Blessings of the Season (8 page)

“No room? But Jesus was just a baby.” He looked at the bundle in his hand. His voice grew thin and strained. “Didn't they care what happened to Him? Didn't anybody care enough to take Him in?”

Addie wanted to cry. She knew the boy was empathizing with the Christ child in a way that she never had. She reached out and pulled Jesse into her lap, stroking his hair to give him whatever comfort she could, even if it was just for this one special night. “That's the great gift of Christmas, sweetheart. Even though people rejected and mistreated Jesus when He was here, even though they reject Him to this day, He came here for us.”

Nate moved across the couch to where Addie was sitting on the floor with Jesse. He put one hand on her shoulder and the other under Jesse's chin. “Because of Jesus, everyone is welcomed into God's family.”

“I'd like to have a family,” he said softly, his eyes down as he finally placed the baby figurine in the manger to complete the scene.

Addie shut her eyes, and a tear rolled down her cheek. All she knew to say was, “I'm praying that you have that, too, Jesse.”

After that nobody felt much like celebrating. Addie thought about suggesting they open gifts, but she knew it would only feel awkward, and she wondered if maybe, in time, that was what they would remember more than the small circle of special time they had shared this night.

And so they moved their mixed-up tree to the kitchen, then gathered up their belongings. After locking up, Addie dangled the keys out for Nate to take, since
he'd be seeing the Goodwins tonight. “Give these to Doc, and don't let Maimie see.”

“I'll do it,” Jesse said.

“Okay.” She gave them to the boy, then planted a kiss on his cheek. “Get plenty of sleep tonight. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”

T
he Open House was a huge success. The oldies radio station did a great job setting the mood with Christmas songs from the 1950s. Tons of people showed up, many in costume. Women wore everything from poodle skirts to aprons and pearls to movie-star glam, and men dressed like Elvis, beatniks and dreamboats.

At times there were so many people in costume in the store that Addie couldn't help imagining that was how it must have looked during that first Christmas season years ago. She kept busy serving cookies and punch and didn't even shy away when people asked to have a picture taken with her.

The day went by quickly, and just after six, as the sky grew dark and the lights all over town began to come up, they put the finishing touches on the huge live tree. They had decorated it according to a photograph of one of the Christmas trees that the Eisenhowers had had in the White House. Everyone oohed and ahhed over it.

“I liked ours better,” Nate whispered as he dropped into the couch next to her and pointed to the little pink tree tucked away in a corner of the kitchen set.

“Ten, nine, eight…” The crowd began the countdown to the big light up.

“I liked ours better, too.”
Ours
. Addie liked saying it, even if she knew it could never be.

“Seven, six, five…”

Doc stood at the ready with an extension cord in one hand and the plug from the lights of the tree in the other.

“Four, three, two…”

Jesse came up to Addie and Nate, exhausted, and crawled into Addie's lap. She hugged the boy tightly, thinking that even though it would all be over soon, for just this one moment she had everything she'd ever wanted for Christmas.

“Merry Christmas, Goodlife family,” Nate said to the two of them.

“Merry Christmas,” she whispered back, trying not to tear up.

“One! Merry Christmas everybody!” the crowd cried in unison as Doc pushed the plug into the extension cord socket and…the whole store went dark.

Not just the store, but parts of the downtown, as well.

A moment of confusion followed.

Addie held Jesse close to her so he wouldn't get hurt in the shuffle of customers.

Doc went to the front of the room and flipped on all the switches they had dimmed to better highlight the tree.

Nothing.

“I'm afraid that might be my fault.” Bivvy rushed
forward, noticeable even in the dark with her jingle-bell earrings jingling and Christmas-trimmed party dress flashing. “Since I've had my house online and gotten TV attention, it seems more people have decorated this year, and a nice man from the electric company told me it's been causing brownouts in small segments of town at a time.”

The crowd grumbled.

Goodwin's security guards moved swiftly to the front doors to keep people from rushing to them. Everyone was asked to come to the front area of the store, to stay calm and wait while a call was made to the Star City Electric Company to see how soon they could restore power.

People began to shuffle and complain.

Jesse slipped from Addie's lap. She made a grab for him but came up empty-handed.

From somewhere in the crowded store a child bellowed, “I want to see the tree. It's not like Christmas without a tree!”

“In our family, we make a big deal about the crèche.” A small boy's voice rose above the low rumble of the restless group. Then a bright halo of light illuminated the coffee table and the Nativity scene that Addie and Jesse had made over the past week.

The whole room fell silent.

Nate put his arm around Addie. She put her hand out to the little redheaded boy. Jesse came to her, and after she pulled him close she began to sing, softly, “Away in a manger, no crib for his bed…”

And in a moment the whole crowd had joined in singing softly but clearly in the stillness of the power
less night about the baby who had come into the world so humbly that He had no place to lay His head.

Once they had finished singing that, someone else started another song. And after that another.

Jesse moved from the table to the place where Doc and Maimie had planted themselves beside the front doors and slid his hands in theirs.

“What did I tell you?” Addie said to Nate as they sat side by side on the couch surrounded by the sweetness of the moment that no one, no matter how hard they worked behind the scenes or how much they stood out from the crowd, could have orchestrated. “It's the
im
perfections, the unexpected, that make Christmas special. It's being caught off guard by—”

“Love,” Nate finished for her.

“I was going to say joy, but love is good,” she murmured. The flashlight gave off just enough brightness so that she could see his face.

“Love is very good.”

