An Evergreen Christmas (13 page)

“Hey, look. There’s Noel and…uh Holly Green?” The gossipy nurse from the locker room yelled above the crowd.

Holly sank in her seat.
Oh, no. Not tonight.

The nurse tottered over to them. Every clop of her high-heeled boots jabbed at Holly, but she smiled over gritted teeth as the nurse leaned over and hugged Noel. Ashley stood behind her fellow nurse and shrugged.

Noel stiffened at her dramatic hug. “Hi. Good to see you.”

She whipped around to face Holly. “Dr. Green. What a surprise? I’ve never seen you here at Callahan’s.”

“Noel and I were just grabbing a quick dinner before going off for the rest of the evening.”

The nurse tilted her shoulders towards Noel. “Oh, you have to stay. The gang’s all here. I’m so happy you took us up on the invite to Callahan’s. You’ll have a great time.”

Noel reached for Holly’s hand. “I am having a great time, but we already have plans for the evening.”

“Well okay.” She shot her finger at him. “But come back again…soon.”

Ashley tugged at her friend’s sweater sleeve. “Let’s go.” She smiled at Holly. “It is nice seeing you. I hope you and Noel will come back.”

“Thanks, Ashley. And I’m glad your brother will be home for Christmas.”

“Me too.” She waved to Holly and Noel and then dragged her friend away.

Noel squeezed her hands. “Sorry about that.”

Holly shook her head. “Don’t be. I avoided coming to Callahan’s, and I did have my reservations, but I’m actually thankful you’ve brought me here. The burgers are indeed the best.”

“You’re welcome.”

The waitress cleared their plates. Both passing on dessert, Noel paid the bill. He stood up and rounded the table. Grabbing Holly’s hand, he slid her across the wooden bench seat, grinning the whole time.

Holly laughed. “You have me skating before I hit the ice.”

Noel pulled Holly to her feet and yanked her to his chest, wrapping his arms around her, his embrace firm but not restraining. Noel pressed his lips to hers. Heat shot from her lips to her toes, enough to keep her toasty on the ice the rest of the night.

When they eased apart, patrons pounded their fists on the pub’s bar counter and cheered, “Mistletoe! Mistletoe! Mistletoe!”

Noel pulled Holly past the Callahan’s Christmas tree and halted her beneath the doorway’s mistletoe.

“Not so safe now, are you?” He teased.

Holly tilted her head back. The tree’s twinkling lights flickering behind Noel, her breathing rose to a crescendo, waiting for his kiss. And at this moment, she didn’t care whose eyes were upon them. The warmth of his breath caressed her cheeks as he leaned towards her, closer, and closer, her heart beating faster in tandem to the blinking Christmas lights. He rested his mouth upon hers and then pulled her in closer. She pressed harder galvanized by the revelry of the crowd, their pounding whirring in her ears.

“Longer. Longer. Longer,” they yelled.

They froze in their embrace, her arms swaddled about his broad shoulders, and his palms cupping her hips. His neck pulsed beneath her fingertips. Not since her parents had she felt that same soft comfort.

Holly blinked and widened her eyes when they parted. Adrenalin rushed through her. Grabbing his hand, she yanked him through the door of Callahan’s and into the snow covered parking lot.

“Anxious, aren’t we?”

She twirled around, tasting every snowflake on her tongue, before clutching the car door handle. She jerked it. Pulled on it again, thinking her fingers had not gotten an adequate purchase. Nothing.

Noel snickered and pressed the remote on his key ring. After two beeps and a flash of headlights, Holly swung the car door open and bounced into the seat.

Noel got into the car, buckled his seat belt, and slid the key into the ignition. He glanced at Holly.

She clicked her seatbelt closed and gave him a grin that tapped her cheekbones. “I’m going to skate circles around you!”

“Hmm.” He smiled. “Is that a challenge?”

“Yes, it is Dr. Shepherd.”

He pointed at her. “I accept, Dr. Green.”

***

Giddy from dinner and ooh, those two kisses, she hadn’t given thought to where they’d whirl about on the ice until Noel pulled up at Putney’s Pond, parking on the side of the road in full view of frolicking skaters. Her smile melted. Lips pressed tight, she gazed at a mother pulling her little girl up from the ice, dusting off her bottom, and then hugging her. They skated away, mitten to mitten.

Panic whirred in Holly’s chest. “Noel, I can’t.”

