A Coldwater Warm Hearts Christmas

by Lexi Eddings

  “I don’t think it’s as bad as all that between your cousin and her husband.”

  “That’s just it. You don’t know how bad it is,” Seth had told her. “No one knows for sure why they’re splitting up. None of us do.”

  “But is the marriage over for sure?”

  “Angie, don’t stick your nose in their business.”

  “I’m not. But what if all they need is a way to see each other in a different light?”

  “How is the pageant going to help with that?” Seth had asked.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Angie had admitted. “That’s the thing when you do theater of any kind. It may not be real, but it’s often true. It shows us things about ourselves and others that we didn’t realize before. And maybe that’s what Noah and Crystal need. A chance to see each other not just as a co-parent or even as a spouse, but to see each other truly. Simply. As the person they fell in love with.”

  “That’s asking a lot of a Christmas pageant.” Then Seth had grinned. “Besides, don’t you mean ‘the person with whom they fell in love’?”

  He corrected my grammar. Okay, Angie had decided at that moment, I guess I do love him a little.

  “Don’t try to distract me with proper syntax,” she’d argued, but not very hard. “What if being in the pageant can help put a family back together? Isn’t it worth a shot?”

  In the end, Seth had given in and agreed with her cast choices.

  But Angie began to fear he might have been right.

  Crystal came storming across the park, Riley in tow.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Noah would be here?” Crystal demanded when she reached Angie. Riley squirmed, trying to free herself from her mother’s grip.

  “I wanna see Daddy.”

  Noah heard his daughter’s voice and let the other two wise men walk on without him. He dropped to one knee and spread his arms wide. “Come on, Crystal. Let her go.”

  Whether Crystal released her or Riley wiggled free, Angie couldn’t tell, but the little girl was suddenly flying across the park to her father’s arms.

  “What are you trying to do?” Crystal demanded.

  “I’m trying to put together a Christmas pageant.”

  “Drop the innocent act. You arranged for Noah and me to both be in it on purpose.”

  “Yes, I did.” Angie was suddenly tired of everyone second-guessing her. She decided to stop tiptoeing around Crystal. “It can’t hurt for you and Noah to meet on neutral territory.”

  “How dare you interfere in my private life!”

  “Remember where you are. It’s not exactly private. If you think no one knows you and Noah are separated, you’re only fooling yourself,” Angie said. “I’m giving you a chance here.”

  “To do what? Beg him to come home?”

  “No. To work it out. To fight if you have to,” Angie said. “A marriage is worth fighting for.”

  Crystal slanted her a look. “Says the single schoolteacher.”

  Sometime between breakfast and now, Crystal must have gone home and changed her clothes. Her shoes matched and her makeup had been recently freshened.

  “Okay, answer me this,” Angie said. “Are you seeing someone else?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Is Noah?”

  Crystal looked in his direction as if infidelity might be stamped on his features for all the world to see. She swallowed hard and then looked away. “Not as far as I know.”

  “Then you two need to work it out. You have a family, you and Noah. Do you know how lucky that makes you?” Tears trembled on Angie’s eyelashes. She’d have given her eyeteeth for a stable family when she was a kid. “But even if you didn’t have children, you need to reconcile for your own sake. The two of you loved each other once. You can learn to do it again.”

  Across the park, her husband was tossing their daughter into the air and catching her. Riley squealed with delight each time she went airborne. The corners of Crystal’s mouth lifted in a small, sad smile.

  “What if . . . he doesn’t want me anymore?”

  “He’s here, isn’t he?”

  Crystal’s gaze jerked back to her. “He knew I’d be here?”

  “He turned down the part of wise man until I told him I was going to cast you and Riley in the pageant, too.”

  “Really?” The naked hope in her tone was almost embarrassing.

  “Come on,” Angie said. “Let’s go make some Christmas magic.”

  Chapter 25

  The problem with being perfect is that none of us are.

