A Home for Christmas (19 page)

Cam glared at her a moment.  "You think
I should forgive him?"

"We should always do our best to forgive
those who hurt us," she told him.  "It does you more harm than
good when you hold on to your anger and don't forgive.  And, well,
Christmas is a special time, don't you think?  Filled with hopes and
dreams.  I know that your dad has let you down, but when I talked to him
today, I really did get the impression that he wanted to work on his
relationship with you."

"Too little, too late," Cam mumbled.

"Is that really how you feel?  Are you
so angry with him that you can't find it in your heart to at least hear him
out?" Lainey asked.

Cam looked her directly in the eye. 
"What difference does it make?  I'll go see him and he'll tell me how
much he loves me and how sorry he is for not spending time with me...and when
he gets out of rehab, everything will go right back to the way it was.  I
may be a kid but I'm not stupid."

"No one said you were," Jenna said.

"Dad thinks I'm stupid.  Tell the
stupid little kid what he wants to hear and he'll come crawling back every
time.  Well, not me.  Not any more.  I'm done.  And I'm
done talking about him," he said, and with that, he ran inside.

Jenna started to go after him but Lainey stopped
her.

"Let him have some time to calm down and
cool off.  Wade told me some of the things he's said and done to Cam over
the last five years.  I can't say Cam's anger isn't justified.  The
good thing is, Wade sees that and he's willing to work to make it up to
Cam...and he struck me as being sincere about it, not like he was just telling
me what he thought I wanted to hear."

"But that anger can't be allowed to
grow," Jenna said.  "It's eating him up."

Lainey nodded.  "It is right now...but
let's give him some time.  He's a good kid.  With our help, he will
work through the worst of it and be ready to deal with his father again. 
Maybe not in the time frame Wade would like, but eventually.  And Riley,
you are going to have to tread extremely carefully here.  I know your
instinct is to step in and stop him when he is being disrespectful...but you
aren't his father, and right now he has such a strong resentment toward his
father that any male stepping in to fill that fatherly role runs the risk of
further angering him.  Even if he does like you in all other areas. 
Understand?"

Riley nodded.  "Yeah, but..."

"No buts.  Trust me, OK?  Trust me
to help Cam through this on his own terms, all right?"

Riley sighed.  "Yeah, all right."

"Good.  Did you figure out what's going
on with the warning lights on my dash?"

Lainey Riley was good at what she did, and she
wasn't afraid to admit it.  She specialized in counseling children,
because being petite in stature, she wasn't intimidating to them.  Her
cousins, Riley, Jack, Trevor and Aaron called her Tinkerbell.  She'd hated
it growing up but now she used it to her advantage.  Counseling Cameron
Blackwell, however, was proving to be a bit more challenging due to the
involvement of her cousin, Riley.

Cam had bonded quite quickly with Riley. 
She'd always known Riley was good with kids but she'd been impressed with how
well he handled the boy.  It was obvious he loved the mother and that he
loved the boy just as well.  Which was good because the boy had been let
down by his father for far too long.  He needed a strong male influence in
his life.

Wade Blackwell was on the right path to reclaim
the relationship with his son, but he still had a way to go.  He was still
looking at the whole situation from his point of view and not from his
son's.  He wasn't stopping to consider Cam's feelings yet, but she would
get him there.

She had her head down in her notes as she was
leaving Jenna's house and wasn't paying attention to where she was going. 
One minute she was walking toward her car and in the next, she'd been snagged
around her waist and jerked against a solid chest as a group of kids on
scooters zoomed past on the sidewalk. 

"Are you all right?" a soft male voice
asked.

She looked up into eyes so pale blue they were
almost translucent, except for the dark blue ring circling the edge.  This
was Riley's friend, Mike...and he was absolutely breathtaking.

"I'm...fine," she managed. 
"I guess that will teach me to pay attention to where I'm going from now
on.  Thank you," she said when he steadied her and released her.

He stepped back and inclined his head slightly to
her, then turned and headed up to the front door.  Lainey watched until
Riley opened the door and Mike stepped inside, then released the breath she'd
been holding and went to her car.

Riley had seen the collision with Lainey and Mike
out front and shamelessly watched from the window to see what would
happen.  He saw pretty much the same reaction most women had to Mike on
Lainey's face as she looked up at him.  What interested him was Mike's
reaction.  Not that there had been much of one, and had Jenna been
watching she probably wouldn't have seen it; but Riley knew Mike well enough to
know that he was definitely interested in his little cousin.

