Chapter 12
Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.
—Pietro Aretino
Grayson stepped out into air so cold, it seared his lungs the way it used to on the long-ago winter mornings of his youth. It got damned cold in Boston, but not as cold as up here. This was a whole other level of cold, and he wondered if the air would be too frigid for what he had in mind.
Since he couldn’t disappoint Simone after promising her a surprise, he got in the car and drove to his mother’s house, where she was at the table with the morning paper and a cup of coffee.
“Look at what the cat dragged in,” she said.
“Morning.” He bent to kiss her cheek. “Did you hear we have a new baby in the family?”
“I did. Molly called me earlier to share the happy news. Where’d you sleep last night?”
“Aunt Molly’s sofa.”
“You’re spending a lot of time over there this week.”
“Yep.”
“What’s going on, Gray?”
“Why’re you asking me that when you already know what’s going on?”
“You’re getting awfully involved with a woman who lives so far from where you do.”
“I don’t actually live here yet.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” Grayson said, “that I’m keeping my options open.”
“Since when? You left Boston intending to open a practice here, and now your options are open?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Grayson… How well can you possibly know her after only a couple of days?”
“Better than I’ve ever known any woman.” As he said the words, he realized they were true. He’d shared more with her than he had with anyone he’d ever dated, and knew she’d done the same with him.
His mother stared at him. “You can’t be serious.”
“I hate to remind you that I’m thirty-six years old, and I certainly know the difference between something special and something not worth taking a chance on. This, with Emma and Simone, is something special.”
“And you already know that for sure.”
“I do.”
She shook her head. “I thought you were smarter than that.”
“It’s not fair for you to project your disappointments onto me or anyone else, for that matter. Just because it didn’t work out for you doesn’t mean anyone who takes a chance on love is a fool.”
“Wow. How long have you wanted to say that to me?”
“Only since you implied that I’m a fool for knowing something special and different when I encounter it.”
“It’s your life. I can’t and won’t tell you how to live it.”
“That’s good to know, but I’d like to think I’d have your support in whatever I choose to do with my life.”
“You always have.” She got up to refill her coffee cup. “I’m sorry if you feel that I’m not being supportive. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“I know that, but I refuse to live my life in fear of what might happen.”
“Fair enough.”
“Emma thinks you don’t like her.”
His mother turned to face him. “I don’t dislike her. I barely know her.”
“Give her a chance. For my sake. Please make her feel welcome in our family.”
“Of course I will, if she’s what you want.”
“I think she might be.”
“Just be careful not to risk more than you can afford to lose. I wouldn’t wish that kind of heartbreak on anyone, especially you.”
“I hear you. Do you have Lucas’s phone number handy?”
“Yeah, it’s in the book by the phone.”
“Great, thanks.”
“By the way, Noah called earlier, looking for you. He said he needs to talk to you about something.”
“He didn’t say what?”
“Not to me.”
“Okay, I’ll run by his house when I leave here.” Grayson placed the call to his cousin Lucas, asking for his help in securing the surprise for Simone.
“You’ve come to the right place,” Lucas said. “Meet me at the Christmas tree farm in an hour. I’ll set you up.”
“You’re the best. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
Grayson went upstairs to shower and shave. In the bottom drawer of the dresser that’d been his until he left for college, he uncovered an old set of thermal underwear and put that on under his clothes.
In the downstairs closet, he found a wool blanket and the parka he kept at his mother’s for skiing and other winter activities in Vermont.
“I made muffins earlier if you want to take some,” his mother said when he returned to the kitchen.
“Chocolate chip?”
“Is there any other kind?”
“Not in this house. I’d love to take a few.”
She packed them up for him and handed him a bag.
Grayson kissed her forehead. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Have a nice time.”
“I will. See you later.” He went out to his SUV and stashed the blanket and muffins in the backseat and then drove down the street to Noah’s house, parking behind the big truck his brother used for work.
Noah met him at the door, wearing his usual winter uniform of plaid flannel and jeans.
His dark blond hair was wet from a recent shower and his face freshly shaven, but as usual since his divorce, his gray eyes were wary and an aura of bitterness surrounded him that reminded Gray of their mother.
“Come in,” he said to Grayson. “You want coffee?”
“I wouldn’t mind one more cup.”
Noah poured the coffee and put it on the kitchen table along with a container of half-and-half. “You want sugar?”
