One Kiss for Christmas (The Happy Holidays Series Book 4)

by Michele Brouder

  Donna groaned. “Is she coming to check up on me? Probably heard about all the various disasters and figures she’d better take it back over before I run the festival right into the ground.”

  Jim burst out laughing. “I hardly think she’s going to sack you. Stop worrying. There’s nothing more you can do at this point, so you should go home or you’ll end up too exhausted to enjoy yourself tonight. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to the fireworks.”

  Donna grimaced. “There won’t be any fireworks tonight. The warm weather last night melted all that snow and flooded the basement where they were being stored.”

  She looked stressed. And her eyes looked wet. Jim did the only thing he could think of. He took her in his arms and he didn’t care who saw it. He pulled her into a tight embrace and whispered in her ear, “Everything is going to be all right. Just take a deep breath for me.”

  He had no intention of letting her go, but they were interrupted by Mary Ellen.

  “Oh, now this is interesting,” Mary Ellen said.

  Jim and Donna pulled apart and Donna smiled.

  “How are things going? Everything looks wonderful!” Mary Ellen enthused.

  “Well, we’ve had a few hiccoughs,” Donna admitted.

  Mary Ellen smiled but she looked confused. “Such as?”

  “Sarge broke her leg, the lights never came in for the hall, the ice sculptures melted, all the snow melted so all outdoor activities had to be canceled today, and now there’ll be no fireworks because they were flood damaged.”

  Mary Ellen seemed unfazed. “That’s all?”

  Donna’s eyes widened.

  “The first year I took over, it was like the gates of Hell had opened.” Mary Ellen laughed. “Don’t you remember, Donna?”

  Donna shook her head.

  “Let me refresh your memory,” Mary Ellen said. She held up her hand and ticked off things on her fingers. “Let’s see, the caterer somehow didn’t remember to pencil us in, so we had no food for the dinner. We turned it into a potluck where everyone brought a dish, and it was just as nice. There were other things, too; it seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong. But the clincher was when the old community center burnt to the ground. Problem with the electrical. Yeah, that was really special,” Mary Ellen said. “And yet they asked me to run the festival the year after that.”

  “Oh, I remember that!” Donna said. “That was your first year? And you were brave enough to take it on the second year?”

  Mary Ellen shrugged. “I figured it had been so awful that it could only get better. There are always some problems. Some are big and some are small. But we tend to carry on.” She paused and eyed Donna. “But don’t let it get to you so much that you can’t enjoy yourself. Because then you’ll miss the point. As long as everyone has a good time, then it’s considered a successful festival.”

  Donna sighed.

  Jim interrupted. “I think you’ve done enough here, Donna. Go home and do something relaxing.”

  “Jim’s right, Donna, you can only do so much,” Mary Ellen said. “And everyone has said you’ve done a great job. Go home and we’ll see you back here tonight.”

  Reluctantly, Donna agreed. Jim walked her to her car and made sure she got into it. “Now straight home. Take a nice hot bath, light some candles, relax. I’ll pick you up tonight.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah. You’re going to enjoy tonight. All you’ll have to do is show up.”

  When Jim walked over to Donna’s house later that night, he was stunned into speechlessness at the sight of her. In a green dress that matched her eyes and hugged her figure, she took his breath away. He swallowed hard at the sight of her, and his mouth went dry. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had this kind of effect on him.

  She did not break eye contact, her eyes locking on his. He felt like he was melting under her gaze. He ran his finger underneath his collar, trying to loosen it.

  He finally managed to say, “Donna, you look stunning.”

  She smiled, and he held her coat for her and escorted her out the door. He opened the passenger-side door for her and waited until she was settled in her seat before shutting the door. He felt like a teenager on a first date, as he was experiencing the same exact sensations: sweaty palms, racing heartbeat, and a hyper sense of awareness.

  By the time Jim walked around to his side of the car, the only thing he knew was that he was going to kiss Donna that night. It felt inevitable.

