The way she said it, he got the impression she was reading more into his decision to stay in town than she should. “We’re just working together, but it’s going fine.”
She gave him a long mother’s look that said she doubted she was getting the whole story, but she let the comment go. “Have you decided how long you’re staying?”
“Through Christmas.” He grinned. “Or ’til Hannah gets sick of beating me at Chutes and Ladders, whichever comes first.”
“I’m so glad you’re spending some time with the kids. We just love them to pieces.” Pausing, she lowered her voice to a motherly whisper. “It can’t be easy coming back to the chapel after so many years. God bless you for putting that all behind you.”
Her blessing raised the hackles on his neck, and he fought to keep his response quiet. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but nothing’s changed.”
Regret flashed across her face, but as usual, she recovered quickly. “Well, I don’t care why you’re here. I’m just glad to see you.” He was more than a little shocked to hear a cell phone ringing in the pocket of her sweater. She checked the caller ID and sighed. “Oh, this can’t be good. Hello, Phyllis.”
Nick moved to go, but she snagged his elbow to keep him from leaving. “I’m sorry to hear that, honey. Don’t you worry a bit, just concentrate on getting rid of that pneumonia. I’ll add you to the prayer list, and we’ll hope to see you soon.”
When she switched off her phone, she focused back on him with a thoughtful look that made him want to squirm. “What?”
“Do you still play the piano?”
Raising his hands in self-defense, he took a healthy step back. “Not since you finally let me quit taking lessons from you fifteen years ago.”
“You were very good,” she goaded, adding a flattering smile. “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find you still remember most of what you learned.”
“If you need an accompanist tonight, why don’t you do it?”
“I can’t play down here—” she motioned to the upright piano that sat to the left of the raised stage “—and be up there conducting the choir.”
“What about Lainie?”
“She’s downstairs making costumes.” Tilting her head, she pegged him with an exasperated look. “Can you sew?”
She knew the answer to that question, and he cast about for another solution. After a quick assessment of the singers, he came up with something logical. “They’re Christmas hymns, Mom. Everyone must know them well enough to sing a cappella this one time.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, half the choir is under the age of twelve, and some of the adults can’t carry a tune in a bushel basket. If you could give them the melody line to follow, it’d be a big help.”
Nick hated to let her down, but it had become a habit, and he firmly held his ground. If he wasn’t careful, she’d have him playing Joseph before the evening was done. Folding his arms, he shook his head. “I’m just here to observe.”
The joy shining in her eyes when she first saw him dimmed, and she nodded stiffly. “I’m sure we’ll manage.”
She turned to go up front, and Nick felt like an absolute heel. She had no idea how Christmas hymns grated on his nerves, and he couldn’t bring himself to tell her. Generous to a fault, Ann McHenry had devoted her life to being the pastor’s wife, mothering his church flock as if they were her own children. Cheerful and giving, everyone in town adored her.
Including her son, Nick thought with a frown. Even when he messed up, she loved him. Over the years he’d been away, her letters had kept coming, giving way to emails with family pictures attached. He seldom replied, but no matter where he was living at the time, she never let him stray too far away. Whenever he saw her name in his lengthy email list, he opened her message first. It was because of her that he’d traveled here for Thanksgiving—this year, for the first time, she’d begged him.
Time goes by so fast, Nick, she’d written. Please answer my prayers and come home, just for a few days.
Terrified that someone was sick, he’d immediately called Lainie and been relieved to hear everyone was healthy. But his talk with Julia a couple of days ago was a painful reminder that his family was ailing in a different way. Hearing about how she’d picked up the pieces of her life and moved on made him wonder if his family could somehow do the same. The problem was they’d been disjointed for so long, he wasn’t sure he could do anything about it now.
Then again, he reminded himself, nothing ventured nothing gained.
