The Christmas Secret. Lee Mckenzie

With the holidays coming, I’ll stage the house for Christmas.” She looped the camera strap around her neck and made a wide, sweeping gesture at the staircase. “Faux greenery, big red velvet bows—it’ll be stunning.”

      “Great idea. What are your thoughts, Sam?”

      Sam thought she should make a run for it. Clearly not what Claire had in mind. And as for Christmas … bah humbug. “Taking down the wallpaper will be easy, and I can install a new light fixture, too. This one isn’t original and really doesn’t suit the house.”

      AJ, who stood with both hands shoved in the pockets of his black jeans, looked up at the ceiling and studied the out-of-place pendant as though seeing it for the first time. Then he looked at Sam. Their gazes locked and held, and a rush of long-dormant lust uncoiled in her belly.

      This was not good.

      AJ looked away, but she knew he’d felt it, too. Judging by the way Claire was eyeing them, even she’d picked up on it. Great. Now this would be a hot topic at their weekly business meeting tomorrow morning. Sam wouldn’t have to tell them everything. Only that she and their new client had once had a brief affair followed by a messy breakup.

      Kristi, focused on the monitor of her camera and the offending light fixture, was oblivious to everything else. “Got it,” she said. “Okay, that’s it for this room.”

      With shaky hands Sam scrawled a reminder on her clipboard to check the storage facility for old light fixtures. She’d picked up several at a demolition sale last winter and one of them might work here.

      “We can discuss the living and dining rooms later,” Claire said. “Let’s move on to the kitchen. From what I remember when I was here the other day, that room and the main bath upstairs need the most work.”

      Just her lousy luck, Sam thought. Those were the rooms that took the longest to renovate, which meant this job could take a while. She shot another hasty glance at AJ, in time to catch a flash of panic. Hmm. There was something in the kitchen he didn’t want them to see, and Sam knew with absolute certainty it was more than a sink full of dirty dishes. Claire was already on her way, though, so they trooped through the house behind her.

      Sam hung back and tried to ignore AJ’s presence while she took in the room. The kitchen wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad, either. The cabinets were dated, but fresh paint and new hardware would fix that. The appliances were relatively new, but the gold-flecked countertop and starburst-patterned linoleum screamed seventies. They definitely had to be replaced.

      Kristi was already taking photographs. “There’s way too much clutter,” she said, then she lowered her camera and smiled at AJ. “Sorry, but having all these canisters and gadgets on display makes the room feel much smaller than it is. We want potential buyers to walk in and immediately see a place for their espresso machine instead of thinking their things will never work in here.”

      AJ shrugged. “All these things belonged to my grandmother. I would have cleared everything out, but I wasn’t sure what to do with them.”

      Kristi flashed a reassuring smile. “That’s what we’re here for,” she said. “By the time we’re finished, it’ll be a brand-new kitchen.” She fingered the floral curtains on the kitchen window. “Vintage. Good shape, too.” Then something outside seemed to catch her attention. “Oh, what an adorable little boy. Is that your son?”

      Sam’s heart thundered in her chest. AJ had a child?

      Chapter Two

      Brimming with anger and overcome with grief, Sam steadied herself by leaning against the door frame.

      Breathe, she told herself. Just breathe. You can get through this.

      AJ’s nod in response to Kristi’s question was almost imperceptible. He didn’t look at Sam, but she still detected the same raw emotion that had greeted her at the door, along with the panic she’d seen when Claire suggested they come in here.

      “How old is he?” Kristi asked. “Three? Four?”

      AJ still wouldn’t look at Sam, and she couldn’t have torn her gaze away from him if she tried. “No,” he said. “He’s … ah … just two.”

      Two. AJ had a two-year-old son. Which meant he must have a wife. A wife who was probably already married to him when he’d been sleeping with Sam. Which meant he’d been busy getting his wife pregnant while Sam had grappled with the decision to give her son a better life than she ever could.

      Oh, God. She couldn’t breathe. Her heart raced as scenes from the past flashed through her mind at a dizzying pace, ending with AJ’s father. James Harris had said his son had a history of getting involved with women like her and then dumping them. She hadn’t believed him, even told him as much, but that hadn’t ended the conversation. He’d said that if she kept seeing AJ, he would put her out of business. Then he’d followed up that threat by saying her mother needed to be institutionalized and asking if she was prepared to do that. Blindsided—how in hell had he found out about her mother?—Sam knew then he wasn’t just a dangerous man, he was evil. Her life was already hard enough, and she thought being in love was supposed to make it easier.

      Ending things with AJ had been the easy part. He had accepted it with a dismissive shrug, exactly like the one his father had given her when she said putting her mother in an institution wasn’t an option. Like father, like son? She hadn’t completely believed it then, but she did now.

      A month later she suspected she might be pregnant, and by the time she’d moved past the denial and finally saw a doctor, she was further along than she’d realized. She couldn’t abandon her mother, but neither could she raise a child in the unstable environment she’d grown up in. The rest was inevitable.

      “He’s adorable. Cute dog, too.” As usual, Kristi was oblivious to the elephant in the room. “He looks tall for his age. Must get that from his dad.”

      AJ looked as though he wished she would stop talking. Sam sure as hell did.

      “What about your wife?” Kristi asked, still not picking up on the tension. “Will she mind having us in the way?”

      AJ’s eyes darted in Sam’s direction, but he looked away before his gaze met hers.

      Coward, she thought. Two-timing bastard.

      “My … ah … she doesn’t live here. I have a nanny who takes care of … us. And the house. She’s outside right now with … ah … you’ll meet her later.”

      Claire, who never missed a trick, had been studying Sam’s reaction to all this new information. Now, to Sam’s relief, she took control of the conversation and redirected it back to their reason for being here. “I didn’t realize you had a family. We’ll do our best to keep the disruption to a minimum.”

      “Please, I don’t want you to worry about that. I work at home but I’ll … we’ll stay out of your way.”

      The questions kept tumbling through Sam’s mind. Had his wife left him? No surprise there, but to leave her child behind? How could she? Then again, based on her experience with the Harris family, she might not have had any say in the matter. AJ working at home was a surprise, though. He was in line to take over the business when his father retired. Could he run such a huge company from home?

      Sam realized she was still staring at him while he continued to avoid looking at her. He’d never worn a ring, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t married when they were dating. Who are you kidding? They had never gone on a date. All they did was sleep together. After his father’s ultimatum, she had assumed AJ kept their affair a secret because, like his father, he’d thought she was good enough to sleep with a Harris but not good enough to be a Harris. Now it seemed he wasn’t just arrogant, he was married. Ringless, but married.

      “Sam?” Claire’s voice gently interrupted her nightmarish journey through the past. “What are your thoughts about the kitchen?”

      They