The Last Lonely Christmas

by Claire Sanders

  “I thought you were the boss,” Will said with a mischievous grin.

  Joe pointed to a half-open door. “I am the boss, but I’m delegating the responsibility to my son. Now, go on, so I can visit with this pretty lady.”

  Mary sipped her coffee and tried not to make a face when she tasted how strong it was. “Your son is in business with you?”

  Joe took a deep swallow of his coffee, obviously accustomed to its potency. “That’s right. Paul used to work for an insurance company but he got laid off a few years ago. To tell you the truth, I hope he’ll take over this business someday.”

  “Do you have any other children?” Mary asked.

  Joe’s eyes shone when he spoke of his family. “No, but I’ve got three grandchildren. Hey, would you like to see what I’m making them for Christmas?”

  Joe’s voice had a definite tone of excitement. There was no way Mary could disappoint him. “I’d love to see what you made.”

  “Come on, I’ll take you to my workshop.” Joe led her outside and into another metal building. “Now, Lily is three. I fashioned this play kitchen for her.”

  Mary smiled at the whimsical arrangement of miniature refrigerator, oven, and sink. “It’s fantastic, Joe. I love the way the knobs actually turn.”

  “Over here,” he said, gesturing to some second-hand furniture, “is an old chest of drawers that I converted into a doll house. Beth Ann is seven and she’s got more dolls and stuffed animals than the tooth fairy has teeth.” The chest was five feet tall and painted green and pink. Joe had removed the drawers and sectioned off the spaces with vertical dividers. Then he’d installed glass doors.

  Mary placed a hand over her heart. The doll house was enchanting, and practical, and obviously made with love. “Oh, Mr. Harrison, I would have loved something like this when I was a little girl. I can’t wait to see what you made for grandchild number three.”

  “That’s Hunter. Nothing too fancy for the only boy. I just attached four casters to these round boards. The idea is to lie down on it and scoot yourself along the ground.”

  There was a long hallway on the second floor of her house. If Mary had a child, he or she would surely turn the hallway into a scooter racetrack. “He’s sure to love that. I wish I was the right size to try it. I bet you can’t wait to see their faces on Christmas morning.”

  Joe tilted his head from side-to-side as though weighing his response. “Well, the answer to that question is both yes and no. I’m going to deliver the gifts before Christmas because my son’s traveling to Wisconsin this year. Going to spend the holiday with the other grandparents.”

  “So you and your wife will be alone?”

  “Oh, no wife, sorry to say. She passed a few years ago.”

  Another person who’d be alone for the holiday. Was the Lord putting these people in her path? “Well, if you’d like, you’re welcome to come to my house for lunch on Christmas day. I’m having a few friends over, and Will’s promised to finish the kitchen by then.”

  “You know,” Joe said, “I might just take you up on that offer.”

  “I hope you will. Do you have a piece of paper? I’ll write down my address and phone number.”

  Joe walked to his work bench and searched through the drawers until he found what he needed. Mary wrote the information. “If you lose it, you can always ask Will. He’s at my house almost every day.”

  “Thanks for the invite. This is turning out to be my lucky day.” Joe’s gaze shifted to something behind Mary’s shoulder. “You’re not going to invite that ugly contractor of yours, are you?”

  “Invite me to what?” Will asked.

  “Never you mind,” Joe answered. “Just let me know your final decisions about the order and we’ll get it ready for you to pick up. It was nice meeting you, Mary.”

  “Same here,” she said, shaking his hand.

  Joe held up a hand to wave goodbye and left the workshop. Mary nodded to the papers Will held in his hand. “Is it good news or bad news?”

  Will removed his ball cap, smoothed his dark hair, and resettled the cap on his head. “I think you’ll like the prices, but could we look at them over lunch? I’m starving.”

  Mary glanced at the large round clock above Joe’s work bench. It was just past eleven o’clock. “I can’t believe it’s already time for lunch. Where do you want to go?”

