A Temporary Christmas Arrangement Read online

  “Men have kind of taken a back seat in my life, you know?”

  He got that. In a lot of ways, he was the same—minus the big family and the sister who was also a best friend. He had loved his sister, but once they grew up, they’d chosen different paths. Until Megan and Kevin went down in that plane, his life had centered on Stryker Marine.

  “What about you?” she asked. “Anyone special?”

  He’d figured that was coming. Still, he hesitated, though he knew it would be better just to put it right out there. Rip the bandage off, so to speak.

  “Trying to decide how much to say?” she teased.

  He went ahead and busted himself. “You got me.”

  Her big eyes had grown wary. “So there is someone, then?”

  “No—but I was engaged until recently.”

  She blinked. Probably not a good sign. “How recently?”

  “We broke up last Friday.”

  * * *

  THE BRAVOS OF VALENTINE BAY: They’re finding love—and having babies!—in the Pacific Northwest

  Dear Reader,

  It’s a bittersweet Christmas for Harper Bravo—the last Christmas she’ll be living in Valentine Bay, Oregon. Yes, she loves her hometown and her large family. But it’s time for a new start in the big city. In February, she’s moving to Seattle, where she will be changing careers.

  For Portland-based shipping magnate Lincoln Stryker, it’s a Christmas like no other. This year, Linc lost a sister—and became guardian and stand-in dad to her two beautiful children. He wants to give five-year-old Jayden and two-year-old Maya the perfect Christmas in the Stryker family cottage on the edge of the Pacific in Valentine Bay, just him and the kids sharing the holidays the way he and his sister did way back when. There’s only one little problem. Linc might possibly have taken on more than he can deliver.

  But then he meets the gorgeous woman next door. Harper is not only down-to-earth and a lot of fun, she’s great with the kids. He offers her a job as temporary nanny. Harper, who is saving money for her big move, says yes.

  Neither of them wants to mess with the program. But the attraction between them is sizzling hot. They shouldn’t...and they promise each other they won’t. But after all, it’s Christmastime. And in the magic of the season, how can it possibly be a bad idea to follow where their hearts lead them?

  I hope Harper and Linc’s story warms your heart, makes you laugh and maybe has you wiping away a tear or two.

  Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah and a glorious Kwanzaa to one and all,

  Christine

  A TEMPORARY CHRISTMAS ARRANGEMENT

  Christine Rimmer

  www.millsandboon.com.au

  CHRISTINE RIMMER came to her profession the long way around. She tried everything from acting to teaching to telephone sales. Now she’s finally found work that suits her perfectly. She insists she never had a problem keeping a job—she was merely gaining “life experience” for her future as a novelist. Christine lives with her family in Oregon. Visit her at christinerimmer.com.

  For MSR, always.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from His Last-Chance Christmas Family by Michelle Major

  Chapter One

  The drive from Portland to Valentine Bay started out just as Lincoln Stryker had been certain it would. Both kids seemed happy. Linc had everything under control.

  A glance in the rearview mirror revealed five-year-old Jayden in the car seat directly behind Linc. The boy gazed dreamily out the window.

  Jayden was a talker. He might be lazily watching the world go by, but he didn’t do it silently. Not Jayden. He chattered nonstop. “Uncle Linc, I hope the nice ladies next door are home. Did you meet the nice ladies?”

  Had he? Linc had no clue. Probably not. “At the cottage, you mean?”

  “Yes. They are Harper and Hailey and I like them a lot.”

  “I don’t think I’ve met them.” Linc hadn’t been to his family’s seaside cottage in more than a decade. His hazy, fond memories of the place didn’t include the neighbors.

  And as it turned out, Jayden didn’t care if Linc knew the “nice ladies” or not. The little boy babbled on, “Harper and Hailey are sisters and they are so much fun. I was only four last Christmas, but I ’member. I ’member everything. I ’member they came over to play and they helped me make a snowman—and that ’minds me. There should be snow, Uncle Linc. There should be snow, and Harper and Hailey can help me make a snowman. Will you help, too?”

  Linc took his eyes off the road long enough to cast a quick look over his right shoulder at two-year-old Maya in the other car seat. She was already asleep, her plush stuffed pig, Pebble, clutched in her chubby little arms.

  “Uncle Linc, will you help me make my snowman?” Jayden asked more insistently.

  Linc faced the road again, caught Jayden’s eye in the rearview and winked at him. “Absolutely, I will.”

  “Good. And don’t forget the Christmas tree...”

  “I won’t.”

  “I ’member last year we had a tall one.”

  Linc felt a sharp pang of sadness. “I’m sure you did.” Megan—Jayden’s mom and Linc’s only sibling—had always required a real tree, a tall one.

  “I want one like that this year, too, Uncle Linc.”

  “A tall one, it is.” Megan Hollister had loved Christmas. For all her too-short life, she’d insisted that the holidays should be spent at the Stryker family cottage on the coast.

  “We have to put on all the lights,” Jayden said. “All the lights and the red shiny balls and the little toy soldiers and the angel on the very top...”

