A Heartwarming Christmas: A Boxed Set of Twelve Sweet Holiday Romances

by Melinda Curtis

  “I was engaged once,” she admitted, handing him the cash box. “Really nice guy.”

  “What happened?” Ted was willing to bet her engagement hadn’t fallen apart over a pregnant ex-girlfriend. City folk had a different set of values.

  “Randy wanted to settle down, and have a family. And I…” She stood, smiling in that way she had, like nothing bad ever happened to her. It didn’t fool Ted. “I was too caught up in buying and selling businesses. I’m kind of like a business flipper. I don’t think I’ll ever marry.”

  This was good. Great even. Chloe was focused on her career. Ted was focused on laying the foundation for the next ten generations of Lincolns. He didn’t have time for romantic complications. The only way their paths would cross was through a sales transaction.

  “How’s buying and selling working out for you?” he asked.

  “Not so good, actually.”

  An opening. Ted could barely breathe. His brain raced through calculations. He might be able to sell the back-up tractor and increase his offer. “Ninety-two thousand.”

  Her smile faded. “I told you before. The mill isn’t for sale. Not to you.”

  “Don’t dream of riches, Chloe,” Ted said flatly. “At your price, it’ll take years to find the right buyer.”

  Chapter 6

  Marnie would be livid that Chloe had turned down Ted again.

  Let Marnie be livid. There was a reason Dad had left the mill to Chloe. Dad had excelled at turning lemons into lemonade. It required patience and courage. He’d believed in her. Maybe she couldn’t figure out how to fix and flip the mill, but she could pass it on to someone who would. There had to be someone out there other than Teddy who wanted to buy the place.

  That’s where they’d made love. That’s where Teddy said he loved her. And the next morning, that’s where he told her he had to marry Gwen.

  Selling the mill to him would be like saying she forgave him. Chloe had been lugging the tote with supplies out the back entrance of the mercantile. She stumbled to a stop on the snow-covered steps.

  She’d been telling herself for years she was over Teddy, and maybe that was true. But she’d never forgiven him. She’d never…

  Her nose stung, and not from the cold. Tears filled her eyes.

  She hadn’t forgiven Teddy for choosing Gwen over her, hadn’t forgiven him for facing his responsibilities, or letting his marriage fail. If Teddy couldn’t be with Chloe, she’d much rather have lost out to a forever kind of love. Instead, way down deep in the bottom-most corner of her heart, she’d held on to the thought that Teddy’s divorce meant he still loved her.

  Which clearly wasn’t true. He hadn’t sought her out when he was free. He hadn’t found her in Boston and fallen at her feet, begging for absolution. Instead, he’d gone on with his life, proving that those words he’d spoken in the mill – those precious words of love – had been uttered in the heat of passion. He didn’t love her with the soul-wrenching emotion she felt for him.

  Forgive him and sell, Marnie’s voice echoed in her head.

  Forgive him and move on, Noelle’s voice echoed in her head.

  But Chloe couldn’t. She'd been cast aside once too often. Those wounds didn't heal.

  “You never tell me you love me anymore.”

  Chloe was brought back to the present by Abigail’s voice.

  “You know how I feel about you. I don’t need to say it.” Classic male denial.

  Chloe glanced around the rapidly emptying parking lot.

  Lights illuminated the steady snowfall, cars blanketed in snow, shoppers heading home, and a couple near the mercantile wall. That couple...It was Abigail and her social media obsession – Frank Farasi. He was classically handsome with chiseled features and glossy black hair. He stood an arm’s length away from Abigail.

  Why wasn’t the young mom using her scowling powers to kick that boy to the curb with her teal boots? Instead, Abigail’s face was nearly frozen from her effort not to cry. Over a jerk who could get her pregnant, but not tell her he loved her? Chloe had the strongest urge to march over there and tell that loser to hit the road.

  But this wasn’t her fight.

  She moved down the steps, turned away from the couple, and heaved the tub into the back of Teddy’s pickup. She touched the dent near the “D” on the tailgate. She’d put that there with Teddy’s bat the morning he’d broken her heart. She’d needed to vent, to scream, to hit. It was either take the Louisville Slugger to Teddy’s truck or his head. So many years had passed and he hadn’t fixed the dent.