  “There’s a diner down the street. Want to follow me there?”

  “Lead the way.”

  A few minutes later, Will and Mary sat across from each other in June’s Diner Delights. “I bet you’ve never been here before,” Will said.

  It was a small restaurant with six stools at a counter and a row of booths. The simple décor told Mary it catered to men who worked at the warehouses in the area. “You’d be right. I don’t have much reason to come to this side of town.”

  “It’s not much to look at, but the food is good and there’s plenty of it.”

  There were no menus, just a chalkboard with the day’s offerings. “What do you recommend?” Mary asked.

  “I’m having the fried chicken. You?”

  “That’s fine with me.”

  Will stood, walked to the counter, and placed their orders. He came back with two glasses of iced tea. “The only drinks they have here are water and tea. Hope I made the right choice.”

  “It’s fine. One thing I’m not is a picky eater.”

  “Robin puts up a fuss once in a while, but she’ll usually try anything. Grant sometimes forgets to eat.”

  “I’m more likely to forget my own name than to forget to eat.”

  Will chuckled. “I’m with you.” He passed the pricing information from the building surplus across the table. “Joe’s son itemized each piece you were interested in. I can tell you that his prices are forty to fifty percent lower than any of the building supply stores. Some of his things have been salvaged from other buildings, some are surplus materials builders didn’t need.”

  Mary examined the information. “You approved each piece we looked at. Even though it’s old or used, it still has enough quality for the job, right?”

  “Right.”

  As Mary studied each page, her excitement grew. The prices eased her anxiety about the bottom line and when she reached the last page, she gave a small whoop of delight. “Buy everything,” she instructed Will. “I’ll write the check now. And thanks for recommending Joe’s store.”

  Will smiled broadly, obviously glad she was pleased. “You still want me to work on the kitchen first?”

  “Yes. I’m having guests over on Christmas day and I’ll need the kitchen. If possible, could you work on the upstairs rooms or the exterior before tackling the living room and dining room? That way, I can cook and serve my guests without too much mess.”

  “It’s not the way I usually work, but…yeah, I can make that happen. But after Christmas, I can have a free hand, right?”

  Mary crossed her heart. “I promise.”

  The waitress brought large platters of chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans just as Mary pulled out her checkbook. As Will had promised, not only was the food plentiful, it was also delicious.

  After eating a few bites, Will asked, “When did you buy your house?”

  “Last summer. Why?”

  “Did you get a good deal?”

  “I think so. It’s going to look very homey, don’t you think?”

  Will’s dark eyebrows drew together. “I’m in charge of getting your place up to code and giving you what you want. Decorating is not my thing.”

  “Well, in my head, at least, it’s going to look very homey.”

  “Does the house remind you of your grandmother?”

  Mary didn’t think Will wanted to know her family history any more than she wanted to talk about it. “Why do you ask?”

  “That’s why a lot of people are attracted to Craftsman bungalows. When their grandparents or great grandparents bought them, they were new.”

  “That’
s not the case for me. I was looking for a place that seemed friendly and warm. The kind of house where I could imagine happy children growing up.”

  “It takes more than a house to make kids happy. I’d give my house away if I believed it would insure my kids’ happiness. Being a single father is no walk in the park.”

  Mary wanted to know more, but prying into Will’s private life would be rude. “Robin is a real charmer.”

  Will grinned broadly. “Yeah. She could persuade an angel to give her a feather from its wings. I thought that growing up without a mother would be worse on a girl, but Grant’s the one I worry about the most. He’s too quiet.”

  There was the opening Mary had been waiting for. “Is your wife dead?”

  “Yep. Five years now. Didn’t Joe tell you the story?”

  “No, and I don’t mean to pry.”

  Will shrugged as if it made no difference. “Sharon and I were too young to get married, but we didn’t let that stop us. Next thing I know, she’s expecting our son. She was a good mother with Grant, but something happened when Robin came along. She said it was too much for her to handle. One day, Sharon simply didn’t come home.”