He’d adopted that as his motto when he’d taken an enormous personal and financial leap and founded Kaleidoscope. After several nerve-wracking bumps along the way, it was gradually becoming what he wanted it to be. Maybe returning to his father’s church and helping out with the pageant rehearsal would turn into the beginning of something more. At least he could try.
Waiting until Mom was up on stage talking to the chorus, Nick strolled down the side aisle to the piano. A music book was propped on the stand, with a list of songs next to it. The first one was “O Holy Night.” Though it was far from his own taste, he recalled it being one of his mother’s favorites. Maybe if he concentrated on the piano part and ignored the words, he could get through it.
Sitting on the bench, he skimmed the music and decided he could probably handle the mellow song without butchering it too badly. His music lessons had ended ages ago, but he managed to find middle C and arched his hands into the position he’d learned as a child. The chords weren’t difficult, and he’d just leave out any notes he didn’t recognize. When he began softly playing, his mother whirled around to look down at him.
The delighted expression on her face was all the reward he needed, and he grinned up at her. “Does that key work for your choir, Mrs. McHenry?”
“Absolutely. Thank you.”
A deeper, more personal emotion twinkled in her eyes, and he winked back in reply. Her bright laughter rang through the front of the chapel, and people looked around to find the reason for it. When they noticed him at the piano, heads leaned together and a predictable murmur rippled through the chapel.
From nowhere, Hannah popped up beside him. “Can I sit with you, Uncle Nick?”
She was so cute, he couldn’t help grinning at her. “Don’t they need the head angel?”
“Mommy’s doing my costume, and I know my lines.” She folded her hands in a begging gesture. “Ple-e-e-ase can I stay here with you? I could turn the pages, like I do for Mommy when she plays.”
Offered up with adoring blue eyes, the artless wheedling made him laugh, and he finally gave in. Just like he always did with her mother, he recalled with a big brother’s sigh. These two sure did have his number. “Sure, munchkin. Come on up.”
While she squirmed into place beside him, he felt as if someone was watching them, and he glanced up to discover it was Julia. After a moment, she gave him a slow smile, her eyes sparkling with appreciation. Aside from his mother, he couldn’t recall ever seeking a woman’s approval. Julia’s settled nicely into a corner of his heart he’d never thought much about. Until now.
Sitting at a beat-up old piano with a bubbly little girl chattering beside him, plunking his way through dusty old Christmas hymns, Nick got the sinking feeling he was in danger of losing his bad-boy status.
The strange thing was, he didn’t really mind all that much. That was the moment when he knew for sure he was in trouble. And it was all Julia Stanton’s fault.
*
“You’ve been holding out on me,” Julia accused Nick while they strolled back to her shop. “I had no idea you were a musician.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he replied with a wry grin. “Mom insisted on teaching us the piano when we were kids, and we all sang in the choir. She said we were Irish and music was in our blood, so we had an obligation to keep up the family tradition.” After a few moments, he quietly added, “Of the three of us, Ian was the most talented. He had a great voice and a real knack for picking up differ
ent instruments.”
During the week, Nick had made a few stray comments like that about his brother, completely out of the blue. Julia assumed their painfully honest conversation about Ian had cracked open the door into his past, and he was reluctant to fully close it again. Hoping to draw him out even further, she asked, “Do you discuss Ian with many people?”
“Never.” Grimacing, he jammed his hands into his coat pockets. “I’m not even sure why I keep bringing him up with you. I guess you’re just easy to talk to.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Pausing on the sidewalk in front of Toyland, she pulled him to a stop. When she had his full attention, she added, “We all need someone to talk to once in a while. You can tell me anything, and I promise to keep it to myself.”
As a grin slowly spread across his face, the twinkling lights in the window reflected back at her from his eyes. “I know,” he said quietly. “That’s weird because I don’t trust very many people. But you’re—”
“Different?” she suggested as the cool breeze plucked at her hair.
“Special.” Reaching out, he tucked the stray wisp of hair back under her hat. With a thoughtful smile, he traced the curve of her cheek with his finger. “But you must hear that all the time.”
