Home for Christmas (Willow Park #5) (13 page)

“If he brought it up, then it was definitely a breakthrough.
You should be happy about that.”

“I was. I am. They told me not to push him too hard—that it
might backfire—but it’s so hard…not to know. You don’t think he was…he was…he
says he wasn’t tortured or anything.”

“I don’t think he was. As far as I can tell, what really
traumatized him most was what he heard or saw, not what directly happened to
him. I don’t think there’s a dark secret he’s holding back from us—one that
will finally be revealed and fix everything. That’s not usually how it works.
He may never want to talk to us about the details. A lot of people live like
that their whole lives, and it’s not the end of the world. People cope in
different ways.”

“Yeah,” Sophie agreed, strangely relieved by John’s words,
by the idea that she wasn’t responsible for dragging some secret memory out of
her husband. “That makes sense. He’s really been doing well, overall, I think.”

“Of course, he has. I’d have drunk myself into a stupor, if
I was in his shoes. I know I would have.”

“Me too,” she admitted, surprised to realize that tears were
streaming down her face. She sniffed and said, “Sorry. I try not to cry all the
time.”

John laughed. “Are you serious?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, why wouldn’t you cry? After what you’ve been going
through,
anyone
would be crying all time.”

“It’s Mark who’s gone through it. Not me.”

“Don’t be silly, sweetheart. Of course, you’re going through
it too.”

***

Gabe and Lydia Alexander lived in a
big, beautifully restored Victorian in one of the best neighborhoods in Willow
Park.

Sophie didn’t know Gabe very well, but he had evidently made
a bundle of money in business, although he’d mostly given up his role in his
company to be co-director of a business-center ministry in India. A lot of his
work was fundraising and administration, which he was able to do from the States,
so he and Lydia were planning to stay in Willow Park through the spring. Gabe
was big and handsome and had a laidback smile, and he and Lydia threw a very
good Christmas party.

Sophie had been excited about going. She’d gone to a few
Christmas parties in Willow Park last year, but she’d always had to go by
herself. She’d been looking forward to going this year with her husband. She
was so proud of him. He was so smart and strong and resilient and funny—even if
he wasn’t as light-hearted as he used to be. People always liked Mark, and she
wanted all of her friends in town to know how amazing he was.

After the incident this morning, she’d been afraid he would
pull out of going, but he didn’t. They were back to acting polite with each
other, and she didn’t know if that was progress since this morning or not. She
felt encouraged after her conversation with John, but she still wished she knew
what to do to get through to Mark.

Trying to be hopeful and get into a holiday spirit, she
dressed in a pretty green dress and sparkly jewelry. She’d bought Mark a dark
red dress shirt that looked really good on him, and he wore it with a pair of
black trousers.

She was feeling better after they arrived, like they were a
normal couple, like any of the other couples who were gradually filling up the
large ground floor of the Alexanders’ house. Mark was chatting with Micah
Duncan, who had flipped this house and was showing Mark some of the custom
woodwork in the kitchen, while Sophie was helping Lydia pour out drinks.

Sophie couldn’t help but occasionally glance over toward
Mark, to make sure he was still having a good time. This was the first time
he’d met Micah, but he seemed to like him. A lot. Maybe more than any of the
other men he’d met in town so far.

Evidently, she didn’t hide her discreet observation well
enough, because Lydia turned to peer over toward the men. “Are you afraid he’s
going to sneak out and run away?” she asked, at finding the source of Sophie’s
distraction.

Sophie knew Lydia well enough to understand that the direct
question wasn’t intended to be rude. “No. No. Sorry. He just doesn’t know that
many people in town yet. I wanted to make sure he had someone to talk to.”

“He and Micah seem to be getting along pretty well,” Lydia
said. “Micah gets along with everyone, and Mark seems to be pretty friendly.
Everyone who knows him so far likes him. At least, that’s what they tell me.”

“Oh, good, I’m glad to hear it,” Sophie said, a little
embarrassed that her worry was obvious and that people were evidently talking
about her and Mark. “He’s good with people.”

