“You can put your coats in the boys’ room,” Luke said, and Caleb gathered them all up to do just that.
Sans the coat, Rachel stepped over to Sage and handed her the box that looked wholly inconsequential compared with the massive meal her friend was preparing. “Merry Christmas.”
“Oh, Rach,” Sage said, turning in surprise. She took the box and opened it. “Cookies? You didn’t have to do that.”
“She’s been baking for three days,” Caleb said, coming back in and sweeping Natalie up in his arms. “Please take them or we’re going to turn into Oompa Loompas.”
“Well, thank you.” Putting her arms out, Sage dragged Rachel into a long hug.
“What’s left?” Luke asked coming in with a clap of his hands from putting the Christmas presents under the tree in the living room.
“Oh, uh.” Sage’s gaze swept over the pans and pots simmering and steaming. “I think we’re about ready.”
“You don’t have to tell us twice,” Derek said, stepping up. “Tell us what to do.”
In no time the kids were in the living room around the two kids’ tables—one for the littlest and one for the bigger kids. The adults had taken up places around the kitchen table with only the addition of Natalie and Macy. Luke offered a prayer of Thanksgiving for all of the blessings of the year, and when Caleb squeezed Rachel’s hand, her heart filled, overflowing with gratefulness. When the prayer ended, everyone dug in and passed the food around the table until Rachel’s plate was heaped.
“So when’s your family getting in?” Sage asked Caleb though it was only in their general direction.
“Wednesday. Mom and Dad will be here around noon. Sara and her bunch will be in that evening.”
“What’s the plan for the wedding rehearsal?” Sage asked, and Rachel glanced at Caleb unsure what his answer would be. They hadn’t really discussed that.
“Oh. I didn’t… Do we need a rehearsal?” He looked mildly stunned when he glanced at Rachel. “I figured we’d just show up and say our vows.”
Pastor Steve cleared his throat. “It’s been my experience that a rehearsal helps.”
Next to him Jane started laughing. “Trust him. He knows.” She covered her mouth as her gaze fixed on her husband.
“Why do I think there’s a story there?” Luke asked.
And with that, thankfully, the focus shifted to the pastor and his wife.
“Let’s just put it this way,” Jane said, putting her hand on her husband’s shoulder as she continued trying not to laugh. “By the time we got to the rings, his best man was fetching ice and cold compresses.”
“Oh!” Sage sounded like she had been shot. “You didn’t.”
Sheepishly Pastor Steve ducked. “Well, it wasn’t like I planned it. Just know that locking your knees is a very bad idea.”
The whole table burst into laughter as Pastor Steve then went on to regale them with stories of grooms who passed out, flower girls who stole the show, ring bearers who fell asleep during the ceremony, and mothers-in-law who practically forbade him from marrying the couple altogether.
“Well, thankfully, we don’t have to worry about that,” Rachel said, putting her hand over Caleb’s.
“How is your mom anyway? Is she any better?” Jaycee asked.
Rachel sighed her worry down. “A little, but this last cold snap really didn’t do her any favors. I think the move was harder on her than she thought it would be.”
“She’ll be all right for the wedding though, right?” Sage asked.
“She’s working on it.”
When the meal was finished, everyone including the older boys pitched in and in no time the kitchen was cleaned. Luke hustled everyone into the living room for the opening of the presents, and in no time there was ripped wrapping paper, bows and ribbon everywhere, and happy children playing with new toys.
“Well, that was a success,” Jaycee said, plopping down next to Rachel on the couch. A second and she put her hand over on Rachel’s knee. “We’ve only got one more surprise.”
Confused, Rachel looked at her friend. “One more? What’s that?”
“Eeep!” From across the room, Sage jumped up and clapped her hands three times, her face beaming with excitement.
“What’s going on?” Rachel asked in growing worry as Jaycee stood and took her hand to pull her up. Glancing over at Caleb on the other side of her, her worry and confusion transferred to his face as his gaze followed her up.
“Hey, don’t look at me,” he said, his eyes wide. “I know nothing about this.”
“Come on, Jane.” Sage pulled the older woman up with her. “You get to come too.”
The men were all looking at them, some in puzzlement, a couple in complete understanding.
“I get to come?” Jane asked in surprise as she followed Sage over the boxes, around the kids, and through the wrapping paper.
“Yep. This is going to be fun. Come on.” Sage never let her hand go as she with Jane and Jaycee with Rachel met at the far door. “We’ll be back.”
And with that Rachel was dragged from the room.
Caleb looked around at the men, stunned. “What was that all about?”
But Luke and Derek had already taken control of the living room situation and used the women’s departure to huddle with Pastor Steve across the room who nodded his understanding and with that, they all turned to Caleb. His eyebrows went up another five notches. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
Standing with her friends in Luke and Sage’s bedroom, Rachel put her hand up on her other elbow. “What’s going on? We said we weren’t getting each other gifts.”
“Yeah, well, this one is special,” Jaycee said, and she angled her just a touch more back the way they had come as Sage went to the closet door where she stopped and turned.