"Hey, man, what brings you by?" Riley
asked when he opened the door for Mike.

"Just got word that the Lanzillo's have
officially erased Wade's debt...and sent out word that he isn't to be allowed
to place bets with any of them ever again."

"Giovanni has a big shadow," Riley
chuckled.

"That he does," Mike agreed. 
"And that should go a long way toward keeping Jenna and her son out of
trouble."

"That's good.  Because they have their
hands full just dealing with the man himself."

"More problems?"

"A few."

"Is that why your cousin was just
here?"

"Yeah.  Blackwell's playing head games
with the kid.  Not cool."

"And she's helping?"

"She's awesome with him."

"That's good."

Jenna walked in, smiling when she saw Mike. 

"Hi, Mike," she said, surprising both
men by kissing his cheek before going to Riley's side.

"Jenna," he greeted.  Riley could
tell he was amused by her insistence on kissing his cheek whenever she saw him.

"How's Cam?" Riley asked her, stroking
his hand over her hair.

"He'll be fine.  Just another bump in
the road."

"He's a good kid," Mike said.

"Thank you," Jenna said, "we're
about to start dinner.  Why don't you join us?"

"Thank you, but I have to get back.  My
mother is planning a dinner party."

Riley busted out laughing then.  Jenna
looked up at him, puzzled, then over at Mike, who managed to have only a mildly
annoyed look on his face.

"What am I missing?" Jenna asked. 
"Why is the fact that Mike's mother is planning a dinner party
funny?"

"Because I'm willing to bet that Mike will
be the only single, unattached male there, am I right?"

"Your mother is trying to set you up?"
Jenna asked sympathetically.

"I'm the only one of her kids who isn't
married and I haven't been home in three years."

"So she keeps the endless parade of eligible
debutantes from twenty to thirty running past him in hopes that someone catches
his eye," Riley laughed.

Jenna gave Mike a sympathetic look. 
"Well, you're welcome to come hide over here whenever you want."

"Thanks."

"He doesn't seem like the type to be pushed
around by his mother," Jenna said when Mike left.

"He isn't," Riley said, and she was
surprised when his tone was sober.  "But, remember I told you Mike
had a bit of a falling out with his family over his decision to join the Navy,
and an even bigger one when he went into the SEALs? He was always quiet, but
our time in the service made him even more so, especially around his
family.  His dad really gave him a hard time for not going into the law
firm like everyone else.  And, like I said, after all he went through on
that last mission, his mother has been really clingy ever since."

"I can imagine," she said,
shuddering.  "I think it's hard enough to be a military spouse. 
I can't imagine being the mother of a soldier or sailor.  If that was
Cam...I can certainly understand how she feels the need to keep him close
now...no matter how old he is."

"Yeah...my mom is like that a bit with all
of us whenever we're around."

"I really can't understand how your mother
handles it.  All four of her sons being in that line of work."

"It's a bit different with my mom.  We
are a military family.  My dad was in the Navy when they got married.  Her
dad was in the Air Force.  Mike's family are lawyers...very blue blood,
white collar types.  He has family members who have been in the military
but they were all high-ranking officers.  Mike was an officer, but he was
a fighting man.  His family didn't know how to handle that."

Cam came out of his room then.  Jenna's
heart nearly broke looking at him.  He had a bit of a whipped dog look to
him.  Her eyes shifted from him to Riley, silently pleading with him to do
something.

"Hey, bud, how's it going?"

Cam shrugged, flopping down on the couch. 

"What's for supper?" Cam asked Jenna.

"Well, I haven't decided yet.  Anything
you're hungry for?"

He shrugged again.  "Did Lainey call
back yet?"

"No, but, honey, she hasn't been gone that
long.  I doubt she's had time to talk to your dad again."

He sighed.  "I just want all this over
with."

"All what, honey?"

"Christmas.  It's all just
stupid."

"Cameron!" Jenna cried, "How can
you say that?  Christmas is beautiful."

"Not when your dad is holding it over your
head."

"See, now, that's where you can do something
about that," Riley said, squatting down so he was eye level with Cam.

"What?"

"You can choose to let your dad ruin it for
you, or you can choose to enjoy it in spite of what he's trying to do. 
You're allowing him to steal your joy.  Don't let him."

Cam sighed.  "Easier said than
done."

Riley studied him a minute, then stood up. 
"OK, everyone grab your coats.  Jenna, no cooking.  We're going
out."

