Hope at Christmas

by Nancy Naigle

  “Thank you. That was really thoughtful.”

  “RayAnne, do you want to change into these?”

  “Yeah. Anything is better than this hospital gown. My clothes were ruined,” she said.

  “Hope you got some good rest last night, RayAnne. We’re going to have a nice Christmas Eve celebration at the house tonight.”

  “Can we go, Mom?”

  Sydney glanced over at Mac.

  He cocked his head. “You didn’t tell her?”

  “I never said for sure yes.”

  “What?” RayAnne said.

  “Mac invited us to stay at their place for a few days. We can use his downstairs bedrooms. That would give us a few days to get you used to the crutches and getting around before having to navigate the stairs at the farmhouse. I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about that.”

  “Cool.” She raised her hand in a Girl Scout salute. “And I promise not to do anything stupid. Thanks for forgiving me. You sure Seth isn’t mad?”

  “Positive. We talked about it again this morning. He thought it was a good idea, too.”

  “Awesome,” RayAnne said.

  Sydney laughed. “I guess I was worried for nothing.”

  “Apparently so.” He turned his back to RayAnne. “You’re not having second thoughts about me, are you?”

  “No. I’m definitely not.”

  The nurse came in with the wheelchair and went through the final notes on at-home care with Sydney. Then Mac went to get the car, while RayAnne was taken downstairs. Sydney walked out of the hospital alongside her daughter under strength that she didn’t even know she possessed. With a sense of purpose driving her, she stood to the side while Mac helped get RayAnne in his truck. Sydney slid into the passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt.

  They took RayAnne home and got her settled in Mac’s living room for the day. Haley and Seth were working on making food for their gathering later.

  “You going to be okay here?” Sydney felt awkward leaving RayAnne behind. “I need to go to The Book Bea to check on a few things.” She hadn’t yet told RayAnne that Bea had passed away. It just didn’t seem the kind of news to share with a little girl who’d gone through something so traumatic.

  “I’m good.”

  “We won’t be long, and Haley will hang out with y’all.”

  “Love you, Mom.”

  “Love you too, kiddo.”

  Mac drove her to The Book Bea. The door was locked, but all the lights were on.

  She unlocked the door and they went inside. Books were scattered across the floor by the display table near the register.

  Mac bent down and picked up the books, setting the stack on the table. “She must have collapsed here and tried to catch herself.”

  “We were just standing here together talking about this display the other day.” Sydney mindlessly arranged the books on the table. “I don’t know why I just did that. Oh, Bea. This town will not be the same without you, and this place.” She checked the register and pulled the receipts for the day from the register. “I don’t even know what to do with this money. I guess her lawyer will know.”

  “Just put it in the money bag. We can take it to the lawyer after Christmas. I’m sure they’ll push the service out until after the holiday just so everyone can come. No one will want to miss the chance to pay their respects.”

  “Bea said this whole town was her family.” Sydney wondered why everyone felt so much a part of Bea’s life, when really no one was completely part of her life. “I can’t wrap my head around her being gone.”

  Mac unplugged the Christmas lights. “I’ll go ahead and unplug things since no one will be here. We wouldn’t want anything to catch fire.”

  “Good idea. I’m going to go check the office for insurance papers, attorney names, or possibly a copy of her will. If Diane had already sorted that out she would have called, and she hasn’t.”

  “Okay.” He unplugged the coffee pot and worked his way around the room as Sydney walked to the back. The office was tiny, but well organized. She sat down in the upholstered wing back chair. The arms were worn thin from years of use. She pulled out the file drawer on the desk and flipped through the manila folders. She pulled three folders. One labeled INSURANCE. Another labeled CONFIDENTIAL, and the third labeled PERSONAL.

  “Any luck?” Mac asked.

  “Maybe. I’m going through some folders now.”

  Mac stood leaning in the doorway. He was so handsome. “I found this when I was unplugging the Christmas tree. It has your name on it.”

  “What is it?” Sydney took the envelope with gentle fingers. “I wonder who put it there?”

  “Open it and see.”

