By this time her pulse had cranked to cardiac arrest speed. “Your wedding?”
He uttered words she wanted to hear, and at the same time filled her with enormous fear. “Marry me.” Completely serious, he took her hand in his and gazed intently into her eyes. “Marry me, Abby.”
19
The cheer that went up around the room stunned Abby almost as much as her reaction. Insecurity that she’d banished before rose inside like a nightmare. Oh, my God. He’d just asked her to marry him in front of his family. In front of Candace? Was he only asking her to drive Candace away? As soon as she thought this she pushed the idea away. Nick's gaze smoldered with strong emotions, all of them warm and wanting and needing her.
“Oh please,” Candace said from her position near the fireplace. She stood and smirked. “If this isn’t the most phony display I’ve ever seen. This damned family is like the Waltons or something. Do you think I can’t read through all this overwrought crap? Please spare me.” Her eyes blazed with indignation at Nick and Abby. “You two are the most sickening couple of—”
“Candace,” Nick said, his voice deep with warning. He stood, his hands clenched at his sides. “Don’t say another word.”
“Shut up, Nick,” Candace rasped, tears welling in her normally ice water eyes. “I can say anything I damned well please.”
Mrs. Claussen stood slowly, still clutching her last present in her hand. “Candace, please. This isn’t the time or the—”
“I know why you’ve done this, and it isn’t because you love her,” Candace sputtered, pointing at Abby with a long, dagger red nail. “You’re doing this because you don’t want to take responsibility for your baby, Nick. If it hadn’t been for her I know you would have married me.”
Shocked expressions covered everyone in the room. Even Abby’s uncle looked perplexed and chagrined, though he’d shown little animation all day.
Nick frowned, irritation making him look dangerous. “This has gone far enough.” He pointed toward the cabin front door. “Take your vindictive, nasty accusations out of this house. Chill out in the next cabin if you have to, while the rest of us try and enjoy what’s left of Christmas Day.”
His unrelenting words provided Candace’s undoing. She stalked to within an inch of him. “I know what this is all about, Nick. I should have seen it coming a long time ago. You’re hoping she’ll marry you and then you’ll try and take my baby away from me so you can raise him. Well, that’s not going to happen.”
Jason made a harsh noise, a cross between astonishment and disgust. “Candace, you’re crazy. I’ve known Nick for years, and he’d never do anything like that.” He turned his gaze onto Abby. “It’s plain to me he’s very much in love with Abby. That’s why he wants to marry her.”
“Of course,” Anna said, stroking her daughter’s brown curly hair. “Abby belongs with Nick.”
“I don’t doubt they love each other for a minute,” Nella said, crossing her arms defiantly and pinning Candace with a don’t-mess-with-me look.
Abby listened to Nick’s family support and her appreciation mixed with her fear. Tears stung her eyes, born of shock and trepidation. Old anxieties whispered to the surface, fighting with common sense. Her mind clamored for control, waging a battle with her heart to understand her intense and immediate reaction to the situation.
Maybe getting upset about Candace’s crazy display didn’t make sense, but her emotions didn’t care. Abby lost the war as old feelings rammed into life like vindictive demons. She blinked rapidly and inhaled, trying to rid herself of pain. Abby’s sensory overload expanded, Candace’s outburst and accusatory words ripping the most wonderful Christmas straight from her heart.
It always happened this way. Every Christmas with her family. Now with Nick’s family. Always. Always.
“I’ve had enough of this stupid display.” Candace glowered at the group. “You’ve taken her in when it should have been me you welcomed into the family. I’ve known all of you far longer then this—this nobody!”
“Now wait a minute,” Brit said, setting aside her presents to send a stinging look at Candace. “This is inexcusable. For God’s sake, Candace, it’s Christmas.”
Mason cleared his throat. “Find a little charity in your heart, Candace. This not the time or place to air grievances.”
Candace made a sound of pure incredulity. “Bah humbug. This isn’t the board room, Mason.”
