by Leanne Banks
The day before Christmas Eve arrived and Faith vowed not to think about Gabriel. Her sister Ann Elise was arriving today. It had been ages since she and her sisters had visited, and even though part of the reason they were gathering was to hold a special memorial for Aunt Beth, Faith couldn’t wait to see her sisters. Ann Elise was her beautiful type-A older sister. She smiled as memories slid through her mind.
“Mama, tell me again about Aunt Ann Elise and Aunt Marilou,” Jason said as he stuck out his shoe for her to tie it. Between her divorce and her sisters’ busy lives, she and her sisters hadn’t had an easy time connecting in person during the past few years. Jason didn’t remember much about his aunts. Faith hoped that would change soon.
“Aunt Ann Elise is my older sister and she is a veterinarian in Dallas. An animal doctor,” she interpreted for her son. “She’s very smart and ambitious.”
“What’s ambitious?”
“A very hard worker,” she said, tying his other shoe. “Aunt Marilou works with numbers.”
“Math?” he asked.
She nodded. “And she’s engaged to be married,” she added. She’d often wondered why Marilou had never brought her fiancé to meet Aunt Beth. Something about Marilou’s situation just didn’t feel right.
Jason jiggled her shoulders. “Mama, sing ‘The Twelve Days Of Christmas.’”
“Okay, but you sing it with me.” She began the first verse and Jason sang every other word. She sang the second verse and the third. He always got the partridge part right. Faith loved watching Jason’s face as he tried to learn the verses. He nodded his head and concentrated so intently.
He shifted from one foot to the other. “I gotta go to the bathroom, but keep singin’ Mom,” he said and dashed down the hall.
Faith laughed and sang at the top of her lungs.
She heard a male voice join in on the eighth day and jerked her head toward the door, stopping midverse. Gabriel stood at the door, wearing casual clothes and a smile that sent her pulse skyrocketing. The clock chimed 10:00 a.m. He must have been on the road early.
Striding toward her, he held her gaze and Faith was afraid to blink in case he disappeared. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said.
She swallowed over a lump in her throat. “I guess I kinda feel that way. I wasn’t sure if—” She bit her lip. “Or when—” Fear squeezed her throat closed.
He rushed to stand in front of her, putting his hands on her arms and looking down at her in surprise. “You didn’t think I would come back?”
“I didn’t know,” she said.
“But I told you I would be back by tomorrow.”
“I know you did. But when I didn’t hear from you, I started thinking…” She shook her head. “Thinking about the differences between us. Thinking about how different your world is from mine. Thinking you might change your mind about how you feel about—”
“Aw, Faith.” He pulled her against him. “You should have called me.”
“I wanted you to call me,” she confessed, unable to keep her voice steady. She felt her eyes burn with the threat of tears.
“Honey, I thought about you the whole time.”
“I thought about you, too.” She sank into his embrace and told herself to stop crying.
“I took care of the crisis,” he said and she felt him brush his lips over her forehead.
“That’s good.”
“I came back to you early,” he said.
“That’s even better.”
She felt his mouth lift in a smile against her forehead. “I brought you a gift.”
Faith groaned and shook her head. “I don’t want any more gifts. You’ve given me too much already. I’d just like you to stay around for a while.”
He put his thumb under her chin and lifted it. “How long is a while?”
The expression in his eyes turned her knees to jelly. “A long, long time.”
“How does forever sound?” he asked.
She swallowed, afraid to hope. “What are you saying?”
Backing away slightly, he pulled a small black velvet box from his pocket. “I know we technically haven’t known each other very long, but I feel like I’ve known you forever. I know my heart has been looking for you. I want to marry you, Faith. I want you to be my wife.” He flipped open the box to reveal a stunning diamond ring.
Faith couldn’t stop the tears streaming down her face. “Oh, my! Oh—”
“Mom’s crying!” Jason yelled from the hallway. “Mom, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” He rushed to pull insistently at her jeans. “Mom.”