  When he buckled his seat belt, he didn’t turn on the car right away. He looked at her in the evening light and said, “I’m a little nervous tonight.”

  Donna’s expression softened and she reached over and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “I am, too,” she admitted.

  He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the inside of her wrist.

  “Let’s do this,” he said.

  Donna and Jim sat at a table near the dance floor with Brent and Leah. The catered dinner was good, and Jim couldn’t remember a time when he’d been as happy. After dinner, Brent and Leah excused themselves and said they were stepping outside for some fresh air.

  When the music started, he asked Donna to dance—it was as good an excuse as any to take her in his arms. Jim led the way, taking her hand in his. His heart thumped against his chest wall. When he found a spot, he turned and wrapped his arms around her, something he’d been longing to do. He closed his eyes and inhaled. Her perfume was nice, something light and not too overpowering.

  Jim closed his eyes briefly and just lived in the moment. As soft music played, he waltzed Donna around the dance floor. It amused him that Donna was the first girl he’d ever danced properly with and he hoped she’d be the last. There was no one else for him but Donna.

  Donna tilted her head to look up at him.

  He pulled her a little tighter and whispered, “You owe me something.”

  She smiled, her lips parting slightly. “I know I do.”

  Fueled by impatience, he couldn’t resist, and he leaned in to kiss her. Something he’d thought of doing since that day back in October when she came storming over to his house about that tree in her backyard.

  But he was distracted by a strange noise. It sounded like a ripping noise. Jim frowned and looked around.

  “What’s the matter?” Donna asked.

  He narrowed his eyes and listened harder. He looked up just in time to see the big illuminated Christmas snowball loosening from its moorings.

  There was a loud crack and Jim had just enough time to say, “Look out!” and grab Donna by her forearms, pushing her out of harm’s way.

  The giant snowball came down and clipped his forehead as it crashed to the floor. Jim grimaced, falling forward to his knees and landing hard on all fours. Immediately, a gush of blood sprang from the wound. Everybody jumped back and either gasped or screamed. The music stopped and everyone on the dance floor circled the crashed snowball, its lights still twinkling. Donna rushed over to him.

  “Jim, you’re hurt,” Donna said. She put her arms around his shoulders and helped him up.

  “I’m okay, it’s just a graze,” he said, trying to reassure her, but he could feel the blood running down his head to his neck and underneath his collar. “Are you all right?”

  Someone handed Donna a stack of napkins from the nearest table, and she applied pressure to the wound on his head. “I’m fine, but you’re going to need stitches,” she said.

  “I don’t think so,” he said, downplaying it.

  “No, I’m taking you to the ER,” she said firmly. “No arguments.”

  “All right.” Her tone, indicating that she wouldn’t take no for an answer, made Jim feel cared for. Looked after. And he’d been alone for so long, it was a new sensation. One he could easily get used to.

  One of the committee members ran over to them with a first aid kit. Donna made Jim sit in a chair so she could take a better look at the wound. He saw her eye
s widen at the sight of it when she pulled the napkin away.

  Ray Malinowski, the fire chief, applied gauze and a bandage to it until Jim could get to a hospital.

  As Donna applied pressure to his gauze, she looked at the debris covering the dance floor and then her gaze shifted back to Jim’s head wound. She smirked. “Why am I not surprised?”

  And with that, Jim burst out laughing.

  Chapter 19

  Donna drove Jim to the emergency room in his SUV while Brent and Leah followed in Brent’s car. By the time they arrived, the blood from Jim’s head wound had already saturated the bandage and was seeping out around it. The collar of his white shirt was soaked in red.

  Donna’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel, and her lips pinched together in a thin line.

  “Don’t worry,” Jim assured her. “I’m fine; it doesn’t even hurt.”

  She looked at him in disbelief, cocking an eyebrow.

  “Head wounds always bleed profusely,” he added.

  They argued briefly about Donna dropping Jim off at the front door. He insisted that he was perfectly able to walk from the parking garage, but Donna wouldn’t hear of it. She dropped him off at the door of the emergency room and went and parked the car.

