Cliffside Christmas Read online

  Christmas in Cliffside Bay

  The Season of Cats and Babies

  Tess Thompson

  Also by Tess Thompson

  Cliffside Bay Series

  Traded: Brody and Kara

  Deleted: Jackson and Maggie

  Jaded: Zane and Honor

  Marred: Kyle and Violet

  Tainted: Lance and Mary

  Missed: Rafael and Lisa (Coming Soon)

  Cliffside Bay Christmas

  The Blue Mountain Series

  Blue Midnight

  Blue Moon

  Blue Ink

  The Legley Bay Series

  Caramel and Magnolias

  Tea and Primroses

  The River Valley Series

  Riversong

  Riverbend

  Riverstar

  A River Valley Christmas: Tommy's Wish

  Riversnow

  The River Valley Series: Riversong, Riverbend, Riverstar, Riversnow

  Riverstorm

  Standalone

  Duet for Three Hands

  Miller's Secret

  The Santa Trial

  Cliffside Bay Bundle, Volume 1-3

  Watch for more at Tess Thompson’s site.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Also By Tess Thompson

  Cliffside Bay Christmas (Cliffside Bay Series)

  Kara

  Honor

  Zane

  Brody

  Jubie

  Zane

  Kara

  Honor

  Jubie

  Kara

  Brody

  Kara

  Sophie

  Honor

  Sign up for Tess Thompson's Mailing List

  Further Reading: Missed: Rafael and Lisa

  Also By Tess Thompson

  About the Author

  For the beautiful women who make up my street team.

  All of whom share my love of Christmas, cats, babies, kindness, and love in all its forms.

  Dear Readers,

  Thank you for dropping in for Christmas at Cliffside Bay. Although most of my novels can be read as stand-alones, this novella is best enjoyed as part of my Cliffside Bay Series. In fact, ideally this would be read between books 5 and 6: Tainted: Lance and Mary and Missed: Rafael and Lisa, as it takes place the Christmas after Tainted ends. For those of you who’ve read the first five of the series, you might remember that Kara and Sophie (Honor and Zane’s surrogate) are due at Christmastime. As a lover of all things baby, I just couldn’t let the births of those babies go unwritten. Thus, this novella (the only kind of baby I can still make) was born. I hope you enjoy this Christmas tale whatever time of year it finds its way to you. May the spirit of Christmas bless you throughout the year. xo

  Tess

  Kara

  IF CATS WERE PEOPLE, they’d be the aloof, passive-aggressive relative who dangles the promise of keys to the beachside cottage in front of your nose only to snatch it away after you already have your bags packed. Cats were heartbreakers. That’s all there was to it.

  There couldn’t be a worse time for her Minnie to pull a disappearing act. Kara was about a thousand months pregnant and could not see her feet, let alone a small tuxedo cat with an attitude. If she hadn’t been so afraid for Minnie’s safety, Kara might have been angry. Instead, she was in a sweaty state of panic.

  Minnie had been on her husband’s pillow when Kara woke that morning, staring at her with a woeful, slightly accusatory expression on her black-and-white face, as if Kara were responsible for Brody’s absence. Any time he traveled, the silly cat slept on his pillow or sat outside his office door curled in an unhappy fluff. Not that her angst caused the spoiled cat to miss a nap or meal. Minnie was as predictable as the tides of the sea. She ate, she slept, she hid Kara’s faux-fur slippers behind the toilet. Mostly, however, she followed Brody around the house as though she was as in love with him as Kara.

  Kara paced from room to room, panting from the effort. She’d already checked all the usual spots. Minnie was not by the fireplace or on top of any of the heating vents or on the back of the couch where she’d caused a permanent dent in the cushion.

  She lumbered up the stairs, wincing at the low-grade ache between her legs. The baby was right there, head pressed against her cervix, ready to make his entrance. That morning, Kara had woken to faint contractions. Because she was a nurse, Kara knew they were not strong enough or regular enough to be true labor. Still, their baby boy might come at any moment. His official due date was December 26—only three days away. She did not want to leave for the hospital without knowing Minnie was safe.

  Plus, Brody wasn’t due home until the evening. She could not have this baby without him here.

  She dropped to her knees in one of the guest rooms to look under the bed. Occasionally, Minnie hid there, especially if they had visitors. Please let there be a pair of green cat eyes. No such luck. Nothing but darkness and a few dust bunnies stared back at her. She held on to the end of the bed and groaned as she staggered to her feet. Another painless contraction tightened her stomach. “Not now, little one,” she whispered as she placed a hand on the roundest part of her tummy. “Wait until Daddy gets here.”

  Oh, Minnie, where are you? What if she’d somehow escaped? Maybe the housekeeper accidently left a door open for too long? She went to the window and gazed out to the yard. Mornings were dark this time of year, and the fog and rain made it seem like night twenty-four hours a day. They only allowed Minnie outside if she was on the leash. She was the quintessential house cat. She would be helpless outside. Was she huddled somewhere in the cold, too afraid to come out? Just last week, Brody had spotted a coyote running down their long driveway.

  Kara shuddered.

