With a sigh, he sank down on his chair and tackled the very first item on the intimidating heap of paperwork. More than an hour later, he came across a plain white envelope. Jason looked at it and frowned when he found it still sealed. It was customary for his assistant to open everything and date stamp the correspondence. It wasn’t like her to miss things.
He slipped a finger beneath the flap and yanked, ripping open the envelope. He pulled out a folded piece of red construction paper. When he saw the crude cutout of a Christmas tree, he was quite puzzled. He flipped it open and smiled at the scribbled, green crayon message, with Samantha’s name printed across the bottom. He blinked repeatedly as he stared at the prettiest card he’d ever received.
Was it possible Kara didn’t hate him? His hands began to shake as his hopes started to mount. Was this her attempt at a peace offering? Or had Samantha merely insisted she deliver the card? Either way, he was deeply touched by the gesture.
He set it on the desk and sucked in a deep, calming breath. He couldn’t go off half-cocked—that was what had led him to this mess.
He glanced down. An old weathered envelope caught his attention. It was the letter from the man who’d hurt him so deeply—the same man who had taught him to fish and how to play ball. Jason stared at the envelope, remembering his promise to Kara to read it.
Maybe there really was such a thing as a Christmas miracle. Or maybe he needed to make a Christmas miracle of his own. He needed to prove to Kara that he had changed into a man she could trust with her heart, through the good and the bad. Words wouldn’t be enough. He needed to do more. Perhaps this letter was the perfect place to start.
He ripped open the envelope, bracing himself for a string of hateful words. But when he read: “Son, I’m sorry...” his gaze blurred. He blinked repeatedly and kept reading the heartfelt note. His father hadn’t meant what he’d said in his drunken rage. Jason checked the date, finding it’d been written almost seven years ago, while he was still in basic training. He’d wasted all these years being stubborn, thinking his dad hated him. But he’d been wrong.
Jason’s throat grew thick with emotion. Kara had been right all along. This was the season for hope and forgiveness.
A plan started to take shape in his mind. He’d show her that he could embrace the spirit of the season. He knew what must be done—the most important mission of his life. Operation: Win Kara Back.
And he didn’t have a moment to lose. He’d already wasted seven years. He could be a reliable, steadfast man for Kara and a father to the little girl who’d already claimed a permanent spot in his heart. He wouldn’t repeat his or his father’s mistakes. He’d make sure both Kara and Samantha knew how much he loved them.
Jason shoved back from his desk. With long strides he headed for the office where Kara’s desk stood. When he found her chair vacant, he spun around, scanning the shelving units, file cabinets and other desks. No Kara.
What if she’d quit? His chest tightened.
“Mr. Greene, do you need something?” asked Sherry, a redhead wearing a festive reindeer sweater.
“First, it’s Jason, remember?”
She smiled, then nodded.
“Do you know where Kara is?” He’d track her down to the ends of the earth if that was what it took. He couldn’t lose this chance to set things right. Something told him it would be the last chance he got.
“Oh, well...”
“Spit it out,” he said, lacking any patience.
“I took a message for her when she stepped out to get some coffee. When I gave her the note, she grabbed her things, said she didn’t know when she’d be back and ran out the door.”
Had something happened to Samantha? Jason’s heart lodged in his throat. But surely Kara would have said something. Then he realized, with the way he’d left things between them, he’d be lucky if she ever spoke to him again. And he couldn’t blame her after the ass he’d made of himself.
“Do you remember the message?” he asked, praying for a little help here.
Sherry nodded. “It was the Pleasant Valley Care Home.”
Regret sucker-punched him. His breath hitched. Kara’s prediction had come true. Something had happened to his father and Jason had been too stubborn to go to him, to hear him out. Now it was too late to give his dad some peace of mind. Or was it? Was his guilty conscience jumping to conclusions?
“What did the message say?” he asked, poised to rush out the door.
“For her to come to the home—that Joe needed her.”
Jason still had a chance to make things right.
He bolted toward the parking lot, hoping he wouldn’t be too late to put his father’s mind at ease. Jason might not have liked the drunk he had become, but the man he used to be, when Jason’s mother was alive—he owed that man a bit of peace.
And Kara shouldn’t be shouldering this all by herself. She might not want him there, but he owed it to her to at least make the attempt.
Jason clung to the hope that he wouldn’t be too late as he tramped the accelerator on the way to the sprawling facility. He took the first available parking spot and ran to the door.
Out of breath, he said to a small group of women behind the counter, “I’m here to see my father.”
One with bleach-blond hair and blue eye shadow directed him to sign in, gave him directions to the room and buzzed him through the double doors. Though the process took only a couple of minutes, each second dragged on forever.
The muscles in his shoulders and neck grew rigid as Jason strode down the wide corridor, checking each room number, his hands balled up at his sides. At last he reached room 115. He fully expected to see a flurry of nurses shouting out lifesaving orders, but instead the lilt of laughter echoed through the doorway. Kara was laughing?
He stood there in the hallway, breathing a sigh of relief. Little by little, his body began to relax. His father had to be okay or she wouldn’t be laughing.