  Don’t go thinking that’s romantic, her brain warned. He probably didn’t have the money.

  Teddy appeared at her side, hefting an empty barrel into the truck like it was a super duper-size package of toilet paper. The man had some muscles. “Some days, I wish Abigail would marry Frank.” He nodded toward the still-arguing couple. “It’d be easier on the rest of us if they acted like adults.” He sighed heavily. “Other days, I hope she comes to her senses and moves on. He isn’t ready to be a husband or a dad.”

  “Like you were?” Chloe murmured. She’d have to give Teddy props for one thing. He’d been willing to try being a young parent.

  In her mind’s eye, Chloe saw her own mom and dad the day they’d said goodbye – the pimple on her father’s chin, the streaks of mascara running down her mother’s young cheeks. They’d been teenagers, like Abigail. Naïve, like Abigail. Totally unprepared for an energetic, precocious child like Chloe.

  Although she was grateful to have found parents who loved her, Chloe had never completely forgiven her natural parents for giving her up. And she certainly didn't want to know if they'd had other children. Lizzie was lucky she had one parent who loved her enough to stick it out.

  “Frank was a high school senior and Abigail barely a sophomore when they got pregnant.” Teddy climbed into the truck bed and shifted the large apple barrels closer together. “They snuck around. He knew it was wrong. He didn’t even come with her to tell us. I think in his mind, it was her mistake.”

  “Oh.” Poor Abigail.

  “Why won’t you come and see Lizzie?” Abigail wailed. “You’re her father.”

  Teddy turned, fists clenched, nostrils flaring, as if very little held him from leaping to the ground, racing to his sister, and pummeling Frank.

  “Because…because…” Frank scowled at Abigail. “You don’t understand anything.” He walked away.

  Abigail’s thin shoulders slumped and her frozen expression cracked. But only for a moment. And then she drew a shuddering breath, wiped her cheek, and collected herself.

  Chloe envied Abigail’s strength, while simultaneously wishing the teen didn’t need to draw on it.

  Teddy turned slowly back to adjusting his load. “I never know if she really needs me.”

  “She’ll let you know. She’s stronger than you think. She just needs to accept the reality that he doesn’t love her.” And probably never would. She sincerely hoped Abigail could learn in a less painful way than Chloe had from Teddy.

  “Young drama is exhausting.” His smile was rueful. “I feel about a hundred years old. Since my dad’s accident I’ve had to run everything. And for the first time, I’m looking at the books and it’s not pretty.”

  Chloe felt a familiar, entrepreneurial tug. She loved reshaping businesses into something better, taking chances and trying new things.

  And hadn’t that worked out well for her?

  “Do you need a ride home, Chloe?” Teddy asked.

  “No. I’ve got Dad’s car.” Living in downtown Boston, she didn’t own a vehicle. Chloe hugged her jacket tighter about her shoulders. Was that why she’d misread the car wash market? Hindsight sucked. “See you tomorrow.” But when Chloe got into Dad’s reliable old sedan, the engine didn’t turn over.

  She rushed to flag Teddy down as he was pulling out of the parking lot.

  Abigail sat in the passenger seat, looking as unhappy as she had that morning.

&nbs
p; “It’s probably the battery,” Teddy said. “I don't have jumper cables with me and you won't be able to buy a new battery in town until the morning. Get in.”

  Abigail slid over on the bench seat and Chloe climbed in beside her. The silence between the siblings was uncomfortable as they drove through the town square. Had Teddy said something to Abigail before Chloe got in the car? Had Abigail finally seen something on social media that convinced her Frank was out of rach?

  Chloe had to know. “Was that your baby daddy back there?”

  “Frank is my fiancé.” Abigail crossed her arms over her chest. “No one seems to understand that.”

  “If you don’t have a ring, you’re not engaged.” Teddy clearly did not approve of the fiancé label.

  “We can’t afford a ring.” There was a big heavy “duh” in that statement, as if they’d had this argument before.