“We all know how hard it’s been for you to get here,” Sage said slowly. “And we know you weren’t thinking about doing up your wedding all fancy. But we got to thinking, and we’ve decided we think you deserve more than just a quick trip down the aisle. So…”
With that, she moved something in the room behind Rachel.
“What did you guys do?” Rachel asked with worry.
“We just used our imagination a little, that’s all,” Jaycee said, holding onto Rachel so she wouldn’t run or turn.
Rachel let out a long breath to calm her fluttering nerves. “Really. Y’all didn’t have to do…”
“Are you ready?” Sage asked.
“Ready,” Jaycee replied, barely containing her own excitement.
With that, Jaycee turned Rachel. There stood Sage holding up a hanger from which flowed a beautiful white dress with tulle on the skirt and satin and sparkly things that looked like diamonds on the waistline. Rachel’s eyes jerked open and her knees turned to jelly.
“What?” she asked, and then she deflated. “What?” Then their plan seeped into and over her heart. “No. You guys... You didn’t… I can’t… This… This is too much.”
“Well, actually, we cheated a little bit,” Jaycee said with a grin.
“It was my homecoming dress,” Sage said, her eyes dancing like swirling ballerinas. “It’s been at Mom’s. We just rescued it from closet obscurity.” She ran her hand under it and held it out. “What do you think?”
Rachel swallowed, trying to get the tears to stay down. She couldn’t accept this gift although her heart desperately wanted to. “Oh, Sage…”
“No. Now, no Oh, Sageing me.” Taking the dress, Sage laid it on the bed. “I don’t want to hear that, you hear me? Now, you are at least going to try this on, so we can see if it fits.”
“No. I can’t accept this. I can’t take your dress.”
“Then we’ll consider it your something borrowed.”
With Jaycee pushing gently and Sage taking her hand and pulling her over, Rachel came over to the bed where the dress lay. It looked like a dream.
“I remember when you wore this,” she said softly. “I thought yo
u looked like a princess.”
Sage collected her friend in her arms. “And now you will too. I was thinking…” And Sage launched into explaining her plan to wedding-ize the dress.
“But we’ve got to get the house done,” Caleb said, trying every way he could think of to get out of the hair-brained idea of going the next day to procure tuxes. Tuxes? He was just going to wear his nice jacket. That would be good enough. How was that not good enough? “I don’t have time to be going out getting all shined up.”
“Well, you don’t want to look like Lurch at your wedding, do you?” Derek said.
“It’s one day,” Luke said, and his voice was soft but firm. “But believe me, it’s a day you’re going to want to look back on and remember forever.”
“But we weren’t going to…” Caleb tried again.
“The girls are taking care of Rachel,” Luke said even more firmly. “You’re our project, and Sage would kill me and bury me in the backyard if you show up looking anything less than charm school ready.”
“Charm school?” Caleb asked in concern. “Now I’m really worried.”
“We’ll get the clothes part together,” Derek said with a laugh. “Rachel’s going to have to work on the rest.”
Chapter 18
Derek & Jaycee
It was nearly midnight when the final goodnights were said and the guests left the Bakers’ residence. This Christmas had been one for the record books in Derek’s mind. When Sage and Luke also vacated the living room with their sleeping and sleepy children, Derek and Jaycee wished them all a good night as well as they sat on the couch, his arm around her, the Christmas lights twinkling from the tree in the darkened living room.
Jaycee snuggled in closer under his embrace, and Derek didn’t mind that at all. “So, y’all are going to Raleigh tomorrow?” she asked as she brushed her fingers across his hand that came down and around her.
He so loved just being with her, and he wished they could do that more often. “Yeah. I think we’re going to have to hog-tie Caleb to get him into a tux though, but we’ll see.”
“Rachel is a knock-out in that dress. Once Sage upcycles the top of it a little, wow,” Jaycee said. “Believe me, Caleb is going to be glad he put in a little extra effort.” For a moment the night simply wrapped around them. “It’s so weird how much has changed since last year.”
“I know. I think I spent last Christmas eating warmed up Thai food and watching old re-runs of Barney Fife. It sure didn’t feel like this.”
“Hmm. Nothing feels like this.” With that, she tipped her head backward, and understanding completely, he lowered his lips onto hers. The warmth of her, the feel of her drilled into him, all the way down to the deepest middle of him. He was absolutely the most blessed guy on the planet, and he wouldn’t trade this moment for anything.
When her kiss deepened, dragging him in to her charms, his mind went with it for a moment, spinning out of his control into the safety and dangerousness of her. And then, for a split second one memory cut through it all. Gently he ended the kiss and pulled her back to him as her hand slid across his chest and her head rested on his shoulder. His heart filled his entire being as he contemplated starting the coming discussion. He had taken so many leaps of faith already, he would have thought this one would be easy. It wasn’t.
One more breath, and he nodded to get the words going. “You know when we were talking about what we’re going to be doing with our future?”
Jaycee nodded without saying a word.
“Well.” Derek had to take another breath to get the words to keep moving. “I think you were right.”
“About what?” The question came out in a squeak as her hand continued without hesitation.
“About not waiting.”
Her hand slowed and then stopped. He tightened his arm around her as if thinking she might flee if he gave her the chance.
