Home in Time for Christmas by Heather Graham

Author:Heather Graham
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2009-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

8

The band played.

People danced, ate, drank—and were merry.

Melody spent a great deal of the night worrying.

Every where she looked, it seemed she saw her mother with a new group of Wiccan friends. And they were whispering. They had grave and thoughtful expressions, and they were whispering.

What could be worse?

She quickly found out.

She felt a hand on her back and a warm presence behind her. “Surprise! Guess who?”

Her heart sank. She spun around.

“Mark.”

He bent to kiss her lips. She didn’t turn quickly enough. He was a strong man, and not expecting a refusal. His kiss was a big and obvious smack.

To his credit and her own humiliation, he really had no reason to expect anything other than enthusiasm from her. He’d been invited to family Christmas. By her mother, yes, but it had been quite safe for him to assume that her mother had invited him because she had wanted him. He knew that she was hemming and hawing about marriage, but he didn’t know that it was over, completely over, in her heart.

She glanced quickly toward the stage.

And, of course, Jake was staring at her.

“Mark…I thought you couldn’t possibly make it until tomorrow,” she said, and then prayed that dismay wasn’t evident in her voice. He didn’t deserve cruelty from her.

“I know. I managed to get that meeting changed, and I took off out of the city as quickly as I could. And it wasn’t all that bad getting here.” He grimaced. He had dressed for a party. He was a handsome man, dressed stiffly in a suit coat and tie. His clothing was designer label, but belonged in a New York club, not at a Wiccan ball.

“I’m glad you traveled safely,” she told him.

“Yeah, I just didn’t know I was coming to a crazy house,” he said.

She frowned. “It’s a Wiccan ball.”

“Your crazy mom’s crazy friends, right?” He didn’t say the words with malice, and still, though she might say it herself, she didn’t want her mother called crazy.

“It’s a free country, we’re all entitled to our beliefs,” she said.

He slipped his arms around her, hugging her to him. “Well, I know, but we’re going to have to spend a little time figuring out just which way we’re going. Our children must be raised in faith—and not a Wiccan faith!”

She opened her mouth to tell him that her crazy mother wasn’t a Wiccan; she had friends every where. She just shook her head and realized he was talking about the two of them having children.

“Mark, it’s definitely not some thing we need to worry about now,” she told him.

“Right, but we should be giving it some thought.”

“Mark, it’s not just that I don’t want to get married immediately,” she began.

He didn’t seem to hear her. “Can we get out of here? Have you done your daughterly duty long enough? I mean, there’s got to be some where else we can go.”

“I can’t leave, Mark. And actually—”

She didn’t get to finish. She felt a presence behind her, and she realized with horror that the band had stopped playing.

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.