"What?" she asked, having just opened a
package of chicken.

"Just wrap that back up.  We're going
out."

Jenna and Cam grabbed their jackets and followed
Riley out to his truck.  Jenna didn't question Riley as to where they were
going; she trusted that wherever it was, it would be somewhere he believed
would cheer Cam up.  Once they were on the road and she saw the direction
they were going, she knew where he was taking them.

Cam had been blankly staring out the window until
Riley turned down a driveway and an elaborately decorated house came into view.

"Wow, someone went all out."

"This is my folks place," Riley told
him.  "Told you my dad loves to decorate."

Jenna felt her heart leap when there was a
genuine smile on Cam's face. 

"This is cool!"

Riley caught Jenna's eye and winked as he pulled
up to the house and honked twice before turning the truck off.  She saw
the side door open and his mother stepped out, her blonde hair perfectly styled
in a smooth bob and a huge smile on her face.

"Hello, sweetheart, what brings all of you
here?" she said, tilting her cheek up for Riley to kiss.

"Cam here, is in need of a bit of Christmas
cheer.  So, I thought, where better to come than to the neighborhood
Christmas house?"

Paige shifted her attention to Cam, giving him a
big smile.  "Got a little bit of the Bah Humbugs, do you?"

"Maybe a little," Cam admitted.

"Well, come on inside and have some
Christmas cookies and we'll see what we can do about that.  Jenna, good to
see you again, honey."

"I hope we aren't imposing," Jenna said
as she followed Paige inside.

"My son and his family are never
imposing," Paige said and Jenna felt a warm, happy feeling spread through
her at being referred to as Riley's family.  "Now, then, Cam, as you
can see, I am in the middle of making Christmas ornaments to give out at our
Christmas Eve party tomorrow.  Would you like to help?"

On her kitchen table, she had a bit of an
assembly line set up, where she was making Santa figurines. 

"Damn, Mom, did you decide to do this at the
last minute or something?" Riley asked, seeing how much she had laid out.

Paige waved a hand in dismissal.  "I
fell a little behind, but no big deal.  You're here now."

"Well, yeah, but you didn't know we'd be
here," Riley said, pulling his coat off and then taking Jenna's.

She smiled at him then.  "I was
actually planning on calling you."

He chuckled, pushing his sleeves up. 
"All right, we're here now.  What do we do?"

She went through the instructions of how to
assemble the Santas and once they were clear on what to do, she turned her
Christmas music up and they sat around the table, putting the Santas together
and singing along with the music.  It was clear to Jenna that Paige
Stanton was extremely good with boys, which she should be since she raised four
of them.  She kept things lively and entertained Cam with stories of Riley
and his brothers and their exploits growing up.  When his dad came home
and joined in the storytelling, Cam was completely hooked.  He hung on
their every word, laughing and asking questions and teasing Riley for some of
his exploits.

Jenna found herself drawn in by the stories of
the four precocious boys, all relatively close together in age.  Riley,
being the oldest, was always the one looking out for his more rambunctious
younger brothers but it was clear he got into his fair share of scrapes.

"The worst time was when the boys decided
they were going to dig their own swimming pool," Paige said.

Riley chuckled.  "Oh, yeah...forgot
about that.  That was Trevor's idea, by the way."

"Never mind that we have a swimming pool
back there.  The boys decided they wanted their own.  By the time
Brody and I got home, they had a hole the size of a small car dug under their
tree house."

"Did you get in trouble?" Cam asked.

"Well..." Riley began, rubbing the back
of his neck.

"Let's just say they weren't sitting comfortably
for a few days," Brody told him.

Cam looked over at Riley who shrugged. 
"The woodshed got a workout that day," he said with a wink.

"I think that was the worst time they ever
got in trouble," Paige said.  "But don't get me wrong, they were
really good boys for the most part."

"Yeah, but..." Riley began but stopped
when there was a loud pounding on the front door.

"Oh, my goodness," Paige exclaimed,
"what in the world could that be?"

Riley and his dad got up and went to the front
door, Paige hovering behind them.  When the door opened, Jenna and Cam
jolted when Paige screamed and a bevy of excited male voices sounded. 
Curious, Jenna and Cam got up and went into the living room and saw Paige,
Brody and Riley embracing three other blonde men that Jenna knew were Riley's
brothers, Jack, Trevor and Aaron.

"Jenna?" One of the brothers asked,
stepping back from the group.

"Hi, Trevor," she said, greeting the
brother who was in her class in school.