Dear Santa

“I did not!” At yet another “uh-huh,” Mia sighed. “Okay, but that was temporary insanity by reason of immaturity. And anyway, my reservations have nothing to do with… that.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Venus. I’ve met warmer cadavers.”

“Girl, you have got to get out more.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Unfortunately, I do. But may I remind you that particular cadaver just offered to co-sign a sizable loan for you? Not to mention save your sorry butt so you don’t end up out on the street?”

“Oh, please…this is a man who invests millions without batting an eye. And what skin would it be off his nose to let me live in this house?” Her gaze skimmed over the skuzz-free stove, the gleaming stainless steel refrigerator with a freezer large enough to hold more than a two frozen dinners, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and a single ice cube tray.

“You’re tempted, I can tell,” Venus said.

“Of course, I’m tempted. I’m not made of stone.”

“We’re both still talking about the house, right?”

“And you so don’t want to give me a reason to rethink the raise I was going to give you.”

“He didn’t have to offer,” Venus said, completely unconcerned. “But he did anyway. And it’s been more than a year since that dirtwad dumped you and as far as I know you haven’t even looked at a man since, and here’s this good-looking dude being all generous and kind—”

“Kind might be stretching it,” Mia said. “And it’s not as if there’s no ulterior motive. And besides…”

“Yeah, I know—after what happened between him and Justine, blah, blah, blah. And a girlfriend doesn’t mess around another girlfriend’s man, never mind that they’d been divorced for more than a year and it’s not like she’s gonna know, anyway. And you know something else? It takes two, baby. Meaning I know you’re being loyal to Justine and all, but maybe she had something to do with the marriage falling apart, too. I’m just saying. Because you do have a problem with letting friendship blind you to who somebody really is. Take ours, for instance—you probably think I’m actually nice.”

“In general or at the moment?”

Venus snorted, then said, “But as far as the you-in-Connecticut-me-still-in-Manhattan thing…first off, seeing as half your clients are already up there, anyway, I’m not sure what difference it makes whether you’re schlepping up there from Manhattan, or down to Manhattan from there. And think of how much you’ll save in garage fees.”

She had a point there. Mia needed the van for her work, but she could support a medium-size developing country for what she paid to berth her car every month. Hey, maybe she could live in her car, skip paying rent altogether…?

“I don’t know, Venus. It sounds good on paper, but…I don’t know. Look, I need to get back. Etta and I have to figure out what we’re doing for this reception, since I seriously doubt people are going to show up with funeral food. As far as I know, I’ll be back in the city on Friday.”

“Yeah, but for how long?” Venus said, then hung up.

Leaving Mia standing in the middle of a puddle of brilliant fall sunshine gilding the living room’s polished oak floor, feeling very conflicted indeed.

Chapter Four

In his foyer, just outside the living room—where mourners alternately chatted and gorged themselves on Mia’s and Etta’s impressive spread—Grant stood sentry, almost daring Christopher Schofield to walk through his front door. Of course, Grant had seriously doubted the man would have had the cojones to show his face at his lover’s funeral reception—especially as he had to know Mia would be here—but he hadn’t been about to take the chance.

Not that Mia needed Grant’s protection, if one could even label his concern as such. Haley, however, did, and damned if Grant was about to let his child get inadvertently caught up in something that had nothing to do with her.

Sitting through the service, between him and his mother in a lace-collared dark-green dress she’d nearly outgrown, Haley had silently fidgeted through the proceedings with little outward reaction. Since Justine had been cremated, there’d been no casket, which—now that Grant thought about it—probably made it all even more confusing for the child. A suspicion borne out when, after they’d returned to the house, she’d begun running from room to room, upstairs and down, clearly looking for something.

Or someone.

For the past half hour or so, however, Haley had been settled in Mia’s lap, her brow occasionally puckering in response to this or that person’s awkward condolence. Now, watching those dark eyes solemnly taking it all in, Grant wondered if she was finally beginning to understand what had happened.

