Christmas Babies

His eyebrows drew together. “You act like you’re not just refusing my house, you’re refusing…me.”

Suddenly Danni felt impatient to have it over with. “I don’t really see that we have much of a relationship,” she said coolly.

“That’s not what you told me a few days ago. You told me you thought this could be serious.” Bryan gazed at her so intently that she had to glance away.

Kristine. What else had Danni’s sister told Bryan? Told him while pretending to be Danni?

“You can’t run out on me now,” he said softly. “I’ve been advised to try something new in my life. No more corporate-type women. In fact…I’ve been told it’s good for me to be dating a carpenter.”

“Well, I am a corporate woman, aren’t I?” Her only claim to actual carpentry experience were those long-ago summers when she’d been in her teens, and she’d helped Grandpa Daniel build his house. The summers when she’d been truly, uncomplicatedly happy.

Bryan glanced around her office, then brought his gaze back to her. “I like you better in a tool belt.”

If she listened to him another second, she’d be lost. She’d find herself right back in his arms….

“Bryan, there’s so much you don’t know about me.”

“I’m listening.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll find out soon enough. Right now there’s nothing more to say except goodbye.” Quickly she went to the door and opened it. Bryan gave her another long, thoughtful glance. And then he left.

Yes, it was going to be a long night.

KRISTINE WAS FLOORING IT—and Danni hung on as the golf cart went thumping up a rise of the Sugar Beach Country Club. As it reached the crest, the view was admittedly magnificent—the green sweep of the golf course merging into white-gold sand, the Pacific shimmering pure blue to the horizon. But then the cart went charging downward again, and Danni berated her sister.

“Stop. Enough already. You’ve made your point.”

“And what point would that be?” Kristine asked, paying no attention to the golf clubs rattling in the back.

“That you’re nothing at all like the other society wives at Sugar Beach. You don’t play it safe. You live dangerously.”

Kristine stopped the cart so abruptly that Danni almost tumbled out the front. Kristine just sat there, hands clenched in her lap, staring at the ocean. Her oversize sunglasses made it impossible to read her expression.

“Kris,” Danni said at last, breaking the unnatural silence. “You haven’t answered my first question yet.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You know exactly what I mean. When do you plan to tell Bryan the truth?”

Kristine went on staring straight ahead. “You said you’d give me two days. My time’s not up yet—”

“It’s four o’clock in the afternoon. Your time’s running out fast. And after the things he said last night—I want to make damn sure he learns the truth as soon as possible.”

Now Kristine turned to look at Danni, her mouth narrowing. “You saw Bryan last night?” she asked a moment later.

“He showed up at my office. Said he thought things were getting serious between us.”

“Just how serious did things get last night?” Kristine asked in a tight voice.

“I wish you’d listen to yourself,” Danni burst out in exasperation. “You try to have an affair, pretending to be me, and then you act jealous because…I can’t even go on. It’s too ridiculous, and too awful at the same time.”

“Just say it. I’m awful.” Kristine was suddenly all motion. She clambered out of the cart, grabbed a golf club seemingly at random, and started off across the fairway. Danni had to hurry to catch up to her.

“Kris—”

“I don’t blame you for hating me. Sometimes I hate myself. But I got so crazy when Ted…when Ted…” She couldn’t seem to finish. Instead she found her golf ball and took a forceful whack at it.

“If Ted’s the problem,” Danni said, “Bryan McKay isn’t the solution.”

Kristine marched away again, club in hand. She was wearing a very fashionable ensemble—cream-colored slacks, matching cashmere sweater, perfectly coordinated spiked shoes. You didn’t live in exclusive Sugar Beach, just north of San Diego, without exhibiting the proper fashion sense. The town wasn’t quite Beverly Hills in status, but it was close enough. Danni didn’t much care for the Sugar Beach crowd, herself. She suspected her sister didn’t either, but that was something else Kristine wouldn’t confess.

Now Danni trailed after her sister. “Okay, so you won’t talk about your husband. Just let me know when you plan to talk to Bryan.”

“I already arranged to see him, all right?”

“Make sure you tell him everything—”

“I’m fulfilling my part of the bargain. So why are you hounding me, Danni?”

“I want…” Danni struggled with frustration. “I want to put this whole mess behind me. The mess you made, by the way.”

Kristine stared at her from behind the protective barrier of her sunglasses. “I wish I could go back in time,” she said in a low voice. “All the way back to Peter. If I’d stayed with him—if you hadn’t ended up with him instead—everything would be different. Everything would be better.”

Danni told herself to remain rational and objective. “Kris, why are you bringing up old history again? After you met Ted, you told me how glad you were that you hadn’t ended up with Peter…that you’d broken off with him before it was too late.”

Kristine went back to the cart, climbed in and sped off before Danni could catch up. Then she chugged along at a most annoying pace—just fast enough that Danni had to jog in pursuit. At last Kristine glanced over her shoulder at Danni.

“I’ll tell you why I’m bringing up old stories. I think there’s a pattern here. I think whenever I find a man who could actually mean something to me, you decide he has to be yours. Call it sibling rivalry, call it whatever you want—but I’m surprised you never went after Ted. Or maybe you did, behind my back.”

“Kris!” Danni exclaimed, stung—and furious. She stood still. Kristine bounced along in the cart for another few yards, but then circled back. Danni glared at her. “How could you even imagine something like that? You know me, and you ought to know how much I care about you. That’s why I’m going to forget you ever said that. You’re terribly unhappy, and you’re taking it out on me.”

Kristine maintained her bravado for another few seconds, but then her face crumpled. She took off the sunglasses, and Danni saw her reddened eyes. She looked as if she’d been crying for hours.

“Oh, Kris—”

“Danni, if you ask me what’s wrong, I swear I’ll hit you with a three wood.” Tears spilled down Kristine’s cheeks, and she swiped at them. “I can’t have anyone here see me like this,” she mumbled. “You don’t know what they’re like, Danni. They’re always watching, waiting for one little misstep, one little show of vulnerability they can use against me. And all the while they’re pretending to be my devoted friends. I never feel safe anymore.”

“So much for high society. Come on,” Danni said, climbing into the cart beside her sister. “Put the sunglasses on, and no one will be able to tell.”

Kristine replaced the protective barrier, but her mouth had a pinched look. “I’m sorry for what I said, Danni. You’re the only real friend I do have left.”

Danni sighed. “That doesn’t change the fact that I’m ticked at you, big time. It’s bad enough that you pretended to be me. But letting Bryan believe things could be serious—”

“All right, all right, I know it’s impossible.” Now Kristine sounded miserable again. “I don’t want to hurt Bryan.” And then, in a low voice, she added, “There’s been enough hurting already.”

“Kristine—”

“No more questions, Danni. I told you I’d come clean with Bryan, and I will. Tonight, in my own way.” The cart took off again at a good clip. Kristine gripped the wheel, staring straight ahead, and Danni no longer had the heart to chastise her. Besides, she had a niggling feeling inside, a fear that there might be a grain of truth to what Kristine had said. Was it possible that Danni did have some destructive need to compete with her sister when it came to men? And, if it was true, how could she ever have a sound relationship with a man…an enduring relationship…