  “He proposed?” Chloe half turned her back against the cold metal door. “How romantic. Tell me about it.”

  They passed Two Sticks Farm, the lights outlining the buildings cheery in the snow-covered night. Inside the truck, it wasn’t so cheery.

  “He didn’t actually propose.” Abigail squirmed. “We just decided…you know…because of Lizzie.” She shrugged. “You have to marry the father of your child.”

  “Last I heard, that’s not a law.” Teddy was about as sympathetic to his sister’s plight as a fox to a chicken who’d ventured too far into the woods.

  “It’s what you did, Ted, and it’s what’s right.” Abigail firmed her voice. “I’m not giving up on Lizzie’s father. Frank loves me. He just…He loves me.”

  “Let me add a word to your vocabulary: divorce,” Teddy said. “It’s what happens to adults when they can’t stomach telling someone they once thought they loved, ‘I love you’.”

  “I know I’m going to regret sharing this,” Chloe said carefully, because she was treading on toes here. Not that she hadn’t already stomped on Abigail’s booted ones during their shift. “But I, like Lizzie, was a high school baby. My teen parents tried marriage and failed. They put me up for adoption. My biological mother sends me a Christmas card every year.”

  “I’m not giving up Lizzie.” The determination in Abigail’s voice rattled the cab more than the occasional patch of rutted ice beneath the tires.

  “But Frank already has,” Teddy said softly, turning onto Chapel Way.

  “That’s not true,” Abigail said staunchly.

  The cold from the door seeped deeper, settling into Chloe’s very bones. Had this been a conversation Chloe’s mother had with her family? How hard had her parents fought to keep her? Or to stay together? She’d been four when they gave her up and had spent three years in foster care before the Wrights adopted her.

  “Abs,” Teddy said, slowing the truck as they approached the mill. “If he loves you, why didn’t he take Mom up on her offer to move in with us? Why isn’t he kissing the ground you walk on?”

  “He’s in college,” Abigail wailed.

  “Ah, he went away to school.” Things fell into place for Chloe. The reason Frank wouldn’t tell Abigail he loved her. The reason he wanted nothing to do with his child.

  “Yes, he went away to Boston College.” Abigail sniffed. “What’s it to you?”

  “There are lots of pretty girls at college,” Chloe said baldly, watching the shadowy outline of the mill as they passed. “Girls without babies. Is that why you’re glued to your cell phone? Trying to make sure he’s not flirting with another girl online?”

  “You don’t know him.” But Abigail didn’t deny it, and her lower lip trembled in the dashboard light.

  “You’re right,” Chloe said gently. “I don’t know him. But I know what it’s like to be young and in love and to lose a guy to another girl. It feels like the end of the world.” And at the end of the world, girls with broken hearts turned into bitter, defensive bat-wielding beasts. Ones who couldn’t find it in their hearts to forgive.

  Chloe sighed, suddenly tired.

  Teddy parked in front of the house. “Let him go, Abigail.”

  “I hate you. I hate you both!” But she was stuck between them in the truck.

  Chloe got out, surprised when Teddy came around to walk her to the door. “It’s not like we’re on a date,” she grumbled, although her heart pounded faster at the thought of a kiss.

  Her grumble fell on deaf ears. “Thank you for telling Abigail about your past. She’s never heard a perspective like yours before.” He fell into step beside her, walking through the fresh snow up to the front steps. “I want her to go to college.”

  “Can you afford that?” Chloe wondered aloud, immediately regretting her lack of filter. “Sorry. All that juggling must have burned out the lock on my motor mouth.”

  “I can afford it if you sell me the mill.” There was a smile in his voice, the kind one friend gives to another.

  Chloe refused to look at him. “That’s a lie.”

  He chuckled, the sound filling her chest with warmth. “I can afford to help her pay off student loans in four years when she graduates.”

  “Have you told her that?” Chloe glanced over her shoulder at Teddy’s truck. Abigail’s face was illuminated by her phone. “Hearing you say it would probably build her confidence. It’s hard to pick yourself up after you make big mistakes.”

  “Is it?” He held Chloe’s arm up the steps, releasing her as soon as they both stood on the covered front porch. “Growing up, you always managed to pick yourself up after a fall.”