Suddenly he was caught up in a wave of second thoughts. Neither Kara nor his father knew he was standing just outside in the hallway. He could easily slip away and nobody would be the wiser. He’d be back...soon. Once he gave this reunion some thought and planned out what to say. Somehow “Hey, Dad, how’s it going?” didn’t quite work in this case.
His gaze swung back to the double doors leading toward the parking lot. It’d be so much easier, and he had so much work to do at the resort.
He’d stepped back when he heard someone say, “Mr. Greene, I see you found your father’s room. You can go ahead in.”
A pretty, young nurse with a brown ponytail was headed down the hall, carrying a white blanket. He vaguely remembered seeing her at the reception desk.
“Thanks.”
More footsteps sounded and then Kara stood before him, her face lit up with a smile. In fact, he’d say she was glowing.
“I knew you’d eventually find your way here. In your own time.”
His instinct was to deny he was here for any other reason than to check on her, but he couldn’t. The time had come to be truthful about the feelings he’d been running from for too long. As crazy as it sounded, if there was a chance to see the man who’d called him son, Jason wanted to take it.
“They said at the office there was an emergency.” He glanced into the room, but could only see the end of a bed and a couple of empty chairs.
“Everything is okay. Your father got worked up when a doctor he didn’t know tried to examine him. His doc went out of town for the holidays and the newest associate drew the short straw, pulling holiday duty.”
“You were able to sort it all out?”
She smiled and nodded.
Kara shouldn’t be here, dealing with his father and the doctors. She had enough on her hands being a single mother. It was time he started shouldering the responsibilit
ies where his father was concerned.
“Kara,” a gruff voice called out, followed by a string of coughs.
“I’ll be right there.” She moved closer to Jason and lowered her voice. “Prepare yourself. He’s a mere ghost of the man you left seven years ago.”
Jason nodded, still not exactly sure what to expect. He couldn’t imagine Joe as anything but six foot four, with shoulders like a linebacker and a stogie hanging out the side of his mouth.
“One more thing,” she said. “If you came here to settle up on an old score—don’t. He can’t take the strain. He isn’t strong enough.”
Jason nodded once more.
“I mean it.” Her tone left no uncertainty about her seriousness.
“I get it.”
First, he’d deal with his dad, and then he’d talk to Kara. He started for the door, letting her follow him inside. His steps were slow but steady.
When at last he saw his father’s face, he stopped. A word of greeting caught in his throat. He blinked, unable to imagine someone could physically change so drastically from a vibrant man to barely more than a skeleton with yellowing skin.
Jason choked down his alarm. The pitiful sight doused any lingering resentment inside him. There was nothing he could say to hurt this man any worse than he’d hurt himself. His father had suffered enough.
“Son, you came.” A round of hacking coughs overtook him.
For a moment, Jason stood frozen, bombarded by his dad’s appearance, from the oxygen tube aiding his breathing to the sunken eyes and the bony hand covering his mouth as he struggled through the fit of coughing. It was the distressed look on his father’s face that finally kicked him into action. Jason stepped alongside the bed and filled a glass with water.
“Yes, Dad, I’m home.”
After handing over the glass, Jason peered over his shoulder to make eye contact with Kara, but she was gone. Their talk would have to wait a little longer.
“I...I was worried.” Joe paused to catch his breath. “Thought maybe I’d never lay eyes on you again.”
“I’m here.” He placed a reassuring hand on his father’s bony shoulder. Jason schooled his features, hoping to keep his pity and shock under wraps. “Whatever you need, all you have to do is ask.”
“You’d do that...now...after everything?” He coughed again.
“Yes.”
The one syllable said enough. Jason didn’t want to rehash the bad times, knowing they’d wasted too much time looking over their shoulders instead of appreciating the here and now. Besides, the letter had already told him everything he’d ever need to know. Too bad it’d taken him all these years to read it.
“Hey, Dad, remember those days when we’d head out with our fishing poles in hand to catch dinner?”
The corners of his father’s thin lips lifted. “You remember back then?”
“I remember, Dad.”
“We never did catch much.”
“But it was fun trying.”
“That it was.” This time it was his father who reached out to him, squeezing his forearm with cool hands. “I was worried you’d forget those times.” Another coughing fit overtook him and Jason offered him more water. When his breathing calmed, Joe continued, “I’m sorry it all went so wrong. I couldn’t handle your mother’s death, and I let you down.”
Knowing this was no longer about him, but about giving his father everlasting peace, Jason added, “But before that you were the best dad. I wouldn’t have made it to quarterback in high school if it hadn’t been for you teaching me to play ball at an early age.”
A twinkle came to his father’s sunken eyes just before his eyelids began to droop. Obviously, the emotional reunion and the coughing had zapped his energy.
“It’s okay, Dad. You rest now.”
“Son, tell Kara I still want my Christmas present.”
“I will.” Jason hoped she knew what his father was talking about, because he certainly didn’t. “I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you.”
“Promise?” Joe murmured. His eyes were completely closed now.
