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Don’t make more of it, she warned herself. She was only here because Callum had wanted a date to provide a distraction from Petra’s presence tomorrow.
That afternoon she focused on their Christmas dinner, and preparing what could be done in advance for Pauline’s party the next day. Although with the help she’d had from Callum’s mother as well as Lindsey and Anna, Miranda was starting to feel like a fraud. Even Callum and his brothers wandered in through the course of the afternoon to give a hand, the kitchen ending up full of action and much hilarity. It had been incredibly fun.
The hardest part had been keeping a straight face when Pauline looked around in bewilderment at all the food and demanded, “Who’s going to eat all of this? It’s far too much.”
“Have no fear, Mother,” Fraser said. “We’re growing men—there won’t be a crumb left.”
Miranda caught Callum suppressing a grin, and Hunter immediately marched his mother out on the pretext of needing her advice about how to best dry the Italian loafers he’d saturated the previous night.
“You shouldn’t have worn them to the carols, Hunter,” they heard Pauline say as she followed him out the kitchen, completely diverted.
“You’re fortunate to have such a wonderful family,” Miranda murmured to Callum.
“I know.”
It wasn’t only Callum who held Miranda enthralled…she was dangerously close to falling in love with his family.
And that she couldn’t afford.
His mother’s utter, unfeigned surprise the next day when the first of her birthday guests arrived made the whole loving deception worthwhile, Callum decided as he exchanged looks of satisfaction with his brothers.
“How did I not get the smallest whiff of this?” Pauline asked as cars crowded the forecourt in front of the house.
“It was supposed to be a secret,” said Callum.
“Though Dad nearly let the cat out of the bag five minutes after we arrived on Thursday,” said Fraser with a mock glare at his father.
“Never could keep a secret, your father.” Pauline gave her husband a fond smile, and Callum looked away to give them a private moment.
“I managed to keep it in all of yesterday,” said Robin, and everyone laughed.
But when Petra arrived with her father, tension filled the air as Callum stepped closer to Miranda. Petra gave Miranda a quick glance, and aside from the hurt in her eyes, showed little reaction.
But Callum was aware of Miranda shifting away from him, distancing herself. She didn’t like the deception he’d asked her to perform, Callum realized.
It grew even more sticky when Callum discovered that Gordon and Petra had been invited to stay with the family for the balance of the weekend and wouldn’t be leaving with the other guests.
“Trouble?” Fraser asked a little while later with a meaningful look in Petra’s direction.
Callum resisted the urge to snap at his brother. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Good. Because despite the fact that Petra had the sense to dump you, Gordon remains important to our business.”
“You invited them to stay?” Callum stared at his brother in disbelief.
“Yes.” Fraser narrowed his gaze. “It shouldn’t be a problem, should it?”
Callum sincerely hoped it wouldn’t become one—but he had already detected Gordon’s coolness toward Miranda.
When all the guests had arrived, everyone assembled in the large formal dining for a buffet-style birthday lunch. Callum stopped dead at the sight of Miranda. She’d changed into a red dress that clung softly to her curves. Everything about the dress shrieked touch me! He swallowed. How the hell was he supposed to resist such an invitation? In desperation he forced himself to focus on the spread she’d prepared. Miranda had surpassed herself. An ice sculpture dominated the centre of the table and she’d carried the winter wonderland theme through in the snowflake decorations suspended around the room, with masses of tall, white tapered candles lit to give an impression of glittering Christmas tree lights.
After lunch Pauline opened her gifts, and with every card she read out, her eyes grew increasingly dewy. Callum was surprised to see Miranda hand his mother a box lightly wrapped in tissue paper.
