One Snowy Night Before Christmas (9 page)

It was irrational for Tom to be jealous, or even
disappointed. He was nothing to Jessie but a stranded motorist with a cute kid.
She was silent as she returned to her seat and stared at the grain of the
wooden table, and Tom could think of nothing to say to ease the  thick
tension. She didn’t look up as Mike walked to the door.

“Hi Jessie.” A pretty young girl gave them a cheerful smile
as she served their pizza. “How’s it going? Elmer got you working through
Christmas again?”

“Hey Becky. You know it.”

The girl gave them each a fork, and told them they’d need it
for all the toppings on the pizza. She looked at Amy. “All the kids who finish
their whole lunch get to pick a Christmas ornament off the tree before they
go.”

“I don’t have a tree,” Amy responded in a tiny voice.

“We’ve got one at home, honey,” Tom said.
We will as soon
as I call my secretary back, anyway
. He looked at the girl. “Thank you.”

Thankfully Amy chattered enough to cover up Jessie’s
suddenly quiet demeanor. It didn’t take an engineer to see the gears turning in
her head as she ate her meal in silence. When Amy got up to pick her ornament
off the tree, he leaned his elbows on the table.

“Thanks for helping out with her.”

“Hmm? Oh, no problem.” Jessie tossed him a sly look. “What
are you going to do when it’s just you two?”

He wondered if he should say something slick like, “I’ll
just have to stick with you?” but decided he’d sound like an idiot. A jerk. A
jerk idiot. “Hopefully it won’t be too long before she can go by herself,” he
said instead.

“She needs another two feet before she can reach the sink by
herself. Well, don’t worry—you aren’t the only single dad on earth. Just knock
on the bathroom door and make sure no one’s in there first.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

She shrugged. “No use making it complicated.”

“She likes you, you know.”
So do I
.

Jessie smiled. “She’s a great kid.”

“She’s a new kid. I spent two days with her and didn’t get
that many words out of her. Today, it’s like she’s a different person.”

“Kids are strong, they bounce back fast. Just remember what
Mandy said—patience.” Her eyes took on a misty quality then, drawing him in and
holding him captive. “Just love her enough. That’s what she needs more than
anything.”

Amy came back to the table with a small, felt-covered dog
with a bobble head. “What’s that, a Mastiff?” Jessie’s face brightened. “That’s
a great ornament!”

Criminy
. Not only did Amy want a dog, she wanted a
big dog.

Jessie laughed at the expression on his face. “Ready to go
check on your car?”

“Sure.” He stood and climbed back into his layers of warm
clothing. “Maybe we’ll be out of your hair this afternoon.”

But I sincerely hope not
.

On the walk back through the park they stopped to survey their
work on the new and improved Sam the Snowman before climbing back into the
4Runner and driving across town to MacPherson’s garage.

Jessie couldn’t get the strange events out of her mind.
She’d gone almost a year without seeing Mike. Seeing him three times was just
uncanny, but Jessie honestly couldn’t convince herself to be all that upset.

If this were a few days ago, before she’d met Tom, would it
have hurt more? Would all her old anger have come up, and would she be left
feeling lonely and hollow?

She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Amy in the back
seat, head tipped up to peer out the window at all the wonderful sights with
that magical, childlike wonder filling her eyes.

Jessie looked sideways at Tom. He smiled, watching her. Her
insides did a little dance. She hardly knew him, but having him here felt good.
Maybe she should let herself indulge in a little harmless fantasy with a clear
conscience. Knowing beforehand that he would leave would make it painless.

The warmth in her insides spiked into a painful shaft of
heat. Maybe not.

The news regarding his car was not good, and Jessie couldn’t
say that disappointed her, either.
Misery truly does love company
, she
thought as she mused his luck was as bad as hers. He would have to stay another
night.

“The battery’s good and you’ve got juice, but no crank,”
Mort told them. “Next step is to replace the relay. I can have one here by UPS
tomorrow.”

“What if it’s not the relay?” Tom asked.

Mort shrugged. “Might not be. But to be honest, I don’t have
time to keep poking around at it without knowing for sure. I’ve got six cars
here for people who all want to go home and visit Grandma for the holidays, and
only three guys to work on ‘em. Sorry, but you’re at the end of the list.”

