Love Finds You on Christmas Morning (23 page)

Gigi looked around them, obviously seeking the couple in question. “But what about—?”

“No, it looks like they’re already gone.”

“You don’t want to stick around anyway?” Phil asked. “We could introduce you to a few other couples here.”

“That’s okay. Maybe next week. I should get home and start going through my stuff to figure out what I can get rid of before the new house is ready for me.”

“Okay,” Gigi said, “but I’m going to have Phil report in with you about this whole extra-man thing.” She pointed to the sanctuary as if the girl from the park were still in there with her handsome escort. “I’m sure I know someone who knows someone and all that. I’ll get the skinny for you.”

He grinned. “I’m sure you will. Thanks, you two. See you at the site, Phil.”

Again he was glad to have the house remodeling ahead of him. What with his office-building project and now the virtual certainty that he’d settle on the house in the next few weeks, he was fine with losing out on the girl from the park. Sort of.

As he reached his car, he saw the couple at the entrance to the church parking lot. He risked their spotting him and watched for a moment.

The taller sister was there now. She approached the couple, and they approached her. She definitely hadn’t been with them in church, so maybe she was arriving for the late service. He couldn’t hear what any of them were saying, but he certainly noticed the guy putting his arm across Park Girl’s shoulders.

“Right. That’s it, then.” He got into his car and took a moment to settle his thoughts. It wasn’t as if he’d invested a lot of emotion in the idea of dating her. They hadn’t spoken more than twenty words between them. He really didn’t need to think about it anymore.

He mumbled to himself while he turned his phone on. “Pizza. That’s what I need to soothe my disappointment.” While he put in his order, he noticed his offering check sitting on the floor of the passenger side. Should he bother running it back to the church?

He grabbed the check. He didn’t want to have to keep track of it until next week. And to be honest, he wanted another peek at whatever was going on at the entrance to the parking lot, assuming they were still there.

What Drew saw made him stop in his tracks. The girl from the park was nowhere to be seen, but her boyfriend was. And her sister was there, flirting with him—he knew flirtation when he saw it. And then she moved in, as if she were going to kiss him.

“Oh, no. Don’t—”

After a moment’s hesitation, they bridged the distance and were in full-blown lip-lock. “Drew?”

Phillip’s voice made Drew jump. He hadn’t realized he was just standing there, staring at the couple.

Phillip smiled. “I thought you were already gone. Did you forget where you parked?”

“Yeah. I mean, no. I got to my car and found my offering check.” He held it up. “I’m just running in to drop it off.”

“Ah.” Phillip started to walk past. “Okay, then. I promised Gigi I’d bring the car around. See you tomorrow.”

“Right.”

Drew frowned as he went back into the church. This was none of his business, and he had never been one to stick his nose where it didn’t belong. Still, even though he didn’t know the park girl, he felt protective of her. He was unsure of what was going on, but he sure didn’t like how things looked. Why did that guy have his arm around the girl from the park if they weren’t together? Why would he attend church with one and get amorous with the other? If his girl was getting two-timed—by her sister, no less—he wanted to make sure she found out. Maybe he’d enlist Gigi’s help for that.

And she had looked so comfortable with that guy.

“Ugh, Hannah, I was so
uncomfortable
with that guy! I couldn’t relax until I drove away from church.”

Hannah had called Nikki several hours after church. She laughed before she responded. “Yeah, David couldn’t tell, but I sure could. You were as stiff as a corpse. He’s not that bad, though, Nikki. You have to admit, he’s good-looking.”

Nikki removed the bok choy and a red pepper from the refrigerator. She was going to whip up a Chinese stir-fry for Harvey tonight.

“I’ll give you that, for what it’s worth. But I don’t know. These online dates of yours… He seemed harmless, but, ew, sorry. He was kind of, I don’t know,
cheesy.
He had that fake salesman-type cheeriness, like he thought he was constantly on camera. I half expected him to try selling me a panini grill or a ShamWow or something.”

Hannah laughed again. “He is a little over the top. But I think he’ll relax that behavior eventually.”

