Home For Christmas by Nora Roberts

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"This one's not for sale." Faith set it in a large box at the back of the
room. "There are about a dozen little girls in town whose families can't
afford much of a Christmas. There are boys too, of course, but Jake over
at the five-and-dime and I worked a deal a few years back. On Christmas
Eve, a box is left on the doorstep. The girls get a doll, the boys a truck or
a ball or whatever."
He should have known. It was so typical of her, so much what she was.
"Santa lives." She turned to smile at him. "He does in Quiet Valley."
It was the smile that did it. It was so open, so familiar. Jason closed the
distance between them before either of them realized it.
"What about you? Do you get what you want for Christmas?" "I have
everything I need."
"Everything?" His hands cupped her face. "Aren't you the one who used
to dream? Who always believed in wishes?"
"I've grown up. Jason, you should go now."
"I don't believe that. I don't believe you've stopped dreaming, Faith. Just
being with you makes me start again."
"Jason." She pressed her hands to his chest, knowing she had to stop
what could never be finished. "You know we can't always have what we
want. You'll leave in a few days. You can walk away and go on to a
hundred other things, a hundred other places."
"What does that have to do with right now? It's always right now, Faith."
He drew his hands through her hair so that pins scattered. Rich warm
sable tumbled over his fingers. He'd always loved the feel of it, the smell
of it. "You're the only one," he murmured. "You've always been the only
one."
She closed her eyes before he could draw her close. "You'll go. I have to
stay here. Once before I stood and watched you walk away. I don't think
I can bear it if I let you in again. Can't you understand?"
"I don't know. I know I understand I want you so much more now than I
ever did. I'm not sure you can keep me out, Faith." But he backed away,
for both of them. "Not for long anyway. You said before I didn't have a
right to all the answers. Maybe that's true. But I need one."
It was a reprieve, it was space to think. She let out a long breath and
nodded. "All right. But you promise that you'll go now if I answer?"
"I'll go. Did you love him?"
She couldn't lie. It wasn't in her. So her eyes were direct and pride kept
her chin high. "I
never loved anyone but you."
It came into his eyes triumph, fury. He reached for her but she pulled
away. "You said you'd go, Jason. I trusted your word."
She had him trapped. She had him aching. "You should've trusted it ten
years ago." He swung from the workroom and into the frigid night.
Chapter Six
Quiet Valley bustled with Christmas energy. From a jerry-rigged
loudspeaker on top of the hardware store roof carols rang out. An
enterprising young man from a neighboring farm got a permit and gave
buggy rides up and down Main Street. Kids, keyed up with lack of
school and anticipation shouted and raced on every corner. The skies had
clouded over, but the snow held off.
Jason sat at the counter in the diner and sipped coffee while he listened
to town gossip. Word was the Hennessys' oldest had the chicken pox and
would be scratching himself through the holidays. Carlotta's was selling
Christmas trees at half price and the hardware store had a sale on ten-
speeds.
Ten years before Jason would have found the conversations mundane.
Now he sat content, sipping his coffee and listening. Maybe this was
what had been missing from the novel he'd been trying to write for so
long. He'd been around the world, but everything had always been so fast
paced, so urgent. There had been times when his life as well as his story
had been on the line. You didn't think about it when it was happening.
You couldn't. But now, sitting in the warm diner with the scent of coffee
and frying bacon he could look back.
He'd taken assignments, a great many of them dangerous, because he
hadn't given a damn. He'd already lost the part of himself he'd valued. It
was true that over the years he'd built something back, inch by gritty
inch, but he'd never found the whole because he'd left it here, where
he'd grown up. Now he just had to figure out what the hell to do with it.
"Guess they serve almost anybody in here."
Jason glanced up idly then grinned. "Paul. Paul Tydings." His hand was
gripped by two enormous ones.
"Damn it, Jas, you're as good-looking and skinny as ever."
Jason took a long look at his oldest friend. Paul's hair was thick and
curly around a full, ruddy face offset now by a bushy moustache. His [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne