The Rock Star's Christmas Reunion: contemporary holiday romance (A Charisma series novel, The Connollys Book 1) (4 page)

Bax turned away from the tree. “It’s vegan leather.”

“What?”

He pointed at the ottoman. “Vegan. I asked.”

She felt stupid for assuming. And thrilled that he was paying attention to her interests. “Oh. Cool.”

He chuckled. “Your face gave you away. I researched veganism a little bit since I have that insta-prejudice going on. Sounds complicated.”

“It’s a lifestyle.” She couldn’t believe that he’d done research. He was different. Most people she met didn’t care enough to look into the subject.

“You were okay about the fish?”

“Absolutely,” she assured him, trying not to stare at the hint of a chest tattoo peeking from his open collar. “I need to make a living. And the food is going to be delicious. Here.” She picked up one of the tea plates.

He didn’t take it from her. She lifted the homemade pepita cracker she’d placed her salmon on from one of the plates, and popped it into his mouth.

His eyebrows went up as he chewed. Her hands fell away, as she realized what she’d done.

“I’m so sorry,” she exclaimed. “I didn’t mean to force food on you.” She’d been in sexy moment-land, at the start of his family party, no less.

He swallowed, then began to laugh. “For a second there, I thought maybe you were attempting to babysit me.”

Obviously he hadn’t picked up on the sexy moment vibes like she had. Pushing down disappointment, she recalled, “I did try to force healthy food on your cousins. They didn’t want to eat their salads.”

“Where did they come from anyway? Dad never bought lettuce.”

What did he have tattooed on his chest? Very distracting. How was she supposed to be an invisible service provider around this gorgeous specimen of man? “My mother’s garden. She liked kale before it was fashionable. I could easily pick kale and red lettuce before I came over.”

“And now we know how you ended up such an extremist,” he said. “Early programming.”

“Except that she isn’t a vegetarian herself,” Yakima said. The doorbell rang. “Must be the rest of the family. I’ll get the punch.” She forced herself to turn, but was too slow to help with the door.

Haldana walked into the room, followed by her sisters and Harry Connolly, dressed in a tuxedo coat, green bow tie, and jeans. Still outrageously handsome at fifty-three, with only a little gray hair at his temples, he was tall and fit. And still her parents’ neighbor, though he didn’t get along with them.

Bax nodded at his father, who nodded back. No emotion from either of them.

“Hello, son.” Harry tucked his finger into his bow tie as if he’d tied it too tight.

“Where are Niall and Dare?” Bax asked. “Are they on their way? Yakima is frying our dinner so she needs to know the schedule.”

Haldana put her hand on Bax’s arm. “Sorry. I just had a text from Dare. They aren’t coming.”

Bax’s cheeks hollowed and his eyebrows tilted, making him look dangerous and mean. “Oh, really.”

Yakima winced. She could feel Bax’s sorrow behind the anger, though she was probably projecting the emotion. How many times had she watched him act his way through a video about losing a girl during his boy band days? She recognized the expression on his face from MTV.

Chapter Three

Bax stared at his father, though he couldn’t help noticing how Yakima had managed to blend into the fireplace area, stuck in the room with his family but trying to be invisible. “Dad?”

His father shrugged, holding up his hands. “I didn’t know they were going to bail.”

“I’m sure they had to work,” Haldana said. “Curse of a small business.”

His youngest cousin was still a little blond puffball, even if her figure had filled out over the years. She retained that sweet, girlish personality, unable to believe anyone had ill intentions.

“You don’t accept an invitation and then no-show,” Bax said. “The Connollys do family. It’s our thing.”

“You don’t,” his father said blandly.

“I moved, that’s different. Every year you send me photo after photo of holidays, birthdays, celebrations. And this year, when I finally move back, they can’t be bothered to show?”

“It sucks,” his father admitted, “but I’m not going to apologize for grown men. You have some issues to work out with them.”