“I promise. You don’t have to worry anymore. I’ll be here when you need me.”
And he knew without a doubt that he wasn’t going anywhere—no matter what fate threw at him. He would be here for the loved ones in his life. Now he just had to convince Kara to trust in him.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
FRIDAY EVENING KARA’S heart hammered harder and faster the closer she got to Jason’s log home. She could hardly believe he’d once again called and summoned her to drop everything, grab Samantha and come running.
This time he’d requested the vendor quotes. Of course, she couldn’t blame him. She was supposed to have dropped the report on his desk on her way out the door, but a printer snafu and a phone call from her impatient daughter had left her thoughts scattered. Kara had walked right out the door with the printed report in hand.
But she also had some important information for him. After checking around with other restaurants, she knew what she didn’t like about Bigger Wholesales—they undercut their competition with inferior produce, and a lot of money was lost due to waste.
As she made a left-hand turn onto Jason’s road, she wondered if tonight might be a good time to let him know that she’d done a phone interview with the company in Ohio. Her background check had come back clean and now the only thing standing between her and an office manager position with benefits was for her to accept. She should be excited, or at least relieved, but she couldn’t work up any enthusiasm for leaving her family, home or—most of all—Jason. It’d taken years to be reunited and now, in a blink, they were over.
A groan from behind had Kara glancing in the rearview mirror at her daughter, who was squirming in her seat belt. “Sweetie, what are you doing?”
“I dropped Bubbles.” Guttural grunts sounded. “Got him.”
“Maybe you should leave him in the car so you don’t lose him while we’re at Jason’s. We won’t be long.”
“Bubbles stays with me.”
Not in the mood for an argument, Kara let the subject drop. Jason’s driveway loomed in the distance. A nervous energy made her stomach quiver at the thought of seeing him outside the office, where they didn’t have to maintain a professional facade.
She glanced at the clock. Seven on the dot. They were right on time. She turned into the drive and was floored to find the entire house decked out in multicolored, twinkling Christmas lights. Her mouth gaped open.
“Mommy, look at all those lights.”
“They’re beautiful.”
Tears threatened as she wondered if Jason’s Scrooge-like view on life had at last changed. She quickly tamped down her emotions. It wasn’t as if he’d done this for her. He must be planning to invite the investors to his house for a party or some such thing. He probably hated each and every one of the lights adorning his yard.
She glanced down at the gift she’d wrapped for him, wondering if perhaps she’d chosen the right thing to give him. Would he take offense? Still, she just couldn’t run out and buy him any of the traditional gifts, such as a tie, flannel pajamas or a cheese tray. Those things didn’t say “Jason” to her. But seeing the house all decked out with holiday fare reaffirmed her choice of gifts.
Her insides trembled as she pulled the car to a stop next to the porch. Before she had a chance to decide her next move, Santa stepped out onto the porch.
Santa?
“Mommy. Mommy, look.”
When Santa moved in front of her headlights, and stared back at her through wire-rimmed glasses, Kara gaped again. Why in the world was the man she’d commonly thought of as Scrooge all dressed up like the jolliest man at the North Pole?
She swallowed hard, trying to comprehend what was going on here.
“Mommy, doesn’t Jason look neat?” Samantha opened the door and scooted out of the backseat.
Too late to back out now.
He walked down the steps in his black boots and out the walk to greet them. Kara immediately noticed his lean waist had grown into a very plump tummy, with a thick black belt and a gold buckle holding everything in place.
“Ho-ho-ho.” His deep voice rumbled.
“You make a good Santa,” Samantha said, patting his rounded belly.
“And have you been naughty or nice?” he asked, in a Santa-like voice. “Ho-ho-ho.”
Kara couldn’t help but laugh. What in the world had gotten into him?
When she regained her composure, she asked, “Um...are we early?”
“You’re right on time. You and Samantha are my only guests.”
Her eyes opened wide. “You planned all this for us? What about the vendor report?”
“We’ll go over it Monday at the office. Afraid that was just a ruse to get you here.” He smiled sheepishly. “I know how much you enjoy the holidays and I thought you might appreciate the decorations. Do you like them?”
Samantha ran off to check out the various Christmassy figurines lining the porch, leaving the two adults with a little bit of privacy.
Kara gazed up into Jason’s blue eyes and her world tilted off center. Giving a little tug on his cottony beard, she said, “I like Santa best of all.”
“I’m so sorry, Kara. I was such a jerk the other night—”
“We’ve both done things we aren’t proud of. I should have been totally straight with you from the beginning about what occurred after you left town.”
His steady gaze held hers. “I wanted to show you just how much you both mean to me.”
She bestowed upon him her biggest and brightest smile. “Well, Santa, you’ve outdone yourself. Especially today with your father. Thank you for making the effort.”
“No, thank you. You finally talked some sense into me. It was way past time that my father and I patched things up. We’ll never be candidates for a Norman Rockwell painting, but we’ve made peace with each other, and you won’t have to worry about him so much anymore. I’ll be there for him.”
Snowbound with the Soldier Page 15