by Liz Talley
Caleb quieted and Tango stopped shaking. Mary Paige looked at Brennan, who lowered his arms and swallowed hard. Her heart started thumping almost as hard as Tango’s. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugged, spreading his hands apart. “Uh, I came to wish you a Merry Christmas.”
“Who are you?” Freda said, rising from the rug where she’d landed in an effort to catch one of the dogs.
“I’m Brennan Henry.” He scooped up brightly wrapped gifts he’d obviously dropped when chaos reigned. He wore a long-sleeved button-down shirt, jeans, running shoes…and were those Christmas socks? “Sorry about Izzy. I’m dogsitting her and couldn’t leave her at my apartment. I’ll pay for the ornaments.”
Her mother took his hand, casting a look at Mary Paige before saying, “I’m Freda Gentry, and I don’t really give a rat’s ass about those ornaments. Got ’em at the dollar store.”
“Oh, good to know they weren’t heirlooms.”
Mary Paige spied the smashed ornaments. One was an heirloom. She glanced at her mother, who had that expression that said “let it go.”
“What are you doing here?” Mary Paige asked again, shifting Tango to her hip as Izzy sniffed about her feet.
“I needed to talk to you.” He seemed as comfortable as a prisoner faced with the hangman’s noose. “Maybe we could talk outside?”
Freda walked to the door and pushed it closed. “It’s too cold to talk outside. Plus, Mary’s in her nightgown. Better take this into the kitchen.”
Caleb grunted and flailed his arms before thumping one on the tray affixed to his table. He’d removed the computer and voice synthesizer he used when at school because both Freda and Mary Paige understood him through modified sign language, which he used now.
“Let’s go ahead and open, Mom.” Mary Paige bent to grab Izzy’s lead then handed it to Brennan. “Caleb wants to open gifts, and we’ve already made him wait while we fixed coffee and let Tango out. Talking will have to wait.”
Her voice was firm because she was still mad at him. Still hurt by his actions…and inactions.
He nodded. “Sure. I brought some gifts, though I wasn’t exactly sure what your brother or mother might like.”
“Put them under the tree,” Mary Paige said, setting Tango down near Izzy. “Make friends, Tango, and stop being such a wuss.”
While Tango and Izzy eyed one another, Freda swept the shattered glass. Brennan perched on the couch, still looking like he faced execution. Caleb grew still and watched Brennan, fighting against his twitching muscles to achieve some sort of coolness.
“Brennan, this is my brother, Caleb.”
“Nice to meet you, Caleb,” Brennan said, stepping over to Caleb, who extended his hand. Brennan shook it, overlooking the way Caleb’s arm jerked spasmodically.
Her brother made a few guttural sounds and then signed to Mary Paige. “He said ‘back at you’ and he likes your hat.”
Brennan smiled, touching the elf hat as if he’d forgotten he wore it, and resumed his position on the couch, keeping one eye on Izzy and darting measuring glances in Mary Paige’s direction. She tried to ignore him, but failed, of course. How could a girl clad in a homespun gown and reindeer socks ignore the man she loved sitting in her mother’s living room wearing a ridiculous-looking hat?
“Okay, so let’s do this,” her mother said, returning from the kitchen and scooping up both the coffee mugs, handing one to Mary Paige. “Brennan, if you’d like some coffee, there’s some in the kitchen along with cinnamon rolls. Help yourself.”
“No, thank you,” he said, looking at Mary Paige again.
She jerked her chin toward her brother. “Start with Caleb first. Give him mine.”
Freda lifted the large box onto the tray and helped Caleb tear open the paper. When he saw the gaming system, he got excited, jerking and signing his happiness.
“You’re welcome,” Mary Paige said, pointing at the separate box taped to the side. “That’s an EPOC specially modified for gamers with disabilities. It should sync with your computers and your chair, or at least that’s what the sales guy said.”
Freda looked up. “Spendy gift, Mary.”
