Merry's Christmas: A Love Story (10 page)

Hayden stifled a grin. “Not so much.”

“Goodnight, Hayden,” Daniel said as he
pulled back the covers to get into bed.

“Night, Dad.” Hayden padded down the
hall.

Daniel sat on the bed, shaking his head
at the oddity of it all.

♥    ♥    ♥

The wee hours
of the morning found Tara hard at work, the beam of a flashlight spilling on
her father’s newest note to Merry. She could see that her gift idea was
catching on and it encouraged her creativity.

Ollie sleepily shuffled into the study.
“Did he send another one?” he wondered a bit too loudly.

“Shhh! Want him to hear us?”

Ollie nestled up to see Tara’s work.
“What did you do?”

Tara sat up proudly. “Turned up the flame
a notch.” She blew on the drying ink as Ollie read.

“You wrote ‘
Much Love’
this time.
Oooh...”

Tara pointed out the salutation. “I also
put that ‘
Dearest
’ before Merry’s name. And I’m particularly proud of
this part I added at the end, here. Look. Dad had it ending with just ‘
everything
that you are
.’ But I made it ‘
everything
that you are becoming
to me
.’ See? Can’t even tell I added that last part.”

Tara giggled conspiratorially. She stuck
out a pinkie, reminding Ollie of their top-secret pact. Ollie linked his little
finger with hers, grinning as he whispered. “This is gonna be good.”

seven

M
orning
came, and with it, anticipation over all the day could bring. As she readied
herself to set off, Merry marveled. For so long, there had seemed no end to the
bumpy road of her life, but now, she felt herself turning a corner. With each
step, there was a growing sense that she was walking into an entirely new
season.

As she locked her apartment to head out,
Merry counted her blessings. Her phone, gas, electric, and credit card bills
were current. There were groceries in her cupboard. Her mechanic had happily
paid off her car, and then bought it as a restoration project.

Merry chuckled to herself that she didn’t
have to dodge Mr. Grabinski on the way to the El. Instead, she wished him a
nice day, confident that her December rent check would clear. Everything in
Merry’s heart sang out. She was headed to work at a job she loved, working for
a man who had captured her imagination.

Arriving at the Bell homestead, Merry
went straight to the study. Even if she hadn’t been instructed to check the
Christmas drawer each morning, she still would have done so first thing. She
wondered if there would be another note from Daniel and exactly what it might
say.

Merry slid the desk drawer open. She was
not disappointed. Again, there was no to-do list hurriedly jotted on an
impersonal lined pad. Instead, there was another card in an envelope
hand-labeled with her first name.

Merry perched on the desk chair, savoring
the moment. She pulled out Daniel’s note, then sat back, drinking in every
Tara-amended word:

Dearest
Merry,

 
You left so quietly tonight. I didn’t get a chance to say thank you. I’m so
grateful for everything that you’re doing—and even more for everything that you
are becoming to me.

Much love,

Daniel

Fondly, Merry pressed the note to her
heart. She held it out again, reading it over and over. Any doubt that the
first note had left in her mind evaporated in the light of this second one.

Merry reminded herself that it was just
the beginning. She knew not to leap headlong too fast. But her eyes shone at
the thought of what seemed to be developing. She doubled her resolve to do
everything she could to give the Bell family the best Christmas of their lives.

By the time the twins’ bus dropped them
off at the corner that afternoon, Merry had already added a festive wreath to
the front door. She’d sealed bright red apples and affixed them to a ring of
fragrant long-needle pine. Shiny jingle bells—one for each member of the
family—hung at the center, sure to ring with each entrance and exit. A sheer
golden bow tied it all together, sending a message that this house would indeed
be celebrating the season.

Hayden trudged up as Merry began to wrap
the iron rail up the steps with pine garland. Tara wasn’t far behind her sister,
concluding a cell phone call.

Merry greeted the girls with a smile.
“Want to help deck the halls?”

Hayden shot a dull look back. “Gee. I
would, but I’m, oh, so anxious to write a love sonnet for English.”

“I’ll help,” Tara volunteered. “Already
wrote my sonnet in Study Hall. I’m telling you, one look at Leo and it just
fell right out of me. Borderline brilliant, and it’s not even due for two
weeks!”

Hayden clasped her hand over an imaginary
microphone and affected her voice as if making an announcement over a
loudspeaker. “Attention customers: ego overstock on aisle five.”
 

As Hayden went inside, Tara turned back
to Merry, enthused. “Okay, shhh! But I’ve got it! The quintessential thing for
my Christmas list.”
 

Merry’s interest was immediately piqued.
“Something for you?”

Tara shook her perfectly coifed head.
“For Hayden, silly. Okay, this is genius! Just ask me what Hayden would want
more than anything ever. Ask me!”

“What would Hayden want more than
anything ever?” Merry repeated.

“Her own room!” Tara exclaimed. “We move
her out, set up her own space where she can peck at all her computer
dealie-bobs and mope to her heart’s delight. It hit me, like, bing! Wouldn’t
this be absolutely perfect for her?”

Merry nodded, weighing the possibility,
“Wow, and for you, too.”

“Okay, this is not about me,” Tara
protested. “Yeah, it’s a fringe, but remember, she’s the one who’s opted out
with me ever since Mom died.”

Merry secured the garland with wire.
“People deal with these things in different ways.”.

