Lakeshore Chronicles [10] Candlelight Christmas by Susan Wiggs Page A

world-weariness that made him seem much older. He furtively took his dessert, mumbled a thank-you and shuffled away to a table.
    I will never complain again about my life, thought Logan.
    He noticed that Darcy wasn’t serving food, but had hunkered down in the play area, supervising a game of Jenga blocks. She seemed so vibrant, surrounded by kids, relaxed in their presence. It made him wonder about her comment last summer, when she’d claimed she was averse to children.
    She was something of a puzzle to him. An intriguing puzzle. A puzzle he found far more attractive than he should.
    Maybe it was deprivation, plain and simple. He hadn’t dated anyone this fall. In the first place, he hadn’t met anyone he wanted to date. In the second place, he’d been way too busy with Saddle Mountain. True to his word, he’d created an investor group and they’d acquired the ski area. The transfer was going smoothly, but it was a lot of work. All-consuming work. It left little time for a social life. He’d been working twelve-hour days, seven days a week, since signing the papers, and this holiday was his very first time off. The mountain was slated to open for skiing in a week. It kept him busy to the point of exhaustion. Yet the project fulfilled him in a way his insurance business never, ever had.
    The ensemble played some traditional tunes while some of the younger kids ran around, pretending to dance.
    “Time for the hokeypokey,” announced a guy on the microphone. “Come on, everybody, don’t be shy. Let’s bust a move!”
    Logan scanned the room, and noticed Darcy bearing down on him.
    “Oh, hell no,” he muttered under his breath, apprehensive about the glint of mischief in her eyes.
    “You heard what the guy said,” she told him. “Don’t be a chicken.”
    “Yeah, Dad,” said Charlie. “Don’t be a chicken.”
    Resigned, Logan took off his apron and set it aside. “You’re coming, too, buddy.”
    “No way.” Charlie stuck out his chin. “No w-a-y.”
    Darcy was having none of it. She grabbed Charlie with one hand and Logan with the other. “Let’s go, boys.”
    Feeling all kinds of foolish, Logan joined the raucous circle and forced himself to do the hokey-freaking-pokey.
    Darcy was ridiculously into it, and in spite of himself, he couldn’t take his eyes off her when she did the “shake it all about” part. Damn.
    When Charlie saw his cousins and some of the older kids joining in, he got over his bashfulness and let himself go. Within minutes, he was in the center of the action, laughing and shaking, surrounded by children who seemed to forget, if only for a moment, that they were homeless, neglected, troubled, abused.
    Logan caught Darcy looking at him, and she laughed. “Now, that,” she said, indicating the mass of squirming, laughing kids, “is what it’s all about.”

Chapter Seven
     
    D arcy got up early the day after Thanksgiving. The lovely guest room at Sea Breeze didn’t feel like the real world to her. That, at any rate, was something to be thankful for. A quick check of her phone showed that she’d missed a few calls and text messages from her parents and sisters. She shrugged them off; she’d return their calls later, maybe from the airport.
    In some respects, being away from her family this Thanksgiving had been unexpectedly painful. She couldn’t help resenting Huntley for supplanting her at the Thanksgiving table. Even as she’d toasted and feasted with the O’Donnells, she’d caught herself thinking wistfully of her dad’s gentle humor, her mom’s perfectly seasoned stuffing, her sisters’ gossip and laughter. She missed their chatter and her parents’ banter, and the deep, elemental security of being part of a family. But having Huntley there would have put a damper on everything.
    The best way to keep from stumbling over the past was to move forward, she reminded herself. That was her whole rationale for braving the holiday travel crowds and coming to Florida in