“I’m stranded here in town and there isn’t a hotel room to
be had,” Tom returned. “My kid’s going to miss Christmas.”

“Take a rental car home. Pick up your car in a few days.
Least that way you won’t miss Christmas. The dealership in Corvallis will
deliver a car. I’ll get you a card.” Mort headed into the back office for a
card.

Tom glanced at her, brows twitched upward. “It’s an option.”

A small sliver of disappointment needled her. “Does that
mean I don’t get dinner cooked for me tonight?”

He smiled. “Of course not.” Mort handed him the rental car
agency’s card and he took one for the shop, too. “If I can get a car, we’ll
head out afterward.”

On the way back to her townhouse they stopped at the grocery
store for supplies. Tom hefted Amy onto his hip and Jessie pushed the cart
behind them.

“What do you like to eat?” he asked his daughter.

Jessie noticed Amy was a lot more talkative but didn’t have
a wide range of favorites. Pickings must have been fairly slim in her mother’s
house. Or maybe it was just that she hadn’t been allowed the sugary junk food
most kids lived on. Amy recognized plain Cheerios but didn’t even have a
favorite cookie.

Maybe this was better, Jessie thought. Teach the kid a
healthy lifestyle. Still, they picked out some vanilla ice cream to eat with an
all-natural frozen apple pie she bought to bake up after dinner.

After an hour of delighting Amy with more food than they
could possibly eat in two days, let alone one, Tom pulled his wallet out at the
register.

Jessie frowned. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it.”

“No, I insist.” He handed the cashier three twenties. “You
wouldn’t be buying all this if it weren’t for us. It’s the least I can do.”

“I can afford my own food,” she grumbled. Then she wanted to
kick herself. Tom wasn’t mocking her salary, even if he was a lawyer who probably
had more money in his checking account at this very moment than she’d earn in a
year.

“I’ll let you make it up to me.” He collected his change and
glanced sideways. “You can buy me dinner sometime. And believe me, I have
expensive taste.”

Jessie laughed. At least he was honest. Her heart sped up a
little as she digested what he’d said. They would be seeing each other after
“The Christmas That Failed” in Welcome, Oregon. It almost sounded like he’d
just asked her on a date.

It was four-thirty by the time they got back to her
townhouse. Jessie finished the last of the dishes left from breakfast so Tom
could start cooking. She glanced up as she was washing a bowl. The bucks had
returned and were staring at her window.

She glanced over her shoulder. Tom and Amy sat on the living
room floor, playing a game of
Go Fish
. The little girl hadn’t noticed
“Santa’s Reindeer.”

Jessie smiled. It was nice to see them interacting. Amy
seemed to have shed her shyness and Tom appeared to be having a genuinely good
time, laughing and rolling on the floor when she took his cards.

Jessie turned back to the window and her heart beat a double
dance. The buck had vanished.

“I win,” Amy shrieked. She threw her hands in the air.

“You beat me again.” Tom glanced up and grinned. “Need any
help?”

Jessie dried her hands on a towel. “I’m finished. The
kitchen’s all yours.”

A knock sounded at the door, sending her already high pulse
racing. If it was the old man, looking for his reindeer, she would have a heart
attack.

“Amy, Jessie has a guest. Let’s go upstairs and pack up your
suitcase.”

“Ohhhkaaaay,” she said with typical childlike dread at the
mention of a chore. He followed her as she trudged up stairs.

Jessie watched them disappear upstairs. She had never
realized how much she missed the simple things before. She always been firmly
against children of her own, but now she wasn’t so sure. Was it more appealing
because she knew these people weren’t here permanently?

She pulled open the door. Mike stood before her, wearing a sheepish
expression. Jessie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. This couldn’t be
good.

“Don’t tell me—the old man is pressing charges.” That would
be the next logical step in her traditional Christmases.

“Huh? Oh, no. I came to see you on a personal matter.”

She folded her arms in front of her and leaned against the
jamb. “I can’t imagine what that would be.”

He stepped past her, inviting himself in. “You took the key
out of the flower pot.”

