“We’re trying. Holly and Lydia came to help us.”
“That is very kind of them.”
“How’s Grandma Di?” she asked.
Ryan’s flash of resentment annoyed him. No, Diane wasn’t really Audrey’s grandmother, only her grandfather’s wife, but she clearly loved his niece.
Audrey never had the chance to know her grandmother. He couldn’t fault her for forging a close relationship with Diane, who was a lovely, kind, generous woman.
“She is doing better every day, though a little tired of having to sit around. I think we’ve watched every Hallmark Christmas movie ever made.”
“I don’t think that’s possible, unless you starting watching in July,” Holly said with a smile. “Why don’t I put these away for you while you visit with your father?”
She reached for the basket but Ryan picked it up instead. “I’ll help,” he answered. “Audrey and Lydia can entertain my father.”
She sent him a swift look but didn’t argue, only followed him as he headed for the kitchen.
Chapter Nine
SOMETHING ODD WAS GOING ON BETWEEN RYAN ANDDouglas Caldwell.
As Holly followed Ryan to the kitchen, she turned and briefly caught a flash of something that looked like defeated resignation on his father’s features before Doug quickly looked away, turning to respond to something his granddaughter said.
“If I didn’t know better, I might think you were trying to avoid talking to your dad,” she said in a low voice as they began transferring the containers of soup and casserole to the refrigerator.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ryan’s expression was stony, remote as Antarctica.
“Don’t you?”
“My father and I get along fine,” he said, his tone short, in marked contrast to the teasing and light flirtation of earlier while they were stringing lights. When he had almost kissed her.
“What makes you think otherwise?” he asked.
She chose her answer carefully. “As soon as you saw him pull up, you looked tense.”
Maybe that was because he had been upset at himself for nearly kissing her. She preferred to think his sudden change in mood had more to do with his father.
“Your sister mentioned once that you and your dad aren’t close. I guess that was the biggest clue.”
“You talked to Kim about me?”
She shrugged, sliding a large container of soup onto a lower shelf. “When you work in a small retail shop together all day,you have plenty of time to chat about your lives. Kim loves you and worries about you.”
“She should worry about herself and about Audrey. I’m fine.”
Holly decided not to point out that his testy tone and stiff posture said otherwise.
Somehow she had the impression Ryan Caldwell was an inherently self-contained person who didn’t let others close very often.
“Remind me to tell Kim she shouldn’t be gossiping about me and my relationship with my father to a woman I had never met until a week ago.”
Had it only been a week? It felt like much longer, maybe because Kimhadtalked about him often, with both concern and affection.
“Sorry I said anything. You’re right. It’s none of my business.”
Holly knew she should keep her mouth shut but she couldn’t help remembering that brief glimpse of what appeared to be raw pain on the elder Caldwell man’s features.
“I don’t know any of the history between you and your dad. Kim never gave me any details, for what it’s worth.”
