Christmas season.” Ben seemed to dodge the question. “You never miss the tree lighting so you’ll be there anyway. You might as well come along with us tonight. Make an evening of it.”
“That’s your family time. I won’t intrude on that.”
“You’re practically part of the family.” Ben gestured to the window. “Besides, I’m not the only one who would like you to come along.”
There was Mia, sitting in the passenger seat, her hands clasped tightly together. Their gazes met and her eyes widened. There was no mistaking the single word she was saying. “Please, please, please, please.”
Ben chuckled. “I think she’s serious.”
“Sure looks like it.” Okay, so he was a little tempted to change his mind.
“You and Debra seemed to get along pretty well,” Ben said.
Debra. She wasn’t watching him as she backed her top-of-the-line SUV out of the parking spot. Hard to tell exactly what she thought of him, but he knew one thing. She was out of his league. Which was too bad. He liked her—then a powerful wave of old guilt crashed through him. He had no right to take that thought any further.
“Well, buddy, at least think about coming with us. Olivia will be disappointed, too. You don’t want to let down two little girls now, do you?”
“When you put it like that, you know I can’t.”
“I know.” Ben grinned and because his business cell phone chose that moment to ring, he answered it.
Debra’s SUV pulled into traffic and out of his sight, but the woman seemed to linger in his thoughts. Grimly, he went back to work, ignoring the sting of an emotion he would not admit or give name to.
Chapter Four
“I’m sorry you didn’t have a better time at dinner,” Debra said, tongue in cheek, to Mia as they drove through the nighttime residential streets of Chestnut Grove.
“I know!” If she hadn’t been held secure by the seat belt, Mia would have bounced out of the seat with happiness. “Aren’t you glad we came? I sure am! Dinner with our new family was great and it was so fun. Oh, look at that. It’s so cute!”
And so it went as Debra tried to keep Ben and Leah’s minivan in sight. The falling snow made it difficult and the streets as they approached the mayor’s mansion were increasingly busy. Debra halted at a crosswalk for a family of four to cross safely and lost sight of the van completely. While they waited for the happy-looking family to cross, Mia went on about the decorated houses and light displays and how Christmassy it was in this small town. That was, of course, when she wasn’t going on about the new members of their family.
Another family stepped into the crosswalk and she waited, the windshield wipers swiping on high speed at the furiously falling snow. Mia’s singsong voice, bright with joy, did add to this special evening. Her daughter was happy. That was all that mattered.
When there was both a break in the pedestrian traffic and a pause in her daughter’s monologue, Debra managed to get a word in. “The directions Leah gave me are in the glove compartment. Could you get them out please?”
“Sure. Didn’t we have the best time? I just love my new cousins. I knew I would! Baby Joseph is so sweet! They have a dog named Bear. I want to get a dog one day. And can you believe Olivia is a singer? She loves singing in the choir, too!”
“You were like two peas in a pod at dinner.”
“Can you believe it? I just love her. And Aunt Leah is so nice and pretty. Don’t you just love her, too?”
“It’s hard not to.” That was only the truth. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had such a pleasant meal with kinder people. Ben’s wife, Leah, was even nicer in person than she’d been in her letter and on the phone. Before the appetizers had been served, Debra had already felt comfortable with her new sister-in-law. And Ben and Leah’s children were as delightful as could be.
Nine-year-old Olivia and Mia had been instantly taken with one another and, although a few years separated them, they’d talked on and on about their new boots, which were a match, their schools, Olivia’s dog and the books they liked to read. They both loved music and singing and church. Ben and Leah’s baby, Joseph, was obviously well-loved and adorable with a wide baby grin and fine, fuzzy light brown hair.
“Here’s the directions!” Mia handed over the note from Leah and strained against her seat belt, trying to see all the decorated homes that lined the way. “Mom! Look! There’s an entire street all done up in lights. It’s perfect!”
Debra didn’t dare take her eyes from the road, so she couldn’t look to where her daughter was pointing. She held the directions against the steering wheel so she could watch the weather, the traffic, the pedestrians who were crowding along the sidewalks and crosswalks and follow Leah’s step-by-step instructions all at the same time.
“Oh, I want to drive down that way and see the street of lights. Can we? Please?”
“We can’t, not now. We’ll miss the ceremony that you so-oo wanted to see.” Debra imitated Mia’s cool, teenagery tone and they both laughed.
“I meant later, not now.” Mia rolled her eyes, but the wide smile remained on her sweet face.
Seeing her daughter so happy felt like an answered prayer. Did she dare hope that the worst of their recent conflicts was over? Debra spotted a space along the curb and hoped they’d be able to squeeze into it. She turned on her blinker and began to back into the spot.
“Mom! Mom! I can see the mayor’s mansion! See all those lights?”
“Not at the moment.” Amused, Debra straightened out the wheel and watched the mirrors carefully as the SUV came to a stop against the curb.
“But I can see our new family, too.” So much excitement. Mia escaped from her seat belt. “See? Don’t they look like a Christmas card with the way they are right in front of the lights?”
Debra gave the wheel a final turn, the front tire nudged the curb and she turned off the engine. As she squinted through the snow-flecked windshield, she didn’t notice the blaze of decorations that had Mia so enraptured.
No, her gaze went straight to the perfect family. The crowd, the storm and her worries faded as she watched her older brother—she still wasn’t used to saying that—with his family. He held his wife’s hand and as the two gazed at one another, the tender look and loving smile they shared was unmistakable. Theirs was a deeply loving and close marriage. Even from across the street and through the haze of snowfall, Debra could recognize that.
If she had any worries left about the kind of man Ben was, they melted like the snow on the windshield. He was the kind of man his family could trust. The kind of husband his wife could not only depend on, but turn to, always. Earlier, through their dinner at the hotel, Leah’s opinion of her husband was hard to miss. The trusting way she turned to him, the secret smiles they shared, the adoring way she watched him when he wasn’t looking—it wasn’t superficial. Even someone as jaded as she could see that Ben was a wonderful husband and father. One of the good ones.
Proof that there were a few good ones in the world.
“Mom!” Mia tumbled out of the SUV. “Look! There’s Jonah!”
Talk about another good one. Not that she was noticing. And to prove it to herself, she kept her eyes down, turned away, gathered her purse and her gloves and opened the door. The cold night air took her breath away. It couldn’t be the big, stoic man striding toward her with the crunch of ice beneath his boots. She closed the door and realized she’d left her keys in the ignition.
Way to go, Debra. Way to act unaffected. She grabbed the keys, aware of the man’s presence like the gravity on her feet. She was as aware, too, of the rumble of his baritone over the beat of her own heart. She closed the door, locked