Читать книгу The Christmas Gift - Darlene Gardner, Darlene Gardner - Страница 9

KRISTA WOKE TO THE SOUND of silver bells.

As a child snuggled under her warm blankets, Krista used to listen for the bells until she fell asleep. They’d dangled from the wreaths that hung from her bedroom window, tinkling together with every gust of wind.

Krista’s room had been her refuge while she was growing up. She’d never tired of the glow-in-the-dark yellow stars her father had put up on the ceiling, insisting that one day she’d travel to the moon. In her teens, she’d plastered the walls with posters of more realistic places to visit—Venice, Paris, Rome, London.

Now that bedroom was a home office, and Krista was sleeping on the sofa bed in the basement recreation room. So why had she still heard the bells?

They jingled again. Pushing the cloud of hair from her face, Krista sat up in bed. Something sleek and white leaped onto the chair opposite the sofa bed and stared at Krista from glistening green eyes. It was a cat with bells on its red collar. Since when did her family have a pet?

“Where did you come from?” Krista asked aloud.

With sinewy grace, the cat jumped down from the chair and disappeared, the bells tingling together in its wake. Krista was about to lie back down when she caught sight of the bedside alarm clock.

Nine o’clock!

She didn’t even sleep that late in Prague, where it was already partway through the afternoon. Krista should have asked what time to be ready to leave for the Christmas shop and set an alarm.

She scrambled out of the sofa bed and hurried to her open suitcase. Since it was carry-on size, her wardrobe choices were limited. She yanked out dark slacks and a plain red sweater that was as Christmassy as her wardrobe got.

Ten minutes later, after using the bathroom in the basement that was adjacent to her sister’s empty bedroom, Krista hurried up the stairs. The smell of brewing coffee assailed her before she reached the kitchen.

A young woman sat at the kitchen table, her hands wrapped around a coffee mug, her long blond hair parted in the middle and tucked behind her ears. A newspaper was spread in front of her but she didn’t appear to be reading it.

If they’d been anywhere but inside the house, Krista might not recognize the woman as her sister, Rayna. The twenty-one-year-old’s face was thinner and her hair much lighter than when Krista had last seen her.

Feeling her mouth curving into a smile, Krista started toward her sister. “Rayna! You’re so grown up!”

Rayna lifted her large dark eyes from her coffee mug. Her lips were unsmiling, her body language distant. “I heard you were home.”

Krista stopped midstride, her hands dropping to her sides. She blinked sudden moisture from her eyes, annoyed with herself. Only a fool would expect a warm welcome after so many years apart. “I got here last night but crashed early because of the time difference.”

Rayna said nothing.

Krista cleared her throat. “I came because Mom called me and made it seem like she was really sick.”

“A few days ago, she was really sick. Her skin was gray and she was so run-down she could barely stand.” Rayna’s eyes didn’t waver from Krista’s face. “Then she started vomiting blood. Nobody knew why when we got her to the emergency room.”

Krista hugged herself, disturbed by the frightening scenario her sister was describing. “The doctors must have figured it out pretty quickly.”

“Not until the endoscopy. Even after they put her on medicine, she was too weak to get out of bed. They kept her in the hospital for three days.”

Some of the annoyance Krista had felt at her mother the day before faded. “I didn’t know any of that.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like you live around here,” Rayna said.

Even though the statement was true, it felt like a criticism.

Rayna’s eyes dipped to the newspaper. It was open to the sports page, the section Krista usually skipped. Was Rayna into sports? She hadn’t been as a child. She didn’t have a cat, either, although Krista’s guess was that the one downstairs was hers.

“Where is Mom?” Krista asked.

Rayna didn’t look up. “She and Grandma left early for the nursery.”

Krista had missed her grandmother, just like she thought. She hadn’t considered her mother would be working at the shop today, too.

“Shouldn’t Mom be resting?” Krista asked.

“Sure should,” Rayna mumbled, eyes still on the page.

The topic was too important to let her sister’s lack of response dissuade her. “Then why isn’t she?” Krista persisted.

“Mom promised she’d take it easy,” Rayna said.

“Will she?” Krista asked. “Probably not.”

“Maybe I can make sure she doesn’t overdo it,” Krista said, thinking aloud.

Rayna’s eyes finally flickered upward. “Yeah. You do that.”

