Just Like the Ones We Used to Know

by Brenda Novak

  Your Christmas wish come true! Available for the first time as a stand-alone ebook—Brenda Novak’s Just Like the Ones We Used to Know, originally published in 2006 in the anthology Once Upon a Christmas

  Angela Forrester’s foster child Kayla has just one wish for Christmas—to meet her real dad. Angela is determined to ensure Kayla gets her wish, even though Matt Jackson has no idea he has a child at all. When Angela meets Matt, she doesn’t have a chance to tell him about his little girl before sparks instantly fly between them, complicating matters. Will he turn tail and run when he learns the truth, or will he be the man and father they always dreamed of?

  JUST LIKE THE ONES WE USED TO KNOW

  Brenda Novak

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER ONE

  “MRS. FORRESTER?”

  Seeing Kayla’s teacher smile expectantly as she held the door, Angela swallowed hard, then straightened her spine and walked into the sixth-grade classroom. On the Friday afternoon before Christmas break, it was empty of students, yet it still smelled of pencil shavings and chalk, which evoked pleasant associations. Growing up, Angela had been a good student. But the girl she’d taken in a year earlier was struggling in school, in life.

  Angela had become Kayla’s caregiver so late, could she really make any difference?

  That was the big question and had been from the beginning. Angela was afraid she couldn’t. And she was afraid Kayla’s teacher had called her in, once again, to let her know just how badly she was failing.

  Trying to ignore the helplessness that engulfed her so often lately, Angela perched uncomfortably on the chair next to Mrs. Bennett’s battle-scarred desk—she knew her place in this room well—and smoothed the skirt of the designer suit she’d worn to work that morning.

  “I’m sorry to bother you again,” the teacher began, peering at Angela over her bifocals.

  Angela pulled her heavy trench coat more tightly around her and forced a smile. “It’s fine. You know I want what’s best for Kayla.”

  “I want the same thing.”

  “Of course.” They just approached it differently. Mrs. Bennett could be stern and rather severe. She often indicated that she felt Angela was letting pity about what had happened in the past interfere with good old-fashioned discipline. But Angela had been a foster child herself—had spent several years living in the same house as Kayla’s mother, in fact—so she understood Kayla’s situation well. Besides, this was Angela’s first attempt at parenting. She was twenty-nine, but she wasn’t married. Maybe she wasn’t the best person in the world to finish raising Stephanie’s daughter, but before Stephanie’s mother had died, she’d given Angela guardianship because she was a better choice than any of Kayla’s other options.

  “What seems to be the problem, Mrs. Bennett?” She decided to ask the question and get it over with. “Isn’t Kayla turning in her assignments?”

  Angela knew Kayla finished her homework because they did it together. But only last Wednesday Mrs. Bennett had informed Angela that it’d been two weeks since Kayla had handed in a single paper. Angela had been shocked and worried, of course, but what made the situation more mystifying was the fact that Kayla couldn’t tell her why she wasn’t turning in the work.

  “She’s improving there,” Mrs. Bennett said. “I’d like to see her test scores come up, but that’s another issue. I called you in today because I wanted you to see something she’s written.”

  Written? The crisp Denver winter settled a little deeper into Angela’s bones. Kayla was generally excluded from the tight cliques of other girls. She kept to herself and rarely associated with the kids in her class, which had been the subject of yet another parent/teacher conference. So…had Kayla finally decided to get even with the ever-popular but cruel Barbie Hanover, who’d stolen her notebook and shown Jordan Wheeler the poem she’d composed about him?

  Angela half expected Mrs. Bennett to smooth out a note detailing Barbie’s lack of good qualities or some other manifestation of the intense humiliation she’d caused Kayla. But Mrs. Bennett presented her with what looked like a regular English paper. And, even more surprisingly, written across the top in red ink was a big fat A.

  It was probably Kayla’s first A, which should’ve been reason to celebrate. Except Mrs. Bennett’s sober expression indicated that Angela should still be concerned.

  “What—”

  “Read it,” Mrs. Bennett said.

  Angela glanced at the heading.

  All I Want For Christmas

  By Kayla ???????

  “She wouldn’t put her last name?” Angela asked in confusion.

  Mrs. Bennett gestured that Angela should keep reading.

  She returned her attention to the small, cramped writing.

  I suppose you want to hear that Christmas is my favorite time of year. That’s what everyone else says, right? There’s candy and presents and parties. There’s baby Jesus and Santa Claus. Even for girls like me.

  So why am I finding this stupid paper so hard to write? I should just copy someone else, someone normal. I can hear the people all around me. I want this…I want that…I’m getting a new cell phone, a new TV, a new dress. Barbie sits next to me and wants an iPod. Not any old iPod. It has to hold about a billion songs and play videos, too. Nothing but the best for Barbie, and we all know she’ll get it. Her friend Sierra is asking for a snowboard. That’s not cheap, either, so I wouldn’t ask for it even if I wanted it. But Sierra’s parents are rich, which means she’ll be pleasantly NOT surprised to find it under the tree on Christmas morning. They’re lucky. Not because they get what they want, but because they want what they get. A boy I know wants a new basketball. He’s—the next part had been heavily erased and written over—He’s even luckier.