  The envelope was taped across the back. She ran her finger under the tape and pulled out a card. She immediately recognized it as one of the cards Bea sold on the spinning rack over by the coffee nook. On the front a woman read to a group of children. Inside was written in a shaky cursive:

  Sydney~

  Thank you for carrying on my legacy.

  You were the angel I’ve been waiting for.

  Bea

  “That was sweet.” Sydney held the card close. “I’m going to miss her so much. She’s been a friend and a mentor. I really needed that right now.”

  Mac flipped through papers in the folder. “She’s good people.” He lifted a stack of papers from the file. “It looks like the mayor was her attorney. His name is on several of these documents. I don’t see a copy of a will in the personal documents, but maybe he knows what Bea’s final wishes were.”

  “We should stop over and talk with him.” Weary and fragile, she wished she could turn back the clock and have more time. She and RayAnne had just begun to find peace and happiness here in Hopewell. Bea was a big part of that. Another month with Bea and who knows how life would feel here.

  “I doubt he’ll be in the office on Christmas Eve. Anything else you need to do here?”

  “I feel like I want to straighten up and keep this place going. But I know it’s not my place to do that. Without her here I feel a little like I’m trespassing. Even though I have a key. Does that make sense?”

  “I get it.” He wrapped his arms around her. “I think you’re right where you’re supposed to be,” he said softly. “You two had a very special connection. I saw it the first day I met you here.”

  “Yeah. It was like we’d known each other forever. She was such a big part of me falling in love with books when I was a kid. That impacted my whole life. I have a feeling she touched a lot of lives over the years.”

  “I wonder what will happen to this place?”

  “I don’t know.” She leaned against his arm, hugging his bicep. “I hate to even think about it.”

  “Maybe there’s something we can do.”

  “Like what?”

  He took in a deep breath, then picked her up and spun her around. She let out a shriek and then started laughing. “What are you doing? Put me down.”

  He spun her around one more time and then set her down, but his hands traced the outside of her arms, leaving a trail of tingles. Then his hands rested on her face, his thumbs at her mouth, and slowly pushing her hair back, he lowered his mouth to hers.

  The kiss was tender, but with purpose. His heart raced against her own. With each breath he took, he drew her deeper into his hold, his heart. She’d never felt a kiss with such intimate power.

  “Sydney, I want you to know that after Genna I thought there was no way I’d care about anyone again, and it’s been a long time. Years. I haven’t looked. I haven’t yearned for it, but that day I saw you here, behind that counter, you did something to me. You touched something deep inside of me that I don’t think anyone ever could.”

  “Mac?”

  “Don’t. Please. Let me finish.”

  She looked into his eyes. Wanting to tell him she felt something too, but patiently she listened.

  “I know you’re just getting through your divorce. I can’t begin to imag
ine how hard what you’re going through has been. I don’t want you to think I’m taking it lightly, but I want you to give me a chance. Us a chance. Me and Seth. We’re a package deal.”

  “Like me. And RayAnne. But Mac, I can’t make any promises.”

  “I know. I’ll respect your space while you’re staying with me. I promise. I’ll be a perfect gentleman, but do you feel it? A little?”

  She did. But was it just her being hurt and wanting to be loved? Was it real? She couldn’t make a mistake. “I’d be lying if I said I don’t feel anything. But Mac, I’m not sure what it is.”

  “Me neither. I just know I want to explore it, and I didn’t want to risk not telling you how I felt.” He took her hand in his. “Let’s take it a day at a time. I have a feeling we will have spent months and years before we take the time to stop and count them.”

  Her heart felt light, joyous. Was it Christmas hope making her feel this way? She rubbed her thumb on the outside of his hand. “A day at a time.”

  “Come on. Let’s get home and celebrate our first Christmas together.”

  “I’m not sure this qualifies as our first Christmas.”

  “Why not? It’s Christmas. And we’re together.”

  “Usually that means you’ve spent a year together.”

  “Says who?”

  She really couldn’t answer that. “Fine. Our first Christmas.”

