Read Online My Kind of Christmas by Robyn Carr - Free Book Online Page B

Adams is great, thanks.”
    “Chili’s ready and keeping warm, but take off your jacket and relax by the fire for a while first.”
    “Wow—this place is awesome,” she said, looking around the great room. “No wonder you wanted to take a little R and R here.”
    He fetched a couple of beers and joined her on the couch. “My brother’s wife practically rebuilt the place out of a shack a couple of years ago.” He handed her a beer.
    “You’re a good friend, you know. It’s too bad your friend, Marie’s husband, doesn’t get a chance to see what an excellent friend you are, calling her every day.”
    Oh, he’d be very surprised, Patrick thought. What would Jake think of Patrick nurturing the idea of picking up where he’d left off? But he said, “He’d expect nothing less. And if I’d left a wife and child, he’d do the same. We’ve been tight since the Academy. Almost fifteen years. We haven’t always been stationed together, but it never mattered.” He couldn’t help it, he looked down. “I wish we hadn’t been assigned together a couple of months ago.”
    “I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.”
    “What if it was?” he shot back. He wiped a hand over his face. “Okay, we shouldn’t go there. The investigation showed it was hostile, but I was responsible for him. If I’m still a little scarred, it’s probably reasonable. Quick, use your young, nubile, med student mind to change the subject to safer territory.”
    She grinned suddenly. “You find my mind nubile?”
    Right, he thought, like every other part of you. Then he remembered that while she might look quite young, she was brilliant. She’d catch everything.
    “All right,” she said. “Tell me about what you were like growing up and how it was with four older brothers, all very close in age.”
    “On one condition,” he said. “You have to promise not to ask any of them the same question.”
    “And why is that?”
    “Because they will tell stories.”
    “I’m not sure I can promise that,” she said with a laugh. “Come on.”
    “Well, being the youngest, they protected me all my life, but the price was very high. They’d always be there for me, but they’d never let me forget a single slip or embarrassing moment. I’m thirty-three and I’m still hearing about the night I got caught making out at my girlfriend’s house. By her mom and dad.”
    She looked a little nonplussed. “That’s not exactly original. Everyone’s been caught kissing.”
    “Her sweater was in my hand and her bra was draped over the lampshade. They came home early....”
    She laughed happily. “More,” she demanded.
    “I peed on the side of a highway patrolman’s car.”
    “Awww, well, little boys sometimes have lapses in judgment like that.”
    “I was twenty-five. And had been out with my brothers. I blame them.”
    “It sounds like they taught you everything you know. I was wondering about when you were much younger.”
    “It’s not good stuff. I was the last one to give up a binky, the slowest to potty train, was lost several times—once requiring police intervention—and my mother thought I’d be taking my blanket with me to football camp. It suggests I liked being the baby. I didn’t pay attention in school until my football and basketball careers were on the line, which started in junior high. But I was always very nice.”
    “What do you mean by that? Nice?”
    “As my mother said, I knew where to butter my bread. Luke said I was a little con artist, Colin called me the family phony, Sean said I was an ass kisser, but Aiden always liked me and found me sincere. Aiden was the only one who was wrong. I was definitely a kiss ass.”
    This made her laugh and, since he liked the sound, he went on. “By the time I was ten, Luke had enlisted. When I was twelve, Colin went in, both of them Army warrant officers who flew helicopters. When I was fourteen Sean had an Air Force Academy slot with a pipeline to a flying job—you can only