“Of course I did.” She couldn’t believe he’d looked. Had he been
planning to let himself in?

“I…um,” he stepped inside and glanced around. When he turned
back to her, the forlorn expression in his brow made her heart skip a beat. “I
made a huge mistake, Jessie.”

She stayed where she was, the front door wide open, crisp
cold swirling around her legs.

“I broke it off with Elaine.”

“Oh my God, Mike, why?” Jessie said instead of the smart
remark hovering on the tip of her tongue. Mike looked so woeful she felt a
twinge of pity for him.

“I realized my first mistake was breaking it off with you.
You were just so adamant about Christmas it got me scared, when what had me
freaked out was really marriage. I wasn’t ready then, but I’m ready now. Just
not with Elaine…”

She stared at him, unable to believe what she was hearing. Her
anger ratcheted up, notch by notch, landing at level red.

“…with you.” He stepped closer, reaching out to slip his
hands around her waist in that way he used to do that made her feel delicate
and girly.

“Don’t.” She held up her hands.  “No.”

He stopped, the realization he’d made a mistake clear on his
face. Did he think he could just waltz back into her life and step back into
place exactly where he left off?

“Can we just talk about this? Come inside and close the
door, please.”

“No,” she repeated, still too stunned to say more. Too
stunned to even
think
more.

“Everything all right, Jessie?” Tom appeared at the foot of
the stairs.

Mike whirled around. “He’s still here?”

“Yes, Tom is still here.”

Tom’s gaze flicked from Mike to her and back again. “I’m
leaving tonight,” he said. He turned and went to the kitchen counter where the
phone was kept. Jessie had seen him drop the rental car agency’s business card
there earlier.

“Mike…” She hesitated as he turned to face her. “You can
still patch things up with Elaine if you go right now.”

He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “I don’t want to be
with her. I want you, Jessie.”

She swallowed, mortified. “Please, don’t do this.” She
wasn’t foolish enough to think he’d suddenly, magically fallen back in love
with her. This was just Mike getting cold feet
again
.

With a final glance back over his shoulder at Tom, who stood
with his back to them, Mike stepped through the front door. She followed him
out onto the landing, pulling the door mostly closed.

“Jessie…”

“Go, now. Fix this with her now, before you lose your
chance.”

He hesitated and opened his mouth, but she didn’t let him
speak.

“Good luck, Mike,” she said quickly, and slipped back
inside.

Tom turned around at the sound of the door closing and
watched her cross the room toward him. His eyes were knowing, searching. She
stood beside him at the kitchen counter.

“Uh, hello. My car broke down in Welcome and I need a rental
to get home in time for Christmas. McPherson’s Auto Repair told me you might
have available cars.”

Jessie heard a voice buzzing through the other end of the
line.

“Okay, that would be fine. Can you deliver?”

“Don’t go,” Jessie said. Her heart was beating so fast the
words were a mere breath.

Tom’s eyes went wide. She’d surprised him. Hell, she’d
surprised herself.

“I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

He jerked the phone back to his ear. “Can I call back
tomorrow? Thank you.”

He hung up the phone and touched her forearm. “Are you
okay?”

“I will be.” She mustered a smile. “After you cook me
dinner.”

A long moment passed in which neither of them spoke.

“You heard that,” Jessie finally said.

“Most of it.” He shrugged, more of a cringe, as though he
knew he’d been caught doing something wrong. “It was hard for you, I know.”

She glanced away. It hadn’t been, actually. Maybe it was
because Tom was here. Maybe they had been brought together as some sort of
divine miracle, so that she could see Mike wasn’t all there was, and wouldn’t
feel so alone when she did the right thing and refused him. She wondered if she
would have had the strength to do that if she’d been alone.

Jessie shook her head.  “Not as hard as I thought it
would be.”

“You’re a strong woman, Jessie.”

She smiled while inside she felt as though she were cracking,
about to break. “I’ve had to be.”

Amy carefully negotiated the stairs in her bulky clothing.
“Can I play in the snow some more?”

“Sure. I’ll take you out into the back yard while your dad
cooks us a nice, yummy dinner.”