Nana Malone - Never Christmas Without You - Just for the Holidays / His Holiday Gift

Nana Malone

For all the best friends who’ve ever dreamed of more.

Dear Reader,

Alex and Justin have loved each other since college. They are the best of friends, and now he needs her more than ever. Too bad if she does him this favor, he’ll see how she really feels about him. How she’s always felt. I’m so thrilled to bring you Justin and Alex’s story. It’s about finding love right under your nose.

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Happy reading,

Nana

Chapter 1

Justin Morrison ran through the hallways of the hospital, nearly tipping over a gurney at the nursing station, narrowly missing an orderly and then actually tripping over a wheelchair someone had left in the hallway.

He scrambled to get back on his feet, his heart beating a frantic tattoo against his ribs. He had to get to her. After everything, he couldn’t lose her.

His cousin’s words on the phone still rattled around his brain. She’s in the hospital. You need to come quickly. He took the stairs two at a time to the fourth floor, where they’d directed him at the main reception desk. Oh God, please let her be okay. Please, please, please let her be okay. His grandma Lucy was the only person on this planet who understood him. Well, next to his best friend, Alexandra, whom he affectionately called Alex. But Grandma Lucy, she was his heart. She was the sole reason he was where he was today, even when no one had believed in him.

Growing up, she’d been his rock. She’d scolded him when she felt it necessary, hugged him when he needed it and always told it to him straight. She was outrageous and said the most inappropriate things. But man, she was fantastic.

Grandma Lucy had been the one to tell him to stop trying to seek his father’s approval and follow his own path. She was the sole reason that any banks would even talk to him when he wanted to build a boutique hotel.

His family was known for their hotels the world over. But investors didn’t want to finance the first solo venture from the prodigal son. So his grandmother had made sure that several banks knew that while his would be a separate business, he was backed by the matriarch of the family.

As family went, the only one he ever counted on was his grandmother. The rest of his relatives, he could take or leave. His mother hadn’t come from money and had left him with his father when he was eight because the old man could provide a more stable environment for him. Most of his family never approved of her. As an adult, he could see how being around the Morrisons had been very difficult for her. But as a child, he’d just missed her. She’d died in a car accident just six months after she’d left. A part of him had never recovered. As for his father, well, Jack Morrison wasn’t exactly warm. But up until the reading of the will, Justin would have said they got along well. Boy, were you wrong.

He and his cousin Martin had interned at the flagship property on Catalina Island. Justin’s father had always made it clear that Justin should be the one eventually running Morrison Hotels. Somehow Martin became the more favored and had shoved Justin out of what should have been his birthright.

That knowledge that his own father wouldn’t trust the Morrison legacy to him still burned, like a fire in his gut. It was what spurred him on. Prove the old man wrong. He’d always thought his father loved him. Then why cut you out? The fact that he could do that to him, shut him out without a word... The fact that Justin had to hear about it in the reading of the will, that was a special kind of hell.

Justin tugged open the door to the fourth floor from the stairwell and ran down to room 406. He found Martin, his uncle Lester, his aunt Mary and a few of the household staff who had been with his grandmother for years all around his grandmother’s room.

Grandma Lucy tried to push herself to sit straighter, but when she winced, he ran to her side. “I don’t think you’re supposed to move.” He turned his attention to Martin. “What happened? What did you do?” he yelled.

Martin rolled his eyes. “I didn’t do anything. I’m the one who found her collapsed in her office. I called an ambulance to get her to the hospital in LA. Then I called you, her precious grandson.” The note of jealousy rang clear as a bell.

From behind, a voice said, “If I were you two, I’d keep it down. Your grandmother needs rest. If you can’t give her that, I will have security escort you out.”

Justin turned to find a petite woman in a white lab coat, her dark hair pulled back off her face into a bun, her expression solemn. Her name tag read Dr. Jesslyn Wells.

“Are you my grandmother’s doctor?”

She gave a brusque nod. “Yes, I am. Now, can you and the rest of your family please give me some space so I can check my patient?” Her voice was stern, clipped. It told Justin that she was well versed in dealing with difficult people.

“I’m sorry.” The group backed away, but Justin moved to the foot of the bed. “I just don’t know what happened.”

Grandma Lucy waved her hand. “What happened is your cousin overreacted. My blood pressure’s just low, that’s all. I’m fine. I do not need to be in this hospital. Matter of fact, if you can get these IVs out of me, I’ll be on my way. I feel like a damn pincushion.”

Dr. Wells clucked as she checked his grandmother’s vitals, then wrote something on her clipboard. “Now, Lucy, we’ve had this conversation already. I’m not unhooking the machines. You need to stay for observation for at least a couple of days. You’re slightly dehydrated, and I’d like you to start eating a little bit more. Your blood pressure is low, and you’re fatigued. You really need to rest.”

Justin’s grandmother was having none of that. “Listen up, young lady, I’ve had more years on this planet by three times longer than you have. I know how I’m feeling. I was a nurse when I was young. So I know that I’ll be fine. You don’t need to keep me in here. You just want to bill insurance.”

Dr. Wells’s lips twitched. “Lucy, this is my area of expertise. I want to make sure you stick around to see any future great-grandchildren you may have. So I’m going to need you to listen to me right now.”

Justin had never seen anyone handle his grandmother so effectively. Because Grandma Lucy did not offer an argument. She frowned, closed her mouth and sat back. Dr. Wells had used the magic words. Great-grandchildren. His grandmother had been after him, Martin and their other cousins to procreate as quickly as possible. Justin was in no hurry. Hell, he was only twenty-five. Martin was older by a couple of years. She needed to direct her energy at him. The rest of their cousins were scattered in age, but there were some who were over thirty, and Grandma Lucy really should have been focused on them doing the marriage-and-kids rodeo. Not him, never him. He wasn’t going to mess up some poor kid, like his father had screwed him up. No way, no how. Plus, children involved settling down and that was certainly not going to happen. He liked his women available, flexible and transient.

Except Alex. Alex was different. She had been his best friend since college and was the most influential female in his life besides his grandma. And he liked her. There had never been anything between them. Which was their saving grace. Not that she wasn’t hot. She was. With those big brown eyes and dusting of freckles on her nose, Alex was gorgeous. In the beginning, he’d flirted with her, but she’d ignored him. Told him she couldn’t take him seriously. Best thing she could’ve ever done for the two of them. They were closer now than they would have been if she’d tried to explore the possibility of a relationship. He’d have slept with her, then run...very far away.