Anna and Mason’s little girl watched in confusion, her eyes wide with surprise. Abby wondered if the little girl had ever seen a family gathering laced with recriminations. Abby hoped the girl never had to see another situation like this. She knew too well what happened when family tensions and sick deeds stamped terrible memories into children’s souls.
“You’ll all regret this.” Candace, apparently on a roll, slashed Nick with a penetrating glare. “Especially you. I doubt this girl ever fit in anywhere. I saw it from the minute I met her. Plain. Unsophisticated. Without style. Definitely not the type to fit into Denver money.”
Mrs. Claussen’s face turned a furious crimson. “Maybe it’s time you found your way back home, Candace.”
Ignoring Mrs. Claussen, Candace shifted until she stood in front of Abby. She shook another pointy nail in Abby’s face. “You’ll regret that you’ve taken him away from me.”
Something burst within Abby. Too often in life she’d allowed others to tell her how far she needed to run. Too often she’d ignored her own desires and had strove to appease others at cost to herself. This time pain lacerated her, and the cut was fatal.
Nick’s face drew tight, resentment carving into his features. “Leave her alone, Candace. Obviously you’re not happy here. Leave.”
Candace swung around and for a millisecond Abby thought the woman might slap him. “Don’t worry Nick, dear. That’s what I plan to do.”
Abby stood, forcing Candace to move back. Without looking at anyone, Abby followed Candace to the front door. Abby grabbed her outdoor wear from the coat tree.
“Abby, what are you doing?” Nick asked, his eyes dark with concern. He came to her, cupped her shoulders, but her movements broke her away from his touch.
Abby’s sensitivity flared brighter than a supernova. Tears escaped. Now that she’d cried in front of Nick’s family, had shown them her wobbly emotional state, she had to leave.
They’ve found me out. They know now that I’m an odd ball. Little Miss Sensitive who can’t take it when it’s dished out.
“I’m leaving with Candace,” Abby said.
A chorus of exclamations and denials came from the group.
Nick watched in amazement as Abby threw on her snow gear, completing the process faster than Candace.
“You’re what?” Candace asked as she finished shoving her feet into her boots. Her eyes widened. “I don’t think so.”
“The roads are probably well cleared by now,” Abby said, tears still pouring down her face. She dared to look at Candace and registered the pure disbelief covering the woman’s face. “I’m asking you to take me back into town.”
“Sweetheart, please,” Nick said.
“Don’t Nick. I just need...I need some time. I’ll get my bags and be gone.” She inhaled a shaggy breath. “I’ll be at home if you want to talk later. But right now I need time to think.” Abby gulped, forcing back a sob. “Candace, can I please have a ride? Just into Russel. You’ve got what you want.” More tears rolled down her cheeks. “You’ve ruined my Christmas.”
Candace’s overripe lips peeled back in a caricature of a grin. “Suit yourself, sweetheart. But if you want a ride with me you better hurry. I’m not staying in this place a minute longer than I have to. I’m not waiting for you to get bags.”
Nick couldn’t have looked more stunned if someone had proved to him that the tooth fairy did exist. Before he could say another word, Abby followed Candace into the afternoon light.
Nick’s entire world listed to the side. Like the Titanic, he bobbed at the apex, t
ittering on the edge of an icy ocean. After the cabin door slammed, he realized he clutched the box with the Santa Claus cufflinks. Silence surrounded him.
He hesitated a moment too long, realizing as the engine on Candace’s vehicle roared to life that she’d started down the driveway. Curses formed on his lips, but he held back the torrent. He opened the door and stepped onto the porch into the frosty air. Candace’s sports utility vehicle sped down the long driveway, fishtailing in the powdery snow.
Nick registered the murmurs behind him. Expressions of astonishment tumbled from his family’s lips. The words made no sense. His mind was too full.
Abby had left.