  Was Kayla writing about Jordan at this point? Angela wondered. She thought so. He was the only person not named, which was significant, and there was emotion behind all those eraser marks.

  Angela frowned and kept reading.

  Tyler Jameson is asking for an Xbox. Tyler was Jordan’s best friend, which seemed to offer more proof that she’d segued from the boy she liked to his best friend. He’s always making a list of the games he wants—at $60 apiece. His Christmas isn’t going to be cheap. Money. I wish it could buy what I want. I wish I could be satisfied with an iPod or new clothes, or even getting my ears pierced. But I don’t care about any of that. I want something Santa can’t pull out of a sack. I want a real last name. The kind that came before I did. Not, “We’ll just call her…” I want to know what my name should’ve been. I want to know who I belong to. I want my father. Then I could ask him why he loved my mother enough to make me but didn’t love me enough to stay.

  If I knew him, I think even I could be happy with an iPod.

  By the time she finished, Angela’s throat had constricted and she doubted she could speak. She didn’t know what to say, anyway. As tears filled her eyes, she felt Mrs. Bennett’s hand close over hers.

  “Heart-wrenching, isn’t it?” she said softly.

  Surprised at the empathy in the teacher’s voice, Angela nodded. Evidently Mrs. Bennett wasn’t quite as stern as she appeared. But Angela wasn’t sure why she’d called her in to read this essay. Angela couldn’t give Kayla what she wanted. Kayla’s father didn’t even know she was alive—and, because of what had happened thirteen years ago, Angela couldn’t tell him. This letter only made her feel worse because now she knew that noth
ing she could buy Kayla for Christmas would make the girl any happier.

  “She’s a…a deep child,” Angela managed to say.

  “She understands what really matters.”

  Angela sensed that Mrs. Bennett had more to say, but the teacher wasn’t quite as direct as usual. She seemed to choose her next words carefully. “You’ve already shared with me the situation that motivated you to take her in. Have you heard from her mother lately?”

  “Not for a few months.” Angela had had little contact with her friend since Stephanie had turned to prostitution in order to support her drug habit. Angela had tracked her down a number of times and tried to get her off the streets. She’d planned to put her in yet another drug rehab center. But during their last encounter, Stephanie had spent one night with them, stolen all the money out of Angela’s purse and disappeared before she and Kayla could get up in the morning. Without so much as a goodbye or an “I love you” for Kayla.

  The incident had upset Kayla so much that Angela had decided she didn’t want to see Stephanie again. She had to let go of the mother in order to save the daughter. Which was why she was selling her house. She couldn’t have Stephanie dropping in on them whenever she felt like it, disrupting Kayla’s life. Kayla had refused to come out of her room for nearly three weeks after the last visit.

  “You’ve never mentioned her father,” Mrs. Bennett said. “Do you know anything about him?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Angela lied.

  “Do you think a little research might help? Even if the circumstances surrounding Kayla’s birth weren’t good, the information might assuage the terrible hunger I sense in her through these words—and in some of her other behavior, as well.”

  Angela sensed that hunger, too. But telling Kayla about her father would start a chain reaction that could disrupt, possibly ruin, a lot of lives. Besides, Angela had promised Kayla’s late grandmother—the woman who’d provided a foster home for Angela after her parents died—that she would never tell.

  “There’s no way to find him,” she said. “I’ve tried.”

  “Recently? Because now that we have the Internet—”

  “It was a one-night stand. Her mother didn’t even know his name.” Another lie, but Mrs. Bennett seemed to buy it.

  “I see.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “It’s unfortunate.” The whole thing was unfortunate—and only one person was to blame.

  “Okay, well, we’ll continue to do what we can to make Kayla feel loved, won’t we? Thanks for coming in. I hope you both have a wonderful Christmas.”

  “Same to you,” Angela said and stood as if nothing had changed. But a thought she’d had several times in the past was stealing up on her. What if she were to take Kayla back to Virginia City for a visit? It’d been thirteen years. Surely, Matthew Jackson would never guess after so long. It would give Angela a chance to assess the situation, determine where Matt was now, what he was doing—and whether or not there was any chance he might be receptive to such a shocking secret.

  * * *

  “WHEN WILL WE GET THERE?” Kayla asked.

  “Sometime tomorrow.” Gripping the wheel with one hand, Angela turned down the Christmas music she’d put on as soon as they’d set off and glanced over at the girl who’d come to live with her fifteen months earlier. With long brown hair, wide brown eyes and a spattering of freckles, Kayla wasn’t the prettiest girl in the world. She had the knobby-kneed clumsiness often seen with lanky children who were poised for more growth—she was going to be tall, like her father—but Angela had no doubt she’d grow into a beautiful woman. Kayla held herself with a certain grace and dignity that Angela found impressive, considering everything she’d been through.

  The girl had spirit. Her mother hadn’t broken it. The kids at school hadn’t broken it. Even Kayla’s wish for something she’d probably never get hadn’t broken it.

  Angela was going to make sure nothing ever did. “MapQuest said it’d be about fifteen hours. Is that okay?”