  When she arrived in the waiting room, Brent and Leah were already there, sitting on the hard, orange plastic chairs. Jim sat at a little cubicle, registering. As Donna sat down next to Brent, she saw Jim pull out his insurance card from his wallet and hand it to the registrar. After ten minutes, he joined them.

  After thirty minutes, Brent stood up and asked if anyone wanted coffee.

  “There’s a donut shop in the lobby,” he said.

  Donna and Jim declined. Leah looked up at Brent. “I’d love a coffee.” They regarded each other with tenderness, as if Donna and Jim weren’t there.

  “The usual?” Brent asked Leah.

  She nodded. “And maybe a donut?” she asked, squinting her eyes as if she was unsure.

  “The ones with sprinkles?” he asked, his eyes never leaving her face.

  “Yes.” She smiled, enthused.

  Jim looked at Donna and winked.

  After Brent left, the doors to the emergency room opened and a nurse called out Jim’s name. Leah accompanied him as his next of kin. Briefly, Donna thought that if she had married Jim, it would be her going back there with him. She wanted to be with him but it wasn’t her place.

  As Donna sat there alone, waiting, the one thing she kept playing over and over in her head was the fact that when that big snowball fell from the ceiling, Jim, without thinking, had pushed her out of harm’s way. She didn’t even know how to put into words how much that meant to her. Certainly, with the passage of almost three decades, they had changed as people. She knew she had; life and experience had tempered her youthful enthusiasm. But the passage of time had not erased the connection they shared or the feelings she’d had for him. Still had for him. They may have lain dormant all these years, smoldering, but now they blazed.

  Brent returned, carrying two take-out coffee cups and a small paper bag. He nodded toward the emergency-room door. “Has he gone in?”

  “Yes.”

  Brent sat down next to Donna and set the coffees and bagged donut on the small table in front of them, pushing some magazines aside.

  “How’s it going with you and Leah?” she asked.

  Brent smiled. “Good. We had a long talk.”

  “And? Are you able to tell your mother anything?” she asked with an encouraging smile.

  Brent looked so handsome. He seemed more relaxed. Happier. If that was because of Leah, then Donna was all for it. She hoped they would be able to work things out.

  “Leah is going to stay in Orchard Falls for the time being,” Brent said. “I took your advice and asked her to stay, and she said she would.” Brent could barely suppress his smile. Donna was practically moved to tears.

  “That’s wonderful,” she said. “Jim will be delighted.”

  Brent laughed. “He’s not the only one. I really like her, Mom. We have a lot of the same interests and mutual goals,” he said.

  “I’m happy for you, Brent. You deserve this,” Donna said truthfully.

  “We’ll see how it goes. If all goes well, I’m hoping Leah will become a permanent resident of Orchard Falls.”

  “Very good,” Donna said, happy that her only child may have finally found some personal happiness.

  “What about you and Jim?” Brent queried.

  Donna shrugged. “It’s going fine. We’re just enjoying each other’s company.” She couldn’t give him an answer, because she didn’t know what the future held for her and Jim. But she had been giving their future some thought and it had resulted in her penning a letter to Jim which she had hoped to give to him after the dance. It remained safely tucked in her purse. She was just waiting for the right time to give it to him.

  Leah emerged from the emergency room and said, “They’ve stitched him up, and they’ve done a CT scan just to make sure.”

  Donna nodded. “Good.”

  Leah looked at Donna and smiled. “He wants to see you.”

  Donna was pleased he’d asked for her. “All right.”

  “He’s in examination room six.”

  Donna nodded and headed toward the emergency-room area. Someone was just exiting through the locked doors, and Donna slipped through as unobtrusively as possible.

  The emergency room was chaotic. The few times in her life she’d been there, it had always been like this. There were people, doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff moving about in a hurried manner from room to room and around the nurses’ station. There was a cacophony of noises: rushed, hurried voices, non-stop ringing of a phone at the nurses’ desk, and the constant beeping of monitors.