Krista tried not to take offense. She couldn’t expect her sister to instantly trust her. “Is Dad still here? Maybe I can hitch a ride with him.”

“Dad doesn’t drive, Krista,” Rayna said dryly.

Krista should have expected that. Her parents had purchased a handicap-accessible van before Krista moved to Europe but it hadn’t been equipped with hand brakes. Once again Krista wished she’d thought to reserve a rental car. “How will he get to work?”

“The Christmas Shoppe isn’t his thing.” Rayna waved an arm in a dismissive gesture. She wore a sterling silver bracelet with a heart-shaped charm dangling from it. Inside the charm was the name Trey. Was he Rayna’s boyfriend?

“But the nursery’s still open, right?” Krista asked. Her parents typically closed the business in January and February and reopened in March.

“They shut down early because of the Christmas Shoppe,” Rayna said. “Good thing, too. We’ve had a lot of ice this month. It’s hard for Dad when the weather’s bad.”

The first winter their father had been in a wheelchair, he’d struggled to get around. Krista hadn’t expected him to become a wheelchair whiz since then, but it hadn’t occurred to her that he’d be housebound.

“Where is Dad?” Krista asked.

“In his office,” Rayna said. “But don’t go in there. He doesn’t like being disturbed.”

So their father wasn’t only housebound, he was also a recluse. Suddenly in need of sustenance, Krista moved across the kitchen to the coffeemaker and poured herself a cup. Rayna closed the newspaper and stood up. At thirteen, she’d been as tall as Krista and spindly. Now she topped Krista by a few inches and her figure verged on voluptuous.

“I’ve gotta get to work,” Rayna said.

“So you got your degree?” Krista ventured.

“No.” Rayna’s head shook slightly as she regarded Krista. “I got a part-time office job at a dental practice while I finish school.”

The implication was that Krista should have known that. In reality, Krista wasn’t even sure how Rayna had escaped getting roped into going into business with their parents at the nursery. “That’s great.”

“Whatever.” Rayna started to walk out of the kitchen.

“Rayna, wait,” Krista called. Her sister stopped but didn’t turn, making it even harder to ask for a favor. “Can you drop me at the shop on your way to work? Or someplace where I can rent a car?”

“The rental agency’s too far away,” Rayna said, “and work’s in the opposite direction.”

Before Krista could figure out where that left her, dogs started barking to the tune of “Jingle Bells.” The doorbell.

“That’ll be Alex,” Rayna said.

“Alex?” Some of the coffee in Krista’s cup sloshed onto her hand. If it hadn’t been lukewarm, she would have gotten burned. “What’s he doing here?”

“Grandma asked him to pick you up.” Rayna walked the rest of the way out of the room, leaving Krista to answer the summons.

The irony didn’t escape her that the man who’d criticized her last night was willing to give her a ride to the shop when her own sister was not.

THE FIVE MILES BETWEEN the Novaks’ house and their business traversed a rolling stretch of rural road that led to the sprawling downtown of Jarrell.

Alex drove his company pickup past a diner, a dry cleaner, a hardware store and a bank branch clustered within a few blocks. Giant fake snowflakes decorated the light poles, which he thought provided a nice festive touch.

“Not much has changed around here, has it?” Krista asked.

Jarrell’s population was less than five thousand but the town was only thirty minutes south of the city center of Harrisburg. Anything Alex needed, he could get without driving more than a half hour, including streams to fish, trails to hike and mountainous scenery to photograph.

“Some of us think that’s a good thing,” Alex said.

“I was never one of them,” Krista said. “When I left, I felt like the town was smothering me.”

“You said you’d suffocate if you didn’t leave.” Alex braked at a red light at the intersection where his favorite bakery was located. Sometimes in the mornings, he dropped in for a cinnamon-raisin bagel topped with cream cheese, one of the simple pleasures of life.

“I’m surprised you remember that,” Krista said.

Alex could call the moment instantly to mind. They’d been lying naked in each other’s arm, having just made love. Her cheeks had been flushed, her hair awry, her lips well-kissed. Alex had been about to surprise her with tickets to a concert at the Forum in Harrisburg, but he’d never gotten around to it. There wasn’t any point. The concert had taken place the day after she left town.

“Probably because it’s the opposite of how I feel about Jarrell,” he said. “The clean air makes breathing easy for me.”

