“Eric…”
He held up a hand. “Just joking, Aunt Henrietta. Just joking. I’ll make the deadline.”
The phone rang again as Uncle Carlton was helping himself to another thick slice of red velvet cake.
“I’ll get it,” Sasha said, excusing herself. A few moments later, she hollered over, “It’s Baden and Jesse!”
“Ooh!” Kelly exclaimed. “I wanna talk to Baden. She sent me a doll from Hawaii!”
“What do you say?” Trey asked before she could scoot away.
Kelly paused. She then dabbed her mouth with her napkin, placed it to the left of her plate and asked, “May I be excused?”
Trey nodded.
She scrambled down and raced into the family room to join Sasha, who was already animatedly talking with her cousin on the line. Then there was a squeal.
“Oh, my God. Really? Baden, that’s wonderful!”
Aunt Henrietta glanced first at her husband and then at Trey. “If I were to make a guess,” she said, “based on that outburst, I think Sasha isn’t the only one with some good news to share with the family. Sounds like another generation is on the way.”
Trey eyed his aunt. If his cousin Baden was pregnant, that was good for her, he thought. But just what was Aunt Henrietta telling him with that look?
Chapter 8
“Daddy,” Kelly said on the way home, “since Baden is having a baby, we should get one, too.”
He glanced in the rearview mirror. God, was it time for that talk already? He’d hoped to have another ten, fifteen, heck, thirty years before he’d have to do that. But before he could formulate a suitable answer, Kelly yawned and said, “We have to go shopping for our angel. Can we do that tomorrow?”
Trey relaxed. Now, there was a question he could handle. “Right after school, we’ll go find her some gifts.”
“Oh, good,” Kelly said. “I think she’d like an American Doll like Addy.”
Trey had to laugh. If it got Kelly’s mind off of the “Where do babies come from?” track, he’d gladly buy the whole line of dolls for their Angel Tree kid.
* * *
Later, as he tucked Kelly into bed for the night, she asked another question that he didn’t have an answer for.
“Daddy?”
“Yes, princess?”
“When we go shopping tomorrow, can we get Christmas presents for Keisha and Renee, too?”
That was something he had given absolutely no thought to. His mind flashed back to the afternoon he’d seen Renee in the craft store and his wish that Santa would give her to him for a Christmas present. Now, oddly, he realized that he wanted more than just sex with Renee Armstrong.
Earlier Aunt Henrietta had asked him if he was serious about Renee. And he was in fact feeling things for her. But he wasn’t sure if his feelings were forever and vows sort of things.
When you know so, you’ll know what to do.
“Well, Daddy, can we?”
“Sure, Kel. We’ll get presents for them, too.”
“Good,” she said. “And I’m gonna ask Santa to bring me a baby sister for Christmas.”
He kissed her on the forehead and deliberately dodged her comment. “Good night, Kelly.”
* * *
There had been so much emotional turmoil in the past few weeks that Renee didn’t quite know what to do about the news regarding Keisha’s birth mother. She’d spent her lunch break on Monday talking to Dr. Hendrickson. She had reservations about telling Keisha because it was so close to Christmas and there had already been so many changes in their lives.
The child psychologist assured her that children were more resilient than they appeared. But agreed that under the circumstances and given Keisha’s recent setbacks, now wasn’t the right time.
Keisha never talked about her mother unless prompted by Renee or Dr. Hendrickson. And the two pictures of Janice Thompson that Keisha had were nowhere to be found. Renee knew because she’d looked. She wondered if Keisha had destroyed them, but asking would open a wound she didn’t want to expose either of them to. At least not right now.
So she’d wait.
Unfortunately, the other topic on her mind was also complicated.
Trey Calloway.
She didn’t believe it was possible to fall in love so fast, but she’d done just that. Fallen in love with a man who’d let it be known he was attracted to her. But she wasn’t interested in either a casual hookup or a “neighbors with benefits” situation.
“If you keep frowning like that, you’re going to need Botox before you’re forty.”
She scowled at Peter Shepherd. He’d picked her up after work to take her to the dealership to get her car and they’d stopped to have coffee before he headed home. “I have things on my mind, thank you very much.”
“Might those things start with a Trey and end with a Calloway?”
Renee sighed, but she didn’t take the bait. “Pete, why aren’t you married?”
“Because you broke my heart when we were in college. You wouldn’t go out with me and you ruined me for all women.”
Renee rolled her eyes.
“It’s true,” he said, placing a hand over his heart.
“I’m serious, Pete.”
“I’ve never found the woman who could love a guy who plays with toys for a living.”
“Peter…”
He reached for her hand. “I’m serious about that, Renee. There’s more to me than being a computer nerd. Computer nerds I meet are put off by the other parts of me, and other women either can’t get over the fact that I play games all day, or they’re only interested in the money those games have made me. I’m not settling. I want the real thing. She’s out there somewhere. We just haven’t connected yet.”