God help him, Candace had taken away the Christmas Abby had wanted all her life. A time filled with love and joy and harmony at Christmas for just once in her life. Destroyed. He understood why Abby had left, and he couldn’t blame her. He’d been absorbed in his own joy, and was so in love with Abby, that he hadn’t taken in to consideration how she’d react to a public proposal. Add Candace’s unforgivable behavior and Abby’s reaction made sense. Her sensitivity and her past had piled high the pressure.
As moisture touched his face, tiny cold particles drifting on a breeze, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned slightly.
His mom watched him with obvious concern. “I’m so sorry, Nick. I can’t believe what I just saw and heard.”
“She’s gone. Abby’s gone.” Nick heard the pallid statement and couldn’t believe he’d uttered such useless words. The woman he loved more than anything on earth had dashed into the snow and left him standing here gapping like a clown. He made a sound of disbelief in his throat. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“How could Candace do that? I knew she wasn’t the woman for you, and I knew there were things I didn’t like about her, but that was a horrible thing for her to do.”
He sensed someone on the other side of him, and he looked down at Aunt Cassandra.
To his surprise tears trembled on her lashes, and she swiped at them with her fingers. “We’ve got to go after her. This was the best Christmas I’ve had in years, too. And it’s partly my fault Abby’s never had the holiday she dreamed of.”
Then a terrible, cold shiver raced through his body.
Two years ago, in weather much like this, Deena had met her death on an icy road.
Horror rose inside him, threatening to overwhelm him in a sudden panic. He glanced at his mother and saw her eyes widen. Could memories of that snowy day two years ago haunt her as well?
“I’ve got to go after her mom. I can’t lose her.”
“You won’t, Nick. Hurry!” his mother urged.
Her words galvanized the ice water that had clogged his blood, and he jerked into action. Reaching for his coat, he said, “Let’s go.”
Abby trembled like a newborn, her heart racing, tears pouring continuously. She wanted to howl like a baby at her misfortune, curse the fates and give up.
Instead she watched out the car window as Candace took the road a little too fast. Particles of snow drifted on the light breeze, giving the impression it continued to snow. The snowplows had scraped most of the snow away, though a thin sheet of ice still covered the road.
At the same time the radio played "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas."
Yeah. Real merry.
Candace had fired up the heat, but Abby continued to twitch with a cold born of nerves, anger, and astonishment that she’d done several stupid things in rapid succession.
She need to think and piece together her feelings. Probably after she’d dashed into the snow, Nick had realized what a mistake he’d made in asking her to marry him. What man would want a woman who ran when things got tough?
Candace’s outburst had blown her heart wide open. A heart unprepared to be stomped upon once again after experiencing a heady and most wanted joy.
Candace’s words had left Abby feeling like a little girl who had lost her most cherished doll. The pain sliced and dug and pinched.
Then, as suddenly as if divine inspiration had hit her, Abby knew what she had to do. In many ways she’d always felt strong, and she rarely ran away from problems. This time the pressure had tripped her balance. Minutes later, though, her equilibrium began to regenerate. Yes, she should have stayed at the cabin with Nick and his family. Instead she sat in a cold car with the woman who’d given her such grief. A mistake, but one she could put to use.
Abby knew that even if Nick didn’t want to marry her after what had just happened, she had to help him. She’d always love Nick, no matter what happened. For his sake she’d try and talk sense into Candace.
“Candace, we need to talk.”
The other woman had stayed silent for the first few miles, concentrating on the road. Now she tossed a disdainful look at Abby. “About what?”
“About what just happened?”
“You mean why you jumped in the car with me? Just goes to show how stupid you are.”
Although the comment stung, Abby reserved her concentration on the underlying problem. “Nick doesn’t deserve this, Candace, no matter what you think of me. Are you going to have a paternity test when the baby is born?”
Candace laughed, pushing on the accelerator. Abby’s heart danced with apprehension. “I don’t need to.”
“Why?”
When Candace looked at Abby she swerved a little on the road. “Number one, I don’t want to. Number two, I know he’s the father.”