“Lots of places have clean air,” Krista said.

“Only one of them is home,” Alex said, then felt frustrated at himself for getting in the last word. They weren’t arguing. He liked living in Jarrell and she preferred Europe. End of story.

The light turned green and he stepped on the accelerator, but not before noticing she’d lost none of the vibrancy that had first attracted him to her. She filled up the truck with her presence, her skin glowing with health, her hair shiny clean. Dressed in the red coat, she looked even more alive.

“I’m surprised you agreed to drive me,” Krista remarked.

“Happy to do it,” Alex said.

“Oh, come on,” she drawled. “Why don’t you just admit Grandma twisted your arm?”

Alex’s eyes left the road. She gazed back at him, her expression challenging. For a woman who should be suffering from jet lag, she was surprisingly lucid.

“You believe in speaking your mind, don’t you?” Alex asked.

“You didn’t mince words yesterday. Or just now, for that matter,” she pointed out. “It’s obvious you disapprove of me.”

Alex focused in front of him, unwilling to be drawn into an argument. “You were right last night. I shouldn’t have criticized you.”

“But you meant what you said?”

“I did,” he confirmed. In his rearview mirror, Alex noticed a black SUV that was following too closely. The driver had a cell phone to his ear. “But I heard your mom at dinner. She doesn’t need me to speak for her. She does a pretty good job herself.”

Krista laughed, the last thing he expected.

“I guess my mother and I have something in common, after all,” Krista said. “So while we’re being outspoken and clearing the air, let’s hear why you dumped me.”

Alex abruptly turned to Krista, not able to determine from her expression if she were joking. “I didn’t dump you! You moved to the Czech Republic.”

“You dropped me like a hot potato two weeks before that.” She gasped and pointed at the road. “Red light!”

They were approaching a traffic light that was turning from yellow to red, but Alex only had one choice because of the SUV on his bumper. He kept his foot steady on the gas and went through the intersection. Behind them, the SUV came to a screeching stop.

“You ran that red light!” Krista said.

“It was safer than stopping.” Alex counted himself lucky he didn’t hear a police siren. How could he explain missing the red light when he’d driven this route thousands of times?

“Am I distracting you?” she asked.

“Ya think?” He vowed to keep his eyes on the road, but his mind was mired in the past. “To set the record straight, I didn’t break things off until after you accepted the job.”

“You had to realize I would have liked to keep seeing you in those two weeks before I moved,” Krista said.

“What would have been the point?” he asked.

“We were having a good time together.”

“The good times had to end, sooner or later.”

“It would have been nice if it was later,” she said.

Were they really having this conversation? Alex didn’t know any other woman who talked so bluntly. Was that one of the reasons he’d been attracted to her?

“More time together would have changed nothing,” he stated. “You still would have moved to Europe and I still would have stayed here.”

“I suppose,” she said, a sigh in her voice. “But it’s not like we had a commitment.”

The few weeks they’d known each other had been enough time for Alex to suspect he wanted more from Krista than sex. Her surprise announcement that she was leaving had forced him to conclude he hadn’t known her at all.

“Why didn’t you mention you were considering moving to Europe?” Alex posed the question he should have asked back then.

“I wasn’t,” Krista said. “The job offer came from out of the blue, and I accepted on the spot.”

Alex hadn’t seen it coming. One day, he was dating a woman with a semester left at a college less than three hours away in Philadelphia. The next, she was moving across the Atlantic Ocean.

Looking back on it, Alex had envisioned the same future for Krista that her mother had. She was a business major at the University of Pennsylvania and her parents owned a nursery. It seemed a given that she’d eventually join the family business, perhaps because that was the choice Alex made.

No, he hadn’t known Krista well at all.

“You sound like you have no regrets,” he said.

“Not about moving,” Krista replied. “But if I had it to do over again, I’d wait a lot longer before telling you I was taking the job.”

The last mile before they reached the nursery was on a fairly steep road with a narrow shoulder. Krista didn’t sound as if she were teasing, but Alex couldn’t risk a glance at her to find out.

“We still would have had an expiration date,” he said.

Krista agreed. “But think of the fun we could have had in the meantime.”

Alex would rather not. “What’s over is over.”

The paved parking lot that served both Novaks’ Nursery and the adjoining Christmas Shoppe came into view, half-filled with cars even though it was barely past ten o’clock. Alex switched on his turn signal and slowed down.

