The Rock Star's Christmas Reunion: contemporary holiday romance (A Charisma series novel, The Connollys Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

while he climbed the steps, he made quick work of the door and ushered her into the living room again.
    “Yeah.” She smiled tentatively at him then turned toward the kitchen.
    His phone vibrated again. He wanted to draw her close, but this wasn’t the time to pursue anything physical. “Call me if you need any help. I’ll be upstairs.” He went to his office to make his call privately.
     
    ~
     
    Half an hour later, Yakima had everything she needed set out. She was whisking her fish batter when Bax reappeared with Haldana at his heels.
    “What can I do?” Haldana asked. She’d put her hair into a cornet braid and exchanged her jeans for a soft red dress.
    Yakima placed her third pie plate next to the other two, and poured in her seasoned panko crumb mixture for the halibut chunks. “Absolutely nothing. You’re a guest.”
    “Are you going to try to serve everything yourself?”
    Yakima glanced at the four-inch spiked heels her diminutive assistant wore. Haldana had no intention of working the party. She was merely being polite. “Not a big deal. It’s a small family affair.”
    “It’s probably time to set out the apps,” Bax suggested. “I’m going to light the fire.”
    “Right.” She stared at his perfect backside as he walked away, feeling the erotic tug of attraction, then realized he’d changed into black slacks and a white, button-up shirt. He’d listened to her and looked classy and perfect. And dead sexy.
    “Whatcha staring at?” Haldana asked.
    “I didn’t think he was going to change,” she explained.
    “I think he looks nice,” Haldana said, then wrinkled her nose. “For a cousin.”
    “Me, too,” Yakima agreed, then changed the subject. She didn’t want Haldana to know how completely she was lusting after Bax. “Really, I’m under control here.”
    “I’ll go hang with Bax then. It’s so strange to see him in person after all this time. I mean, he doesn’t seem as tall, for one thing.”
    “You’ve grown a bit.” Yakima laughed.
    “A little in twelve years.” Haldana kicked up a heel and left through the kitchen door.
    Yakima finished her halibut prep and went to Bax’s large, mostly empty refrigerator and pulled out her smoked salmon, lime juice, and lingonberries. Thankfully, he had a twelve-person set of dishes and cutlery. Her budget hadn’t extended to rental dishes yet, though she planned for it in the near future.
    She used his plates that would normally held tea cups to contain her salmon, then sprinkled the berries and juice over each plate. The doorbell rang. When she walked through the front hallway, holding her tray of plated salmon, she saw Rah Rah had arrived and the twins, Thora and Ingrit, were visible through the glass panel on the side of the front door. They had just stepped out of their cars.
    All four of the girls were similar in appearance, with varying shades of light hair. None were model height but otherwise looked the part, uniformly slim but curvy, high-cheeked, full-mouthed. Yakima remembered how jealous she’d been of them during bikini season, especially since she knew they were eating the single dad diet of hot dogs, potato chips, and soda most of the time. Harry Connolly was a lot of things, but a cook wasn’t one of them, and the older girls hadn’t been interested in learning to cook either.
    Yakima kept walking with the tray, past the girls who greeted each other as if they hadn’t seen each other in weeks. As a service provider, she wanted to cultivate invisibility, unless summoned to be otherwise.
    She entered the living room. Changes had been made in the past few days. Gold records had gone up on the walls. Holly sprigs decorated the mantelpiece, along with lit candles and a framed holiday photo that must have been taken when Bax was about ten. And yes, his father and the three brothers all wore green bow ties in the picture. Now, she saw that father and sons had identical, goofy grins, some with missing teeth, but his