Merry Humbug Christmas (33 page)

“I love you so much,” she told him when they parted. “I never

even knew there was a man like you out there somewhere.”

“Just wandering around looking for you,” he replied.

A cacophony of good wishes exchanged, Paul steered the horses

into a soft u-turn, and they headed back down the hill toward the Palmers’ house. From above it all, the winding border of shimmer-ing candle lanterns seemed to light the way home, and the magnificent sight filled Reese’s heart with a seasonal thrill that she hadn’t felt in . . .

Maybe, ever!

But certainly not in many, many years. The sensation almost

struck Reese as a form of betrayal, and she wondered how Joss might feel if she shared the experience with her Christmas-avoiding best friend.

“Traitor!” she would surely exclaim. “You are such a traitor!”

For a moment Reese supposed Joss might be right. But as the

flickering lanterns guided them down the hill and around the curve of the road, she snuggled against Damian and sighed. She didn’t

really mind the label of
traitor
so much.

“NO, YOU CAN’T GET dressed,” Reggie said, still lounging in bed,

pausing to stretch her entire body and give a hearty yawn. “It’s

Palmer tradition. Christmas morning is for my mom’s eggs benedict Merry Humbug Christmas.indd 263

7/23/13 1:07 PM

264

Merry

Humbug Christmas

and opening up our stockings, and all of that takes place while still wearing your pajamas.”

Reese glanced down at the ensemble she’d worn to bed on

Christmas Eve: red flannel pajama pants and top with holly wreaths stamped all over them, and a pair of thick, nubby green socks. When she looked up again, Reggie laughed out loud.

“I have a red flannel robe that would finish off that look for you,”

she suggested. “Do you want to borrow?”

Reese folded her hands and placed them dramatically on the side

of her cheek. “Oh, could I?”

Reggie nodded toward the attached bathroom. “Hanging on the

door.”

What she really wanted was a shower; but instead Reese headed

in to brush her teeth and wash her face, and she quickly ran a brush through her disheveled hair. Using the red scrunchie normally rel-egated to the bathroom counter or the front pocket of her workout bag, she gathered up her hair into a bun at the top of her head, a hairstyle Joss always called her “controlled mess ’do.” After applying a coat of moisturizer to her freshly washed skin and dabbing her lips with shiny cherry lip balm, she found Reggie waiting in the bedroom wearing green, one-piece pajamas with large reindeer heads printed all over them.

“I always buy the silliest pajamas I can find, just for Christmas morning,” she said with a broad grin. “How do I look?”

Reese giggled as Reggie did a little twirl, one hand on her hip

and the other behind her head.

“You win the prize. Those really are the silliest pajamas I’ve ever seen.”

“Score!” Reggie exclaimed. “Next stop, eggs benedict!”

As the two of them strolled down the hall, it struck Reese again

how sad it was that Reggie had remained alone for so many years

after the death of her husband. It just seemed wrong somehow for

such a unique and personable woman to spend her life alone in the shadow of one great love that disintegrated far too soon. Reese never thought of herself as much of a sentimental, romantic sort, although Merry Humbug Christmas.indd 264

7/23/13 1:07 PM

It Came Upon a Midnight Deer

265

that had changed a lot since meeting Damian, but something about

Reggie living such a solitary life seemed like such a waste.

The sight that greeted her in the great room inspired Reese to

pop with laughter. All of those Palmers—each one wearing pajamas

more outrageous than the next—scattered around the great room

and gathered around the island in the kitchen reminded Reese of the digital camera she’d tucked into her bag at the last minute. But it was the sight of Damian that made her turn and run back to the bedroom to retrieve it.

He looked like a decorated gingerbread man from head to toe,

the feet in the one-piece pajamas rounded and the puffy painted tie around his neck blinking with red and green lights. Beside him, the normally reserved P.J. wore large antlers on his head and a red T-shirt with white blocked letters on the front: Ho3.

Jeane greeted her with a kiss to the cheek and a large cup of

steaming coffee. Her long flannel nightgown had a six-inch lace

ruffle at the hem and a three-dimensional manger scene protruding from her chest.