“You haven’t seen yours yet, Ma.”
Her mother wagged a finger. “You know the rules yet you’re breaking them.” The Gentry family never spent more than fifty dollars on Christmas gifts to each other, electing instead to make donations to local charities.
“I like to break rules. Open yours.”
Freda picked up the small box wrapped in Christmas puppy paper. She jerked the bow off, removed the wrap then tugged the lid off.
Mary Paige leaned forward in anticipation, her stomach fluttering nervously as she watched her mother’s face. It, perhaps, was the best present Mary Paige had ever received from her mother—a look of befuddlement and then utter disbelief.
“Oh, my goodness,” Freda said, looking at Mary Paige. “This is a check.”
Mary Paige grinned, clapped her hands and leaped toward her mother. “Isn’t it fantastic?”
Freda rose on trembling legs and grabbed her daughter’s hands and jumped up and down like a small child. “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! It’s for one-point-five million dollars made out to the Crosshatch Charter School!”
Mary Paige jumped with her, laughing like a loon. Both the dogs started barking and Freda spun toward Caleb. “Look, Caleb, it’s the money for the school, baby! It’s for your school!”
Caleb hit a button on his electric scooter chair, sending it spinning in circles, and they all laughed, jumped, spun and cried.
Finally, Freda pulled Mary Paige into a tight hug. “Oh, my sweet girl, you don’t know what this means to me. To the school. I gotta call Marjorie and tell her. She’s going to flip. This means we can start in the spring. Oh, my Lord!”
Freda gave her a final squeeze and ran into the kitchen.
Mary Paige winked at her brother and then turned toward the couch. What she saw nearly brought her to her knees.
Brennan was crying.
Actually crying.
His gray eyes had filled with huge tears that splashed onto those beautifully hewn cheeks.
“Brennan,” she said, walking to him. “Are you okay? Is it your grandfather?”
He shook his head and swiped a hand across his face. “No, he’s better. In fact, he’ll be home tomorrow. It’s just I—I— Shit.”
She sat next to him, feeling her brother’s eyes watching their every move. “Brennan?”
He turned a gaze so raw, so powerful, on her. “I’m a total asshole.”
Caleb laughed.
“Okay, let’s go into my bedroom. I’m not having this conversation in front of my brother—” she glared at Caleb, who pushed a button on his chair to make a honking sound “—who’s being a total butthead considering I just gave his charter school a lot of money.”
Caleb honked again.
“Watch the dogs, Caleb,” she said, tugging on the arm of a too-emotional Brennan. “Come on, Bren.”
Brennan leaned forward and gave his head a shake as if he might clear it before rising, not even bothering to wipe his face. Mary Paige led him to her room, which was a total disaster since she’d been living out of the suitcase for a few days, had left wrapping paper and scissors on the floor and her bed was unmade.
She closed the door and turned to him. “Now what’s going on? Why are you here?”
Brennan looked as if he wanted to pull her into his arms but instead, curled his hands and jabbed them into his pockets. “I’m an asshole.”
“So you’ve said.”
He frowned slightly but nodded. “I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
“Nope, you shouldn’t have. Did you think that…that…miserable man would interest me?”
“Why not? I’m a sad man, but you were interested in me.”
Mary Paige sank onto her unmade bed and ran her hands over the bedspread that had seen better days. This was the room she’d grown up in, still holdin
g the remnants of her childhood along with a couple of sewing projects her mother had started and left in various stages of progress. It was as jumbled as her heart. “You’re different, Brennan. Unfortunately, you can’t see that.”
He looked as if he might cry again. He really was a sad, sad man. Mary Paige sighed. “I can’t fix you, you know.”
“I know,” he said, lowering himself beside her. “But maybe I’m ready to fix myself.”
“I could be a lot more serious about this conversation if you’d take that elf hat off.”
He touched the hat again and smiled slightly. “I don’t want to take it off because I want to be changed.”
“Changed?”
