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“That’s why the mad rush at Christmas? Because you want to feel closer to your parents?”
“I, well, I don’t know. Possibly.” She bit the inside of her lower lip, not wanting to admit the depth of her reasons. “They were wonderful parents. I missed them so much after they were gone.”
“How did they die?”
“A house fire. Electrical wiring gone bad, according to the fire report. I was at a schoolfriend’s house for the night. Everything was destroyed except a few storage bins in the basement.” She gave him a blurry-eyed smile. “Those bins had Christmas decorations in them.”
His expression softened. “The decorations you have up in your house?”
She nodded, surprised that he’d made the connection, then mentally scolded herself. Of course Dirk would make the connection. The man was brilliant.
“I’ve added a few pieces over the years, especially to the Christmas village as it’s my favorite, and I’ve had to repair things, but, yes, my decorations are mostly all items that were part of my childhood. The only tangible parts left, actually.”
Which explained a lot about Abby’s love of Christmas. Dirk sighed, glanced up to see a latecomer standing in the food line, and forced a smile at the unkempt man.
“Green beans?” he asked the man, who was of indeterminate age. Could have been in his forties, could have been in his seventies. A lot of the homeless were like that. They lived such a rough life with exposure to the elements aging them more rapidly and were so rumpled that it was impossible to estimate an accurate age.
The man nodded, extending his plate. Dirk scooped a big spoonful onto the plate, which was already burgeoning with food.
“Roll?” Abby held one out with her tongs.
Again, the man flashed a toothless grin. “Thanks, pretty girl.”
Abby blushed. “You’re welcome.”
“He’s right, you know,” Dirk commented when the man walked over to a vacant seat at a half-occupied table. “You are a pretty girl.”
“Thanks.” But rather than smile at him, as he’d expected, she averted her gaze, wiping at the counter again as if she wasn’t quite sure how to take his compliment.
He understood. He didn’t know quite how to take his compliment either. Wasn’t he the one insisting tha
t they were just friends? Yet he fought the desire to take her into his arms constantly.
She was right to be wary. He didn’t want to hurt her, battled with the need to put distance between them.
But she was pregnant with his baby and he couldn’t turn his back on her. Wouldn’t even if he could.
Soon decisions would have to be made. Decisions Dirk wasn’t sure he was ready to make, but he had little choice given the circumstances.
Abby had cooked most of the previous day while Dirk had been at work at the hospital. She’d only had to do last-minute items that simply couldn’t be done ahead of time for dinner to taste right.
He should be arriving any moment. Would he be upset with her? He had no idea what she had planned, just that he was coming over for dinner.
Nervously, she swept her gaze around her living room. The tree blinked in multicolored magic. Her village houses glowed invitingly, making Abby imagine strolling along between them, hand in hand with Dirk as they peeped into shop windows and snuggled together to stay warm.
Despite being on edge, she smiled at the memories attached to each one of the special pieces to her mother’s Christmas village. She ran her hands over the church’s steeple. The first piece her father had given to her mother because it had reminded him of the small church where they’d married.
Mistletoe was in his basket next to her lit fire. Candles burned on the mantel and coffee table, blending with the pine of her tree to add a spicy Christmas scent to the room. Dinner and company waited in the kitchen.
God, she hoped everything went as planned, that his mother hadn’t been wrong. But deep in her heart Abby wondered if she’d made a mistake in going along with this Christmas surprise. What if Dirk was upset? What if he thought she’d overstepped her boundaries?
Which was the crux of the matter. What were the boundaries of their relationship? He kept insisting they were just friends, yet he looked at her with desire in his eyes, looked at her with possessiveness in his eyes. She was pregnant with his child, crazily in love with him, and wanted to share her life, their baby’s life, with him. But the him she saw, not the broken man he saw reflected in his mirror. She deserved better than walking on emotional eggshells for the rest of their lives.
On cue, the doorbell rang, causing Mistletoe’s eyes to open. He yawned, but didn’t budge from his basket.
“Nothing fazes you, does it, big guy?” she said to the lazy cat as she walked into the foyer. Pasting a nervous smile on her face, she opened the front door.
A freshly shaven and showered Dirk stood there, looking more handsome than she’d ever seen. Perhaps because he was smiling and running his gaze up and down her.
