The Bonus Mum

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Rosemary was trying to pull on thick wool socks and hold the cell phone at the same time. It was not an easy balance act.

“I swear, Tucker, no one could be more of a pain than a brother—unless both you and Ike were calling me at the same time. Just tell me how the new wife is. And how her pregnancy is going. And how the boys are—”

“Everybody’s fine.” Tucker would do anything for her and she knew it, but her oldest brother was more stubborn than a mule. “But I still want you to agree to have Christmas with us. You don’t have to see Mom and Dad. You could just—”

“Tucker! I told you and Ike both that I can’t do that. I don’t want to hurt the parents. I just can’t handle one more conversation about why I canceled the wedding, what George must have done, what I must have done, how I could fix it all if I just called him, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I’ve heard it too many times. I don’t want to miss any of you at Christmas. Even though you’re both total pains, I love you. And your families. I even love Pansy, that damned bloodhound Ike made me babysit for.”

“But—”

She wasn’t about to hear him repeat his argument. “But nothing. I told Mom and Dad that I had to work. If anyone in the universe could understand that, it’s them. And it’s not like I won’t catch up with all of you. I already sent heaps of presents to the kids—”

Tucker, of course, interrupted with different persuasive arguments. Being relentless wasn’t totally his fault. Growing up with absentee parents—and their parents were such terrific surgeons that they were always on call—Tucker had taken on the role of Dad. Being the only girl, Rosemary had tried to play the role of Mom, but since she was the youngest, all she could really do was hand out suckers when the boys were sick. The point, though, was that Tucker thought she needed a caretaker.

Which she did. But not a brother or a dad or a lover. Not a man at all.

She needed to be her own caretaker.

Still, she listened to her older brother’s rant—or mostly listened—as she walked to the closet to retrieve her serious jacket, then ambled over to the front window. Whit and the girls would be here any moment. It was after ten now.

Outside, there was brilliant—but misleading—sunshine. She’d hiked before dawn, almost froze to death. The sleet had started in the middle of the night and stopped before daybreak. But there were still tears dripping from every pine branch, crystal ice on every puddle. She needed wool mittens, and wasn’t sure where she’d seen them last.

“Rosemary...Ike said something about a guy there.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. You two are like mother hens, I swear.”

“Well, you’re all alone up there. And if it were me all alone, you’d be checking out how I was doing. No difference.”

“Of course it’s different. You think because I’m a girl, I’m less capable. Who whipped you at poker last time, huh? Who beat you in the kayak race last fall? Who—?”

“Those were technicalities. I’m the big brother, so I had to let you win.”

She made a rude sound into the phone, making him sputter with laughter. Her eyes were still peeled on the gravel road, though. It didn’t matter if Whit was late or early. They were on vacation during the holiday week, so it’s not as if they were compelled to stick to a schedule.

Tucker eventually circled back to his nosy grilling. “About this guy.”

“I only mentioned my temporary neighbor to Ike because he was bugging me about being alone—he wasn’t as awful as you, but close. Anyway, that’s why I mentioned that a very, very nice guy rented a house for the holidays. He has twin daughters, around eleven—”

“Very nice, huh?”

“If you won’t interrupt, I’ll fill in the blanks. He’s a widower. Major car accident a year ago, and his wife was killed. So he came up here with his girls to have a private Christmas away from the memories.”

“Okay.”

“Get that tone out of your voice, Tucker, or I swear, I’ll sock you when I see you next, in front of the boys.”

“I was just asking....” Tucker had that innocent tone down by rote.

“He’s grieving. Hard. For his wife. It’s pretty obvious he’s still in love with her and can’t get over the loss. The girls accidently came across to the lodge. That’s the only reason we met.”

“Okay, that sounds...” Her brother searched for a word. “Nice.”

“It is nice. He’s nice. The girls are nice. But the only thing on their minds is the loss they suffered last year. It’s a sad time of year for them. That’s all.”

