Shenandoah Christmas

by Lynnette Kent

  Which meant that this was the end of her sojourn in Goodwill. There wouldn't be a reason to see Maddie and Shep...and Ben...again after tonight. Somehow she had to get through goodbye.

  She looked down as Maddie pulled on her sleeve. "Can you button my coat, Miss Caitlyn?"

  "Sure thing." She knelt to meet Maddie face-to-face. "I hope Santa brings just what you've wished for tonight."

  "You can come tomorrow morning and see, can't you? We get up pretty early, and Daddy makes cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we build a fire and open our presents and play with stuff. You should be there, too."

  Shep joined them in the middle of the living room. "Please," he said softly. "Please come."

  Cait felt something shatter inside her chest. "I... um...I'll be having Christmas here with my family tomorrow morning."

  "So come later," Maddie suggested, and her brother nodded. "Then you can go with us to Grandma's and Grandpa's house for Christmas dinner."

  She had hoped to get by without making this explanation. But maybe that wasn't fair. Maybe Maddie and Shep should be reminded that she'd always intended to leave at Christmas. "Well...see, Maddie, I'm flying out to California tomorrow afternoon. I have to get back to work. Remember?"

  "But you can come over first. And then you can come back when you finish your work."

  "That's not—"

  Big, capable hands closed around her upper arms and literally lifted Cait to her feet. "We need to talk," Ben said, when she turned to stare at him. The intensity of his gaze made refusing, or even protesting, impossible.

  "I have an idea." Peggy came over and put her arms around the children. "Why don't Granddad and I tak6 you two home? We'll help set out Santa's snack and get you ready for bed and read stories and everything. Your dad can come along in a few minutes and kiss you good-night before you fall asleep. What do you think?"

  Maddie and Shep looked at their grandmother, and their dad and Cait. Then they looked at each other, and some unspoken message passed between them. "Okay," Shep said. "We can do that."

  In just a few minutes, the Shepherds were driving away from the house, with Maddie and Shep in their car. Anna looked at David, who was picking up used cups and paper plates and napkins. "Let's leave the cleanup until tomorrow," she said.

  "Won't take but a few minutes." He bent for another stack of plates.

  Cait saw her sister roll her eyes. "I'm tired, David. Let's go to bed. Now."

  At the emphasis in her voice, he looked up. "Oh. Okay. I'll just..." Anna's meaningful glance finally conveyed

  the message. "...I'll just leave these right here." He set the plates and cups back on the coffee table and quickly followed his wife out of the room.

  "Merry Christmas," Anna called over her shoulder. And then the bedroom door shut with a firm thud.

  Cait gathered together the trash David had abandoned. "You sure know how to clear a room," she told Ben, and headed for the kitchen.

  He followed with a stack of empty serving plates. "It's all that Secret Service training."

  "I bet." They worked without talking to tidy the house for Christmas morning.

  Then Ben went to the closet, grabbed her coat and his own. "Let's go outside."

  Her fingers were a little unsteady, but Cait got her buttons done and followed him onto the porch. The light snow that had graced the procession was now a steady, heavy fall, covering grass, sidewalk, driveway and street. Goodwill would have a glorious white Christmas.

  "Maddie will be thrilled when she wakes up to the snow." Cait leaned her shoulder against a column by the steps. "I think she must be personally responsible. Powerful wishes, your daughter makes."

  "I hope so," Ben said cryptically. He leaned back against the other column, watching her. "I heard your talk with your dad."

  She sighed. "I know—I saw you. Thanks. I was glad to have the backup."

  "You said you'd learned some things since you'd been in Goodwill."

  More than I could have imagined." Enough to make staying a possibility?" When she turned to protest, he stopped her with a raised hand. "I know. There's no way it'll be perfect. You've got ambi-

  ( 4"

  • (1

  tion and drive, a need to succeed, which will take you away more than I'll like. I'll complain and you'll get mad and we'll argue. And then we'll make up and we'll figure out how to compromise and move on."

  He reached out and took her hand between both of his. "Please, Cait. I won't always be a model husband, won't always understand and accept your other commitments. But I'll always, always love you. And I know that my kids and I will miss something infinitely precious if we lose the chance to share your life. Wherever it leads."

  The world became a blur of white. Cait squeezed her eyes shut. "Ben. ..I'm so afraid...I don't want to hurt you, I or Maddie or Shep." s |

  "Then say yes. Marry us. Marry me and take me on this wild ride you call your life." When she opened her eyes, he stood right in front of her. "We've seen so many miracles these last few days. Make one more. With me."

  She framed his face with her palms. "We're fast losing our grinch qualifications here." 1

  "So we'll apply for elf credentials." I

  Cait laughed at him. "I love you." |

  Ben grinned back. "I'll remember that when you're being the temperamental diva." His arms came around her hard and tight. "And when you're not," he whispered over her lips.