“Like Ebenezer Scrooge,” he said, lifting one of his pant legs. “I even wore your socks. Stole them from Grandfather’s drawer.”
“Those are hideous socks.” What did he mean by being like Ebenezer Scrooge? He couldn’t merely wake up on Christmas morning and think putting on an elf hat and holiday socks made everything right.
“I had this epiphany—”
“Did three ghosts come for a visit?”
“In a way, yeah. These past few weeks I’ve seen my past and my present, and neither was very…pleasing. But last night, as I stood in my cousin’s hotel room, I saw my future…and I didn’t like the way it looked. It was cold, loveless and most importantly, Mary Paige–less. I don’t want to live that life. I really, really don’t.”
She studied him, her heart kick-starting a little, even as her mind reminded her he’d so easily set her aside. “You hurt me.”
“I know I did, and I wish I hadn’t. I do, Mary Paige. I wish I had been as strong as you, as outraged as you, but past hurts clogged my vision. And you’ve been right all along—I’m scared and my fear has made me a hard man.”
“But not irredeemable,” she said. “You are the only person who can change yourself.”
“But don’t you understand? I have changed. These past few weeks have opened my eyes to who I was. I wasn’t the worst person on the planet, but I wasn’t even close to being the best. I lived blind and you smacked me out of it. The thing is, Mary Paige, you sort of saved me from myself.”
“I’m not a miracle worker,” she said, crossing her arms and feeling a strong urge to make him see who she actually was. It was as though everyone held a misguided perception about her and she needed Brennan especially to know the real her. “Everyone acts like I’m some angel, like this whole Spirit thing was all I am. But I’m no angel. I’m a woman, flesh and blood, and I make mistakes, screw things up, fall down and show an entire office my underwear. I once put Tabasco sauce on my dog’s tongue just to see what he’d do. I have an evil side, a mean side, a petty side. So don’t put me up on a pedestal and don’t treat me like some—”
She couldn’t talk anymore because he was kissing her, and in spite of the fact he’d broken her heart, it felt pretty dang amazing.
His hands slid over her face, cupping her jaw, bringing her to him as if he could drink from her…and she really dug the whole desperate-kiss thing. She was a sucker for romance, for sweet kisses on Christmas morning…for Brennan Henry.
He broke the kiss, pushing back her hair and looking deep into her eyes. “Thing is, Mary Paige, I know that already and it makes me love you all the more. You get it?”
She shook her head.
“Let me show you again.”
He kissed her again, and this time it wasn’t desperate. It was beautiful. As though all Brennan’s hopes, desires and dreams were poured into that one kiss. She didn’t feel it down to her toes this time. She felt it in her heart.
He pulled back. “You see now?”
“Huh?”
“I love you, Mary Paige. I do. Every time I think of you, my heart squeezes. Sometimes it’s with love or desire. Other times it’s with frustration or pain. But no matter, I feel something every second I’m with you.”
“Brennan,” she breathed, brushing his face with her hand, caressing him with her gaze. No one had ever said such things to her before. And not only said them, but also showed them. Emotion poured from this man who’d once been encased in ice.
“Say you’ll forgive me for being an asshole. Say you’ll come back to New Orleans and eat popcorn on my couch with me.”
“I do like popcorn,” she said, feeling something akin to awe flooding her, filling up all the corners of her heart. Brennan loved her.
Brennan loved her.
“Say you’ll marry me, complete me, stay with me…even if I can sometimes be an ass.”
“Marry you? Seriously?”
He dropped down onto his knee and yelped.
She looked over the side of the bed as he pulled the scissors from beneath his knee, grimacing as he tossed them aside.
“This is so not going as I planned,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a ring.
“Oh, Jiminy,” she said, staring at the prefect, not-so-small diamond winking in the morning light. “This is kind of sudden.”