“What if it’s not over? What would you say if I propositioned you now?” Krista asked in the same low voice she once used when they were in bed together. Just like that, sensations assailed him. He could recall the smooth texture of her skin. The fresh smell of her hair. The sweet taste of her kiss.

Alex focused on another memory as he pulled the truck into the parking lot, found a space and shut off the ignition—the disappointment that Krista was leaving when things between them had barely begun.

“You won’t proposition me,” he said in an equally soft voice. “You won’t be here long enough.”

KRISTA COULDN’T IMAGINE what had possessed her to say those suggestive things to Alex.

Sure, the abrupt way he’d cut things off with her eight years ago had stung. And, yes, he’d crept into her thoughts over the years. He remained the one and only man who’d ended a relationship before she had.

Maybe that was why whatever was between them didn’t feel as though it were over.

She pulled on the fur-lined black leather gloves she’d taken off during the drive and prepared to be gracious. With only a few days remaining before she left Jarrell, Krista wouldn’t be spending much time—if any—with Alex.

“Thank you for the ride,” she said.

He dipped his dark head in a formal little bow. “Like I said, it was my pleasure.”

No wonder she’d fallen for him, Krista thought. She’d always been a sucker for guys with good manners.

“See you around,” she said and got out of the pickup.

Almost immediately she heard the driver’s door open and shut. Alex strode around the pickup, joining her on the path leading to the nursery.

“You don’t need to walk me to the door,” Krista said.

“I’m not.” Alex’s breath was visible in the frosty air. “I’m working at the shop today, too.”

She noticed that he was carrying a black athletic bag over his shoulder. “Doing what?”

“You’ll see soon enough,” he said.

“A mystery,” Krista said. “You know how much I love them.”

Years ago they’d discovered they shared a passion for true-crime books and classic whodunits. They both considered Alfred Hitchcock to be a genius.

Up ahead, the blooms that added color to the nursery yard in the spring and summer were gone. A few empty crates and leafless trees in burlap bags added to the barren feel. A few steps farther, however, the atmosphere underwent a dramatic change.

A charming wood sign hung suspended from a post. It was painted red and featured a winking elf and white lettering that spelled out Novaks’ Christmas Shoppe.

Past the sign was a covered entranceway lined with poinsettias that transported Krista back to her first sighting of Alex. He hadn’t been the only one who was gobsmacked. If Alex hadn’t overturned the cart, she would have found another reason to talk to him.

He looked even better now than he had then. With his height and broad shoulders, he still cut an impressive figure. But he’d let the black hair that went so well with his olive complexion and dark-as-night eyes grow a little longer. His hair curled at the ends, a soft touch that made his lean face appear even more masculine.

Alex placed his hand at the small of her back. She nearly jumped, even though there was a coat and a sweater between his hand and her skin.

Who was she kidding? She was still as sexually attracted to Alex as she’d been as a twenty-one-year-old. Her candid talk when she’d propositioned him in the car had been more than just talk.

“Your family decided not to use the nursery’s retail space,” Alex said, then indicated the expansive structure that was just past it. “The Christmas Shoppe is in the old storage building.”

The revelation drove all other thoughts from Krista’s mind. Though sizeable, the storage building was dank and dark. It had been her least favorite place whenever she worked at the nursery, which was saying something.

“Both your mom and grandma are proud of the job they’ve done with the place,” Alex said.

Was he warning her not to hurt their feelings by making a tactless remark? As though she’d do such a thing. Krista schooled her features while he opened the door to the strains of the Christmas song about grandma getting run over by a reindeer.

Alex chuckled, and Krista felt the warmth of his breath on her neck as she preceded him into the shop. “Grandma Novak plays that song at least a couple times a day,” he said.

Krista stopped dead. She’d expected the place to be lit up like a candelabra. She hadn’t anticipated the place to be tasteful. The ceiling was gold, the walls red. Gaily bedecked artificial trees competed for space with shelves neatly packed with colorful ornaments and holiday decorations.

“Krista! Alex!” Grandma Novak must have been watching for them. She rushed to their side, wearing a long red skirt and a matching jacket trimmed with white fur. “What do you think of the store, Krista?”

“It’s fantastic,” Krista said truthfully. “Really impressive.”