Becky ran into the hallway too, her voice full of worry. She glanced at Gabriel, Jason and Faith. “What’s wrong? Did something bad happen?”
Faith swiped her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “No, it’s something wonderful.”
Gabe tenderly touched a tear she’d missed. “You sure?”
She nodded. “Yes, it’s the most wonderful thing that could happen.”
“What is it?” Becky demanded.
“I’m asking you and Jason and your mom if you’ll marry me,” Gabriel said.
Becky’s eyes rounded. “Sweet!”
Jason jumped up and down. “You want all of us to marry you?”
Gabe nodded. “If you’ll have me.” He met Faith’s gaze. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes.” All three answered at once, and Gabe slid the ring on Faith’s finger.
Late that afternoon, Gabe stayed with the children while Faith drove to the small airport to pick up her sister Ann Elise. It was raining cats and dogs, but she couldn’t be happier. The weight of the stunning new engagement ring on her finger felt both strange and wonderful. She kept looking at it to make sure she wasn’t in a dream.
“It’s real,” she told herself. “He’s not going anywhere.”
Her heart expanded in her chest and she struggled with another urge to cry. She wondered how long it would take for her to really believe everything was going to work out.
Pulling into a parking place, she walked inside the small terminal and waited for her sister’s commuter jet to arrive. Minutes passed and she felt her eagerness build.
A small jet landed and Faith watched the passengers unload. Spotting Ann Elise’s blond head, she waved madly. Ann Elise smiled and ran toward her.
Faith pulled her sister into her arms for a big hug. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“I know. It feels like it’s been forever,” Ann Elise said.
“How was your flight?”
Ann Elise’s smile faded and her eyebrows furrowed. “Strange.” She shook her head and waved her hand. “I’d rather hear all about you and the kids. Tell all.”
The two sisters collected Ann Elise’s luggage and Faith drove them back to the house. Along the way, Ann Elise pointed out familiar sights and the few changes that had been made in the past few years.
“How’s your practice?” Faith asked, sensing an underlying restlessness in her sister.
“Very successful. Sometimes too successful. It seems so quiet here. What about you and the kids? Are they excited about Christmas?”
“Extremely,” Faith said and told Ann Elise about how Becky’s letter to Santa Claus had caught the attention of the CEO of Raines, Incorporated. “He’s been embarrassingly generous.” She chewed her lip, trying to figure out how to tell Ann Elise the rest of the incredible story.
“I’ll say,” Ann Elise said, pointing at the diamond ring on Faith’s finger. “Looks like he has excellent taste. You better be careful about wearing that ring on your left hand, though, or people will think you’re engaged.”
Faith took a quick breath. She should have known her sharp-as-a-tack sister wouldn’t miss anything. “They would be right,” she said in a low voice.
With the exception of road noise, complete silence followed.
“Are you kidding?” Ann Elise asked in a shocked, high-pitched voice. “Didn’t you just meet him?”
“Yes. I�
�m not sure I can explain it, but it’s right,” she said, pulling into the drive to the ranch. “He loves me, loves the kids. I never dreamed I would meet anyone like him.”
“When are you getting married?” Ann Elise asked as Faith pulled the car to a stop.
Faith smiled, her heart still bursting with joy. She turned to look at her sister. “Valentine’s Day. Please say you’ll come.”
Ann Elise nodded her head incredulously. “Of course, I will.” She hugged her tight. “You deserve some happiness. You’ve been a saint to take care of Aunt Beth.”
“I just feel lucky right now,” Faith said, blinking back tears. “First Gabe and now you and Marilou home for Christmas. It couldn’t be better.”
Hours later after Ann Elise met and approved of Gabe, and had reacquainted herself with Becky and Jason, everyone except Gabe and Faith went to bed.
“You think I passed?” he asked Faith, pulling her onto his lap.
“With Ann Elise?” she asked, wrapping her arms around his neck. She nodded. “With flying colors. Nice of you to save the Christmas tree after Jason ran into it.”
