The Christmas Angel Project

by Melody Carlson

  He smiled. “I was hoping you were an old-fashioned girl, Belinda.”

  Relief washed over her and she knew this was the kind of guy that was worth waiting for—even if she had waited for more than twenty years.

  “Would it be okay if I kissed you good night?” he asked.

  Feeling like a teenager again, she simply nodded. And just like that, he leaned toward her and she felt herself being swept away in his kiss. The perfect kiss.

  “Oh. . .” She sighed, trying to maintain her balance.

  “I know you invited me here for Christmas,” he said as he stepped back, “but that’s several days away. Do you mind if I call before then?”

  She felt her heart soaring. “Not at all.”

  His face lit up in a smile. “Good night then, Belinda. I’ll be in touch.”

  As she turned to go inside, she felt like she was floating. Literally floating. Was this really for real? And then she remembered that verse again—God had good plans for her, plans for a good future. She believed it!

  Grace was tempted to wear a disguise to the Habitat open house on Sunday. Not that she thought she was some recognizable celebrity, but she didn’t want any of the attention to land on her. She’d been successfully maintaining a low profile lately and had declined the invitation to place her design placard in the rooms she’d assembled.

  “I don’t think it’s necessary,” she’d told the director of the project several days ago. “It would take away from the overall design.” Fortunately, he didn’t dispute this, so the living rooms in all three houses were without placards. And really, she decided, who cared?

  She stood at the back of the crowd at the first ribbon-cutting ceremony, clapping supportively as several speeches were made, but happy to remain behind the scenes. Joel, who’d been informed of her need for anonymity, didn’t seem to mind as he stood beside her, holding her hand. They sipped their coffees as they stood outside, waiting as the homeowners went inside to look around. Before long, the others began to go in to tour the home and, finally, after the crowd had thinned, Grace and Joel walked through.

  “You did a great job,” Joel whispered to her. “It looks really warm and inviting.”

  She simply smiled, glad that no one was nearby to overhear him. As they toured the small house, she told him a little about the family who’d be living there and how long they’d been waiting to own a home. “It’s so wonderful how Habitat works. Such a community project.”

  “And impressive they could simultaneously put up three homes—and all completely furnished.”

  “It does make you feel good, doesn’t it?” She let out a happy sigh. “To be part of such a generous community.”

  The next two houses’ ceremonies were similar. Although Grace’s angel friends were there, they all remembered her request not to mention that she’d had any involvement in the projects. She even kept her interaction with the homeowners brief and low-key—mostly just congratulating them on their new homes and wishing them a Merry Christmas!

  When all was said and done, she was relieved to go home. “I’m so glad that’s over with,” she told Joel as they pulled up to their own house, which she’d finally managed to decorate for Christmas. She’d given herself permission to hold back some, so the décor was not as excessive as usual, but it was enough.

  “Looks like the kids are home,” Joel said as he pulled into the driveway.

  “And their friends too,” she added, “judging by the cars out front.”

  “I bet we could sneak away for a quiet little early dinner—just the two of us—and no one would even miss us.”

  “Do you want to?” she asked hopefully.

  “Let’s do it!” He sounded eager. “Let’s run away from home for a couple hours.”

  Feeling like renegades, they hightailed it out of there. At the café, as they sat together talking about the day and what was ahead for the holidays, Grace felt like she’d been given a second chance—not only in her marriage but in life as well.

  15

  It was the Monday before Christmas, and Cassidy felt like a failure. She knew that was an overstatement, but it seemed like nothing was going quite right. Her job at Auberon Animal Hospital had been put at risk by her volunteer work. Her volunteer work was about to be extinguished by her job at the vet clinic. And her personal life . . . well, she didn’t even want to go there.

  “You are not a failure,” Belinda said for the third time as the two of them met at the Coffee Cup after Cassidy got off work. “You’re in a tough spot—between a rock and a hard place.”

  “Dr. Auberon gave me until after Christmas to make up my mind.”

  “What’re you going to do?”

  Cassidy let out a long sigh. “I need to make a living.”

  Belinda simply nodded.