“Grandma Novak drew up the plans herself.” Alex sounded like a proud grandson. “She knew exactly how she wanted it.”

“Today I’m not Grandma Novak.” She pushed her glasses up her nose. “I’m Grandma Claus.”

“You look the part,” Krista said. “Love the outfit.”

“I’ve sold four of these getups this week.” Grandma lowered her voice. “You wouldn’t believe the kinds of things customers buy. Get a load of this.”

She led them to the end of a nearby aisle and picked up one of an identical stack of boxes. It contained a mechanical Santa holding together the edges of a fur-trimmed red cape. Grandma pressed a button, and Santa gyrated to the tune of “Santa, Baby.” He opened the cape wide. Underneath he wore nothing but green boxer shorts adorned with twinkling Christmas lights.

“It’s a flashing Santa!” Grandma exclaimed. “It’s a bestseller!”

A deep, inviting laugh bubbled up from Alex that Krista felt reverberate down to her toes.

“Are you going to buy one of those for Charlie?” Alex asked in a teasing voice.

“No! Never!” Grandma exclaimed. “But I can’t think about Charlie. Not when Burton’s stopping by the store.”

“Burton?” Krista said. “I thought you were interested in Charlie?”

“I am.” Grandma threw up her hands. “But what was I supposed to say to Burton when he saw my profile and asked to meet me?”

“No,” Krista suggested. Her grandmother really did not have the hang of online dating.

“On that note,” Alex said, “I’m gonna change.”

Change into what? Krista wondered. Before she could ask the question, she got distracted watching Alex leave them with his sexy, hip-rolling walk. The attraction was still going strong, she admitted.

Her grandmother grabbed Krista by the hand. “I’ll give you a quick tour before I put you to work.”

Talking so fast her words nearly ran into each other, Grandma showed Krista sections of the store that contained lighted yard art, personalized ornaments, collectibles and Nativity scenes. The biggest surprise was the ball crawl tucked away in a far corner, its pit filled with green and red balls.

“What a good idea!” Krista exclaimed. “If you get children into the store, you’ll make sales to their parents.”

“It was Alex’s idea,” Grandma said. “He got us to make up flyers and post them around town. I don’t know what we’d do without him.”

Even when Alex was out of sight, Krista thought, someone brought him to mind.

“We’re starting the children’s activities soon,” Grandma said. “Do me a favor and try to convince your mother to run the ball crawl. We’ve got a chair over there.”

Krista’s mother was at the cashier’s desk, fur-trimmed reindeer antlers sticking from her head. She didn’t have much color in her face aside from the splotches of rouge on her cheeks, but her eyes were bright.

“Darling, you made it!” her mother cried. “We can use the extra hands today. I’ve got a feeling our Santa Claus is going to be very popular.”

She indicated a point over Krista’s shoulder. The tall man in the red suit heading their way was lean and muscular instead of soft and round. His posture and manner of walking were familiar. Krista squinted to see past the white beard.

“Is that Alex?” Krista asked.

“Isn’t he a dear?” Grandma replied. “Milo was already booked at the mall so Alex said he’d step in.”

“After you begged him,” her mother said.

“I didn’t beg. I bribed him with Christmas cookies.”

Her grandmother went to meet Alex, who was already gathering a small group of children in his wake. Taking him by the arm, she led him to a thronelike chair that hadn’t been on Krista’s tour of the shop. The children talked excitedly and jostled for better positions in the line that was forming.

“Time for me to switch places with your grandmother. I’m on crowd control.” Krista’s mother emerged from behind the cash register, preparing to enter the fray.

Krista laid a hand on her mother’s arm, waylaying her. “Let’s trade jobs, Mom. If you run the ball crawl, you’ll be able to sit down.”

“I don’t need to sit down.”

“Yes, you do,” Krista said firmly. “You just got out of the hospital, and you promised Rayna you’d take it easy.”

“That snitch!” Her mother crossed her arms over her chest, gnawing thoughtfully at her lower lip as she openly surveyed Krista. “If I let you manage the line, you can’t do it looking like that.”

Krista sighed and stuck out her hand. “I’ll put on the antler ears.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” Krista’s mother crossed to a nearby display, plucked a package from the shelf and held it up. The illustration on the front showed a curvaceous model wearing green tights and a short red dress. “You can be Santa’s elf. Won’t that be fun?”