Merry Kisses (Riverbend Romance 5) (12 page)

Sonya tried to imagine Dad saying anything like that. It wasn’t possible. Dad might say God was love, but a harsh love. A behave-yourself-or-you’ll-get-punished love. Not this peace and assurance Heath spoke of that dribbled into every crack in her dry, aching soul.

“Sonya? Speak to me.”

“Heath.” She tightened her arms around his neck. “I love you, too. I don’t think I knew what love was. Even God’s love.” She pressed her lips to his.

He pulled away after the briefest kiss. “Are you ready to hear about Deborah?”

She took a deep breath and nodded.

“A neighbor of hers reported her to Child Services for neglect on Friday.”

Sonya stiffened and sat up straighter. It hadn’t been Heath?

“Just listen. Child Services sent Deborah and Bailey’s names to the Riverbend ministerial association’s list to receive Christmas hampers. Nick and Ian took a basket of food and a few gifts over yesterday evening.” He held up his hand. “I didn’t know anything about it until today. I didn’t have a chance to tell you. And honestly I wasn’t completely certain it was the same Bailey until I saw Deborah. I’d never heard their surname.”

Sonya felt very, very small. She’d done a lot of jumping to conclusions, none of them with any grounding. “Oh.”

“One more thing, in the interest of full disclosure.” Heath’s dark eyes looked deeply into hers.

Uh oh.
 

“The Santa thing at the mall. All of it. I let you believe that the mall administration sponsored everything. They didn’t. They gave permission and space, of course. But they contracted it out.”

Sonya bit her lip. “Then who? You? On your own?” That couldn’t be right. It took more than one guy to set up that whole array. Somebody who wasn’t half exhausted from plowing parking lots every night.

“The ministerial association. They wanted a way to reach into the community and help meet families’ needs. The ones who seemed to need help went on the hamper list.”

“And they knew exactly what each child wanted for Christmas because of your notebook and the address lists for the photos.”

Heath nodded and swallowed hard. “Are you angry?”

Sonya pulled back. Should she be?

“I didn’t tell you everything.”

Yesterday, she’d have been furious. This morning, too. Now? After Dad’s display and seeing — feeling — the contrast between Dad’s version of love and Heath’s? She knew without a doubt which one was closer to God’s. All she felt for Dad was pity. And for Mom, too, living in a marriage where everything she did wrong was held up for inspection. Sonya couldn’t imagine Heath ever doing that.

“I’m not angry,” she said slowly. “I would have liked to have known, but I’m not sure I was ready for it.”

Heath’s lips brushed hers, and her senses reeled.

“Thank you for being so patient with me,” she whispered against his lips.

“Loving you is always my pleasure.” And he kissed her thoroughly.

* * *

“Jingle bells, Santa smells, a million miles away...” Elena belted out the lyrics at the top of her lungs then dissolved into giggles.

Heath reached across the hay-covered wagon and tickled the little girl.

Sophie sniffed his jacket. “Mr. Heath doesn’t smell. Except like peppermint. And maybe like Miss Sonya’s perfume.” She nestled against him.

No matter. Heath made room for her as well as Sonya. A more perfect Christmas Eve would be hard to imagine with their friends around them. Corbin and Sarah perched on the front of the wagon as Corbin drove his team of horses, festooned with jingling harnesses. Nick and Lindsey and Reed and Carly sat along one side, winter boots dangling above the snow-covered fields, glistening under the full moon. Ian and Kelly snuggled against a pile of bales in the middle of the wagon while the little girls — or at least Elena — ricocheted all over.

Heath nuzzled into Sonya’s hair. “Have I told you today that I love you?” he whispered.

“Once or twice, but you may tell me again.”

He would, too. Over and over. “It’s a beautiful night. Almost as beautiful as you.” The air was crisp, but not fierce. At least it wasn’t snowing, or he’d have to be out on the Bobcat in just a few hours. But no, this was a night off. A special night. One, he hoped, he’d remember forever with the intense clarity he felt at the moment.