  “But it makes me so sad to give up that dream.” Cassidy sighed again.

  “Maybe it’s a timing thing,” Belinda suggested. “Something you need to work toward. When I was doing hair, I knew that I wanted to do some kind of resale shop, but I had to keep doing hair for a while . . . until the timing was right and I was ready to open a shop. And even then, I could only afford to open a tiny shop, and all I carried was baby and kid stuff. It took a lot of time and work to grow it up to Glad Rags.”

  Cassidy nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

  “I think if it’s meant to be—if you’re supposed to have a mobile pet care business, which I think is a wonderful idea—it will happen. But it might take some time.”

  “And in the meantime, I should keep my day job.” Cassidy attempted a feeble smile.

  “Maybe so.”

  “That’s kind of what I’ve been thinking too. It’s hard letting the dream go.”

  “Sometimes we have to let our dreams go in order to allow God to bring them back to us—in his way and his timing.” Belinda grinned. “That’s what my mama used to tell me. Honestly, I never liked hearing those words. I wanted to run ahead and make my dreams come true all by myself. But the older I get, the more I understand it.”

  “Okay.” Cassidy set down her empty mug with fresh resolve. “That’s what I’m going to do.”

  “Good for you.” Belinda pointed to Cassidy’s bag, which was ringing. “Is that your phone?”

  Cassidy fished out her phone to see she had a text. “It’s from Brent Morgan.”

  “Brent Morgan?”

  “Dorothy Morgan’s grandson—the fabulous guy who didn’t like me.”

  “Why’s he texting you?”

  “I have no idea. He wants me to meet him at his grandma’s place this afternoon.”

  “Are you going?”

  Cassidy felt unsure. “I don’t know.”

  “This is the first time you’ve heard from him since that dinner?”

  Cassidy nodded, staring down at the phone. “I didn’t even know he had my number. I guess he got it from Dorothy.”

  “What does he do anyway? I don’t recall if you mentioned it.”

  “I think Dorothy said that he’s a computer engineer. He works from home, then travels to do consulting.” Cassidy set down her phone.

  “Aren’t you curious?” Belinda’s eyes lit up. “Maybe he wants to apologize to you, Cass. Maybe he realized that he blew it and wants to make it up.”

  Cassidy shook her head. “I doubt it.”

  “So you’re going to just ignore him?”

  “No . . .” Cassidy suddenly texted him back, agreeing to meet. “I want to hear what he’s got to say.”

  “Good for you.”

  Cassidy waited to see if he was responding. “Sounds like he’s there right now. He wants me to stop by.”

  “What’re you waiting for?”

  They stood and said goodbye, and soon Cassidy found herself nervously driving through the wind-driven snow across town. Why did Brent want her to come to his grandmother’s apartment? Was something wrong with Dorothy? Or Muffin perhaps? As she parked at the apartments, Cassidy wished she had on some
thing more attractive than her scrubs. But at least she could let her hair out of the ponytail and smear on some lip gloss. And then she wondered, as she knocked on the door, why had she bothered?

  “There you are!” Brent smiled wide as he opened the door, waving her inside. “Come on in out of that blizzard!” He peered over her shoulder. “Man, it’s really coming down now.”

  “Welcome,” Dorothy called out. “I’ve got hot water for tea.”

  Cassidy went inside, trying to act natural as she greeted both of them and pretending that Brent’s abrupt departure hadn’t hurt her feelings the other night. “I like your little Christmas tree,” she told Dorothy lightly as she shook the snow off her parka. “Very festive.”

  “Brent brought that. He just got back from New York. Missed the bad weather too.” Dorothy led Cassidy toward the kitchen. “He stopped by here, even before going home. He said he noticed the tree lot near the airport. Sweet boy! And he’s been helping me to decorate it too.”

  “How nice.” Cassidy wished she knew what was going on as she sat down at the dinette where a plate of homemade Christmas cookies and three teacups were all set up. “Looks like a Christmas tea party,” she said absently, trying not to feel like Alice being hosted by the Mad Hatter. What is going on?