  Then he claimed the first in a long and merry lifetime of Christmas kisses.

  EPILOGUE

  Three years later

  "Cmon, cmon!" Shouting at the top of his lungs, Shep ran from the foot of the stairs into the den and back again. 'The commercial's almost over and the show's going to start."

  In their bedroom, Cait pulled a little way out of her husband's close hold. "Our son is making a lot of noise down there."

  Ben grinned. "Isn't it great? I guess we'd better join the audience for this major production. But later..." He glanced at the king-size bed, piled high with jewel-toned silk pillows on a gold spread.

  She reached up for one more kiss. "After these last six weeks away from home, I'm on your wavelength, Mr. Tremaine. Believe me."

  On the way down the hall, Cait tapped on Maddie's closed door. "The program's starting. Tell Kevin you'll call him back later."

  "Yes, ma'am." The tone of voice held all of a thirteen-year-old's dismay at being forced to follow an agenda other than her own.

  When Cait reached the den, Anna and David were already curled into the corner of one couch, watching as Shep and redheaded Christopher fought a fierce air battle

  with toy planes. An empty baby carrier sat next to them— sweet Lisa was sleeping soundly on her mother's shoulder. Full-term at birth and now three months old, Lisa seemed determined to spare her parents the least twinge of worry. She slept through the night, smiled when she was awake and loved to watch her big brother make silly faces.

  Cait only hoped her own baby would be half as easy.

  "Here it is. Shhh!" Shep quieted them all down just as Cait sat next to Ben, with Maddie on his other side.

  The picture blurred for an instant, then sharpened again on the branch of a Christmas tree. Widening the angle, the camera took in the entire tree, a crackling fire, and then the whole room, keeping the frame centered on a family of four gathered near the hearth.

  "I look like a beach ball," Cait moaned, hiding her face against Ben's shoulder. "Why didn't somebody stop me from wearing that red-and-green sweater?" On television, the chords of her guitar introduced Maddie singing I'll Be Home for Christmas."

  "A Family Christmas," the announcer informed them. This special holiday program featuring Cait Gregory and her family is brought to you by..." 1

  "That was lovely," Anna concluded an hour later, when the four Tremaines singing together had closed the show with "The Angel Song."

  "Not bad," Cait decided. "Except for that fat woman who kept hogging the camera. Somebody should have tied her up off
stage."

  "You are not fat," Ben said, helping her off the low couch. "You were seven months pregnant then and you're eight and a half now and you're beautiful all the time."

  "And you're just a little biased." She smiled and kissed his cheek. "I love it."

  i t

  i t

  Once the Remingtons had left for home, Maddie and Shep went back inside the house, leaving Ben and Cait sitting in the swing on the front porch, enjoying the warm night.

  Cait turned sideways to put her feet up on the seat and leaned back against Ben's chest. He wrapped his arms securely around her and their baby.

  "No more tours for a whole year." She sighed with contentment. "No plane flights. No fast food." Tilting her chin, she pressed a kiss to his throat. "No waking up in the middle of the night in an empty bed."

  "Mmm." Ben eased her back even further, took them both into a mind-stealing kiss. "That's the best part. Will Russell survive?"

  "He's got a new 'sensation' to promote. A twenty-year-old he thinks will be the next Celine Dion. Or Cher. He's happy for me just to record two albums in the next eighteen months—good money with lots less work for everybody involved. Except me, of course, since I have to write the songs."

  Dismissing her agent with a snort, Ben turned to a more important issue. "What do you want to do for our third anniversary?" They'd gotten married on January 2 to be sure they started off every new year together.

  Cait smiled with her eyes closed. "Sleep. Make love with you. Sleep some more. I need to be here, with you. With Maddie and Shep, and Anna and David and Christopher and Lisa and Harry and Peggy and Dad...all the people who care about me."

  She sat up with a groan and curled over her stomach as far as she could, putting one foot on the porch floor. "And I need you to rub my back when it aches. Down low. Ah, that's it. You're wonderful."

  "It's my pleasure.' They sat awhile longer on the

  swing while he massaged her muscles and her spine. Then Cait got chilled, and Ben took her up to bed... where they realized pretty quickly that this was no ordinary backache. Somewhere around dawn, they woke the kids and dropped them off at the Shepherds' house, then headed for the hospital in Winchester.

  And around 6:00 p.m. that Christmas Eve, another baby was born—a beautiful, healthy little girl with red hair and a lusty voice.

  Ben eased Noel Anna Tremaine into her mother's arms. "Here you go. Merry Christmas, Mom."

  Cait gave him a smile brilliant with happiness, then gazed at her daughter, reaching to trace one fingertip along the path of a tiny vein under the soft pale skin of her temple.

  "Merry Christmas to you, darlin'. And peace on Earth, goodwill to us all!"

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