  —Seth Parker, who wonders who died and made him an unwilling marriage counselor

  Seth settled into his truck cab, flipped on the interior light, and went over the day’s work orders and receipts. He’d been spending too much time on the Christmas pageant and knocking off early to be with Angie. The high school building project was falling behind schedule.

  He frowned down at the calendar on his tablet, but he still didn’t see how he and his crew could catch up unless they started putting in longer days and weekends. Which meant overtime. Which cut into his bottom line big time.

  Falling in love was a spendy proposition.

  But Seth had made his name by coming in on time and under budget on his building projects. It was a point of honor with him. He was going to have to tip the life/work scales a little farther in work’s favor for the next few weeks.

  With all he had to accomplish, he was going to be as busy as a one-armed wallpaper hanger for a while. He hoped Angie would understand. After all, she’d probably be knee deep in pageant stuff until Christmas Eve.

  They could talk about it later that night. After he popped the question. Then they’d have a long overdue conversation about his quickly filling schedule.

  Hey, honey, yeah, glad you said yes. By the way, you probably won’t see much of me till I get the high school addition done.

  Maybe he should put off the proposal until New Year’s Eve.

  But he didn’t want to do that. He’d waited too long to find Angie, too long to discover the other half of his heart. He didn’t want to wait any longer.

  His frustrated thoughts were interrupted by someone smacking the passenger side door. Noah Addleberry opened it and climbed into the cab without waiting for an invite. A biting wind followed him in.

  “Man, it’s colder than a well-digger’s knee out there.” Noah rubbed his hands together trying to warm them.

  “What’s up, Noah?” Seth hadn’t expected to see him in the high school parking lot. Addleberry money was financing a large portion of the school project since the last bond issue had failed to pass, but this was the first time Noah had turned up on the job site. “Checking up on me?”

  “What? No. You’ll get the addition done, Seth. You always deliver. I’m not worried about that.”

  “What can I do for you, then?”

  “Angie Holloway told me I could probably find you here,” he said. “I need to talk to someone and you’re close enough to understand where I’m coming from and far enough away to be objective. I hope.”

  “Okay. Shoot.”

  “It’s about your cousin.”

  “You’ll have to be more specific. I’ve got a lot of cousins,” Seth drawled, trying to lighten the mood. When Noah didn’t crack a smile, he added, “What’s Crystal done now?”

  Noah shook his head. “It’s not her. It’s never her. She hasn’t done a thing. It’s me. Or at least, she seems to think it is.” The fingers of his left hand curled into a fist and he pounded his own thigh absently. Seth noticed that Noah was still wearing his wedding ring, but as far as he knew, the guy was bedding down on the family ranch not with his wife. “From the moment I get up in the morning till I go to sleep at night, there’s just no pleasing her.”

  “Can you give me a ‘for instance’?”

  “Crystal obsesses about everything. If I miss the hamper and there’s one sock left on the floor, she thinks the whole laundry room is filthy,” No
ah said with a shake of his head. “A few weeks ago, I was spreading mulch around the big oak tree in the backyard. She came flying out the back door, complaining that I was doing it wrong. According to the gospel of Crystal, I should have put down the edging before the mulch.” He snorted. “I can’t even dump out a bag of mulch to suit her.”

  Seth couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t pour gasoline on the fire. Evidently, Noah didn’t need him to speak, because he rambled on anyway.

  “Then there’s how she is with the kids. She’s okay with Ethan. He’s as perfect as she is, but the way she treats Riley just frosts me,” he said through clenched teeth. “You know she’s supposed to be a star in the pageant?”

  “Yeah, the star.”

  “Well, we had the first rehearsal late this afternoon,” Noah said as grimly as if he’d been witness to an execution. “I never should have let that schoolteacher of yours talk me into being in it.”

  Everyone seemed to know Angie was his. It made Seth want to grin from ear to ear, but he forced himself to stay sober for Noah’s sake.

