Moira Rogers: A Peyton Family Christmas

“I didn‟t steal the jet.” Nick tightened her grip on the ranch truck‟s cold steering wheel and cast a sidelong glance at her passenger. “I borrowed it.”

“Uh-huh.” Next to her, Kat squinted out through the frosted window. “I can‟t remember the last time I saw this much snow.”

“A white Christmas.” Derek had been enjoying it, but it paled next to how much he wanted to see his baby cousin. “He‟s going to be so glad to see you.”

“Who, Derek?” Before Nick could answer, Kat half-laughed. “No, of course Derek. Luciano and your dad probably aren‟t breathless with anticipation or anything.”

“We‟ve all missed you.”

“I missed you too. I‟ve just...been busy.”

You didn‟t have to be an empath of Kat‟s caliber to hear the lie, but Nick let it slide. “Mahalia‟s here, you know. For the holidays.”

“Yeah?” For the first time since Nick had coaxed Kat out of her dim, cluttered apartment, the girl seemed to brighten a little. “I thought she‟d be back in Boca by now.”

She probably would have been if Nick‟s father hadn‟t asked her to stay. “My dad is a little worried about Michelle. Well, he‟s worried about Michelle’s worrying, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah. I‟ll be able to tell. If she‟s worrying too much, I mean.”

Again, you didn‟t need to be an empath to know. “She is, definitely, but there‟s no way around it.” It had been long enough for Nick‟s shock to wear off and the grim reality to set in. “The love of her life is dead, and the only thing keeping her alive is this charade with Luciano.”

A quiet noise of sympathy escaped Kat. “Poor Michelle.”

Driving with tears in her eyes was a recipe for disaster, so Nick dashed them away and shook her head. “You‟re going to like Luciano. He‟s a good guy.”

“He must be.” Kat‟s borrowed winter coat rustled as she turned a little in the seat. “Have you heard anything about how Andrew‟s doing?”

According to Alec, her main source for updates, Andrew had had a rough time of it, but was doing surprisingly well. “He‟s making it. A strong wolf, which makes it harder in some ways, but he‟ll be all right.”

“For sure? There‟s nothing else that can go wrong?”

“No.” Pretty much everything that could have changed or gone south in Andrew‟s life already had. “He‟s going to be fine, Kat. He‟s still himself, and he‟s doing a good job of getting the wolf under control.”

“Okay. He‟s fine.” Kat sucked in a breath and let it out in a gusty, tired sigh. “New problem. I, uh, didn‟t know I was coming up here. Obviously.”

“I didn‟t kidnap you, either,” Nick said automatically, just in case. “What do you need? Clothes? Contact lens solution?”

“Presents.” She sounded honestly concerned. “I don‟t have presents for anyone.”

It was so unexpected that Nick blinked. “You‟re worried about stuff ?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Kat‟s cheeks turning bright pink.

“It‟s Christmas. I don‟t have anything to give everyone.”

“Hey, you‟re here. That‟s a million times better than stuff.”

Kat wrinkled her nose in a gesture Nick hadn‟t seen in months. “Depends on who you ask.”

Almost a joke, and it gave Nick hope. “Ask your cousin in about ten minutes, because this is it. The ranch.”

Kat turned to look out the window again, a little of her old curiosity bubbling to the surface. “So it‟s ten minutes from here to the main house?”

“Mostly because the road winds around some foothills. The ranch isn‟t actually that big. Just horses.”

“Everything I know about horse ranches I learned from questionably accurate books.”

“Mm-hmm. I know all about your dirty cowboy fetish. Plus, I saw the romance novels you and Mackenzie sent up for Michelle.”

Kat actually smiled. “If there aren‟t ten stupidly hot men working for Luciano, I‟m going back home.”

Nick laughed. “There are a few, and if you tell your cousin I said so, I‟ll deny it.”

“No one with eyes would believe it,” Kat murmured. “You don‟t see anyone else.”

No, there had been only Derek, for so long it still seemed surreal that he‟d put a ring on her hand and promised to marry her. “I better not have to come and drag your ass to the wedding on a purloined jet, by the way.”

“You won‟t have to. And I thought you didn‟t steal the jet.”

“I didn‟t.” She cleared her throat. “My dad just doesn‟t know I took it.”

When Kat laughed this time, it didn‟t sound quite so rusty. “You Peytons rebel in style. I stole Derek‟s car once, when I was nineteen. Never stole a private jet, though.”

“Stick with me, kid.” Then she snorted, because she had less than two years on Kat, but you wouldn‟t know if from the way everyone treated her.

“Sorry, it‟s not funny. You‟re not a kid any more than I am, but everyone forgets that—including me—and it sucks.”

Kat didn‟t bother to lie. “Yeah, sometimes. But I don‟t put up all that much of a fight, especially with Derek. Sometimes he needs that, and I get it.”

He needed it less these days, but it was hard to tell if that translated to freedom or near abandonment for Kat. “I don‟t know when we‟ll get back down to New Orleans, but we‟re going to. I promise.”

It had never been easy to hide things from Kat. “Your sister needs you, and I‟ve got some stuff to work through on my own. Derek is great when you need a champion or a protector, but he‟s not so good at letting you pick yourself up just so you know you can.”

“Especially not when he‟s used to thinking of himself as your guardian, I suppose.”

“God help your kids, Nick. Maybe, if you‟re lucky, he won‟t lock them in a padded room until they‟re thirty.”

After some of the difficulties Michelle had already experienced in her pregnancy, Nick would be lucky to escape that same padded room before their children were born. “Maybe he‟ll mellow with age?” she suggested.

“Uh-huh.” Kat‟s lips twitched, and she tugged up the high collar on her coat, presumably to hide her smile. “Here‟s to hoping.”

They lapsed into silence for the rest of the drive. The guest house came into view first, followed quickly by the main house, though it was hard to see anything beyond the outline of twinkling white Christmas lights in the encroaching darkness. “There it is.”

“Wow.” The younger woman used her mitten to clear the fogged window.

“It‟s huge .”

“Right?” Nick was accustomed to the careful use of space in the French Quarter, and it had taken her a while to get used to the sprawl of the ranch house. “You‟ll get lost a few times, there‟s no way around that.”

Kat was still staring, eyes wide. “I don‟t know what I was expecting. All of you crushed into a house like Alec‟s, maybe. No wonder Luciano doesn‟t mind all the guests.”

In addition to the second, smaller house used for visitors, Derek and Luciano had been talking about adding another wing to the main home. “Not guests,” Nick corrected as she parked and shut off the engine. “Family.”

“Family,” Kat echoed in a whisper. “We haven‟t had much of that. Not since our parents died.”

No, they hadn‟t. Nick slid her hand across the seat and squeezed Kat‟s.

“Come on. Let‟s go see what kind of trouble your cousin‟s gotten into in my absence.”

Dashing across the yard was miserable, a blast of cold so profound it made Nick‟s bones ache, but warmth greeted them when she slammed open the front door. “Cookies,” she chattered. “I smell cookies.”