A Perfect Christmas Joy by Lori Wilde

Author:Lori Wilde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: small town, western romance, single dad, Christmas romance
Publisher: L for C
Published: 2021-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

“Yes, Mom, I’ll be there as soon as school lets out for winter break. Don’t worry. I’ll be at your house before Christmas,” Joy said.

“Hold on,” Gail Bakersfield said before she dropped the phone receiver on a hard surface.

Joy sighed. The Thanksgiving trip had been a disaster. Her mother had spent most of it in her hotel room, stating that she didn’t feel comfortable around so many strangers. It was heartbreaking.

Although her mother had never been an extrovert when her father had been alive, she’d gone places, done things. Had fun.

Now, all she wanted to do was stay home. And fret.

As much as Joy loved her mother, she didn’t have time to deal with this at the moment. She glanced once again at the grandfather clock in the living room. Twenty minutes. That’s all the time she had to get ready before Dan showed up for their date.

Truthfully, she would be a lot more nervous if they hadn’t shared the kiss on Thanksgiving. She still couldn’t believe she’d done that. She’d acted completely on impulse when she’d kissed him, but he’d definitely seemed to enjoy it.

“Sorry,” her mother said, “I thought I heard someone outside.”

Joy bit back another sigh. She knew her mother was nervous. Gail had always been jittery, but her nervous behavior had intensified in the past year. Joy had finally convinced her mother to get an alarm a few months ago, but even that hadn’t helped her mother calm down.

“You should come live with me,” Joy said, not for the first time. “I have plenty of room. You’d like it here.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Gail Bakersfield said. “I don’t know anyone there, and I wouldn’t be able to drive around.”

“Mom, you’d find Kringle is a great place to live. It’s a small town, which makes it easy to drive. Kringle’s not exactly New York City.”

“I like where I am,” she said. Then, after a few seconds, she added, “You could always move back here.”

This discussion was an old one. Her mother couldn’t understand why Joy didn’t just quit her job and move home. Her job meant a lot to her, and she had friends here. Her mother rarely left her house. She even had her groceries delivered.

Before Joy could say anything else, her mother said, “Just a minute,” and dropped the receiver again.

Joy lightly rubbed her forehead. She was getting a headache. Her mother knew Joy wouldn’t move. She’d grown up in Tyler, Texas, and had gone to college at Texas A&M. Amy had been her roommate her senior year, and after college, had convinced Joy to come teach in Kringle, a town Joy now adored.

Meanwhile, when she was in college, her parents had moved to Little Rock for her father’s job. When he retired, they stayed in Little Rock. Joy had nothing against Little Rock, but she wanted to stay where she was.

“I’m back,” her mother said, “but I need to go. My shows are about to start.”

Joy considered explaining to her mother once again how she could tape the shows, but she let it go.

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