Christmas All Around Us ; The Perfect Time for Love ; Playing for Keeps

by Carla Kincaid

  Kate's head popped out from the closet where she was searching for the overalls. She looked slightly embarrassed by Joy's discovery.

  "I know it's not great literature but I can't seem to part with them. They belonged to my mother," she admitted softly.

  Joy nodded and gently put the book back on the shelf. "Then they're extremely valuable," she said reverently.

  Kate smiled and then handed Joy the overalls she'd found. "Here you go. I'll wait outside while you get changed."

  Before Joy could object, Kate hurried out of the room. When Joy walked into the living room a few minutes later Kate burst out laughing. The hem of the overalls was floating several inches above Joy's ankles.

  "I've never been much of a trendsetter," Joy said joining Kate's laughter. "But somehow I don't think these are Vogue-worthy."

  Joy strutted around the living room in a poor imitation of a runway model.

  "I think you look nice in whatever you have on," Kate said with a smile. "But don't let Dana catch you in those. That outfit might even stop her from riding in your convertible with you!"

  The two women looked at each other and then shook their heads laughing. Both of them knew peeling the teen out of her new favorite car was next to impossible.

  Joy rolled the pants legs up until they cupped her calves and the two women headed up the hill to work.

  "I hope getting your hands dirty like this isn't spoiling your vacation," Kate said after the two of them had turned the soil and added fertilizer to the plant beds in front of one of the houses.

  The word vacation jumped out at Joy and mixed with the smell of fertilizer. She was still struggling with the fact that she hadn't told Kate why she was really in Hersh Falls.

  "Quite the contrary," Joy confessed without disclosing her hidden truth. "If I'd known the work your father did was such a great workout I would have been out here helping him long ago."

  "Don't let him hear you say that," Kate giggled. "Before you know it he'll have you on staff at Warner Landscaping and you won't be able to leave."

  Kate laughed at her statement but Joy could see something else in her eyes too. It was the same thought that had been running through Joy's mind all day. Hersh Falls was a really great place and Joy could easily see herself spending a lot more time here.

  Chapter 18

  For the next three days, Kate felt like she was living in a dream. Even though her father was still in the hospital he was getting better every day and Dana had already called to say how much fun she was having at the softball camp.

  Kate and Joy had worked all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday to get everything on Mr. Warner's to do list done. Each night after they finished the landscaping work they pampered each other with massages -- and other intimately relaxing activities. But in spite of all the good things that were happening Kate felt a lurking sense of doom.

  Was it possible that things in her life could finally be going well? Was it okay for her to be this happy?

  "What did those potatoes do to you?" Elaine asked. She picked up one of the mangled spuds and shook her head as if in mourning.

  Kate couldn't help but laugh. She'd managed to not only peel away the brown skin but half of the white starchy flesh was now sitting in the sink too.

  "I guess I'm a little distracted today," Kate said smiling at her friend.

  "How's your dad doing?" Elaine asked putting a reassuring hand on Kate's shoulder.

  It made sense that Elaine assumed Kate's distraction had to do with her dad.

  "He's doing a lot better," Kate said with a genuine sense of relief. "I'm expecting a call about his release today. The doctor said he was doing so well he may not even need any physical therapy."

  "Wow! That's really great news, Kate." Elaine's brow squeezed together in a frown. "Then why are you abusing the vegetables?"

  Elaine's lighthearted laugh filled the kitchen but Kate still felt a little tentative about what she was about to share with her friend.

  "It's not my dad I'm worried about," she confessed. Kate took a deep breath before continuing. "I've kinda been seeing someone lately and it's getting more serious than I thought it would."

  Elaine tilted her head. "So, does this new someone happen to be a visitor to Hersh Falls? One who loves softball?"

  Kate felt her face immediately turned hot. "I... How did you..." she stuttered.

  "Kate, I've known you all my life," Elaine said with a hearty laugh. "As soon as the two of you came into the kitchen last week I suspected something was going on."

  "Last week!" Kate protested. "There wasn't even anything going on last week. We hadn't even..." Kate stopped mid-sentence as memories of intimate moments with Joy whizzed through her mind. She couldn't fight the smile that was forming on her lips so she just turned her head away from her friend.

  "I don't care what the two of you hadn't -- or had -- done then," Elaine said teasingly. "But it was obvious that there was some intense chemistry between the two of you right from the start."

  Kate thought back to the day Joy visited the center. She'd been very careful to keep a professional distance between the two of them while she was giving Joy a tour of the center but that obviously hadn't been enough to fool Elaine.