“I tried to be gracious with him. I mean, I laughed when he tried to be funny.”

“He’s managed to make
me
laugh before. I think.”

“And what’s with all the touchy-feely stuff?
I’m
not dating him. I don’t even enjoy
women
getting that physically demonstrative with me, unless they’re my close friends. I don’t ever want to be stuck with a stranger like that again.”

“Honestly, it wasn’t my fault. I never expected my boss to call me on a Sunday morning. I don’t think she would, normally. This was an emergency. And I got on the road as soon as I could. It wasn’t my choice to show up when the service was already over.”

“Right, okay. But now that we know it could happen, that’s the last time I’m picking up one of your boyfriends on the way to church, okay? No matter how close he lives to me. No more boyfriend-carpooling for me.”

“Sheesh. All right.”

Nikki sighed. She knew Hannah hadn’t had much control over how things worked out this morning.

“The main reason I’m ticked off is because of the cute guy with the dog. From the park earlier this month?”

“Yeah, I know who you mean. What happened?”

“I could have sworn he was looking for me when he walked into church this morning. And he came in at the perfect time, because David was in the men’s room and the guy saw me sitting alone.”

“Well, that’s good.”

“Yeah. We had a nice little moment there, when I got over myself and managed what I thought was a confident, inviting smile.”

“That’s my girl.”

“He has a great smile. It was all I could do to pull my focus away from him and place it where it belonged during the service.”

“I’m sure the good Lord appreciates your sense of priority.”

“Especially after he sang out all by himself on this one song.”

“What do you mean?”

“He kept singing when everyone else wasn’t.”

Hannah’s laugh rippled through the phone. “Oh, that’s awesome.”

“It was just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. And he sounded like he had a horrible singing voice.” She smiled just thinking about it. “Even from behind, I could tell how embarrassed he was. And after he seemed so cocky that first time, in the park—” She stopped to remember the way he had teased her.

“Yeah?”

“Well, his humility was kind of endearing.”

“Hmm.”

“What, hmm?”

“You’re always giving me a hard time about falling for guys I barely know, and it sounds like this guy is landing you without even striking up a conversation.”

“He’s not
landing
me. I just saw something that made me like him a little more.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And then
you
fail to show.”

“Sorry, ma’am. I really do appreciate your keeping David company.”

“You’re welcome. Who knows. Maybe he was just as uncomfortable with me.”

“There, see, I knew there was an understanding woman underneath that sour exterior.”

Nikki removed the soy sauce and a bottle of sesame seeds from the pantry. “But I really had to fight the urge to shrug off his hand or arm on my shoulder.”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean anything but chumminess by it.”

“What if the guy with the dog was watching? Making assumptions. Writing me off.”

“Don’t put so much store into one little misunderstanding,” Hannah said. “
If
he even saw. Anyway, if your guy has any sense at all, he’ll pay attention in the future and see that David’s with me. And you’re glaringly alone. Just waiting for him to swoop in and save the day.”

“Just make sure you don’t dump David before next Sunday so my guy can see you two together.”

Hannah spoke in a deliberately flighty voice. “You expect me to date the same man an entire week? After you’ve pointed out his many egregious flaws? Well, I just don’t
know.
However
shall
I commit to one man for seven entire days?”

“Hey, you said it.”

“No, you kind of said it too, actually, and you should give me a break. It’s not as if I run through them like jelly beans. I’ll definitely go out with David some more. But I don’t see the point in dating someone once I can tell he isn’t the one. You know that.”

“Is David the one?” There was
no
way. Nikki was sure.

“How do
I
know?
You’ve
dated him longer than I have.”

“Very funny. I have to cook now. And I’m in a bad mood, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Oh, honey, I noticed. Really, Nikki, church was hours ago.”

“No, it’s not just church.” Nikki sighed. “It’s Grampa and Granny’s house.”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m so sorry that fell through.”

Hannah’s change in tone made Nikki feel sorry for herself all over again, a reaction she couldn’t stand. She tried to shake off the feeling. “I’m still hopeful it hasn’t fallen through. Estelle says the financing or something else might end up wonky.”

