“I don’t know, dear. Did you ask him?”
Whitney pouted and shook her head. “No.”
“Why not? I thought, after your accident and all those hours in the hospital, you and he were a couple.”
“You did?”
“Of course. Don’t you remember anything? Josh stayed with you day and night. I had trouble even convincing him to take a break to eat.”
“He did say I’d been out of it for days. I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas.” She smiled for her mother’s sake and admired the tree she and Josh had decorated. “That did turn out pretty, didn’t it?”
“Yes, it did. Dad didn’t want me to fuss with anything this year. When you bought that tree for us, I was delighted.”
“Can I make a confession?” Whitney asked, blushing.
“If you’re going to tell me you did it in order to get Josh involved in the holidays and spend more time with him, never mind. We’d already figured that out.” She laughed softly and gave her daughter’s shoulders a hug.
Whitney winced.
“Sorry. Did I hurt you? I thought your seat belt had kept you from injury. That’s what the doctors said.”
“I’m kind of bruised,” Whitney admitted. “The belt did keep me from flying out of the car when it rolled but it left me pretty sore where it held me so tightly.”
“Did you tell Josh? I doubt he’d have left so quickly if he’d known you were still hurting.”
“I didn’t see any reason to mention it. He kept going on and on about having to head for St. Louis and being behind in his work, so I kept my mouth shut.”
Betty eyebrows arched in an unspoken question.
“Okay,” Whitney said with a grin. “Maybe my mouth wasn’t exactly shut. I just didn’t ask for sympathy.”
“But you did tell him how you feel about him, didn’t you?”
Whitney shook her head. “I was going to. I thought we’d get home and he could come in and…”
“And he left, instead.”
She nodded and grimaced. “He sure did. Like somebody had lit a fire under him and he couldn’t wait to hit the road.”
*
True to his word, Josh phoned Whitney that same evening. “Hi. How are you feeling?”
“Fine.”
He did not like the controlled tone of her voice. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. Are you calling to finish giving me details for my exclusive story? I’m ready.”
“All right.” Sighing, he began to tell her more about his mother’s longtime friendship with Coraline Connolly and his reasons for starting the Save Our Streets restoration project after he’d learned that Bygones was dying.
“What about the shopkeepers and their businesses? How did you choose them?”
“I had my attorneys draw up a set of qualifications and we went from there.”
“Miss Coraline really had no idea?”
“Not until recently. I told you that.”
“Just trying to get everything straight. How did you manage to be chosen over all those other applicants? I mean, if the process was fair, how did you end up as a winner?”
“The final say was through the dummy corporation that was funneling the money. Since I was their sole member, it was easy.”
“What about now? Are you going to stop helping now that your role in the town’s revival is going to be made public?”
Josh was glad she couldn’t see his expression because he was frowning. “Of course not.”
“But you are planning to leave Bygones, aren’t you?”
Ah, so that was what was bugging her. “I had intended to,” he said, “but now that I’ve been accepted so well, I’m starting to rethink my original opinion.”
“You are? Really?”
“Yes, I am.” He paused for effect. “I have a couple of new ideas for expanding the existing downtown, or maybe adding a strip mall out near the old Randall Manufacturing plant. There’s plenty of vacant land on the outskirts of town.”
“Yes, there is! That’s a wonderful idea.”
“You can’t publish any of this yet,” Josh warned. “If word gets out too soon it could ruin any deals I happen to have on the table.”
“But…”
He was adamant. “No buts, Whitney. Remember, you promised that if I’d tell you all my secrets you’d hold off submitting the story to your editor until I was ready.”
“How much longer will that be?”
“I was originally going to wait until after I’d left town for good, assuming I revealed anything at all. Now, I think my official announcement should be made at the theater, like I suggested before.”
“At least that’s only a few more days.”
“Right. I’m sure you can control your urge to tell all for that short a time.”
“Will you be coming home before then?” she asked, sounding as if she wanted him to do so.
“I’m going to try,” Josh told her, touched by her reference to home in connection with him. “My schedule has to remain open for the present but I promise I’ll do my best to make it soon.”
“I miss you,” Whitney said.
The pathos in her tone was unmistakable. “I miss you, too. Hang in there. This will all work out for the best. I promise you it will.”
“There you go again, telling me to hang in,” she quipped. “I may have been pretty out of it after I totaled my car but I do remember you saying that when I was literally hanging by my seat belt.”
“How about when you were in the hospital?” he asked, holding his breath. “Do you remember anything that happened while you were warming up and sleeping off the effects of the accident and hypothermia?”
She sighed noisily. “Unfortunately, no. Mom asked me the same question. Was I a bad patient?”
“You could never be a bad anything,” Josh told her. “If you think of any more questions you want to ask me, write them down and save them for tomorrow. I’ll phone again at about the same time.”
Hanging up, he prayed he was handling this situation correctly. Being a hardnosed, focused businessman was a lot easier than opening up and showing consideration, he mused. Particularly in regard to Whitney Leigh. She was as determined as ever. And he had not given her any information that wasn’t completely true.
