A Christmas Star by Thomas Kinkade

Author:Thomas Kinkade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

ON TUESDAY MORNING JACK SPRANG OUT OF BED. IT WAS A SPECIAL day. The horrible chunk of plaster that was stuck to his leg was finally coming off. He couldn’t wait. He had been marking the days on his calendar. Three entire weeks, which somehow felt as if they had passed both slowly and quickly.

He showered and dressed in a hurry, pulling on one of the new shirts and a pair of khaki pants he had ordered on the Internet. He told himself he wasn’t trying to look good for Julie, that he had to look decent to go into town. He didn’t want to embarrass her and Katie.

The haircut and loss of his beard still threw him off, but Julie seemed to like it. He had caught her looking at him a few times when she thought he wouldn’t notice. He even kept up with the shaving now, every morning. Kate liked to sit close to him at story time, and he didn’t want to scratch her with his beard. That’s all it was.

He splashed on some aftershave and checked himself quickly in the bathroom mirror. He didn’t look that old, did he? He was forty-two years old. To hear people on TV talking, you would think hitting forty was being a teenager again. Forty was the new thirty, that’s what they said.

Jack knew he had been through too much to ever feel that young again. Maybe that was it. He wasn’t old by current standards; he had just been through a lot in his life. That made him feel . . . mature.

Lately, though, he had felt as if the clock was going backward a bit. That was a good thing, right?

For as long as it lasted.

Kate and Julie were already at the breakfast table. He took a mug of coffee and sat down with them. “New shirt?” Julie asked.

He nodded and opened the newspaper, focusing on the sports section.

“It’s nice. You look good in blue, Jack,” she said.

He nodded again, but didn’t look up. “Thanks. Anybody want that toast?” he asked, changing the subject.

She liked him in blue? He would be back online tonight, he decided, ordering a lot of blue stuff.

After breakfast, they climbed into Jack’s truck. Julie drove and Kate sat between them. “I bet you’re tired of chauffeuring me around,” Jack said. “You won’t have to do that anymore once the cast is off.”

“I don’t mind. But maybe you’re not so crazy about my driving,” Julie added with a grin.

Jack had squeezed his eyes shut a few times with Julie behind the wheel. But he didn’t want to criticize.

“You’ve been handling the truck better,” he said in an encouraging tone. “Another year or so, and you’ll be fine.”

She laughed. She wasn’t the type to take offense; that’s why he felt comfortable teasing her. She teased him, too. He never thought of himself as the kind of guy who could laugh at himself, but Julie could make him do that.

They dropped Kate off at her preschool, which was at the church on the green.

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