Mesmerized by the admiration glowing in his eyes, she couldn’t come up with a coherent response. All she could manage to do was shake her head. His chiseled features took on a warmth she hadn’t seen before, and he leaned in as if he meant to kiss her.
Abruptly, he pulled away and took a healthy step backward. Julia couldn’t decide if she was relieved or disappointed.
“I should get back before Lainie sends out a search party for me.”
Wanting to keep him there just a little longer, she asked, “How’s my story coming along?”
“The next installment runs on Sunday, so you can judge for yourself.”
“I’m still not sure I want to,” she confessed with a laugh. “The intro was very good, but that was just background about my parents and me. Did you put a nice spin on my childhood?”
“Yeah.” He acted like he wanted to say something more, but he clamped his mouth shut firmly. “Good night.”
After he got settled in his car, he cast a long look out the passenger window at her. She was no mind reader, but it appeared to her that he was acting like a man who didn’t want to leave. Ignoring the alarms going off in her head, she tapped on the window and waited for him to lower it. “Would you like to come in for some hot cocoa?”
Flashing her that wicked grin, he warned, “If I come up to your apartment this time of night, the biddies’ll never let you hear the end of it.”
“People talk about me all the time as it is. How much worse could it get?”
“If you don’t walk away right now, you’ll find out.”
All her life, Julia had done the proper thing, and look where it had gotten her. It was long past time she stopped caring about what people thought and did what she wanted.
So she crossed her arms in a determined pose and stood her ground. Laughing, Nick rolled up the window and rejoined her in front of the door. “You’re sure about this?”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” she chided while she unlocked the door and let him in. “We’re just having hot cocoa.”
He flashed her a crooked grin. “Good cover. I’ll back you up.”
“I don’t—”
He silenced her with a kiss so startling, it made her gasp. Though she’d almost hoped for something like this earlier, the reality of it made her head spin. Framing her face in his hands, he gazed at her with something she couldn’t begin to define. “I’ve been wanting to do that all night.”
Once she found her voice, she managed to stammer, “You did it very well.”
Mischief lit his eyes, and he was about to say something when a sharp rapping on the front door made her jump. Framed in the glass was Daniel McHenry, looking like a furious thundercloud. Pointing at Nick, he motioned for his son to join him out on the sidewalk.
“Busted,” Nick joked, but even in the dim light Julia could see he was trying to control his own temper. While part of her was relieved by the interruption, she still wished it was anyone else at the door. The brief encounters she’d observed between father and son snapped with tension, as if both were barely restraining the urge to strangle the other.
“This is silly,” she announced, moving toward the door. “You don’t have to talk out on the street when there’s plenty of room in here. I’ll invite him in for a snack, and I’ll leave you two alone so you can talk like normal people.”
Nick appeared on the verge of refusing, and she tilted her head, willing him to agree. She hadn’t known him long, but one thing she’d learned quickly: he was as stubborn as they came. Unfortunately for him, her international experience had made her adept at convincing people to consider other possibilities. It was a skill she’d picked up from her father, and she decided to use it now.
“Just hear him out,” she suggested in her most reasonable tone. “If you don’t like what he has to say, you can leave.”
“Promise?”
It was impossible to resist the playful glimmer in his eyes. She hadn’t noticed it before, and it was a pleasant surprise to find there was still a little boy inside the hard-driving editor. “Promise. May I let him in now?”
“Whatever,” he muttered with a shrug. “It’s your shop.”
Far from careless, she recognized the response as something he did when he wasn’t thrilled with something but couldn’t see a way around or out of it. It seemed to be his way of putting some distance between a tough situation and a surprisingly tender heart.
The revelation startled her, but she put it out of her mind and opened the door for her latest guest. “It’s pretty cold out there, so I was about to make some cocoa. Would you like to come in and have some?”
