Breakfast With Santa

by Pamela Browning

  Beth removed the pearl studs from her ears and put the new earrings on. Her friend handed her a mirrored compact from her purse.

  “These are stunning, Chlo. I mean it.”

  Chloe moved forward in her chair. “Listen to this. Gwynne has gone back to school. Her old house on the beach is vacant, and she’s worried about kids partying in the place, vagrants camping out, that sort of thing. She asked me if I’d like to stay there. I’d deal with repairs, make the house appear lived-in and—here’s the best part—I’d work on my jewelry. A gift shop in town could sell the pieces I make—at least, that’s what they say—and I could market some over the Internet. If I could place some of my more original designs at a couple of Palm Beach boutiques—”

  “Chlo, wait a minute! You’re going too fast for me. First off, what makes you think you’ll be good at home repairs?”

  Chloe had the good grace to look sheepish. “I can change a light bulb, and that’s about it. But you learned, didn’t you? After Richie left? So could I.”

  Beth couldn’t help chuckling as she helped herself to a brownie. Chloe was regarded around Farish as a lovable klutz. “Okay, you’re going to become a handyman. I can dig it, I guess. Who do you know in Palm Beach?”

  “Only one person, Gwynne’s godmother. I’ve met Patrice once. She owns a store on Worth Avenue. It’s the place to shop in Palm Beach, and if I showed her my designs…” Chloe let her sentence trail off speculatively.

  “She’d fall in love with them,” Beth supplied.

  “Maybe. Another viable alternative is for me to stay here in Farish and sell Mary Kay cosmetics like my sister. It’s been good for Naomi—she’s on her second pink Cadillac. But that’s not me, Beth. I’d have to stop streaking my hair the color of the month and act like a normal person.”

  Their eyes locked, and the woman intoned in unison, “No way!” Then they laughed.

  “Beth, what do you think?”

  “Go for it,” Beth said seriously. “Life is short, and you’ve accepted a big responsibility with your grandmother these past couple of years. This may be your chance to do exactly what you want to do, so why not?”

  “Why not?” Chloe repeated softly. She glanced at her watch. “Hey, I’d better get going.”

  “Not so fast,” Beth said, resting a hand on her arm. “I’ve been waiting since before Christmas to hear the scuttlebutt about Tom Collyer.”

  Chloe hesitated before settling back in her chair. “Oh, that. I can’t believe someone else hasn’t told you.”

  “I’m pretty much out of the gossip loop,” Beth reminded her.

  “It’s one of those things that no one talks about,” Chloe said in a hushed tone.

  “What things?” Beth asked skeptically.

  “People pretend Tom didn’t do anything, but everyone knows he did.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Chlo, get to the point,” Beth said with more than a hint of impatience.

  “Tom had a girlfriend, Nikki Fentress. Tall, brunette, long legs and absolutely gorgeous. They dated during his last year of high school and afterward, and everyone expected them to marry. Then Nikki got pregnant, and Tom skipped town. Left her in the lurch.”

  “He—what?”

  “Tom disappeared in the middle of the night and enlisted in the marines. Nikki had the baby right here in the Bigbee County Hospital and raised the child herself until she married and moved away some years back. The baby would be about fourteen now. An adorable little girl named Angelica.”

  Beth’s head was spinning. “I’ve never heard a word about this.”

  Chloe went on. “He denied any responsibility for the baby and never saw the kid—I’ve got that on good authority. Nikki was bitter about it. I can’t say that I blame her, can you?”

  Beth wondered why Tom had never mentioned anything about it. “I suppose I don’t blame Nikki. It would be a terrible thing to be pregnant and alone. And being a single mom isn’t easy.” Suddenly, the room seemed airless, and she forced her mind to grapple with this new information.

  “You can certainly attest to the struggles of single mothers, Beth. Though you handle it very well, I might add.” Chloe stood up. “Now, I really should run. Hey, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Of course, Chloe didn’t realize that Beth had made Tom Collyer part of her life. Had fallen in love with him, maybe. And this most definitely wasn’t the time to tell Chloe that.