“Yet,” she said. “I didn’t think ‘yet’ would ever come for me. Now look at me. I came here to manage a consignment store. Now I’m hobnobbing with the rich and powerful, and in a ‘something’ with my next-door neighbor.”
“The word is relationship,” he said. “Speaking of which, what are you getting him for Christmas?”
Renee scowled at him and then groaned.
* * *
Trey loved seeing Christmas through the eyes of his daughter. The wonder, awe and joy of the holiday season as experienced by a small child was a gift he cherished each year. Kelly was growing up so fast. He knew he wouldn’t have many more Christmases with her like the ones of the past couple of years.
It had taken him the better part of an hour to find the Angel Tree tag only to discover it in a decorative bowl on the mantel. The Common Ground charity from church that organized the event had tags made up with the name, age, size and Christmas wishes of children in need. People who took an angel from the tree had to purchase at least one piece of clothing and a toy for their Angel Tree child.
Trey had gotten a pang of dread when he’d reviewed their child’s wishes, but he let it go as too much of a coincidence.
After Kelly’s choices made a sizable dent in his wallet, Trey shepherded her into a dollar store for wrapping paper, tape and package trimmings. Aunt Henrietta had suggested the items would be good to include for the parents of the Angel Tree kids to wrap presents.
The back of the Navigator was filled with bags. Since they didn’t have to wrap anything, Trey suggested they go straight to the church to drop off their gifts.
“Ooh, look, Daddy!” Kelly exclaimed as they approached an intersection.
The attraction was a big candy-cane-striped tent with huge inflatables surrounding it.
“Santa’s Village! Santa’s Village! Can we go?”
He got an idea then.
“How about if we invite Keisha and Renee to join us?”
“Yes!”
Trey
laughed. Christmas was coming and life was good.
* * *
Things started off well enough. With Keisha and Kelly bundled up and buckled in the backseat, he stole a kiss from Renee before closing her door and coming around the vehicle to slip behind the wheel.
“I see someone who’s made a visit to the hair salon,” he said. “Your do looks great, Keisha.”
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
“Who’s ready to see Santa?” he asked.
“I am!” Kelly shouted.
Keisha didn’t say a peep. He glanced at Renee, who just shook her head, as if in defeat.
“I know what’ll help us all get a bit more in the Christmas spirit.”
“What?” Kelly asked.
“Christmas music.” He punched one of the buttons on the console and “Jingle Bell Rock” suddenly filled the car. From carols to cartoon sound tracks, he and Kelly sang joyously, tunelessly and with gusto.
* * *
“Do they know every Christmas song?” Keisha asked Renee as they all piled out of the truck in the parking lot of the seasonal attraction.
“It seems like it,” Renee said. She paused and took Keisha’s hand. “It was nice of them to ask us to join them for this. Can you at least act like you appreciate it?”
Keisha glared at Renee. “Like the way I’m supposed to appreciate you not telling me about my real mom?”
Renee jerked as if Keisha had slapped her.
Her worst fear had been realized. Keisha had not only found out some kind of way, but she cared. She cared about her real mother.
“H-how did you find out?”
Keisha’s face fell and Renee knew she’d just made a mistake.
“So it’s true?” the girl asked. “She’s really dead?”
Renee glanced around. This was not how or where she’d wanted to break this news to Keisha.
“Everything all right?” Trey called from where he and Kelly waited.
“Uh, go ahead. We’ll catch up.”
Trey raised a brow, but Renee shook her head. Within a second he was at her side, handing her the keys to the Navigator.
“You can talk in the car if you’d like.”
Renee blinked. “Thank you?”
“Is it true?” Keisha demanded.
“Daddy, what’s wrong?”
Trey glanced from Kelly to Renee.
“We’ll be okay,” she assured him. “Why don’t you and Kelly save us a place in line?”
He was clearly torn about leaving them. She could see it in his eyes. But this was something that she needed to do alone.
“All right,” he said. “We’ll be right over there waiting for you,” he said, nodding in the direction of the mock village.
Renee opened the back door and motioned for Keisha to get in. The girl didn’t move.
“She’s really dead.”
“Keisha, I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to tell you.”
She jerked her head toward Trey and Kelly. “Do they know?”
“Trey knows.”
“And Dr. Hendrickson?”
Renee nodded.
“I thought something was up with him yesterday. He was looking at me all funny and asking how I was feeling even more than usual.”
Renee didn’t have a road map for dealing with this. She felt sure that any and every step she might take would propel her onto a land mine. “How are you feeling?”
Keisha stared at her blankly for a moment. “I feel like just because you all are the grown-ups, you think you know what’s best for me. You think I’m a baby.”
“That’s not true, Keisha. It was my decision,” Renee said, reaching out to touch her. But Keisha snatched her arm away.
Renee thought her heart was breaking. The last thing she ever wanted was to hurt this little girl. And in trying to protect Keisha, she’d still managed to do just that.
