A Touch of Passion (boxed set romance bundle)

by Uvi Poznansky

  Charity had not seen her friends since her last visit home at Christmas, two years before. She had been friends with the two of them since the seventh grade, and neither one of her friends were impressed by her sudden success in Hollywood. They had let her know that they could still remember the time she snuck into the boy’s locker room to meet Johnny for a kissing session. Susie and Betsy had all the dirt on her, and threatened her constantly with telling her mom, if she felt like her head was swelling, or if she felt like she was becoming a big shot. Friends. What could you do with them? They always knew all your dirty secrets. You either had to keep them happy, or hire someone to kill them so they didn’t spill everything they knew about you.

  As Charity wove her way through the crowded tables she was surprised when a little hand grabbed her coat sleeve. She looked down and saw a little boy in a highchair, with catsup smeared all over his grinning face. Charity smiled down at him. She was surprised when Johnny spoke. Her concentration had been so intense on finding her friends and she had not noticed him sitting with his son.

  “Billy. Don’t smear your lunch on the nice lady.”

  Charity looked at her coat sleeve, and saw that it had not survived the ordeal. Little fingers had placed small streaks of catsup all along the front of her sleeve. She laughed.

  “Billy. You don’t have to worry about a thing. This coat’s older than I am. I borrowed it from mom this morning.”

  Charity was rewarded with a laugh from the small child, and that wasn’t a pretty sight. It was an open-mouthed laugh that showed half eaten french fries, and Charity couldn’t even imagine what else was mushed in there. Charity laughed with him. She then looked up to see Johnny looking at her. Charity was happy to see that this marriage seemed to suite him. He had managed to put some weight on his slim frame, and the weight made him look healthier. He looked older, and happy. He leaned across the table, and tried to clean some of the catsup off of his son’s hands.

  Charity watched the top of his head and felt as if she should say something. It would probably be rude to just walk away. “So how have you been?”

  Johnny looked up from the messy task, and smiled. “I’m fine. It’s good to see you made it home for Christmas. Your parents must be so happy to have you here for the holidays. I understand you didn’t come home last year.”

  Charity shifted the packages so the weight would be on her other arm. She glanced over and noticed her friends were watching the scene and probably trying to decide if she needed their help or not. She smiled at them and then answered Johnny. “No. I couldn’t get away last year. I was helping some friends with their baby, and I didn’t want to bring her with me on a crowded airplane. Not with all those germs floating around in such a confined space.”

  When Johnny grabbed a fry before it could hit the floor, she studied his bent head. She had almost forgotten how good looking and charming he was.

  After placing the fry back on the tray of the highchair, he nodded. “I can’t say I blame you.” He studied his plate like the meatloaf was the most interesting thing he had ever seen before. After a moment he patted the little boy’s arm. “This is my son, Billy.”

  Billy was no longer interested in the grown up talk, but was now totally focused on eating.

  “He looks just like you.”

  Johnny folded his hands as if uncertain what to do with them. “Everyone here in Murfreesboro was rooting for you to win the Oscar. You deserved it. It was your destiny to go into acting. You were always meant for more than this little town. I know your mom and dad are real proud.” He looked back at his plate. “I’m real proud.”

  Charity could see he meant it. “Thank you. I can see you’re happy. It shows. I’m glad that it has all worked out for you.” She looked back at her friends. “I need to go. Susie and Betsy are over there waiting. If I know them, they are both starving to death.”

  Johnny glanced over his shoulder at her friends and grinned when they waved. “I guess some things never change.” He took a deep breath before continuing, “I’m glad we had a chance to talk. I hoped we would be able to speak without any resentment. I wasn’t sure how you ended up feeling about me, when all was said and done. I know we probably can’t be friends, but I was hoping we could still acknowledge each other’s existence. Have a good Christmas, Charity, and tell your mom and dad hello for me.”