  Plus, Minnie had gotten so chubby the last few months. Her husband swore he wasn’t feeding her wet food except for special occasions, but she suspected he sneaked it to her on the mornings Kara slept late.

  “Minnie? Where are you?”

  Maybe the laundry room, huddled near the dryer for warmth? On especially cold days, she sometimes went in there. Kara plodded down the stairs and across the house to the laundry room. Please be here. A stack of newly washed towels was on top of the dryer. She inspected it for cat hair. Much to the housekeeper’s irritation, Minnie often left her black fur as a calling card. But the towels were pristine. The cat had not been here.

  Treats. She would offer treats. Why hadn’t she thought of that before now? Pregnancy brain, that’s why.

  Breathing hard from fear and exhaustion, Kara lumbered across the kitchen and grabbed a container of the foul-smelling nibbles. Minnie usually came running at the first shake.

  Kara retraced her steps around the house, shaking the container. She called the cat’s name and made the clicking sound with her tongue that usually brought her running. Nothing. Only silence. No Minnie. Oh, God, please don’t let her have gotten out.

  Tears blurred her vision as an image of her innocent Minnie running from a coyote flashed before her eyes. Minnie was her first baby. She’d picked her out from a litter at her local shelter back in Philly and taken her home, already in love with the adorable kitten. They’d been through so much together. Minnie was her only companion when she’d been sent to Cliffside Bay by the witness protection agency. When she’d taken the job as a home care nurse for Brody’s mother, she and Minnie had moved into this giant house owned by famous professional quarterback Brody Mullen.

  Minnie had immediately taken to Brody. Just like Kara. The first time she’d seen his big hands petting Minnie, she’d thought she’d swoon and faint right then and there. How could this giant man be so gentle
with such a small creature?

  They’d both fallen helplessly in love with the very famous Brody Mullen. Only Minnie hadn’t fought her feelings. She had no need to. Minnie wasn’t running from people who wanted to kill her. Kara was the one in witness protection, not her cat. It was Kara who had testified against her father and brought down some of the most powerful and dangerous drug mobsters in the world. She was the one who vowed to keep her old life a secret from her new one in Cliffside Bay.

  Brody had changed all that. When they’d finally admitted their feelings, she’d been forced to tell him the truth. He’d agreed to shelter her and keep her secret. She was safe now. A full security team watched her every movement. Her secrets were buried away.

  Except for occasionally, the possibility that they might find her crept into her consciousness. She never spoke of it, not even to Brody. There was a part of her that believed if she spoke her fears, they might come true.

  I am safe. My baby is safe. They can’t get us.

  In the kitchen, she pressed her hands into the cold granite counter. What was wrong with her? If she couldn’t even take care of a cat, what made her think she was ready for their baby boy? Would she be an awful mother? A fear as cold and damp as the weather seized her. What if she was like her father? Would she be cold and disinterested? She’d assumed she’d be like her mother, but maybe that was a false belief.

  She closed her eyes, conjuring an image of her mother. No image came, only the remembrance of the sensation of sitting in her lap. Her mother’s lap had been warm and safe. Nothing could get her there.

  For the first time since she’d married Brody, a desolate longing for her mother swept over her. She wanted her here, right now. How could she have a baby and know what to do without her mother?

  You’re a nurse. You know how to care for an infant.

  She answered her own thoughts with a swift rebuttal. Being a nurse is not the same thing as being a mother. I don’t know the first thing about nurturing an infant.

  Fighting further tears, she went out to the patio and shook the treat container and made the clicking noise again. Shivering despite her warm sweater, she scanned the yard. Tarps covered the patio furniture. Their pool was hidden under the winter cover. Further out, a dismal fog layer obscured the view of the Pacific.

  A drop of water from the awning dropped down the back of her neck.

  Had it been a mistake for Brody to fly out to New York for the interview? Even though it was so close to her due date, she’d encouraged him to go. The producer for the largest sports networks in the country had called to ask for a last-minute meeting about a color commentator position. This was the same network where Brody’s dad had spent twenty years as a broadcaster, which made it his first choice. They needed someone right away because one of their current announcers had taken a coaching position. This was the call Brody had been waiting for. He had to go out for the meeting. The chance for a position with the network where his father had worked was too big an opportunity to pass up, even with a very pregnant wife at home.

  Since her husband’s forced retirement from football, he’d been lost. He tried to hide his grief, but she knew a part of him had died when a neck injury took him out of the game forever. She couldn’t blame him. No one did. Football had been his life since he was old enough to hold a ball. Over the last few months, he’d played around with the idea of coaching, but he wasn’t sure he wanted the pressure or the time it would take from Kara and their baby. After much discussion, they’d decided it would be best for their family if he pursued the broadcasting route. Brody’s father, after retiring from professional football, had gone into broadcasting and been quite happy. The job had given him time with his sons, but also kept him close to the sport he loved.

  Maybe now he would finally be able to move forward.

  “Minnie, here kitty, kitty.”

  The baby kicked her in the ribs. Goodness, she was over being pregnant. Not only did she want to finally meet their baby, she was sick to death of feeling enormous and bloated. She missed her feet. Supposedly they were down there, but she hadn’t seen even the tips in weeks.

