Wrapped Up In Christmas

by Janice Lynn

  But doing that, only to have him eventually leave… she just couldn’t.

  Richard leaving had stung, had left a void in her life, and he’d never been sweet to her or made her belly feel like a shaken snow globe.

  Bodie leaving was already going to hurt much worse than that sting.

  If she were to let herself to fall for him, and then she lost him, she might never recover. Hadn’t her Aunt Jean only loved one man her whole life? Her father only one woman? She couldn’t allow her heart to belong to a man destined to leave.

  Biting into her lower lip, she fortified her resolve that she and Bodie could only be friends. She’d known it from the beginning. The night before had messed with her head, but they could move past that. She’d chalk it up to a romantic sleigh ride and a magical mistletoe kiss on her part and misguided gratitude on his.

  He’d leave and occasionally they’d think of each other with remembered fondness. Nothing more.

  Harry jumped back into the truck cab and Sarah welcomed his wet kiss against her cheek, laughing as he continued to lick her, putting her hands up to protect her mouth from his affection.

  “Settle down, Harry.”

  “He’s fine,” she assured him, giving the dog a scratch as he settled onto the seat next to her. “I’m going to miss him after you leave.”

  After he left. Sarah’s words rang through Bodie’s head. He was leaving, had never thought he wasn’t. Yet, hearing her say the words left him feeling heavy, as if gravity tugged hard on him, trapping him against the seat.

  Sarah’s gaze met his. A mixture of resolve and perhaps a glimmer of something more shone there. “I’m going to miss you after you leave, too.”

  He’d been happy in Pine Hill. But he’d been biding his time until he could get back to a life of high stakes and travel. He’d loved that life. Missed that life.

  Working for iSecure wouldn’t be the same as his time in the Army. He didn’t fool himself that it would. But once he put his time in as a glorified babysitter to the rich and famous, Lukas would move him into more challenging jobs. Jobs Bodie welcomed and that his friend needed to avoid now that he was about to become a father.

  “Is your new job dangerous work?”

  Had she read his mind?

  “People or places who aren’t at risk don’t need to hire a high-end security firm.”

  “Which means I asked a silly question.” She gave him a smile that almost seemed to tremble as she said, “I’ll worry about you.”

  Yet another reason why he shouldn’t have spent so much time with Sarah. She had such a big heart that he knew she really would worry.

  “I’m not worth it.”

  “How can you say that?” she demanded, her face flushing. “You are, Bodie.”

  Unable to stop himself, he touched her cheek, traced his thumb across her smooth skin. “You only think that because you don’t know the things I’ve done.”

  “Those things don’t matter.”

  She was wrong.

  “What matters are the things you do in the future.”

  What he’d do in the future was leave.

  She didn’t say the words, but they echoed throughout the truck cab. He drove her home, neither of them saying much.

  “Come in?” she invited when he pulled into Hamilton House’s driveway.

  Bodie hesitated, then nodded. There were only a few things that needed to be done for him to finish with the suites completely.

  “I didn’t mean for you to come in to work,” she told him when he headed toward the hallway leading to the suites. “We could watch a movie or play a game or something.”

  “Or I could knock out the rest of the work tonight.”

  “In a hurry to finish?”

  Stopping, he didn’t turn to look at her, just stood still, taking a deep breath. “Despite what you may think, I will miss you, Sarah.”

  She didn’t say anything, didn’t ask him to stay, and for that he was grateful.

  Staying wasn’t an option.

  For so many reasons. Not the least of which was that Sarah deserved so much better than a messed-up man such as himself.

  “I’ll be in the suites.”

  A couple of hours later, Bodie glanced around the suite, happy with what he saw. The walls were painted, the trim work and crown molding repaired and painted, the hardwood floors gleamed. The antique tiles of the fireplace were cleaned, newly grouted, and the freshly stained oak looked fantastic.

  Walking into the bathroom, he glanced around, checking each item to make sure everything still worked perfectly. Lights, electrical outlets, sink, shower, tub, toilet. All that was lacking were Sarah’s finishing touches.

  The suites were ready for furniture and then they’d be ready for guests. He still had a few things he wanted to accomplish, and he’d be her muscle on anything she wanted done the next couple of days.

  Then, he’d leave.

  “You missed your calling.”

  Turning to her, Bodie studied her make-up-free face, her slightly puffy eyes and pink nose and realized that while he’d been admiring his work, she’d been crying. Over him.

  Guilt hit him. When he’d told her he was falling for her, he hadn’t meant to hurt her. He’d…he’d just needed to tell her the truth. About the quilt, about him, about how she made him feel.

  Like he could step into the sunshine and live.

  “You sound like my stepfather,” he told her, watching her closely, trying to read where her thoughts were. “This is what he wants me to do, only in Texas.”

  “Texas is a little far for me to use you as my handyman.”

  “A little.”

  “While you’ve been busy in here, I’ve been working in the kitchen. Hungry?”

  They ate sitting at the kitchen island. As always, Sarah had outdone herself.

  “Your guests are in for a treat.”

