The Christmas Child by Linda Goodnight

Author:Linda Goodnight [Goodnight, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781459214767
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“Dad?” Sophie gave the Christmas bow one last tweak and pushed the red-wrapped gift under her father’s Christmas tree. Purchased years ago by her neat-freak mother, who couldn’t abide a shedding tree, the old artificial pine was losing its luster. Although she’d regret the loss of the familiar, Sophie had always preferred a real tree.

But the tree wasn’t the reason for her visit to the childhood home.

“Hmm?” her dad answered absently. Seated in his favorite chair, he was reading the Redemption Register with a pen in hand ready to work the sudoku puzzle on the back page.

Affection expanded in Sophie’s throat. With glasses perched on his nose and his graying hair mussed, Mark Bartholomew looked every bit the absentminded science professor. Some called him a nerd, a term he didn’t mind in the least. To hear her dad’s opinion, a nerd was a pretty smart guy.

“Can I talk to you about something?”

Newsprint rustled noisily as he closed his paper. “Sounds serious.”

Still on her knees next to the tree, she twisted toward him with a sigh. “It is.”

“I’m all ears.” He patted the arm of his chair and smiled. When she was younger, she and Dad had resolved all her childhood and teenage angst with her perched on the arm of his chair. Not once had he failed to soothe whatever dilemma she’d been facing.

Even though she wasn’t sure he could help her now, she knew he’d listen. She knew he’d care.

She settled next to him, the padded upholstery thin now over the chair’s wooden skeleton. But sitting here again, with the man she’d loved first and longest, put the world into safe mode. “You know the way you loved Mom?”

“Still do.” His face was open, honest and a bit nostalgic.

She fought down the protest that always rose when he said those heartbreaking words. Why didn’t a man with so much to offer move on and find someone else? Mom had let them all down. How could he still care? Mom wasn’t worthy of such devotion.

“I’ve never been in love before. Not like that, but…” Her voice dwindled away. Dad would understand.

As she expected, he said, “But you’re getting there.”

“Yes, I think so.” She shook her head. “I know so.”

“And you’re worried.”

“Yes again.” She leaned in for a side hug. “You’re the best dad. You understand me better than I understand myself.”

He patted the back of her hand. She noticed, as she always did, that he still wore the plain gold wedding band Mother had given him nearly thirty years ago. She hurt seeing it there, a symbol of one-sided eternal love. They were alike in many ways, father and daughter, and Sophie feared loving as he did. She didn’t want to end up rejected and alone.

The thought came out of nowhere. She’d never hesitated to put her heart on the line. Had she? Was she really afraid of love? True, she didn’t date much and never had formed a long-term relationship with a man, but she’d consider herself too busy, too happy in her life.

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