Chapter 6
“Ivy! Oh, my goodness! I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve seen you!” Ross reached out and gave his cousin a big hug.
“I know!” Ivy, Holly’s sister, replied. “Wellfleet isn’t far away, but I guess it’s far enough!”
“Is Uncle John here, too?” Ross asked.
“Oh, you know my dad. He wouldn’t miss a party. He’s around here somewhere.” Ivy turned to the side. “Sorry, the kids need me. We’ll catch up, though!”
Ross waved as his cousin moved off. “I love how the holidays bring family back together, as well as a few new faces. Have you met Erin’s friend Chelsea, yet?”
“Hm? No.” Will looked down into his glass of rum punch. Paul had made another batch, and it seemed to be going over well. He’d hardly tasted the alcohol.
“No, I suppose you haven’t. You’re probably much more interested in Stacey’s friend, aren’t you?” Ross nudged Will with his elbow.
Looking up, Will easily spotted her across the room.
Julie was actually talking with Chelsea.
He’d been formally introduced, but it was true that he hadn’t paid much attention.
The Brigham clanhouse was packed to the gills for their big annual holiday party.
He’d been looking forward to it, especially since he’d spent so many years and so many Christmas seasons away from his family.
Some of that had been by choice and some had been because of his job, but either way, it should feel good to make up for lost time.
The only person he wanted to talk to, though, was Julie. He just didn’t know how.
The Brigham brothers stood together near the fireplace, and Dylan nudged Will from his other side. “You still letting the Malones get in your head?”
“The Malones?” Dex asked. “There’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.”
“I’d nearly forgotten about it myself,” Will admitted. “I guess you can never get away from your past completely.”
“Hang on.” Jace held baby Arden in a carrier, jiggling a little as his son was getting sleepy. “I’m trying to remember what your beef was with those guys.”
“Yeah, you were a bit younger so you weren’t involved with that very much,” Will recalled.
He’d seen it as solely his own problem back in those days, but he could see now that he’d affected much more than just his personal life.
“They’d given me a job with their fishing outfit.
It was a small business, but it’d been going steady for a long time. ”
“You were so excited for that,” Dylan remembered. “You thought that would be your ticket out of here, back when you still wanted to get away from the rest of us.”
It was hard to imagine he’d felt that way at one point, but being a teenager full of testosterone could make you think some crazy things.
“I did, and I also thought I knew everything. I’d stepped up to pilot one of their boats one day when we were shorthanded.
I insisted I knew what I was doing, and that it’d be no problem.
Greg Malone told me not to take the boat out near the rocks, but I did anyway.
I knew we could bring in a good haul if we went out near the point, rocks be damned.
I knew my way around there, and I figured they’d be shocked when I navigated it all without hitting a thing.
Instead, they were shocked when I ran that little boat straight into the rocks and ripped the hull into pieces.
The way it fell apart so quickly, it might as well have been made of aluminum foil, but that didn’t matter.
The damage was done. Literally.” Will took a swig of his rum punch, but he knew it wouldn’t make his feelings disappear.
He’d been so young and arrogant, and he’d tried to deflect the blame on everyone and everything but himself.
“Needless to say, I got fired and they were beyond pissed. That was the start of everything going downhill here for me.”
“And these guys have come out of the woodwork now?” Jace asked. “Hell. I’m not saying you were right, but you were just a kid.”
“I don’t think they give much of a shit.
The Malones heard I’m back in town and made it pretty clear that they’d prefer it if I weren’t.
” He rubbed the back of his neck. Will remembered the horror he’d felt when that boat had capsized under him, but even more clearly, he recalled the look on Julie’s face when those goons had approached their table.
“I wouldn’t worry about them,” Dylan said.
“You screwed up, but the Malones have always been all bark and no bite. They probably haven’t had any reason to fight anyone for a while, and they’ve got their hackles up over the holiday season.
It’s too happy and cheerful for them, so they want to ruin it for everyone else. ”
“I just don’t know how far they might go.” Will had never felt particularly threatened by anyone. His hubris has kept him from giving much of a shit. Now that Julie had entered the picture, though, he was looking at everything a bit differently.