  Though she was much quieter than her usual chatty self, she still smiled. “I hope so. Getting great reviews from these first few guests will be key to my success.”

  “Hamilton House will be a success.” Of that, he had no doubt. Sarah was a woman who could accomplish anything she set her mind to and do it with a smile on her face.

  “Because?”

  Thinking how much he was going to miss talking to her, he grinned. “You won’t allow anything else.”

  “I hope you’re right, because there are so many things beyond my control.” She stood to clear their dishes while Bodie wiped off the island.

  “You’ll be fine.”

  She closed the dishwasher, faced him. “So, what’s next? We’ll get Aunt Jean’s furniture from my dad’s and get the suites set up tomorrow evening?”

  He nodded. “Anything else you want me to take care of?”

  “The upstairs rooms need pretty much the same work as you did for the suites downstairs.”

  He knew what she was leading up to. Part of him wanted to say he’d help her with the upstairs rooms, personally ensure that Hamilton House was ready for her to fill every space the way she dreamed.

  But he’d done what he’d come to do. More than he’d come to do.

  Staying longer only delayed the inevitable.

  Still, he couldn’t bring himself to say no, just studied her a moment more, then sighed. “Show me what you want done, Sarah, and we’ll see.”

  “Yes, Maybelle,” Sarah said into the phone as she poured a glass of juice early the following morning. “I’ll be at church within the hour and will handle the extra meal deliveries today since Ruby and Charlie won’t be there.”

  Charlie was going to be fine, but Ruby insisted he take it easy for a few days. Sarah didn’t blame her.

  She chatted with Maybelle for a few minutes longer. Mostly, she listened to Maybelle inform her what a huge success everyone said the
ir booth had been.

  She glanced at her watch. “Oh, sorry, Maybelle. It’s later than I’d thought. I’ve got to run. Love you and see you in a few.”

  She hung up the phone, then rushed to finish getting ready. When she was, it surprised her that Bodie wasn’t there. He must have gotten hung up at Lou’s. Or maybe he was making arrangements for help to move the furniture back into the suites.

  No problem. He knew where the spare key was hidden to let himself in.

  Only when she stepped outside onto the porch, she froze, almost falling to her knees.

  Not because of the cold December air or a chilly gust of wind.

  There, draped over the porch railing, was Bodie’s quilt.

  The quilt she’d made while dreaming of him before she’d ever even known him.

  She walked over to the railing and, hands shaking, she touched the soft cotton material she hadn’t seen since donating it to the Quilts of Valor Foundation.

  The material that had once dried her grieving tears, that had wrapped around Bodie’s broken body and soothed his wounded warrior’s soul. Her quilt, this quilt, had given him comfort, had been a light in his world full of darkness.

  But not anymore. He’d let it go. Let her go.

  Eyes watering, the red, white, and blue blurred and she gave in to the sorrow sweeping through her as she accepted what stared her in the face.

  What she’d known all along and why she hadn’t asked him to stay.

  Bodie had done what he’d always been going to do.

  He’d left.

  “What do you mean he’s gone?” Maybelle asked as they filled disposable trays with today’s lunch offering in the church kitchen.

  “Did he tell you he was leaving?” Claudia pushed, dipping a large serving of green beans into a cup then putting a plastic lid over it.

  Sarah resisted the temptation to brush back a stray hair from her ponytail with her gloved hands, then shrugged. She’d teared up this morning on her porch as she’d carried the quilt inside, placing it in the rocking chair across from their Christmas tree. But she’d refused to let herself cry. Instead, she’d draped the quilt across the chair, given it one last look, then headed to church.

  As much as she didn’t want to talk about Bodie with the Butterflies, there was no point in delaying the inevitable. Actually, she was surprised that they hadn’t called to tell her he was gone long before she’d found the quilt.

  “He didn’t have to tell me in words.”

  “Then how do you know?” Rosie insisted.

  “He didn’t show at Hamilton House this morning,” she admitted, not wanting to mention the quilt. Silly as it was, the quilt felt private, something intimate between the two of them. “I called his hotel. He checked out during the night.”

  That he’d left in the middle of the night without saying goodbye stung.

  “He’s gone.” She couldn’t put it much more simply than that.

  “He didn’t say a word? He just left?” Maybelle’s brows arched high.

  “That sums it up.” She understood Maybelle’s surprise. Sarah had never imagined him leaving without her having a chance to tell him thank you.

  Or to pay him for the last week of work he’d done.

  She hadn’t thought him a coward, the type to steal off in the night instead of saying goodbye. But what did it matter? They’d had no future together. Why draw out the goodbyes? Maybe it was just as well he’d left as he had.

  Had he thought she’d try to convince him to stay?

  “Did something happen? You didn’t fight, did you?”

  Sarah shook her head. Their talk in the truck qualified as something that had happened, but the things they’d said were private and she wanted to keep them to herself.

  “Your sleigh ride must not have gone nearly as well as mine,” Rosie mused, looking concerned as she closed a tray lid and placed it inside a bag.

  “Well, there sure wasn’t a proposal.”

