Alan has no idea how he had managed to keep any of his Christmas spirit over the past two days since he and Maria had landed in London. Of course, he had given himself several stern lectures, all of which centered around the basic premise that if he couldn't stand up to the women in his life, then he deserved what he got.

Chrissie had wanted Maria to come home and spend Christmas with her and Ivan. Which was sort of all right with him. He would've missed her, but he didn't blame Chrissie for wanting to spend the holidays with her only child. It was his own fault for taking a job so far away, after all. Even if Chrissie was the one with all her own family, plus Ivan, all about her and he'd be the one stuck in a strange and generally not-too-welcoming place without even the consolation of starting new Christmas traditions with Maria. But he could have dealt with, like he had dealt with his share of the lumps over the past few years.

The first sign of trouble had arrived over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend with Maria worrying over how he would spend Christmas in Washington. He had tried to assure her that he would be absolutely fine, but he'd never been able to lie to her. One would think that his position as her father would have closed the subject right then and there. Then again, this was Alan Jackson and Maria was one of the women in his life.

The trouble had deepened at the close of the next week when he received two phone messages. One from Chrissie and one from his own mother.

With all his women causing this amount of trouble, he found it hard to believe that he had gotten away for an early-morning jog.