  A quiver of sympathy passed through Mary’s heart. Though it had never happened to her, she could imagine the anxiety Will must have felt. “You must have been terrified.”

  He sat back in the booth. “I called the police, of course. Waited for days and days, wondering what had happened. The bank records showed she had withdrawn a lot of cash, and I figured she’d be home when she ran out of money.”

  Will took a long drink from his glass of iced tea and gazed out the diner’s plate-glass window. Mary waited in silence, hoping that if she gave him enough time, he’d continue his story.

  Still staring out the window, Will said, “Then the worst happened. One morning, just as the kids and I were on our way to church, the state police stopped at our house. Sharon had wrecked the car. It was never clear if she’d fallen asleep at the wheel or if she’d run into the bridge abutment on purpose.”

  Mary reached across the table and wrapped her fingers around Will’s wrist. “I’m so sorry you and the kids had to go through all that.”

  Will looked at her hand. “Yeah. Grant blamed everybody. He even blamed Robin, and she was only a baby.”

  “How’s he doing now?”

  “Better, but I worry about him. The teenage years are hard enough without having to deal with losing your mother.”

  During her own adolescence, she’d had other adults to talk to. Would it have been easier with a caring mother? “A friend of mine says that as long as you love your kids, you can’t go too far wrong.”

  “Loving them isn’t the problem. I don’t know, I just want to do the right thing.”

  Mary removed her hand from Will’s arm. “If Grant will be at my house on Monday evening, I’d like to introduce him to a friend of mine. Neil can do anything with computers and Grant has the same interest.”

  Will’s shoulders dropped, as though relieved to have the topic changed. “I’ve told Grant I’ll need him every evening next week. My regular crew goes home at five. After that, I need my son’s help.”

  “You don’t have any objections if I introduce him to Neil?”

  “No. In fact your friend might be the answer to a prayer.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Grant’s entered some type of technology competition where he has to generate a digital representation of architectural drawings. And it has to be a famous building.”

  “Sounds interesting.”

  “I agree, but it’s something I can’t help him with.”

  A middle-aged waitress appeared and refilled their glasses. “Who wants pie? We’ve got pumpkin, apple, and lemon meringue.”

  “Apple for me,” Will answered. “What about you, Mary?”

  “The same.”

  While Will finished his lunch, Mary sat back and considered what she’d learned about her contractor. He was doing the best he could in a tough situation. Although she didn’t know much about Grant, Robin was a well-adjusted, happy child. Will hadn’t walked away from his children or given them into someone else’s care. If she let herself, she could fall a little bit in love with a man like that.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  An ominous e-mail waited for her when Mary arrived at work on Monday. Mr. Alden wanted to see her a.s.a.p. Mary took a few deep breaths and walked down the hall to her boss’s office. On the way, she stopped at Neil’s desk. “Wish me luck. The boss wants to see me.”

  Neil didn’t move his gaze away from his computer monitor. “Any idea why?”

  “No, but I don’t have a good feeling about this. The last time he called me into his office, it wasn’t good news.”

  “I’ll be here all day if you need me.”

  Mrs. Stenger smiled at Mary as she approached. “Mr. Alden’s expecting you. Go right in.”

  Mary stepped into the doorway and waited for her boss to notice her.

  Mr. Alden motioned with his hand. “Come on in, Mary. Alexis should be here any minute.”

  Alexis was meeting with her and Mr. Alden? Mary tried to ignore the giant stone lodged in the pit of her stomach and sat in the chair across from Mr. Alden’s desk. He turned to his computer, clicked a few times, and then picked up his phone.

  Mary’s mind raced with possibilities. Had Alexis complained again, even though Mary had spoken to her? What had Mary missed? The workers’ schedules were up-to-date, she hadn’t heard anything more about the complaints from the branch store, and the training schedule was on hold. Why did Mr. Alden want to see her and the only employee who’d complained about her?

