The Christmas Wife

by Sherry Lewis

  “That’s good news, right?”

  He grinned and opened the door for her. “Right. God willing, he’ll be raring to go in time for next year’s WinterFest, and maybe I’ll finally be able to step down.”

  Gwen looked at him. “Oh, puh-leeze. You don’t want to step down. Don’t even give me that load of horse manure. Why don’t you just admit that you’re like Dad and Grandpa and that you live for your committees?”

  “I don’t live for them,” Beau argued. “I enjoy them, but there’s a time and place for everything. This isn’t my time to be involved in all that stuff.”

  She shot him another look as she headed toward the door of her minivan. “Apparently this isn’t the time in your life to be happy, either, is it?”

  “Don’t go there, Gwen. I don’t want to talk about that in front of the kids.”

  “Really? Why not?”

  Because Brianne had become moody and sad since Molly left, and because Nicky asked about her every day. And because Beau himself had been fighting a horrible empty feeling for weeks. But he didn’t want to admit that to his sister. “Because it’s almost Christmas, and there’s nothing to talk about.”

  “Oh, there’s plenty to talk about,” Gwen said with a laugh. “You just don’t like to hear what anybody else has to say.”

  Beau put the basket on the floor of the van and climbed inside. “You know what, Gwen? You have a way of making a man wish he was under a sink with a faceful of gunk.”

  She laughed as if he’d said something wonderful. “And you have a way of not hearing anything you don’t want to hear. Face it, Beau, you blew it.”

  “You don’t get it, do you?”

  “I get that you freaked out because you realized you needed Molly in your life.” Gwen stuck the key in the ignition, but she didn’t turn it. “I get that you’re still freaked out by the idea that the great Beau Julander might need a little help now and then. But you’re right. I don’t get why you’d let a wonderful woman like Molly, a woman who was perfect for you by the way, get away because you’re too arrogant to accept a little help from time to time.”

  “Arrogant?” The word shot out of his mouth and echoed through the garage. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Well, aren’t you?”

  “Hell, no!”

  “I see.” Wearing an annoyingly superior smile, Gwen pressed the remote to open the garage door and turned the key in the ignition. When a Christmas song came to life on the stereo, she turned down the volume so she could continue railing at him. “So it’s perfectly all right for Sheldon Parker to need help, and for Hazel Simms to need help, and for me to need help from my big strong brother, but you’re above all that. Is that how it is?”

  He opened his mouth to protest, but he couldn’t get the words out.

  “You don’t mind being needed, but God forbid you should ever need anything. If that’s not arrogant,” she said, putting the car in reverse and turning her attention to the rearview mirror, “I don’t know what is.”

  Twinkling lights from neighboring houses cast a colorful glow on the snow. Gwen’s kids bounced excitedly as they waited for her to back out of the garage, but Brianne and Nicky stood a little apart, and their body language sent a pang of guilt through him. He’d brought something wonderful into their lives and then he’d chased it away again.

  Out of arrogance? Fear? Sheer stupidity?

  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and fumbled with his seat belt. “I did the right thing, Gwen. I wasn’t sure how I felt, and I didn’t let myself take advantage of her.”

  “And now?”

  Now he was about as miserable as a man could get, but how could he go to Molly and ask her to forget what he’d said? The back door slid open and kids piled inside. Beau looked away from his sister, grateful that he didn’t have to answer her. But he couldn’t evade the answer in his heart.

  He’d known for weeks that there was only one thing he wanted for Christmas. He didn’t care if she never lifted a finger around the house. It wasn’t what she’d done that had gotten under his skin, but who she was. The truth was, he loved everything about her. Her laugh. The way she listened. Her warm and generous spirit. He’d been the worst kind of fool. The very worst.

  He had no idea if she’d be willing to forgive him, but what kind of chicken-livered nothing would he be if he didn’t at least try? Not the kind he could live with, that was for damn sure.

  He nudged Gwen with his elbow. “Do you think Mom would mind if we brought another person to dinner on Christmas?”