With the darkness to give them privacy, Nate put his hand behind Addie's neck and kissed her. Not the fleeting kind of kiss she had given him under the mistletoe the first time they met, but a real kiss. The kind of kiss that could change the whole way a person saw her world.

Or the way the whole world saw her.

Just then the lights came up. Not just the ones on the giant tree but all the lights that Doc had flipped on when the power first went off. It was as if spotlights and searchlights had been thrown on Addie and Nate. Kissing.

A cheer went up.

Addie stood, looked around at all the happy faces staring at her.

“That's my girl!” Bivvy said in a show of motherly approval.

The group laughed.

Addie's head spun. Nobody here was ever going to take her seriously. She would always be Bivvy's daughter or Maimie's lackey or the girl caught kissing the guy who flew off to California. Her heart raced.

Nate reached over to take her hand, but she jerked it free. She had to get out of there. She had to breathe. She pushed past the coffee table, the customers, the Goodwins. She pushed her way out the front doors and ran as fast as her aching feet could take her.

N
ate stood up.

“What just happened?” Doc asked.

Nate held his hands out to show that he had no idea why Addie had run off. He went back over what had been said. He'd told her he loved her. And then she kissed him, which meant she felt the same way, right? And then she'd bolted out the door.

He stood there shaking his head.

“Go after her!” Maimie pushed the door open for him.

“Hurry.” Bivvy gave his shoulder a light shove.

“Really?” He took one stumbling step, then halted. “I think maybe she just wants to be alo—”

“Go!” the whole crowd chimed in unison.

“All right! I'm going.” He reached into his pocket to make sure he had the Christmas present he had planned on giving her tomorrow, then headed to the front of the store.

“I'm going, too!” Jesse rushed ahead of him to the open door.

“Hey, pal.” He lifted the boy up to speak to him eye to eye. “Not that I don't appreciate the backup, but this is kind of a one-man job.”

“Yeah. But I'm not a man, I'm a kid.” He poked his thumb into his chest. “It's a one-man-and-a-one-kid job.”

Nate could not look into the eyes of a kid he had just tried to teach about God's love of us all and say he wasn't welcome. “Okay, put your wheels down, we have to move fast.”

They took off down the road in the direction she had taken the first day when she had left the store. When they reached the corner, Nate wasn't sure which way she might have gone.

“Her house is that way.” Jesse pointed across the street toward the residential area a couple of blocks down.

“You think she went home?”

“Duh! She went to look at the Nativity scene on the lawn.” Jesse had already started rolling in the right direction.

Nate caught up to him in a few steps. He didn't see her anywhere, but Jesse pointed out that she probably knew a shortcut. Though he'd been by the McCoy house and certainly seen it on the Internet. “You know, pal, now in the dark, I'm not sure I can pick out Addie's place. Seems like a lot of houses are really lit up now.”

“Not like
that
one.” Jesse went sailing toward the house on his wheeled shoes, then stumbled to a stop,
turned back and, eyes wide, made his opinion of the sight clear. “Who-o-oa!”

Nate's gaze fell on the lone figure of Addie sitting by the Nativity, the glow of all the lights illuminating her beautiful face.

“I couldn't have put it better myself, pal.” He gave the kid's shoulder a firm pat to tell him to stay put, then went to her. “Addie, I—”

“I'm so humiliated.” She hung her head. “Everyone is probably talking about this right now, laughing at Bivvy McCoy's daughter, who acted like a perfect romantic goof.”

“Naw.” He knelt beside her on the lawn and gave her shoulder a nudge with his. “Nobody thinks you're perfect.”

She whipped her head up and glared at him, her lips set thin, her eyes brimming with tears.

“But that's why I love you.” He reached out and took her hand. “Perfection is overrated. It's the unexpected that makes everything special.”

“You…did you just say you
love
me?” She blinked, and this time the tears spilled over onto her cheeks.

“Yeah. I thought I'd made that clear before we kissed back at Goodwin's.” The look of complete shock on her face told him that he hadn't. “Then I guess it will really surprise you to find out I got you this for Christmas.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small red velvet box, which he flipped open.

“Oh, Nate!” Her hands trembled as she reached out and took the box. She tilted it slightly, and the lights around them glinted off the simple diamond solitaire inside. Her shoulders shook. She kept her face down. A
small whimpering-type sound came from her, but nothing more.

“Addie?” He swallowed to try to clear the lump rising in his throat. “What are you thinking?”

She raised her head at last, tears streaming now, and smiled even as she blubbered, “I only got you a hat!”

She threw her arms around his neck.

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes!”

Nate busted out laughing and wrapped her in his embrace.

At that Jesse came running up to them. When she saw the boy, she let out a small gasp. “What about Jesse? I hate the idea of going off to California and leaving him here.”

Nate put one arm around the kid's shoulders and gave his bride-to-be a smile. “We'd hate that, too, seeing as I'm not going to California.”

“You're not?” She sniffled, the ring box still in her hand and the ring still not on her finger.

“Nope.” Nate remedied that by slipping it out of the satin-lined holder and taking her hand in his. “I'll tell you the details later, but it's enough to know right now that I'm going to be working in this town for a very long time to come. So if you still want to go to California…”

“I don't!” She slid her finger through the ring he had held out, then threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

“Aw, you can do better than that,” he said. “You kissed me better than that the first day we met. Of course, nobody was watching then.”

“Hey,
I'm
not watching now.” Jesse covered his eyes and turned his back. “Not if you're going to do
that
stuff!”

Nate chuckled, took Addie in his arms and kissed her properly.