His Best Friend's Wife (Bachelor Best Friends 2)

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Between the last-of-the-year rush at work and the chaos of the holidays and the underlying tension at home, Renae felt drawn in a half-dozen different directions. Evan hadn’t been making demands on her, but she wanted to be with him, too. There were only two situations in which she’d felt truly at peace during the past two weeks—when she snuggled with her children reading bedtime stories and when she lay in Evan’s arms on the rare occasion she could be with him.

On the Friday evening before Christmas, she and Evan nestled on his couch, her head on his shoulder, his arms around her. Lucy was at home with the kids, probably pretending Renae wasn’t with Evan.

It was only the second time Renae and Evan had managed to be alone since the arcade outing, though they had taken the kids for ice cream earlier that afternoon. Both Renae and Evan had taken the afternoon off work for the upcoming holiday weekend, taking advantage of the time to be together. Evan had given the twins Christmas gifts during the outing, since he wouldn’t see them again before the holiday. He’d been overly generous and needless to say, the kids had been thrilled.

She wished she could say the same about Lucy. When Renae had taken the kids home, the twins had shown Lucy their gifts, expecting her to be as delighted as they were. Instead, she had merely nodded and said coolly, “Yes, very nice.”

Because she had undoubtedly known Renae would be angry, Lucy had said nothing negative about Evan in front of the kids. But the twins were more perceptive than she gave them credit for.

“Why doesn’t Grammy like Evan?” Leslie had asked Renae in confusion after Lucy made an excuse to leave the room. “I asked her, but she said I shouldn’t worry about it and then she looked sad.”

“I like Evan,” Daniel had insisted from the floor where he played with the dinosaur building-block set Evan had given him. He was already in the process of building an impressive tyrannosaurus rex to battle the two plastic dinosaurs that waited nearby. “Grammy would, too, if she’d get to know him.”

Renae had drawn a deep breath. “Grammy gets sad because Evan was your daddy’s friend and he reminds her of how much she misses your daddy. Just give her a little time. She’ll come around.”

It had been a rather vague response, but the best she could do at the time. It was hard to convince the kids that things would change when she wasn’t sure if Lucy would ever accept Evan—or if Evan would stay around long enough for her to get to that point.

She sighed.

His cheek resting on her head, Evan asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking.”

“The kids seemed to have a good time this afternoon.”

“They had a ball. They loved their gifts from you.”

“I’m glad. I have one for you, too, you know.”

He reached beneath the tree and handed her a pretty, gold-wrapped package. Somewhat shyly, she dug into her big bag on the floor, and pulled out a gift for him. She had spent hours deliberating over it, and she hoped he would like what she’d chosen. “I have one for you, too.”

Sitting side by side, they opened their gifts at the same time. Renae loved the gold bracelet nestled in a midnight-blue velvet box. She thought of protesting that he’d spent too much, but that seemed ungracious. “Evan, this is beautiful.”

“I hope you like it. I know you don’t wear a lot of jewelry, but I saw it when I was shopping for my sister and I thought it was nice.”

“It’s lovely.”

She watched a bit nervously as he opened the box holding the gift she had purchased for him.

“It’s a wooden pen.” He lifted the implement from the cotton-lined box with care. “Wow, this is beautiful, Renae.”

“It’s hand-turned by a local woodworking artist,” she informed him. “I bought it at the museum store downtown.”

He twisted the mechanism to reveal the rollerball point. “It’s great. What’s the wood?”

“It’s curly maple, made from Arkansas wood. It made me think of you, for some reason.”

“It’s perfect,” he assured her. “I’ll carry it with pride. Thank you.”

He leaned over to kiss her, an embrace that lingered quite a long time.

Somehow that exchange of gifts made their relationship seem even more serious.

Eventually she had to go. He walked her down to her car, where they shared several more kisses before he reluctantly opened her car door for her.

“Have a wonderful Christmas with your family,” she told him, reaching up to touch his face.