Tasha's Christmas Wish (9781460341315)

by Dunn, Sharon

  Hundreds of people made their way across the snow-covered field toward the open outdoor auditorium. People moved in groups, laughing and chattering as the snow crunched beneath their boots. Mom had to be around here somewhere.

  About forty yards from them, she saw Philip walking with Mary, Grace, her husband and their three children. Mary wore the red coat she’d had on when Tasha first saw her at the Denver craft fair. Philip walked holding Mary’s hand, eyes straight ahead.

  “This is quite a gathering.” Quinton patted her gloved hand.

  “Yeah, it looks like most of the churches in the area turned out.”

  “Lotta little towns around here, are there?” She heard disdain in his voice.

  “Yes, Quinton, that’s all there is—farming communities, towns of three and four thousand.”

  Quinton shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth, heel to toe. “Bet you couldn’t wait to get out of here when you were growing up.”

  “Doesn’t every teenager think that way? But I got homesick when I was going to college and then living in Denver.”

  “Homesick for what?” He snorted.

  With some effort, Tasha chose to ignore Quinton’s sarcasm. No matter what, she wasn’t going to let him ruin her Christmas Eve with snarky remarks about small towns. This holiday was too special. She glanced around the crowd. “Eli and Andrea offered to set up the nativity for me. I hope everything went all right.”

  The opening bars of “Angels We Have Heard on High” rang out from a loudspeaker.

  The stage was built where the rolling hill descended into a valley. A wall of concrete eight feet high and formed into a half circle created ideal acoustics. Gold Christmas lights lined the wall and descended to the floor like glittering curtains. The floor of the stage, a full circle of concrete, contained drums, guitars and a keyboard. In the corner, on an elevated four-by-six-foot platform, stood several objects draped with a sheet.

  Tasha pointed to the elevated platform. “That must be where they put the nativity.” She spotted Andrea standing by a younger woman with two children. One of the children, a little girl in a purple knit hat, held onto Andrea’s hand.

  “Nice night, huh?” a man next to Tasha commented.

  Tasha looked up to see Eli. “You came,” she gushed with joy.

  He winked at her. “I have ulterior motives.” He caught Andrea’s attention and waved at her. Andrea gave him the thumbs-up.

  “This is my wife, Gina.” Eli touched the shoulder of the petite woman next to him. Gina wore a royal-blue coat that swept to the ground. Her blond hair, parted on the side, was reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe. Only the crow’s feet and the lines around her mouth gave away her age. She smiled warmly as she nodded a greeting to Tasha and Quinton. Tasha could picture her in a big kitchen making jam and cookies while ten grandchildren frolicked around her feet.

  Tasha’s mom emerged from the crowd. She wrapped her arm in Tasha’s free arm. “Took me a minute to find you guys. Hi, Quinton.”

  Pastor Matthew took the stage; Mindy positioned herself behind the keyboard. Several other people Tasha didn’t recognize picked up the other instruments. They must be from one of the other churches. The recording of the Christmas carols faded. The pastor welcomed everyone to the service.

  Two teenagers standing near the front of the stage stepped forward and lifted the sheet off the nativity.

  Tasha gasped. It was her nativity, all right, but it was far better and far more beautiful than she could ever have imagined. Lights had been placed in the straw and hung above the little scene. A cow, a horse and sheep, carved out of wood, gazed at the Christ child along with Mary and Joseph. The background was three canvas panels of a night sky filled with angels whose wings glittered in gold and pure white. The angel doll she had made stood in the foreground.

  Andrea turned around and grinned.

  Tasha shook her head. “You guys.”

  Eli squeezed her shoulder. “You know, carving those animals brought back memories of my mama taking me to services so many years ago.”

  Gina leaned toward Tasha. “I can’t thank you enough for giving Eli a place to work. You were an answer to prayer in more ways than one.”

  Tasha felt a warm glow that started in her feet and traveled all the way to the top of her head. They’d have to do more projects like this. Look what three artists could accomplish when they worked together.