  She placed a hand over her stomach. Please Minnie, come home.

  She would call Brody’s manager and her best friend, Honor, for help, but she was with him in New York, hopefully brokering a fantastic deal for his new position. Honor hadn’t wanted to go on the trip either, given that her baby’s surrogate was due any day now. But she couldn’t send him alone. “There is no way in hell I’m letting him go out there alone and come back with chicken feed as the salary,” she’d said.

  Kara went inside and called Honor’s husband, Zane. He might have an idea of what to do.

  “Zane, it’s Kara.”

  “Kara. Is everything all right?” He didn’t say it, but she knew all right meant not in labor.

  “No, I’m fine.” She kept the news about the false contractions to herself but told him about Minnie’s disappearance. “I’m panicked.”

  “Do you want me to come over to help look for her?”

  “Yes, would you?”

  “I’ll have to bring Jubie with me, but we’ll be over in a few minutes.” Jubie was their seven-year-old daughter.

  “No problem. Maybe she can use her kid radar to find my naughty cat.”

  “We’ll be there as soon as we can,” Zane said.

  After they hung up, she collapsed on the couch and put her feet up. Her belly tightened. Minnie, please be safe. I need you.

  Honor

  HONOR PUSHED THE CONTRACT across the desk. “The terms seem fine to me.” Outside the windows of the New York high-rise, thick snowflakes fell from a white sky. Even from the twentieth floor, the sounds of horns, sirens, and car engines on Manhattan’s busy streets penetrated the walls.

  “Do I hear a ‘but’ coming?” Mitchell Forbes, executive producer of the largest sports network in the country, was young and handsome in a slick, designer-suit, New York kind of way. Honor preferred her husband’s tanned skin and the calloused hands of a workingman. Zane. Just the thought of him gave her goose bumps. She didn’t think it was possible to be more in love today than she had been the day she married him, but she was.

  She wanted to be done with this and get home to him and Jubie. Their baby was due any day now. She had to get back to Cliffside Bay before Sophie, her sister-in-law and surrogate, went into labor. Sophie was due on Christmas Day with a baby boy made from Zane’s sperm and a donor egg.

  A donor egg. Would she ever forget that part? This baby would not be of her flesh and blood. Would it be enough that Zane’s sperm made the baby? She hadn’t admitted her fears to anyone but Kara. Not Zane. Not after Honor had been the one who wanted to have the baby this way. He’d been against it at the beginning. Having Sophie, his half sister, carry the baby seemed too strange to him. Still, he’d done it for her. To admit her fears now would wreck him.

  What about Jubie? They’d adopted her when she was six, and their transition into a family had been slow and tenuous, but finally they were as bonded as any couple could be to a child. What if the baby changed the dynamic of their little family? What if Jubie no longer felt loved? What if she started acting out? Or was mean to the baby?

  Then there was the problem of Sophie. Dear, sweet, sunny Sophie, who’d volunteered her womb for nine months when she should have been partying on the beach with other twentysomethings. Would Sophie be able to let go of the baby she’d grown inside her as easily as she seemed to think she would? Sophie was young and naive. She didn’t think things through, using only her instincts to make decisions. What happened if those instincts told her the baby was hers?

  Put the dark thoughts away and focus on this deal. Brody needed this position. She’d watched him slowly dying since his forced retirement. For months Honor had seen Brody wander from room to room while she worked from their shared office space at his house. He was grouchy and impatient on the days professional football teams played, leaving only four when he did
n’t wear the pained expression of the one kid in class not invited to the birthday party. When they watched his old team, he sat hunched over with his hands clasped in his lap, as quiet as a sinner in church. Zane and the other Dogs—Brody’s best friends—had also noticed the change in him. Jackson, the most sensitive of the five of them, had tried to get Brody to talk about it, but he either wasn’t ready or was incapable. “I’m fine,” was all he said. “I just need more to do.”

  Honor had recently learned from Kara that he’d been obsessively creating a scrapbook of his father’s games from old newspaper clippings and other memorabilia. “For the baby,” Kara had said to her.

  However, Honor suspected it had more to do with grief than a desire to share his father with his child. The loss of his career had brought up the sorrow Brody felt over his father’s death. When he’d played football, he could still feel close to his dad. They’d shared every aspect of the game. Now Brody was without his dad and without football.

  I just need more to do.

  Idle hands. They were death to some. She and Brody were two people who needed work and a purpose in order to feel alive. Brody Mullen’s career had provided enough purpose for the two of them. He played the game. She ensured he made the most of every financial opportunity that came his way. When he’d been the greatest quarterback in the country, endorsement offers were fast and furious. Now they came, but not as frequently. His fame faded with every day that passed.

  She knew the time had come for her to find new athletes’ careers to manage. Yet the thought of working for anyone but Brody made her cringe. She knew her own hands should not become idle, or she’d be walking aimlessly around her own house waiting for Zane to come home from his brewery. That would not help any of them.

  She’d promised herself that before this day ended, she would have secured a new future for Brody. Then the two of them would go home to their families. For the next few months, her family would be her sole purpose. After the baby was a few months old, she could figure out her own next chapter.