  Alexis walked into Mr. Alden’s office, her high heels clicking against the floor like a timer ticking away the seconds until Mary was fired. Today, the blonde wore a light gray jacket with black lapels. A matching pencil skirt hugged her hips.

  Mr. Alden looked up from his computer and gestured for Alexis to take a seat. Alexis flipped her hair over one shoulder and crossed her legs but didn’t acknowledge Mary’s presence.

  Mary focused on maintaining an exterior aspect of calm. Even if her stomach was churning, she disciplined her face to reflect composure.

  After several anxiety-filled seconds, Mr. Alden ended his call, folded his hands on his desk, and leaned forward. “I called the two of you in because I have to get to the bottom of the problems with the new technology. Alexis, we’ve spent a hefty portion of our budget on new equipment and software, but all I hear is one excuse after another. You told me Mary was holding up implementation, but when I spoke with Mary last week, she wasn’t aware of any setbacks. Now that I’ve got you both in the same room at the same time, I hope we can resolve this issue once and for all.”

  Alexis shifted in her chair to face Mary. “Yes, Mary. When can I expect the employees to be fully trained on the new system?”

  Mary cleared her throat. “As soon as the cash registers are up and running. Neil Jorgensen told me there were software problems to be fixed.”

  Alexis smiled the way a spider smiled at a fly. “Oh, that’s been taken care of.”

  If that was true, why hadn’t Mary been told? “Are the registers unpacked and hooked up?”

  Alexis’s voice and expression conveyed confidence. “Of course they are.”

  Something wasn’t right, but Mary wouldn’t challenge Alexis in front of their boss. She steadied her nerves and spoke in the most professional voice she had. “As I remember, phase two of the implementation will be kiosks where customers can place online orders. I think it would be best if we had two or more employees at each kiosk to help customers.”

  Alexis waved away Mary’s suggestion. “But they’re so easy to use, anyone can figure it out.”

  “I’m thinking of our older customers who may not be comfortable with technology or shoppers who might have questions. For the first few weeks or months, I think we need someone who is an easily identifiable source of help.”

/>   Alexis uncrossed her legs and turned away from Mary. “Well, that’s a staffing decision, and I don’t deal with those issues.”

  Alexis certainly knew how to shift the responsibility to someone else. “I need to know when the kiosks will be ready, so I can assign workers and train them.”

  Alexis spoke as if she couldn’t be bothered with such details. “I’ll ask Neil to coordinate all of that with you.”

  Mary had nothing more to say. If Alexis had a problem with her, she hadn’t used this opportunity to air her grievance.

  Both women looked at Mr. Alden. He studied them in silence for several long seconds. “You may get back to what you were doing, Alexis. Mary, please stay for a few minutes.”

  Alexis rose with swan-like grace and left the office without saying another word. Mary waited for Mr. Alden to reprimand her, or lecture her, or—worse yet—fire her. Instead, he picked up his phone.

  He consulted a list of phone numbers and punched a few buttons. “Will you please step into my office?” He didn’t look at Mary or give her a clue about what would happen next, but within seconds, Neil stood in the doorway.

  “Come in,” Mr. Alden instructed, “and close the door behind you.”

  Neil did as instructed, sending Mary a questioning glance as he took the seat Alexis had vacated.

  “Neil,” Mr. Alden began, “tell Mary what we did this morning.”

  Although clearly puzzled by the request, Neil turned toward her. “Mr. Alden and I met to talk about the problems we’re having with implementing the new technology. See, it boils down to integrating the new software with the existing software. The only way to put Alexis’s plan into service is to shut down the store, remove all of the existing machines and software, and start from scratch with the new programs.”

  Mary had no idea the solution would be so drastic. “Close the store? For how long?”

  “It would take about a week,” Neil answered.

  Mary looked at Mr. Alden. “Can the store take such a loss? Especially now, during the Christmas season?”

  “Of course not,” Mr. Alden replied, his voice a disgusted grumble. He turned his attention back to Neil. “What did the seller say about returning our purchase?”