Mark had always been good with people before. It was only
since he’d returned that he’d withdrawn, and that was hardly surprising.

“How are you adjusting to being back from India?” Sophie
asked, wanting to change the subject and also genuinely interested.

“It’s mostly good,” Lydia said with a wide smile. She was
lovely and always seemed to glow with authenticity and genuine interest in
other people. “I love this town, and I love this house, and I love being back
with my whole family. But it’s a strange transition. I see so much that’s so…so
hard, in the work I do. Sometimes I feel almost guilty for being so comfortable
here.”

Sophie thought about that. “Wow. Yeah. I guess I can see
that.”

“But I feel like this is home,” Lydia said, smiling as her
eyes rested on her husband, who was in some sort of deep discussion with his
daughter, Ellie, and Abigail and Thomas’s daughter, Mia. Both girls were
dressed up in pretty Christmas dresses. “And there’s nowhere like it in the
world.”

“Yeah. It’s strange, since I haven’t lived here very long,
but this feels like home to me too.” Sophie looked around the room, filled with
people she knew. She didn’t like everyone she could see, but she liked a lot of
them, and some she even loved.

“You think you’ll stay?”

Sophie shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s really up to
Mark.”

“What’s up to Mark?” The male voice surprised her, as did
the arm that wrapped around her waist. Mark tilted his head down to see her
face. To anyone else, he probably looked like an adoring husband, but she felt
like he was still miles away from her.

“Whether you stay in Willow Park or not,” Lydia replied,
evidently not worried at all that it wasn’t a conversation he was supposed to
have heard.

Mark looked from Lydia’s face to Sophie’s. “You better start
from the beginning.”

“Sophie was just saying that she loved Willow Park and
thought about it as home,” Lydia explained, handing out glasses of wine and
punch to the very large Harris clan, which included a mother, a father, a
grandmother, and five children. When she’d welcomed them all and passed out the
drinks, she returned to the conversation, finishing, “So I asked her if you all
were planning to stay here, and she said it was up to you.”

“It’s not just up to me,” Mark murmured.

“I know,” Sophie said quickly, making sure he understood the
full context for her comment. “But a lot will depend on your job. If he takes
the job the station has in mind for him, we might end up in New York.”

“Oh, wow,” Lydia said with wide eyes. She was about to
continue, when a wine spill across the room caught her attention. She grabbed a
roll of paper towels and ran over to help clean it up.

Mark and Sophie looked at each other for a moment, and she
couldn’t tell if he was still feeling as defensive as he had this morning.

But surely a simple conversation about where they might live
wouldn’t make him defensive.

“Did I hear you might move to New York?” Micah asked. He’d
been standing near a plate of cookies, digging in, but he stepped closer to
them as he spoke, his blue eyes interested.

Sophie didn’t know Micah very well, but it was impossible
not to like him. “It’s just a possibility.”

“I’d hate to live in the big city,” Micah said, taking the
last bite of a cookie.

Mark’s arm was still around Sophie’s waist, but he felt
stiffer than he had before. “Yeah. I’m not sure that’s what we’ll end up
doing.”

“You all should stay here.” Micah twitched his eyebrows. “I
could use Mark on the church volleyball team.”

Mark smiled. “You might be sorry you had that suggestion. I
might be tall, but that’s about my only skill in volleyball.”

“Tall is better than nothing. Right now, we’re not getting
anywhere, since Daniel insists he stay on the team, and he can’t serve the ball
to save his life.”

Sophie laughed, glad that the topic had been lightened. She
actually would love for Mark to be on the church volleyball team. He wasn’t the
best player ever, but he wasn’t that bad, and he would probably really enjoy it.

She wanted him to have friends again. She wanted him to have
someone more than his brother to talk to. She wanted him to be part of a
community, as much as she wanted to be close to him herself.

Things were getting better, but he still was holding himself
back—from everyone, and not just her. He could make casual conversation with
the best of them, but he still wasn’t putting down roots.

