“I think maybe you could. How about after school tomorrow?”
“My grandma and grandpa are coming to my house. Could they see Anna, too?”
She hesitated. “Why don’t we wait until they get here before we decide that?” It was the only way she knew to answer. Thankfully, Cindy seemed satisfied. She was open and adventuresome and easy to love and Karla had to hold back to keep from overwhelming her with all the affection she had stored up to give a child.
Mark met them at the top of the stairs. He took Cindy, held her with one arm, and put the other around Karla. His kiss was warm and welcoming and made her feel as if she belonged exactly where she was.
“I missed you today,” he said.
She touched his face. “Me, too.”
“How is Anna?”
“Bouncing back. She’s unbelievable. She was telling the nurses jokes when I walked in this morning, and she actually ate all of her lunch.” Karla gave Cindy a playful tickle. “What’s this surprise you have for me?”
“Look.” She pointed to the Christmas tree. “Daddy said we could help you decorate it and that it could be a surprise for Anna, too.”
Until that moment, Christmas had been something to get through, not celebrate. But the sparkle in Cindy’s eyes, her obvious excitement and pleasure at her and Mark’s surprise, made Karla want to be a part of the holiday as much as she wanted to be a part of their lives. She went to the tree and held it upright. “It’s beautiful.” Putting her nose against one of the branches, she took a deep breath. “And it smells wonderful.” She gave Mark and Cindy a big smile. “This is a great idea. We can string popcorn and cranberries and make it look like a real old-fashioned tree, just like the kind Anna had when she was a little girl.”
Karla let go of the tree and took her key out of her pocket to open the door. The more she thought about decorating the house for Anna’s homecoming, the better she liked the idea. If Anna continued to improve the way she had been, she would be home for Christmas for sure.
“Do you know where Anna keeps her decorations?” Mark asked when they were inside.
“In the hall closet under the stairwell.”
Mark started for the kitchen to call for the pizza, then came back and took Karla in his arms again. “It’s a good thing Cindy’s here to chaperone.”
She put her arms around his neck. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
“I’m thirsty,” Cindy said, as if on cue. “Can I have some water?”
Karla ran her hand through Mark’s hair and gave him a very private smile. “I’ll get it for you, Cindy.”
Karla and Cindy moved coats and sweaters out of the way to get to the back of the closet while Mark put the tree in its stand. They had boxes scattered everywhere when the pizza arrived and ate while they explored their contents.
Karla had paid little attention to the ornaments on Anna’s tree when she lived there, never noticing how many were handmade and how many appeared old enough to have come from Anna’s tree when she was a little girl. What had started out a fun chore became a journey of discovery as she unwrapped each new treasure.
Mark saw what she was doing and came to sit beside her. “They look like family heirlooms.”
“I wish I could tell you about them.”
“You’ll have to ask Anna when you take down the tree. I’ll bet she has a story to go with every one.”
Karla picked up a hand-painted papier-mâché ball. “It weighs a ton. I wonder what’s inside.”
“Is it your mother’s?”
Karla stared at the ball for a long time. “I hope so. I like the idea of having something she made be a part of this Christmas.”
“Why don’t you put it aside and ask Anna.”
“Why put it aside?”
“I was just thinking it would make a good present for your new niece. Didn’t you say she was named after your mother and Anna?”
“That’s a wonderful idea.” The more she thought about it, the more wonderful it became. She would have to find a special box, a silver one lined in velvet. “Once Heather sees this she might even forgive me for not telling her about Anna being in the hospital.” She leaned over to give him a kiss. “You’re really good at this sentimental stuff.”
“And I’m really good at putting on lights—when they work. Which Anna’s don’t. So, I have to go to the store before I can go any farther. Is there anything you need?”
“Popcorn and cranberries.”
He put his hand on Cindy’s head and turned it until she was looking at him. “You want to go with me or stay here with Karla?”
“Stay,” Cindy said.
It was a small thing, certainly nothing anyone else would get excited about, but it pleased Karla that Cindy had chosen to stay with her. “We’ll have everything unwrapped and ready to go by the time you get back.”
Three hours later, after two more trips to the store for an extension cord and then a replacement bulb for the star in the nativity set, they had the tree decorated. They’d saved the final honor of placing the angel on top of the tree for Cindy.
“I think it could use a couple more strands of popcorn,” Mark said diplomatically.
Karla adjusted the four-foot-long string that had taken her an hour to put together. “Give me another month and I’ll have it looking the way it should.”
Standing between Mark and Karla as they admired their work, Cindy said, “You need presents.”
“Next time you come over there will be lots and lots of presents.” She’d thought of a dozen things she wanted to buy for Anna, including a new bird feeder. She already had something for Cindy, but it was still in Solvang sitting on her dining room table ready to be mailed. She still had to think about what she would give Mark. She wanted it to be something special, something that would always remind him of their first Christmas together.
Cindy’s absent presents made her think about the shop and Jim. He should have called by now. “What time is it?” she asked Mark.
“Almost ten.” He looked at Cindy. “Long past your bedtime.”