Bax wanted to send his fist through something. As he controlled the red rage, he caught sight of Yakima again. “Sorry, sweetheart. I don’t mean to embarrass you with our crap.”

Yakima lifted her hand in acknowledgement then slid out of the room through the far arch, as if not wanting to be any closer to them than she had to be. Now he kind of remembered how rarely any holiday went smoothly around the Connolly house. He’d have to make sure the next party Yakima catered for him had more than just his relatives invited.

“I didn’t know I had issues with my brothers,” Bax said.

“You don’t with us,” Haldana told him. “Right, girls?”

“Nope,” Thora said, echoed by the others.

Bax forced a smile. “Then five down, two to go. Do you think calling Dare or Niall would help?”

“No,” his father said. “I don’t.”

Bax warred between making a comment about being a thirty-year-old man who could make his own decisions, given the facts, and being polite to his family. Politeness won. “Let’s enjoy Yakima’s delicious food, everyone. We should make a toast to her new business, and to Haldana’s job with her.”

“That’s right,” Rah Rah said. “Are you getting any work, baby sis?”

Bax took the back seat in the conversation after that, sitting on one end of his sofa while his father took the other. They made small talk about Battlefield politics and his father’s job while the girls caught up with the day’s news. Bax deflected any questions about his own future, and ignored the buzzing of his phone.

When Yakima announced dinner, he insisted she sit with them in the dining room. He watched her pick at the vegan parts of the menu, thinking about how much nicer it would have been to spend the evening alone with her, than trying to entertain his father. Her calming presence soothed over his rough edges, while his family seemed to add grit.

By the time dinner was over, Bax was beat and desperately wished he had a bottle of whiskey to take to bed. He sent Yakima home instead of trying to seduce her, after helping her clean up and load her van. While they could have had a lot of fun, he knew himself well enough to know he was better off calling his AA sponsor in his present mood than trying to seduce a nice girl he really liked.

~

I did well
. Bax sat up in bed the next morning, and was immediately struck by the contrast between the luxury furnishings and beddings he’d become used to over the past decade and the fact that he had woken in Battlefield. He, Dare, and Niall had shared a bedroom throughout the teen years, since they’d had the four girl cousins take up most of the space in their house.

As close as they had once been, it was a dick move for his bros to stay away from the party. Didn’t they remember the past? Didn’t he get a shot at starting over? Family forever, right? He couldn’t have been more gracious to his father and cousins last night and Dare and Niall ought to have been there to see the nice Christmas decorations and eat the great food. Better than anything they grew up with.

He’d never forgotten how spacious their new house had seemed for the first few days after they moved in, then the absolute noise and chaos that had started and never ended once the girls had arrived from Norway. He didn’t blame them for his mother’s suicide, but the insanity of the time hadn’t helped an already unstable woman cope. She’d lived only a little more than a year after they arrived. His father had lost his wife and brother and sister-in-law in short order, and their lives had kept changing.

And yeah, Bax knew he’d run, but he’d had his own life to live. Once Rah Rah was around he wasn’t even the oldest child, so what did it matter that he’d taken his chance on an audition to join a boy band that was forming? Within two years of that drive to Los Angeles he’d been a global superstar, able and willing to help his dad with finances. Hell, Haldana had still only been eleven, the twins and Niall fifteen. He could have done plenty to help if his father hadn’t stuck up his nose and refused a penny. All these years they could have been living in one of the mansions in town like this house instead of that poky little three-bedroom house with zero privacy.

Maybe his brothers just needed to hear the truth. Maybe they didn’t know that their father had refused financial help from him. And maybe they didn’t know that being a boy band member, then a rock star, took over a hundred hours a week of damn hard work. No vacations until he’d been forced into rehab, and then surgery and recovery. He’d gone right back to work after, producing, first individual songs for his record company’s other artists, then for the Dealy Band. His twenties had been nothing but work, and his bros needed to cut him some slack.