  Charity looked back down at Billy, and found him offering her one of his french fries. Charity declined with her best smile, and a quick movement back to avoid the catsup that came with it. “Thank you, Billy, but no thank you. You had better eat that. You need to grow up to be big and strong, just like your daddy.”

  She returned her attention to Johnny. “It was nice talking to you. Of course we can speak to each other. I never hated you. I wish you and your family a merry Christmas.”

  As she walked away from his table, she felt lighter from their brief conversation. It was surprising to discover that she did wish him only the best, and hoped his life was going to be a good one with his new family.

  She was more than a little relieved to finally be able to put her packages down when she arrived at her friend’s table.

  Betsy leaned across the table towards Charity and whispered loudly, “What was that all about? I didn’t see any blood being spilled so I decided you didn’t need my help.”

  Charity leaned across the table towards her friend, and whispered just as loudly, “You idiot! What good are the two of you? I could have needed your help over there, and the two of you just sit over here gaping. I was just attacked by the catsup king over there, and neither one of you even try to lend me a hand. I thought you were my friends. You should have jumped right up, and have been willing to go on hand to hand combat with that little man. Look what he did to mom’s coat!”

  Charity jumped out of her chair, leaned across the table, and hugged each of her old buddies. They all three sat back down laughing. Several people at nearby tables turned to look at them, stunned faces trying to determine if the ladies had lost their minds. It suddenly felt like old times with the three of them being together. “I really missed the two of you so much. It’s great being home. There’s no place like Murfreesboro. I feel so safe here. I may leave again for short periods of time, but this will always be my home.”

  Susie leaned both of her elbows on the table top and gazed, wide-eyed at Charity. “I don’t understand you. You have this great opportunity to be this enormous star, and you come back here. I thought it was always your big plan to go out to Hollywood, win that Oscar, and have people fighting to sign you up to be in their movies. You have that, and here you are back where you started. I don’t get it.”

  Charity took off her jacket and put it on the back of her chair, with her purse. She shrugged. “I don’t know if I can explain it. Maybe what I was looking for was already here. I don’t plan on giving up my career, but I’m not doing another movie until I have that diploma in my hand.”

  Betsy sipped on her hot chocolate, and looked thoughtful. “I can’t put my finger on it, but you’re different. What happened out in California? I mean I know what happened here.” She threw an accusing look in Johnny’s direction. “I know that jerk hurt you, but it’s more than that. We’ve talked since then, and you seemed to be getting on with your life. Something else has happened. What’s going on?” She threw her hands up in the air. “I mean. If you don’t want to discuss it, just say so, but you know you can tell us anything, and we would be there for you.”

  Charity leaned forward. “You know I love the two of you, but right now I’m not ready to talk about California. Maybe one day, but not now. I’m trying to put California behind me and concentrate on my future.” Charity smiled a little too brightly. “Speaking of my future. You know Judge Ash’s house? I’m going to buy it after Christmas. I just love that big old place. It’s just two houses down from mom and dad’s. I have been trying to decide what to do with my earnings, and I think that house would be a great investment. I think it’s
a perfect plan.”

  Susie chuckled in the most unpleasant manner.

  Charity hated it when her friend gave that evil chuckle. She had to ask, “What?”

  “You’re just a day late and dollar short for that plan.”

  “Why? He just put it on the market three days ago.”

  “Yeah, well. I saw them putting a sold sign on it about forty minutes ago, as I was walking here. That big bosomed, blonde real estate lady, from Real Time, was smiling very happily as she was doing it. I figured she just had her Christmas made merry from the sale of that huge old house. You know with it being in the historic district, the judge got a good price for it.”

  Charity fell backward and huffed, “I never thought it would sell that fast. Mom and I were just talking about it yesterday, at breakfast. I had it all decorated in my mind.”

  The rest of their lunch was spent in idle chit chat. Susie and Betsy caught Charity up on all the latest gossip. Who had married whom, and who had ditched whom. They decided to go home when the sky started to look threatening. Since they were all walking home, no one wanted to get caught out in bad weather.