  Gwen’s lips curved into a pleased smile. “Mom? Are you kidding? Besides, I thought Molly was an invited guest.”

  Nicky lunged into the front seat with wide, excited eyes. “Molly? Are we gonna go get Molly?”

  Beau turned so he could see Brianne. “I’d sure like to.”

  Brianne rolled her eyes, but her smile spoke a lot louder. “Well, duh! It’s about time. I can’t believe how long it takes you to figure things out.”

  Laughing, Beau turned up the radio and sang along. He didn’t even care that he couldn’t carry a tune and only knew half the words. A guy couldn’t be perfect, after all.

  “YES. YES, OF COURSE I’m still planning to be there.” Working automatically, Molly saved the changes she’d made to the Ruby Lane Creations Web site and glanced at the clock above her desk. “I said I’d be there at four, and I’m planning to spend the evening in the oncology ward. Did you need me earlier?”

  “Four o’clock is fine,” the hospital’s public-relations coordinator assured her. “It’s just that we always get a number of volunteers on a day like today, but too many of them ‘forget’ and never show up. I’m just following up to make sure you’re still planning to be here.”

  Molly rubbed her eyes and rotated her head to work the kinks out of her neck. “I meant to ask when I called the first time. Is there anything special I need to bring with me?”

  “Just yourself. We have plenty of books and games. The important thing is to be here. You can imagine how difficult a day like today is on kids who are stuck in the hospital.”

  “I’m sure it is.”

  “If you want to bring a friend, feel free. The more the merrier, I always say.”

  Molly stood and stretched. “I’ll keep that in mind.” In case she stumbled across some poor soul with nowhere else to be.

  “Just park in the back near the west entrance,” the coordinator went on in a voice full of holiday cheer. “Come up to the fourth floor and introduce yourself at the nurses’ station. They’ll take you where you need to go from there. And thank you, Molly. You won’t regret doing this.”

  “I’m sure I won’t.” When she hung up, she wondered what the nurse would say if she knew how badly Molly needed this. She turned back to the computer, but the sound of voices singing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” caught her attention and kept her from immersing herself back in her work.

  She ignored the twinge of melancholy and decided to try for a little Christmas spirit. She was tired of feeling sorry for herself, and she didn’t want to show up at the hospital wearing a long face. That wouldn’t be fair to the kids.

  Going over to the window, she glanced outside, but she couldn’t see anyone at the building across the way or even down the road. The voices grew louder. Closer. Almost as if they were coming from her own front porch. A sign, maybe, that she needed to pull out of her funk and get her head on straight.

  One of the singers, a man, went wildly off-key and the group broke off in a fit of laughter that sounded too much like Beau and the kids. She must be going crazy.

  Settling back in her chair, she reopened the file she’d been working on, but before it could load completely, the doorbell chimed and the singing began again. Still off-key. Still painfully familiar.

  She stood again and realized she was trembling. Get a grip, she told herself sternly. It couldn’t possibly be them. But as she hurried through her silent apartment her heart lodged in her throat
as if it thought there was a chance.

  Over and over she told herself not to hope for the impossible, but none of her warnings did a bit of good. Tears blurred her eyes before she could get to the door, and she knew that even if a miracle hadn’t happened—even if she spent Christmas alone—she was going to find a way back to Serenity before the new year.

  Hoping desperately, she threw open the door. The three most beautiful faces in the world swam into focus, but she still didn’t let herself believe. She could just be wishing so hard that she was turning complete strangers into the family her heart ached for.

  The singing came to an abrupt halt and Nicky threw himself at her, grabbing her legs so tightly she nearly lost her balance. Brianne didn’t move, but the hope on her face filled Molly’s heart with love and happiness.

  And Beau…

  She couldn’t see him because her vision was too blurred with tears, but he was there. She could tell, even though she couldn’t see his face. She just knew that she was lost. Or maybe she’d been found.

  “Molly.”

  She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t speak. She held Nicky’s head against her and let the love she’d been hiding from for so long swell within her. She could hear Cassandra’s words playing softly in the back of her mind. They were family. She knew it as certainly as she knew her name. It didn’t matter how they got that way.

