Eight Christmas Eves by Curtis Rachel

Author:Curtis, Rachel [Curtis, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-07-30T21:00:00+00:00

Sixth Christmas Eve

two years ago

Cyrus and his father had been debating corporate strategy for over an hour.

It wasn’t just an academic argument. The stakes were real and affected thousands of people. The fact that his father was taking Cyrus’s opinion under advisement at all, instead of simply making an executive decision, was a sign of the progress they’d made in the last two years.

“All right,” his father said at last, leaning back in his chair.

Cyrus blinked. They were facing each other in chairs in front of the fireplace in the library, instead of talking in the office, as a gesture toward its being Christmas Eve and thus technically vacation. “All right what?”

“All right. I concede the point.”

For a moment, Cyrus’s mouth dropped open in absolute shock. Not once—not in all his life—had his father ever admitted to being wrong when his son was right. “You concede it in argument or in reality?”

“Is there a difference?” It was obviously a rhetorical question since his dad leaned back in his chair with a strangely sly smile. “No merger.”

“No merger,” Cyrus repeated, still dazed with this inexplicable development. “Excellent.”

Drake glanced at his watch and his eyes widened, as if he hadn’t realized it was so late in the afternoon. “Helen and the Barnacle should be here by now.”

“I’m sure they’ll arrive soon.” Cyrus stood up, stretching his back and picking up the coffee cup he’d been drinking from earlier. “And dinner might be less tense if you would try not to openly insult him.”

“He’s not intelligent enough to recognize he’s being insulted.”

“I’m not convinced that’s true, but either way Helen does recognize it.”

“If she’s foolish enough to date such a creature, she has to expect me to voice occasional disapproval.”

Cyrus sighed. He hated Ethan. Hated him. Agreed with every negative comment his father had ever made about the young man Helen had been dating for the last year. He did his best to hide his feelings from Helen, however, since he didn’t want it to end up destroying their relationship.

“I don’t suppose you’ve discovered anything worthwhile yet in that regard,” his father said, looking as tired as Cyrus felt.

Cyrus shook his head with that heavy twisting in his gut he always felt about Ethan. “Nothing we don’t already know.”

“He’s not cheating on her?”

“My investigators can’t find any evidence of it.” Cyrus’s fist tightened at just the thought of the selfish, arrogant boy cheating on Helen. “But, if he wants to marry her for her inheritance, he’s not likely to risk alienating her with an affair.”

His father nodded thoughtfully.

They had no proof, of course, that Ethan was pursuing Helen primarily for the fortune she would inherit, but Ethan’s wealthy father had cut him off with nothing, something Cyrus had discovered shortly after the boy had started dating Helen. So he’d always suspected—and his father had as well—that Helen was Ethan’s way back into a life of wealth and ease.

Cyrus was convinced his mind could have been changed if Ethan had shown himself to be a strong, intelligent man and a generous, loving boyfriend.

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