“It’s pumpkin spice,” she said as she handed over the coffee, but the fragrance gave it away before she identified it.

“Wait,” Reese said, and she raised her camera before Jeane

turned.

Damian’s mom posed with her hand behind her head, much

the same way Reggie had earlier, and Reese composed a full-length photo in the viewfinder of her camera. Taking her coffee with her, she snapped away.

Hannah wore a short, plain red tee over boxers screened with

the large green face of the Grinch, and little Abigail’s long, sun-kissed braids framed a blinking red Rudolph nose on the front of

her footed pajamas. Sarah shuffled across the floor with a small glass of chocolate milk in her red-and-white pajamas and a strange little curved hat that made her look like a walking candy cane. Stranger still, Paco scampered along behind her wearing the very same thing.

When Reese raised her camera, the dog shot her a menacing, low-

pitched growl, and she lowered it again without taking the shot.

Merry Humbug Christmas.indd 265

7/23/13 1:07 PM

266

Merry

Humbug Christmas

Not one member of three generations of Palmers, however,

looked as silly—or adorable—as gingerbread man, Damian.

“Really?” she said when she caught his eye and raised her camera.

Instead of a reply, she got bulging eyes and a goofy smile.

“I don’t know, Damian,” Matthew said, shaking his head and look-

ing Reese up and down. “She’s a little pajama-challenged, isn’t she?”

“I forgot to warn her,” he replied.

“You mean she just had those pajamas in her suitcase? And you’re

looking at all of us like we’re out of the ordinary?”

“Hush, Matthew,” Jeane said. “You look charming, Reese.”

“Remember Courtney’s first Christmas with us?” Paul chimed in,

and Reese snapped a quick picture of him dressed like Scrooge with his full-length night dress and cap. “And remember the way Sofia

looked at us all? They both thought the Palmers had lost their minds.”

Sofia waddled across the room in a knee-length romper, wearing

awkward padded knee socks made to look like reindeer hooves. She

plopped down on Eli’s lap and kissed her husband on the cheek. “We haven’t changed our minds either, Paul. The whole
familia es loco
!”

“Give me your camera, Reese,” Hannah offered. “I’ll take one of

you and Uncle Damian.”

Reese complied and then stepped behind Damian, wrapped her

arms around his neck, and smiled for the camera. The thought fluttered across her mind that it would be one of those photos that would keep their children—and grandchildren—laughing for decades to

come.

“BRO, I THOUGHT SHE was joking!” Eli whispered.

“You mean she wasn’t?” Matthew asked, mock serious.

Damian shook his head and tried to ignore them, concentrating

instead on refilling his coffee cup.

“And nobody’s told her? Ever?” Eli went on. “
You
haven’t told her?”

Merry Humbug Christmas.indd 266

7/23/13 1:07 PM

It Came Upon a Midnight Deer

267

“What am I gonna say?” Damian flared, trying to keep it to a

whisper through clenched teeth. “How do you tell the woman you

love that her singing cuts through steel?”

“How do you
not
tell her?” Matthew countered. “You’ve got fifty years with her ahead of you with any luck.
Not even you
can face that down, can you?”

Damian snickered. “When I weigh it against all of the qualities

in her that I absolutely cannot live without, yeah, I can face it down.

Gladly.”

“Talk to me in three years,” Matthew replied, and he walked

away shaking his head.

The memory of the looks on everyone’s faces when Reese had

broken out into song the night before kindled a chuckle in Damian, one that quickly galvanized into full-on laughter, and Eli caught the fire.

“What are you two laughing about over there?” Jeane called

out to them. “Bring it over here to the tree. It’s time to open our stockings.”

Damian grabbed his coffee and headed across the room, and he

sat down on the floor in front of Reese’s chair.

“What’s so funny?” she whispered in his ear.

Fortunately, his mother unwittingly saved him from answering.

“Reese, Damian,” she said, taking her husband’s hand. “We’ve

been talking, and we’d like to make you an offer. You can certainly refuse it, but we’re hoping . . . well . . .”

“What is it, Mom?”

