The Home Is Where The Heart Is Collection

CHAPTER FIVE

HER PHONE BEEPING softly in her ear woke her from a dream about giant monster trucks with ferocious-looking grills barreling toward her from every direction, intent on mowing her down.

She fumbled under her pillow for the phone then rolled over to turn off the alarm. Ow. She swallowed a groan as various and sundry muscles complained quite loudly at just that small movement.

Beside her, Maddie stirred and made a huffing little noise but quickly subsided back to sleep. She hadn’t even made it to the trundle. After her bath, she had climbed into the big four-poster—the princess bed, she had called it—for their regular story time. They were reading a Junie B. Jones holiday book but had both fallen asleep about five minutes into the story about the mischievous kindergartener.

In fact...Eliza patted around the comforter until she found the book where it had slipped out of her hands as she drifted off. She moved it safely to the bedside table so the pages didn’t get crinkled, then enjoyed the luxuriously soft sheets for a few moments as she listened to her daughter’s deep, even breathing.

She did this sometimes, just slipped into Maddie’s room to listen to her breathing and to offer up earnest prayers for that weak, courageous heart to stay strong as long as possible.

Right now, she wanted to hug her daughter close and remain snuggled under these cozy blankets, safe and warm from the howl and moan of the storm she could hear outside.

Though she had no recollection of doing it, she must have turned the reading light off sometime in the night. The only light in the room came from the flickering glow of the gas fireplace.

Wouldn’t it be lovely to stay here in this nice, protective bubble and pretend the figurative storms in her life weren’t swirling around with equal menace to the actual blizzard outside, where she didn’t have to worry about any pesky little details like finding a place to live and a job that would provide decent health insurance that Maddie’s cardiac specialists would accept?

This time she couldn’t hold back her groan. Only a little of it was from the aches and pains of the accident.

What was she going to do? The natural optimism that had kept her from completely falling apart during the past three years of dealing with everything on her own seemed in short supply right now, as the reality of her situation seemed to seep beneath the blankets and grab hold of her skin with icy fingers.

She had options, she reminded herself. She wasn’t completely destitute. She had already taken care of Maddie’s Christmas presents, so that wasn’t a worry. Beyond that, she had a little left in savings, enough to tide them over for a month or two and to make a first and last month’s rent, and she received monthly social security benefits that would help.

She had been trying to save all of Maddie’s survivor benefits for her college education but the hard truth was that survival today had to take priority over tomorrow’s tuition payments.

The snooze on her phone alarm chimed softly again and she turned it all the way off, wide-awake now. Something told her Aidan Caine was a man who kept his word. He said he would be knocking on her door at 2:00 a.m. and she had a feeling he would be there precisely at that moment.

She gingerly eased out of bed, feeling about a hundred and ten years old. Her robe was packed in one of the boxes still in the back of her SUV so she grabbed a decadently soft throw from one of the plush chairs by the fire and wrapped it around her nightgown for warmth.

With one last check on Maddie, she padded out into the hall, hoping to intercept him before he knocked on her door. She could see a light on underneath the door across from hers but she didn’t quite have the nerve to knock on it. Instead, after a moment’s indecision she headed toward a padded window seat at the end of the hall upholstered in rich, deep colors that fit well with the lodge look of the rest of the residence.

The window was a little frosted but through the darkness she could see snow falling steadily, whipped in all directions by the wind.

She shivered, grateful for the comforts of the house. It really was a lovely place, with those massive beams and logs the color of sun-warmed honey.

What had led Aidan Caine to purchase the house? He didn’t strike her as the outdoorsy cowboy sort, more like a sexy computer geek. Maybe there was more to him than she would have suspected from what little she knew about his public persona.

The Geek God.

He seemed a very complex man. Yes, he was a powerful and successful man with this grand, expansive house, his own company. To achieve so much at his relatively young age he was no doubt a workaholic, just like Trent had been, a man whose entire focus revolved around making money.

