The Best Christmas Ever (12 page)

This time she couldn’t control the tears that wet the front of his shirt as he stroked her back and her hair
over and over, murmuring and praying as she cried her heart out anew.

Slowly, her tears subsided. Justin continued to hold her. Lifting her tear-drenched face, she whispered rawly, “I’m so sorry you saw me this way.”

Tenderly, he shook his head. “Never, ever apologize for your pain, Sarah. We all have pain and it hurts us to hold it in, especially as painful as yours seems to be. God put us on this Earth and told us to bear one another’s burdens. I’m here for you. Bill is, too. And Marcy. As is my pastor, who happens to adore you, you know. Never, ever think you have to hold such a load by yourself.”

He stroked her cheek and she was so thankful for the man she’d come to work for. He was more than just a brother-in-law, much more than she’d thought he was back when she’d first met him. He was the man she loved.

Her heart flip-flopped at the realization.

She loved him.

And she was infertile.

That could have easily brought on a new round of crying if he hadn’t chosen that moment to lower his head and kiss her. He feathered his mouth over hers, then over her eyes, her cheeks and finally her mouth again.

What he gave her in his kiss felt like life-giving nectar for a starving soul.

“Bill told me I could come check on you.”

Mickie’s small voice at the door caused them both to break apart. Once again Sarah was mortified, until she heard Justin’s dark reply, “Thank you, Bill.”

A giggle escaped her. Justin sighed and abruptly sat
down on the couch. His reaction pulled another, then another, giggle out of her.

Soon Justin’s strained chuckle joined her voice and the tension was relieved.

But Sarah knew, deep down, the problems had just begun.

A
t the sound of the doorbell, Sarah came jogging down the stairs. “That’s probably the lady with the pattern for your outfit, Mickie,” Sarah said as Mickie dashed from the kitchen. “The president of the PTA promised to have someone bring it to me today, even if it is the day after Thanksgiving.”

“I’ll get it!” Mickie cried, grabbing the door even as Justin came out of the kitchen, where he and Mickie had been making cookies.

Sarah slowed her sprint to a sedate walk, not wanting to be caught running down the stairs.

Justin grinned and smiled giving her a “I know that bad habit from Mickie and you can’t trick me” look.

She reached the front door just as Mickie swung it open. And Sarah wished she’d stayed upstairs and let Justin handle it.

“Come on in, Miss Stephanie.”

Stephanie smiled her saccharine-sweet smile and maneuvered her way inside. “Why, hello, Sarah. I bet
you didn’t expect it to be me who brought this by, but I told Mary Ann that I just lived right around the corner practically and knew you wouldn’t want to get out—well, hi, Justin,” she said, feigning shock. “What are you doing home today?”

Sarah sighed and took the pattern Stephanie thrust in her hands as she walked past.

“It is the day after Thanksgiving, Mrs.—Stephanie,” he said.

As if the woman hadn’t known he’d be here, Sarah thought, disgusted.

“Well, Mary Ann told me Sarah had called with concerns about the outfit for Mickie and I just had to come over to make sure Mickie was going to get what she needed. It’s such a shame she doesn’t have someone who can sew and do all those little things for her. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?” Stephanie cooed to Mickie, who had come over to get the pattern and look at it.

Sarah wanted to hug Mickie when she said, “Oh, Aunt Sarah will take care of everything,” and then beamed up at her.

Stephanie only looked disconcerted for a moment before turning back to Justin. “I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. Though my husband is dead, I make sure to cook a fresh turkey every year with all the trimmings. I feel it’s important for the children to experience traditions, not the store-bought things so many people are serving up these days.”

Did the woman have a spy watching their every move? Sarah wondered with displeasure. Stephanie could make her feel a failure faster than any other
woman she knew. And Justin just stood there and smiled politely. It was really nauseating.

“We had friends over,” Justin said.

“You had friends over? I’m sure they appreciated your housekeeper’s cooking, then.”

Justin, thankfully, didn’t rise to the bait. He smiled. “We had an enjoyable time.”

“I must say, the house has stood up tolerably well, considering poor little Mickie has only had a string of sitters. You’ve done an admirable job. You should also be very proud of the part she got in the play. Not all the little girls are getting to be a front-row angel.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. This cooing over Justin was going to go on forever. And she refused to stand here and listen to it while being purposely ignored by the woman. With a smile, she said, “Excuse me. I have some chores to take care of.”

Justin narrowed his eyes slightly, but Stephanie looked smug. Sarah merely smiled sweetly, patted Mickie as she walked past where she clung to her daddy’s leg and headed up the stairs.

Sarah did have work to do. Maybe it was wrong to leave the way she had, but she didn’t like standing there watching another woman coo over Justin.

