for my mood enhancement, someone is staring at us from the house next door,” he added.
Livvy turned her head, following Conal’s glance. There was a scruffy-looking young man peering at them, a peeved expression on his face. The neighbor’s husband’s second cousin’s son? If so, she was doubly grateful not to have to dodge him all weekend.
“My rival?” Conal casually leaned over and brushed his lips across her cheekbone. Livvy’s reaction was not so casual. Heat from his lips seeped into her skin, warming it and making her wish they were anywhere but in a car in plain sight of anyone who cared to look. But then, the only reason he was kissing her was precisely because they were in plain sight of everyone, she reminded herself.
Determinedly she scooted away from Conal and reached for the door handle. “Let’s go inside before Mom comes out and we have the whole street watching the introductions.”
Livvy climbed out of the car and waited for Conal to reach her before she started up the front walk. She let out a squeak and spun around when she felt a gentle pinch on her rear.
“Conal Sutherland!”
Conal gave her an impossibly innocent look. “Engaged couples don’t do that?”
“This engaged couple doesn’t do that.”
“That’s not quite accurate, since I just did,” he said. “Perhaps you should say that your half of this engaged couple doesn’t do that.”
“Darling, come in. I’ve been waiting all afternoon for you.” Marie’s welcoming voice called to Livvy from the open door.
Livvy glanced over her shoulder and hissed at Conal, “Behave yourself,” as she hurried through the front door, giving her mother a warm hug.
“Darling, you look wonderful and this must be...” Marie stared past her at Conal.
“Mom, I’d like you to meet Conal Sutherland. He’s—”
“Darling!” Marie shrieked as she caught sight of the engagement ring Livvy was wearing. “You said yes!”
Livvy winced at the ecstatic note in her mother’s voice.
“I’m so pleased to meet you, Conal. You can call me Marie.” She dimpled happily at him. “That’s what my other son-in-law calls me.”
“Marie,” Conal obediently repeated.
A high-pitched shriek followed by a thud echoed down the stairwell from the second floor, and Marie glanced nervously at the ceiling as the chandelier swayed. “Oh, dear,” she murmured.
Livvy blinked as a second thud followed the first.
“It doesn’t sound as if they’re taking prisoners up there,” Conal offered.
Livvy jumped as yet a still-louder thump sounded. “Um, Mom, do you think we ought to see what happened?”
Marie vigorously shook her head. “I’m quite sure I don’t want to know. It’s your cousin Mark. Your uncle David sent him upstairs and told him to stay there until he decided to behave.”
“They won’t be here that long,” Livvy muttered. “I thought Uncle David said they couldn’t come?”
“He did!” Marie whispered confidentially. “They simply appeared an hour ago saying that they found they were able to make it after all. And I can’t find anyplace for them to stay. I’ve called every single one of our relatives, and they all said they haven’t got one spare bed.”
Livvy grimaced. “Do you blame them? Those kids of theirs are completely out of control. Why don’t you send them to a hotel?”
Marie looked shocked. “Darling, I can’t do that. They’re family. I love David and Sarah.”
“I love them, too, but I’ve found my feelings for them increase the farther I am from their kids.”
“Shh,” Marie muttered. “They’ll hear you. Come on.”
“Fascinating,” Conal murmured as they followed Marie into the living room. Livvy wondered whether he was referring to the continuing noise from upstairs or her mother. Either one was probably outside his experience.
“Welcome to the family!” Her uncle David cheerfully wrung Conal’s hand. “I don’t have to tell you you’re getting a girl in a million with Livvy.”
“We’re so glad to meet you, Conal,” Sarah gushed. “My daughters will be so excited. You will let them be your bridesmaids won’t you, Livvy?”
“Um, I haven’t gotten to the planning stage yet,” Livvy stalled.
“Take my advice, Conal, and elope,” David said.
“Livvy, darling,” Marie said, “would you help me a minute in the kitchen?”
“Come on, Conal,” Livvy said, unwilling to leave him alone with her relatives. David would probably launch into one of his incredibly boring fishing stories.
“Darling, I hate to ask this of you,” Marie said the minute the kitchen door was safely closed behind them, “but I can’t think of what else to do. Would you and Conal mind dreadfully spending the weekend at your sister’s? Fern flatly refused to take any of David’s kids. She said she still hasn’t gotten the grape-juice stains out of her carpet from the last time they were there.” Marie shook her head. “And Fern a teacher, too. You’d think she could know how to handle them.”
“With a whip and chair,” Livvy muttered, but her mother ignored her.
“But she said she’d love to have you and Conal,” Marie said.
“We would be happy to stay at Fern’s,” Conal promptly said, and Marie gave him a grateful smile.
“You’re so kind,” Marie said.
Kind? Livvy examined her mother’s description and found that it was true. Conal was kind. Not the cloying, patronizing variety of kind, but the bracing, practical type.
“You’ll just have time to get over to Fern’s and unpack before it’s time to go to Olivia’s for dinner. And for heaven’s sake don’t be late,” Marie warned. “Olivia is already mad that Mom and Dad won’t be there tonight. She seems to think that it’s my fault that Dad’s doctor said he had to rest tonight if he was going to have the whole family out to the farm tomorrow. And make sure you take the bagels with you. You did remember them, didn’t you?”
At Livvy’s nod, Marie stood on tiptoe and gave Conal a kiss on his cheek before she enveloped Livvy in a hug. “I can hardly wait to show off my soon-to-be son-in-law. I hope you aren’t going to have a long engagement, dear?”
“It couldn’t be too short as far as I’m concerned,” Conal said, and Livvy winced at the laughter she could hear coloring his voice. As usual her mother was oblivious to nuances.
“Wonderful!” Marie clapped her hands together in pleasure. “I’ve always loved Christmas weddings.”
“Or
