With a great deal of effort and a lot of string pulling, Jeremiah had managed to establish contact with the doctor treating Tabitha. The man was less than optimistic. Her fever continued to spike, and she had been very nauseous. He had diagnosed her with a relapse of malaria and was treating her with chloroquine.
At midmorning, Daniel and Benjamin braved the ice and gingerly made several trips to the guest cottage. They brought the crib and carrier over to the main house, along with every diaper, wipe, lotion and jar of baby food they could find. They also located an address book, which turned out to have many wrong numbers, erasures and illegible names.
Typical of an international family in transition, Lara had explained. Finally, in the late afternoon, she got through to Peter. Deeply upset on learning of his wife’s condition, he decided to set off immediately on the long drive home.
A few hours later, Peter had called the Maddox house to say that his car had broken down several miles north of Dallas. He and his boys were back at his brother’s house, and there was no telling when they would be able to repair the car, let alone drive it back to Springfield.
Jeremiah blamed himself. If he had listened to his son, he would have loaned Peter the BMW. So what if the kids played in the backseat and the dog chewed a hole in the upholstery? It would have been better than this predicament.
Lara’s call to the president of Reynolds University went unanswered. He must have left town for the Christmas holiday. Her hope of finding funds to pay for the Murayas to fly home went down the drain. Feeling guilty and wanting to do more to help, Jeremiah offered to take care of the tickets himself. He had enough frequent flyer miles for all three Murayas, and he could send a cab to pick them up at the house where they were staying.
That hope was dashed when word came that the Springfield airport had shut down and few flights were arriving at or leaving DFW. So, they were stuck with a hungry baby, a desperately ill Tabitha, and no Peter, Wisdom or Justice. Jeremiah could only pray for a heaping helping of heavenly mercy.
“Did you say the doctor is treating Tabitha with chloroquine?” Daniel asked. “The new malaria is resistant to that drug.”
Benjamin stood to challenge him. “She’s got the old malaria. It’s just recrudescing.”
“I’m gonna recrudesce you!” Daniel started for his brother. “How much you wanna bet he’s treating her with the wrong drug?”
“Two large pizzas and a movie!”
Benjamin neatly evaded his brother’s lunge, and both boys raced out of the room, their feet pounding on the wooden staircase as they went back up to continue their investigations.
“Sometimes I think they’re still a couple of kids,” Jeremiah said.
“They are. Smart ones.” Lara repositioned the sleeping baby. “They may be on to something. I’ve heard about drug-resistant malaria. I hope the doctor knows what he’s doing.”
“What are we doing, Lara?”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking about those last two bags of milk and a long night ahead. Do you suppose one of us should venture out to the store for some formula? I need to get home anyway, and if you could drive me there—”
“Don’t go.” The words were out before he could think.
She looked at him in surprise. “Jeremiah, I haven’t changed clothes for two days. I’m a mess, and I’m worried that my water pipes may have frozen. Besides, I need a shower and a good night’s sleep.”
“Stay here. With us.” He turned to the fire, fumbling to find the right way to tell her what was in his heart. “Lara, I’ll take care of you. I’ll go out and buy the formula, a toothbrush for you, new clothes, whatever you need. Just stay here.”
“But you and the boys are managing Tobias very well.”
“It’s not about the baby. It’s Christmas.”
“Jeremiah, I’m not some present Santa dropped down your chimney.”
“No, you’re a gift from God.” He met her green eyes. “You’ve changed my life, Lara. If you hadn’t come along, I would have kept going the same way forever. Just doing the basic requirements. Taking care of the boys and myself. Never stepping outside my boundaries. I’m so grateful for what you’ve done for us. For me.”
She fell silent for a moment. “You’ve done things for me, too. But, Jeremiah, I don’t exactly like them. You shouldn’t ask me to stay here. You can’t expect me to be a part of your family at Christmas. I have another life.”
“What are you so afraid of, Lara?” Leaning forward, he took her hand. “What is the problem? Do you dislike me?”
