Page 84 of Embrace
Asher and I raised our eyebrows at each other.
The little girl had long, wavy brown hair and was wearing cut-off denim pedal pushers and a blue-and-white-striped shirt. She rushed Asher and wrapped herself around his leg. “You’re my uncle!”
Her name was Jane, and she was Jasper’s daughter. Asher had been nervous about meeting her for the first time. But she was so excited to meet him. It was as though, for her, a new uncle was like a new toy for her birthday.
My shoulders shook when I laughed. I was just so tickled. Jane was the cutest little thing I’d ever seen. The only reason she could already know Asher and love him even though she’d never seen him was because she felt loved and secure. I could never have been that way at her age, and perhaps that was why tears filled my eyes as I laughed.
And after the shock passed, Asher hoisted her off the ground, and tickling her little tummy, he said, “Yes, I am your uncle. And you must be Jane, my cute-as-a-button niece.”
“I’m Jane,” she sang, nudging herself in the chest. Next, she pointed at me. “And you’re Pen!”
My eyes sparkled when I said, “Yes, I am!”
Asher and I flexed our eyebrows at each other as she hugged him around the neck. Then she asked to be put down so that she could take us to the den where her mom, dad, aunt Bryn, Jada, and uncle Spencer were waiting for us.
After we all shook hands and hugged, we moseyed into the patio dining room for dinner. I had never been a fan of lobster until I ate Chef Bart’s chili lemon lobster over a bed of avocado with fresh mint and lime shrimp ceviche. We were also served antipasto salad with European cheeses and freshly baked breads. I was asked the standard questions—where I was from and why I’d chosen to become a neurosurgeon. But that was all. The Christmases didn’t practice prying.
Jasper’s wife, Holly, seemed to be the one who absorbed every small detail about me. She could see how nervous I was and how out of place I felt as the brothers talked about their plans for the hospital.
“Now, Dr. Ross,” Jasper said, leaning forward.
Holly winked at me. “It’s Pen, honey.”
“Right, sorry, Pen. Do you envision yourself playing an administrative role in the hospital?” He sounded as if he were giving me a job interview.
I turned to Asher, who appeared just as shocked by Jasper’s question as I was.
“Um, that’ll be a no,” I said. “I’m a surgeon.” I raised a finger pointedly. “Research, though, yes!”
His hard expression eased into a smile as he nodded. “Okay… I see.”
“Why do you ask?” I asked.
“If or when you become a Christmas, you’ll have the option.”
I leaned back against my seat. Goodness, he certainly wasn’t one to finesse things. He went straight to the finish line.
“Jas, come on,” Asher said, pulling at his collar while squirming.
“What?” he asked, throwing his hands up as if he didn’t get it.
“But isn’t this great?” Bryn asked, garnering everyone’s attention. “Remember the last time all four of us and Holly had dinner together?”
Spencer grunted. “At the mansion.”
“Bryn, I heard you had it demolished, and now they’re rebuilding,” Holly said.
Bryn smiled from ear to ear. “It’s almost finished. We have to spend Christmas there, all of us.” She tilted her head, eyeing each and every one of her brothers individually. “And I mean all of us.”
“I’m in,” Spencer said.
“Yes, we’ll be there,” Jasper said.
Asher interlaced his fingers with mine under the table. “So will we.”
“Aha,” Jada, Spencer’s wife, said. “Then you guys are going to be married. Mark my words.”
“Yeah,” Spencer said, nodding. “They’re tying the knot. Absolutely.”