“So you didn’t sleep with any other men in the time that you and Nick dated?”
Candace threw Abby another sidelong glance. “Of course I did.” She shrugged. “But I used protection every time.”
Relief filtered into Abby in some small way. “So you lied to Nick.”
Candace gave another shrug. “So what. We all lie to our men, don’t we, at some time or another?”
Abby reined back her disgust to maneuver the conversation in the direction she wanted. “How can you be sure the baby is Nick’s if you slept with other men?”
Candace’s cold expression never changed. “I know it’s his.”
“You can’t know.”
“What I know is that I can’t believe I let you come down this hill with me. What a stupid, self-punishing little bitch you are, Abby. Are you a glutton for punishment? Wasn’t what I said to you enough?” Venom spiced her words. “Now that you’ve broken up with Nick what do you plan to do?”
“You answer all my questions first, then I’ll answer yours.”
Candace uttered a bitter laugh but said nothing. Abby watched the road, as if paying attention to it would keep them on the road.
Abby noted that Candace had pressed on the accelerator again. Way too fast. Two instincts pushed her. Self-preservation and the desire to ferret the truth from this woman.
“Do you think Nick’s the type of man to buckle to your type of blackmail?” Abby asked, holding onto the door handle as they careened around a corner. “Was your tirade a last ditch effort? Did you think you’d miraculously win his love?”
“I was angry. That’s the way I get.”
Abby had met others who ignored their own outbursts. They frequently believed they’d done nothing wrong. They had no concept of how the world could revolve without them. Self-centered didn’t begin to describe their outlook.
“And you think he’ll forgive you now?” Abby asked.
“Enough of your questions. Don’t you realize you’ve lost him, Abby?”
Candace’s actions declared her desperate. This woman had won all her life using intimidation. Perhaps she’d never known loss or despair.
Maybe Candace had grown up in an environment like Abby’s and had suffered. That could explain her temper tantrum, and her general disregard for other’s feelings. If she’d known nothing but enmity, perhaps she’d learned to hurt others by example.
Child abuse came in many forms, some of it leaving scars on the soul rather than the flesh. Abby knew that by heart.
Or m
aybe...maybe Candace was just plain mean.
In any case, Abby couldn’t erect more than a token of sympathy for the woman. “Even if I’ve lost him, Candace, that doesn’t mean you have gained him for yourself.”
Candace made a funny noise in her throat, and took the next curve even faster than the last. Instead of answering Abby, Candace pushed the car’s speed.
Fear traveled through Abby. “Candace, please slow down.”
Before Candace could answer and before Abby could do more than gasp, the car began to slide. In a second Abby registered that the car headed for dense trees on the side of the road. The tall pines, like sentinels, had no intention of budging their position. Abby heard Candace’s wild shriek and had no time to follow with her own.
A cacophony of crunching metal reached her ears before her vision went black.
Abby smelled the sterile, antiseptic scent before she heard the squeak of something not far away. Involuntarily she twitched. She moaned as her head throbbed and her body protested movement. What had happened? She sensed movement near her.
“Abby. Darling, can you hear me?”
Nick.
His warm, hoarse voice brought her into the light, even when darkness hovered around the edges. She licked her lips and tried her voice as her eyes fluttered open. He clasped her right hand in both of his and pressed with a gentle touch.
“Nick?”
Her voice sounded raspy and weak to her own ears. Then she saw Nick’s worried face, and the tears traversing his cheeks shocked her into further awareness. Abby had never seen a more devastated looking man.
“Oh, babe, I thought...” He didn’t finish the sentence, and she smiled, glorying in the sight of him and the knowledge she’d made it through the crash alive. “It was a nightmare all over again.”
“Again?”
“When we got to the scene of the accident—”
“You found us?”
“Your aunt and I went after you. We saw Candace’s car crushed against trees at the side of the road.” He closed his eyes and more tears seeped from his eyes. “We...I thought you’d left me. Just like Deena left me.”
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