“No, not gonna happen. Now, in the new year we might be able to arrange something, but not before you clean up your past. The messages? Forget that. I don’t need to. You tell me what you want me to know.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Wanting you to deal with your past doesn’t mean I don’t respect your privacy.”
“He left me a voicemail. Will you listen to it with me?”
“Yes.”
Hearing Alex’s voice after so long made her breath hitch. She watched her phone laying on the counter as the message played, unaware that Adrian was watching her just as closely.
“Hi, beautiful. I swear this is the last time you’ll hear me call you that or call you at all, if that’s what you want. I really wanted to speak with you in person, well over the phone, and not leave a message, but I get why you haven’t contacted me back. I couldn’t let the year end or take my chance on a happy new one, without explaining and apologizing to you. Leah, I am so, so sorry. I’m sorry about everything I put you through and for driving you away from your friends, your family, and your life. I did come clean about the affair, but I would never tell her it was you. I will take our time together to the grave. I at least owe you that discretion. I know Eric has been giving you hell about up and leaving. I will do whatever you need me to, in order to make things right between you two again, but I don’t know if telling him will serve any of us in the long run. I know we used to say that no one could blame us for falling in love, but we were wrong. I was wrong. I made promises to my wife, my family, and before God. Stop. I know you, and you do not get to lighten my guilt at all. I won’t tell you how to feel about your choices, but you can’t make me feel better about mine. I hurt you, my wife, Eric. I put it all on the line, because a beautiful girl made me feel like I hadn’t in a long time. Thank you for sharing your heart with me. Thank you for sharing your love with me and I can only hope that years from now, when you’re with the right somebody, that you don’t hold anything back and that you love them the way I know you loved me. I didn’t deserve it, but I’ll always be grateful for it. Hopefully, it won’t be forever, but instead just for now. Goodbye, beautiful.”
No sound was coming out, but Adrian watched as the tears started falling heavier and faster with each word they listened to. He couldn’t say he agreed with what they did, but it was clear that whatever they’d shared had been important to them both. Maybe he would never understand what drove people to have affairs, but what he did understand was opportunity. Meeting Leah was an unexpected opportunity that he knew he couldn’t let slip through his fingers. The universe saw fit to put them in one another’s path and he was never one to spit in the face of the universe.
“Wow. You okay?”
“It’s like him ending it all over again. I’m okay though.”
“Well, you’ve had time apart. Time and space can be great healers.”
“True. But, the biggest difference now is I have you here. My stranger from the train. The last time, when he left my place, I sat on the floor and cried. I cried for hours. When there just weren’t any tears left, I stayed on that floor. My life was a mess. I had no idea what my next move was going to be, but I was a hundred percent sure it couldn’t include going back to work for Alex. That’s why Eric thinks I’m the one that flaked. I kept calling in sick. Alex wouldn’t fire me, he kept paying me, and I kept calling in sick. This went on for a few weeks, before Eric got wind of it. I was lucky that when he came to read me the riot act, I had this new job offer in hand. I played to my history and convinced him I was ready for a change and couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Alex really is a good guy, who did a bad thing. I’d rather my big brother think I hadn’t grown up, than ruin a lifelong friendship. He’s right. This secret dies with us. Well, and you.”
“Are you sorry you told me?”
“No. Meeting you turned out to be the best Christmas surprise I’ve ever received – including the year I got a puppy. It turned out I was allergic to him and that puppies are terrible holiday surprises, but for a few minutes that was the best moment of my life. This is still better.”
Adrian wrapped her in his arms. It only took a second for her to return the embrace with an equal intensity. Foreheads pressed together, they took one another in. The kiss he placed on her lips might appear chaste to an onlooker, but it meant everything. It was a shared promise of more to come. She called it a surprise, but Adrian was convinced in his heart that what he had received was his very own Christmas miracle.
“What are you smiling about?” Leah asked.
“Just thinking about how this holiday has really turned around for me. I was only slightly more excited than you were earlier today. I’m still splitting my time between my folks and my mom still lays on the guilt like it’s the first time she won’t have me home for the holidays. I was going to do a turn-and-burn and come back to work, but you changed all of that.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
“Don’t be sorry. You are my best Christmas present and I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“Fa la la la la, La la la la!” Leah singsonged.
For the first time in the last twenty-four hours she didn’t mean it sarcastically.
The End.
Paige Parsons
Paige Parsons is a creative Joan of all Trades, who has spent 25 years working in theatre as an actress and stage manager. A native New Yorker, she now resides in Japan. Paige has always loved the world of make believe and was a voracious reader growing up. Some of her favorite authors included Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Jackie Collins, Erma Bombeck, Toni Morrison, Dan Brown and a host of others. Her writing began with stories for her Barbie, Ken, and Skipper dolls and progressed with poetry, modern retellings of classics, and her own spicy romances, kept in a locked journal.
She graduated with a degree in Communication/English-Creative Writing and has worked as a journalist, teacher, stage manager and production manager. Paige loves to tell stories, read stories and put stories up on the stage.
