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“Because you’re the one who needs support right now. I’m supposed to be the one who makes you feel better.”
His chuckle was light when it filled the night air. “I think there is room for both of us in this relationship. It’s give and take.”
We walked in silence and gazed at his neighbors’ light displays as we approached his house. He hadn’t turned his lights on yet and I was worried he never would. We’d had the display finished for a week now, but every time I asked him when we were lighting it up, he’d say maybe tomorrow. It was a week full of tomorrows now and I was starting to think it was too much for him. Maybe Lance was trying to pretend like he was fine, but the reality was something else entirely.
We turned the corner and I stopped in my tracks when I saw his house. “The lights are on,” I whispered. “I was worried that was never going to happen.”
He squeezed me tighter around the waist and walked with me toward the display. “I thought about it, and since we’d already missed Mom’s November first deadline, I decided tonight was the next best date. I set the timer for them to come on at the same time the tree lit up in the park. I thought my mom would appreciate that more than anything.”
I turned into him and hugged him tightly. “I agree with you completely. Wait,” I said, stepping out of his arms and stopping in front of the creche. “The star isn’t lit. Is there a loose bulb?” Then I noticed the other spotlight. “Why do you have a different light on Mary? If the star doesn’t work, we need to take it back and exchange it.”
He grasped my upper arms and stopped me from climbing through the snow to the creche. “The star works, but it’s not time for it yet. I realized that earlier today when I was standing out here. The smaller light shining on Mary is hidden by the star for now. When it’s time, I’ll shut it off and light up the star.”
I turned to him. “But why? I thought the star was the focal point of the light display.”
“And it will be. On Christmas Eve,” he assured me with a wink.
My eyes widened and my mouth formed an O. “Of course, we can’t light the star until Christmas Eve. I like how you hid baby Jesus under the cloth,” I said pointing to the plastic figure. He’d taken a bed sheet and fashioned it into a sash-type look on Mary, which hid the baby in her arms.” I turned back to it and leaned into his chest. “It looks like she’s just gazing at the manger waiting for his birth. I like the simplicity. It’s expectant and pure.”
“Just like Mary was before the birth,” he agreed. “I hope my mom loves what we’ve done and wherever she is, that she can see it.”
“She can,” I promised him, turning and hugging him. “She knew you’d carry on her—”
“So it’s true,” a voice said behind us and I froze. “Youareover here shacking up with the cook.”
Lance stiffened at Brenda’s words, and I pushed myself away from him, ready to do battle on a night when I was unprepared and unarmed.
Chapter Fourteen
I stiffened at the voice and turned, tucking Indie behind my back. “Mrs. Dickson. I thought we’d talked about this at the diner the other day.”
Her eyeroll was long and hard before she spoke. “I should have known she was staying with you considering how chivalrous you were removing me from the diner.” She tossed air quotes around like a disgusted middled-aged woman asking to speak to a manager.
“As I told you then, I would pass the message along to Indie and it would be up to her to contact you. I passed the message along and she chose not to contact you. You’ll have to respect her decision. Now, if you’ll excuse us.”
She stepped into the driveway to block our retreat into the house. “I will not excuse you. Not until I speak to my daughter.”
“It’s fine, Lance,” Indie said, stepping out from behind me. “You can go inside. I can deal with this.”
“No, you can’t. Not tonight. You’ve been outside for hours and your wet and cold. Your mother can come back when the hour is decent and then you can deal with this,” I said, motioning at the woman standing before us in her fur lined boots and coat. The woman was always a drama queen, but tonight she was a ticked off queen bee and ready to sting. There was no way I was going to subject Indie to that kind of verbal abuse in my driveway.
“I’m not leaving,” Brenda said, crossing her arms in front of her.
“You can either leave by your own free will or I can call the police and have them escort you off my property,” I pointed out, motioning at where she stood in my driveway.
“Well, I never!” she huffed. “Who do you think you are? Just because you’re banging my daughter doesn’t give you the right to make decisions for her.”
I stepped in front of Indie before she could react or say something she’d regret. “First, I am not banging your daughter, which is such a lovely, mature term to use when referring to a consensual relationship, I might add. She is simply living here while she waits for appropriate housing to open up. However, even if I were, I am aware that I don’t have the right to make decisions for her. I do have the right to ask you to leave my property, which is what I am doing right now. You have one more chance to do that before I call the department and ask them to send an officer.”
“Lance,” Indie hissed, grabbing my sleeve. “It’s just easier to talk to her now.”
“See, my daughter still has a little bit of common sense in that useless head of hers. She gets her common sense from me, you know.”
I had to fight to keep from physically removing the vile woman from my property. “It’s a shame you never took the time to get to know your daughter, Mrs. Dickson.” It killed me to use manners and address her properly, but I would not let my disdain for this woman make things worse for Indie. “What you call heruseless headholds a brilliant mind. She has done more in her short life than you’ve done in the whole of yours. She has a great deal of common sense, and it must have come from someone far back in your lineage because clearly you don’t have a lick of it. If you did, you wouldn’t still be standing on my property.”
I took Indie’s arm and walked around her mother to the front door. Unfortunately, we had to stop long enough to unlock it, and Brenda decided to air their dirty laundry to the entire neighborhood.
“Your father is dying!” Brenda wailed, her dramatics faker than the fur that lined her boots. “You only have hours to say goodbye!”