“He’s a fast one. I think he’s going to end up running track,” Gabe said.
“Think so?” she asked, allowing him to draw her mouth close to his.
He nodded, nuzzling his face against hers. “He can chase the track. I’ll chase his mother.”
She tilted her lips to his for a kiss. He took the offering, and his mouth warmed her all over. “I haven’t said this in years, but it’s truer than ever.”
“What’s that?”
“I love Santa.”
He gave a low, sexy chuckle. “I love you, too, Faith.”
CHRISTMAS EVE REUNION
Dixie Browning
Chapter 1
The moment the seat-belt warning went off, Ann Elise Baker scrambled through her purse to find her pillbox. Requesting a glass of water from the single attendant on the crowded commuter, she swallowed two acetaminophen capsules, tilted her seat back and closed her eyes. Last year on her way to a veterinarian conference in late November, she had vowed never again to travel during the holiday season. It was a headache. Literally.
This time she’d had no choice. Through no fault of her own she had missed her aunt Beth’s funeral earlier in the year—she simply couldn’t afford to miss the memorial service.
But another reason was even more compelling.
Her sisters needed her. She knew Faith had been struggling to make ends meet after ending a disastrous marriage, but her middle sister had more pride than the law allowed. Ann Elise had even offered to sell her practice and move back to Mission Creek to help take care of Aunt Beth, but Faith had been adamantly opposed.
Twenty years ago, after their parents had been killed in a plane crash, Ann Elise, who’d been twelve at the time, had bottled up her own grief and tried to comfort and reassure six-year-old Marilou and eight-year-old Faith. Over the years, that pattern had continued until they had gradually pulled away, confident that they no longer needed comforting and encouraging, not to mention a big sister’s advice. Even though they were scattered from Dallas to Corpus Christi to Mission Creek, they were all still in Texas.
Ann Elise applauded their independence, she really did. After all, she’d done her best to encourage it. But what she wanted more than anything now was to draw her small family close again. They might not realize it, but they still needed her. She certainly needed them.
Busy establishing her practice as a companion animal vet, she hadn’t realized how quickly time sped by. She hadn’t seen Faith’s two children since little Becky was in kindergarten and Jason was only a toddler. Sad state of affairs, she mused, when it took a dear relative’s memorial service to bring them together again.
Aunt Beth’s house, once the center of a prosperous ranch, was certainly a better place to spend the holidays than her own apartment. Especially now that she’d found homes for all the strays and survivors she’d temporarily adopted. The corgi-dachshund mix she’d called Longshot was the last to go. Her chair rungs would forever bear the marks of his teeth, but he’d certainly livened up the place. Uncle Lloyd would’ve banished him to a pen, but Aunt Beth would have adored him.
Aunt Beth and Uncle Lloyd had given the three little girls a home after their parents died. Ann Elise had initially worried that Uncle Lloyd’s wife, who was no blood kin and therefore not obligated to take them in, would ask them to leave. Tall for her age, she’d conceived some wild idea of dropping out of school, claiming to be sixteen and getting a job at the Hamburger Hangout, kidnapping her sisters and looking after them herself.
Not very practical. In fact, not practical at all. Fortunately she’d never been forced to act on her plans. Uncle Lloyd had been…well, stern was a kind word to describe his temperament. But not unkind. He’d built them a playroom in the attic, after all. Probably to get them out from underfoot, but still…
Uncle Lloyd and Faith had clashed right from the start. As for Aunt Beth, although they were related only by marriage, she’d been unvaryingly kind and patient, never once alluding to the fact that while she was a Wainwright, one of Mission Creek’s founding families, they were only Bakers.
Of course, Aunt Beth had married a Baker. In fact, Ann Elise had once heard it whispered that her aunt had married beneath her, but then, Mission Creek was inclined to be cliquish.
True or not, it had served to put her even more on the defensive in the beginning. As a result, she’d spent those early years preparing for the future and waiting for the rejection that never came.