  Kate picked the bucket of potatoes up out of the sink and carried it over to the counter where the automatic dicing machine was mounted to a stainless steel table. As she fed each potato into the machine she thought about what Elaine said about the chemistry between her and Joy. She felt it then too but now, now that they'd spent so much time together it was undeniable. Maybe somethings were just meant to be.

  "Are you heading home?" Elaine asked as the two women walked to their cars that afternoon.

  "No. I got a message from my dad's doctor. They're going to release him in the morning so I'm going to drive to Charlotte now and spend the night on the fold-out couch in my dad's room. That way as soon as they finish his paperwork in the morning we can drive back here."

  "Okay. Call me if you need anything." Elaine gave Kate a quick hug as they parted ways in the parking lot.

  The thirty-minute drive to the hospital was a lot less stressful now that she knew the trip was going to have a happy ending. Kate parked her car in the visitor's lot and headed inside. Even though she knew that her father was getting better, walking into the hospital still made her stomach tighten into knots. She rode the elevator up to the third floor and made her way down to room 306. She was glad her father had been transferred into a private room. That first night, while he was in ICU, didn't offer they much privacy. Each critically ill patient was lined up in a bed with only those papery blue curtains between them. The chorus of beeps and buzzes coming from all of the medical equipment had shaken Kate's nerves to the core.

  "Hi there," Kate," one of the RN's at the nurse's station greeted her. "Your dad is downstairs getting a test the doctor ordered. Nothing to worry about," she said quickly. "It's just the last step before we release him tomorrow." She smiled reassuringly at Kate. "You can go ahead and wait in his room. There's another guest in there who arrived right before we took your father downstairs."

  A puzzled look crossed Kate's face. Who could have driven all the way from Hersh Falls to visit her father, she wondered. Kate pushed the wide door open and peered inside. There perched on the couch that would be her bed for the night was Sam.

  "Hey there," he said in a tone that almost sounded friendly. That was usually just a cover prior to him saying something that was going to piss Kate off.

  "Hi."

  Kate was irritated by Sam's presence but at the same time, she couldn't ignore the slight wave of gratitude she felt knowing he'd come all this way to see her father.

  "They took you're dad down for some tests. He should be back soon."

  Sam scooted over to one side of the couch, giving Kate room to sit down. It wasn't until that moment that she realized -- most of their conversations took place standing. That in and of itself wasn't surprising since standing made a qui
cker exit possible and it was rare that anything other than a quick exit was desired when she talked to the father of her child.

  Now -- sitting only a few feet apart -- flashes of a long-ago time when she wanted to be close to him whizzed through her mind. She couldn't help but compare those times to the weekend she'd just had with Joy. Even in their best moments she and Sam didn't really fit. There was always an underlying tension that she could never quite understand.

  "I'm glad we have a few minutes alone, though," Sam said. "There's something I've been wanting to talk to you about." Sam eased back on the couch and stretched one arm across the back of the piece of furniture. As usual, he was taking up as much room as possible. A tactic he used to intimidate people.

  Kate glanced over at his hand, which was now close enough for her to see Sam's shiny manicured nails. "What it is, Sam." She tried to keep the irritation out of her voice but it was almost an involuntary reaction to being in his presence.

  Sam reached into the left pocket of his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Kate drew back when she saw the note of familiar dimensions. A check.

  "What is that?" she asked while waving her hand as if it was a poisonous object.

  "I just want to help a little," Sam said in a tone that Kate would have mistaken as sincere if she didn't know him as well as she did. "I know you got a loan from the bank for the new truck but I also know could probably use some extra cash."

  Kate involuntarily shook her head at the thought of accepting the check. She'd never asked Sam for anything more than what the court required in child support and even then she didn't like taking money from him.

  "We don't..."

  Sam cut her off before she could finish telling the lie. "Yes, you do," he said bluntly. "Look, just think of it as something for Dana," he explained. "I want Dana to have whatever she needs, especially now that she's going into high school."

  Kate's ego was battling the common sense of Sam's statement. She forced herself to reach out and take the check in her hand. Even though she was curious, she didn't unfold it to look at the amount.

  "Thanks," she said softly. Kate felt a little bad for being so harsh on Sam but that only lasted for a minute.

  "So, you and your new house guest have been spending a lot of time together I see," Sam said returning to his usual snarky tone.