“Then we’ll pray for wonky.”

Nikki nodded and grabbed an onion from the pantry. “Yeah. Dear Lord, nothing against the other buyer, but please bring on the wonky.”

“Love you, Nik.”

Two hours later Nikki snuggled up on her bed with her comforter and pulled out a novel to read. She had made an excellent dinner for Harvey, if she did say so herself. And they had a brief but characteristically comfortable chat before he needed to take an overseas call. But now she just wanted to escape into someone else’s life for a while. She opened the romance novel she had set aside days ago.

When her cell phone rang, she was momentarily annoyed until she saw that it was her mother calling. Yes. Mom was exactly who she wanted right now.

“Hi, sweetheart. I just thought I’d check and see how you’re doing. Everything going all right? Are you happy? Any problems?”

Nikki laughed. “Hannah called you, didn’t she?”

“Maybe.”

“I’m fine, Mom. I guess I came down kind of hard on Hannah today.”

“Oh, I don’t know. You know your sister. I love her to death, but she
will
take that mile if you don’t make a big deal about giving her an inch. She seemed to think you might like a little motherly comfort tonight.”

Nikki smiled. “My sister knows me too well.”

“So what’s the problem? Hannah wouldn’t fill me in on anything other than the fact that she put you in an uncomfortable spot this morning with this new boy she’s seeing.”

“Yeah, we’re okay on that, though. She really couldn’t help it.”

“But?”

“I kind of have my eye on someone who might have his eye on me, but that’s as far as we seem to be able to get.”

“You haven’t gone out?”

“We haven’t even gone out the same door! At church, I mean.”

“Ah. Ships passing in the night, huh?”

“I guess.” She shrugged. “He could be a complete jerk, for all I know.”

“But you don’t think so.”

“No. There’s something that draws me to him.”

“Handsome?”

“Well, yeah. But there’s something else. I think he might have a good sense of humor.”

“Oh! Always number one on my list.”

“Yeah, me too. I think that’s because of how you and Dad are with each other.”

“You’ve got to be able to laugh with each other. About each other.

And yourselves. Our family has always enjoyed a good laugh. I have to say that comes more from your dad’s family than mine. Not that my parents are stiffs, but you know how funny your grandpa is. Even
his
parents—William and Lillian… The Tronniers have always been able to find the humor in life.”

Nikki hesitated just long enough for her mother to react.

“What else is going on, Nikki?”

She lay back on her bed. “Mom, how come Dad’s parents sold Grampa William and Granny Lillian’s home? And why didn’t you and Dad ever try to buy it back?”

“Mmm. Are you having a hard time getting the money together for the down payment?”

“I was doing fine with that. But somebody sneaked in behind my back and put in a contract this past week.”

Her mother gasped. “Sweetheart! I’m so sorry!” She sighed. “After all this time with it on the market, I just settled into the idea that you were going to get the place.”

“You and me both. But why am I the only one who seems to think the place is worth owning? Aside from whoever just got the contract, anyway. Don’t you have the same kind of memories I do? Didn’t Grandma and Grandpa?”

“Well, yes, but fond memories don’t always equal financial ability or necessary circumstances, honey. Grampa William didn’t need to sell the house when Dad’s parents were in the market for one, so they bought one of their own that became even more special to them than Grampa and Granny’s house. And we would have loved to have bought the house when your father and I moved back to Cary. But not only did we not have the kind of money needed to buy the family home, it wasn’t available for sale. And by the time it was, we were comfortable in our own home. This has just been a blessing, that the house became available at a time when you could afford it.”

“But the blessing’s been yanked out from under me.”

“Yes, I see that. And I know that breaks your heart, honey. At the risk of sounding glib, I’m going to tell you that some things are hard for us to understand, but they fit into God’s plan for us. Maybe the remodeling would have been a nightmare for you. Or maybe the mortgage would have made you too dependent on your position with Mr. Fennicle, and…well, he’s getting up there in age, isn’t he?”

“Mom!” She lowered her voice. “Let’s not kill off the poor dear before his time, okay?”