  Sarah had said her comment as a joke, but the way the three Butterflies stopped what they were doing to stare at her, mouths agape, said they hadn’t taken her that way.

  “Did you want there to be a proposal?” Maybelle asked, her brows deeply veed.

  “Of course not. Bodie and I are—were,” she corrected, “just friends.”

  “Personally, I think he’s a friend you should take off after, so you can travel and see the world with him,” Claudia suggested.

  “That’s your dream, Claudia. Not mine. I’m happy in Pine Hill.”

  Maybelle said, “You really need to talk to that husband of yours about taking you on vacation.”

  “He says for our fiftieth wedding anniversary, he’ll take me anywhere I want,” Claudia assured. “So, I’m biding my time to tell him I want to visit Europe. Only a few more years to go.”

  “Harrumph,” Maybelle snorted. “What’s he going to do if you book something sooner? If you want to travel, then, woman, travel.”

  Claudia’s eyes grew huge, then she shook her head. “This is about Sarah, not me. I’ll travel someday.”

  Maybelle, Rosie, and Sarah sighed simultaneously. If Sarah had the extra money, she’d book Claudia on a trip herself.

  They resumed their assembly line preparation of food trays to be delivered to shut-ins.

  Sarah held her breath, hoping the women would not resume the conversation about Bodie. She should have known better.

  “Is Bodie coming back?” Claudia asked.

  Sarah shook her head. “He was only here to get Hamilton House ready by Christmas. He did that. There’s no reason for him to return.”

  He’d done everything she’d asked of him and more. Maybe someday she’d tell the Butterflies about Bodie’s quilt. That he’d been the soldier her quilt had gone to, that he’d come to find her, to thank her, and had ended up staying to help her.

  He had.

  He’d done a fantastic job on Hamilton House. She’d get Carrie’s son and some other young men from the congregation to move the items out of her dad’s garage back to the downstairs suites. Then she would decorate the rooms and would move forward as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

  As if Bodie had been just another repairman.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Man, I appreciate this more than you know.”

  Bodie took Lukas’s outstretched hand and they exchanged a bro hug. He hadn’t expected Lukas to be waiting at the hospital entrance for him. He’d called to tell his friend that he’d just pulled into the hospital parking garage and had gotten Kelly’s room number so he could meet his friend there.

  “No problem.”

  “You’re sure? I know you’d taken on that undercover job in Kentucky, but I needed someone I trust to take my place on this one.”

  Bodie followed Lukas’s lead down the hospital hallway to an elevator bank. “I finished what I was hired to do in Kentucky, so your timing was perfect.”

  “Not my timing. This baby’s.” Lukas combed his fingers through his hair. “Didn’t she know she had another month before she was due—and that I had a really important job that was supposed to be my last out-of-country trip until after she arrived? Doctor said she’s doing great, though, and is a strong little thing.”

  “Takes after her mother, then?”

  Stepping into the elevator, Lukas grinned. “I caught that, but yeah, you’re right. Looks just like Kelly.”

  “Physically, you’re good?”

  Bodie shot his friend a look of challenge. “You want to try me and find out?”

  Lukas laughed. “After the night I’ve had? I don’t think so. You might take me, and I’d never hear the end of it.”

  “I’d take you after your best night.”

  “Maybe in your dreams.”

  Bodie snorted, but let it drop. “You going to
watch after my dog while I’m out of the country?”

  “My dog, and you’d better hope he doesn’t decide he’s missed home. What’ll you do if he chooses to stay when you get back?”

  “I’m not worried, but if Harry wanted to stay with you, I wouldn’t force him to leave.”

  His friend, and boss, stared at him. “There’s something different about you.”

  Bodie glanced toward Lukas and shrugged. “Same old me.”

  “Actually, that’s it. You are more like the old you. Much more so than when you left here.”

  In some ways, Bodie felt more like his old self. In others, he felt nothing like the man he’d been in the past. His time in Pine Hill had changed him.

  “What happened in Kentucky?”

  Bodie shook his head. “Not much. Just worked in a small town no different from hundreds of others.”

  Lukas looked like he was about to ask more, but they reached their floor and the elevator door slid open.

  As they stepped out of the elevator, Bodie glanced at his watch. “My flight’s in four hours?”

  “Yeah. Sorry to do that to you, but swapping my flight for yours was the best I could do to get you where I needed you to be in time.” His friend gave a wry look. “As much as I hated to pull you into the company sooner than we’d agreed, I’d have hated leaving for two weeks right now even more.”

  Bodie shrugged. “You were the one saying I needed more time to heal before I started work. Not me.”

  “I wanted you to go home, see your family, kiss a girl. You know, have a life for a bit and get your head on straight before stepping into the company.”

  “I have a life.” He wouldn’t respond to the comment about getting his head on straight. There was no denying there had been a time when his head had been messed up. In some ways, it might always be because he couldn’t un-see things he’d seen.

  Nor would he respond to the comment on the kissing a girl.

  Because he couldn’t un-see Sarah, either. He’d never forget her.

  Lukas stopped in front of a hospital room but didn’t open the door. “What gives?”