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

“Dr. Wells, can you tell us what happened or what’s going on?”

She sighed as she clicked her pen and tucked it back into her pocket. “Your grandmother is suffering from exhaustion. She’s been doing too much and taking on too much stress. Her blood pressure is all over the place. It was low and that’s why she collapsed, but since she’s been here...it’s spiked up, then shot down. I need to take a look at her medication. She will be fine, but she has to cut back from her daily activities and relax. That’s very important.”

The steel bar constricting his chest since Martin’s call loosened, but only a bit. “Okay, so what do we need to do for her?”

“Keep her relaxed, and her mind off the hotel business.” She put a hand up to stop his grandmother from talking and continued, “We don’t need her experiencing anxiety.”

Justin nodded. “Yeah, we can do that.” The relief washed over him like a tidal wave. All they had to do was keep her calm. That was his new number-one mission. He resided in San Diego, but with his hotel up and running now, and profitable after only a year, he could take more time away to see her; Catalina wasn’t far. He’d make the drive to LA, take the ferry over to the island and put in the quality time with her.

It sounded simple enough, except for one little fact... He never went home. Hadn’t gone home in a long time. But for Grandma Lucy, he could do it. He could put up with Martin and the rest of his family. For her, he’d do anything.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to continue making my rounds. Visiting hours are over in ten minutes, so now might be a good idea to say your goodbyes.”

As soon as Dr. Wells was gone, his grandmother started tugging at her IVs, and Justin put a hand over hers to halt her. “You heard the doctor. And you agreed. So stop that.” She grumbled but sat back, crossing her arms. “Now, Grandma, tell me what you need.” Whatever she wanted, he would make it work.

“I want everyone out.” Martin looked like he was going to protest, but she set her lips, and he knew better than to argue. When Justin made to go as well, she reached out an arm and held him back. “Not you.”

With everyone gone, he turned his attention to her. “What’s up, Grandma?”

“I didn’t want to go embarrassing you in front of the rest the family. I know how difficult it is for you to be around them. Especially Martin.”

And that was why he loved her. She would always go out of her way to protect him. “It’s okay, Grandma. Whatever you need.”

“Well, the doctor’s right. I do want to be around to see my future great-grandbabies. And given what’s happened, we can’t keep procrastinating things. I want my family around me. You haven’t been home in a long time. I want you to come for the holidays.”

Shit. That was last thing he wanted to do. Checking on her from time to time was one thing, but a big old holiday-family-dinner type thing? Not his bag. But it was for his grandmother. And she never did ask for much. “Okay, I’ll make that work.”

She nodded with satisfaction. “Good. I may not be able to travel for a while, so our trip up to Hawaii and my surf lessons will have to wait.”

He laughed. “Okay, I’ll take a rain check for now. But I think you’re gonna love it.”

“I don’t doubt it. Oh, and, Justin, make sure you bring that girlfriend of yours. I can’t believe I still haven’t met her. After all this time. I’d like to see the woman who’s going to be getting my ring one day.”

Oh no. He shifted on his feet. So what was the harm of one little white lie? And honestly, all he’d done was shield his grandmother from disappointment. Liar. He’d done it for himself. To keep her from meddling in his love life.

The woman was relentless. She kept insisting that he needed to be dating someone. Every time they’d been on one of their trips, she’d tried to set him up, so he’d made up a girlfriend. He never thought he’d have to produce her. But now she wanted to meet her. He was screwed.

“Oh, I don’t know, Grandma, she usually spends the holidays with her family.”

And then his grandmother pulled her trump card. Not only did she give him the big, sad brown eyes, but she sniffed. “You heard the doctor, Justin, I’m an old lady. I don’t need the stress. Now I want to meet her. I want to make sure she’s good enough for you.”

Damn it. “Okay, I’ll bring her with me over the holiday.” Now all he had to do was find someone who fit the bill. Because Grandma was too important for him to not make this happen.

* * *

Alexandra Winters was pretty sure this was not how osso buco was supposed to look. This wasn’t her fault. She didn’t cook. She did excellent takeout. Copious amounts of takeout. Cooking wasn’t her thing.

You have your first gallery opening to prepare for. You don’t need to be creating a dish for this man. Or rather, if she cared about him at all, she wouldn’t be attempting to make a meal.

His grandmother was in the hospital. And, since Justin was the closest thing to family that she had, she had to at least try to look out for him. Cooking was what you did, right? She’d learned about this ritual from movies. Not from her parents.

Her mother was always gallivanting around the world for her photographs, leaving Alex in the care of nannies when she was a child. And her father, he’d preferred his string of girlfriends to parenting, so she rarely saw him. She stared into the pot. Damn it. She’d screwed this up. But hey, it was the thought that counted, right? Besides, it wasn’t like Justin didn’t know that she couldn’t cook. They had no secrets. Except for the one she’d been holding on to for years.

From the moment they’d met, when he and his stupid frat brothers were trying to steal the fine-arts department’s founder’s statue, he’d known her through and through. And he’s been dragging you into his antics ever since.

Justin was good for her. She might be an artist, but most people told her she was far too serious. She never let go. Except in her art. Never had any fun. Yeah, fun was reserved for people who knew what the hell was going to happen the next day. Since she never knew growing up, she liked to have control over her destiny. Justin was the risk taker. He could go into any scenario without a plan and still come out smelling like roses.

The door to Justin’s condo swung open and immediately Justin started to cough. “Oh my God, did someone break in here and try to smoke me out of my own apartment?” He dropped his bag by the door and came running into the kitchen. “Alex, what the hell are you doing?”

She stopped stirring and turned to him. “I’m cooking?”

“Is that what we’re calling it?”

Alex wiped her hands on the apron, which had an attractive nearly naked guy on the front. “I was trying to make dinner so you didn’t feel too much pressure with everything happening.”

Justin stared at the stove for a long moment. Then his eyes darted to her, then back to the stove again. And finally, he just came over and wrapped his arms around her.

Alex automatically hugged him back. She didn’t normally do emotional displays. She wasn’t much of a hugger. The one exception was Justin. If he was giving out hugs, she was first in line to get one. Because you’re pathetic.

No, she wasn’t pathetic. They were friends. Best friends. Which is why you’ll never, ever be with him. She shook off the thought. She didn’t want to be with Justin. Liar. Okay, so there was a part of her that at one point had thought she could be with Justin. That part had died a long, slow, lonely death. It was never going to happen. Justin was not hers. He was her best friend, and she’d seen what happened to a woman who got too close to the flame. She was never getting burned like that. And the more honest she was with herself about that, the less getting embraces from Justin hurt on an emotional level.