I stood. "It's nice to meet you all. Thank you so much for letting me intrude on your holiday."
Juliana walked over to me. "You can never have too many people to love on Christmas." She put her arms around me, giving me a hug. Warmth exuded from her. This was like no other family I'd ever been around before. So far, it seemed like the type of family I’d only seen in greeting card commercials.
I had to admit that for not knowing the people I was spending Christmas with, it was a nice celebration. I spent most of my time hanging around Vivie because I really enjoyed her company, but also because James seemed to be avoiding me. Having worked for him, I knew that he could sometimes get into a mood. Not moods where he was angry, but moods where it seemed like he wanted to be left alone. Still, of all the times for him to avoid me, Christmas at his family's house with people I didn't know was the worst time.
After dinner, Vivie and I sat on the back patio drinking wine. She explained that she knew she wanted to get out of New York, but she wanted to be near family, as well. She couldn't decide whether she wanted to be in Los Angeles with her other brother, Sam, or here in Las Vegas near her brother Max.
"I'm starting to lean toward Las Vegas. I can think of all the fun things that we can do. The trouble we can get into."
I smiled. I couldn't remember ever feeling so connected to a potential friend. Not even Caryn. The fact that she was sleeping with my fiancé suggested she hadn’t been that connected to me, either.
"That would be fun. I haven't really made friends yet,” I confessed.
"We can be new in town together."
"I would like that." I looked down at my empty wine glass. "I'm finished. Do you want another glass? I can go get us one."
She thrust her wine glass toward me. "I wouldn't mind another one."
I took her glass and headed inside. When I reached the kitchen, I heard Amelia and James talking, so I halted at the door.
"If you treat her out in the world the way you've treated her here, nobody is going to believe that she’s the love of your life." Amelia had a scolding voice.
"What are you talking about? I treat her just fine."
The idea that he felt that avoiding me was treating mejust finehurt a little bit.
"You've ignored her practically the whole day, James. Maybe you should spend the rest of the evening studying me and Max or Kate and Sam or their parents. See how a real couple acts."
"It's not like that for us."
"But isn't that what you want? For other people to think you’re a couple? I’m not saying that you have to be lovey-dovey, but you at least need to look like you like her or are interested in her."
"It's not like that with us," he said again.
"This fake marriage is going to crash and burn. How can you pretend to be married to somebody you don't like?"
"I didn't say I didn't like her."
"Well, you sure fooled me. Why don’t we ask her what she thinks of your behavior tonight?"
Not wanting to get caught, I hurried away from the kitchen door, returning out to the terrace. "Amelia and James are having some sort of argument in the kitchen."
"I like Amelia a whole lot, but James takes some getting used to. I know he's your boss, so you’re probably not going to share inner secrets about him, but I just don't understand him. He’s nice and engaging one minute, and then the next minute, he acts like he's annoyed with everyone. Amelia says he gets ‘grumpy’. It's really strange."
I nodded. "Maybe it's because he's under a lot of stress." I wondered if I should tell her we were getting married. But based on the way James was acting and the discussion he was having with his sister, I had to consider that he would end our deal.
"Yeah, well, it's Christmas. The guy is a Scrooge."
I laughed. "There's no arguing with that."
Later,Vivie had another turn with baby Andrew and went inside. Needing a break, I stayed out on the terrace.
"Is the family too much for you?" Amelia sat in the chair that Vivie had just vacated.
"Not at all. I'm sorry. I'm probably being rude, I just—"
"It's fine. Why do you think I came out here?" Her smile was warm. "James explained to me this marriage of convenience you two are planning."