“It came upon a midnight clear,” Reed sang out. By the next line, everyone was singing along. From that carol, they moved into another. Then another, all capturing the birth of the Christ Child, the embodiment of love. Heath closed his eyes, breathed in the essence of Sonya, and held her as close as winter parkas and prickly hay would allow.

After a while the carols faded away. Soon after, Corbin’s gentle, “Whoa,” brought the horses to a halt.

Heath had no desire to move. He felt the bump as the horses were unhitched and Corbin and Sarah led them away. Rustles in the hay told him some of the others had climbed off the wagon. Crackles and a flare of heat on his face told him someone had tossed a few logs on the bonfire Corbin had started before the hayride. Still he reclined, holding Sonya close against his chest.

“What is it, Mommy?” Elena whispered.

“Shh. It’s mistletoe. Go hold it over Miss Sonya’s head.”

Heath opened an eye as Sonya stirred. Elena blocked the moon with her sprig.

“What happens next, Mommy?”

“You say, merry kisses, everyone.”

“Merry kisses!” yelled Elena.

Even knowing it was coming, Heath jumped at the volume in Elena’s voice. He grabbed her around the middle and tumbled her into his lap. “You want a kiss, little girl?” he growled.

She wiggled and screeched. “No, not me. You’re supposed to kiss Miss Sonya!”

Heath blew a raspberry against her cheek.

“No! Not me. Yuck.” She pulled out of his grasp and jumped off the side of the wagon.

Kelly collapsed on the hay, howling with laughter. “Now you see what Ian and I have to put up with? All. The. Time. Times two.”

Heath threw an armful of hay in her direction.

Kelly rolled away. “Oh, that was just too funny for words.”

Sonya sat up, still in the crook of Heath’s left arm. “Things have gotten rather noisy around here in the last few minutes.”

“They have, haven’t they?” Heath said conversationally as he gathered more hay and tossed it at Kelly. “What’s a guy got to do to get some privacy?”

“Stay five kilometers away from seven-year-olds?” Kelly jumped off the side of the wagon.

“And their mothers,” added Heath.

“Ha, probably,” Kelly tossed over her shoulder as she joined Ian beside the fire.

“Where are they all now?” whispered Sonya, looking around.

Heath counted the silhouettes around the fire. Everyone was accounted for. He groped around in the hay.

“What are you looking for?”

“This.” He held the sprig of greenery — it felt oddly like plastic — over Sonya’s head. “You heard the orders. It’s time for merry kisses.”

“I think that can be arranged.” She closed her eyes and leaned closer.

He held the mistletoe between their faces. “Wait a minute. Do you still think it is inappropriate?”

She looked at him and reared back a bit at the sight of the greenery. “What?”

Heath swung it back and forth like a slow pendulum. “Or perhaps... prophetic?”

Sonya grabbed the mistletoe and threw it over her shoulder. “Want to fulfill some prophecy?”

“Would I ever.” He tasted her lips, once, twice, then gathered her in both arms and deepened the kiss.

“They’re kissing,” announced Elena.

Heath pulled back and grinned at Sonya.
 

“Caught,” she whispered, a twinkle in her eyes.

“Are they going to get married and have babies?” asked Sophie. “Why can’t we have babies at our house?”

“What do you think?” whispered Heath, his hands cradling Sonya’s face. “Want to?”

“Want to what?”

“Get married and have babies?”

“Is that a proposal?”

“It might be, if you were going to say yes.”

“I might, if you asked.”

He kissed her again. “I might have to give that some thought.”

Sonya rubbed her nose against his. “You might want to get on that.”

Heath swooped her up as he stood then deposited her feet back on the planks of the wagon.

She gasped and clutched him around the neck.

He could get used to that, but he disengaged her hands and held them between them. “So, I’ve been thinking.”

“Oh?”

From behind him, over at the fire, Reed began plucking out the melody to
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
on his guitar.

Heath dropped to one knee and tugged a small box out of his jacket pocket. “Sonya Simmons, I love you. Will you marry me? Will you share merry kisses with me every day for the rest of our lives?” He opened the velvet box and held it out to her.