Mickie said it was tradition to get down the Christmas ornaments the day after Thanksgiving and she’d looked so wistful that Sarah hadn’t been able to resist. Since Justin had offered to make cutout cookies with Mickie—something Sarah had never done before—Sarah had decided to explore the attic and surprise Mickie with the ornaments. She had just pulled down the ladder to the attic that was located at the end of
the hallway near Justin’s room, when the doorbell had rung.

She’d rather be searching for ornaments than listening to Stephanie.

She climbed up the attic and moved boxes around until she found one labeled “Christmas.” With a sigh she pulled it out. Just as she was about to open it, she found a smaller one, farther back, covered in dust and spider webs. She supposed as housekeeper, cleaning the attic would fall to her, too. It certainly needed it. This one said “X-mas” on it. But this one, unlike the other one, was labeled in Amy’s handwriting.

Sarah pulled it out and opened it.

Well, she’d found the ornaments. Fond memories assailed her as she pulled them out. Each girl had her own collection of ornaments as they’d grown up. Their mother had said it was a tradition they should keep and that when they married, their first tree would have memories on it.

Amy had been much more creative than Sarah. She had made her own ornaments each year, in addition to the one her parents would buy her. One by one Sarah pulled them out and touched them, remembering how they had been lovingly crafted.

“Those were Amy’s.”

Sarah looked up to see Justin’s head and shoulders poking through the entrance. “Mickie’s playing Nintendo. I was looking for you and saw the ladder down.”

“Running from Stephanie?” A soft smile curved her lips.

“Thank you for leaving me there with her,” he muttered darkly, and came up the stairs. “She’s gone,
too. I told her I had to find my housekeeper and explain the rules of decorum.”

“You didn’t!” Sarah gasped.

He chuckled. “Consider yourself properly chastised.”

She chuckled. “I promised Mickie I’d get these down for her. She said you always brought them out of the attic the day after Thanksgiving.”

“Not those,” he said.

Sarah’s hands stilled. “I don’t understand.”

Justin pulled over a small trunk and sat down next to her. He took the small tan cloth ornament with a Christmas tree cross-stitched on it. “I haven’t used these since Amy died.”

“I’m so sorry.” Sarah realized her blunder. “I saw this box.” She indicated the nearer one. “And then this one. I just thought you must have kept your ornaments separate.”

He rubbed his thumb over the material. “She was so proud of these. They were so filled with memories for her. The year she died, well, it was only a week after Thanksgiving and I just couldn’t bring myself to use her ornaments. We went out and bought all new ones.”

“Oh, Justin,” she whispered, her heart breaking. She started to reach for the ornament he had, but he stopped her.

Taking the box from her lap, he began to go through it. “This one she said she made when she was six-teen.” He held up two hearts entwined.

Sarah chuckled. “She was certain she was in love and was going to stitch the names in there when the boy declared himself.”

Rummaging through the box, he found another one. “She made this one when Mickie was born.”

A cradle with the year on it in blues and greens graced the front of the small stuffed pillow-shaped ornament. “It’s beautiful.”

She fingered one and tears touched her eyes. “This was one of my favorites.” She held up one with a cross that had a cradle in front of it. “She made this one the year she asked Jesus into her heart.”

Justin sighed, put the other ornaments back into the box, then dropped his head. “You know, Sarah, I really loved Amy. It was a comfortable, caring relationship, one I went into because I thought she loved me.”

“I know,” Sarah replied. And though it sounded funny for her to be saying that to Justin, she realized it was the truth. No matter what she’d thought in the past, she knew Justin wasn’t the type to marry Amy out of a sense of obligation or guilt. She silently asked why her parents had encouraged Amy to marry him. It had only ended up hurting everyone involved. Amy just didn’t know how to say no. The only time she had tried, she’d died out on a lonely road, alone. “I miss her.”

Justin slipped an arm around her and gave Sarah a small squeeze. “I do, too. It was really hard when she first died. There was so much guilt over her death and I had a small child and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I blamed Amy for leaving me. But slowly, day after day, I began to function again, and now, when I think about Amy, it’s like another lifetime, bittersweet. I loved her, but we were both young, inexperienced. I was so different. I know she’s happy where she is now
and the only thing I still grieve over is that Mickie won’t know her.”

“She remembers bits and snatches.”

“I wonder if she does or if it’s that I remind her.”

He slipped his arm from around her and put the lid on the ornaments. “Whichever,” he said, tucking the box under his arm, “I think it’s time to bring these back out and start some new memories of our own.”

“Our own?”
she asked, shocked at what he’d said.

“Mickie and me,” he said, and looked at her strangely.

