Snow Angel Cove (Hqn) by RaeAnne Thayne Page B

convince them all to stay, as Pop didn’t want to be gone from the café too long and others had work and volunteer obligations at home.
    “Great. Thank you. And your holiday plans are in place?”
    “Yes. Ken and I will fly out to South Carolina that same day, on the twenty-third, to meet up with Stephanie, Lane and the children for Christmas and then we’re all driving down to Orlando together the day after. The kids didn’t think Santa could find them if they weren’t in their own house.”
    He absently doodled on the unprinted edge of a report. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed for good weather. We were completely socked in last night and this morning with a blizzard. It’s still coming down here.”
    “You don’t have to tell me, I already know we’re crazy to travel this time of year. Even without a storm, the parks are going to be completely packed over the holidays. We won’t be able to move—and don’t even get me started on the lines. The kids are so excited, I hope it will be worth it. Every time we Skype, they don’t want to talk about anything else.”
    Louise’s son-in-law had recently been transferred to Charleston. Aidan knew how hard it had been on his longtime assistant—and good friend—to have her grandchildren so far away. He suspected within the next few years she would be retiring to move closer to them.
    “Enough about me,” she said after a few minutes of discussing her vacation plans. “How are you feeling?”
    His pen jerked across the edge of his doodle. “Fine,” he said.
    “Is the headache any better?”
    “Some.”
    Out of a habit he couldn’t seem to shake, he reached his index finger to the spot just behind his left ear. The hair in that particular spot hadn’t completely grown back, it was about an inch long now, bristly and itchy. Fortunately, the scar was in a spot where his hair was long enough to camouflage.
    Pop was going to tell him he needed a haircut. He was going to have to preemptively come up with a strategic response. He wasn’t sure his father would believe he wanted to audition for a rock band or he was going on the road as a competitive snowboarder.
    “The new medicine Dr. Yan prescribed is helping,” he answered Louise now. It was partly true. The pain was a dull, constant ache most of the time instead of a piercing, howling roar.
    “Why don’t I believe you?” Worry threaded through her voice.
    Maybe because she knew him too well. “Don’t concern yourself about me,” he told her. “Just enjoy the holidays with your family.”
    He was doodling a Christmas tree now, complete with little curlicue ornaments.
    “Same to you. It’s a good thing you have a good one—and a big house to host them all. Twenty houseguests for the holidays are enough for anyone. Sue is definitely going to have her hands full.”
    Right. That had been the main reason for his call. “Speaking of Sue, can you email me the standard employment forms? I’m hiring someone to help her run the household while my family is here.”
    “I can contact the employment service in the area and have someone sent over. It might take a day or two.”
    “Not necessary. I’ve already found someone.”
    He could almost hear her frown communicated across the line. “You hired someone on your own? Someone from the area?”
    Louise was a master—mistress?—at conveying volumes with a well-placed pause. As one of the few with total knowledge of his health issues—information that had been deliberately withheld from Caine Tech stockholders and the general public—she had become extremely overprotective since September.
    “Relax. I vetted her first, you can be sure. I spoke with a previous employer and received nothing but glowing reviews.”
    Technically, Eliza had never actually worked for Megan Hamilton, since the poor woman’s hotel burned down first. Her loss, his gain. He decided not to mention that to Louise.
    “What do you know about her?” his assistant asked.
    Not as