“No, it’s not. When you meet the person who makes you want to be better, stronger and kinder to not only others, but to yourself, you don’t want to waste a single second of time without her. I screwed up when I walked out of the room several nights ago, but I won’t ever walk away from you again. If I do, you have permission to pick up the nearest heavy object and brain me.”
Mary Paige pressed her lips together and tried not to laugh at this man wearing the elf hat, holding out the huge diamond and giving her permission to hit him when he got out of line.
“Now, I want to put this ring on your finger, but you’ve got to tell me if you want it. If you want me.”
Smiling, Mary Paige slid off the bed so quickly she accidentally tumbled gracelessly to the floor. She overshot a little and hit her elbow on the sewing machine that sat beside the bedside table. “Ow.”
He grabbed her arm and tugged her so she didn’t hit the table and the ring flew under the bed. They both dived for it and ended up bumping heads.
“Ow,” they said at the same time, before Brennan started laughing. “This is ridiculous.”
She wrapped her arms around him, giggling as she kicked aside the wrapping paper. He pulled the ring out, blew dust off it and held it up.
“So?”
“So I love you and put it on already,” she said, holding up her left hand.
His eyes turned to soft gray cashmere. “Yeah?’
She nodded. “Yeah.”
He put the ring on her finger and lowered his head to kiss her. She met him halfway, which shifted him off balance, and he tumbled onto the hooked rug taking her with him, one of his hands sliding around her back while the other trailed toward her bottom.
Mary Paige felt the whoosh of the door opening, but didn’t stop kissing Brennan.
“My lord,” her mother said as the door banged against the wall. “What are y’all—”
Mary Paige’s left hand shot straight up, and she didn’t stop kissing Brennan, who tasted like coffee, salty tears and a man who’d love her forever.
“Oh, my God!” her mother shouted, obviously catching sight of the ring.
Then the two dogs ran in barking as Freda kept saying, “Oh, my God” over and over again.
Brennan broke the kiss and looked up at Mary Paige with a smile. “Merry Christmas.”
She smiled back right before Izzy’s tongue caught Brennan right in the mouth.
“Ew,” he said, making a horrible face and pushing the dog away as he sat up with her still in his lap. “Gross. Dog spit.”
Mary Paige laughed. “Bah, humbug.”
He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight. “I thought it ended with ‘God bless us, everyone’?”
“Yeah, that, too.” And then she kissed him in spite of the dog spit because he was a man who’d learned to keep Christmas in his heart…and she loved him.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Road to Bayou Bridge by
Liz Talley!
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CHAPTER ONE
August 2012
Naval Station, Rota, Spain
THE PAPER ACTUALLY SHOOK in Darby Dufrene’s hand—that’s how shocked he was by the document he’d discovered in a box of old papers. He’d been looking for the grief book he’d made as a small child and instead had found something that made his gut lurch against his ribs.
“Dude, come on. The driver needs to go.” Hal Severson’s voice echoed in the half-full moving truck parked below the flat Darby had shared with the rotund navy chaplain for the past several years. His roommate had waited semi-good-naturedly while Darby climbed inside to grab the book before it was shipped to Seattle, but good humor had limits.
“Just a sec,” Darby called, his eyes refusing to leave the elaborate font of the certificate he’d pulled from a clasped envelope trapped in the back of his Bayou Bridge Reveille yearbook. How in the hell had this escaped his attention? Albeit it had been buried in with some old school papers he’d tossed aside over ten years ago and vowed never to look at again, surely the state of Louisiana seal would have permeated his brain and screamed, Open me!
Yet, back then he’d been in a funk—a childish, rebellious huff of craptastic proportions. He probably hadn’t thought about much else except the pity party he’d been throwing himself.
The moving truck’s engine fired and a loud roar rumbled through the trailer, vibrating the wood floor. The driver was eager to pick up the rest of his load, presumably a navy family heading back to the States, and his patience with Darby climbing up and digging through boxes already packed was also at an end. Darby slid the certificate back into its manila envelope, tucked it into his jacket and emerged from the back end of the truck.