A Texas Christmas Miracle by Justine Davis

Author:Justine Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781954894594
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2022-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Ariel couldn’t help it, she laughed. She had a split second to marvel at the still unaccustomed feel and sound of it before his head snapped around and he stared—or was it a glare?—at her.

“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “But that is so something my own mother would do. In fact, did, a couple of times. Trying to get me to be…more sociable.”

“Sociable.” There was no missing the derision in his tone.

“I get it. I really do. Personally, most times I’d rather just stay home with a good book.” He looked doubtful. “I know, crazy. Dean was such a gregarious, outgoing sort. He always wanted to be out and about. What tension there was in our marriage stemmed from that.”

“He thought your marriage was perfect.” His tone had changed completely, softened but still with a rough edge.

“It was close to perfect, but every marriage has its moments. Two different people, individuals, no matter how much they love each other, are going to have those. Usually I let him tease me into going out with him. And eventually he understood I needed…down time.”

“He was always…”

“On? Yes, he was.” And that was enough of talking about her. “I’m sure your mom is just worried about you. It’s part of her job, you know.”

“The mother job?”

“Yes. Besides…” she began, then halted, not sure what she’d been about to say was the wisest thing right now.

“Don’t stop now,” he said dryly.

“She was right. It didn’t kill you. In fact, judging by all the greetings, it probably did you good.”

“Mmm.”

She smiled now, although it held a tinge of sadness. Dean had often sounded like that, given that noncommittal, nonverbal, open-to-interpretation response when they occasionally strayed into things he didn’t want to talk about. It was a useful habit she resorted to herself sometimes. But this, and the whole warrior thing, were the only things she’d seen so far that both men shared. And with Dean, she’d sometimes wondered if all the cheer and bonhomie hadn’t been cover, so no one would probe too deeply and find the uglier memories. The kind that Chance and all those who’d served in combat zones likely carried. He’d kept that apart from her, rarely speaking of it, instead always distracting her with his teasing good cheer.

These were things she’d never thought much about, until it was too late. Until he was gone.

“So don’t be too hard on your mother,” she said, doing a little avoidance herself.

“Did you go easy on yours?”

“Once I realized it was done out of love, yes.”

He let out a long breath, gave a twisted sort of smile, and she could feel the tension fade out of him. “Let’s go find her,” she suggested. “You can let her know you saw through her ploy and aren’t happy about it, without chewing on her too hard. Or ruining her enjoyment of the festivities.”

“Don’t participate, but don’t begrudge it to those who do?”

She nearly gaped at him as he quoted her exact words back at her. Scrambling for something to say, all she could come up with was, “Yes.

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