  Quinton’s voice in her ear made the warm feelings turn to ice. “Looks like the three of you really get along. Too bad it’s not going to last much longer.”

  She clenched her jaw. How arrogant. She had not signed the contracts or agreed to anything. Good old Quinton already assumed he had the sale wrapped up.

  Tasha studied the gathering crowd, wondering if she could spot Philip and the others.

  * * *

  Philip and Mary had found a place toward the back of the crowd. The downward slant of the hill allowed everyone to see the stage. He scanned the heads in front of him. He didn’t see Tasha.

  “The Baby Jesus is beautiful, Daddy.” Mary squeezed his hand.

  A soft light glowed beneath the manger. “It’s breathtaking, isn’t it?”

  “I wish I could have one of the dolls Tasha makes.” Mary drew her lips up into a pout.

  Grace raised an eyebrow to Philip as anticipation about Mary opening her gift flooded through him. Would the dolls provide the same catharsis for her as they had for him?

  He touched Mary’s brown curls. “We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?”

  The service proceeded through several Christmas carols. The pastor gave a brief message. The teenagers, this time six of them, picked up boxes of candles and passed them through the crowd. Then they walked around the outside of the throng of people lighting candles with their own. The light gradually worked toward the center as each person helped light the candle of the person next to them.

  As the night grew brighter, Mindy sang the plaintive notes of “O Holy Night” with only keyboard accompaniment.

  The light on the stage dimmed until nothing but the glow from a hundred little candles provided illumination.

  Mindy’s song ended. She spoke into the microphone in almost a whisper. “I’d like everyone to close their eyes and thank God for sending His son into a dark world. Just as these candles light up our night, Jesus’s birth and sacrifice can provide illumination for our souls.”

  An unexpected tightness rose up in Philip’s chest. This was what is was all about, wasn’t it? Light given to a dark world. A black shroud had hung over Christmas Eve services since Heather’s death. But now the darkness lifted and Philip basked in the glow of Christ’s love. He still felt loss. Grief was not easy and never completely faded. But for the first time, he felt like he would make it.

  He stared down at his precious daughter. The candle, held tightly in two hands, illuminated her bright face. There would be sorrow. It would always be present. But he and Mary would make it. The darkness had been self-imposed. He could miss his wife and grieve her loss without being completely ruled by it.

  The prayer ended. The lights and music came up. Everyone blew out their candles and sang, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

  As the crowd dispersed, the pastor spoke from the stage. “I hope you’ll join my wife and me under the pavilion up the hill for hot cocoa, cider and cookies.”

  Mary squeezed Philip’s hand. “Let’s go get some cookies.”

  They headed up the hill for snacks and visiting. Philip scanned the moving crowd. Tasha had to be here somewhere.

  * * *

  Tasha broke away from Quinton. “I want to go give Andrea a hug.” She took in a deep breath, glad to be free of the heaviness of his proximity.

  About half of the crowd trekked up the hill toward the pavilion while
the others made their way toward their cars, probably returning to their homes for private family celebrations.

  Tasha found Andrea as she was loading her nephew and niece in a car. She saw Eli and Gina at a distance. She waved and shouted, “Thanks for making Christmas special.”

  Eli opened Gina’s door for her. He shouted back, “Thank you.”

  She hugged Andrea. “You have no idea how glad I am that you and Eli are in my life.”

  Andrea pulled back and touched Tasha’s cheek with a gloved hand. “You forget. I took a cut in pay and moved from the city, too. You lose something by coming here, but you find so much more, don’t you?”

  Two voices rang out in unison from the car. “Aunt Andrea, time to go, presents to open.”

  “So much more.” Andrea laughed. “See you after New Year’s, Tasha.”

  Tasha waved goodbye and watched them drive away. She ran back toward the pavilion. So much weight had been lifted off her in the past few days. God had wanted her here in Pony Junction all along. But He’d had to teach her to trust Him with her choices.