“I like you, okay?” Her eyes flashed. “I like the boys. I like everything here. But I don’t want this…the havoc inside me. It’s your fault. You keep saying things…and touching me.” She drew her hand from his. “I’m too mature and stable for all this. What it comes down to is, I don’t want to deal with a bunch of chaotic feelings.”
She pushed herself up from the chair. “The temperature is falling. You’d better go get the formula before the streets get really treacherous. Tobias is awake. I’ll change his diaper and play with him for a while. We’ll put off feeding him as long as possible, and then when you get back, we can try the formula. I don’t know if he’ll take it, but we can see.”
Jeremiah stood. “Why wouldn’t he drink formula?”
“Because he’s used to his mother’s milk,” she said, a note of sudden desperation in her voice. “He’s accustomed to life the way it always was. He won’t want anything different or new. He might be frightened. You can’t expect someone to change just like that, don’t you see?”
“Lara.” He stepped to her and slipped his hands around her shoulders. “Lara, don’t be afraid of me. I won’t hurt you.”
“What if I hurt you? Have you thought of that? I might walk out on you the way your wife did. I might be just like her.”
“You’re nothing like her.”
“You should be skeptical of me, Jeremiah. That would be prudent.”
“You stayed engaged for six years. You don’t walk out on people, Lara. You told me that, and I believe it.”
She looked up at him, her eyes brimming. “I don’t want to go anywhere near that memory. Please. Doubt me the way I doubt you. And let me go.”
“I can’t.” He pulled her into his arms, drawing her as close as he could with a chunky, wiggling baby between them. “Lara, I’ve thought it through. Life is short, and God brought you into mine when it was almost too late. Please stay.”
He bent his head and kissed her lips as tears spilled down her cheeks. “Jeremiah, oh, this is not good,” she breathed. But even as she spoke the words, she moved against him, lifting her chin and seeking his kiss.
“Give me one more day,” he said. “If you still feel the same tomorrow, then go home.”
“I am going home tomorrow—no matter what.”
“Maybe the ice will stay and keep you here.” He kissed her again, drinking in the sweetness of her lips and the warmth of her skin against his. “Maybe we can freeze time. Freeze everything. Leave it this way forever.”
At the sound of male feet pounding down the staircase, he drew back. She hung in the moment, her eyes closed and her lips moist. And then the boys burst into the room.
“Hey, Dad, Dad!” Benjamin cried out. “Three of the guys are out driving around in their cars, and they said the streets aren’t too bad yet. They want to bring some of the girls over here. What do you think? We could all keep an eye on the Tobester.”
Daniel nodded. “And they’ll bring pizzas and chicken and whatever we want.”
“Yeah, we need to finish our crocheting, Dad. Everybody’s yarn and hooks are over here, and those are our Christmas presents. Please!”
“What about school tomorrow?”
“Canceled!” Benjamin high-fived his brother. “It’s Christmas!”
Jeremiah forced himself to face the pair of hooligans in his living room. Where had these aberrations of nature come from? Why was their hair so long? W
hy did their shoes always smell so bad? And how could they be so blind as to miss the fact that their father was falling in love?
He looked at the woman across from him. Then he focused on the pair of bright brown eyes between them. At least one person in the room hadn’t missed a thing.
Lara and Jeremiah stayed up most of the night keeping a watchful eye on the throng of young people who were crocheting, laughing, eating popcorn and pizza and watching movies. She ferried empty pizza boxes to the upstairs trash. He toted sodas to the basement. And in between, they struggled to manage a baby boy who definitely did not like store-bought formula.
Tobias, as everyone discovered, had the healthiest lungs in the neighborhood. His array of vocal emanations ranged from whimpering to sobbing to wailing to all-out screaming. The kids in the basement took turns walking him around, up and down the various staircases in the Maddox house. But to no avail. Tobias had evidently decided he’d had enough.