The problem was he had also not revealed everything. Not yet. He was saving some important details for the gala at the theater. At this point, his fondest wish was that Whitney would be able to accept his final surprises.
And him.
*
“Aargh!”
Betty heard Whitney’s exclamation from the living room and hurried to see what was wrong.
She stuck her head in the doorway to her daughter’s room. “Are you okay?”
“Peachy.” She saved the info on her computer with a keystroke, then turned to face her mother. “Josh just phoned.”
“I heard your cell. I’d hoped that was him.” Studying Whitney, she scowled. “You don’t look nearly as happy as I thought you would.”
“He’s still in St. Louis and won’t commit to coming back in time to spend Christmas Day with us.”
“I thought he’d explained all that. He has business to handle, doesn’t he?”
“So he claims.”
“You can’t kid me,” Betty drawled. “You believe him. You’re just jealous.”
“I might be if I thought he had a girlfriend up there,” Whitney said. “It’s not that. It’s his hardheaded attitude that drives me crazy.”
“You’re not still holding a grudge because he fooled you so well, are you?”
“After he risked his life to pull me out of that teetering car I couldn’t stay mad if I wanted to. And I don’t want to. I want Josh to come home so we can talk. Really talk, not make polite conversation on a phone. I want to see his face. I need to watch his eyes so I can judge how he feels about me.”
“I saw enough while you were in the hospital to tell you that,” Betty said. “The poor
guy is crazy about you.”
“He sure has a funny way of showing it. When I woke up yesterday and saw him there, he didn’t even hold my hand, let alone hug or kiss me.”
“Not all men are that demonstrative,” her mother warned. “He may be a genius with computers but that doesn’t mean he understands what women need.”
Whitney threw her hands up and made another unintelligible noise, following it with, “He doesn’t understand? Make that two of us. I have no idea what I want. I only know that if I have to tell him, it won’t be the same.”
She wasn’t pleased when her mother chuckled and shook her head. “And you expect poor Josh to figure you out when you can’t decide what you want, either?”
The irony was not lost on Whitney. She, too, began to smile. “Pretty tough, huh?”
“I’d say so. Why don’t you have a talk with one of your friends? How about Lily or Melissa? Or even Gracie, although I’d leave her for last if you have any choice. That poor girl was awfully mixed up for a while.”
“Well, at least she was smart enough to walk away from the wrong man, even if it did make her a laughingstock. Not every bride ditches a rich groom at the altar.”
“Money is no substitute for love.” Betty gestured toward the laptop that still displayed a page of text. “As soon as you’re done working, come and join us in the den. Dad and I are going to watch a movie I rented.”
“Go ahead and start without me,” Whitney said, pensive and staring at the computer screen. “I want to work on this article. It needs to be polished and ready to print before Friday night so Josh can proof it for accuracy.”
“He will come back, you know. If he said he’d be here, he’ll do whatever he has to in order to keep that promise.”
Nodding tacit agreement, Whitney made no verbal comment. She knew in her heart that Josh wanted to return to Bygones, but what if his business needed him elsewhere? What then? And what about the future? Was this absence just a small sample of what lay ahead?
She couldn’t expect Josh to abandon his lucrative career in order to make her happy, nor was she certain she’d want to leave all her friends, family and job in Bygones to go live in a big city with him.
“Besides, he hasn’t asked me to,” Whitney grumbled. “There’s no sense imagining some rosy future with Josh Barton when he may have no such thing in mind.”
Nevertheless, as soon as she got the chance, she was going to tell him how much she cared for him, even if he laughed at her. He was a much more complicated man than she’d imagined when she’d thought he was a mere shopkeeper who liked to tinker with computers.
In the back of her mind, Whitney wished she could return to the days when she was his faithful customer and he just served her coffee.
Sadly, that was never going to be possible, she admitted with a sigh. Josh was not the man she had fallen in love with.
The important question was whether the real Josh Barton was enough like the person she loved to take his place in her affections.
She hoped and prayed he was.
But she was not positive.
Not even close.
Chapter Nineteen
Christmas morning in Bygones brought clear skies and warm enough daytime temperatures that most of the lingering snow melted away.
In northeastern Missouri, however, the weather was far less accommodating.
Josh peered out his high-rise office window into the swirling snow. It was so dense he could barely make out the famous St. Louis arch in the distance.
Since time was of the essence, he’d decided to use the corporate helicopter for his return to Bygones, only now it looked as if the storm was going to prevent his doing that.
Reluctantly, he phoned Whitney. Her number went directly to voice mail.
“It’s me, Josh,” he said. “I hate to leave this news as a recording but I just checked and you’re not online, either, so here goes. Nobody else is working today so I thought I’d…”
Beep.
Struggling to keep his temper in check, Josh redialed to continue. As soon as he heard the voice mail message end he began to talk fast.
“I got cut off. Here’s the thing. It’s too late to try to drive, particularly in bad weather, and flying is out, too. I was going to…”
Beep.
