A Perfect Christmas Reunion by Lori Wilde

Author:Lori Wilde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lori Wilde

CHAPTER 8

Scott lay in bed that night, unable to sleep. He tossed and turned and stared at the shadows cast on the wall by the tree outside the window. Sitting up, he clicked on the television, muted it, and watched Jimmy Stewart trying to find his wonderful life.

Jenny’s anguish over Christmas broke his heart. He tried to put himself in her place, to match his childhood with hers.

But he couldn’t complain. His parents, his two older brothers, and the grandparents who’d lived with them until his grandfather passed last year, made up an incredible family unit. But the loss of Gordon Finley had changed things for everyone. His grandfather had lived a good life. He’d been eighty-two years old. He’d slowed down a lot and his death had been expected.

What hadn’t been expected was the huge hole that had opened up in Scott’s heart and the need he’d felt for Jenny, even though he hadn’t talked to her in years. She’d known what it was like to lose family, and this was Scott’s first brush with it.

Now that he was here, now that they’d talked, now that he’d felt her anger, heard her laugh, watched her cry, saw her triumphant, that hole felt like a cavern.

He’d fallen in love with her in college. He hadn’t realized it then, hadn’t known what he was feeling was more than what he might have felt for another woman. But he knew that now. And he was terrified he wouldn’t be able to help her, to give her the right support to get through the days leading up to Christmas Eve.

Resigned that he wasn’t going to sleep tonight, Scott threw off the quilts and tugged on socks, jeans, and a long-sleeved T-shirt and left his room.

He didn’t know where he was going, just that there had to be something productive he could do. He thought about prepping breakfast or tomorrow’s dinner but didn’t want to make a lot of noise and wake Jenny or Ryan. So, he decided to go back to the barn and work.

That’s when he saw the lights on in the den. He went around the corner to peek in.

There sat Jenny in the middle of her mother’s decorations, House Cat hanging half out of his bed on the hearth.

“It’s the middle of the night.”

“I could say the same to you.” She spoke softly, smiled softly too.

His heart clutched. “Couldn’t sleep?”

She shook her head, her ponytail brushing her shoulders. “Didn’t even try.”

Yeah. He wasn’t sure why he’d bothered. “Listen. About earlier—”

“Can we not talk about earlier? Please? I’m just… I just…” She closed her eyes and shuddered, then took a deep breath and looked at him again, her eyes solemn and hurting. “I need to get through this party without losing any of the gazillion threads I have dangling. Right now, there isn’t room in my head for anything else.”

He got that but he also knew the seeds had been planted for what would come next. She’d opened up. She’d talked. “What can I do to help?”

She tossed the snow globe she’d been holding back into a box.

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