A Very Merry Christmas: WITH "Do You Hear What I Hear" AND "Bah Humbug, Ba by Lori Foster, Janice Maynard, Gemma Bruce Read Free Book Online

didn’t he give her the same consideration? Surely it was as she suspected—that he did care for her but wanted to protect himself.
    The questions uppermost in her mind were: Why? And who had hurt him?
    “In fact,” he said, as much to himself as her, “I’ll just let the idiot follow us all the way to the donkey’s home. Once I don’t have to worry about the animal, it’ll be easier for me to take care of this.”
    After a bite of her donut, Marci licked her fingers free of glaze. “Take care of it how?”
    “Don’t push me, Marci.”
    “It was a simple question.”
    “Yeah, well keep your fingers out of your mouth and your tongue where I can’t see it.”
    Oh. So that’s what he meant by pushing him. Feeling a little devilish, Marci took another bite of her donut. “So…Do I spend Christmas with you? Will you honor the bet?”
    “We never actually shook on it or anything.”
    She wouldn’t let his reluctance bother her. One way or another, she’d wear him down. “So is it that you like being alone during the holidays?”
    “Usually I wouldn’t be.” He bit into his breakfast sandwich with gusto.
    Jealousy prickled up her spine, and Marci said, “Yes, of course. I’m sure you have your pick of women to celebrate with.”
    He laughed without humor, and then, in somber tones, he explained, “I’ve spent every Christmas since my sixth birthday with my grandmother. It’s always been just the two of us. But she recently passed, so this year I’ll be solo for the holidays.”
    Oh, God. “Osbourne, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.”
    “Granny was a hoot. And she’d have loved you, because she loved animals and anyone who had anything to do with them.”
    “Even kooks?”
    “Especially kooks, being as she was a little nutty herself. But in a loveable way. When my mom died and my dad took off, she gathered me up and said she’d finally have me to herself, as if it was something she’d always wanted.”
    “What do you mean he took off?”
    “He was young, unwilling to be burdened with a kid. Granny said I reminded him too much of her. But I think that was bullshit, just her way of softening things.”
    “I bet you must have missed them a lot.”
    “With Granny around? Hell, no. She made growing up fun.”
    Fascinated, Marci smiled at him. “How so?”
    “Granny didn’t believe in rules. If I wanted dessert instead of dinner, we’d eat it in the yard, in the rain, while listening to coyotes howl. During my rowdier teens, when I wanted long hair, she offered to dye it blue for me.”
    Marci laughed. “She does sound fun.”
    “Yeah, but she was wily. I always thought she should have been a shrink, because she sure knew how to play mind games.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “When I was eighteen, I wanted a tattoo. You know, something gnarly and macho around my biceps. Granny thought that sounded cool, and she wanted to go along to get one, too.”
    They both laughed.
    Shaking his head, Osbourne added, “Hell, I was afraid that if I slipped off to get it, she’d find out where, and she’d show up there to get her ass tatted or something, and I’d never be able to live it down. For sure, she’d have told the tattoo artist she was my granny, and word would have spread like wildfire.”
    “Pretty ingenious on her part.”
    “No kidding. I failed a test once because I hadn’t studied. She sat down with it, looked over the answers, and damned if she didn’t know them all! Made me feel like an idiot, all the while telling me how smart I am and that obviously the test was messed up because, hell, what old lady could pass it when a sharp young man couldn’t? From then on, I aced everything, and she’d beam, telling me how much smarter I was than her.” His voice softened. “But I never believed that. She was the wisest, most incredible woman I’ve ever known.”
    Marci touched his thigh. “I’m glad you had her in your life.”
    “Yeah, me, too.” His hand briefly covered hers