Page 30 of A Christmas Negotiation

“We never ate last night, did we?”

She opened an eye and popped up onto her elbow. “We did not. I feel like I should file a complaint, except you’re still way ahead of the Bacharach. Not a single siren went off in the middle of the night.”

“We never would’ve met if it weren’t for that silly alarm.”

She rolled to her back and clutched the covers to her chest. “We still would have met. It just would’ve been under far different circumstances.”

Their first rendezvous had set the stage for last night, so he was immensely thankful that things had played out the way they had. “I’m glad the first time we encountered each other wasn’t at the negotiating table.”

“Me, too.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “Now let’s get some food. I’m starving.”

Downstairs in the kitchen, Jeremy put some bacon in a skillet and began cracking eggs for breakfast. Cat had come downstairs for her own morning meal, which Isabel dished up for her before taking a seat at the center island. “I like watching a man cook.”

“Lots of years as a bachelor,” he said. “And my ex didn’t cook anyway, so it was all up to me.” Looking back, he should have known it was never going to last. Kelsey spent too little time in this house. She was always out, desperate for her next adventure. It had taken a long time for him to figure out that her absence wasn’t about him. It was about the bottomless hole in her psyche that would always need filling.

“What did you and your wife plan to do with all of this space anyway?”

Jeremy dished up the bacon and eggs and grabbed slices of buttered toast, then ferried the plates to the island. “Madam, your breakfast is served.”

Her entire face lit up when she smiled. “Thank you, sir.”

He took the seat next to her. “I assumed we would have kids, and if we were going to create our dream house, it only seemed logical to me that we would have space for a growing family. That never happened, obviously. I wanted kids and she did not.”

Isabel sipped her coffee, hands wrapped around the mug. “Did you guys not talk about it ahead of time? That’s a pretty important topic before marriage.”

“We did discuss it. I told her that I wanted a family and she said she did, too. But when it came time to try to get pregnant, she kept secretly taking her birth control pills. I guess she just never had the guts to tell me she’d changed her mind. Or she’d been lying to me all along.” He was proud of himself for saying all of that without losing his cool. Something about Isabel made it so easy to confide in her. “Maybe I’m not cut out for parenthood, anyway. My own parents did not embrace their role.”

“I wouldn’t call your dad warm and fuzzy. At least what I saw of him.”

Jeremy had to laugh, even if it was a sound born of sadness. “He’s not. Neither is my mom, unfortunately. Although she has a softer edge to her. I’ll give her that much. They’ve both always been more interested in what a person accomplishes than what kind of person they are.”

“That’s terrible.”

“They’ve always been like that and I fed into it. I learned from an early age that if I did exactly what they wanted, and especially if I excelled at it, I was showered with praise. That was as close as they came to expressing affection.”

“Is that why you became a lawyer?”

“Actually, it isn’t. My dad wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but it was my grandfather who inspired me to do it. He was all about the subtleties of the law and he loved the interpretation of it. He loved forming an argument.” Jeremy turned to Isabel. “Very much like you, actually.”

“He sounds like an awesome guy.”

“He was. Those are all his law books in my office upstairs.”

“So that’s why you like to work here. Stay away from your dad and be surrounded by reminders of the real reason you got into this crazy business in the first place.”

“Absolutely.” Jeremy nodded, perhaps a little too eagerly. Isabel was an angel who’d dropped out of the sky. She understood him so naturally. “So, I was thinking, since it’s Saturday and there are only a few days until Christmas, maybe we could do something holiday-related today.”

“What did you have in mind? I hope not caroling. I’m a terrible singer.”

“You and me both.” He took another bite of his toast. “Shopping? I’ve already done mine. I get the same thing for my parents every year.” A year’s supply of monogrammed golf balls for his dad, who not only hit the links regularly, he was apt to lose them in the water hazards. For his mom, Jeremy went to Tiffany & Co. and bought the most recent offerings of earrings or a bracelet.

“I’m done, too. I got everything at Eden’s. It was the first time in years that I’ve done that.” She slid him a glance. “What about decorating? A Christmas tree?”

“I don’t have an artificial one. There’s a tree lot about seven or eight blocks away. Even with the snow, it’s probably open. We could drag it back?”

Isabel turned and looked out the patio doors. “We don’t need to buy one. You already have plenty.”

“Out there?” This option had never occurred to him. Not once.