  Chloe sailed toward the front door. She turned. “Maybe you and Mitchell can eat dinner with us before too long. Grandma would like to visit with you before she moves away.”

  “Give her my love,” Beth said automatically.

  “Sure will, and thanks for being my sounding board, Beth. You’re a great friend.” She hugged Beth before hurrying down the path toward her grandmother’s sensible old Volvo, which she was driving these days.

  Beth closed the door and leaned against it. Memories flashed through her mind, stringing themselves together in logical strands. Tom had always been vague about his past. Except for brief remarks about his childhood friends Divver and Johnny, as well as a few comments about his family of origin, he’d kept mum. Now she knew why. He probably believed that she’d heard the gossip and liked him anyway.

  Tom had become increasingly important to her over the few weeks of their acquaintance. But his newly revealed past was a blotch on his character, and not because he’d gotten his girlfriend pregnant. No, that happened to a lot of people. She herself had been pregnant when she and Richie married. Fortunately, they had been in love, and Richie had wanted to marry her as much as she’d wanted to marry him. But if he had walked away from her at that time, she would have been in a difficult situation. She’d have been alone in the world and penniless, not the best circumstances under which to bear a child.

  Beth could imagine nothing worse than being left pregnant by the man she loved—no decent guy would do a thing like that. Although Beth had never met Nikki Fentress, she identified with her as she would with any woman in such hard circumstances.

  Tom was clearly not the man Beth had thought he was, and the last thing in the world she needed was someone she couldn’t trust, who wouldn’t be there for her when things got rough. She’d already said goodbye to one man like that, and she wasn’t about to let another one become part of her life. And Mitchell’s.

  But perhaps she already had.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Tom called Beth from his office at the ranch a couple of days after New Year’s Eve to ask her if she and Mitchell wanted to drive into Austin with him to pick up teaching materials. He would be leaving on his trip to Amarillo at the end of the week, and he was already dreading how much he would miss Beth while he was gone.

  Mitchell answered the phone. “Hi, Tom!” he said, all enthusiasm. “When will you see us again?”

  “I’ve been kind of busy at work.”

  “Have you decided when you’re going to teach me to ride Captain?”

  “We could start on your birthday. Would you like that?”

  Mitchell let out a delighted squeal. “Would I!”

  “Okay, then, that’ll be the plan.”

  “I can’t wait. I guess you want to talk to my mom?”

  “Sure. Put her on.” He avoided using Mitchell’s name as much as possible; it was pretentious and ill-suited to this particular boy. In his opinion, a kid deserved a rough-and-ready name, one that pegged him as tough. He was grateful for his own no-nonsense name, Tom. Never Thomas, and not Tommy. Just plain old Tom, thank you very much.

  Beth picked up the phone, and he was glad to hear her voice. “How are you doing?” he asked, picturing her in her small house, up to her elbows in fabric samples.

  “Fine, though I’m kind of busy at the moment.”

  Something in Beth’s tone and manner didn’t feel right, but he was at a loss to figure out what it was. “How about if I phone you later?” He expected her to suggest a good time for him to call back, the way she usually did.

/>   “Sure, if you want.”

  “I’ll be through here before dinner,” he said. “I’ll touch base when I get home.”

  “Okay,” Beth said, and then she was gone.

  He stood staring at the phone in his hand. He felt emotionally flattened because he’d looked forward to offering her the trip to Austin as a treat, and she hadn’t even given him a chance to mention it.

  FOR SOME REASON, Beth wasn’t answering her cell phone, and Tom tried her home phone three times that afternoon before she answered.

  “I want to see you,” Tom insisted when she finally picked up. He was home now, and he leaned back in his chair to admire the blue print fabric on the cornices that Beth had supplied. He remembered her delivering them to his house, then their spending the night in front of the fireplace, waiting for the ice storm to pass. That had been the beginning of everything, the start of what he had begun to cherish as an important part of his life.

  “We just walked in from Leanne’s,” Beth told him. A door slammed on her end of the line, and she sounded harried.