Sonya gasped and her eyes widened as the diamond shimmered in the full moon. Both hands flew to cover her mouth. She stomped a little jig in place, her gaze never leaving the diamond. “Yes, yes, yes!”

“She said yes,” called Elena.

A few chuckles sounded from the fire, and a bit of clapping. One wolf whistle.

“Does that mean they’re having a wedding?” asked Sophie. “I love weddings. Maybe we could be flower girls again.”

Heath pulled the ring out of its nest and reached for Sonya’s left hand. “May I?”

She nodded as he slipped the ring on that precious finger. “Oh, Heath. It’s beautiful.”

He stood and gathered her back in his arms. “I love you, Sonya. With all my heart.”

“I love you, too.” Her lips caressed his, sending shivers through his body. “Always and forever.”

The End

Thank You!

Thank you for reading
Merry Kisses: A Riverbend Romance Novella 5
. I hope you enjoyed it!

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Peppermint Kisses
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If you’re familiar with BC, Canada, you’ll know Riverbend, Castlebrook, and the other towns don’t exist. I took the liberty of redrawing this region of the province, pulling my favorite parts of towns I know and love into one community — with a healthy dose of imagination. I hope you adjusted to the new topography.

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More Than a Tiara (Snowflake Tiara, Part 2)

Chapter 1

If a brother or sister is… in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead.

James 2:15-17, NASB

Helena, Montana

October, 2014

Just ahead of her, a group of at least a dozen people drifted into The Parrot Confectionery, talking and laughing. Marisa Hiller growled in frustration. First a large delivery truck blocked the alley so she couldn’t drop her box of fresh rosemary at the back door, and now the front of the candy shop was clogged with customers. That’s what she got for agreeing to Brian’s late-afternoon request for the herb.

She shifted the large box to her other hip and peered in the wide windows. Yep. It would be a few minutes before she could edge her way through to the back of the business.

Her gaze caught on the wooden notice board nestled beside the door with dozens of posters in various degrees of tatter. Homemade ads with photos offered puppies, while tear-off strips provided the kennel’s phone number. Pampered Chef parties, the Helena Symphony, a new daycare in town. People could live their whole lives off a board like this.

A larger poster in the top corner begged attention. Miss Snowflake Pageant? She narrowed her gaze and stepped closer to see the details. Back in the day, she’d have been the first in line to sign up for that kind of competition. Now? Not so much. Not after. . .

“Marisa? Marisa Hiller?”

Had she slipped back in time? Was her memory playing tricks on her? But no. The voice had been real. She pivoted.

Jase Mackie.

Her gut lurched. What was he doing in Montana? She hadn’t seen him since that day at the JFK airport. Since. . .

For a second he looked like the old Jase. The shock of red hair she’d once run her hands through. The blue-green eyes that once looked adoringly into her own. She’d kissed those freckles on his nose.

But then his eyebrows pulled together, and his gaze grew wary. “It is you. I thought I must have been imagining things.”

“Real and in the flesh.” Marisa did her best to tamp any feelings out of her voice. It’d been twenty-seven months and four days since they’d flung hostile words at each other beside the luggage carousel. She’d grabbed her bags and run for a taxi, blocking out not only Jase’s words but Terry’s. Yeah, that had gotten her fired. She was supposed to keep personal matters out of her work.

She yanked her gaze free of Jase’s and glanced through the confectionery door beside her. Maybe she could squeeze past the late-season tourists peering into the candy case if she lifted the box above her head. “Been nice seeing you.”
Liar
.

“You look good.”

In jeans with a ripped knee? A tank top with tomato stains? Not precisely the runway model apparel he’d last seen on her. Marisa’s gaze snapped back to his.

He looked surprised to have let the words out then his chin jerked toward the notice behind her. “Going to enter that pageant? It looks right up your alley.”

“I just noticed the poster, so I don’t exactly have any plans. Never heard of it before.” Not in this century, anyway.

“Oh.” His gaze slid away, then back.

She’d missed him. Missed everything she’d dreamed might happen in those heady days.