Country Wishes

by RaeAnne Hadley

  “Jim’s a good guy,” Rob said. “Right after mom died, my father went AWOL for a while and Granpa Jim stepped up to fill in for him.”

  Kara head the longing in his voice and her heart went out to him. Poor little rich boy, she thought. Losing her mother had almost killed her and she was already in college. She couldn’t imagine having her mother die when she was only ten.

  The Winter’s house smelled amazing. Oranges and spice and a hint of flower. “It’s the potpourri,” Rob said. “Eleanor orders it from some place in San Francisco. Dried rose petals and orange slices and cinnamon sticks. She buys it every Christmas.”

  “Your house has a signature scent?”

  Rob looked amused. “That’s one way to put it. In the summer, it always smells like fresh lemons and mint.”

  That sounds nice, Kara thought, trying not to feel sad. Her little place always smelled faintly of mildew and she constantly had to apply sporicidal to keep the black mold in her plumbing at bay. She kept her windows open as long as she could to take advantage of Hopeful’s fresh, evergreen-scented air, but around the middle of October it got cold enough to make that impractical.

  Avery met them at the door and dived on the boxes of cookies.

  “Yay, cookies,” she said, and waltzed away with them as Rob took Kara’s elbow and guided her into the huge living room where the rest of the guests were gathered. Kara took one look and her heart sank as she saw Danielle standing next to the fireplace talking to a tall man with a shock of prematurely gray hair.

  “You must be Kara,” a voice said, snapping her out of her reverie. Rob’s stepmother was standing in front of her, smiling. “I’m Eleanor.”

  “So nice to meet you,” Kara said warmly.

  “Avery says you brought cookies from Good Wish Bakery. I love that place,” Eleanor said. Kara had never seen her in the shop, but decided it was gracious of Eleanor to make the compliment.

  “Are the cookies gluten-free?” Danielle asked, suddenly appearing by Eleanor’s side. Eleanor gave her a sideways glance.

  She doesn’t like her, Kara thought. That’s interesting.

  “No,” Kara said. Danielle wrinkled her perfect nose but didn’t comment.

  Further conversation was prevented by the arrival of Rob’s Aunt Angela and her adopted son Leo who was already almost as tall as she was. He was a lively, outgoing kid who came right up to her and stuck out his hand. “Hi, I’m Leo.”

  “Hi Leo, I’m Kara.”

  Everyone moved further into the living room as Avery came out with the cookies on a big platter and started passing them around. Leo took one of each kind, taking a bite out of each and chewing thoughtfully.

  “Avery says you brought the cookies,” he said. “They’re really good.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “Rob says you want to be a chef.”

  ‘Yes,” he said. “Like Marcus Samuelson. He was born in Ethiopia and adopted like me.”

  “What kind of food do you like to cook?” she asked.

  “All kinds,” he said. “I’ll be making wild rice and walnut stuffing for Christmas dinner tomorrow. “Are you going to be there?”

  “I am.”

  “Great,” he said, and then launched into a description of the best restaurants he and his mother had visited the previous year. He was particularly enthusiastic about a place called Piglatin Cocina in Colorado Springs. “Have you ever been there?”

  “I’ve been to Colorado Springs, but I’ve never been to that restaurant.”

  “They have a citrus-garlic pork that’s awesome. I’d like to start out at a place like that and eventually open up a fine dining establishment after I finish cooking school.”

  It’s good to have goals, Kara thought, bemused. But she was also secretly pleased because she was sure that the gift she’d helped Rob pick out would go over well with him.

  “This cookie is really good,” Leo said, wandering off in search of another.

  “Has he been boring you to death?” Angela asked. She was a petite woman in her late forties who looked faintly surprised, probably thanks to Botox injections. She actually looked a lot like Avery, while Rob looked like his father, with the same square jaw, pale blue eyes, and dark brown hair.

  “He loves food,” Kara said.

  “Yes, yes he does.”