Visit her on Facebook: Paige Parsons
Twitter: @authorpparsons1
Instagram: authorpaigeparsons
Don’t miss these exciting titles by Paige Parsons and Blushing Books!
Taking The Stage
Sharing Backstage
Sweet Town Love - Anthology
A Wyld Christmas
12 Naughty Days of Christmas 2018
Victoria Phelps
Chapter 1
December 24, 1898
Marcie
“Ava, Papa is going to help you sit up, so I can listen to your lungs.” Marcie placed the ends of the stethoscope in her ears and nodded at her husband.
“All right, sweetie, here we go.” John supported his eight-year-old daughter with an arm behind her shoulders and gently lifted.
Ava groaned and her head rolled against her father’s chest.
Marcie set the instrument on the pale, waxy skin of her daughter’s back.
Ava’s twin, Adam, watched Marcie’s face with anxious eyes.
“I’m putting a pillow behind your back, Ava. I believe it will help you breathe more easily.” She nodded at her husband.
He laid her down and fussed a bit until he was satisfied with his daughter’s comfort.
“Adam, will you stay with your sister? See if she will sip a little water and wipe her forehead with the cool cloth.” She smiled encouragement at the little boy. Marcie knew he was suffering. The two of them had that unusual, close connection unique to twins.
When Adam fell from a tree and broke his arm, Ava had been playing at her feet. She had looked up and said, “Adam hurt,” and cried to break your heart. She knew Adam felt every shaky inhalation his sister managed to pull through her blue tinged lips. What would he do if they lost her? What would any of them do if they lost her? Carry on, she guessed, but it would be hard. She gulped, brushed a strand of limp hair from her daughter’s forehead and stood.
“John, could I speak
with you in the other room?” Marcie asked.
Adam’s head jerked to her face with the universal understanding of children. His mother knew something, and she didn’t want him to hear. He exhaled a long-suffering sigh, but turned his attention to his sister. Marcie and John left the room to the sound of Adam’s soft encouraging words as he held the cup to Ava’s chapped lips.
“She’s not better,” John’s shoulders sagged. He shut his red-rimmed eyes and dropped his head.
Marcie blinked back her tears. “No, she’s not.” Her husband opened his arms, and she rushed into them, laying her head on his broad chest. They clung together like two survivors on a raft in the middle of the deep blue sea – hopeless and hoping all at once.
“There’s nothing you can do?” John asked the useless question. If there were something Marcie could do, she would do it.
“I’ve exhausted all the medical options available. I used the last of the penicillin to save the sheriff’s arm when he was shot and infection set in.” She struggled for a calming breath. “I used the supplies I brought back with care, but I couldn’t deny people in need. I took an oath to help.”
“I know. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked the question.” His hand rubbed up and down her spine and the familiar feel of him brought some comfort.
Marcie stepped away and looked up into her husband’s sorrowing face.
“What? What is it?” he asked.
“Now, hear me out. I have an idea.” She waited until he nodded.
“I think her pneumonia began as viral, and I hoped her immune system could fight it off. It’s become bacterial now, I’m sure. If I had an x-ray machine, I’d know how much lung involvement there is, but I believe it to be significant. Her reserves are running low. The fever, coughing, chills, and lack of appetite has weakened her. If we were one hundred years in the future, I would hospitalize her and give her IV fluids and antibiotics.”
“That’s all well and good, but we’re not in the future. What can we do here and now?” He lifted his hands and let them drop, fatigue and worry lining his face.
“Well, that’s just it, John. The only salvation is in the future. I need an antibiotic to save her. She’s too weak to make the trip,” Marcie began.
“The trip? What trip?” His voice rose to new heights. “You’re not taking my daughter into the future.” John Wayne was not a man to take a scare, but he looked mighty close to it.
“That is what I want to discuss with you, John. According to the Almanac, this Christmas Eve will have unusual heavenly activity. A meteor storm will take place between eight and ten. The unusual part is that there will be a second storm sometime between one and three Christmas morning.”
“And what, Marcie? Tom and I don’t allow you or Amanda out during meteor storms. We’ll just have to be extra careful, that’s all,” John’s voice rumbled with reassurance.
“I never wanted to go back. I’m happy here with you, but I can’t let Ava die when I might be able to save her.” Marcie’s words were clipped, and her eyes sparked fire. She was a mother, and mothers protect their young. “If I make a time leap during the first one, I’ll have four to five hours to get to town and get the antibiotics. I’d return during the later activity.” She held her hand up to avoid the storm gathering in her husband’s face. “Now, Tom and Amanda will be here. We planned to spend Christmas Eve and day together. They can stay with the children while you take me to the river. We’ll leave a horse there for when I come back, or you can return and wait.”
“You’ve been thinking about this for a while, haven’t you?” His stern voice sent a little ripple down her spine.
“Yes,” she confessed.
“I’d like to paddle your little bottom, Marcie. We don’t keep secrets from each other. You know better than that. It’s bad for our marriage, and that’s a spanking offense in my book.” He held her upper arms in a firm grip.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. I kept hoping Ava would rally on her own, but she didn’t and she won’t. This is her only chance. Please, John, help me.” Marcie leaned her head on her husband’s chest. Her shoulders shook as she gave into her tears. “Please.”