“Have they said anything since?” Dex finished his glass of punch and looked at the bowl on the table, considering a refill.
“No, but it’s only been a day.” A very long day, as far as Will was concerned. The distance that’d opened up between himself and Julie felt like a canyon.
“I’d say that’s quick enough to get some damage control done,” Dylan suggested, gesturing slightly with his head toward Julie and the other woman where they stood chatting.
Whether he was reading his mind because he was Will’s twin or because he was the Alpha of the Brigham clan and knew his family well, Dylan was probably right.
Will’s bear certainly wasn’t appreciating the fact that he’d been avoiding Julie since they’d gotten back from P-town.
“Yeah. I guess we’ll find out.” He steeled himself with a sip of the rum punch as he left his brothers.
“Actually, no,” Barbara was saying. “There was one Christmas where Will insisted that he’d wait up for Santa.
He was only about seven or so, and I knew he’d fall asleep well before midnight.
I figured I’d let him stay right there by the Christmas tree where he wanted to be on guard, and I’d wait him out.
At about eleven or so I went to check on him, and—”
“Mom.” Will stepped forward. “I’m sure no one wants to hear about what I did when I was seven.”
His mother gave him a warm smile as she reached out and tweaked his ear. “We’re just talking about what our kids have done at Christmas. It’s a mom thing. You might not understand.”
“That’s right,” Carol chimed in. “In fact, there was one year when Stacey decided to eat everything in her stocking all at once. She found out that oranges and chocolates don’t mix well in the stomach first thing in the morning.”
“Mother,” Stacey warned, “I don’t think any more detail is necessary.”
Chelsea, a striking woman with red hair and big brown eyes, giggled as she bounced her toddler on her hip. “I’m glad my mom isn’t here. I don’t want to know what kind of stories she’d tell about me if she could.”
Erin grinned mischievously. “I’m sure I could come up with a few stories to tell about you.”
“I’ll be sure to return the favor if you do,” Chelsea returned with a laugh.
Will could feel Julie’s gaze on him all the while. When he swept his eyes over to her, she was quick to look away. Not quick enough to avoid being caught, though. He let the other women banter with each other as he moved closer to her. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”
“Sure.” She moved away from the group. “I was getting kind of chilly, actually, and was thinking about grabbing a sweater.”
“I’ll come with you.” He followed her up the stairs. Will hadn’t fixed things, not yet, but the fact that she was still willing to speak to him was a good start. “I see Dylan gave you one of the best rooms in the house.”
“It’s got a great view of the beach.” Julie opened the closet door and pulled out a cardigan.
He noted that she’d set up her laptop on the desk just below the window, where she could do a bit of work while enjoying the scenery.
She was only going to be there for a couple of weeks, but he could tell how much she’d made the room her own.
Her clothes were put away in the closet and the drawers.
A book sat on the nightstand next to a bottle of lotion and some lip balm.
The open bathroom door showed an array of cosmetics and hair products on the counter.
These were little things, but they made the room feel very much like her. It even smelled like her.
“Listen, I’m sorry things have been a bit awkward today,” she began as she pulled the cardigan on over her blouse. It was a bit big, and she wrapped it in front of her before folding her arms in over it against the cold.
The thin knit showed her figure off nicely, nearly distracting Will from his original reason for coming up there.
What she’d just said, however, caught him off guard enough that he glanced away from her curves.
“I’m the only one who should be sorry. It was my past that ruined what should’ve been a nice little excursion for us. ”
“But I overreacted,” she countered. “I live a pretty dull existence most of the time. It’s not very often that I have anything even remotely close to that happen, and I didn’t know how to handle it.”
“It scared you,” he said softly, knowing it was true. He’d felt her guard come up as she’d closed herself off to him, but it was only because she was afraid. “I want you to know it won’t happen again.”
She studied him, those deep eyes peering up into his. “I’ve been thinking about that a bit. I appreciate the sentiment, Will, but I don’t think you can guarantee such a thing.”