Love Finds You on Christmas Morning (4 page)

“You did go to church, didn’t you, son?” Pop asked.

“Yes, of course. It was a very nice sermon.”

Pop grinned. “I find it interesting that you mention the sermon since we all know the reason you went to town had nothing to do with church.”

William shared a look with Pop before turning his attention back to Mom. “Mrs. Pickard plays the bells in her church.”

“I would love to talk to her. I suspect we have quite a bit in common.”

“I’m sure you do.”

As the Pickard family sat down to their chicken dinner, Mama didn’t waste any time before jumping on the topic of William Tronnier. “What a sweet young man. He went to an awful lot of trouble to see you, Lillian. Perhaps I was mistaken about him.”

“Don’t assume that, Helen, just because the boy visited our church one time.”

“At least he came,” Mama argued. “Not everyone does. I think it says something about him and his upbringing.”

“Anyone can go to church.”

As her parents discussed William, Lillian considered bolting from the table and running to her room. Why did they feel it necessary to go on and on about something that didn’t matter anyway? It wasn’t like she’d ever allow her head to be turned and leave them to fend for themselves. And they certainly couldn’t make it without her.

Their voices buzzed as she thought about how she’d never be able to realize her own dreams. But that’s all they were…dreams. When she was younger, she’d imagined herself dressed in her mother’s wedding gown and walking beside her daddy down the aisle of the church toward a dashing groom.

“Don’t you think so, Lillian?” Mama’s voice startled her from her thoughts.

“Don’t I think what?” Lillian lifted her glass and sipped some tea.

“You weren’t listening to a word we were saying, were you?”

“Sorry, Mama, but I have a lot on my mind. Mr. Joachim is already talking about the Christmas season.”

“Oh my. Isn’t it a bit early for that? It’s barely October.”

“Apparently he thinks he needs to get started on it or we might miss out on some business. Sears has already started promoting their Christmas mail order.”

“This isn’t Sears we’re talking about,” Daddy said. “Joachim doesn’t have to compete with that giant.”

“He seems to think that getting a head start on it will lock up some business. We’ll be decorating, and he wants me to make a display with gift ideas.”

“Who has room to store gifts now, even if they do buy them?” Daddy said. “That’s ridiculous.”

Mama shrugged. “If we had a bigger house, I might consider it.”

Lillian shook her head. “Most people don’t have a bigger house, so I think it’s a waste of time to start this early, but he’s the boss.”

“Yes, he is the boss,” Daddy agreed. “And you have to do what he says.”

“Mama, I’ll give you the household money from my pay envelope after we finish eating.”

“Good. I was thinking I might pick up some ham hocks and greens for supper one night.”

“Just don’t spend too much on it,” Daddy advised. “I don’t want to run out of food and get stuck with potatoes and onions again.” He made a face.

“Frank! You should be thankful you have any food at all. If it weren’t for Lil—” Mama cut herself off and glanced down. “We are blessed to have food on our table, no matter what it is.”

Daddy cleared his throat. “Yes, of course we are.”

The tone at the table had changed from lively to somber at the mere hint of Lillian’s having to support the family. She knew Daddy’s pride had been wounded, and she would have done anything to make it better.

Lillian walked to work the next morning with dread. She suspected that Mr. Joachim would be waiting by the door, with boxes of store decorations beside him, ready to pounce on her before she took off her jacket.

To her surprise, she arrived before he did. She had to fish around in her purse for the key. Once inside, she prepared the store to open.

Mr. Joachim didn’t show up before the first customer, either. As she rang up Mrs. Gooch’s order, she found herself worrying about her boss. This wasn’t like him at all—especially not right before the holidays—and it annoyed her, since he’d probably come in barking orders and asking why she wasn’t doing whatever it was he wanted her to do.

It was practically noon before he finally walked through the door looking haggard. “My wife got sick after church, and we were up all night.”

Lillian instantly felt remorse for her earlier thoughts. “Do you need to go back home and take care of her? I can manage without you for a few more hours.”