  “What happened at the pageant practice?” he asked.

  “Well, Riley takes her place just like Angie tells her to. Then she starts leading us wise men to the manger. At first, she keeps her eyes on the manger and her arms straight out because Angie told Riley they’ll be like that in the star rig you’re putting together for her to float down to the Square in.” Noah gave him a sharp look. “She will be safe suspended in that get up, right?”

  “Safe as if she was in her own bed,” Seth promised.

  “Anyway, Riley listens to the directions just fine at first, but she can’t help being six. She starts skipping and dancing along the route she’s supposed to walk. It’s cuter than a basket of puppies, but Crystal almost comes unhinged. She charges across the park, scolding Riley for not keeping her arms straight and eyes ahead. She made Riley cry, Seth, and over such a stupid little thing.”

  Noah crossed his arms over his chest. “Crystal can’t accept anything or anyone that isn’t as flawless as she is. It kills me to see her tear into Riley like that. She’s just a kid.”

  Seth felt for his little cousin, but he also pitied Crystal. She had a long history of chasing perfection and Seth had seen it crush her more than once.

  “Is that why you left her?” he asked Noah.

  “Partly. No matter what I do, she knows how I could have done it better. She wears me out,” Noah admitted, then added, “Wouldn’t you get tired of that, too?”

  Seth was silent for a moment. “Is there someone else?”

  Noah avoided his gaze. “No. Not yet, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not tempted. You know Sarah Bartlett?”

  “The dance teacher?”

  “Yeah.” Noah glanced at him and then away. “Sarah has been . . . well, I’ve been getting a vibe off her when I pick Riley up from her ballet lessons for a while now. So I . . .”

  “You what?” Seth growled. World-class nag or not, Crystal was still his cousin.

  “No, nothing like that. I had coffee with her once at the truck stop out on the highway. That’s all,” Noah said defensively. “But to be honest, just talking to Sarah was better than sex with Crystal has been in months. Sarah made me feel . . . I don’t know . . . like I was worth something.”

  “And Crystal doesn’t.”

  “Not anymore.”

  Silence yawned between them and Seth felt duty-bound to fill it.

  “It’s not just you, you know. Crystal has been this way since we were kids. I remember her walking home from school in tears because she got a B on her report card,” Seth said. “It didn’t matter that she got A’s in everything else. All she saw was the one B and it tore her up.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “I get that she’s been hard on you, but she’s always been harder on herself than anyone else,” Seth said. “Did you know she wanted to play the violin when she was a kid?”

  Noah frowned. “She’s not at all into music.”

  “That’s because when she was eight, she didn’t play her piece perfectly at her first violin recital. She quit lessons the next day. I don’t know why, but there’s something in Crystal that needs to do things right,” Seth said. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know she was that way before you married her?”

  “Well, yeah. But back then it was great,” Noah said. “She constantly tried to be exactly what I wanted her to be. She was . . . perfect.”

  Good-looking, well educated, and coming from one of the first families in the county, Noah was the type to expect perfection.

  “Did you try to be perfect back?” Seth asked.

  “Yeah.” Then because Noah was basically an honest guy, he amended his statement. “No. I mean, I do my best. But hey, nobody’s perfect.”

  “No. Nobody is. But Crystal thinks she has to try. And I’m betting she feels like you don’t love her when you don’t try to be perfect for her.”

  “I never thought of it like that,” Noah admitted, “but she’s just so exhausting. You get why I might be tempted by Sarah, right?”

  “Just tempted?”

  “Yeah, but that’s bad enough, I guess,” Noah said. “My marriage is sufficiently messed up without adding another person to the equation.”

  “It’s good that you understand that. It means you and Crystal still have a chance.”

  “Do we? She—” He stopped himself from grinding on Crystal again. “If I’m being honest, I have to admit it’s not all her fault. I give her plenty of mistakes to correct.”