With righteous fire smoothing his way, he rose and went to shower. After he shaved, he stood in front of the mirror for a moment. Some age lines had started to form around his eyes and mouth. He looked more like the rock star than the fresh faced boy band member now. Another ten years and he’d look completely dissolute, but he still wouldn’t get his career back. His wrist had seen to that.

He forced himself to turn away before he punched the mirror. How had he lost his peace? He’d felt so Zen a couple of weeks ago. Had coming home been a mistake?

~

An hour later he’d eaten leftover smoked salmon and coleslaw for breakfast, along with two cups of green tea that his holistic practitioner in Los Angeles had insisted was so much better for him than coffee. He’d dressed carefully in black jeans and a T-shirt that didn’t have his own face or logo on it, then he pulled on a gray sweatshirt that he usually jogged in, all to blend in.

His brothers, Dare and Niall, jointly owned a tiny car lot. They did a lot of trading, then fixed up the cars or sold them at auction. Businesses like that tended to come and go here, but they’d been at it for three years. They had the chops to be successful. Dare had gotten a bachelor’s degree in business and Niall was a well-certified mechanic, following in their father’s footsteps.

The fact that their father had never had a shop of his own was a testament to his chaotic home life, but he made a good living, for a smaller-sized family, at least.

Bax climbed into his new black, top-of-the-line SUV, and drove out of the neighborhood, cataloguing the current variety of fast food, small town dining, and coffee shops along the main drag. If he wanted, he could get teriyaki, burgers, or even sushi. The Chinese and Mexican places he remembered were still there. He couldn’t afford them as a kid and wasn’t sure he wanted to eat there now. The burger place where he’d taken dates in high school had been replaced by a chain restaurant.

He drove out of town. The Connollys’ lot didn’t have any signage. The lined up cars were advertisement enough, though they did have a decent website. He’d seen that his cousin Ingrit had designed it, which made sense since she freelanced in web design.

He pulled into the lot between concrete dividers marking the entrance. Space was extremely tight in the pebble-and-weed yard, and the brothers had set up an obvious way for a buyer to drive in through their wares and then park in front of their small building, which looked like it had once been a drive-through coffee place.

He climbed out of his SUV just as his youngest brother popped out of the hut. Niall blew on his fingers, which were exposed to the winter wind. He wore fingerless gloves, an old Carhartt coat, and canvas dungarees. Bax drank in the sight of his brother, so similar to him in most ways, though he remembered Niall and Dare had their father’s brown eyes.

Niall’s mouth dropped open in shock when he saw Bax’s face. Bax swore at the cold and reached into the rear seat of his vehicle to grab his leather jacket.

“Your blood has thinned,” Niall said, the hint of a sneer climbing his upper lip.

“It’s December,” Bax said in his calmest voice. He zipped up his jacket then crossed his arms over his chest. “You got a ball cap with your logo on it or something?”

“Please.” Niall’s sneer stayed. “Logo? Really? We’re hardly big time, like you, Mr. Big Shot.”

“It’s good advertising.” Bax refused to get defensive with his own little brother.

“If you can afford them. Dare looked into it. At least $2.50 for a decent cap, not including tax and shipping. And you have to buy in bulk.”

Bax reached into his pockets, but of course, there weren’t any gloves magically present. He felt his wallet, though. “So, that doesn’t sound like much money at all.”

Niall glared at him.

Bax glared back and pulled out his wallet. He pulled out his emergency cash, five one hundred dollar bills, and tucked it into Niall’s coat pocket. “There, Merry Christmas. Keep them for the idiots who shop here without a winter hat.”

Niall’s jaw jutted. “We still don’t have a logo.”

“How about a car? And the company name?” Bax shrugged. “Simple enough.”

He kicked at loose piece of gravel. “I’ll ask Dare, but I doubt he’ll want your money.”

“It’s a Christmas present,” Bax repeated. “No give backs. Remember that horrible fruit cake Mrs. Roth used to bring Mom every year? It’s like that. You’re stuck with it.”