  “Brent has good news for you,” Dorothy said as she set a teapot on the table.

  “Good news?” Cassidy studied Brent as he sat down across from her.

  “Well, first I should apologize for running ahead,” he began. “Grandma can tell you that I’ve always been impetuous and impulsive.”

  “Oh, my, yes.” Dorothy started telling a story about when a ten-year-old Brent decided to have a garage sale. “Without consulting his parents.” She shook her head. “Before they knew what had happened, Brent had made about fifty dollars selling things out of their garage.”

  “My mom had been complaining about how crowded our garage was, saying how we needed to get rid of stuff,” Brent explained innocently.

  “But selling your dad’s new golf clubs for ten dollars?” Dorothy chuckled.

  “Mom made me go buy them back from the neighbor,” Brent told Cassidy. “Fortunately, he didn’t up the price.”

  Despite her general discomfort over this mysterious tea party, Cassidy laughed.

  “Anyway, when I heard your idea about being a mobile vet—and I could see how passionate you were about it—I got an idea.”

  “A wonderful idea,” Dorothy said eagerly.

  “It hit me at dinner and it took all my self-control to keep it to myself,” Brent told Cassidy.

  “That’s why Brent left so quickly that night,” Dorothy explained. “He wanted to go speak to his uncle Rob—that’s his mother’s brother.” She arched her brows. “Very wealthy man.”

  “After I left, I felt bad for running off so quickly,” Brent explained. “But I knew I was leaving for New York the next morning and I thought if I could talk to Uncle Rob before I left, well, it seemed worth the effort.”

  “You see, Rob is an animal advocate,” Dorothy told Cassidy.

  “That’s right,” Brent continued. “My uncle supports a number of worthwhile animal causes, and it hit me that a mobile veterinarian business might be the sort of thing he’d be interested in. And I was so enthused over this idea—plus I knew I wouldn’t be back until right before Christmas—that I decided to run over to his house and talk to him about it.”

  The wheels in Cassidy’s head were starting to turn now. “So you didn’t eat and run because you couldn’t stand me?” Whoops! Why did I say that? How pathetic!

  Brent laughed. “Are you kidding me?”

  She shrugged. “Well, it felt sort of like that.”

  “I’m so sorry, Cassidy.” He looked genuinely apologetic. “I didn’t think about how you might feel. I just didn’t want to miss an opportunity with my uncle. Especially since I knew that he was taking his family to Aspen for the holidays. They won’t be back until after New Year’s. I felt like there was no time to waste.”

  Cassidy nodded, but it felt like her head was spinning ever so slightly.

  “Well, tell her how it went,” Dorothy said eagerly. “Tell her what Rob said, Brent.”

  “Uncle Rob is very interested in your idea. And he wants to meet you, Cassidy. I think he might like to partner with your mobile veterinarian business. He thinks you should consider making it a not-for-profit corporation—that way you make a living but get some tax breaks.”

  “Really?” She felt slightly dizzy. Brent didn’t hate her and his uncle was interested in her crazy idea? Was she dreaming?

  “Uncle Rob obviously needs to get to know you first, but based on what I told him, he was very, very interested. He asked me to bring you to meet him in early January.”

  Cassidy felt tears coming into her eyes. “Seriously?”

  “Would you be open to partnering with a financial backer?” he asked. “I can assure you that Uncle Rob is a trustworthy guy. He even gave me a list of some of the animal foundations that he supports. They’re all well respected. And so is he.”

  “Wow.” She blinked, trying to contain her tears of joy. “That’s so amazing. I don’t even know what to say. Of course I’m interested! I can’t wait to meet your uncle. It’s like a dream come true!”

  Dorothy held up her teacup. “I think this deserves a toast.”

  Brent lifted his cup too. “Here’s to Cassidy’s mobile vet business—may it take off in the coming year.”

  They sat around the little dinette table talking excitedly about the possibilities. She even confided to them about her boss’s recent ultimatum. “I didn’t want to give up volunteering,” she admitted, “but I do need to support myself.”

  “Well, it sounds like you’ll be able to do both now,” Dorothy declared.

