One Night Before Christmas. Robyn Grady
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Cavallo, CFO of a textile conglomerate that spanned the globe. Like a recovering addict, his hands itched for a fix...for the pulse-pumping, mentally stimulating, nonstop schedule that he understood so intimately.
He knew people used workaholic as a pejorative term, often with a side order of pitying glances and shakes of the head. But, honest to God, he didn’t see anything wrong with having passion for a job and doing it well. It irritated the hell out of him to imagine all the balls that were being dropped in his absence. Not that Luc and the rest of the team weren’t as smart as he was...it wasn’t that.
Leo, however, gave Cavallo his everything.
In December, the prep work began for year-end reports. Who was paying attention to those sorts of things while Leo was AWOL? It often became necessary to buy or sell some smaller arms of the business for the appropriate tax benefit. The longer he thought about it, the more agitated he became. He could feel his blood pressure escalating.
As every muscle in his body tensed, he had to force himself to take deep breaths, to back away from an invisible cliff. In the midst of his agitation, an inquisitive squirrel paused not six inches from Leo’s boot to scrabble in the dirt for an acorn. Chattering his displeasure with the human who had invaded his territory, the small animal worked furiously, found the nut and scampered away.
Leo smiled. And in doing so, felt the burden he carried shift and ease. He inhaled sharply, filling his lungs with clean air. As a rule, he thrived on the sounds of traffic and the ceaseless hum of life in a big city. Yet even so, he found himself noticing the stillness of the woods. The almost imperceptible presence of creatures who went about their business doing whatever they were created to do.
They were lucky, Leo mused wryly. No great soul-searching for them. Merely point A to point B. And again. And again.
He envied them their singularity of purpose, though he had no desire to be a hamster on a wheel. As a boy, his teachers had identified him as gifted. His parents had enrolled him in special programs and sent him to summer camps in astrophysics and geology and other erudite endeavors.
All of it interested and engaged him, but he never quite fit in anywhere. His size and athletic prowess made him a target of suspicion in the realm of the nerds, and his academic successes and love for school excluded him from the jock circle.
His brother became, and still was, his best friend. They squabbled and competed as siblings did, but their bond ran deep. Which was why Leo was stuck here, like a storybook character, lost in the woods. Because Luc had insisted it was important. And Leo owed his brother. If Luc believed Leo needed this time to recover, then it was probably so.
Rising to his feet and stretching, he shivered hard. After his strenuous exercise, he had sat too long, and now he was chilled and stiff. Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to see Phoebe. He couldn’t share his soul-searching and his minor epiphanies with her, because he hadn’t yet come clean about his health. But he wanted to be with her. In any way and for any amount of time fate granted him.
Though it was not his way, he made an inward vow to avoid the calendar and to concentrate on the moment. Perhaps there was more to Leo Cavallo than met the eye. If so, he had two months to figure it out.
* * *
Phoebe couldn’t decide whether to cry or curse when Leo finally came through the door, his tall, broad silhouette filling the doorway. Her giddy relief that he was okay warred with irritation because he had disappeared for so long without an explanation. Of course, if he had been living in his own cabin, she would not have been privy to his comings and goings.
But this was different. He and Phoebe were cohabiting. Which surely gave her some minimal rights when it came to social conventions. Since she didn’t have the guts to chastise him, her only choice was to swallow her pique and move forward.
As he entered and kicked off his muddy boots, he smiled sheepishly. “Have you already eaten?”
“Yours is warming in the oven.” She returned the smile, but stayed seated. It wasn’t necessary to hover over him like a doting housewife. Leo was a big boy.
Teddy played with a plastic straw while Phoebe enjoyed a second cup of coffee. As Leo joined her at the table, she nodded at his plate. “Your friend is a genius. Please thank him for me. Though I’m sure I’ll be ruing the additional calories.”
Leo dug into his food with a gusto that suggested he had walked long and hard. “You’re right. I’ve even had him cater dinner parties at my home. Makes me very popular, I can tell you.”
As he finished his meal, Phoebe excused herself to put a drooping Teddy down for his nap. “I have a white noise machine I use sometimes in his room, so I think we’ll be able to get the boxes down without disturbing him,” she said. “And if he takes a long afternoon nap like he sometimes does, we can get a lot of the decorating done if you’re still up for it.”
Leo cocked his head, leaning his chair back on two legs. “I’m definitely up for it,” he said, his lips twitching.
She couldn’t believe he would tease about their recent insanity. “That’s not funny.”
“You don’t have to tell me.” He grinned wryly. “I realize in theory that couples with young children have sex. I just don’t understand how they do it.”
His hangdog expression made Phoebe burst into laughter, startling Teddy, who had almost fallen asleep on her shoulder. “Well, you don’t have to worry about it,” she said sharply, giving him a look designed to put him in his place. “All I have on the agenda this afternoon is decking the halls.”
* * *
Leo had seldom spent as much time alone with a woman as he had with Phoebe. He was beginning to learn her expressions and to read them with a fair amount of accuracy. When she reappeared after settling the baby, her excitement was palpable.
“The pull-down steps to the attic are in that far corner over there.” She dragged a chair in that direction. “I’ll draw the cord and you get ready to steady the steps as they come down.”
He did as she asked, realizing ruefully that this position put him on eye level with her breasts. Stoically, he looked in the opposite direction. Phoebe dragged on the rope. The small framed-off section of the ceiling opened up to reveal a very sturdy set of telescoping stairs.
Leo grabbed the bottom section and pulled, easing it to the floor. He set his foot on the first rung. “What do you want me to get first?”
“The order doesn’t really matter. I want it all. Except for the tree. That can stay. Here,” she said, handing him a flashlight from her pocket. “I almost forgot.”
Leo climbed, using the heavy flashlight to illuminate cobwebs so he could swat them away. Perhaps because the cabin was fairly new, or maybe because Phoebe was an organized sort, her attic was not a hodgepodge of unidentified mess. Neatly labeled cardboard cartons and large plastic tubs had been stacked in a tight perimeter around the top of the stairs within easy reach.
Some of the containers were fairly heavy. He wondered how she had managed to get them up here. He heard a screech and bent to stick his head out the hole. “What’s wrong?”
Phoebe shuddered. “A spider. I didn’t think all this stuff would have gotten so icky in just three years.”
“Shall I stop?”
She grimaced. “No. We might as well finish. I’ll just take two or three showers when we’re done.”
He tossed her a small box that was light as a feather. In neat black marker, Phoebe had labeled Treetop Angel. When she caught it, he grinned at her. “I’d be glad to help with that body check. I’ll search the back of your hair for creepy-crawlies.”
“I can’t decide if that’s revolting or exciting. Seems like you made a similar offer when you were convincing me to let you stay. Only then, you promised to kill hypothetical bugs.”
“Turns out I was right, doesn’t it?” He returned