On the other hand, he was obviously very fond of Jim and Sue and he had been extraordinarily kind to Maddie. He had been visibly upset about the accident and had gone out of his way to make sure she was all right, even coming to the hospital and eventually bringing her here for the night.

All that hardly seemed the actions of a heartless, cold businessman, which was the image she’d had of him before today. How did she reconcile the man she had met that day with all the anger she had nurtured toward him and Caine Tech over the last three years?

His company had stolen the heart right out of her husband. Plain and simple. The people he had met with at Caine Tech had taken Trent’s dreams of fame and fortune, his ideas for a new productivity app he was certain would revolutionize the business world, and had shut him down fast and hard.

He had called her from California in despair to tell her about it and she had never heard him sound so defeated. She had tried to be encouraging but by that point she was exhausted and out of patience from trying to be a supportive wife in his endless chase for financial security for her and for Maddie.

She couldn’t blame Aidan for the mess. Not really. Knowing the nature of big companies as she did, he probably didn’t even have any direct knowledge of that final meeting between his associates and her husband.

Shifting her mind-set would be a difficult task where she had demonized him for so long. She could manage it for the few hours she might see him in the morning, before she left Snow Angel Cove.

At exactly one minute to two, she heard the door just across from theirs open. Aidan walked out into the hallway in jeans and a T-shirt. Had he forced himself to stay awake into the early hours so he could check on her or was he habitually a night owl?

He was wearing dark-framed glasses that only magnified the impact of those stunning blue eyes and his hair was a little messy, rumpled a bit on the right side of his head behind his ear. Perhaps he had been leaning his head against one side of a wingback chair or maybe propping his head on his hand while he read or watched TV. Or maybe he just had a cowlick on that side that resisted his hairstylist’s attempts to tame it.

It hardly seemed fair that the man could have a zillion dollars and be gorgeous, too. She swallowed, suddenly aware of a completely unexpected quiver in her stomach. Oh, for heaven’s sake. Where did that come from? She hadn’t experienced the tiniest flutter of attraction to a man in so long, she thought maybe that part of her had withered and blown away like dry leaves in an October wind.

She quickly shoved it down deep, where she put every other ridiculous urge she knew she could never act upon. While she was tempted to hide away under the throw, she didn’t want him knocking on her bedroom door, then barging in and waking Maddie when she didn’t answer.

“I’m over here,” she murmured.

At her soft words, he shifted in her direction. Her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness during those few moments she had been sitting in the window seat and she clearly saw his frown of surprise before he headed over to her.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked in the same low tone.

She shrugged. “I told you Maddie is usually a heavy sleeper but I thought she might be thrown off her routine by finding herself in a strange place, especially with everything that’s happened. I didn’t want to wake her up.”

“Ah.”

As he moved closer, a shaft of moonlight pierced the gloomy clouds and she saw that while he might be a little on the lean side, his unadorned blue T-shirt clung to surprising muscles.

He was a tech genius, responsible for dozens of apps and devices dominating the market. She would have expected him have the pudgy, soft frame of someone who spent most of his waking hours staring at a gadget or screen. Instead, he apparently spent some of those hours at a gym.

To her dismay, he perched on the other end of the window seat. Theoretically, there was plenty of room for both of them but she couldn’t help feeling crowded, edgy, especially in light of this extremely inconvenient physical awareness she didn’t want.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Oh, you know. Like I’ve been hit by a truck. I have a feeling I’m going to be saying that a lot from now on.”

He made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. “I guess that was a stupid question. Let me be more specific. Does anything new hurt?”

“No. I’m fine. Don’t get me wrong, I have aches and pains but they seem fairly generalized right now. Nothing is broken.”

“And your head?”

“Not bad, actually. My wrist hurts more than my head right now.”

“I suppose I should ask you how many fingers I’m holding up, just to make sure you’re not delirious.”

“Four. I promise, I’m not delirious. I know what year it is, who the President of the United States is and my birthday, social security number and email password.”

“That should cover it, then.” He sounded amused. “Definitely not delirious.”

“You didn’t need to check on me but now you can report to Dr. Shaw that I’m fine.”