Frustration colored his mutterings as he tried a third time.
“Look, Whitney, the bottom line is, I’m not going to make it to your house today. I’m sorry. It can’t be helped.”
He had intended to add a loving holiday greeting but was once more cut off.
Before he could try again, his phone jingled with an incoming call. Thinking it was Whitney, he answered enthusiastically. “Hello!”
“Hi, honey,” Susanna said. “I’m just calling to wish you a Merry Christmas.”
“Hi, Mom. How’s the cruise going? I never did get any emails from you while you were at sea.”
“That’s because I didn’t go,” his mother replied. “Two of my friends got sick just before we were scheduled to sail so we postponed our trip until we could all go.”
“You’re home?”
“Yes.”
“In that case, how would you like some company? I happen to be stuck in St. Louis, at least until this storm passes.”
“I’d love it! This is wonderful. We can have a nice, quiet holiday and catch up with what we’ve both been doing.”
“You have no idea,” Josh told her, smiling at the strange way his celebration of Christmas was unfolding. “I’ll pick up a pizza on my way over and we can kick back together.”
“A pizza? You?” Susanna giggled. “You used to be nearly as fussy about wanting fancy meals as your dad was. When did you get so normal?”
Josh had to laugh. “I’ll tell you the whole story when I see you. It’s long and complicated but you’ll like it. I know you will.”
“Anything that brings you home today suits me,” his mother said. “See you soon?”
“Absolutely. I’m at the office. I sent everybody else home early yesterday after the Christmas party when we heard a storm was coming.”
“The what? Did you say you’d thrown a Christmas party? I don’t believe it.”
“Believe it,” Josh replied with a soft chuckle. “I had it catered so there wouldn’t be any question about drinks and nobody would have to prepare food at home. I wanted it to be a happy time with no requirements from any of my staff. Oh, and I handed out hefty bonuses.”
“Okay,” Susanna drawled. “Who are you and what have you done with my son? You’re obviously an imposter.”
“I’ll fill you in soon,” Josh said, letting his spirits soar as he thought of Whitney and the effect she and Bygones had had on his whole attitude. “And while you’re waiting for me to get there, I want you to put together a list of your high school classmates, as many as you can remember. Names and addresses.”
“It was a really small graduating class and I’ve only kept in touch with a few,” Susanna said.
“That’s all right. It’ll do for my purposes. Email or phone those people, if you don’t mind, and ask them if they’re up to taking a short trip in a couple of days.”
“Josh, honey, you’re scaring me. I don’t remember ever hearing you sound this happy. Are you sure you haven’t had a nervous breakdown or something?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything,” he said, laughing. “Just get started calling your classmates and ask them to stand by for details. I’ll explain everything when I get there.”
*
Whitney had decided to distract herself from the disappointment of not spending Christmas with Josh by attending the special Christmas Eve service at Bygones Community Church. It hadn’t helped. As much as she loved everyone there, she’d still felt Josh’s absence acutely. It was as if the warmth and ambience of the familiar sanctuary had been missing something vital.
Thinking back on the service, she remembered filing out afterward with the rest of the congregation a
nd being grateful toward God, her church, her friends and Bygones, in spite of the empty place in her life that should have been filled by the presence of the man she loved.
Did Josh care for her as much as she cared for him? she kept wondering. And if so, why had he not put his feelings into words?
“Maybe because I haven’t,” she muttered, surprising herself.
Really? Could she be as guilty of holding back as Josh was?
“I have good reasons,” Whitney argued. “I didn’t know who he really was until a few days ago. He knows exactly who I am.”
Which was true—as far as she’d taken it—but it was still a pretty poor excuse. So what was holding her back?
The word fear popped into her head and lingered while she tried to find a suitable excuse to counter it.
There was none. She had been a coward because she hadn’t wanted to risk rejection. That was precisely the reasoning her mother had given when guessing why Josh had also been uncommunicative.
Okay, Whitney decided. What am I going to do about it?
“Call him. Right now,” she insisted, reaching for her cell phone.
There were several messages waiting in voice mail. All from Josh! Overjoyed, Whitney played them. When she got to the last one and heard his businesslike excuse and the brusque way he’d deliver it, her elation vanished.
So did her notion of phoning him to confess her love. She might be certain of her own feelings but it certainly didn’t sound as if Josh shared them. No way was she going to make a fool of herself over the phone.
“Not when I can do it so much better in person,” she mocked. “I will tell him how I feel. But I am not going to do it in a phone message or an email. He’s going to have to tell me to my face if he’s not interested in a romantic relationship.”
Would face-to-face rejection hurt more? Of course it would. That didn’t matter, because there was still a chance that when Josh saw the glowing affection in her expression he would understand better, perhaps even change his mind about holding back and bring himself to admit he returned her love.
Was she fooling herself? Maybe. And maybe he was every bit as introverted as her mother had guessed.
Love Inspired December 2013 - Bundle 2 of 2: Cozy ChristmasHer Holiday HeroJingle Bell Romance Page 17