  She saw Quinton at a distance as she walked back to the pavilion. He stood off by himself, sipping something out of a paper cup. He seemed out of place in his long wool coat. The leather shoes he wore didn’t look as if they kept his feet very warm. Everyone else was dressed much more practically in puffy down coats and clunky fur-lined winter boots. Some of the men wore tan coveralls and coats.

  She felt pity for him because he was such a mismatch for the Pony Junction crowd. At the same time, introducing him to her friends would be pointless. He would only snub them. He had no desire to get to know these people, her people. That much was clear.

  She stepped under the sloped roof of the pavilion. Quinton sauntered toward her. He leaned close to her ear. “Can we go back to your place? I think I’ve had enough of Hillbilly Hollow for one night.”

  Tasha bit her tongue and spoke through a clenched jaw, “Just a minute. I want to say hello to a few people.” These were the people she cared about. Fine if he didn’t want to get to know them, but how dare he insult them.

  Quinton put up his hands, palms out. “Sorry.”

  Grace pushed through the crowd. She wore a red-and-green stocking cap. She grabbed Tasha’s elbow. “We’d love to have you come over tomorrow to see Mary open her gift. I haven’t discussed it with Philip yet, but I’m sure he’d love for you to be there.”

  Tasha looked around Grace into the crowd of people huddled by a table that brimmed with cookies and steaming pots. “Where is Philip?”

  “Well, he’s—” Grace craned her neck and took two steps to one side. “I don’t know. He’s in there somewhere. Anyway, you put so much into the dolls. We’d love for you to see Mary’s face when she opens them.”

  Damaris squeezed between two adult bodies and rushed out to grab her mother. “Mama, they’ve got angel cookies with pink-and-gold frosting.” She tugged on her mother’s sleeve.

  “Just a second, Damaris.” Inch by inch, the little girl dragged her mother back toward the crowd. “Come over as soon as you can. I don’t know if I can hold the kids off from opening gifts, but for sure we’ll wait until you are there to give Mary her dolls.”

  “That sounds good.” Tasha saw her own mother huddled in a group of ladies, laughing and complimenting each other on their Christmas attire.

  “I’ll be there,” she shouted to Grace. With a backward glance at Quinton, who still refused to mingle, Tasha pushed through to the cookie table. She picked up a cookie in the shape of a Christmas tree. The sugary sweetness melted over her tongue.

  “That was a beautiful nativity.” A middle-aged woman with dark hair and almond-shaped eyes stood beside her. She wore a fur-trimmed hat. “I understand you’re the doll artist.”

  “Yes, I am, but I didn’t do that nativity alone.” Tasha scanned the faces in the crowd. She didn’t understand her longing to see Philip, but somehow the evening would feel incomplete without saying hello to him.

  “I like your dolls,” said the woman. She pulled out a card and placed it in Tasha’s hand. “I own an antique store in Flynn about forty miles from here. Some vintage-looking dolls might sell in my shop.”

  Tasha glanced at the card in her hand and then turned her full attention to the woman in front of her. Here was a market for her dolls that Tasha hadn’t even gone looking for. “That sounds wonderful. I’ll get in touch with you after Christmas.”

  This whole time she’d been focusing on big markets like Denver craft shows and getting her dolls into big chain stores. Small-town shows and local markets were where her dolls belonged.

  Tasha shook her head in amazement.

  * * *

  Philip only half heard the older gentleman chattering next to him. “We could use another doctor around here.”

  Faces were hard to identify under all their caps and scarves. Certainly Tasha would have come to see the unveiling of her nativity. His eye caught a flash of red hair. No, that woman with the large nose was definitely not Tasha.

  The man cleared his throat.

  “I understand the need for doctors in rural areas—” Philip patted the gentleman’s back “—but my practice is pretty firmly established in the Denver.”

  “Well, if you ever change your mind.” The man stuffed a molasses cookie with white frosting into his mouth. “The hours are a lot shorter. You get more fishing time.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind....” His attention wandered to the crowd around the table. There she was, standing at the other end of the cookie table. She was wearing a soft pink ski jacket. Her hair fell around her shoulders in those wonderfully wild curls.