As much as any of them were, at least.

His attention drifted back to Mia, nicely cleaned up for the occasion in a full-skirted black dress that hugged her torso and pleasantly showed off black-stockinged calves, ending in very high heels. Assorted clips and things halfheartedly held her hair up off her neck, leaving assorted, shiny bits of silky brown floating around her face. She hugged Haley’s waist from behind, her chin resting on the child’s head, her placid expression belying the stress of the last few days. As much of a bulwark as she’d been for Haley—and Etta, when it came to pulling everything together for the reception—Grant wasn’t unaware of how often she’d slipped away, only to return a few minutes later with those telltale red-rimmed eyes and splotchy cheeks.

In some strange way, part of him envied her ability to feel things so strongly, even if he couldn’t completely tamp down the irritation that, in this case, her grief was misplaced. The other, saner, part was profoundly grateful to have been spared that particular character trait. How on earth did those tenderhearted sorts get through life?

And what on earth had possessed him to offer her the guesthouse? Indefinitely, no less? Especially since her presence would only serve as a constant reminder of his gross miscalculation. His failure.

Then there was the challenge of keeping his mouth shut about Christopher and Justine. Not that he was particularly comfortable with that option, but the alternative—hurting her all over again before she’d had a chance to completely heal—was untenable.

And why was it bugging him to no end that she hadn’t yet made up her mind whether to stay or not?

“Grant.”

Squelching a sigh, he smiled down into pale blue eyes.

“Mother.” Noticing her hands were empty, he offered to get her a drink.

She shook her head. “No, thank you, if I’d wanted a drink I could have gotten it myself.” The archetype of the fit, privileged Connecticut matron in her slim-skirted charcoal-gray suit and double strand of pearls, she frowned in Mia’s direction. At least, as much as her chemically enhanced epidermis would allow.

“I still don’t understand why you’re fostering that relationship.”

“Because Mia has a way with Haley that I don’t.” Grant took a sip of his own tepid, watered-down Scotch and soda, lifting his other hand to ward off his mother’s inevitable protest. “And right now, she needs people around who are only thinking of her.”

“And I’m not? Honestly, Grant—she’s so…pedestrian. Who are her people?”

“Nobody you’d know, Mother,” he said quietly, his mother’s snobbery, misplaced though it may have been, the least of his concerns at the moment. “I believe her father’s a retired policeman. In Springfield.”

“That accounts for the accent, I suppose.”

“Yes, the Kennedys found their Massachusetts drawl a terrible handicap.”

His mother smirked, snagging a soft drink from a passing waiter. How Mia had managed a waitstaff on such short notice, he had no idea. “Be that as it may, she’s no Kennedy.” As Grant put a hammerlock on the comeback begging to be let loose, she said, “I mean, I know she graduated from one of the top schools—she’d have to for Hinkley-Cohen to hire her, wouldn’t she?—but has she made partner yet?”

“Actually, she left the firm. A couple of years ago. To start her own business.”

“Really? Doing what?”

Grant swallowed the sip in his mouth. “Planning parties.”

“Parties?” His mother snorted a dry, delicate laugh, then set her unfinished drink down on a nearby table. “Ivy League degree or not, the girl clearly doesn’t have a grain of common sense.”

“It’s her life, Mother,” Grant said, the heat in his words taking him by surprise. “What she does with that life is no one’s business but hers. And not only has she worked wonders with Haley over the past few days, but if it hadn’t been for Mia coming to the rescue with this reception, I’m sure Etta would have walked out the front door, never to be seen again.”

“Not that that would have been much of a loss,” Bitsy muttered. “And besides, it doesn’t exactly take a law degree to order a few cold cut trays from Katz’s.” Bitsy checked her watch, then patted him on the arm. “I need to get back, I’d invited the Hendersons for dinner weeks ago, it would have been beyond rude to cancel on them this late in the game. But if you need anything, let me know.”

How about a do-over on my childhood? Grant thought irritably as he watched her leave.