Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor (Friday Harbor #1)

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor (Friday Harbor #1)
Lisa Kleypas


Prologue

Dear Santa

I want just one thing this year

A mom

Please dont forget I live in friday harbor now.

thank you

love

Holly

One

Until his sister’s death, Mark Nolan had treated his niece Holly with the usual offhand affection of a bachelor uncle. He had seen her during the occasional holiday gatherings, and he’d always made certain to buy her something for her birthday and for Christmas. Usually gift cards. That had been the limit of his interactions with Holly, and it had been enough.

But everything changed one rain-slicked April night in Seattle, when Victoria had been killed in a car wreck on I-5. Since Victoria had never mentioned a will or any plans she had made for Holly’s future, Mark had no idea what would happen to her six-year-old daughter. There was no father in the picture. Victoria had never divulged who he was, even to her close friends. Mark was fairly certain that she had never told the father about Holly’s existence.

When Victoria had first moved to Seattle, she had fallen in with a bohemian crowd, a group of musicians and creative types. This had resulted in a string of short-term relationships that had provided all the artistic razzle-dazzle Victoria had craved. Eventually, however, she had been forced to admit that the quest for personal fulfillment had to be balanced with a regular paycheck. She’d applied for a job at a software company and had gotten one in human resources, with decent pay and great benefits. Unfortunately by that time, Victoria had found out she was pregnant.

“It’s better for everyone if he’s not involved,” she had told Mark when he had asked who the guy was.

“You need some help with this,” Mark had protested. “At the very least, the guy should live up to his financial obligations. Having a kid isn’t cheap.”

“I can handle it by myself.”

“Vick…being a single parent isn’t something I’d wish on anyone.”

“The concept of parenting, in any form, freaks you out,” Victoria had said. “Which is perfectly understandable, coming from our background. But I want this baby. And I’ll do a good job.”

And she had. Victoria had turned out to be a responsible parent, patient and kind with her only child, protective without being overcontrolling. God knew where such mothering skills had come from. They had to have been instinctive, since Victoria certainly hadn’t learned them from her own parents.

Mark knew without a doubt that he didn’t have those instincts. Which was why it was a shock upon shock when he learned that he had not only just lost a sister, he had gained a child.

Being named as Holly’s guardian was nothing he had ever anticipated. He knew his own capabilities about most things, and he had a good idea of what he probably would be able to do in situations he hadn’t yet encountered. But this…taking care of a child…this was beyond him.

If Holly had been a boy, he might’ve had half a chance. Boys weren’t all that hard to figure out. The entire female gender, on the other hand, was a mystery. Mark had long ago accepted that women were complicated. They said things like, “If you don’t already know, I’m not going to tell you.” They never ordered their own desserts, and when they asked your opinion on which outfit to wear, they always wore the one you didn’t pick. Still, although Mark would never claim to understand women, he adored them: their elusiveness, the surprises of them, their intricate, fascinating shifts of mood.

But to actually raise one…Jesus, no. The stakes were too high. There was no way he could set a good enough example. And guiding a daughter through the treacherous, tricky climate of a society that presented every kind of pitfall…God knew he had no qualifications for that.

Mark and his siblings had been raised by parents whose version of marriage had been a war of attrition in which their children had been used as pawns. As a result, the three Nolan brothers—Mark, Sam, and Alex—had been fine with the idea of going their separate ways upon reaching adulthood. Victoria, on the other hand, had craved the kind of connection their family had never been able to muster. She had finally found it in Holly, and that had made her feel lucky.

But one wrong half turn of a steering wheel, one patch of wet road, one out-of-control moment, and the amount of life measured out to Victoria Nolan had run cruelly short.

Victoria had left a sealed letter, addressed to Mark, kept in a file with the will.

There’s no other choice but you. Holly doesn’t know Sam or Alex at all. I write this hoping that you’ll never have to read it, but if you are…take care of my daughter, Mark. Help her. She needs you. I know how overwhelming this responsibility must seem. I’m sorry. I know you didn’t ask for this. But you can do it. You’ll figure everything out.

Just start by loving her. The rest will follow.

“You’re really going to take her?” Sam had asked Mark on the day of the funeral, after a reception at Victoria’s house. It had been eerie to see everything the way she’d left it: the books in the bookcase, a pair of shoes tossed carelessly to the closet floor, a tube of lip gloss on the bathroom counter.

“Of course I’m going to take her,” Mark said. “What else can I do?”

“There’s Alex. He’s married. Why didn’t Vick leave Holly to him and Darcy?”