  “It’s great,” she replied. “I didn’t realize Denver was so far from where you grew up.”

  Kayla’s excitement lessened Angela’s anxiety about returning to Virginia City. Maybe their second Christmas together would be everything she’d hoped. It certainly couldn’t be worse than the first, when Stephanie had shown up completely wasted and without a gift for Kayla. “I wish we could drive straight through, but we started too late this morning.” Last night they’d stayed up late packing, so they hadn’t gotten up as early as Angela would’ve liked.

  Kayla took a rubber tie from her wrist and pulled her thick hair into a ponytail. “We can go as far as possible before we stop, right? I’ll help keep you awake. I love long car rides.”

  Angela smiled. “So do I.”

  “Is that why we didn’t go on a plane?”

  “Partly. That and the fact that Virginia City’s a very small town. If we’d flown, we would’ve landed in Reno and then had to rent a car. And since we’ll be staying for two weeks, I’d prefer to have my own transportation.” Angela liked the flexibility having her car would provide. She and Kayla could head home anytime they wanted, without notifying anyone.

  If she found Matt happily married with a few kids, she’d probably do that sooner rather than later.

  “What if we run into a storm? Will we have to stop?” Kayla asked.

  “That depends. I brought chains, but if it’s snowing too hard, we might want to get a room and wait it out.”

  Kayla adjusted the seat belt so she could turn toward Angela. “Are you excited to see all your old friends?”

  “The few who still live there,” Angela said.

  “Almost everyone moved away?”

  “A lot of us did. Unless you run a restaurant, a store or a hotel—or you’re willing to commute twenty-five miles to Reno—it’s not easy to make a living in Virginia City.”

  “So who do you think is still there?”

  “Sheila Gilbert, a friend of mine and your mother’s from high school, according to last year’s Christmas card. Other than that, probably just a few teachers I had when I went to school and some of the older, more established folks.”

  “What about boys?”

  Angela switched lanes to go around a semi. “What about them?”

  “Won’t you want to visit some of your old boyfriends?”

  “I didn’t have a lot of boyfriends.” When her mother had died eight years after her father, Angela had only been ten years old. She’d gone to live with her aunt Rosemary, until Rosemary had fallen and broken her hip. Then Angela had moved to Virginia City to live with Betty, who was a distant relative of Rosemary’s husband and also Kayla’s grandmother. From then on, Angela had spent most of her time trying to keep Stephanie, Betty’s real daughter, out of trouble. But she didn’t add that. Neither did she admit that the one man they probably would see was the person who made her the most uneasy. She doubted Kayla’s father had moved on, like so many others, because he came from some of the earliest Irish miners to settle in Virginia City and had a lot of family in the area. And, if he’d married Danielle as everyone had expected, he’d have even more reason to stay. Her parents owned one of the nicest hotels in the Comstock region.

  Kayla studied her for a moment. “Whoever sees you is going to be impressed.”

  Angela chuckled. “Why’s that?”

  “You’re still so pretty.”

  Still? Actually, Angela had bloomed late. She’d been tall, skinny and reserved, a foil for the boisterous and impulsive Stephanie. But at least her acne was gone, she knew how to apply a little makeup and she’d gained fifteen pounds in the places she’d needed it most, so she was no longer flat and shapeless. Overall, Angela was satisfied with her appearance—and grateful to feel comfortable in her own skin. Maybe her years in sales had done that for her. She’d been marketing large office buildings since graduating with a business degree from the University of Colorado at Denver and dealt
with a wide variety of people. That experience had endowed her with confidence poor Stephanie had always lacked.

  “You dress nice,” Kayla was saying, continuing her list of Angela’s assets. “And you have a really great car. I love this car.”

  “Fortunately, it’s easier to make money in Denver than it is in Virginia City,” Angela said.

  “Is that why you moved away?”

  No, they’d moved because they’d had to leave. In a hurry. “Your nana wanted a change of pace,” she said.

  “And you were still living with her?”

  “I had my senior year to complete. But I would’ve gone even if I’d already graduated. It was time for college, so I had to go somewhere. And I wanted to help take care of you.”

  Kayla made a face. “Since my own mother can’t do anything.”

  Angela didn’t respond. She never complained about Stephanie, but she didn’t overreact if Kayla made an occasional derogatory comment. The girl had a right to her anger. Stephanie had let them all down in the worst possible way. Sometimes Angela couldn’t believe that the friend she’d loved like a sister had made the choices she’d made.

  They drove in silence for several minutes. Angela was about to turn the music back up when Kayla spoke again.

  “Do you think you’ll ever get married?”

  “Maybe.”

  “You don’t date much.” The words sounded almost accusatory.

  “I’m too busy with work.”

  “Most people go out at night,” she said. “You’re usually home by six, remember?”

  Angela shrugged. She didn’t like leaving Kayla home alone. “I’ll meet the right man eventually.”

  Kayla seemed thoughtful, almost brooding. “What if you find someone, and he doesn’t like me?”

  “I can’t imagine anyone not liking you.”

  Kayla’s attention shifted to the scenery flying past her window. “You’ve forgotten Barbie and her friends,” she said bitterly.

 
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