An O'Brien Family Christmas Read Free

right back. “Not at work, Susie,” he warned. “We’re not discussing my personal life here. I mean it.”
    Naturally, she ignored him. “I will not have this honeymoon trip ruined, to say nothing of how terrible Gram will feel if you’re moping around Ireland missing Laila.”
    “I won’t mope. I promise.”
    She merely scowled at the offer. He sighed.
    “Isn’t it enough for you that you have a clean bill of health from the doctor, and that your marriage to Mack is solid?” Matthew asked her plaintively. “Do you really need to meddle in my life, too?”
    “Actually this isn’t about you. It’s about me and my happiness. I want Gram’s trip to Ireland to be perfect, and it won’t be if the entire family—the entire extended family—isn’t there.”
    He pushed aside the architectural rendering he was supposed to have finished days ago. Lately his concentration was shot. He met his sister’s gaze.
    “Look, nobody wants Laila in Ireland more than I do,” he admitted. “I’d planned to ask her to marry me there on Christmas Eve, if you’ll recall. That’s no longer in the cards, obviously, since she won’t even speak to me. If I try to talk her into going, she’ll turn me down flat. If her presence is so critical, put somebody else on the case.”
    “I’ve already sent Jess,” Susie admitted. “No luck.”
    “What about Trace? Surely her brother can talk some sense into her.”
    “She’s not speaking to him at all. She’s lumped him in with her parents. They’re all the enemy right now. She wouldn’t even return Abby’s calls, and those were about work. She’s cut herself off from practically everyone.” She regarded him earnestly. “I’m worried about her, Matthew. If you really care about her, you should be, too.”
    Matthew groaned, knowing he was at least in part responsible for Laila’s isolation. “How did this turn into such a huge mess?”
    Susie didn’t hesitate. “Because the two of you kept everyone in the dark about your relationship,” she said readily, always eager to enumerate his many flaws as she saw them. “You snuck around town for who knows how long like a couple of criminals. It left everyone to conclude that even you knew that your dating was somehow wrong. It made it seem as if this were just another stupid fling for you and that Laila was ashamed of being another one of your conquests. If you’d been open about it in the first place—”
    “I wanted things out in the open,” he snapped. “Laila thought it was a bad idea. Seems to me she was right. The minute her stodgy parents got wind of what was going on, all hell broke loose.”
    “Whatever,” Susie said, not one bit swayed by truth or logic. “You’re the only one who can get through to her now. Apologize, grovel, beg, heap on a boatload of guilt about how the trip won’t be the same without her, whatever you need to do. Just don’t take no for an answer. You have to get her to come to Ireland. You got her into your bed, which, given how sensible she usually is, had to take some smooth talking. Surely you can convince her to go on a family vacation.”
    “The only way I’m likely to pull it off would be to tell her I’m staying home,” he said realistically.
    “Not an option,” Susie declared. “Find another way. I mean it, Matthew. You love her. She loves you. This standoff has to end.” She leveled a look into his eyes. “I expect you to handle it. Do not let me down.”
    With that she flounced out of his office. He stared after her, wondering when she’d turned into such a demanding woman, sure of her convictions. It probably had a lot to do with the grit and determination she’d found to fight ovarian cancer, to survive it against all odds. Nothing much scared her anymore, certainly not her brother.
    A few months ago he’d have said he shared his sister’s intrepid, determined nature. In the face of Laila’s uncompromising rejection, in the wake of her stubborn stance that