  Linc pushed his sadness aside and focused on the wide, gently curving road ahead as Jayden happily chattered away. The kid was intrepid in the best sense of the word. Nothing got him down.

  And Linc would do everything in his power to make sure that Jayden—and Maya, too—had a good Christmas this year, the kind of Christmas Megan would have given them if she were still here. It was going to be Linc and his niece and nephew, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. Family only, the way Megan would have wanted it.

  The kids’ grandma Jean had tried to convince Linc that he would need a nanny at the cottage, especially if he hoped to work remotely. Jean Hollister was a wonderful woman. Jayden and Maya adored her—rightfully so. But Jean didn’t know everything.

  Linc and Jayden and Maya would manage just fine. No nanny required until after Christmas, when they returned to Portland and Linc went back to the office full-time.

  “Uncle Linc, I’m hungry...”

  “You think maybe you can hold on until we get to the cottage?”

  “I’ll try...” Jayden lasted exactly three minutes. “Uncle Linc, my tummy is growling...”

  They were just passing Hillsboro, so there were still plenty of fast-food places with drive-throughs. Linc pulled into the next one.

  As he rolled down the window to put in Jayden’s order, Maya jolted awake with a startled little whimper. She fussed as they moved on to the pickup window, where Jayden’s snack waited.

  A few m
inutes later, they rolled out onto the road again. Maya had not stopped fussing. But with any luck, she would be lulled back to sleep by the ride.

  Ten minutes later, Maya’s whines had turned to all-out wails. Linc pulled off at the next opportunity and checked her diaper. It was wet, so he changed it.

  Jayden waited until they were back on the road to mention that he really, really had to pee.

  It went on like that. One thing after another, a classic car-ride-with-the-kids experience. What with stopping to offer comfort to whichever child was upset, change a loaded diaper, get Jayden another snack and then, soon after, yet another potty break, the hour-and-a-half drive took almost twice that long.

  When Linc finally pulled the Range Rover in at the cottage on the wooded bluffs above the ocean in Valentine Bay, it was after three and the shadows had grown longer. It would be dark by five.

  And Maya had started crying again.

  Jayden just kept on talking. “We’re here! I want to see the nice ladies. I want to go get the Christmas tree...”

  “One thing at a time, Jayden.” In the phone holder, Linc’s cell lit up. Again. He let it go to voice mail. Already, he’d ignored several calls from the office, where they damn well ought to be able to get through one day without him.

  He needed to unload the car, get the kids inside; settle them down a little; turn on the water, the power and the heat; and put something together for dinner—and okay, fine. Maybe he should have listened to Jean and considered bringing help.

  At the very least, he could have called the property manager to get the water running, the lights on and the place warmed up.

  But he hadn’t. Because it was tradition, after all. The Strykers might be one of the wealthiest families in Oregon, a fortune built on four generations of running Stryker Marine Transport coupled with smart investment strategies, but when Christmastime came around, having money running out their ears didn’t matter.

  At the cottage, Linc’s family did for themselves. His happiest childhood memories were in Valentine Bay. At the cottage, he and Megan had almost felt like they belonged to a regular family, the kind where the mom and dad actually cared about each other and spent time with their kids.

  And damn it, he could do this.

  He would do this.

  He just needed to take it one step at a time.

  First up: try to settle the wailing Maya down a little.

  Jayden announced, “I’m gonna get out and—”

  “Jayden.”

  “What, Uncle Linc?”

  “I need you to stay in your car seat for a few minutes. Will you do that for me?”

  Jayden wrinkled his nose, like the idea of staying put smelled bad. “There’s french fries under my butt.”

  “We’ll deal with that, I promise. For right now, though, just sit tight.”

  Maya had sailed past crying and straight on to wailing. “Unc Winc!” she screamed, and threw her beloved stuffed pig on the floor.

  “She’s hurting my ears!” whined Jayden. Ever resourceful, he stuck his fingers in them. “There.” He let out a long sigh. “That’s better.”

  Linc flashed the boy a big thumbs-up, after which he climbed from the car, ran around to Maya’s door and extricated the unhappy toddler from her seat. “Here we go, sweetheart.” He hoisted her into his arms.

  She grabbed him around the neck and screamed all the louder, burying her sweaty little face in the crook of his shoulder, smearing him with snot and unhappy tears.

  He stroked her dark, baby-fine curls and soothed, “Shh, now. It’s okay...”

  Pulling open the front passenger door, Linc laid her on the seat and somehow managed, through her layers of winter clothing, to get two fingers down the back of her diaper. It was a bold and dangerous move, but it turned out all right. She hadn’t soiled her diaper, which meant her two-year-old molars were probably acting up again.

  Maya confirmed the problem, pressing small fingers to her jaw. “Hurt, Unc Winc.” She needed a cold washcloth to chew on, but he couldn’t give her one until they were inside the cottage and he’d turned on the water. Jean had taught him to stick his fingers in her mouth and massage the area. But he hated to do that without washing his hands first.

  “I’ll help,” announced Jayden, and snapped himself out of his car seat before Linc could order him to stay put.

