'Tis the Season: A Collection of Mimi's Christmas Books (48 page)

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SHE’S NOT YOU

Sick and alone with her three-year-old daughter at Christmastime, Belle Foster needs help. When her neighbor’s brother gets involved, she welcomes the soft-spoken good-looker into her world. Rescuing her kidnapped daughter isn’t part of the deal, but any man willing to babysit his sister’s menagerie of pets and cares that much about a stranger’s baby is a guy she wants to get to know much better.

Jesse has only loved one woman in his life. Years ago, she left him with a broken heart, a crippling dependency and too many poignant memories. No one can replace her. No other woman has ever come close. So why does this loving mom continually sneak into his head? And why can’t he shake her loose? One needy girl in his life, a sister who expects him to live on a pedestal, is enough for any man.

Praise for Mimi Barbour…

“Barbour spins a difficult story with ease. Her prose is smooth. Her characters rich and her plot fast paced. She delivers the well-deserved happily ever after ending perfectly.”

~ Reviewed by Jo-Ann Carson

“With all of the terrible things that are happening in this world, sometimes you just need a shot of happiness. I’m glad that Mimi realizes that this need exists and is able to create this happiness to share with us.”

~ Reviewed by Leandra Hanes

“Mimi’s story’s will make you smile they are feel good story’s where good wins out in the end giving all of us a bit of hope.”

~ Reviewed by Shirleen Miller

“Mimi Barbour presents all of these kinds of love and more in a warm and touching story just right for the holiday season.”

~ Reviewed by F. Barnett

This first book of the Elvis Collection is dedicated to my childhood heartthrob who I’ll never forget or replace, Elvis Presley.

From the time I first started dreaming of sweet romance, you were my hero. For the many hours of incredible listening enjoyment, I sincerely—and with love—thank you. Because your songs resonated with me, the stories hidden in those blues and the emotion you brought to the words, I’ve decided that I wanted to bring some of those very songs to life.

And so the series begins…

And it’s breakin’ my heart, cause She’s Not You.

Elvis Presley (1962)

Chapter One

Jesse Parker stepped out of the apartment’s elevator into the dimly lit corridor where the wall light flickered, warning all of its impending demise. He stopped dead. She was there again, the little girl who tore at his heartstrings.

Same as she’d done the last couple of days, as soon as the pixie-like child saw him, she wiped her wet face, jumped up from where she huddled on the hallway’s green carpet and beelined for her apartment door. Only, this time she hesitated before she opened it. Her little back faced him, a wall of antagonism shielding her body slapped at Jesse until he felt his insides sinking.

Why he frightened her, he didn’t know. So he waited, not wanting to make things worse. Speaking as softly as a deep male voice can, he said, “Is there something I help you with, sweetie?”

He’d seen her tears. In fact he’d seen them every time she’d run away. And they drove him crazy.

“My mommy’s sick.” The tear-streaked side of her still baby-faced cheeks was all she showed him. Somewhere between the ages of four to six, he thought—until she spoke and then he wondered if she were even younger.

What the heck did he know about kids? Standing there, trying not to frighten the little cherub, plans scuttled through his head like mice at the smell of a cat.

Instincts kicked in and he crouched down to her level. “Has she seen the doctor?”

“Uh huh! He’s dumb.” The child used her arm to wipe the mess off her face and a small sob escaped. “All he tells her is to take pills but she mostly barfs them up. She barfs a lot.” Before Sam could say anything else, the tiny sprite opened her door and disappeared.

Now what the hell am I supposed to do? Sam knew he couldn’t leave it alone. He stood with his hand raised to knock and then slowly lowered it when a sudden thought changed his mind.

He’d try and contact his sister, Kim. After all, it was her apartment he was staying in and knowing how gregarious she was, Sam had no doubt that she most likely knew these neighbors and could tell him something about their situation.

The thought of doing nothing had disappeared the moment he’d picked up the scent of the child’s fear and heard her husky, frightened voice.

A short way down the hall, Jesse stormed into his sister’s apartment and flicked on the lights and caught his breath. He’d forgotten how she’d rigged the switch to turn on all the holiday decorations she’d set up around the place.

Her oversized Christmas tree sat in front of the main set of windows in the large room and blazed its magic at him, flashing twice. The windows behind did a great job of reflecting the splendor. The hundreds, or most likely thousands, of lights twinkled from both inside the branches and around the outer edges.

The theme of the tree had to be angels or maybe fairies since Kim had hundreds of tiny feathered creatures in all colors poking out from every space. Then there were ribbons inter-woven between these sprites gleaming with the sparkling surfaces of silver and pearl.

Bah!
The girl might be his sister but she was a nutcase when it came to this season. Mind you, he had to admit that Christmas made Kim a living. A very good one if her place was anything to go by. A few years back when he’d first seen her home, he’d been appalled. With Jesse’s help, now the condo she owned was not only modern but very comfortable.

