His Christmas Wish (9 page)

Joaquin ticked up his chin. “I’m home and still married to Sage Caswell.”

To his utter shock, his dad’s face crumpled as thrust out his hand. “Forgive me. I was wrong. Forgive me,
por favor
.”

Unable to move, Joaquin stared at him. There was a vengeful part of him that wanted to tell his dad to go screw himself. That he’d had four years to ask for his forgiveness. Too little, too late. But the larger part of him, the part of him that his parents had instilled deep in his heart, and had been honed in the Army knew when to show mercy.

His father had bent; Juan Morales had swallowed his pride first. A feat Joaquin thought he’d never see.

“
I’m sorry, too,
papá
,” he said, grabbing his dad’s hand and pulling him in for a hug.

***

Joaquin sat at a table big enough to seat twenty, but his mother still had to bring in two more folding tables. It was amazing how easily he slipped back into the role of the doted upon son. His mother fixed his plate, his drink, and if he had let her, would have cut up his enchilada.

“
Where’s your wife?” Juan asked. “Shouldn’t she be here celebrating, with her husband and family?”

Mariela tsked, shaking a finger Juan. “Leave him alone.” Then she patted Joaquin’s cheek. “Eat up,
niño
.”

“It’s okay.” He speared a bite of chicken and green chilies. “She’s talking to her parents,
papá
 
.” Not wanting to hurt their feelings, he didn’t add that he wasn’t sure how she’d be treated here. “We plan on decorating our house tonight.”

“Decorating?” his cousin smirked. “Is that what they’re calling it now days?”

Carmen smacked Roberto on the back of the head. “Manners.”

Joaquin bite back a grin at the couple. “I should take you out back, Berto, for telling Sage.”

Roberto toasted him. “You’re welcome.”

Eying his mother, he leaned in and asked, “Why don’t you and
papá
come over Christmas Day.”

Smiling, Mariela teared up once more. “We wouldn’t miss it.”

“Can’t stay long though, sales strategies to plan,” his dad said around a bite of
empanadosas
. “The day after Christmas can be very good.”

Mariela smacked the table and everyone grew quiet. “No, Juan. We will stay as long as Joaquin and Sage want us there. Sales can wait.”

Joaquin fully expected his dad to storm away from the table, muttering and cursing in Spanish, but once more Juan surprised him. He wiped his mouth with a napkin, looked at his wife, then at Joaquin and nodded once. “Fine.”

Everyone resumed talking and eating, as though something spectacularly amazing hadn’t just occurred before their very eyes.

“Guess a miracle really can happen at Christmas,” Roberto whispered to Joaquin.

“Do they happen twice?” Joaquin asked, his mind turning to Sage. “Because I’m in need of another one.”

***

It was just another Saturday night at the Caswells’ house. Her aunts, uncles and cousins were hanging out in the rec room, shooting pool, playing Wii, and drinking at the built-in bar in the corner.

“That rat bastard’s truck was seen at your house last night,” her cousin, Rachel said. “I got a set of keys ready and willing to write something pretty on the side.”

Had her momma told everyone in the family about those letters? Struggling to maintain her composure, she lined up her Wii remote with the flatscreen. “You’ve really got to quit listening to Carrie Underwood songs,” Sage said.

“Just saying.”

“So noted and appreciated, but Joaquin’s being less rat-bastardly for the moment.”

“
Sage, darling, come over here and sit with your momma.” What was it about southern mothers that made them talk in the third person about themselves and no one called them out for it?

Handing off her remote to Rachel, Sage joined her mother on a gold sofa with large plaid pillows. “Yes ma’am?”

“Why do you insist on those horrible glasses? Contacts would do you a world of good.”

“I like my glasses and I only need them to see far away.” And since it was easier to keep them on all the time, instead of just when she needed them. Besides, it was another victory over her mother’s insistence on what Sage should do, wear or act.

“Then we’ll call Dr. James and schedule you for laser eye surgery.”

“I’ll think about it,” Sage said, earning a pleased smile from Virginia.

“That’s my girl.” Virginia handed Sage a manila envelope and smiled. “Merry Christmas, sugar. Hope you don’t mind it’s early, but your Uncle Joe came by today.”

Sage tilted the envelope to one side, dread making her heart pound. Uncle Joe was a divorce attorney in Charlotte. He was vicious and mean, and always got his client the most amount of money and custody, whether they deserved it or not. A stapled document slipped out.

After reading through it quickly, Sage shook her head and shoved it back in the envelope. “How did you know I’d married?”

Tossing back a glossy strand of red hair, Virginia smiled sweetly. “A mother always knows.”

Meaning a mother that used her brothers and sisters jobs to snoop and spy on people knew everything about everyone. Was her dad that much of a push-over?