  Kate knew it had been too good to be true -- an entire conversation without the asshole she knew and despised surfacing. She tried to make sure her voice was calm and measured. "Since when are you interested in how I spend my time?"

  Sam leaned forward on the couch and the previously manageable distance between them vanished.

  "I just want to make sure my daughter isn't being exposed to any unhealthy influences."

  "Unhealthy influences?" Kate retorted. "You mean like being around a bunch of grown men who spend their free time drinking and shooting helpless animals just for fun?"

  "Hunting is legal," Sam huffed.

  "And so is everything I allow in my daughter's life," Kate snapped back. How dare he insinuate otherwise, Kate didn't have to think much about it. She knew what Sam's real issue was -- Joy.

  Kate knew all too well that Sam was the kind of man who thought lesbians were only acceptable if they were starring in one of the porn videos he and his friends watched. A real relationship between two women -- especially when one of them was the mother of his child -- was more than he could handle. Of course, Kate wasn't going to give Sam any information about her relationship with Joy -- especially since she and Joy hadn't even defined it yet.

  She was about to tell Sam to mind his own business when a nurse wheeled Kate's dad back into the room. "Alright, Mr. Warner," let's get you back into bed."

  Kate looked at her father in the wheelchair and all of the anger she felt toward Sam was pushed aside by concern about her dad. Mr. Warner was slightly slumped over in his seat. He looked like he might have fallen asleep during the short trip from wherever the tests were taken to his room.

  "Daddy, are you okay?" Kate's emotions were too on edge for her to mask them.

  Mr. Warner lifted his head and met his daughter's eyes.

  "Hi, Sweetheart. Yes, I'm fine. Just a little wornout I guess. Nurse Ratchet over here made me run around the hospital a few times before she agreed to bring me back to my room." He let out a laugh that was already beginning to sound like the boisterous noise he made when he found his own jokes amusing.

  "Mr. Warner!" the nurse protested. "Don't tell your daughter that!

  "Oh, don't worry. She knows I'm only kidding. The Warner's all have a good sense of humor."

  Kate thought she heard a noise come from Sam. She turned and glared at him -- daring him to say more.

  "Well, I'd better let you get your rest, Dad," Sam said ignoring Kate's look.

  Kate almost exploded at the sound of Sam addressing her father as Dad. He never referred to him that way! What in the world was going on?

  "Thanks for stopping by, Sam. And you can rest assured, Kate and I are taking good care of Dana. There's nothing for you to be concerned about."

  Kate dug her nails into her palms to keep herself from an outburst. What in the world had Sam said to her father? Was he making strange comments to him about Joy too? As soon as the nurse and Sam left the room, Kate turned toward her dad with the intention of finding out exactly what was said before she arrived. As usual, her father beat her to the punch.

  "Sam was just being Sam," he began. "You know he gets all twisted out of shape when he's not the center of attention." Mr. Warner let out a soft chuckle. "It's actually kind of funny -- him being jealous of Joy. She's able to do something he's never been good at -- making both my daughter and my granddaughter happy."

  Chapter 19

  Even though Joy had canceled her Friday session with Dr. Turner, the therapist had called her over the weekend with something she wanted Joy to think about for the coming week's sessions.

  "What do you think about scheduling a video call with you and your parents next week? It's ultimately up to you, Joy" Dr. Turner had said. "But I really think you're ready to address some of the issues we've discussed with your parents directly and I'd like to offer my support in that process while we're still working together."

  Joy didn't know if it was the high of spending time with Kate or something else that had given her the courage to say yes but she'd scheduled the call for Wednesday evening after her father got home from work. Now that Wednesday had arrived Joy found her self getting more and more nervous.

  She'd wanted to go for a run but didn't want to risk being late getting to Dr. Turner's office. Instead, she decided to go for a walk downtown hoping to burn off some of her anxious energy.

  There was something about the quaintness of the atmosphere of downtown Hersh Falls that made Joy feel like she had stepped into a picture postcard or something. Small shops lined Main Street -- the three block thoroughfare. She passed an antique store, a hardware store, and a small dress shop. Everything was clean and peaceful. Small town living, Joy thought to herself. It certainly had its perks. And those perks were becoming more and more attractive every day. Joy found herself seriously wondering if she could live in a place like this. It certainly was less stressful than any place else she'd ever lived.

  Just then she noticed a florist shop across the street and went over to check it out. She thought about getting a bouquet for Kate but she didn't want to leave the flowers in her hot car while she was in her session. Instead, she decided to get Mr. Warner a nice houseplant to celebrate his return home yesterday.