Jeremiah thought jiggling perhaps might ease his misery. This resulted in the last of the good milk erupting from the baby’s mouth and spilling down the master of the house’s back. Lara—so exhausted she felt half-delirious—could hardly keep from dissolving into maniacal laughter.
She tried one way after another to get Tobias to drink formula. He spat it out. He let it dribble from the side of his mouth. He shook his head with such vigor that the liquid sprayed the kitchen wall from ceiling to floor.
And the later the hour, the louder the baby. At one point in the night, someone suggested taking him to the hospital to see his mother. But a rushed call to the ward resulted in the information that even though Tabitha’s condition was improving, Tobias was absolutely not allowed on the floor.
Countless diaper changes and repeated efforts to feed, rock, walk and otherwise comfort the baby had little effect.
As the sun rose over the icy wonderland outside the Maddox house, Tobias suddenly went silent in Lara’s arms. She called Jeremiah to her side and they stared down at the baby in alarm. Tobias looked at the two of them for more than a minute without blinking. Then, as if abruptly resigned to his destiny, he shut his eyes and fell sound asleep.
Lara drifted off in the recliner beside the fire, and Jeremiah sprawled on a couch nearby. Their respite wasn’t long. Cell phones began ringing, kids came tromping up the stairs, car engines roared to life in the driveway. Word came that the airports in Springfield and Dallas were both open, and the Murayas had found a flight home. Eventually, Jeremiah and his sons left the house for the short drive to the Springfield airport.
Tobias woke up, decided formula tasted pretty good after all, and was happily having his lunch when his father and two brothers walked in the front door of the Maddox house at noon on the day before Christmas Eve. Lara could have wept for joy.
“What is this news they tell me about you, Tobias?” Peter exclaimed, lifting the baby from Lara’s arms. “Are you making trouble, my son?”
“He’s finally decided to accept baby formula,” she told him.
“Formula? What about rice cereal? Bananas? Pudding? This boy loves to eat.”
Lara looked at Jeremiah. In their frantic efforts to get Tobias to take the formula, they had forgotten all about the jars of pureed food that Daniel and Benjamin had brought over from the cottage. She let out a breath.
“I told you I knew nothing about babies,” she said.
Jeremiah chuckled. “Chalk it up to experience.”
“But he is healthy,” Peter said with satisfaction. “He is alive and well—what more can one ask? Take your brother, Wisdom. See if you and Justice can make this stubborn child smile.”
“If you don’t mind leaving your boys here with my sons, I’ll drive you over to the hospital,” Jeremiah told Peter. “I’m sure Tabitha is worried about everyone.”
“And you can drop me at home on the way,” Lara put in.
Jeremiah grimaced. Since their conversation beside the fire, Lara had done everything possible to avoid another private moment with him. It hadn’t been difficult.
As everyone regrouped and began to don coats, hats and gloves, Jeremiah took Lara’s arm. “Thank you,” he said. “Thanks for helping us.”
She tried to smile even though her heart was breaking. “Just take me home, Jeremiah,” she told him in a low voice. “I need to be where I belong.”
The ice storm was losing its grip on southern Missouri, Lara noted as Jeremiah’s car inched along in traffic. Trees had split in half. Huge branches and thick limbs lay scattered across yards and on roofs. In several places, power lines had gone down. But Springfield was beginning to bustle again as last-minute Christmas shoppers braved the streets to run their errands.
The car pulled into Lara’s driveway, and she reached for the handle. Jeremiah caught her hand. “I’ll call you,” he said.
“I can find out about Tabitha by phoning the hospital,” she replied. “Jeremiah, don’t call.”
Before he could respond, she stepped out of the car and picked her way across the yard to her front door.
Chapter Eight
Jeremiah didn’t call, and Lara was grateful. She told herself it was for the best. Each of them had a full, happy life. Why complicate it? In short order, he would find another woman—or return to Melissa perhaps. And Lara might call the economics profess or who had been pestering her for nearly a year. She didn’t mind the occasional date. Someone uncomplicated and easy.