  “What’s going on at my sister’s? Anything interesting?”

  “Margery’s science project was the big thing. Mitchell, Jeremiah and Ryan played video games. Britney, the hamster, was having a workout in her plastic ball.”

  “Anything else going on?”

  Beth sighed. “I’m pretty tired today. I’m planning to heat up some leftovers and get Mitchell to bed early.”

  He lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Does that mean that you and I can also get to bed early? Together?”

  A long silence. “No, Tom. I want to crash tonight, grab some sleep.”

  He couldn’t believe that she was putting him off again so soon. Before Mitchell had arrived home from his father’s, Beth would have been as eager as he was now. No, that wasn’t fair. Maybe all those late nights making love had caught up with her. Maybe she was exhausted. After all, she was busy running a business as well as being a mother.

  “It’s not easy being a superwoman,” he said, hoping to get a chuckle out of her, but his effort fell flat.

  “I never said I was,” she said stiffly.

  “Hey,” he said. “Are you all right?”

  A long silence followed. “I’ve got a lot on my mind,” she finally said. “I’ve won the contract to design the interior of the Kettersburg Country Club. That means that Mitchell will be spending even more hours at day care.”

  “He seems to like it okay.”

  “He does. It’s just the guilt thing.”

  Tom would bet that Beth spent more time with her son than most single parents; she shouldn’t feel guilty.

  “Congratulations on the contract,” he told her.

  “Thanks. I hope you’ll understand why I’m feeling pushed for time at the moment. In fact, when you called, I was preparing for my first big meeting with the country club people.”

  For a moment he considered not asking her to go to Austin with him. If she was so busy, chances were she couldn’t. But he wanted to sit beside her in his pickup and be the object of flirtatious glances. Wanted to share a laugh, a confidence. With Mitchell, too, of course.

  He cleared his throat. “I’m going to run errands in Austin tomorrow,” he said. “I was hoping that you and Mitchell would go with me.”

  If the last silence was long, this one was even longer.

  “I can’t, Tom,” she said, her voice low. “I’m supposed to be in Kettersburg first thing for the meeting.”

  “I didn’t realize it was tomorrow,” he said. For a moment he considered reminding her that he would be leaving for Amarillo soon, but he decided against it. He might come across as pressuring her to duck out on her country club clients, and he didn’t want that.

  “We’ll do it some other time,” he said. Then he had an idea and blurted it out without considering whether it was a good one. “How about letting Mitchell go with me to Austin?”

  “Just the two of you?” She sounded surprised.

  “Sure, why not?”

  “I guess it would be okay. I was planning to leave him with Leanne because his day care won’t start up again until the public school does, and he could play with Jeremiah.”

  “I’d enjoy his company.”

  “What time will you leave?”

  “I’ll stop by your house around eight o’clock to pick him up. How’s that?”

  “Perfect.” She sounded slightly more like herself now, more cheerful.

  “Tell Mitchell I’m looking forward to it.”

  After they hung up, Tom pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. Even though Beth had softened up toward the end of their conversation, his built-in problem detector told him that something was definitely wrong here.

  Not only that, he was beginning to have trepidations. What if he wasn’t capable of entertaining an exuberant five-year-old for a whole day?

  WHEN TOM PICKED UP Mitchell the next morning, the boy was fidgeting impatiently on the porch, a big smile on his face. He ran out to the truck, his bright red jacket unzipped and flying out behind him.

  “Hi, Tom!” he said. “I wore my cowboy hat. It’s like yours.” He also wore cowboy boots.

  Tom grinned down at the kid, thinking that he was a handsome child, with all that blond hair and those big blue eyes. If he had a son, Tom wouldn’t mind if he resembled Mitchell.

  “Can we leave now?” Mitchell asked, hopping on one foot and then the other.

  Tom had planned to go in and talk to Beth, maybe cadge a cup of coffee, but she appeared in the doorway and waved. “Thanks, Tom,” she said warmly. She was coiling her hair up off her neck as she spoke, pinning it in a twist. She was businesslike in a trim navy-blue suit and heels; this was a side of her he hadn’t seen before.