  Which was okay, come to think of it. “You’re the best, Jayden. Get that blue chew thing out of the front of her diaper bag...” It was soft silicone and shaped to fit in the back of her mouth.

  Jayden crouched in the footwell to dig around in the bag. “Got it!” Beaming proudly, he handed the teething toy over the seat to Linc.

  “Great job—now, stay close,” Linc warned. When left to his own devices, Jayden sometimes went off “adventuring.”

  “I will, Uncle Linc...”

  “Thanks.” Linc gave the screaming little one her chew toy. She knew what to do, sticking it into her mouth with a sad little moan, holding the soft handle while chewing the business end into the spot she needed it, all the way in back. The silence that followed was golden. “Better?” he asked.

  Her expression relaxed and she made a soft, contented sound as she worked the toy inside her mouth.

  He glanced over the seat at Jayden again. “Can you hand me Maya’s baby sling?”

  “Yep.” The little boy dug out the sling and passed it to Linc.

  Linc thanked him enthusiastically and then got down to the business of putting Maya into the sling, all nice and cozy against his chest. She was still small enough to carry that way—though she wouldn’t be for long. He spoke to her softly as she chewed on the blue toy and stared up at him with so much trust in those big brown eyes.

  Megan’s eyes...

  The sadness dragged at him again. He refused to surrender to it. Megan and Kevin were gone. But they lived on through Maya and Jayden—and Linc would do whatever it took to give his niece and nephew a happy childhood and a decent start in life.

  Maya, attached to the front of him now, chewed away on her teething toy and reached up her free hand to gently pat his cheek.

  His heart suddenly too big for his chest, he smiled down at her. “Okay, then, sweetheart. Let’s go on into the...”

  Was it suddenly much too quiet?

  He glanced into the back seat, where Jayden’s door gaped wide-open. The boy was no longer crouched in the footwell and, except for a few smashed fries, his car seat sat empty. “Jayden?”

  No answer.

  “Jayden!”

  Silence.

  Maya stared up at him, eyes wide as saucers. She made a tiny, anxious sound. “It’s okay,” he soothed her, rubbing her back as he turned in a circle, his gaze probing the shadows between the giant Douglas firs that loomed all around. “Jayden!”

  Again, no answer. Linc’s heart pounded the walls of his chest and his pulse roared in his ears.

  He’d only taken his attention off the kid for a minute or two, tops. And yet somehow, in that those minutes, he’d vanished.

  “Jayden?”

  Still no answer. Linc tamped down a hard spurt of adrenaline-boosted terror. No reason to lose it yet. Jayden couldn’t have gone far.

  * * *

  In the rambling family-owned cottage she used to share with her sister, Harper Bravo stared into the wide-open fridge and tried to decide what to have for dinner. Nothing looked good. She was just about to check the freezer when the doorbell rang.

  Company. Her mood brightened. Harper had yet to become accustomed to living alone. She would love a little company, even old Angus McTerly, who lived two cottages south and had no doubt lost track of his wandering dog, Mitsy.

  But it wasn’t Angus. She pulled the door wide and found little Jayden Hollister, whom she hadn’t seen since last Christmas, waiting on the step.

&nb
sp; “Hi, Harper.” He threw his arms wide and beamed up at her from under the blue hood of his down jacket. “It’s me!”

  “Jayden. What a surprise.”

  “Is Hailey here, too?”

  “Um, not right now.” The boy, who’d grown a good three inches since the last time she’d seen him, appeared to be on his own. Whoever was supposed to be watching him probably wondered where he’d gotten off to. “Jayden, are you all by yourself?”

  He tipped his head to the side and looked up at her through a fringe of thick, dark eyelashes. “Not ezackly...” And he launched into a chatty little monologue about his uncle and his sister and how they were all in the car for “a reeeely long time.” From there, he segued into how he hoped it would snow and there could be a snowman like last year. “And we will be here all the way to New Year’s Day, Harper, so can I be in the Christmas show again and you can make me an elf suit like you did before?” Harper and her sister Hailey put on several community events a year at the Valentine Bay Theatre downtown—and Jayden had quite the memory for a five-year-old.

  “Did you say your uncle is here with you?”

  “Yes!”

  “Let me check with him about the Christmas show, okay?”

  “Okay!”

  She stuck her phone in her pocket and grabbed her old wool Pendleton from the hook by the door. When she wiggled her fingers at him, Jayden took her hand. “Tell you what. Let’s go on back to your cottage, shall we? Your uncle is probably wondering where you are.”

  “All right, let’s go!” Jayden skipped along beside her as they took the narrow, tree-lined path that led to the next cottage north of hers.

  Halfway there, a handsome and harried-looking man appeared from around the next bend. He had a second child strapped to his chest in a baby sling—undoubtedly Maya, who was about two years old now. And the hot guy? The uncle in question, the one who took guardianship of the children when their parents had died so tragically last January.

  Like most people in town, Harper had read about the plane crash in the news. Such a heartbreaking story, and it must be so hard for the family—the two innocent kids, especially. But for the uncle, as well. He’d lost his sister and his brother-in-law. Harper understood that kind of loss from firsthand experience.