“Except for feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck.”

“Right.” Because she was already growing a little tired of people asking her how she felt, she quickly changed the subject by gesturing out the window behind her. “That snow is crazy. Have you seen it?”

He shifted around and peered out. His eyes widened behind his lenses. “Wow. I’ve been catching up on some year-end reports and not paying attention. I knew we were supposed to have a storm, but that looks intense. Jim said he thought we would have eighteen inches by morning. When he said it, I thought he was exaggerating. Looking out there, now I wonder if he underestimated things.”

“Makes me glad I’m in here and not out there.” She couldn’t quite bring herself to admit she was grateful he and Dr. Shaw had encouraged her to stay in Haven Point for the night, though she was. She hadn’t been in any shape to drive back to Boise.

“I hope this isn’t the start of an intense weather pattern. I would hate for my family to be trapped here over the holidays in the middle of a storm like this.”

“Your family is coming to Snow Angel Cove for Christmas?”

He stretched out long legs, apparently settling in for a while. So much for demonstrating her mental acuity and then returning to her warm bed. She tucked the blanket more tightly around her shoulders, not minding a little conversation as much as she ought.

“Just about everybody will be here—barring my brother Jamie, who’s in the military and stationed overseas.”

“That will be lovely for you. Do you come from a big family?”

He gave a rough laugh. “You could say that. Five brothers and one sister.”

She blinked. “Seven children. Oh, my. Your mother must have been a saint.”

“She was. The closest thing to it I ever knew, anyway. She died when I was in college. Cancer.”

Though he spoke in an even tone, she sensed an undercurrent of lingering grief that shouldn’t have touched her but somehow did, anyway.

“I’m sorry. My mother died the summer before my junior year of high school.”

Unlike Aidan, she didn’t offer an explanation. Not only did she dislike discussing it but he already considered her an object of pity, the poor widow with the ill child who had lost her job and been hit by a car within minutes. She didn’t need to add to that extremely unappealing picture.

She didn’t consider herself a victim of anything. She preferred to see herself as a survivor, someone who had been through some tough things—and who hadn’t, really?—but who endured with dignity and strength and tried to move through the hard times to the other side.

Yes, it was a little Pollyannaish, maybe, but she liked that narrative better than the pathetic alternative.

“Do you still have your father?” she asked.

He smiled, his teeth flashing white in the dim light. “I do. And a new stepmother, as of a few months ago. She’s quite wonderful.”

Eliza was aware of a twinge of envy. She also had a stepmother but theirs was an awkward, tense relationship—mostly because of her.

“Does your family live close by?” she asked, wondering if that explained why he had purchased Snow Angel Cove.

He shook his head. “My dad and most of my siblings live in a little town in Colorado. Hope’s Crossing.”

So much for that theory. “And yet you chose to buy a house several hundred miles away from them on a remote Idaho mountain lake.”

He was silent for so long, she wondered if her question had been unforgivably rude. After a long moment, he sighed. “I love my family. Don’t get me wrong. We’re all very close and I enjoy being with them. I consider my brothers my best friends. I’m flying the whole crew here for Christmas, aren’t I?”

“But?”

He sighed again. “But when a guy is the middle of seven children, he can sometimes have an overwhelming need to find his own way. Whenever I go to Hope’s Crossing, I’m always Dermot’s boy, the one who invariably had his nose pressed to a computer. There’s something very appealing about the fact that nobody in Haven Point knew me when I had braces on my teeth and bad acne and a crush on the head cheerleader, who was only interested in my younger brother, Jamie the stud—which, by the way, is fairly traumatic to the ego when you’re fifteen and would like to think you’re the stud, despite all evidence to the contrary.”

She couldn’t help a startled laugh, shocked that he would reveal something so personal to her.

“Did I just say that out loud?” he asked ruefully. “I must be more tired than I realized. I don’t believe I’ve ever shared that with another human being on the planet. Or articulated it so clearly, even to myself.”