  Philip’s heart hammered in his chest. Tasha was talking with a dark-haired woman in a fur-trimmed hat.

  Swallowing hard, he took a step toward her. This was his chance.

  A man with wavy blond hair dressed in a long charcoal wool coat came up beside Tasha and whispered in her ear. He put a protective arm over her shoulders.

  Philip stopped. His heart fell into his shoes. Was that man Tasha’s boyfriend? The man’s body language suggested intimacy. He hadn’t even considered that possibility. Philip’s arms and legs felt heavy, as if he was sinking in quicksand. He’d just assumed she was available.

  The blond-haired man guided Tasha away from the pavilion. Several people stepped up to the table, and Tasha disappeared from view.

  Philip touched his coat pocket. He had one more reason to see her. Grace could take Mary back to the house and he’d swing by the barn to pay Tasha. That would be the end of any excuses for going to see her. Then he would spend months working very hard to get her out of his mind.

  Chapter 14

  “Quinton, you’re holding my hand too tight.” Tasha twisted out of Quinton’s grasp. She’d put off telling Quinton about her decision because she didn’t want to ruin his Christmas Eve.

  “I can’t figure out how you could possibly have that much to say to those people.”

  “That’s no reason to yank me out of there.” Enough with this procrastination and treading lightly around his feelings. He sure didn’t seem to care that he’d spoiled her Christmas Eve.

  They arrived at Quinton’s Lexus. Quinton slid into the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition while Tasha got into the passenger seat and fumbled with her seat belt.

  He patted her leg. “I’ll bet you’re anxious to get back to the city, back to culture.”

  A knot of tension started in Tasha’s lower back and twisted its way up to her neck. She swallowed hard. “We have culture around here.” Why was he assuming so much? She had to tell him about her decision.

  “You call that culture, standing outside in the freezing cold?” Quinton snorted. “Didn’t you miss the Christmas Eve service at the cathedral, the forty-piece orchestra
, the banquet?”

  He turned out onto the road.

  Tasha stared at Quinton’s rigid profile. “Doesn’t matter if you are in a mansion or a shack. The important thing is that you are worshipping Jesus.” That something that she could never quite put her finger on, the reason why she couldn’t commit to Quinton, was becoming clearer. Quinton had all the outward signs of a godly man. He went to church. He had never pushed her for physical intimacy. He knew all the right things to say. But Quinton’s faith was all about appearances. And until she had learned to trust God with her future and her money, she had had the same shallow faith. It was easy to trust God when life was good and she got lots of mileage out of her own abilities.

  “Of course you can worship Him in a shack.” His hands clenched the steering wheel. “All I’m saying is you and I don’t fit in here, Tasha.”

  Over and over, Tasha balled her hand up into a fist and then straightened it out. This was worse than giving a big presentation to prospective buyers, a task she had always dreaded as a designer. Right now, her stomach churned worse than it ever had. Quinton was not going to take the news well. “You don’t fit in here, Quinton. But I do.”

  He laughed in a way that seemed to get caught halfway up his throat. “What do you mean, Tasha?” Quinton turned down the gravel road that led to Tasha’s barn. The soft snowfall had morphed into driving sheets. He flipped the wipers on. The swish-swish rhythm mesmerized Tasha as she filed through the different ways she could tell Quinton she wasn’t going back to Denver.

  Quinton parked beside the barn and clicked his door open. “Let’s go get those contracts signed so I can get back to my hotel room.”

  Tasha took in a deep breath and pushed the car door open. Snow fell hard and fast. She zipped her coat up to the neck and dug in her pocket for her keys. She ran ahead to open the door. His hand resting on her shoulder as she put the key in the lock was a rock, an oppressive weight that made it hard for her to breathe.

  Inside, she flicked on the light and walked to the counter to where she’d left the contracts.