  She locked up The Book Bea with tears in her eyes. Her phone rang, and she dropped the keys trying to dig for her phone in her purse.

  Mac picked them up.

  “Hello? Everything okay?”

  “Sydney, it’s Diane.”

  “Sorry. Hi, I thought it might by RayAnne. I left her at Mac’s.”

  “At Mac’s, huh?” Diane’s voice had that little singy-song rise and fall to it that reminded Sydney that there wasn’t much in a small town that didn’t get around.

  “We’re just staying there through the holidays until RayAnne gets the crutches down. We thought the stairs might be a bit much on day one.”

  “For sure.”

  “It was really nice of him to offer.”

  “I didn’t say it wasn’t.”

  Sydney looked up at Mac, who was smiling down at her. He seemed to be enjoying her discomfort, and he dropped a kiss on the back of her neck as she talked to Diane. She squirmed away from him and went down the steps.

  He was beside her before she got to the bottom.

  “I wanted to drop over a little something for y’all tonight. Can I stop by Mac’s?”

  Sydney put her hand over her phone. “Diane wants to stop by. Do you mind if she comes by your house?”

  “Mi casa es su casa.” Mac took the phone. “Hey Diane. Come over whenever you like. We’ve got all kinds of food and goodies. My neighbors and a few friends are coming over, too. Bring the kids and Tony if you like.” He handed her the phone.

  “Isn’t that just adorable,” Diane said.

  “Stop it,” Sydney whispered.

  “Oh, quit your worrying. Coach Mac is one of the nicest men in town.”

  And Bea’s description had been darn near the same. She’d been nudging them together.

  “Anyway,” Diane said. “I spoke with the mayor. He’s at his son’s house in Virginia, but he’ll be back tomorrow night. He said he has Bea’s latest will. She just made some updates this past week. I gave him your number. He said he’d contact you to discuss the details. Probably has something to do with shutting down the store and all since you were her only employee.”

  “Right. Yeah. Thank you.”

  “He’s going to contact the funeral home too with the details they need,” Diane said.

  “So everything is being taken care of. That’s good.” Sydney followed Mac and let him open the door for her. He gave her a hand into his truck, then walked around and got in. “I wish there was something I could do.”

  “I’m sure there’ll be something for all of us to do,” Diane said. “The mayor said it could all wait until after Christmas. They’ll be making an announcement in the paper and everything.”

  “That’s good.”

  “I’ll see y’all in a little while,” Diane said. “I’ll bring Jenny. She’s been driving me crazy to see RayAnne. We’ll keep the visit short.”

  “That’s fine. Thanks for everything, Diane.” She laid the phone in her lap. “I think I’ve made better friendships in this town in just a few weeks than I did my whole marriage in Atlanta.”

  “Hopewell has a certain kind of magic, doesn’t it?”

  It certainly had something, and whatever it was, she couldn’t imagine ever leaving it behind.

  When Mac pulled into the driveway at his house, the lights on the tree were already shining through the window, and Sydney could hear Christmas music all the way out to the driveway. “Is that singing?”

  “Sounds like it to me.”

  He opened the door and let her walk in first. RayAnne was in the easy chair with her leg propped up on pillows on an ottoman. She was stringing popcorn, and Seth was draping lengths of the strands onto the tree. Haley walked into the room with another bowl of popcorn. “Hey, y’all weren’t gone long. We thought we’d have this done by the time you got back.”

  Seth draped the five-foot-long strand of popcorn on the tree, then walked over and high-fived RayAnne. “We might’ve been done if we didn’t eat more popcorn than we strung.”

  “You’re the one eating it all.” RayAnne tossed a piece of popcorn in the air and Seth ducked and moved under it, catching it in his mouth. “He’s pretty good at that.”

  Seth pointed to about twenty pieces behind RayAnne’s chair. “She’s not so good at it.”

  “No fair. I can’t move. I’d totally kick your butt if I was mobile.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says me,” she said. “Rematch as soon as I’m back on my feet.”

  “You’re on.”

  “Smells good in here,” Sydney said.