Jaycee’s heart skipped and then settled as her mind asked just what he meant by that. No. He couldn’t be talking about what she thought he was. “On the house?” she asked, giving him an out if he wanted to use it.
“Yeah. That too.” But then he turned her gently to him so she was looking right into his eyes. He had the distinctly unfair advantage that she couldn’t really think straight when he did that, and at that moment, Jaycee knew it more than she ever had. “But that’s not all,” he said softly.
Her mouth went cotton dry, and she was pretty sure her heart stopped beating completely. “Okay…?”
“Look, Jayc, I know this is a big step,” he said as the lights twinkled, making the room around them dance, “and I really want us to make it together.”
She nodded, never breaking away from his gaze, which held her fast.
“What do you say we stop not trying?” His eyes searched hers for the answer.
Panic and disbelief flashed through her. “Are you…? Are you serious?”
A second and his smile slid from his lips up into his eyes. “I am.”
Never in all his life had Derek realized just how big of a leap that would be, but when Jaycee was asleep in his arms later, tucked in the sheets and blankets, he didn’t go to sleep for a long time. Instead, his mind kept replaying the question What if….
One thing was abundantly clear to him almost immediately, if it happened, he was going to need way more help than he’d ever thought possible. Running his hand gently over her back, he took a breath and closed his eyes. God, You’re gonna have to show me how to do this…
Chapter 19
Eric & Dani
“You’re up early,” Dani said when she found Eric in the living room chair with the lamp light on at 5:30 on Tuesday morning.
“Just wanted to get some reading in.”
Concern tipped her gaze as she looked at his chosen reading material, and a slither of worry snaked through her when she realized what it was. The Bible. She pushed that down under the day’s schedule and the scowl she put on her face. “You going in to work today?”
He never looked up. “Yeah.”
She couldn’t help but let the confusion come up; however, the last thing she was going to do was ask. That might invite an argument she really didn’t want to have. “Okay. Well, I’m going to go shower.”
“K.”
Eric felt her leave the doorway. Even so, he waited a full 30 seconds before he looked up to make sure she wasn’t still standing there. Distance. It was there every time she came in the room. He hated that, hated how her world seemed so disconnected from his. Hated how even the desire to connect with her had left him completely at some indeterminate point in the past. However, he didn’t know what to do about that, so he bent his head and kept reading.
“We’re supposed to meet with Mr. James in Ridgemount on Friday at ten in the morning,” Dani said as she whipped up toast and scrambled eggs for Jaden.
“Friday? Why can’t we do it Saturday? You know I’ve got the bridge project.” At the table, Eric barely looked up from his NotePad as he scrolled through the day’s headlines.
“And I’ve got Scotland. Ja!” Her hands worked at warp speed, grabbing up utensils and pouring milk for her daughter. Checking her watch, she knew they were late again. “Jaden! Honey, this is ready.”
Taking all of it to the table, she put it at her daughter’s place and went back to the stove for her own coffee and toast.
“We’re going,” she said without a trace of happiness. “Whatever you have to do to get off, do it.” Anger was starting to creep over her patience with him. Yes, this project was her idea, and yes, she knew perfectly well what he thought of it. But if they were going to do this, they were going to do it as a couple—whether he liked it or not.
Turning, she realized her daughter still hadn’t come to the table. “Jaden! Hurry up. This is getting cold.”
Finally the child appeared at the doorway.
“It’s about time,” Dani said, inhaling the last of her toast and the coffee. “You’d better eat that right quick. I’
ve got to drop you off in ten minutes if I’m going to have any prayer of making the Scotland meeting on time.”
Without being obvious about it, Eric glanced up from his reading. The headlines were all the same—death, destruction, the ups and downs of the stock market. They were enough to make him want to crawl back in bed and give up. He didn’t. He couldn’t. But he wanted to.
Glancing over at the bowed shoulders, he wanted to say something to his daughter. She sat forlornly, or maybe it was just tiredly, over her eggs. She ate slowly, with quiet, subtle, almost indecipherable movements.
“So, Ja, you having fun on your break?” he asked, taking a sip of his orange juice.
The little shoulders shrugged and then sagged back.
Beating back the frustration, he took another sip. “Wish I could have a break.”
Thankfully he’d said it only into the orange juice because Dani picked right then to stride back in. “Have you seen the water bill? I could’ve sworn it was on my desk with the others.”
Eric shook his head and went back to his NotePad. “Haven’t seen it.”
“We need to get that set back up on the auto-pay thing or we’re going to wake up one day without any.” She sorted back through the mail on the counter, trashing most of it.
“I thought it was.”
“When the city changed over to the new accounting system, ours got messed up. They sent the notice a couple weeks ago that we’d have to redo it online.” Giving up, she went over and stuffed three things into her briefcase. “I’ll get it done today. You ready, Ja?”
One small, slow nod and the child slid from the chair.
“Well, don’t just let those dishes there,” Dani said with no small amount of frustration. “I’m not your maid.”
Not wanting to, Eric sensed his daughter’s quiet surrender, and he straightened. “I’ll get it, Ja. You go on with Mom.”
Quite panic coursed through the dark eyes when Jaden looked up at him.
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