Raoul’s office was on the third level at the other end. As she walked through the lower level to the ski shop, she doubted he was even at work yet.
“Eh bien—I can’t believe my eyes.”
She smiled. “Bonjour, Jean-Luc.”
The ski veteran who’d run the shop for years came around the counter and gave her a bear hug. “If it isn’t Crystal, as I live and breathe. You are a sight for sore eyes.”
“It’s great to see you, too.” He was like family to the Broussards. Jean-Luc had been a fabulous skier in his time and had given Eric a lot of pointers.
“What brings you in here?”