  “And she needs to learn to let some things go. Let’s agree that there’s blame to be laid on both sides,” Seth said. “Look, all this is way above my pay grade. The two of you need help, and I mean professional help to work this stuff out.”

  “You think Crystal will agree to counseling?”

  “What woman ever said no to talking a problem to death?” Seth said with a raised brow. “But seriously, it won’t be easy for Crystal to change. Perfectionism is a . . . well, it’s the kind of weakness people pretend is a strength. She’s gonna need your support to get through it.”

  “And . . . my love,” Noah said.

  “Yeah.” Seth was feeling pretty smart about relationships at the moment. Men wanted to feel needed and trusted. Women wanted to feel loved and secure. When both parties worked at it, it was a winning combination.

  He hoped he had Angie figured out as well as he did his cousin and her husband.

  * * *

  What with Junior dismantling the manger and Deek’s technical problems, the pageant rehearsal had gone from bad to worse. Angie had been so sure putting Crystal and Noah in the cast would lead to reconciliation. Instead, they’d had a public blowup that left their daughter a sniffling mess and all the rest of the cast embarrassed bystanders.

  “Do not get involved in other people’s lives,” she told her reflection in the mirror sternly. It would have been better if she’d never joined the Warm Hearts Club. Then Heather wouldn’t have been able to coerce her into directing the silly pageant in the first place.

  But then she wouldn’t have met Seth.

  Her chest glowed warmly at the thought of him as she dabbed a bit of perfume in the hollow between her breasts. He had something special planned for them, and since the evening had already been shoved once, he’d told her it had given him time to add a few things. Whatever it was, Angie was sure she’d like it.

  Seth was going to ask her to marry him.

  She felt it in her heart, in her head, in her bones. He’d ask and she’d say yes. They were going to become a family, and she’d never be alone in the world again.

  It was kind of sudden. They hadn’t known each other that long, but everything in her strained toward this man. Unlike Peter, who could convince anyone of anything whether it was true or not, Seth was a straightforward guy. What you saw was what you got.

  Angie wished now that she hadn’t agreed to meet Peter at Harper’s. At the time, it seeme
d like the adult thing to do. She could have a drink with her ex and listen to what he had to say, and it wouldn’t mean a thing.

  It was all very casual. All incredibly mature.

  Now she wondered if Seth would see it that way.

  Especially since Angie was wearing her little black dress and strappy heels and had done her hair and makeup with unusual care. But she wasn’t taking pains with her appearance for Peter, unless it was to remind him what he was missing. She’d dolled up for when Seth came by to pick her up later.

  Effie wandered into the little bathroom and rubbed against Angie’s legs.

  “Well, this is a surprise,” she said as she bent down to stroke the usually undemonstrative cat. The animal arched her back, as if to demand a more thorough petting. When Angie obliged, Effie turned on her suddenly and bit her hand. Then the cat shot like a bullet into the bedroom and dived between the pillows.

  “What was that for?” Angie demanded. “You two-faced little . . . twink,” she said, reaching for Crystal Addleberry’s frustrated epithet for Riley.

  Unblinking, Effie stared at her from her pillow fortress. Angie couldn’t shake the feeling that the cat was trying to accuse her of something.

  “I am not cheating on Seth,” she told the feline. “It’s just a drink with an old friend.”

  Effie hissed at her and then disappeared beneath the coverlet to form a suspicious-looking lump.

  Angie checked the clock on her phone. To be on the safe side, she set an alarm so she’d have plenty of time to say goodbye to Peter at Harper’s and get back home before Seth came to pick her up at seven.

  Not that she was hiding the fact that she was having a drink with her ex. There was nothing to hide.

  But on the other hand, what Seth didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

  Chapter 26

  To err is human. To blame it on somebody else requires a lawyer.

  —Peter Manning, defending his profession because no one else will

  When Angie reached Harper’s, she discovered Peter was already there, waiting at a table facing the door, obviously watching for her. His handsome face lit with a smile when he saw her.