Christmas in East Kansas by Regina Smeltzer

Author:Regina Smeltzer [Smeltzer, Regina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Fiction
ISBN: 9781522301653
Publisher: Pelican Book Group
Published: 2018-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

13

The Town Council approved the construction of the road, according to the original plan. The good for the community outweighed the loss of their beloved pond. He would have done anything to prevent its destruction, but the issue was settled. The pain showed in Olivia’s expression each time she glanced out the window toward Miller’s Field.

He could have gone home after Monday night’s meeting, but Olivia asked him to stay for the party Friday night. He hesitated, his heart still raw over the one-sided love affair, and there was the whole issue of a pending engagement she never talked about. But her eyes, looking like the sky on a clear mountain morning, won him over. The next four days went by like a whirlwind. He and Olivia talked about the years that separated their summer together. He told her about the loss of his mother, and she told him about the death of her parents.

Now, the day of the party had come and guests would arrive in an hour. Olivia flitted around the living room shifting a poinsettia, rearranging the cookie tray, moving a rose-adorned cupcake only to scoot it back again. She sighed softly. “I want everything to be perfect.”

“It will be,” Thomas said. “I finished setting up the coat racks in the office. Anything else you need me to do?”

She scanned the room. Folding chairs borrowed from the church were grouped in twos and threes. Small tables, each with bits of evergreen they had cut that morning and embellished with shiny red balls, were nestled into the empty spaces. Boughs of pine draped the fireplace mantel. Flames danced in the hearth. Half a dozen poinsettias graced the room. Every inch of the space shouted Christmas: ornaments, scented candles, even greenery over the door and window frames.

“Oh! The music! Donna, we forgot the Christmas CDs!”

As Olivia and Donna scurried around for the discs and another extension cord, Thomas headed to his room to change. He pulled on a pair of black jeans and then slipped the green sweater he bought from Hannah Flannigan’s boutique over his head. When he wandered back downstairs twenty minutes later, several guests had already arrived, including Pastor Robert, whom he’d met at the council meeting, and the family with the four boys who playfully ran him off the sidewalk a week ago outside Paulson’s Diner. He lingered at the bottom of the stairs, not sure what to do.

Olivia walked through the kitchen door, and his breath caught in his throat. She had changed into a burgundy velvet dress that draped across the tips of her black shoes. The rounded neck exposed just enough ivory skin to add to her allure. She’d twisted her hair into a knot at the base of her neck. With flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, she moved among her guests, acting the perfect hostess for perhaps the last time.

The front door opened. Mitch Carter, the man who claimed he and Olivia were about to be engaged, strode in. Strange that

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