The pastor frowned, as if he hadn’t considered the possibility of being invited inside. “Thank you, Julia, but no. I want to talk to you,” he added, glowering at Nick.
“That’s a switch,” Nick retorted. “You’ve been avoiding me for the past week.”
“This isn’t the place for us to discuss family business.”
Glancing around, Nick met his father’s glare with a calmness that alarmed her. “It’s as good a place as any.”
Julia’s instinct was to leave them alone, but she couldn’t retreat without drawing attention to herself. Instead, she stood quietly, praying they’d be able to reach some kind of truce before she was forced to intervene.
“Fine,” Daniel relented. “I want to talk to you about accompanying the choir for the Christmas pageant.”
“And you don’t want Mom to hear what you have to say. That must mean you know it’d make her mad.”
“It would, and I’d prefer to avoid that.”
“What do you want, Dad?” The way Nick crossed his arms told Julia he knew precisely what the pastor was about to say, and he wasn’t happy about it.
“You’ve allowed your relationship with God to dwindle away to nothing. That’s your choice, but as the pastor of the church, it’s my duty to make sure everyone connected with our Christmas service appreciates the significance of what we’re celebrating.”
“So because I don’t worship, I can’t play the piano?”
Daniel looked taken aback to hear it stated so bluntly, but he quickly recovered. “I wouldn’t have put it quite that way, but yes, that’s the gist.”
Even to Julia’s ears, the excuse sounded weak. “Daniel, that’s not fair. We were in a real jam tonight, and without Nick’s help the rehearsal would’ve been a disaster.”
As his look passed from his son to her, it softened considerably. “Ann and I are very fond of you, and I honestly appreciate you trying to smooth things over. But this is between Nick and me.”
“Phyllis has pneumonia,” Nick pointed out. “She’ll probably be in bed for a couple weeks.”
Daniel folded his hands
in front of him in a determined pose. “We’ll find someone else.”
“Anyone but me, right, Dad?”
They stared at each other for several tense moments, each sizing up the other. Julia could only imagine what was going through their minds, but if this was how all their encounters ran, it was easy to see why they’d drifted so far apart. The chasm between them was filled with icy bitterness, accumulated over years of practice. Right now, it looked uncrossable.
Daniel looked as if he wanted to say something, but then he shook his head and turned to go. He hadn’t gone more than a few steps before he stopped abruptly. Clutching his chest, he reached for the back of a chair to steady himself.
Before she could blink, Nick was beside his father, a strong arm wrapped around his back. As he supported Daniel, he murmured, “Take it easy, now. The EMTs are right down the block at the firehouse. Julia, get them over here and then call Lainie and Mom.”
“No, no,” the older man insisted in a faint voice. “Don’t worry them over nothing. I’m fine.”
Ignoring his feeble protests, Nick helped him to the sofa and turned up the gas flames. Cell phone in hand, Julia made her calls as she raced upstairs for some pillows and a quilt to cover the shivering pastor. Once he was as comfortable as possible, Nick pulled up a wing chair and kept a watchful eye on him. Out of things to do until the paramedics arrived, Julia did the only thing she could.
Sitting on the arm of Nick’s chair, she took his hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze. To her amazement, he didn’t pull away. Instead, he wove his fingers through hers and gave her a grateful look. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
*
Nick had never seen his father this way.
Lying on the white hospital sheets, he looked even paler than he had at Toyland. A tangle of cords monitored his vital signs, and Nick occupied himself by counting the beeps of the machine keeping track of his heart. Each one meant he was still alive, and Nick was thankful for each one.
Despite their torturous relationship, he loved his father deeply—and in this case, he loved him enough to respect what he was sure would be his father’s wishes. Nick remained in the doorway, watching from a distance like a curious stranger. While his mother and Lainie fussed and scolded, he felt very much out of place, as if he belonged anywhere but here.
Love Inspired December 2013 - Bundle 2 of 2: Cozy ChristmasHer Holiday HeroJingle Bell Romance Page 48