“I’m not sure about this. I think I want to try to work things out with Joaquin. He’s staying at my house and we plan to spend Christmas together,” Sage began, but Virginia suddenly went pale, her breaths coming out in little gasps.

“I can’t breathe,” she panted, her hand over her heart.

“Daddy,” Sage shouted, moving to the end of the sofa to prop up her mother’s feet. “Momma’s having one of her dizzy spells.”

Charles came hurrying over, beer in hand, and a frown on his head. “I’ll call Doctor Reed.”

“No need,” Virginia said, all breathless and pale cheeked. “Just give me a minute.” She sliced her gaze to Sage. “You know how my condition affects me.”

For years, Sage had suspected that her mother used her asthma and heart murmur as an excuse to get her way, but she’d never tested that theory. “I know and wouldn’t it be great to have a son-in-law like Joaquin to help out in times like these? Just think of all the things he could do with Daddy, so you don’t have to worry?”

Virginia frantically waved her hand in front of her face. “Oh, dear. I swear, my heart is beating so fast. Get me my pills, Charles.”

Her dad hurried off

A warm hand clasped hers. “Sage, darling, I want you to swear that if anything happens to me that you’ll take care of your daddy. He’s looking at that Cutter boy to take over and who knows what will happen with that.”

“I assumed Hank would buy Daddy out.”

Long lashes fluttered closed. “But what would happen to my baby girl? You know those Moraleses will try to leave you high and dry. Better make the first move.”

“I should divorce Joaquin in order to—”

“Here you go, sugar,” Charles said, kneeling on the floor with two pills and a glass of water.

Virginia took the meds and sipped at the water, flashing her husband a grateful smile. “What would I do without you?”

Sage rolled her eyes.

Her mother accepted a kiss on the cheek and waved her husband away, fixing her bright blue eyes on Sage. “I’m so glad you agree, Sage.”

“I didn’t agree to—”

“My word…it’s happening again,” her mother said, cheeks even paler.

“
Let me think on it.”

Her mother beamed at her, all signs of breathlessness and heart problems magically gone. “Don’t take too long. While Uncle Joe is family, he ain’t cheap.” Virginia rose from the sofa and made her way to the bar.

For a few minutes Sage watched her mother laugh and carry on as if she hadn’t a care in the world or a heart problem. Had Sage really been that gullible? Rising to her feet, she grabbed the envelope and made her way upstairs to her parents’ bathroom. In the medicine cabinet, she found her mother’s pills.

They looked legitimate, with a prescription filled by Sage’s Aunt Helen. She popped off the top and frowned. The pills looked exactly like the ones she had to take before she flew across the country by herself. Anxiety pills, Aunt Helen had told her, nothing that could hurt or form an addiction from taking a couple.

All this time, her mother had been taking anxiety pills?

Fury coursed through her. All this time, Sage had thought she’d done the right thing by staying in Holland Springs with her family, because her mother needed her close.

She hadn’t told her mother about the marriage, only that he’d asked her to marry him. Her mother had had one of those “spells” as she called them that had lasted for weeks. So Sage had stayed, and when Joaquin never came back to home to get her, or even try to convince her to come with him in person, she had just known she’d made the right decision.

Just like she had known her mother had medical problems.

Sage walked to the toilet and opened the lid, then poured every damn one of those pills in and flushed, leaving the empty bottle and the manila envelope on the counter in plain view.

With her head held high, she left her family’s house and drove straight home to wait for Joaquin.

Chapter Nine

Sage tackled Joaquin as he walked in the front door. He caught her up in his arms and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, between kisses. “I’m so thankful and grateful and happy you’re alive; you’re healthy and home.”

He kissed her back, murmuring, “Stop it. We were both young and dumb. Well, you were. I was most recently dumb.”

A small bit of laughter escaped her lips and he drank it in. He only wanted laughter or happy tears with Sage.

“I forgive you,” she said, leaning back in his arms. “I should have known it was you in those last letters, but I was too stupid to realize it and the handwriting threw me off.”

“I had to improve my penmanship during officer school,” he teased, sitting on the sofa with her. She laid her head on his shoulder and he closed his eyes, sending up a prayer of thanks. “Got hazed for my chicken scratch.”

“Come to bed with me, Joaquin.”

His cock stood at attention with that softly uttered command, but his brain made him say no. He wasn’t sure what had changed her mind, but he couldn’t have sex with her, only for things to fall apart when or if her parents or his decided to go against them.

“We should wait.” He kissed the top of her head. “Let’s decorate instead.”

“Are you turning down sex?” Disbelief colored her words. “I thought it had been a while for you.”

“Oh it’s been longer than a while.”

Sage jerked up. “How long?”

“Since June twenty-second, two-thousand and—”

“Not since our wedding night?” Her eyes were round and full of hope.