  Donna hesitated in the doorway of room number six. Jim was unaware of her presence. She observed him for a moment. The railroad track of sutures at the top of his forehead. He was sure to be left with a scar, which would only add to his attractiveness, she guessed. His black tuxedo jacket lay on the chair. His white shirt, discarded on the gurney next to him, was crumpled and saturated with blood. It looked beyond salvaging. But it was only a shirt, Donna reminded herself. Easily replaceable. He sat there in his dress pants and a white T-shirt. Her breath caught in her throat.

  Donna tapped softly on the doorframe.

  He looked up and broke into a smile.

  “Donna.”

  Donna stood next to him and laid her hand on his arm. “How are you?” The room was small but filled with medical paraphernalia. There was a sharps container on the wall and medical waste bins on the floor. There was a small sink with a container of paper towels for drying hands. An assortment of gloves labeled S, M, and L sat in an acrylic holder on the wall.

  “I’m fine. Just a bit banged up, that’s all,” he said with a grin.

  “How’s your head?” Donna asked with a grimace.

  “Fine. They gave me some Tylenol for my headache,” Jim said. “Just waiting to get the scan results and then hopefully, I can go home.”

  “Good.”

  Jim looked at her. “The night didn’t go as planned, did it?”

  Donna laughed. “No, it certainly didn’t.”

  “I’m sorry, Donna,” Jim said quietly. “I’m sorry for everything.”

  A lump formed in Donna’s throat. She reached for his hand and held it in hers. He looked at her, surprised. “I’m sorry too, Jim.”

  Donna was about to say something but was interrupted by a third person entering the room. Reluctantly, she let go of Jim’s hand and looked at the doctor.

  “Mr. O’Hara, I’ve got the results of your CT scan,” the doctor said, his voice booming. He stopped and looked at Donna.

  “It’s okay, doc,” Jim said. He glanced at Donna and smiled. “There are no secrets between us.”

  “Great,” the doctor said. “Your scan was normal. No concussion. The nurse will be in with the discharge paperwork
and you’ll be free to go. Remember to not get the sutures wet, and follow up with your own doctor to have them removed.”

  Jim thanked him when he left. Donna leaned against the gurney next to Jim, her arm brushing up against his thigh. She just felt the need to be near him. They waited half an hour before a nurse came with discharge papers.

  When they left and headed toward the waiting room, they found Leah with her head on Brent’s shoulder. Donna smiled at the sight. Brent and Leah stood up.

  “Ready to go home?” Donna asked.

  “I am,” Jim said. To Leah, he said, “Honey, it’s still early enough for you and Brent to go out. Donna can drive me home.” He looked at Donna sheepishly. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  Donna smiled and shook her head. “No, of course not.”

  “Are you sure, Dad? I mean, it’s almost eleven,” Leah said.

  Jim nodded. “Eleven—isn’t that when you usually go out?”

  “Dad,” Leah said in a mock scold. She looked to Brent. “Is it too late?”

  Brent shook his head and helped Leah into her coat. “No, it’s never too late, Leah.”

  Brent and Leah left, hand in hand. Leah looked back once at her father, who waved her on with a smile. Donna and Jim stood there for a moment, watching the younger couple depart.

  Donna insisted Jim wait while she retrieved his car from the parking garage.

  When she pulled around to the emergency-room entrance, Jim got into the passenger’s side and buckled his seat belt.

  Donna wheeled the car around the circle and pulled out onto the main road.

  Jim chuckled. “I’m not used to sitting in the passenger seat.”

  “I bet.” She laughed. “Could you get used to it?”

  With a grin, Jim answered, “Depends on who the driver is.” He lifted an eyebrow.

  “What if it were me?” she asked.

  Without hesitation, Jim said, “I could definitely get used to that.”

  Donna felt the heat rise from her chest, creep up her neck, and fan out over her face, and she was pretty sure it wasn’t a hot flash.

  The drive home, though short, was quiet. When Donna pulled into Jim’s driveway, she asked, “Will I park it in the garage for you?”