“It’s been three years,” Tara dismissed.
“Kinda time to move on.”

“Have you?”

Tara hesitated a bit. “Yeah, I mean—I’m
not over it, over it. I still miss her, but I’m not going to spend my whole
life moping, much less wreck yet another Christmas.”

In some ways, Tara was right. Merry knew
it, and she felt for her. “Has it been awful?”

“You have no idea,” Tara confided. She
put her books down and picked up a length of pine. “Dad must really like you,
though. A lot.”

Merry did her best not to let her growing
interest in Daniel show. “What makes you think so?”

Tara was as cool as the December breeze.
“Just that you have him actually enjoying this as a holiday is radical. Even if
it’s only to convince ourselves that this family is something approaching
normal, which it so categorically isn’t.”

“Maybe you can change that.”

“Hello?” Tara replied. “That’s why the
room for Hayden.”

Merry pondered it, realizing that the
idea might not be as self-serving or outlandish as it had first seemed. “So,
where would you see her new room being? I’m new here, but I haven’t found any
empties.”

Tara gave Merry a congenial shrug. “Oh, I
don’t know. Somewhere. You’ll figure it out.”

Merry wandered the upstairs hallway,
looking into each and every room. She pushed the master suite door open and
scanned the space thoughtfully. She wondered if she dared to go in, and then
decided that she would. After all, how could she help the children with ideas
for their father if she had no idea what he already owned?

Examining the top of Daniel’s dresser, Merry
smiled, noticing a collection of tiny, wind-up toys. There were more robots,
some animals, and racecars. Merry picked up a bottle of Daniel’s cologne and
took in the musky aroma with recognition. She had noticed that scent from the
first time she’d bumped into him and spilled coffee all over his suit.

Merry glanced around.
There it is
,
she thought. There was that suit, hanging in a dry cleaning bag on the hook
outside his closet door. Daniel had been so good about that, she recalled. He’d
never so much as mentioned it again. What a man did when you spilled something
on him said a lot to Merry. She didn’t do it often, but she’d spilled enough on
Arthur’s customers to know it could bring out the worst or the best.

Ollie peered into his father’s room. “Whatcha
doing?”

Merry startled. “Ah! Ollie!” She quickly
recapped the cologne and put it back in place on the dresser. “Just, uh,
looking for something,” she improvised.

Ollie wandered in. “Can I help?”

“Well, um...that depends.”

Ollie eyed Merry suspiciously. “On what?”

Merry stepped to the door and
mysteriously cased the hallway. “Can you be trusted with highly classified
intel? Information that, if divulged, could put major sticks in your stocking?”

Moments later, Ollie tiptoed down the
hall. He peeked into the twins’ room like a secret agent. A finger to the side
of his nose, Ollie slyly signaled Merry that the coast was clear.

Ollie slinked past. Merry followed. Ollie
ran and flattened himself against the doorjamb at the end of the hall. Playing
along, Merry pressed herself against the wall beside him. Ollie nodded the
all
clear
signal.

“Cover me,” Merry whispered.

Ollie raised an imaginary pistol,
checking down the hallway as Merry slipped by him, turned the doorknob and
cracked it open.

When Merry peered in, she found herself
at the bottom of a steep attic staircase. Ollie tipped his head in below her, a
landslide grin unfurling at the prospects.

As soon as she got to the top of the
stairs, Merry pulled out her phone.

“Who are you calling?” Ollie asked.

“I’m texting Tara. Your dad gave me her
number.” Merry keyed in a message as she spoke. “
Ix-nay on ayden-Hay.
Upstairs.”

 
Merry sent the text, and then stepped into the cluttered attic
room. Dormer windows sent light streams through dust particles, falling on a
host of stored items. There was old furniture, the kids’ former cribs, and toys
they’d grown past. There were boxes, trunks, and suitcases from long ago family
vacations.

“You come up here much?” Merry asked.

Ollie shook his head. “Dad says I can’t
without a grown-up. I think ‘cause of mom’s stuff. But I still like it.”

Merry examined the markings on a stack of
boxes marked
Christmas
. “Well, lookee here.”

Ollie threw back a tarp, launching a
cloud of dust just as Tara reached the landing. Tara dodged, waving the dust
off vigorously. “Hey, watch it. This is dry clean only.”

Merry gestured toward the attic room.
“Tara...I think we’ve found your present.”

“Like I want a bunch of dusty old
relics,” Tara groused.

Ollie rolled his eyes. “For Hayden, Dopey.
The room?”

Tara shot a betrayed look at Merry. “You
told him?!”

“Well, yeah,” Merry defended, “And if
you’re nice to him, he might even help you fix it up for her.”

“And keep all our other secrets,” Ollie
added, with a broad wink at Tara.

Tara back-peddled, confused. “Wait a
minute. I’m supposed to fix this whole mess up? You misunderstand. I’m more of
an idea person.”

“But, you also execute,” Merry noted.
“Like your love sonnet and all your outfits. Who puts things together better
than you?”

Tara seemed to warm to the idea. “I do
have a knack,” she observed. “And Hayden is definitely challenged in the style
department.”

Merry threw an arm around Tara, leading
her into the room. “So, we’ll get the extra stuff out, open up some space for
you to do your wonders, and divert Hayden’s attention while you’re up here.”