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p; Her sweet voice floated through the house as she sang “Jingle Bells.” Happiness rang out with each note. He could just imagine her dancing around the tree, hanging decorations here and there, a goofy look plastered on her adorable face. What he wouldn’t do to watch her.
He gave his head a quick shake. He refused to let her singing draw him back to the great room. His gaze scanned the desk. Something was missing tonight, but what? His laptop. He’d left it in the other room, where Kara was pretending to be one of Santa’s elves. Jason wasn’t going back in there to get anything. No way. Besides, it wasn’t the laptop that was bothering him.
Then it dawned on him. Sly was missing. The little black-as-night scamp usually followed him around the house in the evenings. Sometimes he wondered if the cat mistakenly thought she was a dog. He affectionately referred to her as his puppy-cat.
When he worked at the desk, she’d make herself at home on the left corner. She did it so consistently that he’d actually cleared a spot for her. Tonight the spot was empty. Kara had not only invaded his home and his thoughts, but also had stolen his cat’s affections. What was next?
* * *
Kara sorted through the open boxes scattered around the living room. Wads of paper flew. Little boxes were tossed aside. They had to be here. She started her search over again, beginning with the first box.
When her fingers at last wrapped around the crystalline icicles, she sighed. They were just what she needed to reflect the colorful lights. One by one, she attached a metal hook to the end of each ornament.
In the background, the sound of crinkling tissue paper filled the air. She glanced over to find Sly batting around a blue satin ball Kara had set aside for the garbage. The cat grabbed the small ball in her mouth and, with a jerk of her head, tossed the ornament into the air before taking off in hot pursuit.
Kara laughed at the cat’s antics. If only her daughter was here to witness the shenanigans. On second thought, it was probably a good thing Samantha wasn’t here or she’d start pestering Kara about wanting a kitten for Christmas—not that the subject was ever far from her daughter’s lips.
Kara had started singing a round of “Deck the Halls” when the little hairs on her neck lifted. She had company. Resisting the urge to turn around, she finished hanging the icicles. She took a couple of steps back and inspected her work. Each light had been positioned with care, and then the garland had been added. And last but not least she’d used an assortment of ornaments, small at the top and large at the bottom. She’d been thrilled to find some with Jason’s name on them.
“Well, what do you think?” she asked, admiring her handiwork.
Secretly, she longed for him to ooh and aah over the trouble she’d gone to. She waited, wringing her hands together as the silence stretched out. At last Jason stepped up next to her, but he remained silent. He hated the tree. She was certain of it. Her heart sank.
She turned to apologize for overstepping, and to offer to take it down, but the wonderment reflected in his blue eyes halted her words. He stood transfixed, seemingly lost in memories. She hoped he’d gone back in time—to happier days, when his mother was alive.
Kara had never known his mother, but on the rare times he mentioned her it was always with devotion and reverence. He made her sound as if she’d walked on water. Kara used to wonder if that was what had happened to their own relationship. Had he matched her up to his mother and found her lacking?
“These ornaments,” he said. “Were they in the loft?”
She nodded, but realizing his gaze hadn’t moved from the tree, she added, “Yes. Do you remember them? Some have your name on them.”
He stepped toward the tree and lifted an ornament of a little blond-haired boy on a rocking horse. His name was scrolled in black paint along the runner.
“I can’t believe you found these.”
“Surely you don’t think your grandmother would have tossed them out?” He obviously hadn’t glanced in those boxes to see what the woman had packed away. He was in for a surprise.
“They weren’t hers. These,” he said, holding the rocking horse ornament, “belonged to my mother.”
“You didn’t know they were up there?”
“After my mother died...my dad threw out everything. Pictures. Books. Anything that reminded him of her.”
Kara’s heart ached for Jason. No wonder as a kid he’d never wanted to spend time at that house. It’d been stripped of everything that was important to him. His mother. His past.
“Even the Christmas ornaments?” she asked, trying to keep her voice level to hide her astonishment.
“This was my mother’s favorite time of year. She died the week before Christmas.”
Her death had happened years before Kara knew Jason. At last she understood his Scrooge-like attitude.
“My grandmother must have known what my father was doing, and salvaged what she could.” He turned to Kara. “Thank you for finding them.”
She swallowed the lump of emotion clogging her throat. “I’m happy you were able to reconnect with your past.” At least part of it. But there was one more thing he needed to do. “Maybe it isn’t too late for you and your dad.”
“Yes, it is.”
Jason’s frosty tone warned her not to go any further along this path, but being so ill, the man wasn’t capable of tracking down his son and pleading his own case. Jason’s father needed her help, and after he had helped her move up through the company, providing her with the means to support her daughter, she wanted to do this for him now. Somehow she had to convince Jason it wasn’t too late to rebuild that broken bridge.