  “I had my parents. My dad’s support was huge.” Chloe’s smile felt forced. “And I might have been an emotional wreck once or twice if not for Noelle and Marnie.”

  “You’ll be all right this time, too.”

  “How do you know?” she whispered, searching his brown eyes for reassurance.

  “Because…” He touched her chin, so briefly, with such warmth, she almost fell into his arms. “Abigail isn’t the only one who’s strong. Maybe if you just slow down and look at things differently, you’ll work through whatever’s holding you back.”

  She did fall into his arms then, wrapping hers around him.

  It was middle school all over again, just like the time she’d run into him backstage at a choir rehearsal. She’d thrown her arms around Teddy and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He’d jerked away with a scowl, and pretended nothing had happened.

  Chloe felt his shoulders stiffen. She heaved a sigh of disappointment, girding herself to give an apology and receive his rejection.

  Only this time, he didn’t pull away. He hugged her back, pulling her close. He hadn’t held her like this in more than ten years. Not since the mill.

  “It’s okay,” he said.

  But she heard, “I love you.”

  Chloe went stiff as an icicle. Deep down, she still wanted…him.

  What a fool!

  She freed herself from the mess she’d made, bolted into the house, and slammed the door behind her.

  “Chloe? Is that you?” Marnie called from the kitchen. “What are you slamming the door for?”

  “It got caught in the wind. Sorry.” Her heart was pounding. Stupid-stupid-stupid. That was not the message she wanted to send Teddy. That she was available. That she wanted his kiss. That she still loved him.

  But that embrace…

  She was no longer in middle school. She couldn’t read more into his gesture than friendship.

  Oh, man. She was in trouble. She had to show up for work in the morning and pretend they were friends.

  “I hate when that happens,” Marnie said. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

  “Be right there.” Chloe listened to Teddy's truck pull away, but it took her legs several minutes to feel steady enough to take her to the kitchen.

  Chapter 7

  Marnie poked her head into Dad’s office after dinner. “Want some pie?”

  “No, thanks. I need to eat healthy.” Chloe picked up an apple on the desk. Her head hurt from thinki
ng about her debt. Her heart ached every time she thought about Abigail. And Teddy’s hug? It had her all tied up in knots.

  Friend-friend-friend. It was her new mantra.

  “Find anything interesting?” Marnie leaned against the doorframe.

  “In the stacks of household bills going back seven years?” Chloe pointed to her to-be-shredded pile. “Only that Dad was a meticulous record keeper.” She set the apple back down and plucked a bill from the top of the stack. “Here’s what he wrote on the electric bill from five years ago. ‘Remind Doris not to do laundry during peak usage hours.’” She smiled. “What do you think Mom said to that?”

  Marnie came closer to look for herself. “Bunk and hooey?”

  Mom had been against swear words.

  Smiling, Chloe put the bill back in the shred pile. “It must be great to be so in love with someone that you put up with the nagging and quirks for fifty years.”

  “I don’t think Mom and Dad would have described their marriage with the term ‘put up with’.” Marnie gestured to a picture of the couple during the town’s Christmas pageant a few years ago, arms around each other and smiling as if it was their wedding day, not forty years or so later. “Although they did balance each other out. Dad was a strategic thinker. Mom was a free spirit.”

  “Dad was meticulous. Mom didn’t mind dust.”

  “You’ve got mail,” Noelle yelled as she let herself into the house. “I’ve always wanted to say that. Where is everyone?”

  “Dad’s office,” Marnie called back.

  Noelle paused in the office doorway, looking grim. “So it’s begun. Finally, someone’s clearing out Dad’s things.”

  “It’s what you want, isn’t it?” Chloe asked. “So you can move in?” But it felt as if cleaning out his things meant Dad was really gone.

  Noelle handed the mail to Marnie, and then drilled Chloe with a hard look. “You should have told us sooner, Chloe.”

  “About the lien?” The knots in her stomach doubled at the worry lining her sisters’ brows. “I kept thinking Dad would give me some sort of clue, some whispered word of advice, before it came to this.”