“Nah, the cream is fine. Mom said you wanted to see me?”
Noah leaned back against the counter and took a sip of his own coffee. “I saw Dad.”
Shocked, Grayson said, “Where?”
“I was up in Westmore for a job. Ran into him at a lunch place there.”
“He’s living in freaking Westmore?” Could he really be that close to the family he’d abandoned?
“Apparently, he’s been there all along. He said he tried to reach you through your office in Boston.”
Grayson tried to wrap his brain around that info. “No, he didn’t. They would’ve told me if anyone tried to reach me.”
“He didn’t leave a message.”
“What’d he want?”
“To tell us he’s sick. He has leukemia.”
“Oh.” Grayson had no idea how he was supposed to feel about that.
“And he wanted to know if we’d consider being tested for a potential bone marrow transplant.”
Grayson heard the words his brother said, but his brain refused to process them. His dad needed a bone marrow transplant, and he wanted the children he’d abandoned twenty years ago to be tested.
“Gray?”
He looked at his brother. “What about his siblings?”
“None of them were a match.”
“What did you say when he asked you?”
“Nothing, really. He gave me his number and told me to call him if anyone would be willing.”
“I can’t even believe he’d have the nerve to ask us.”
“I suppose nerve doesn’t factor in when facing a possibly terminal illness.”
“I won’t do it. I wouldn’t cross the street to talk to him let alone give him my fucking bone marrow.”
“Fair enough.”
“What does that mean? You’re going to do it?”
“Haven’t decided yet. We need to tell the others. Everyone can make up their own minds.”
“I’ll let you spread the word. I want nothing to do with it.”
“Okay.”
Grayson drained his coffee cup and got up to put it in the sink. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“Any time.”
He couldn’t get out of there fast enough and took greedy deep breaths of the cold air, wishing he could pretend the last ten minutes had never happened.
He was far better off not knowing where his father was or anything else for that matter.
And for Mike Coleman to expect his children to step up for him when he’d abandoned them…
The very thought of it sparked the kind of red-hot rage he hadn’t felt in years and would be happy to never experience again.
On the ride to the family’s tree farm, Grayson tried not to think about what Noah had told him, but he couldn’t seem to let it go no matter how badly he wanted to.
That their father would even ask such a thing of them was unbelievable.
He wished he’d told Noah not to inform their six siblings.
Let their father go straight to hell, for all he cared.
When he arrived at the tree farm stables, Lucas already had the barn doors open for him.
Grayson took a moment to calm down and get back into the right frame of mind to orchestrate a fun outing for Emma and Simone.
Under no circumstances would he ever want either of them to see the rage that only his father could generate in him.
He took a deep breath and let it out before he emerged from the car.
As he approached the building, Lucas came out to greet him, gesturing to the horse-drawn sleigh they kept on hand for the holiday season at the farm.
He already had the horses harnessed and everything ready to go.
Lucas lived in the apartment over the barn while his twin brother, Landon, oversaw the tree farm.
“You already did all the work,” Grayson said to his younger cousin.
“I can do it in my sleep,” Lucas said. “What would take you an hour took minutes for me.”
“I appreciate it.”
“You remember how to drive this rig, city boy?”
His family loved to call him that, and Grayson knew better than to admit that it bugged him sometimes. That would only encourage them. “It’s like riding a bike. Once you know, you never forget.”
“Where you heading?”
“Back to your parents’ house to pick up Emma and Simone and then to the trails in the back woods.”
“That’ll be nice today.”
“I thought so, too.”
“So… You and Emma, huh?”
“I was hoping you’d missed that part.”
“No such luck. She’s really sweet, and her daughter is, too.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
“Landon and I tried to get her to fall in love with us, but it wasn’t to be, and then Colton ruined all our fun and told us we had to leave her alone.”
Hearing Lucas had wanted Emma made Grayson want to punch the smirk off his cousin’s face. Apparently, he didn’t hide his reaction very well.
Laughing, Lucas held up his hands. “All in good fun. I swear.”
“I hear you.”
“You really like her, huh?”
“I really do.”
“That’s cool. Good for you. If she’s anything like Lucy, you’re a lucky man.”
Eager to move on from talking about his love life, Grayson said, “Thanks again for this.”
“Any time. I’ll be around when you get back to help you put up the horses.”
“I can do it if you’ve got other stuff to do.”