  After the tea and cookies were gone, Cassidy thanked them and, not wanting to wear out her welcome, wished them a Merry Christmas.

  “Wait,” Brent said as he walked her to the door. “What are you doing for dinner tonight?”

  “For dinner?” She peered curiously at him. Was he asking her out?

  “Yeah. I know it’s a little early, but I think I’m still on East Coast time. And I’ve been craving barbecue for the past few days.”

  “Barbecue?” She tipped her head to one side.

  He helped her into her parka, then reached for his own coat. “There’s a great place over on First Street. Those Christmas cookies were good, but I never had lunch. You hungry for an early dinner? Like barbecue?”

  She smiled. “I love barbecue.”

  “What’re we waiting for?” He kissed his grandma goodbye, and suddenly they were walking out into a winter wonderland. “Want to drop your car at your place before the snow gets too deep?” he suggested. “I can follow you and take you from there. That way you won’t have to drive in the snow when it gets bad later. My Jeep can pretty much handle anything.”

  “Sounds like a good idea,” she told him. “That way I can change out of my scrubs at my condo—if you’re not too ravenous and don’t mind waiting.”

  “No problem.” He grinned at her. “I don’t mind waiting. Not for you.”

  A warm rush ran through her as she hurried to her car and used her sleeve to wipe the windows clean. None of this seemed real. But, she decided, if this was a dream, she just wanted to keep it going. “Don’t wake me up,” she said as she started her car.

  Louisa had invited her angel friends to gather at her house for a small, intimate brunch on Christmas Eve morning. Later that evening they would reconvene at Belinda’s house with other guests, and then on Christmas Day they’d all been invited to a buffet dinner at Grace and Joel’s. Lots of festivities and fun. Louisa hoped she could keep up.

  “I’m so glad we could meet,” Louisa told them as they sat together around her dining room table. “Thank you all for making the time to come here. I know you’re all busy. But I hoped we could catch up. A chance for the Christmas Angels to share a fin
al report.”

  “I’m so glad you asked us over,” Cassidy said with enthusiasm. “I’ve been dying to tell you guys what’s been going on with me, but I’ve been so busy these past several days, I just didn’t have time.” She grinned. “Besides, I wanted to tell you all at the same time.”

  “Tell us what?” Louisa asked her.

  “Remember how devastated I was over Brent Morgan?” Cassidy explained that Brent had never meant to be rude, but that he’d simply wanted to help her by telling his investor uncle about her dream business. “And remember how I told you that Brent was fabulous? Well, I was right. He really is fabulous. We’ve spent the last few days together—when I’m not at work anyway. We’ve gone ice-skating and caroling with his church and to a Christmas play and all sorts of stuff. It’s been truly amazing.”

  “Sounds like someone is falling in love,” Grace teased.

  Cassidy’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright as she giggled. “I think that’s a possibility. But I’m trying to take it one day at a time. I don’t want to scare him off, you know? I keep worrying he’ll get tired of me, but he keeps calling.” She pointed to Belinda. “In fact, I hope it’s okay that I invited him to your house tonight.”

  “That’s great,” Belinda told her. “The more the merrier.”

  “And his grandmother too?” Cassidy asked hopefully.

  “Absolutely. I can’t wait to meet both of them.”

  “I guess that’s about all the news I have,” Cassidy said. “At least for now.”

  “Well, I’ve got some news,” Belinda announced with brightly shining eyes. “But first I want to thank you girls. Because of our angels’ project, this has turned into one of my best Christmases ever.” She began telling them about her new relationship with the high school principal. “I doubt that I would’ve gotten to know Carey Trellis if Louisa hadn’t challenged us to become Christmas angels this year.” She beamed at Louisa. “Thank you for your inspiration. It was exactly what I needed.”

  “I need to thank all of you too,” Louisa said. “You ladies really helped me to get out of my depressed slump this year. I never would’ve guessed that helping others deal with their own losses would make such a difference in my own life. But it has.” She smiled gratefully at each of them. “Thank you all for encouraging me. In my book, you truly are earth angels.”