“I could sleep here with Karla. She would let me.”
Mark chuckled. “Yes, she probably would. But you’re coming home with me tonight. You have school tomorrow.”
Karla felt a swell of pleasure that Cindy had even come up with the idea. She knew she would have to move slowly in their relationship, but it was going to be hard. Cindy had a mother and yet was in desperate need of a woman who was a constant in her life, someone she could count on to always be there for her. Karla had to find a way to be that woman for Cindy without taking anything from Linda. It wouldn’t work any other way.
Mark held Cindy’s jacket while she put it on. “If you don’t want Anna getting suspicious, I’d suggest you hide your hands when you see her tomorrow.”
Karla looked at her fingertips, dyed dark red with cranberry juice. “I’ll have to—”
“If you and my daddy got married I bet he would let me sleep here,” Cindy said.
Karla looked at Mark to see how he had reacted to Cindy’s innocently self-serving statement.
He smiled and shrugged. “Out of the mouths of babes.”
“I think that’s a pretty good idea myself,” Karla said, surprising herself. “How about if your daddy and I talk about it someday soon?”
“Okay.”
“I’m holding you to that,” Mark said. “Remember, I have a witness.” He finished buttoning Cindy’s coat and started toward the door.
If happiness could be measured, there wouldn’t be a number high enough to calculate the way she felt at that moment. “Drive carefully,” she told him.
He stopped to look into her eyes and then cup her face with his hands. “I love you, Karla. Get used to hearing it because I’m going to tell you every day for the rest of our lives.” The kiss he gave her then was long and achingly tender, with promise and restrained passion.
“And I love you,” she said as he let her go.
Cindy wrapped an arm around Mark’s leg. “How ’bout if Karla comes home with us?”
Mark looked at her and smiled. “Someday. Soon, I hope.”
Karla followed them out and stood on the porch until they were gone. She knew it was cold because she could see her breath, but the chill never penetrated her thin turtleneck and light wool slacks. She started to go inside when she remembered that the feeders hadn’t been filled in days and headed for the garage. Finally, satisfied her corner of the world was in order, she went in the house and called Jim.
She reached him at the shop.
“I had no idea it was so late,” he said. “I lost track of time. But everything’s taken care of. I got the suppliers to overnight what we needed to stay open tomorrow, and second-day the rest, so we’re back in business. And from what I saw today, not a moment too soon. Even though you’ve been closed a couple of days, there were customers lined up outside when I opened this morning. Tonya and Margaret worked the machines all day and Amy handled the register while I was on the phone pleading with the suppliers for coffee and cups.”
He sounded excited when he should have sounded exhausted. “Where are you staying tonight?”
“I don’t know yet. Probably at the Hansen Lodge.”
“Why don’t you stay at the house instead? There’s an extra key under the brick in the walkway. The same place we always kept it.”
“Are you sure?”
“You’d be doing me a favor. I’d feel better if the house didn’t sit empty, and there’s a whole refrigerator full of food that’s going to go bad if someone isn’t there to eat it.”
“I’ve been thinking about what you told me this morning.”
“Remind me.”
“About you meeting someone. It took me a while, but I finally figured out I was jealous. Crazy, huh? I’m worried about losing you even though you’re not mine to lose anymore.”
“No, not crazy at all. I felt the same way about Amy. And stop worrying, you’re not going to lose me. We’ll always be friends.”
“That’s easy to say, Karla. A hell of a lot harder to do.”
“You’ll like him, Jim.” She knew this as surely as she knew Mark wouldn’t feel threatened by Jim or by their friendship. “He’s a remarkable man. Not someone I would have ever picked for myself ten years ago—I had to grow up first.”
“You’ll understand if I tell you I need a while to get used to the idea before I start thinking of him as a good guy.”
She laughed. “That’s fair.”
“I’m going to take you up on the house. You know how I hate staying in hotels.”
“I remember.” They would always be tied together by their memories. And she knew now that she really didn’t want their friendship to end.
“I’ll call in a couple of days and let you know how it’s going.”
“Thanks—oh, one more favor?”
“Name it.”
“There’s a package on the dining room table. Would you send it to me at Anna’s address?”
“Tomorrow. As soon as Tonya comes in.”
She thought about what she would say next, hesitated, and then plunged ahead. “Tell Amy hi for me, would you? And thank her for all the work she did at the shop at Thanksgiving. It took me a couple of days, but I finally came around to appreciating what she’d done.”
Jim laughed, not the polite kind, but a belly laugh. “I’ll tell her—all of it. She was worried she might have gone a little overboard.”
They talked for a few minutes more and then said good night. Karla made herself a cup of tea and took it into the living room. Her feet propped up, her hands wrapped around the mug, she stared at the tree and thought about Christmases past and those yet to come.
Her tea finished, she picked up the bowls of popcorn and cranberries and went back to work.
Chapter
30
If you don’t let me do the things I’m still capable of doing, what little muscle I have left is going to atrophy.” Anna followed the gentle rebuke with a smile as she struggled to get out of Karla’s car.