“No.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Her sister came to help, so I can stick around here all day.”

“If you need to leave, I understand.”

He looked her in the eyes and started to smile, but he caught himself before it happened. “We have work to do. Christmas is coming whether we’re ready or not, and I don’t want to miss out on any business. This is the time when we can make enough to get us through the worst of times.”

“Times have been very good lately,” Lillian reminded him. “Everyone is talking about it.”

“Yes, but mark my word, it’s just a cycle. We have good times and then we have bad. Nothing will ever stay the same.”

William loved nothing more than helping out on the farm. Pop tried to give his sons less strenuous tasks by hiring some laborers to do the hard work, but William wanted to be out in the fields with the rest of the men.

“So tell me what you see in this girl,” his brother Amos said as they walked along the rows where they planned to plant soybeans in the spring. “Mom says you’re completely smitten.”

“She says that?” William walked in silence for a few seconds, until he finally stopped and turned to face his brother. “I s’pose she’s right. In fact, I haven’t been able to get Lillian out of my mind since I first talked to her at the Jordans’ party last year.”

“Do you think she feels the same way?”

“Hard to tell. She’s very guarded.”

“I wonder why.”

“It’s hard to say. I’m thinking there’s some pride involved, but I don’t know for sure.”

“I would think any girl would be proud to be seen with you,” Amos said as he started walking again.

“That might be the problem. She might be embarrassed about her own situation. Her dad had to quit work, so he depends on her to support the family. I’d suspect her income to be very meager.”

“Pride gets people into all kinds of trouble.”

“Or people use it to keep from getting their hearts into trouble.”

Amos smiled and nodded. “You just have to show her that your heart is right with the Lord and let Him lead the relationship.”

“That’s the problem,” William said. “There isn’t a relationship. All I’ve done is taken her home from work a couple of times, and I took her family home from church once.”

“Maybe you can visit her at home sometime. Get to know her parents and show them you’re a decent guy.”

William nodded. “That’s probably a good idea. They seem nice enough, and they didn’t mind getting a ride home from church. Her father’s leg was injured at the factory, and from what I understand, he’s not likely to go back.”

“Seems he’d be able to do something else…like a job that allows him to sit. A desk job, maybe. Perhaps at a bank.”

“You and I both know how tight the banking business is. He’d have to have some connections to get on with one of them.”

“True,” Amos agreed. “Maybe we can get Pop to pull some strings for him.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea right now, though. Mr. Pickard hasn’t given me any indication he’s interested, and I don’t even know if banking is something he’d like to do.”

“Banking is definitely something I wouldn’t want to do.”

“Same here,” William said. “Well, looks like we’re on the right track with next year’s crop rotation. The soil looks good, so we should be able to get it fertilized and ready for planting as soon as spring comes.”

Lillian worked on the display between customers. Her mind wandered as she worked, and before she realized where her thoughts had gone, she found herself thinking about William Tronnier. His surprise visits had quickened her pulse each time, which annoyed her. How dare he continue to pursue her when she’d made it clear she wasn’t interested.

“Lillian!”

She nearly fell off the small stepladder at the sound of her name. Josephine Finley stood behind her, arms folded, a scowl on her face. “Where did you move the cold cream?”

“It’s in the same place it’s always been, Mrs. Finley. On the second aisle from the left.”

“When you say left, are you facing the back or the front of the store?”

Lillian felt her pulse in her head and had to take a deep breath. Some people tried her patience more than others, and Mrs. Finley had always been one of them. “Facing the back…” She pointed. “Over there.”

“You should have said so to begin with.”

Lillian climbed off the ladder and headed in the direction of the beauty aisle. “I’ll get it for you.” Lillian continued toward the beauty products and stopped. “It’s right here.”

Instead of getting a jar, Mrs. Finley planted a hand on her hip and stared at Lillian. “When did you start seeing one of the Tronnier boys?”

