Carole Mortimer - Mistletoe Magic

‘All right?’ Sam prompted softly, having come to stand beside her without Molly even being aware of it.

She pushed her troubling thoughts firmly to the back of her mind, looking up to smile at her stepbrother. As well as being a highly successful screenwriter, Sam was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome, and Molly had adored him from the moment she’d known her mother was to marry his father seventeen years ago.

‘Of course,’ she assured him brightly. ‘How could I not be when I’m holding my favourite nephew?’ she added teasingly.

Sam came down on his haunches beside her, briefly touching his son’s cheek in wonder. ‘Your only nephew—unless you know something I don’t?’ He looked lovingly across the room to where Crys was laughingly serving pancakes.

‘Not at all,’ Molly chucklingly assured him as he turned back to her.

‘Does it make you feel in the least broody yourself?’ Sam asked shrewdly.

That was a little harder to answer. She wasn’t even involved with anyone at the moment, had severed what had only been a casual relationship with a fellow actor before leaving New York. But she was twenty-nine now, the same age as Crys, and, if she were honest with herself, she envied her friend her loving husband and beautiful baby.

For all the good that would do her, Molly reproved herself ruefully. Without a man in her life, loving or otherwise, there would be no family of her own, either.

She grimaced. ‘Sam, I doubt it’s escaped your notice that I’m not involved with anyone just now.’

He shrugged. ‘What do you think of David and Gideon?’

Molly frowned her puzzlement at this abrupt turn in the conversation. ‘What do I think of them as what?’

It was Sam’s turn to grimace. ‘Well, I think Crys has one of them in mind as your future husband and father of your children.’

‘She what?’ Molly gasped her bewilderment, sitting rigidly in her chair now, unable to hide her horror at what Sam was suggesting.

‘Don’t tell her I said anything,’ Sam told her hastily. ‘I think it’s all this domesticity that’s gone to her head and infused her with this desire to matchmake for you,’ he added affectionately. ‘She wants everyone to be as happy as we are.’

Molly blinked dazedly. ‘Yes, but—’

‘Crys assures me that David and Gideon are both extremely eligible men,’ her stepbrother teased.

‘They may be—’ her voice rose slightly ‘—but David was only recently widowed. And as for Gideon—I don’t happen to—’

‘Not a word to Crys about any of this, Molly,’ Sam warned softly as plates were put on the table. ‘She won’t be very happy with me if she knows I’ve said anything to you.’

‘But—’

‘I’ll put Peter in his cradle and then we can all have breakfast.’ He spoke normally as he bent to take Peter and crossed the room to put him in the cradle that stood in the corner of the kitchen.

Molly stared after him, totally bewildered by their conversation.

What did he mean, Crys was matchmaking between her and David or Gideon? She wasn’t due to start working with David until the end of January, and after today she hoped never to meet Gideon Webber ever again, so exactly when was this matchmaking supposed to take place?

She had a definite feeling she wasn’t going to like the answer to that question.

‘EVERYONE had enough to eat?’ Crys prompted happily half an hour later.

Half an hour during which Molly’s bewilderment hadn’t lessened in the least. She knew that Crys was happier now than she had ever been, and that this second marriage to Sam was her whole life, but it certainly hadn’t occurred to Molly that her best friend might decide it was high time that she found such happiness—to the point that she had already picked out two eligible men for her to look over as prospective husband material.

David Strong and Gideon Webber, of all people…

David was one of the nicest men Molly had ever met, and instantly put one at ease, but he was still suffering badly from the unexpected death of his wife. Molly was very much looking forward to working with him, but she knew he certainly wasn’t on the look-out for another woman in his life in the near future.

As for Gideon Webber…!

The only consolation to her own aversion to such an idea was that, much as he obviously loved Crys, Molly knew Gideon Webber would be furious at the very idea of being matched with her.

‘There’s a good reason behind my wife’s desire to make sure you’re all well fed,’ Sam remarked dryly after they had all assured Crys they couldn’t eat another thing.

Crys grinned unrepentantly. ‘With all the excitement and preparation for the christening we haven’t had time to put up our Christmas decorations yet,’ she explained. ‘Sam has some telephone calls to return in his study this morning and so I thought the four of us might have some fun putting up the decorations.’

‘No problem,’ David assured instantly.

‘Glad to help,’ Gideon added lightly.

Molly was so disturbed by this added delay to the two men leaving that she didn’t say anything.

‘You haven’t heard where the decorations are yet,’ Sam warned them wryly.

David chuckled, shaking his head as he looked at Crys. ‘Your wife has the ability to charm the birds out of the trees, Sam,’ he drawled affectionately.

‘Or the decorations out of the attic?’ Sam suggested ruefully.

‘That, too,’ Gideon acknowledged dryly as he joined in the teasing conversation.

It made Molly feel more out of things than ever; this Christmas holiday simply wasn’t working out in the way that she had thought it would.

‘How about you, Molly?’ Sam turned to her as he, not unusually, seemed to sense some of her confusion. The two of them had always been closer than blood brother and sister. ‘I was going to take Peter in with me this morning, but if you would rather look after him than help with the decorations…?’

She would rather do anything else other than spend the morning in Gideon Webber’s company.

But even as she opened her mouth to accept Sam’s let-out she found her gaze caught and held by Gideon’s taunting one. Delicate colour rose in her cheeks and she knew he was aware, and obviously enjoying, her discomfort in his presence.

Her mouth set stubbornly and her eyes flashed before she turned to smile at Sam. ‘Thanks for the offer, but you know how I’ve always loved putting up Christmas decorations.’ And how little chance she had had to do so during her years in America.

It simply hadn’t seemed worth the effort to put up Christmas decorations in her apartment these last few years, when there had been only herself to see them. She had been looking forward to being involved in all aspects of this family Christmas, including putting up the decorations, and she wasn’t going to let Gideon Webber’s presence ruin that for her.

‘I certainly do.’ Sam ruffled her hair affectionately. ‘When she was younger she used to insist the decorations went up in November and didn’t come down until February!’ he confided in the others.

The colour deepened in Molly’s cheeks, and she carefully avoided looking in Gideon’s direction this time, sure those dark blue eyes would be filled with mockery. ‘I’m not quite that bad any more.’ She grimaced self-consciously. ‘But I have always loved Christmas,’ she admitted ruefully.

‘Nothing wrong with that,’ David assured her approvingly.

‘Nothing at all,’ Gideon agreed huskily.

Molly looked up at him sharply, expecting to see the normal derision in his gaze, but instead she found him looking at her quizzically, his thoughts unreadable. What now? she wondered frowningly.