  True to his promise, Rob didn’t leave her side as the evening wore on. Kara was beginning to wonder when the actual tree-trimming was to begin, but finally Eleanor clapped her hands and ushered everyone into the room Rob called “the study. As the guests stood in the dark, Eleanor flipped off the overhead lights as she clicked on the tree’s lights. “Ooh,” someone said, and Kara had to agree. The effect was magical.

  The tree was gorgeous, a ceiling-sweeping Douglas fir. It was already fully decorated, with masses of different colored twinkling lights and silver and gold garlands arranged “just so.” The colored balls were uniform in size and coordinated to the twinkling lights. It was pretty, but boring. Kara couldn’t help but think of her own tree, a stubby little artificial tree she and her mother had had for years. Each year they’d bought a new ornament usually some new kind of star or icicle, although her mother had been partial to deer ornaments, and little birds. By now, there were twenty-two years of ornaments to fit on the tree, so it was so covered that it barely showed any green left.

  “I thought we were going to decorate the tree,” she whispered to Rob.

  “No one but Eleanor touches the tree,” he said. “Our job is to admire perfection.”

  He excused himself to go talk to his Uncle Jake, who was regaling a group of older men with some elaborate story. Jake was a charming guy who seemed to have everyone eating out of the palm of his hand, including Rob’s father. But as she watched him, Kara started getting a distinctly uncomfortable feeling. Before she’d switched to economics, she’d been a psychology major and had taken a class in body language and micro-expressions. What she was seeing on Jake’s face wasn’t enjoyment but contempt. That’s weird, she thought but was distracted as she saw Rob crossing the room towards her. He really is handsome, she thought, and for a moment she idly wondered what it would be like if he were really her fiancé. She dismissed the thought as he was waylaid by his Aunt and Leo, who was enthusiastically chattering away about something.

  All around her, people were breaking into little groups. Wait staff in red shirts and black pants

  circulated with silver trays of hors d’oeuvres. Kara took a little plate and loaded up.

  The little bites were completely different from the appetizers that had been at the Christmas party. These were heartier, more like real food. There was coconut shrimp on skewers, mini quiches and tiny pizzas, turkey burger sliders and small corn muffins with ham. She was enjoying the food when she heard Danielle loudly complain that there were no vegan options, Kara saw Eleanor grimace. She pulled one of the waiters aside and whispered to him for a moment before sending him back to the kitchen. About fifteen minutes later, a plate with deviled eggs began circulating, along with crispy bruschetta topped with a fragrant mushroom and onion and herb mixture. Kara noticed Danielle didn’t touch either of the offerings.

  “Those mushroom bruschetta were yummy,” Kara said to Eleanor, when she crossed her path next.

  Eleanor smiled anxiously. “I forgot they weren’t gluten-free,” she said. “I hope no one gets sick.”

  “A host shouldn’t be responsible for catering to everyone’s food needs,” Kara said. “Everything you’re serving is delicious.”

  Eleanor glanced Danielle’s way, as if she might disagree. Danielle was talking to Rob’s father, touching him flirtatiously and leaning toward him with his face upturned.

  She’s afraid of Danielle, Kara thought with surprise. What’s going on with that? Suddenly, as if she was looking through a kaleidoscope, the picture altered, and she was seeing it from another perspective. She knew Rob thought Eleanor might be the one selling his father out but looking at the way he was interacting
with Danielle made her wonder if the younger woman was “playing him.”

  Eleanor saw Kara glancing Danielle’s way. “I’m glad you’re dating Rob,” Eleanor said. “I never really liked Danielle.”

  Kara was surprised by her candor. “She’s a mean girl, isn’t she?”

  “Yes,” Eleanor said.

  Soon after, Eleanor rushed off to attend to something else and Kara was left alone in the room again.

  Feeling a little disconnected, Kara floated around the room, eavesdropping on various conversations. And then, the way you sometimes do, she heard her name spoken. She looked around and saw Danielle talking to Rob’s Uncle Jake. The two were standing very close together and something about their body language pinged Kara’s radar. They look like a couple, she thought, and she suddenly wondered who had introduced her to Rob.