“I—I haven’t been seeing any of the Tronnier boys.”

“Well, then, who was that at church yesterday? He certainly looks like the middle Tronnier boy.”

“He was. But I’m not seeing him.” Lillian tucked her hair behind her ear and wished she’d stayed on the ladder.

“Then what was he doing at our church? He and his family attend somewhere else.”

“I suppose he was worshipping God, just like we were.”

“Young lady, I’ve known your mother since long before you were born, and I just happen to know she wouldn’t appreciate your smart-aleck mouth.”

By the end of the day, Lillian had held her tongue so many times she was ready to let loose and scream. Mr. Joachim’s demands hadn’t stopped with the display, and customers from church had come in throughout the day. Most of them asked about William and wondered what he was doing there on Sunday—and everyone seemed to have an idea of what she should do.

Mr. Joachim left an hour before closing to see about his wife, even though there were at least a dozen customers in the store. That was fine with Lillian. It was easier to handle the busy store all by herself than to have to deal with constant criticism. As usual, one straggler remained in the store after-hours, and Lillian had to remind her of the closing time. The woman paid for her handful of items, but she didn’t leave right away. Instead, she struck up a conversation about the changing weather. She wasn’t someone Lillian recognized.

“Yes, it generally does start to get cold out at night this time of year,” Lillian agreed. She glanced at her watch. “I don’t want to be rude, but I was supposed to lock up the store ten minutes ago. Do you need anything else?”

The woman’s grin widened to a full-blown smile. “I just want you to know that it’s nice to see such a hardworking girl who cares so much about her family. Back when I was your age…or maybe a little bit younger, I did the same thing for my family. But then I met Claude, and he was able to support—” Something outside the store caught her attention, and she abruptly stopped talking. She grabbed her bag off the counter and scurried toward the door. “Thank you, Miss Pickard. You are a delightful young lady.”

Curious, Lillian turned around and spotted William Tronnier outside the window, standing beside his automobile. He waved when their gazes met. She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she turned back around. What was he doing here?

The bell on the door jingled. “I thought I’d stop by to take you home. Anything I can help you with?”

“No, there is nothing you can help me with. And for your information, I don’t need you to always be around to take me home. I’m perfectly capable of walking.”

After he didn’t respond for a few seconds, she turned to see if he’d heard. “Having a bad day?”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

“I’m a good listener.” He took a tentative step closer.

“Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but I’m not in the mood to talk about it.”

“Must be very bad, if that’s the case. You don’t have to say a word until you’re ready. Just know that when you want to talk, I’ll be here.”

“Mr. Tronnier, I don’t know of a polite way to tell you this, so I might as well go ahead and let you know that I’m simply not interested in your charity.”

“Charity?” He folded his arms and rocked back on his heels. “What kind of charity are we talking about?”

Lillian tried to look directly at him, but his gaze made her tummy flutter, so she pretended to look at something on the counter. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. All those rides in your automobile and…” She couldn’t think of anything else.

“And?”

She fluttered her hand. “I don’t know why you’re doing this, Mr. Tronnier.”

“Let me explain this to you in the simplest manner possible. I am a man. You are a woman. I find you immensely attractive and interesting. I would like to get to know you better.”

She ventured a brief glance in his direction and caught him smiling. The walls seemed to close in a little around her, so she edged farther back behind the counter to put more distance between them.

“That’s not all,” he said. “After we talked last year, I asked around about you, but no one had much to say except that you took care of your family. I find that quite attractive as well.”

She forced herself to laugh. “Oh, it’s so attractive. I get up every morning, come here, work all day, and practically drag myself home every night. Can’t get any more gorgeous than that.”

“I would have to agree. You have purpose in life, and people with purpose in life have something special.” When she looked him in the eyes again, he leaned toward her. “Want to know what I find the most attractive about you?”

“Sure, go ahead; you’re on a roll.”

“You love the Lord, and you don’t let your circumstances get you down or keep you from worshipping Him.”