But maybe he knew they wouldn’t be ending up here for the
long run. Maybe the reason was as simple as that.

Maybe he was wondering if he would even stay with her.

She couldn’t believe she’d even had that thought, and she
hurriedly pushed it out of her mind.

“So you think you might stay in Willow Park?” Micah asked,
leaning against the quartz countertop that his crew had installed last year,
before Gabe and Lydia had bought the house. “What would you do here?”

“I don’t know,” Mark said. He felt tense again, although he
still hadn’t pulled his arm away from her.

She reached out to put a hand on his belly, some sort of
instinctive claim of possession…or maybe comfort. “It’s hard to work for a news
channel in Willow Park, you know.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“You should talk to Milton Bucket,” Gabe said. He’d ended
his conversation with the girls and had strolled over in their direction,
evidently overhearing the last few comments.

“Who?” Sophie said. She’d never heard that name before. As
small as Willow Park was, there were still hundreds of people here she didn’t
know.

“Milton Bucket. He owns
The Ledger
.”

The Ledger
was the local newspaper, mostly serving a
few counties in the mountains of North Carolina around Willow Park. “Surely,
they’re not looking to hire someone new for the staff,” Sophie said. “Aren’t
all local papers struggling?”

“They have a pretty established audience,” Gabe said. “There
are still a lot of people in these parts who want to hold an old-fashioned
newspaper in their hands. But, yeah, he’s been seeing the same changes that
other papers are. He wants to rebrand and build a real web presence, but he was
complaining that there’s no professional journalists in the area.” He was
smiling in a casual way, as if he weren’t just saying something that felt like
a gift from heaven to Sophie. “You’d be really good at that, with your
experience. Hold on.”

Mark was listening. Sophie was sure he was listening. And
she suddenly felt a surge of intense hope, like this was the answer to her
prayers about their future.

Gabe took a few steps over and opened a drawer under the
counter that looked like it was a multi-purpose junk drawer. After a minute, he
found what he was looking for. A business card.

He handed it to Mark. “Give him a call if you want. It might
be kind of boring, compared to your other options, but at least you could stay
in Willow Park.” His eyes went over their shoulders, evidently seeing someone
who had just walked in the door. “Excuse me. I’ve got to say hello.”

Gabe walked away, leaving Sophie breathless and trying not
to shake with excitement.

“There you go,” Micah said with a grin. “That’s what we call
Providence around here. We might win a volleyball game next season after all.”

Sophie laughed, as she was supposed to, but Mark didn’t
respond in any way.

To smooth over the loose ends, Sophie said, “We’ll have to
do some thinking about things. At least we have options, though.”

An older couple walked over then to say hello. Sophie
recognized them as Micah and Daniel’s parents. The conversation turned to small
talk, and eventually Sophie and Mark wandered away, toward the fireplace in the
living room where a huge tree was set up.

“It’s not as pretty as our tree,” Sophie murmured.

“It’s not as fat, anyway.”

“We discussed this. It’s just big-boned.”

Mark chuckled and pulled her toward him in a soft hug.

Sophie’s chest relaxed at the obvious affection. He felt
close to her again. This morning hadn’t ruined everything.

“So what do you think?” she asked softly, looking up at him,
her hands still on his chest.

“About what?”

“You know what. About talking to the guy at
The Ledger
.”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think you’ll give him a call?”

“I might.”

She tried to hide the frustration that surged up at his
reticence. There was no reason for her to be impatient with him. “It won’t hurt
to talk to him. Would that…would that even be something you’d want to do.”

“I have no idea what I want to do.”

“I know. I get it. But it’s going to be Christmas in another
week, and then it will be New Year’s, and then we’ll be into next year, and
Roger and the station are going to want a decision from you. You can’t hang
around doing nothing forever.”

He stiffened slightly, and she realized her mistake.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a rush, her hands clenching in his
shirt. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like that. I know you need time to
recover and get…get back into life. But I really think it will be easier for
you once you get back into work. You’re not the kind of guy who is happy doing
nothing.”