She turned to face him but he wasn’t there. The tap on her window made her jerk back into the seat.

Noel waved to her and held up her mother’s skates. “Come on. Give me everything you’ve got, Green!”

She couldn’t disappoint him. He had planned such a wonderful evening for them. Why ruin it? Holly took a deep breath and opened her door. Noel grasped her hand, and mitten-to-mitten, he pulled her to him and kissed her. With his skates slung over one of his shoulders and Holly’s skates over the other, they crunched over the snow holding hands all the way to the red wooden shed, the same place her mother would sit her down on a bench and lace up her skates before putting hers on.

The night before Christmas Eve and kids on holiday recess from school, the rural rink was packed with families, and teenagers snaking around them. Holly sat on a bench next to Noel who was furiously lacing up his skates.

“I’m going to beat you to the ice,” he teased.

She hesitated but then grabbed her skates. “No you’re not!”

Holly and Noel knotted their skates in synchrony and popped up from the bench at the same time.

“Go,” Holly yelled.

They “duck walked” from the shed to the ice, the silver blades of their skates chopping into the snow and glided onto the frozen pond. Noel gripped Holly’s hand and whipped her ahead of him. She whipped him around her. They split from one another and half raced around the rink, careful of others stumbling about. After three laps, she raised her arms in victory.

“I win,” she shouted with glee.

Noel skated up to her, shearing a small fountain of ice with his hockey stop.

“Here’s your consolation prize.” She glided towards him, performing a perfect T-stop in front of him, and kissed him.

He smiled. “I like second place.”

Holly skated away from him. “Watch this. I hope I can still do it.”

She veered to her right, her right foot catching an outside edge and then an inside one. Hugging her arms to her chest, she spun, spinning faster and faster the tighter she held them in, lost in a blissful blur, her mother whispering in her ear,
“Spin. Spin. Spin. My darling.”

Stabbing the ice with her toe pick, she stopped and held out her arms. “Ta da!”

Noel clapped. “Bravo! Bravo!”

Holly did it. She’d made her mother proud.

Their racing competition completed, Holly and Noel skated holding hands for a few more laps around the rink. An older couple passed them.

“That’s so sweet,” Holly cooed.

“I think it’s sad.”

She cocked her head up towards him, her mouth open. “Why would you think that?”

“Because they passed us,” he said, curtly nodding. “We can’t have that.” He tugged her hand. “Come on.”

They picked up pace and snuck by the couple. Noel spun around and skated backwards while holding both her hands. She pulled one hand away and smacked him on his shoulder. “You are so bad.”

“Yes, I’m absolutely wicked.” He peeled off her mitten and kissed her hand, his warm breath wafting in clouds above them.

Her fingers tingled, cradled in his touch.

“I’m sorry. Your hand must be cold.” He blew on her fingers and then slipped her mitten back onto her hand.

Her stomach fluttered and gooseflesh popped onto her skin beneath her red sweater, not the frigid kind, but the prickly, tiny bumps that nudge every hair on your neck to exhilarating attention.

“Noel, You’ve totally surprised me tonight. I can’t remember the last time I’ve…”

He hugged her and whispered in her ear, “Let go?”

“Yes,” she whispered back.

He pulled her off the rink. “Let’s get these skates off. The finale of surprises is yet to come.”

“Where to now?”

“You’ll see.”

***

Noel reached out to carry Holly’s skates to the car, but she gently resisted.

She clutched her mother’s ice skates to her chest. “Please. I’d like to carry them.

He smiled. “I understand.”

Holly held the skates to her heart.
I’m so sorry I ignored you the last time we were here. I love you, Mommy.

A tear escaped down her cheek. She swiped her mitten across her face.

“Hey. Hurry up slowpoke,” He teased.

“Coming,” she called, turning to gaze once more at Putney’s Pond before trotting up next to Noel.

Holly let Noel open the car door for her. Scooting inside, she placed the ice skates at her feet and buckled her seatbelt.

“Ready?” He asked.

“I guess. It’s been a fun filled night thus far, so I trust you to lead me to the last surprise.”

“It will definitely top off tonight.”

Holly shimmied her shoulders into her seat. “Well let’s go then.”

Fifteen minutes later, Noel pulled into her drive.

“Okay. You have me stumped,” Holly said.

The lights were still on. She felt as if she was back in high school on a date, her Aunt Mae holding vigil until she returned safely, scolding her if she snuck in past curfew. The living room curtains shifted.