  When Charity called after her friends as they were leaving, people turned to see why the three young women were making so much noise. For once, it didn’t matter. No one could take away her happy, content mood. The air was cold. The wind was whipping her and her bags around, but she didn’t even notice and just felt good. It was almost Christmas, and she was home. She wasn’t with David or Suzette, but she kept those dark thoughts pushed to the back of her mind. She couldn’t dwell on what she didn’t have.

  Charity stopped in front of the judge’s house, and sure enough, there was a sold sign on top of the realtor’s sign. Charity shook her head in amazement. Three days! That had to be some sort of record, even for this section of town, but the judge did have a beautiful home. It was well taken care of. The lawn was well groomed and beautifully landscaped. The judge had loved his home. He had inherited it from an old-maid aunt while he was still just a lawyer, and he and his wife had raised four daughters in it. When he decided to retire, he also decided to move to a warmer climate. Two of his daughters lived in Florida, and he wanted to see more of his grandkids.

  Charity was still shaking her head as she walked away from her dream house. She was disappointed. For past three days, she had been building her future dreams around that huge old house. She had not told Susie and Betsy how much she had really wanted it. Her dreams had included lots of children running through the large, rambling rooms, and the air being filled with baking. A husband who arrived home every night to the chaos, with arms spread opened wide for her and their children. Of course, she was a long way from realizing that dream, but attaining the house had been a small step in that direction. Well, she’d had to adjust her dreams before. She would adjust, again, and again if need be. If there was one thing she had come to realize, it was that she is a lot stronger than she had ever thought that she was. A lot stronger.

  When she entered through the side door, she found her mom in the kitchen, baking. The house smelled like oatmeal raisin cookies and spice cake. Charity loved being home this time of the year and was thankful her mom was such a great cook. As always, the house was decorated from the front door to the upstairs bathroom. No room in the house had missed her mom’s creative touch.

  “Hey mom. Where’s dad? If I can buy the gifts, the least he can do is wrap them.”

  Judy turned in Charity’s direction. Charity laughed when she saw flour on the tip of her mom’s nose. She motioned on the tip of her own nose to let her mom know that she had a problem. Judy understood the gesture, and immediately swiped her nose clean of flour.

  “Thanks. Your dad was just in here, and never said a thing about anything being on my face. I wondered what he was staring at.” She turned back to the stove top, where she had just taken out a sheet of cookies, and she quickly moved the remaining cookies off of the pan, onto the foil on the kitchen counter. She motioned over her shoulder towards the living room. “I believe he said something about putting another string of lights around the living room windows. You might find him in there.”

  Charity set her bags on the floor, and took her mom’s coat off. She noticed several boxes by the basement door. “Why do you have all those Christmas decorations out? I thought you were finished decorating.”

  Judy casually looked at the stacked boxes, and then continued spooning uncooked dough onto a cookie sheet. She shrugged nonchalantly. “Oh. I’m going to help a friend decorate his house tomorrow. He knows how much I love Christmas and asked me if I would help with their place, since they just arrived back in town and haven’t had a chance to decorate. With tomorrow being Christmas Eve, I thought they could use another pair of hands, and we had all that extra stuff in the basement. I was glad to let them have the stuff. I know your dad will be thrilled to have it all out of the basement. He has been after me forever to get rid of it, but you know how much I love all of my decorations. I couldn’t think of what to do with it until now. I know it will be going to a good home.”

  Charity folded her mom’s coat up, and as she did so, she noticed the catsup stains. “Oh. I’m sorry but I got your coat dirty while I was out today. After Christmas, I’ll take it to be dry cleaned.”

  Judy heard something in Charity’s voice that made her turn around. “Don’t worry about that old coat, dear. What’s the real problem?”