“It’s Christmas,” Karla said. “Chapter five of my good girl handbook says that during the month of December I have to be kind to surly shoppers and help little old ladies out of cars.”
“Well, since I’ve got years ahead of me before I’m a little old lady, you’re off the hook.”
The humor helped ease the tension over having Anna released from the hospital days after either of them had expected. After a straight shot at recovery, she’d come down with a virus that settled in her lungs and had needed to be given oxygen again. Now Karla was caught between happiness at having Anna home and fear it might be too soon.
“Is that a tree I see in the window?” Anna asked as she leaned against the car door and waited to gather her strength.
Karla had purposely left the lights on when she went to pick up Anna, knowing it would be dark by the time they got home. “Mark and Cindy and I put it up to surprise you.”
She started toward the house, making the concession of holding on to Karla’s arm. Before she started up the stairs, she paused to look at the other decorations—the wreath on the door and the pine swags attached to the porch railing with red ribbon. “How did you find time for all of this?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I guess when it’s something you enjoy you don’t notice the effort or how much time it takes.”
They slowly made their way inside. Karla took Anna’s coat and purse and hung them in the closet before she led her into the living room. After uncounted hours of stringing popcorn and cranberries, she finally had the tree completed to her satisfaction and was anxious for Anna to see it.
“Oh, my . . . I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as beautiful,” Anna said in awe. “You must have spent days on this. And look at all those presents. Where did they come from?”
“Santa dropped by early.”
Anna gave her a scolding look before she moved closer. “Goodness, the popcorn and cranberries are real.”
“And I have the stained fingers to prove it.” She didn’t even try to keep the note of pride from her voice.
“I used to talk about doing a tree like this, but never did.”
“Wait a minute. I only did this because I wanted to give you a Christmas like the ones you used to have when you were growing up.”
“I can see we have a way to go on the family history. Your great-grandmother wasn’t the old-fashioned type. She was always the first in line to buy whatever was new. If those aluminum trees that revolved had been around when she was, she would have had one for sure.”
Karla laughed. “So much for tradition.”
Anna looked at her, her eyes grown misty. “But don’t you see? You’ve started your own. You and Cindy and Mark. And you’ve made me a part of it by having your first tree in my house. Nothing could have pleased me more.”
Karla put her arms around Anna and gave her a long hug. “Welcome home, Grandma.”
“Thank you, sweetheart. You’ve made it a real home for me again.”
Two days later, on Christmas Eve, Karla was about to give up on the book she’d been reading and turn out the lamp on the nightstand when she heard a car pull into the driveway. She listened to see if it was just someone turning around, but instead heard a car door slam.
Puzzled at who would be there at ten-thirty at night, she put on her robe and went downstairs. She looked through the window and saw Grace struggling toward the house, her arms overloaded with packages. Hit with conflicting emotions, Karla simply stood and stared rather than immediately going out to help. She was as happy to see Grace as she was concerned about how and why she was there. The packages were in keeping with her excessive personality, which was fine in itself—but how had she paid for them?
In the end, nothing mattered more than the fact her little sister had come home for the holiday. Karla opened the door and was greeted by a rush of cold air. She pulled her robe closer, huddling
into the collar and said, “To say I’m surprised to see you would be the understatement of the year.”
“Then don’t bother,” Grace said. “Just tell me you’re glad to see me.”
“Of course I am.” She took the most precariously balanced presents and followed Grace inside. “Grandma will be beside herself when she gets up tomorrow and finds you here.”
“I know I should have called, but I was on standby and wasn’t sure I would get here at all. As it was, I had a seven-hour layover in Denver.” She put the presents under the tree, shrugged out of her coat, and gave Karla a hug. “But as you can see, I didn’t let the time go to waste.”
It took a second for what she was saying to sink in. As Karla plugged in the tree lights, she took inventory of all the presents and said, “You mean you bought all this stuff at the airport?”
“I didn’t want to come empty-handed, and there wasn’t any time to shop before I left. We’ve been filming all day every day.” She stood back to admire the tree. “It’s beautiful.” She came forward again and ducked, and bent, and stood on tiptoe to look at individual ornaments. “There’s my angel . . . and my teddy bear. Oh, and there’s Heather’s cowboy boots. Remember the year she ran for Miss something or other and was supposed to sing the thing about riding the range but then started choking when she tried to yodel and had to be taken off the stage? Grandma was furious with the organizers and bought those boots for Heather as a consolation prize. I’m not sure whose idea it was to put them on the tree, but it wouldn’t be Christmas around here without them.”
Karla did remember, but only from Heather’s letters. She’d been a sophomore at college at the time and indignant that Anna had let Heather enter a beauty contest, let alone that she’d thrown a fit when Heather didn’t win.
“I’m not staying long,” Grace said. “I have to leave again in the morning. It was the only flight out of here that was guaranteed to get me back to work in time. It seems hardly anyone flies on Christmas day itself, but every other day between now and New Year’s is booked.”
Things Remembered Page 29