“All right. I’d do anything to save Ava, but I sure as shooting don’t like taking the risk of losing you.” He pulled her tight against his body.
Two swift raps on the door echoed through the room. “Merry Christmas,” Marcie’s sister, Amanda, called. She entered the house bringing fresh air and four children red faced from the cold. They unwound scarves and pulled off mittens and coats before moving to the warm fire.
Marcie hugged them one by one before issuing directions to her niece and nephews. “Tommy and Jeanette, would you go help Katie? I hear her waking from her nap. Joe, Adam could use a little company. He’s in with Ava. We’ll keep little Patrick here with us. Come help me in the kitchen, Amanda.” She shot a meaningful look at her husband. True to an unwritten law of married life, he understood her message. Marcie would tell her sister the desperate plan, and he would inform Tom.
“I’ll go help with the horses.” He pulled on his coat, stepped outside and headed toward the stables.
Marcie pulled her sister into the kitchen and peeked around her to be sure no little ears were within hearing distance. “Amanda, I’m going back to get medicine for Ava.”
“Back?” she queried.
“Back to 1998. The time leap is always one hundred years.” She waited until a look of understanding swept her sister’s face.
“Does John know?” Amanda’s voice rose in disbelief.
“Yes. He doesn’t like it, but we can’t let Ava die if there’s a chance to save her. He’s telling Tom now.” A single tear rolled down her face.
Amanda put a comforting arm around her sister’s shoulder. “Of course not. How can we help?”
Marcie put her mouth next to Amanda’s ear and explained the unusual properties of the two meteor storms forecast in the Almanac.
“I hope this works. I pray it works. But you know Tom and I will help John with Adam and Ava and little Katie if you don’t get back tonight.” They shared a solemn hug.
“Thank you. Now let’s have a little holiday cheer before I go.” The women assembled corn to pop, bread to toast and cups to fill with hot chocolate.
The two families gathered and listened while Tom read the nativity story. Ava rested, flushed, on a mattress in front of the fire while Adam held her hand.
Shortly before eight, Marcie announced, “John and I have a Christmas errand to run. All of you children listen to Amanda and Tom, and we’ll see you in the morning after Santa has come and gone.”
They bundled into coats and scarfs before venturing into the clear, cold night. John lifted Marcie into the saddle and swung up behind her. They rode swaddled in silence to the spot next to the river where the Wyld women slipped through time.
Marcie retrieved a small pack from the saddlebag. She unbuttoned her long skirt and let it fall to the ground. Pulling a neatly folded parcel from the pack, she shook out a second skirt, dropped it over her head and fastened it in place.
“Marcie,” John’s voice shook with shock. “You can’t go around looking like a saloon girl. I won’t allow it.” He pursed his lips at the garment that barely covered his wife’s knees.
“Women dress differently in the future. They wear pants, shorts, skimpy bathing suits. This skirt will be absolutely modest in 1998.” She hoped her husband would not make a fuss.
“I don’t like other men seeing your legs. They’re for me,” he grumbled, but didn’t tell her to change. He did turn her sideways and landed a smarting spank on her backside.
“Ouch. What was that for?” she demanded.
“For having worked on this plan in secret. For not trusting me. For risking your health and safety in a time leap. I’ve worked mighty hard for ten years keeping you away from that very spot. I don’t like it. Not one little bit.” He landed another spank that lifted her off her feet.
“It’
s for Ava,” she whispered.
He gathered her into a hug fierce and forceful. “For Ava.” The kiss he planted on her lips sent sparks straight between her thighs. “I wouldn’t risk it for any other reason. Come back to me. Hear me? You come back to us.” He sealed his mouth over hers and made sure she understood his message.
She stayed with the kiss as it went from tender to demanding to incendiary before breaking away. “I better get over to the spot.” She wiggled from his arms.
They stood a few steps apart and waited for the night sky to blaze. When the first stars shot across the dark velvet Texas sky, John shook his head, closed his eyes, stepped forward and enfolded her in a tight embrace.
The sensations of the leap – a little nausea, some disorientation, a ringing in the ears – were unchanged. Having the comfort of her husband’s arms around her changed everything.
She shook her head and pushed on his chest. “What in the world? You were supposed to wait for me to return,” she scolded.
“I know, but I couldn’t let you go without me. In that last minute, I couldn’t let you leave alone. We’ll do this together. The children are with Tom and Amanda. They’ll be fine.”
“Well, I never…” she began.
“Watch your attitude, sweetheart, or I’ll finish up that spanking I started.” He scowled into her upturned face. “I believe we are short on time.”
Knowing John Wayne didn’t issue empty threats, she took a deep breath and willed her temper to cool. “You’re right. Time is of the essence.” She twirled in a little circle, “We are in 1998. What do you think, cowboy?”
Her husband looked right, left and right again.
“Holy hell,” he whispered. “Holy, holy hell.”
12 Naughty Days of Christmas 2018 Page 30