  “That’s my chili. It gets better the longer it cooks,” Mac said. “And I cook one mean cornbread to go with it, too.”

  “And here I thought ham and turkey were Christmas foods,” Sydney teased.

  “We’ll have ham tomorrow. But Christmas Eve is all about keeping things simple around here,” Mac said.

  Sydney put her purse on the table and sat on the couch. “That sounds perfect to me.”

  Diane showed up with Jenny at a little after seven.

  Haley and her parents had come over, and all of them shared stories in the kitchen while the kids played a game in the living room.

  The playful banter was soothing to hear, and Sydney felt blessed to be there, even if the circumstances that brought them to Mac’s had been less than positive.

  By nine o’clock, everyone had had their fill of chili and an assortment of cookies and treats Haley’s mom had made for the annual tradition.

  Diane and Jenny left, and Mac walked his neighbors back over to their house.

  Sydney cleaned up the dishes while he was gone, then came back into the living room with a bright red kitchen towel with the word JOY appliqued on it draped over her shoulder. “RayAnne I think it’s time we tried to get you situated in bed for the night.”

  Mac walked into the room. “Oh, not yet. We have one more thing to do tonight.”

  “That’s right,” Seth echoed.

  “What’s that?” Sydney and RayAnne asked.

  It had already been a pretty long day, and Sydney knew if she was tired, RayAnne had to be exhausted, even if it was Christmas Eve.

  Mac had hung their stockings on the mantle alongside his and Seth’s, and the tree was the biggest one she’d ever seen inside a house, although there were no gifts under it. A big change from Christmases back in Atlanta, where their tree would have so many gifts stacked under it that the bottom branches would be lifted by the height of the boxes.

  “You stay right there.” Mac dodged around the corner and up the stairs. A moment late
r he came downstairs with four boxes wrapped in different holiday-patterned paper.

  “What’s all this?” Sydney had a sinking feeling. She hadn’t bought him anything.

  “Tradition,” he said.

  Seth said, “My grandparents used to do this with us every year. Dad is carrying on the tradition. I already know what it is.”

  Mac gave him the evil eye. “Don’t spoil the surprise.”

  Seth zipped his lip, and then accepted a big box wrapped in shiny red foil with reindeer on it. Mac handed RayAnne a purple glossy package with lime-green, hot pink, and turquoise bells on the paper, and a huge silver bow on top. Mac set a solid red package down in his recliner and then handed Sydney a sapphire-blue box with a shiny gold ribbon. “I thought the paper matched your eyes, and the ribbon matches the little gold flecks in them.”

  Had Jon ever, in all their years of marriage, mentioned the color of her eyes? “Thank you.”

  He sat down and they all began to unwrap their gifts. RayAnne was the first to get to the contents. “Pajamas. Mom, look. The coolest camo pajamas ever. And it’s shorts so I can get it over my cast.”

  “That was really thoughtful, Mac. Thank you,” Sydney said.

  Mac nodded toward her box. “Open yours.”

  She pulled out a pair of cotton pajamas, so soft they slipped through her fingers. The pajama set was feminine but totally acceptable for wearing in mixed company. Nothing embarrassing or flimsy.

  Seth opened a pair of camo pajamas, and Mac opened his box. A pair of pajamas that looked more like sweat pants and a T-shirt, but the good news was they’d all be comfortable in their new pajamas to celebrate Christmas in the morning.

  “Thank you, Mr. Mac,” RayAnne said. “I love them.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Seth got up and crossed the room and gave his dad a hug. “Love you, Dad. I’m going to bed.”

  “Good night, son.”

  Seth gave RayAnne a high-five as he walked past. “Night, Mrs. Ragsdale.”

  “Good night, Seth.” She got up and put her hands on her hips. “Okay, shall we get you into bed, RayAnne?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I think I can do it myself.”

  Sydney handed RayAnne her crutches.

  RayAnne shifted to the edge of the seat. After a couple of attempts to rock herself up, Mac reached down and lifted her from under the arms. “There you go. If you take too long, Santa might see you awake and skip our house completely.”