“I can’t believe she waited up for me.”

“Stay right where you are,” Noel said.

“Are you going to blindfold me?”

“Nope, but I wish I had thought of that.”

He rounded the car and opened her door. Holly grabbed her skates, draping the tied laces over her shoulder. Noel offered her his hand. After helping her from the car, he held her hand all the way to the porch steps.

“We’re here,” he yelled.

“Noel, my aunt is not deaf.”

They trotted up the three steps.

Noel twisted the doorknob and pushed open the front door. “After you.”

Holly stepped inside her house.

“Surprise,” Noel, Aunt Mae, Mrs. Shale, and little Sam from across the street yelled.

Holly’s mouth dropped open. She blinked and shook her head.

A Christmas tree filled a corner of her living room, a red ribbon hanging from a branch, the same tag she had watched the white bearded man tie to that evergreen with Noel next to his side. Boxes of ornaments circled it, boxes that she had stowed away safely in the attic. Her eyes roamed to the dining room table, covered with plates of cheese and crackers, a bowl of popcorn, cups of cocoa and tea, and tiny tortes shaped like Christmas trees. A wave of bitterness washed up to the back of Holly’s throat.

She swallowed the acid back down. Her stomach clenched. It was such a wonderful night. And now this. Holly turned her head slowly towards Noel. “You lied to me,” she said flatly.

His eyes widened. “What?” Shock etched across his face.

Holly narrowed her eyes. “The night we went to the Christmas tree lot. You told me you bought that tree for yourself.”

Noel paused, his mouth open. “And you,” he said softly.

“I didn’t ask for one,” she said a bit more loudly.

“Holly!” Aunt Mae said.

Mrs. Shale sat quietly on the sofa.

Holly glanced at her. “I thought you would understood.”

“I do, dear.”

Sam grabbed his jacket. “Um. I gotta go. Goodnight, Dr. Green.”

“Sam, please stay. I’m not upset with you,” Holly pleaded.

“It’s okay. I put your chocolates under the tree. You don’t have to keep them there. My feelings won’t be hurt.” He waved to her from the door. “See you after Christmas.”

“Goodnight, Sam,” she called.

“Holly, you scared the poor boy off,” Aunt Mae said.

“I told him to stay. He left on his own accord. And he didn’t seem frightened,” Holly said. “It’s late anyway.”

Aunt Mae cleared the dining room table. “Yes it is. Come on Maureen. Let’s go upstairs.”

Mrs. Shale stood from the sofa. “Goodnight, dear.”

“Goodnight, Mrs. Shale,” she said, softly. “Goodnight, Aunt Mae.”

Her aunt shook her head at her. “Goodnight, Holly.”

Holly walked over to the tree, her back to Noel. “You have to take this back. Or take it to your house, like you were supposed to.”

 “It’s late. It’s not like you can return a tree at customer service. And it won’t fit on my car. That’s why I had it delivered,” Noel responded, his voice growing louder with a mixture of dismay to outright disappointment. Noel took a deep breath and softened his tone. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. You’re on call. You won’t have to look at it. You’ll be at your aunt’s house for Christmas. I’ll arrange for someone to pick it up the day after.” Noel walked up to her and rested his hand on her shoulder. “Holly, you kissed me at Callahan’s under the mistletoe with their Christmas tree twinkling in the background. I thought you were having a great time.”

She turned to face him, not bothering to swipe the tears trickling down her hot cheeks. “I was.”

Noel wiped her cheeks with the back of his sleeve. “We’ll decorate this tree better than the one at Callahan’s.”

Holly sniffled. “Everything at Callahan’s, the tree, the mistletoe, that’s all fantasy.”

Noel squinted. “Our whole evening was a fantasy to you?”

“Of course not. That’s not what I meant. Noel, this is my reality. I’m not ready for all this.”

“Okay. But Holly, this
is
your reality, and you’re missing it because you’re too busy with the past. I’m sorry about all of this. I made a mistake. We…I…have to get up early. I better go.”

Holly wrapped her arms around her chest. “I think that would be best.”

Noel sighed. He lowered his eyes. “Okay,” he said softly and then left, slowly clicking her front door closed.

Holly clutched her head and squeezed her wet eyes shut. It felt like a bomb was ready to go off in her chest, about to leave her insides splintered into a million pieces. It was all her fault. Noel was gone.