She stretched out on her sofa and let her focus blur until the lights on her Christmas tree went soft and luminous. The trouble with Jeremiah was that he had never been simple. He was too handsome, for one thing. Too sincere. Too great a father to his sons. Too successful in business. Definitely too rich.
Most of all, he had been far too serious. Every time he had looked at her, she heard unspoken messages zipping back and forth between them. When he touched her hand, she could have sworn she already knew the warm pressure of his fingers and the flat plane of his palm. Worst of all, his kiss had evoked swirls of emotion and vibrant colors of hope and joy that raced through her like a drug. She had wanted more. More of him. And that frightened her beyond belief.
Christmas Eve. She had called to wish her parents joy, and then she had driven to her church for the annual candlelight service. After that, she picked up a Chinese dinner from one of the many take-out restaurants that dotted Springfield. Finally at home again, she ate and listened to music and tried very, very hard not to think about Jeremiah Maddox.
Tucking a quilt around her feet, Lara pondered the Muraya family. Earlier in the day, a hospital receptionist had informed her that Tabitha had gone home at last. Tobias must have been greatly relieved to see his mother again, Lara thought. What a crazy couple of days those had been.
She shut her eyes and was recalling that Daniel owed Benjamin two large pizzas and a movie…when someone knocked softly on her door. Without thinking, she instantly imagined Jeremiah standing on her porch, and she leaped up from the couch and threw open the door.
And she was right.
“Merry Christmas,” he said as snowflakes swirled through the night air around him.
She took his arm and pulled him in out of the cold. And before she could properly digest the fact that he had come or what she should do about it, she was wrapping her arms around him and laying her head on his shoulder.
“Jeremiah,” she murmured. “Oh, I missed you. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’ve missed you every minute of every hour of every day since you dropped me off. I thought I would never see you again, and I told myself that was fine, but I didn’t feel it. I wanted to see you so much and…and please make me stop blabbering before I embarrass myself any more.”
He laughed, tipped up her chin and kissed her lips. “How’s that?”
“Better.” She closed her eyes as he folded her close against his chest.
“Lara, did you think I was going to let you get away? Didn’t I tell you from the very beginning what I wanted?”
&n
bsp; “But I’m so afr—”
“Don’t say it.” He put his finger on her mouth. “Don’t ever say that again. Lara, both of us can dig up plenty of reasons to run from each other. How about if we don’t?”
She nodded. “I’ll try.”
He set her away from him and eased her down onto the couch. “My greatest fear was loving a woman who couldn’t commit. Then God brought you into my life—a woman deeply committed to everything and everyone.”
“Oh, Jeremiah.”
“Your greatest fear was having to play the game—the drawn-out dance of dating and the emotional roller coaster. So, I’ve decided to dispense with all that.”
As she looked up at him in confusion, Jeremiah dropped to one knee. “Lara Crane, I love you. Will you marry me? Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow’s Christmas,” she managed.
“That’s right, and I have your gift.” From his pocket, he drew out a small black box. Was that a diamond sparkling inside it? She couldn’t see clearly through her tears. She blinked as he slipped a ring onto her finger. “Merry Christmas, my love.”
She brushed her cheek. “You want to marry me?”
“As soon as possible.”
“Yes,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck. “Oh, yes, Jeremiah. I love you so much.”
The black box tumbled to the floor, but neither one noticed.
There were certain advantages to wealth and power, Lara had discovered. Hospitals could be manipulated. Airplane tickets obtained. And weddings. Weddings could actually be performed on Christmas Day.
Lara wasn’t quite sure how it all came about, but somehow hundreds of red roses filled the small alumni chapel at Reynolds University. Clusters of happy people from Namibia and Indonesia and Brazil and China crowded into the pews. An elderly couple from Bolivar showed up to witness the marriage of their son. And another delighted pair arrived from Phoenix in time to see their daughter marry a fine, handsome gentleman.
A Merry Little Christmas Page 10