Christmas Magic by Andrea Edwards

Author:Andrea Edwards
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781459273894
Publisher: Harlequin Treasury - Silhouette Special Edition
Published: 2012-05-14T00:51:10.382000+00:00

Chapter Eight

Mike gripped the wheel tightly and concentrated on his driving, trying to outrun the gloom that was close on his heels. The roads were pretty good, but there still were slick spots that he needed to watch for. Sort of like living with Casey. It was pretty relaxed and comfortable, but every once in a while they’d hit an icy patch and have the complacency skid out from under them.

“You know, I could have gotten the tree by myself,” Casey said.

“No problem. Gus needed the exercise.” Like last night, for instance, at Dubber’s play. Or earlier yesterday afternoon when they’d been sledding. But Melvin wouldn’t give Casey a Christmas tree, so Mike would. Even if he’d woken up in a foul mood.

“I could have brought Gus along,” Casey said, turning to wave at the dog sitting in the back seat. “He and I are buds.”

Mike looked in the rearview mirror at Gus with his big stupid grin. Casey’s words were certainly true. In fact, his dog seemed to like her better than him lately.

Mike forced his eyes back to the road, squinting into the afternoon sun. “Cutting down a Christmas tree is hard work.”

“I’m not afraid of hard work,” she said. “It’s better than making somebody do something they don’t want to do.”

“Who said I didn’t want to do this?” he asked. “It was my idea, wasn’t it?”

“You wanted to buy a tree from the lot by the hardware store.”

“And we’re cutting our own. No big deal.”

She leaned back in her seat and turned to stare out the window. Dare he hope that she was taken by the beauty of the winter scene?

“Where’d you grow up?” she asked. “Around here?”

One hope dashed to the ground. “Chicago,” he said.

“I’m from Fort Wayne. City but close to country. We always bought our tree from our church, but I always thought it would be the most wonderful thing to go cut our own.”

Silence climbed into the car with them, riding along like a stowaway. It started nudging him once he turned off the highway, and really began nagging at him when he passed a sign advertising the tree farm.

“We used to cut our own tree every year,” Mike said slowly, concentrating on his driving. “The three of us would drive out to this tree farm just north of Rockford. Even with the expressways it was a three-hour trip, so we’d make a day of it. Leave early in the morning, stop for lunch and then go cut the Christmas tree.”

Why was he telling her this? It made no sense; this wasn’t something he talked about. But he went on. “On the way home, we’d always play this silly alphabet Christmas-wish game. I’d say I want angels for Christmas, and my mom would say she wanted angels and bananas, then my dad would say he wanted angels and bananas and a cable car.”

Mike stopped a long moment, unable to go on, but unable not to. “My dad died the spring after my tenth birthday and then we stopped going.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.