Read Online The Night Before Christmas by Mary McNear - Free Book Online

elsewhere’s name?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œWhat’s the name of the woman you’ll be spending Christmas with?”
    â€œOh. Brandi. Brandi with an i .”
    â€œOf course it’s with an i .”
    â€œNo need to be snooty,” Reid objected.
    â€œWhere’d you meet her?”
    â€œAt the gym.”
    Walker sighed and rubbed his eyes.
    â€œAgain with the snootiness,” Reid said. “There’s nothing wrong with meeting someone at a gym. I mean, it’s probably better than meeting a woman at a bar. You’d be amazed, Walker, how much you can learn about someone just from working out next to her.”
    Walker didn’t answer. He was still rubbing his eyes.
    â€œAnyway, Brandi and I are leaving Christmas Eve to fly to Miami. I’ve booked a hotel suite with a private deck, because Brandi wants to sunbathe topless, and I want to . . . well, I want to watch Brandi sunbathe topless. And trust me, Walker, she is so worth watching.”
    â€œAnd that’s it? That’s how you’re going to celebrate Christmas?”
    â€œWell, the room comes with a Jacuzzi, too. And a full bar.”
    Walker’s irritation turned, unexpectedly, to sadness. “Reid, when was the exact moment that you became a cliché?” he asked his brother. “Seriously, I’d like to know, because I think I somehow missed it.”
    But Reid was done with this part of the conversation. “I’m going to ignore that last remark,” he said blithely. “But I want you to know that I sent a box of presents today, and it included a very expensive bottle of whiskey for you, which I expect you to save and drink with me. And I sent Wyatt a Minnesota Twins jersey, and I sent something for Allie and the baby, too. How are they doing, by the way, mother and soon-­to-­be child?”
    â€œThey’re . . . they’re doing all right,” Walker said.
    â€œJust all right?”
    â€œNo, they’re doing fine. I’m just . . . I’m just worried about them, that’s all.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œI don’t know. There’s just . . . there’s just things that can go wrong now, at this stage of pregnancy,” Walker said, feeling it again. That gnawing sense of dread that had been visiting him, lately, every once in a while.
    â€œWhat are you talking about? I saw Allie last month,” Reid said. “She looked amazing. And she said the baby was kicking up a storm. They both seemed fine. Better than fine.”
    â€œAs far as we know, they are both fine. It’s what we don’t know, what we can’t know , that’s worrying me. I mean, there’s all this stuff that can happen in the third trimester, Reid. Things I’d never even heard of before. And it happens all the time. In perfectly normal pregnancies. Preeclampsia, for one thing,” he said, hating the very sound of the word.
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œIt’s something that can lead to seizures, and kidney failure, and . . .” He stopped. It was too terrible to say out loud.
    â€œAnd what?” Reid prompted.
    He sighed, rubbed his eyes again, and lowered his voice, almost to a whisper. “And, very rarely, it can lead to death. Of the mother and baby.”
    â€œWalker, I think very rarely are the key words there. Besides, it’s the twenty-­first century, and we’re living in a developed country. There’s a test for something like that, isn’t there? For preeclampsia? And when it does happen, there must be a treatment for it, too.”
    â€œBut, Reid, that’s not the only thing that can go wrong. There’s also something called—­”
    â€œOkay, stop, ” Reid commanded. “Just . . . stop. This sounds crazy. Walk, this isn’t like you. Where are you even getting all this information?”
    â€œOff the Internet,” Walker admitted.