  Later, as she and Rob were sitting at a small table, both with plates of food in front of them. Kara thought about asking him that very question. She was just about to open her mouth when Eleanor had passed by and touched Rob affectionately on his shoulder before moving to the door to say goodnight to some of her guests.

  “She likes you,” Rob observed. “She normally doesn’t like the women I date.”

  “Do you normally date women like Danielle?”

  He looked at Kara with an unreadable expression. “Are you jealous?”

  “No,” Kara said.

  “I’ve never dated anyone like you.”

  “You’re not dating me,” Kara said.

  “You know what I mean,” he said.

  “No, I really don’t. Do you mean, you’ve never dated a short brunette? Do you mean you’ve never dated a biz school student? Do you mean you’ve—”

  Rob bent and kissed Kara, which surprised her so much she fell silent.

  “My dad is watching,” he murmured.

  “Ah,” she said. “Then you really ought to have put more feeling into it.”

  So he bent her and kissed her again, and this time, there was feeling behind it and she felt it too.

  No, Kara thought. No, no, no, no.

  Rob was kind of smirking as they broke away.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  Holding her around the waist, he guided her around the room to say goodbye to everyone. “We’ll see you tomorrow,” Eleanor said, standing next to William, who didn’t look all that happy.

  “Can I bring anything?” Kara asked.

  “Just bring yourself,” Eleanor replied with a smile.

  William just nodded at her. Eleanor reached for his arm but he kind of turned away to brush it off.

  He has really got a stick up his ass, Kara thought.

  She didn’t say much on the way home. “Tired?” Rob asked.

  “Saving my energy for tomorrow,” she said.

  “It should be pretty low-key,” he said. “Just the family.”

  “Does that include Danielle?”

  “No,” he said, surprised. “Danielle’s not family.”

  “She looked pretty chummy with your dad,” Kara said. “And your Uncle Jake too.”

  “Danielle specializes in being friends with rich men,” Rob said.

  “So she’s a gold digger,” Kara said. “What do they think of me?”

  “They think I’m lucky to have snagged such a wonderful girl,” he said. “I guarantee you my father’s already had someone check you out.”

  “Your father didn’t look too enthusiastic about seeing me tomorrow,” Kara said.

  “That’s his resting William face. He always looks like that.”

  “That’s too bad,” she said. “He’s making Eleanor sad.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I noticed that.”

  They didn’t say anything else until he pulled up in front of Kara’s apartment.

  “Goodnight,” she said and put her hand on the door.

  “Kara,” he said, and his voice was husky.

  She turned to him and he met her with a kiss.

  But no one’s watching, she thought, and then she kissed him back.

  After a few minutes she pulled away. “What?” Rob asked.

  Kara didn’t really know what to tell him other than her emotions were all jumbled up. He had paid her for the Christmas party and the Christmas shopping, and she’d seen the envelope with her name on it in the console of the SUV. It felt strange to be making out in his car while the money for her time sat between them.

  She had made it clear to him that she wasn’t going to go to bed with him, but she wondered if he thought she owed it to him after all.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. She kissed him quickly on the cheek as she opened the car door.

  “Merry Christmas,” she said.

  She practically ran down the sidewalk to her front door. When she turned around, the SUV was still parked at the curb, but as she opened the door, it drove away.

  Kara didn’t know whether to feel relief or sadness.

  It took her a long time to fall asleep.

  Christmas Day

  “Hi,” Kara said as she got in the car.

  “Hi,” Rob said back, but fell silent. The envelope with her money was on the dashboard and it slid around as he accelerated away from the curb.

  Kara picked it up and tucked it into her purse, not looking at Rob.

  He turned up the radio, signaling he didn’t want to talk. She took her cue and just looked out the window.

  She was wearing the same black dress she’d worn to the Christmas party, paired with some pretty flats. She’d left her coat behind in her apartment because she figured she’d only be outside for a couple of minutes. Now she wished she’d brought it because she could disappear into it.