The sound of claws scraping the floor for leverage warned him that Sam had heard him enter. A chubby canine, with bright black eyes and flopping ears, hurled itself straight for him, expecting he’d break the momentum of this unrestrained dash.

This time it didn’t work. Unprepared, Jesse couldn’t catch Sam and he tumbled ass over teakettle up against the wall. Obviously unhurt, the silly dog stood up with a wobble or two and then made a second attempt.

Quickly, Jesse removed his jacket, scooped up the frenzied pup and sat in the only chair in the place that would accommodate his size comfortably.

Once he’d settled the four-legged pest to chewing on the small rawhide bone he carried around in his packet, Jesse dialed Kim’s cell number and she answered at once.

“Kim, it’s me. I’ve just had an encounter with this kid in the hallway for the third day in a row and each time she sees me she runs away. Today she was bawling and said her mommy is sick. Do you know these people two doors down from you?”

“Oh no! Belle must be getting worse. I guess Yaya is fretting. She gets scared, poor little tyke. Usually, she comes to get me. But she knows I’m away. Jesse, you’ve got to do something.”

“Hey, brat. You’ve got me here looking after your herd, keeping your plants and now you want me to babysit your sick neighbor. Sorry, I draw the line at barfing mommies. She must have
someone
I can call to help her.”

Kin laughed at his grumpiness as he knew she would. She never took him seriously, probably because he frequently wasn’t. “Come on, there are only two cats and one little puppy and admit it—they’re all beautiful. To answer your other question, no. Belle hasn’t anyone to help. Yaya’s father is dead, killed in Iraq and as far as I know, the girls are on their own. I help out when I can.”

To cover up the ping his soft heart just delivered, he asked. “Yaya? What kind of crazy name is that?” He scoffed, couldn’t help it.

Kim laughed again. “Her real name is Layla but she couldn’t pronounce it when she was younger, and called herself Yaya. It stuck. Belle adores her baby so it must be difficult for her to see Yaya so scared.”

“Does she have a doctor or a boss, someone to help her?”

“Belle had to take a medical leave from her job at the playschool where she worked. The pain in her stomach gets so severe that she’s bent over a lot of the time. Plus, she says she lives in a fog and can’t seem to concentrate. Being a war widow, her medical coverage helps some but there are still certain procedures they’ve refused to pay for and she can’t personally afford the costs for these tests. I know she’s terrified it might be cancer and that scares me also. It’s a real tangle, Jesse. I feel so helpless most of the time. I know you’ll help though and it makes me less worried.” Her theatrical sigh, heavy and heartfelt, wrenched at his strength of will.

Okay, now that’s what got to him. His sister figured Jesse was one step down from God; that he could do anything. Most of the time he tried to disabuse her of this idea but she wouldn’t accept the truth. So Jesse invariably found himself trying to live up to her expectations.

You’d think after all these years of jumping to do her bidding, he’d be able to let the hero status go, make her wake up and see the real world. He just couldn’t. She’d look at him with those big green eyes so very like the mother he’d adored, and poof, there went his resolutions.

Weakness sifted into his attitude and he felt the moment his back-bone dissolved, and he flipped to his role of being her big, weak-kneed, fix-it brother. As her voice coerced, softness filtered through his determination.

“Damn, Kim! What do you expect me to do? I don’t even know the woman and Layla runs from me every time we meet.” Not quite the truth, but his nosy sibling didn’t have to know about their latest encounter.

Jesse had learned his lesson a long time ago to keep certain personal information from Kim who dedicated herself to trying to bring him happiness in the form of a wife.

After the last debacle, she’d backed off, swearing she had no idea that the girl she’d forced him to date had been a recovering drug addict who hadn’t quite recovered… as he’d soon found out when he’d had to rescue her from a ladies room of the restaurant where she’d gotten into some bad stuff and needed an ambulance. Talk about a mess! The night in the emergency ward hadn’t helped his temper. When Kim had called the next morning anxious to see if her matchmaking had worked, for the first time she’d suffered his wrath.

He’d hung up on her and she’d done everything she could to wiggle her way back into his good graces. Since then, she’d stayed out of his personal life and left well-enough alone. Until now.

Out of the blue, she’d come begging, wanting him to stay at her condo for the holidays. Because one of her three stores had a huge problem, Jesse was needed. She’d pleaded in the exact way she’d done as a girl growing up under the protection of a doting brother.

The manager she’d installed in her Christmas store in Olympia had been in a car accident and would be hospitalized for at least a month. Since the shop had just opened that summer, there was no one trained yet to take over responsibility.

Seeing that December brought in huge profits in her business, Kim couldn’t afford to let just anyone step into the spot. She’d have to go herself. And that meant leaving her place in a huge hurry, along with her two furry white Persians, one very spoilt golden Lab named Sam—a puppy who thought himself a warrior—and a bowl full of exotic fish.