She knew perfectly well she shouldn’t find the man appealing here in the quiet hush of the night when the rest of the world slept, but this evidence of past vulnerability made him seem less like a mythical, larger-than-life personage and more like someone who had weaknesses and insecurities.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Caine. I’m good at keeping secrets.”

He made a face. “I told you to call me Aidan. When I divulge embarrassing secrets to somebody, I usually insist they call me by my first name.”

It felt strange but she did her best. “Aidan, then.”

“Eliza,” he mused. “It’s not a very common name anymore.”

“My mother’s name was Elizabeth and everyone called her Betsy. She wanted to be called Eliza but nobody ever did so she decided to give the name to me. I always thought it was old-fashioned. My friends in school called me Ellie but it seemed a little young-sounding as I grew up.”

“I like it. Eliza. It fits you, somehow.”

They lapsed into a not uncomfortable silence. She knew she should probably muster the energy to go back to her bedroom but she couldn’t quite manage it. She found something strangely appealing about sitting in this darkened hallway with him, talking softly about nothing in particular while the storm raged outside.

“I hope the snow stops soon or it will be an interesting drive back to Boise in the morning.”

He rubbed at the side of his head. “I’m glad you brought that up, actually. I intended to wait until the morning to talk to you about this but the time somehow seems right.”

“Oh?”

He gave her a long look. “How would you feel about staying here longer than just one night?”

“That’s very kind of you,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “but I’m afraid I don’t have the luxury of an extended vacation. I need to return to Boise and start putting my life back together. I need to find a job.”

“I actually had a great idea earlier tonight.”

“What sort of idea?” she asked, with no small amount of wariness.

“You could work for me.”

Her mind seemed to spin in a hundred different directions. She wasn’t exactly a Luddite but her technological skills were limited to remembering that email password she had mentioned earlier and knowing how to reboot her laptop.

“Doing what?”

“I told you my entire family is coming for Christmas. This is the first time we’ve all been together for the holidays in years, for various reasons.”

“That will be lovely for you.”

“I hope so. It’s important to me that everything is perfect for them.”

“You don’t ask for much, do you?”

“My family has suffered some tough things in recent years. My brother nearly died fighting in Afghanistan. In the middle of all that, my other brother’s wife did die of pregnancy-related complications. We’re finally finding our way back from all the heartache. I’ll admit, I haven’t been there for my family during everything. Not really. I was always too busy and figured they didn’t need one more Caine brother getting in the way.”

He rubbed the side of his head again, just behind his ear. That must be why his hair was a little rumpled there, she thought. It was actually a rather endearing habit, one she wasn’t sure he even realized he was doing.

“These last few months, I’ve...come to realize how necessary that connection is to me. I’ve missed it. I have this new house this year that’s finally big enough to fit us all. We’ve had several new marriages and a lot to celebrate and I want to do my best to make the holidays amazing, you know? Memorable.”

She found that endearing, too, though she knew she shouldn’t. “And how would I fit in to help you with that?”

“Sue has been doing her best to get everything ready. She’s wonderful in the kitchen, don’t get me wrong, but with twenty houseguests, she’s going to have her hands full with all the meal planning and cooking. She just can’t do everything herself. She and I were talking earlier about hiring someone to help her. As I see it, with your hotel management experience, you’re the ideal candidate.”

“Me?”

“I have a confession here. I called the owner of the Lake Haven Inn after you and Maddie went to sleep.”

“You called Megan?”

“Right. Megan. Hamilton. She seemed nice enough. By the way, she was horrified to find out you were hurt today after you spoke with her. She wanted to rush straight here to fuss over you but I assured her you seemed to be doing all right and we are keeping a careful eye on you. She confirmed my suspicions, that you are just the woman I need.”

His words sent a completely inappropriate little shiver rippling through her. For the job. He was talking about a job. She forced herself to get a grip as she struggled to take in the completely unexpected twist.

“You want me to come work for you here? I was the assistant manager of a small three-star hotel. What do I know about providing luxury hospitality services in a private home?”

“If you knew my family, you would understand the Caines don’t need luxury. You won’t find more down-to-earth people anywhere. I think you’ll like them and I know they’ll like you and Maddie.”