  As they pulled up to his parents’ house, Kara got a good look at it for the first time. It was a two-story Craftsman house that had been lovingly restored and painted a pale green with dark green trim. There was a spray of fir branches hanging on the front door with gold blobs attached that turned out to be spray-painted artichokes when Kara got close enough to identify them.

  Inside, the house was warm and still held that rose/citrus fragrance that Kara had admired the night before. Eleanor must have put out fresh potpourri for the occasion.

  Avery and Leo were playing a complicated-looking board game in the living room and barely looked up as she and Rob entered.

  The adults gave her a warm welcome, and she was introduced to Rob’s Granpa Jim, who was wearing the ugliest ugly Christmas sweater she’d ever seen, and she’d seen a few. The year before, the bakery had sponsored an “Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest” with the winner scoring a sweet box a week for the entire year.

  There was an elaborate bar cart in the corner of the room and Rob led Kara over to it. “What would you like?” he asked.

  She looked over the selections and spotted a bottle of Dubonnet. She’d had it before and really liked it.

  “Some of that please,” she said, and Rob expertly built her a drink, pouring the aperitif over ice and adding a twist of lemon.

  “If working for your father doesn’t work out,” she said, “you might look into bartending.”

  “I did that one summer,” he said. “The tips were great.”

  She smiled and toasted him as he poured himself a finger of Scotch.

  Everyone was about to sit down at the table set for 12 when the doorbell rang. William gave Eleanor a puzzled look, then got up to answer the door.

  He came back a moment later with Rob’s Uncle Jake and Danielle in tow.

  I knew it, Kara thought. I knew they were a couple.

  “Sorry we’re late,” Jake said. “Traffic was terrible.”

  Danielle just smiled, ignoring the dirty looks she was getting from Rob and Eleanor and even William.

  Kara looked at Rob. “Sorry,” he mouthed.

  She shrugged. “Not your fault,” she whispered.

  “Merry Christmas,” Leo shouted then. “We bring you the feast.”

  Everyone turned their a
ttention to the door to the kitchen as Leo came out with a huge casserole dish. He was followed by his mother and Eleanor and Avery, who put their dishes on the table and went back for more. Before they were through, there was so much food on the table, it looked like a Vegas buffet.

  “Looks delicious,” William said, glancing over at Eleanor. She beamed at the compliment.

  “I made the wild rice and walnut stuffing,” Leo said.

  “I’m sure it’s tasty,” Granpa Jim said.

  As everyone began passing their plates around, William carved the turkey and Eleanor served up the side dishes. When everyone had a full plate in front of them, Eleanor looked significantly at Avery, who sighed at being put on the spot, then folded her hands to say the blessing.

  Afterwards, everyone started eating.

  Kara noticed that Danielle just had vegetarian options on her plate—a serving of mashed potatoes, some wild rice stuffing, and a dollop of candied yams.

  I hope she chokes on her food, Kara thought fiercely. She normally didn’t think mean thoughts like that but something about Danielle really rubbed her the wrong way.

  Angela and Granpa Jim carried on a lively conversation as everyone else concentrated on their food.

  Kara was only listening with half her attention until suddenly Jake turned to William and asked, “What’s going on with the company?”

  Rob, who’d been concentrating on buttering a roll, looked up.

  “The company’s fine Jake,” William said.

  “Really?” Jake said. “I’ve been hearing some rumblings.”

  The expression on his face was meant to convey innocent concern but beneath it, Kara could see what looked like a smirk. She leaned close to Rob and whispered. “I think your uncle is the leak.”

  Rob nodded, but didn’t respond. He was watching Jake closely.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” William said, but Jake didn’t take the hint.

  “I’m just worried,” Jake said.

  Kara wasn’t exactly sure what got into her but at that point, she spoke up. “Rumblings?” she asked. “Should I call my broker?”

  Rob turned to look at her in astonishment.

  “Kira dear, this is family business,” Danielle said.