Lord, she thought now, opening her eyes to massage her throbbing temples, where had all that ancient history sprung from?
Well, that was obvious. For the first time in too long she was returning to the big, rambling ranch house they’d all shared until she’d left for college. In the meantime, Faith had married and moved away—more to escape Uncle Lloyd than for any other reason, Ann Elise had always suspected. Marilou had gone off to school and surprised them all by not only doing well, but by becoming a financial consultant.
Soon after Uncle Lloyd had died, Aunt Beth had moved to New York, so there’d been no reason for Ann Elise to come back to Mission Creek. Besides, she’d been busy establishing herself as a veterinarian.
Excuses, excuses…
Eyes closed as she tried to will away her headache, she started putting together a mental to-do list. She’d turned into a compulsive list-maker, which probably said something about her that wasn’t too flattering. Here it was the twenty-third of December and she hadn’t even started her Christmas shopping, but she did have several half-finished lists.
For Faith, something pretty. A silk negligee and matching slippers, perhaps—or maybe something more practical, but still nice.
What about Marilou? What did CPAs like? CPAs who didn’t look like CPAs and didn’t act like CPAs? A chocolate calculator?
An irreverent thought crept in and she bit back a drowsy smile, her eyes still closed against the glare coming through the small Plexiglas window. Why not simply raid the local shelter and give everyone a pet?
Okay, back to reality.
Had she left anything on that shouldn’t be on in her apartment? She’d gone through her checklist before locking the door behind her. She was compulsive about security, too, at least when she wasn’t distracted by other duties. All a part of her stress-related symptoms, according to Dr. Hodges, friend and physician.
Ann Elise wasn’t sure she bought into the diagnosis. On the other hand, a brand-new year was bearing down on her and she wasn’t even done with the old one yet. As soon as she could clear her calendar she vowed to spend a solid month on a beach—any beach at all, but the more deserted the better. That way, no one could make demands on her, real or implied. No telephones, no e-mail, no persistent sales reps. For one whole month she would do absolutely nothing but sleep in the sun, float on the water, and read purely for pleasure—nothing even faintly resembling literature, certainly
nothing educational.
And of course she would end up with a million more freckles and a blistered nose. She’d always hated her freckles, but even without them, she’d never have been called pretty. Big eyes, long legs and good teeth didn’t make up for freckles, glasses and straight hair—not when every other girl in Mission Creek High had 20/20 vision, bouncy curls and knew how to use makeup to enhance any shortcomings.
Uncle Lloyd had frowned on the use of makeup. She’d tried lipstick a few times, but with her colorless lashes and brows it always made her look like a clown.
At least now she knew what to use and how to use it with discretion. Contacts didn’t hide her eyes, and the right shade of lipstick made a difference. She’d finally grown into her cheekbones so that the hollows didn’t look so cadaverish. She had even learned how to minimize her freckles and put on a few pounds so that her five-foot-eight frame didn’t look quite so gawky.
Of course, she’d recently lost the same pounds. Stress again. Too much to do and too little time. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when she hadn’t been in a hurry. Hurry up and graduate from high school in case she had to make a home for her sisters. Hurry up and get away from Mission Creek before she made an even bigger fool of herself over Joe Halloran.
Oh, God, Joe Halloran…
Along with every other girl in Mission Creek High, she’d had a monumental crush on the gorgeous hunk, and he’d been only a rising junior the year she’d graduated. Hello, Mrs. Robinson.
After that, it was hurry up and get through undergraduate school, which she’d done in three years. Get through vet school, and then establish a practice as quickly as possible in order to pay back her student loans. She’d been determined to become financially independent.
Practicing veterinarian medicine had hardly been the quickest route to riches. Looking back, she had to blame her career choice on an adolescent crush. Joe, the son of a small rancher, had told her on their one and only date that he’d made up his mind to be a vet when he’d been in fifth grade, after watching his father’s careful breeding plan fall apart after an outbreak of brucellosis. He’d probably be amused if he ever learned what she’d done with her life.