“I’m sorry, Keisha. I…” She took a breath. “I got a call from the agency. They’d received notice from the prison that your…that Janice had died.”
“She OD’d?”
“Who told you this?” Renee asked.
Keisha kicked at the ground, then mumbled, “Shawnie called me and told me.”
“Shawnie Alexander from the old building?”
Keisha nodded.
Getting away from the Shawnie Alexanders of the world was one of the reasons they were now living in Cedar Springs. The girl lived with her grandmother three doors down from where Renee and Keisha had lived. The young delinquent was with her grandmother because her mother was in prison and her father had kicked her out after she’d stolen from his girlfriend.
The pieces fell together then, but Renee needed to know the truth.
“Shawnie’s mother was in the same prison as…Janice?”
Keisha nodded again. The girl’s head was bowed and her hands jammed in her coat pockets. Renee couldn’t tell if she was crying or if she was just being obstinate.
News of a prisoner overdosing while incarcerated would spread quickly in the jail system. And it wouldn’t take much longer for the story and the details to reach the neighborhood.
“I’m sorry about your mother,” Renee said.
She wanted to take Keisha in her arms and hug away the hurt, but the girl had already rebuffed her once.
“I’m not.”
Renee wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. “You’re not what?”
Keisha turned and faced her then. The girl’s face and eyes were dry.
“I’m not sorry she’s dead. She didn’t like me. She only liked her pipe and needles.”
“Keisha, what happened to the pictures you had of her?”
The girl looked at the ground again, scuffing her foot on the gravel of the parking lot. Renee just waited.
“I ripped them up and threw them in the incinerator at the apartment before we left.”
Renee’s breath caught. “W-why did you do that?”
“We were leaving,” Keisha said as if the reason were obvious. “I wanted to leave all the bad things there so they didn’t follow me to our new house.”
The tears came out of nowhere. Renee swiped at them and took the few steps to close the space between her and Keisha. She didn’t need Dr. Hendrickson to tell her what that symbolic purging meant. She wrapped her arms around Keisha, who neither flinched nor pulled away this time.
“I love you, Keisha.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
* * *
“Everything okay?” Trey asked when Renee and Keisha joined them in time to enter Santa’s Village.
“It will be.”
Renee slipped her hand into his and followed the girls to the first of the Christmas displays.
They oohed and aahed at the decorative and imaginative light displays in the village, then waited in line with Kelly so she could talk to Santa. Kelly skipped forward, anxious to let the jolly old elf know exactly what she wanted for Christmas.
“Don’t you want to talk to Santa Claus, Keisha?”
“Santa’s for babies,” she said and stalked over to poke at a gingerbread house decorated with candy.
“Three steps forward, six steps back,” Renee muttered as she watched the girl’s retreat.
“What happened at the car?”
“I’ll tell you back at the house,” Renee said. “Look, it’s Kelly’s turn.”
Both Renee and Trey watched as Kelly had a long and animated conversation with Santa. An elf took her picture and held out a candy cane in an attempt to steer her toward the exit so other kids could have a turn on Santa’s lap.
“What is she asking for?”
Trey let his eyes leisurely wander Renee’s body before meeting her gaze
again. Renee’s tongue ran slowly across her lips.
Trey’s mouth twitched. “That’s what I want. She told me she wants a baby sister.”
Renee’s eyes widened.
He grinned. “We could make that happen for her. If we get started now, that little sister would be here before next Christmas rolls around.”
“Trey, I…” She paused. “Please don’t tease me.”
“Who said I was teasing?”
The arrival of his giddy daughter, candy cane and piece of paper in hand, put a halt to their talk.
“The elf said I was to give this to you,” Kelly said, thrusting the paper at Trey.
He glanced at it. “Price list and pickup time for the picture.”
“Santa said I’m going to get everything I want for Christmas!”
Trey glanced at Renee and winked. “Did he, now?”
Kelly nodded and slipped her free hand into Renee’s. “Can we go to the village store now?”
“Sure, princess,” Trey said.
The store was a kids-only establishment where children under twelve could shop for gifts for their siblings and other family members.
Renee called for Keisha, who filled out their foursome. At the village store, which was kid-size, so most adults couldn’t even get through the door, Trey gave each girl a crisp twenty-dollar bill and told them to look out for each other in the store.
“We seem to be a pretty expensive date for you,” Renee said as she and Trey settled in an adjacent café area with cups of coffee. Other parents who awaited their kids’ return from the shopping trip busily tapped on phones and tablets.
“I like high-maintenance women,” he said.
That earned him a jab in the arm, but she laughed. “You got that right, buddy.”
“What happened back at the car?”
“She knows about…the jail overdose.”
“How’d she find out?”
“A girl from the old neighborhood called and told her.” Renee filled him in on the rest of what had transpired.
“You know,” he said, “that’s what I wanted to ask you the night you told me about Keisha’s birth mother.”
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