  She grabbed a hand full of cookies, and motioned for Charity to sit down. Charity sat down, and gladly accepted the offered cookies. She munched on one before answering. “I saw Johnny today. It was his son who put catsup stains on your coat.” Charity put the rest of the cookie in her mouth, and reached for another one.

  “You’ve never seen his son before. Have you? I guess with the town being so small it was impossible not to run into him.”

  “No. I’m glad that I did. At first, it was a shock, but after talking to him, I realized I didn’t hate him or love him. I almost feel like we are strangers. I didn’t feel any connection at all to him. I guess that’s why it was sort of depressing seeing him. It doesn’t feel normal. Shouldn’t I hate him, or maybe even still love him? I mean I was, supposedly, in love with him for years. How shallow does that make me? I wonder if I was as easy to get over as he was.”

  Charity gave a weary chuckle. “Silly me. He was the one sitting in the restaurant with a child by another woman.” Her holiday spirit drained away, so she pushed the plate of cookies towards Judy and stood.

  “I think I’m going to find Dad, before I get really mad about something I no longer care about.” She threw up her arms. “I must be tired. I’m over him, but I’m getting mad because he’s over me. I really am a sap.”

  Judy stood and hugged her. “It’s not silly and you’re not a sap. You both once loved each other, very much, but sometimes things change and life goes on. If ever once in a while it still makes you sad or angry, it just goes to prove, that love was real. I have no doubt that Johnny knows he lost a good woman.”

  Charity kissed Judy’s cheek and picked all of the shopping bags up off the kitchen floor. She made it to the kitchen door before she remembered Judge Ash’s house. “Did you see that Judge Ash already sold his house?”

  Judy picked up the plate of cookies and didn’t even turn around when she answered. “That was fast. I guess with interest rates being so low, houses are selling fast.”

  As Charity was pushing through the swinging doors, she called over her shoulder. “I really wanted that house.”

  She found her father in the living room trying to untangle Christmas lights. “Hey, Dad. I found the presents you wanted me to buy for mom. I thought you might want to wrap them yourself.”

  The lights were hung around Jim’s neck in a haphazard way and he was focusing intensely on how to figure out which direction he needed to go, to untangle them. He gestured absent-mindedly toward the sofa. “Sure, just sit them over there. I’ll get to them later. I’m going to replac
e the lights around the mantle that stopped working with these. As soon as I’m done here, I’ll wrap your mom’s presents. Did you get her that sweater I saw at Daniel’s?”

  Charity threw the packages on the sofa and then sat down in her dad’s recliner. She was relieved to finally be able to take her shoes off. She rubbed her cold feet to restore the feeling in them. “I bought it, but are you certain mom wanted a purple sweater? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her wear purple before.”

  Jim looked up from the tangle of light cords and interwoven bulbs, and he scratched his head in thought. “You know. I don’t know. Well it doesn’t matter. She looks great in everything she wears.” He calmly went back to untangling the bulbs and cords from each other.

  Charity stood and picked her shoes up from the floor so she could carry them to her room. She shook her head in amazement. “Yeah, Dad. That’s why we call you the Present Wizard, because you’re so good at it.”

  Her dad smiled and nodded.

  For such a smart man, her father really could be clueless on some things. It was oddly sweet so she couldn’t help but smile. “Good night, Dad. I’m exhausted. I’ll see you and mom in the morning.” She leaned over the mess in the floor and kissed his cheek.

  He returned the kiss without taking his eyes off of what he was doing. “Good night dear, and sleep tight, baby.”

  For the first time in ages, Charity slept the entire night without any bad dreams, and for once, didn’t wake up feeling as if her entire life had careened out of control. It was a beautiful day, with the sun light shining through the bedroom windows, so she took her time about getting dressed. It was Christmas Eve, and the entire day was hers to do with as she pleased. She would spend the morning helping her mom with the rest of her Christmas Day cooking. That would be fun. They could pretend the last two years hadn’t happened, and she wasn’t missing Suzette and David.