  Dashing tears from her eyes, she blinked at Beau. She wanted to tell him…everything. All the things she’d realized about home and family and love. All the things she’d spent so many years running away from. All the things she was finally ready to turn around and embrace.

  He came toward her and took her hand. His voice was gentle, but that sense of humor she loved so much was front and center. “Aw, shoot, kids. She’s crying! And I was hoping she’d be glad to see us.”

  Molly laughed through her tears, but his little joke was just what she needed to pull herself together. “You’re really here? I can’t believe it. You’re really and truly here? But how…? Did you drive? Fly? How did you manage this?”

  “You’re forgetting I have friends in high places. Of course, even they can’t swing airline tickets on Christmas Eve, so we’ve been driving all night. But it all worked out. I called Heather and let her know we were coming. I offered to let her meet us here if she wanted to, and she agreed. I was hoping maybe you’d let me hang around while she and the kids spend a few hours together.”

  “She’s coming here?”

  “Well, not here. I’m meeting her at a motel in town. I’d have waited until we got home, but I thought neutral territory might be a good thing—and besides, I didn’t know how long it would take to convince you to talk to me again.”

  “Apparently not long,” Molly said with a laugh. She reached for Brianne and pulled her into a hug. The girl melted against her and wrapped her arms around her. Molly knew they’d bridged the final gap.

  Beau leaned against one wall and crossed one foot over the other, whistling softly and looking around with exaggerated patience. After a minute he leaned up and tapped Brianne’s shoulder. “You’ll let me know when it’s my turn?”

  “Oh, Daddy.” Brianne sniffed loudly and loosened her grip on Molly, but she grinned and the light in her eyes was so beautiful it was all Molly could do to keep from crying again. “He’s got something he wants to ask you,” she whispered to Molly.

  “Oh?”

  Beau straightened slowly. “So…what are your plans for the rest of the day?”

  She laughed in disbelief. “Nothing set in stone, except that I promised to read to some kids at the children’s hospital.”

  “Need some help?”

  “That would be nice.”

  He put one hand in the pocket of his coat and took Molly’s hand with the other. But there he stopped and sent a pointed look in Nicky’s direction. The boy drew out a sprig of what must have been mistletoe and stood on his toes, trying to hold it over Molly’s head.

  Molly bit back a smile, but the joy surging through her was so complete it was almost impossible to maintain a serious expression. After his first question, she was prepared for almost anything.

  He dropped to one knee and looked up at her. “And what are your plans for the rest of your life?”

  “Nothing set in stone.”

  He grinned and her heart melted. “I’ve been a fool,” he said. “Everybody I know has been telling me so since you left Serenity, but I knew it all the time. I don’t have much to offer. Just one old farmhouse, a cabin to run your business out of, two great kids…and me.” He held out a small black box and his eyes locked on hers. “I love you, Molly. The kids love you. We want you to come back.”

  Her heart was so full it hurt. “I love you, too. All of you.”

  Nicky nearly dropped his mistletoe. “Then you’ll come home?”

  Brianne elbowed him before Molly could answer. “Let Dad ask her, you dweeb.”

  Molly was afraid her heart would burst. “Yes, of course I’ll come back.”

  Nicky let out a whoop and Brianne nudged Beau with her knee. “You’re supposed to kiss her, Dad.”

  Casting a look of mock exasperation at his daughter, Beau got to his feet and drew her close. “All this help… Maybe I should have come alone, but I wanted to stack the deck in my favor.” He kissed her, and the joy in Molly’s heart filled her entire soul. His lips were warm and his breath slightly minty. He was familiar and exciting at the same time, and she hoped she’d never lose this feeling.

  Too soon he drew away and gazed down at her, love in his eyes. “Marry me. Please. Come home where you belong.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, and the last remaining empty space in her heart filled. “Let’s go home.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-3665-3

  THE CHRISTMAS WIFE

  Copyright © 2003 by Sherry Lewis.

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