Oh, of course. Now, why had she thought he was referring to her? “I agree. It’ll be nice for Mickie to have the ornaments for herself. Our mom said we could do whatever we wanted with our ornaments. And I’m sure Amy would want her daughter to have hers.”

“You have some, too?”

Sarah flushed. “Yes. Both Amy and I did.”

“Would you like to add them to the tree?”

Sarah immediately shook her head. “No. They’d get mixed up when it was time to take the tree down, and well, they’re in storage and everything.”

She would’ve sworn Justin looked disappointed. “Well, if you’d like to see them,” she offered shyly.

“That’d be great!” He stood. “Let me push the other box over to the entrance, then I’ll stand below to catch it.”

“You sure you don’t have Stephanie down there to watch your macho show of strength,” she teased. “Maybe you’ve considered remarriage and think you have to impress her.”

He paused by the stairs and turned back to her.
There was no teasing glint in his eyes. No, he looked very serious when he said, “Stephanie is mainly attracted to my bank account. I can guarantee you, I’ll only be marrying someone who can love me in the truest sense of the word.”

The look in his eyes sent a shiver of awareness through her. She nervously licked her lips and wiped her hands on her jeans. Oh, she could love him in the truest sense of the word, and easily, but she wondered if he could love her when he found out her secret.

The sound of Mickie thudding up the stairs, and her voice, broke the spell, “Telephone, Aunt Sarah!”

She smiled, albeit shakily. “Saved by the bell.”

He smiled back. “Only a reprieve, Sarah. We’ll have to discuss these emotions bouncing around between us sooner or later.”

She climbed down the stairs, then ran to the library so she could have some privacy. She couldn’t think of who had the phone number here, or even who would be calling her.

“I want to know what you told your boss that caused him to take his business away from my firm.” The nasty voice of Drydan Watson reverberated through the phone.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, don’t play dumb with me, missy. I know you’re wrapping Justin around your little finger. That’s the only reason he’d trade a reputable firm such as mine for a smaller, no-name outfit. I purposely didn’t call his work today but instead called you to warn you that if you don’t do something to get Watson and Watson back in his good graces, your little secret is going to be out.”

Sarah, who had been stunned by hearing his voice, now got angry. “Go ahead and tell him, Drydan. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“When you lose your power over him it will. After all, who’s paying your bills, letting you live in his house, eat his food and who knows what else under his roof? It’ll matter plenty if you don’t do something. I’ll give you until the first of January. After all, with the holidays, he won’t have much time to get anything done. But come January 1, if you haven’t convinced Justin that everything you’ve said about my family is lies, he’s going to know your guilty little secret.”

The phone slammed in her ear.

Slowly, she replaced her receiver. So Justin had let Drydan Watson go. Was it because of what she’d told him? Justin had certainly been furious.

For some reason, that brought a bit of joy to her heart. Justin had actually defended her by dropping Drydan and hiring someone else. A silly grin spread across her face. If she hadn’t loved him before, she certainly did now.

Why would he do such a thing over Drydan’s stupid tantrums? She knew Drydan Watson would get over his anger and things would go on. He only stepped on those smaller than him or those who threatened him in some way. She’d been a threat to his son, so he’d made sure to stomp out that threat. But now she was a threat to him through Justin’s business.

Her smile left her face. That meant Drydan just might reveal her secret to Justin in order to get even.

“Hey, I forgot to ask you what I’d wanted to when I hunted you down earlier.”

Sarah whirled, finding Justin at the door.

“Are you okay? Bad news?” He indicated the telephone by cutting his eyes to the instrument, then back to her.

“No. No, you just startled me.”

His smile returned. “Well, I remember what it was that I forgot when I saw the ornaments.”

He came into the room, brushing at his light blue sweater, then wiping his hands on his jeans. “The decorations are only part of the tradition. I’m a firm believer in traditions and I’ve decided Mickie is old enough to appreciate a live Christmas tree.”

He pulled his wallet out of the desk and stuffed it in his back pocket. “So this year I’ve decided it’s time to take Mickie to a Christmas-tree farm. I thought she would really enjoy it. What do you think?”

Sarah nodded. “She’d love it. We always begged our parents for a real tree, but they hated the pine needles.”

Justin smiled. “I have a housekeeper. I don’t have to worry about cleaning up pine needles.”

“Thanks a lot,” she said, laughing.

“Good. Grab your jacket or sweater. It’s cool out today. I’ll get Mickie’s pullover and we can go. We should get there just about sunset.”

“You want me to go with you?” Sarah asked, surprised.

Justin had the audacity to look affronted. “Of course I do. Who else will I be able to pawn Mickie off on if she gets too excited over this new event?”