How was she supposed to respond to a job offer extended in the middle of the night when she was wrapped in a blanket, for crying out loud?

“It can’t be that much different from what you would have been doing as the manager at the Lake Haven Inn, just on a smaller scale. As I see it, the goals are the same—making everybody feel welcome and keeping them happy. All you have to do is make sure Pop stays out of the kitchen, find entertainment for the little ones and make sure the teenagers have enough to keep them busy and out of trouble.”

“That’s all?” she said faintly.

“I just want everyone to enjoy the holidays together, whatever it takes.”

“You basically need somebody to play hostess to your family.”

“Wow. In a manner of speaking, I suppose that’s exactly what I need.”

What he needed was a wife. But of course, she could never say that.

“Look, I’m the first to admit, I have many bad habits,” he said. “One of them is a single-minded focus on whatever project I’m working on. I can get a phone call and forget everything else but solving whatever problem is on the other end. If that happens, I would love to know somebody else is here besides Sue to make sure my family doesn’t feel ignored.”

She wanted to suggest he just turn his phone off but, again, it wasn’t her business.

“The job would include room and board for you and Maddie as well as a salary I think you’ll find more than fair,” he said, naming a gulp-worthy sum that made actually made her palms begin to sweat.

“That’s entirely too much.”

“I promise, you will earn every penny of it. My family is great but they’re crazy and wild, too.”

She didn’t know how to answer him. On the one hand, this would be an answer to her prayers. Working and staying at Snow Angel Cove through the holidays would give her a little breathing room, time to send out some feelers about who might be hiring and to really plan out her next step instead of jumping out of desperation into a job that might not be a good fit.

In addition, the compensation he was offering for only a few weeks would provide a much-needed financial cushion to tide them over for several months.

She wasn’t a fool, however. Was Aidan making this offer because he genuinely needed help or was it driven by his guilt over hitting her with his SUV?

Could she really afford to let that matter to her?

“It’s late,” he said after a moment. “You don’t have to make a decision about this right now. Think about it overnight. I do think Maddie would have fun playing with my niece and nephew. Carter is just about her age. He’s a real character but fun. His sister, Faith, is a few years older and one of the sweetest girls you’ll ever meet. The other kids are older but they’re all really decent human beings.”

“I will think about it,” she said, even though she already knew what her answer would be. She wasn’t particularly thrilled about working for anyone connected to Caine Tech, especially not the founder and CEO, but she had to be pragmatic. For room, board and a salary like that—not to mention the chance to give Maddie a safe, comfortable, welcoming place for Christmas—she would be a fool to refuse.

The past three Christmases had been tough, all the way around. Trent had died in November three years earlier. That year the holidays had been a blur of shock and pain and sorrow. The past two years, Maddie had been in the hospital.

The chance to spend the holidays here in this lovely home where her daughter could experience a genuine family Christmas was too choice to pass up.

She climbed up from the window seat, doing her best not to wince at her various and sundry aches and pains. “We both need to try to sleep tonight. Thank you for checking on me. As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”

He rose as well, his T-shirt clinging again to those unexpected muscles. “I’m glad,” he said with a slow, sexy smile that made her toes tingle.

Oh, for crying out loud, she chided herself. The man was a gazillionaire who probably had his pick of any hot-bodied bimbo he wanted. He would never be interested in someone like her, a frazzled mom wearing pajamas she bought at a big box store and wrapped in a blanket.

Even if he were interested, for some unfathomable reason, she certainly wasn’t. Right? Not in Aidan Caine, who was brilliant and gorgeous and dangerous.

“Good night,” she murmured quickly and hurried to her room before he could even answer.

When she slipped back into the cool covers, her daughter made a tiny sound in her sleep but didn’t awaken. Eliza lay in the darkness while the storm flung snowflakes against the window, listening to the miracle of her daughter’s breathing, as she had done so many times before.

While she might be reluctant to stay at Snow Angel Cove for a plethora of reasons, she would do it for one reason only. Her child.