  “When will you be back?” she asked.

  “I’d like to take Mitchell to the zoo,” he said. “If that’s okay. It means we won’t be back until late.”

  “The zoo! Wow!” Mitchell said. “Can we go, Mom? Please?”

  Beth smiled indulgently. “I guess that would be fine. If you really want to, Tom.”

  “Sure. It’ll be fun.”

  “There’ll be monkeys and every stuff. I heard about it from Ryan.”

  “That’s right,” Tom assured him.

  Beth said, “Drive carefully and have a safe trip. ’Bye, honey. Behave yourself.”

  “I will, Mommy,” Mitchell said as Tom opened the door of the pickup for him.

  Mitchell climbed up, and Tom helped him fasten himself in. He was bouncing in his seat as Tom slid in under the steering wheel.

  “Next stop, Austin,” Tom said, when they were headed toward the interstate highway.

  “Can we go to the zoo first?” Mitchell could have passed for a real cowboy in his miniature cowboy hat and boots, and even his foghorn voice seemed kind of appealing.

  Tom shook his head. “Not until after lunch.”

  “Okay.” Mitchell tugged at his turtleneck. “I wish Mom wouldn’t have made me wear this shirt. The collar hurts. I wanted to wear a cowboy shirt to go with my boots and jeans and hat, but she said no.”

  “Moms do things like that,” Tom said in a tone of commiseration.

  “Boy, do they ever. Like my blue suit that she sewed for me. I hate that suit, but she makes me wear it for special occasions.”

  Tom recalled the velvet outfit that Mitchell had worn to the pancake breakfast. “I don’t like to wear suits, either,” he confided.

  “You could tell her that. Maybe she won’t make me wear it if your mother doesn’t make you wear yours.”

  Tom tried not to laugh at this. Mitchell was totally serious. “I’ll see what I can do for you,” he said, thinking that there were a few other things that he could lobby for on Mitchell’s behalf. Like maybe even a dog.

  By this time, Mitchell was off on a different subject. “Have you seen Captain lately? Did you tell him I’m going to learn to ride him?”

  Th
is topic eventually led to discussions about what real cowboys actually did, how Tom had learned to train cutting horses when he was still in high school and how he’d spent his time in the marine corps.

  “Did you really fight a war? Was it exciting?”

  “Yes, I fought a war, but it was not fun at all.”

  Mitchell seemed to accept this, and they talked about how things could be fun but not exciting, which was how Mitchell regarded his kindergarten classes at day care. When they were through exploring that topic, they touched upon Jeremiah and his hamster, and the fact that Jeremiah had named the hamster Britney, which was a much better name than Ava. This reminded Mitchell of his new baby sister, which led to observations about life at his father’s house. All of this gave Tom the impression that Mitchell was a relatively well-adjusted kid who was good company when he wasn’t showing off to get his mother’s attention.

  “Hey, cowboy, how about telling me when the sign comes up for exit 234. That’s the numbers two, three and four right next to each other.”

  “On a big green sign like that one?” Mitchell asked, pointing to the one they were passing.

  “That’s right.”

  “Okay, Tom.” He leaned forward in his seat, scanning the upcoming exit signs.

  Tom relaxed and stopped wishing that Beth could have come with them. He wasn’t worried anymore about what he would do to entertain Mitchell all day. He knew now that Mitchell was going to entertain him.

  ON HER WAY HOME from Kettersburg that afternoon, Beth stopped at the antiques shop where Chloe worked. As she slid out of the minivan, she noted the handwritten For Lease sign in the front window.

  “I guess the sign makes the closing of the shop official?” she asked when she found Chloe arranging a collection of milk glass in a corner cabinet.

  “We’re out of here in two months,” Chloe said as she closed the cabinet door. “Come with me. Before the holidays, we got in some things that might be perfect for the country club.”

  Beth followed her friend to the warehouse behind the shop, where Chloe showed her a row of elegant old bookcases that had recently been removed from a house scheduled for demolition.