Christmas with Her Millionaire Boss by Barbara Wallace

Author:Barbara Wallace
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

JAMES’S WORDS—or rather the way he said them—caught her in the midsection. Taking her free hand, she placed it on top of his, so that he was caught in her grasp. “Ripped apart how?” she asked.

“My parents broke up on Christmas,” he replied. “Christmas Eve actually. I woke up on Christmas morning and my mother and my little brother were gone. Moved out.”

“Just like that? Without a word?”

“Not to me.”

Wow. Noelle couldn’t imagine. At least she’d been a newborn when her mother dropped her off. Unable to notice the loss. “How old were you?”

“Twelve. Justin, my brother, was ten.”

Definitely old enough to understand. She tried to picture James coming downstairs that Christmas morning and discovering his world had changed. “I’m sorry,” she said, squeezing his hand. The words were inadequate, but she couldn’t think of anything else.

“It wasn’t a complete surprise. Whenever my parents got together it was a drunken screamfest. Mom liked her whiskey. Especially during the holidays,” he said with a half smile. “And Justin had always been her favorite, so...” He shrugged. Noelle was beginning to realize it was his way of shaking it off whenever the moment got heavy. Or in this case, touched too close to a nerve.

“I’m sure she would have...” She stopped, realizing how foolish what she was going to say sounded. Mothers didn’t always want their children; she of all people should know that. “Her loss,” she said instead.

The right side of James’s mouth curved upward. “From the woman who’s only known me for seventy-two hours. And disliked me for at least twenty-four of them,” he added, his smile stretching to both sides.

“Meaning I’ve warmed up to you for forty-eight. Besides,” she added, giving a shrug of her own, “I don’t have to know you for a long time to realize your mother missed out on knowing you. Same as my mother. Far as I’m concerned, they both didn’t recognize what they had.”

He squeezed her hand. Even trapped between her hands, his grip was sure and firm. Noelle felt it all the way up her arm and down to her toes. “Are you always this positive?” he asked.

“Me? Positive?” She laughed. “Only by necessity.”

She let her gaze travel to the nativity set again. “For a long time, I dreamed about my mom coming back. She didn’t have to take me away with her...”

“Just tell you why she left you behind.”

Noelle nodded. He understood. “But she didn’t. So, what else can I do but focus on being happy without her? Best revenge and all that, right?”

“You’re right,” James said. A chill struck her as he pulled his hand free from hers. Before the shiver could take true hold, however, gloved fingers were gripping her chin, and gently lifting her face skyward. James’s eyes had a sheen to them as he smiled down at her. “Your mom lost out. Big time.”

It might have been the nicest thing a man—anyone really—had ever said to her. While the Frybergs—and Kevin, of course—complimented her, they always made a point of avoiding any mention of her mother.

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