“Okay, okay, I got it. Sheesh.” Tucker hesitated. “All the same, if you wanted, I could run a background check on him—”

She hung up. Sometimes that’s all you could do with brothers. It was something in the male sibling gene. When they got a bone between their teeth, they all turned into Neanderthals.

And just then, she saw a sturdy SUV winding up the driveway. The girls were here.

And so was their dad.

* * *

Whit couldn’t take his eyes off her. She bounced out of the house like a kid, a stocking hat yanked over her head, wearing old hiking boots and skinny jeans and a Christmas red parka.

“Hey, Rosemary!” the girls called out.

“Hey right back! Does everybody have mittens?” She opened the passenger door, but didn’t climb in yet. The girls had automatically taken the backseat, assuming anyone of adult age would want to sit up front. Which pretty much meant they intended to lean over Rosemary’s seat the whole time.

“Who’d have guessed it would be this cold?” Rosemary said, and kept talking. “I figured you’d change your mind about the Gator and bring a bigger car. Don’t know how we’d carry trees and the four of us together, otherwise. Anyway, I have spare mittens and hats and gloves in the lodge, if anyone needs stuff like that. Nothing pretty. Just warm.”

Lilly said, “I brought gloves, but Pepper didn’t. She always says she doesn’t need them, but two seconds later, she’s freezing to death.”

“You lie,” Pepper shot back.

“I’m not lying, I’m—”

Rosemary shot Whit a wink, then just hustled back in the house and came out moments later with a bag full of cold-weather gear. She jumped back in, belted up, handed the bag to the girls and that was it. The girls pulled out gloves and mufflers and leg warmers and hats. Just like that, the three females all started talking at the same time, nonstop. Rosemary carried on two if not three conversations simultaneously...as if she’d always been with them, always been part of the family.

Part of his life.

Maybe she was primarily talking to the girls about mittens versus gloves, who knitted what, what colors looked good with their hair, how both of them desperately needed new jeans, and a bunch about movies he’d never heard of—except, of course The Princess Bride.

Somehow, though, she managed to answer a question from him about the lodge in the middle of all that.

“I’m not sure how big the lodge is—I think three thousand square feet or so? My great grandparents built it originally...when families tended to be bigger, and cousins and uncles and spare relatives all wanted a place to get together, so they needed a monster-size place like that...”

Whit wasn’t sure where he was going. The gravel road wrapped around the mountaintop like a drunken ribbon, dipping here, climbing there, branches sometimes scraping the sides of the SUV. There was a lot of virgin forest this high, which meant the trees were tall and huge, nothing appropriate for a Christmas tree. Still, trees fell and new growth always emerged. He wasn’t looking for perfect trees, just two that had little chance of making it on their own.

In the meantime, she answered another question. “It was kept primitive for a lot of years—no electricity, no hot water. But my brothers and I got into it last year. To start with, we built a solar oven...”

“You’re kidding.”

“Well, I built most of it. Of course that’s not what they’d tell you, because they can’t stand it that I’m pretty good with power tools. Tucker put in an on demand water heater, and Ike built the current kitchen table from reclaimed heart pine. Our grandparents never had a generator. I bought that. Once I planned to stay here for quite a while, I needed a way to store food at safe temperatures—not counting needing computers and printers and a phone. Living alone never bothered me, but I definitely needed a way to work and a way to communicate with the outside world.”

No matter what he asked, she answered...but that turned into a tit for tat. She had questions of her own. Not over personal subjects, just friendly queries about their lives. Yes, they lived in Charleston, partly because Zoe adamantly loved city life—and both of them wanted an area with great schools.

Pepper piped in, just to make sure they knew she was listening in. “Aw, come on, Dad. You know we think school is b-o-r-i-n-g. We could move somewhere else if we wanted to. It’s not like there aren’t schools all over the place.”

The girls listened just as intently when Rosemary asked him about his landscaping business. He had a handful of regular employees and hired temporary help during the planting and growing seasons. “I really like doing larger scapes, like for businesses, community centers, university planning...but overall, I’ve always loved working with dirt, more than sitting at a desk chair. I’m just lucky to have found something I love, with a lot of variety and something new every day.”