With a quick glance to Damian’s father, she smiled. “We were

wondering . . . what you might think . . . of getting married here at the cabin.”

Before he could even take a breath, Reese hopped out of her

chair and rushed across the room, hugging both of his parents at the same time.

“What a wonderful idea!” she cried. “Damie, isn’t it a wonderful

idea?”

Merry Humbug Christmas.indd 267

7/23/13 1:07 PM

268

Merry

Humbug Christmas

They hadn’t talked much about the actual ceremony since

becoming engaged, but he’d sort of imagined it taking place at their church down the mountain. The joyous fire in Reese’s sky-blue eyes, however, put a different slant on those plans.

“If it makes you happy, it’s a wonderful idea,” he told her. “I don’t care where we get married, as long as we do.” And while they were on the subject of marriage, Damian got up and plucked a stocking

with Reese’s name embroidered on the fuzzy white cuff from the

long line hanging from the mantle. “This is a good transition. Here.

Why don’t you open your stocking first.”

He watched the curiosity bubble up in her, and she returned to

her chair and accepted the overstuffed green velvet stocking. First, she removed several of the Palmer stocking traditions—a couple

of cinnamon candy canes; a rolled pair of fluffy, colorful socks; a tree ornament hand-made by his mother—and then she reached it.

Damian’s heart began to race.

Reese pulled out the small blue velvet box and perched it on the

open palm of her hand. Glancing up at him, she smiled before looking back at it again.

“What is this?” she asked him. “I thought we agreed not to

exchange gifts and to save our money for a really extravagant

honeymoon.”

“This didn’t cost me a thing,” he replied, and his mother’s beam-

ing smile burned the corner of his eye. “Open it.”

She lifted the platinum-hinged lid with slow anticipation, and in the exact moment his eyes landed on the contents, hers did, too, and she gasped.

“What . . . ?”

Damian straightened and knelt in front of her. “They were my

grandparents’ wedding rings. I think Gram’s will work perfectly

with your engagement ring, and Mom let me have it sized for you,

but if you don’t think—”

“Damian, let the girl think for a minute,” his dad cut in. “She’s hardly had a chance to open the box.”

Merry Humbug Christmas.indd 268

7/23/13 1:07 PM

It Came Upon a Midnight Deer

269

Reese gazed down over the thin silver bands, hers with a row of

small round diamonds across the top. “They’re . . . beautiful.”

Damian couldn’t contain himself another moment. He pulled

the diamond band out of the box. “Try it on. Let’s see how it looks with your ring.”

With an eager grin, she held up her hand and wiggled her fin-

gers. When Damian slipped on the band and it rested against her

engagement ring, it looked to him as if the two had been made as a perfect set. He glanced up at Reese and waited, holding his breath.

Instead of a reply, she simply slid her arms around his neck and

squeezed. “It’s just exactly right,” she cried at last.

“Really?”

Over his shoulder she thanked his parents and waved her hand at

Reggie and the girls, all of whom moved in for a closer look before she’d even released her hold on his neck.

“Each of the boys’ wives got something that belonged to Paul’s

mother for their wedding,” Jeane explained. “Courtney wore a lovely pearl and diamond necklace on her wedding day, and Sofia had the

florist work a beautiful diamond brooch into her bouquet.”

“Maravilloso!”
Sofia exclaimed. “It’s just beautiful.
Mi hermana es
an artist, and she built a very pretty shadow box for us with all the things from our wedding. Grandmother Palmer’s
peen
is at the center of it.”

As Reese let go of Damian, he smiled at her. “Did you get all

that?”

“Sister is an artist. Shadow box. Diamond brooch.”

Eli guffawed. “Do you know how long it took me to get that flu-

ent at speaking Sofia?”

Sofia brushed her husband’s arm and grinned.

“Mi madre habla un lenguaje muy personal,”
young Jeremy stated, and they all turned toward him, surprised.

“He say his mama . . . speaks a language all her own,” Sofia translated, and she drew her son into a playful embrace. “That’s my boy.”

Merry Humbug Christmas.indd 269

7/23/13 1:07 PM

Merry Humbug Christmas.indd 270