Home for Christmas (Willow Park #5) (6 page)

Jessica had been starting to say something to the others,
but she broke off the words abruptly when Sophie and Mark came into view.

“This is Mark,” Sophie said, rather sheepishly. “He arrived
earlier than I thought.” There was not much chance he could keep the names
straight, but in the interest of being polite, she gestured around the room and
added, “This is Jessica, Alice, Abigail, and Lydia.”

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Mark said politely, standing
very still beside Sophie.

Alice and Jessica immediately rose to their feet. “Oh, we’re
so glad to meet you,” Jessica said, reaching over to help the very pregnant
Abigail stand up too. “We were just finishing up, so we won’t be around for
much longer.”

“Oh,” Sophie said, relieved that she didn’t need to hint.
“You don’t have to—”

“Of course, we do,” Abigail said with a little hug. “I’m
sure the last thing Mark wants is to be chatted at by all of us. You spend time
with your husband.”

Mark was just watching the activity. He didn’t look upset or
annoyed, but he did look a little blank, like the situation was too much for
him to fully process right away.

“It’s really nice to meet you,” Lydia said, walking over to
stretch a hand out toward Mark. “We’ve all been praying for you.”

Lydia was always like that—direct, completely guileless.

“Thank you,” Mark murmured, shaking Lydia’s hand.

Jessica took Lydia’s arm and encouraged her toward the door.
“We’d all love to get to know you—at a better time.” She grabbed her platter of
mostly eaten cookies on the way out.

The women all hugged and thanked Sophie as they left, and
they were gone within two minutes.

“I didn’t mean to scare them all away,” Mark said, looking
around at the used napkins and mostly empty glasses.

“You didn’t. I think they were just trying to be nice and
give us some space.” Sophie didn’t want him to be uncomfortable about anything.
She reached up to hug him again. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“I wasn’t sure myself. But I just couldn’t put up with being
there anymore, so I decided to take off. This sure is a little town.”

“I know.” She was suddenly worried he wouldn’t like it. “The
people have been really great to me here, but I know it’s not really what we’re
used to. We don’t have to stay here long. There just wasn’t really anywhere
else for us to go.”

She would love to stay in Willow Park longer, but there was
no way for him to do a job like he used to do here. They had to move to a
bigger city. There was no choice, if Mark was ever going to be who he used to
be.

“I know.” He still had a bag on his shoulder, but now he let
it slide to the floor. “It looks like you have a lot of friends here.”

“Yeah.” She looked toward the door. “They’ve been…really
great.”

“Good.”

He sounded a little distant, so she peered at his face, but
he smiled at her until she let out a breath of relief.

He was okay. And he was here. Things were going to start to
get better now.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

“I had something on the trip.” He watched as she went around
the room, picking up trash and glasses. “The bedroom is in there?”

“Yeah. Go on in and unpack, if you want. Or I can do it
later. I made room for your stuff in the closet and the dresser.”

He went into the bedroom, and she hurriedly put up the rest
of the stuff from the book club. She didn’t want Mark to see reminders of the
party he felt like he’d broken up.

Then she joined him in the bedroom. He was standing over an
open drawer, staring down at its contents.

Curious, she went to look, but it was just her bras and
underwear. She pushed it closed and opened the one beneath it. “This one is
empty. And then I put some of your old stuff in the bottom two drawers.”

“Okay.”

Together, they unpacked his stuff. He didn’t actually have a
whole lot with him—just the clothing and personal items he’d gotten over the
last month. She wondered if some of his old clothes would even fit him anymore.
He’d lost so much weight and hadn’t gained any of it back yet.

She rubbed his back, smiling when he turned to look at her,
as if he was surprised that she’d touched him.

Reminding herself that the best thing to do was to be
completely honest, she said, “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m…I’m a little nervous
about adjusting to being together again, but I’m so happy you’re here.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Me too.”

She wasn’t sure whether he meant he was happy too or nervous
too. Or maybe both. But she didn’t want to give him an interrogation the moment
he arrived. “What do you feel like doing?” she asked. It wasn’t even nine yet.
It was still early.

Without warning, he reached out for her, pulling her against
his body. He took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply.

She was giggling when she pulled away. “I guess that answers
that question.”

He was smiling as he kissed her again. “You look gorgeous in
that shirt.”

She was wearing a red ribbed turtleneck. “It’s just a normal
shirt.”

“It makes your boobs look very fine.”

She tightened her arms around him. “You mean it makes me
look like I actually have boobs.”

He swung her down onto the bed. “That too.”

They kissed urgently, and then started to clumsily undress
each other. Both of them were rushed and eager, and soon they were naked and he
was buried inside her, pumping against her fast and hard.

She was moving her hips with his, and gasping as the
feelings and sensations filled her, flooded her. They were shaking the bed, and
she was fumbling for purchase on his back, his butt, trying to hold on as best
she could.

Pleasure was building inside her, but too slowly. It wasn’t
long before he let out a loud sound of helpless pleasure and shook against her
fiercely.

He was still kissing her as he relaxed, his body softening
after his climax.

“You didn’t get there,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. It was perfect. I loved it.” She meant it too.
She wouldn’t complain about an orgasm, but he meant a lot more to her than
that. “I love you.”

He stared down at her with a strange sort of hunger for a
minute, and then he gave her a deep, hard kiss.

The round of sex seemed to have taken the edge off his mood.
They chatted casually about the apartment, about the town, about the church she
attended as they lay in bed together afterwards. And Sophie was really happy
when they drank a glass of wine together and then went to bed.

He held her in his arms for a while, and she was about to
drift off when she felt him getting out of bed and pulling on a pair of pants.

“Where…you going?” she mumbled, rolling over to blink at him
in the dark.

“I’m just going to take a walk.”

“Isn’t it raining?”

“Not much. I won’t be long.”

Before she could volunteer to go with him, he was gone.

She felt a little worried as she lay in the dark alone. Then
she decided not to expect miracles.

So what if he wanted to walk in the middle of the night? He
was allowed to do it if it helped him sleep.

Tonight had been good, and there was no reason not to expect
that tomorrow would be even better.

***

It was dark and cool in the room
when Sophie woke up, so she unconsciously huddled over toward the other side of
the bed, where she could feel some kind of heat source.

The heat source was Mark, a fact she gradually became aware
of as she burrowed against his body.

He mumbled wordlessly and wrapped an arm around her. She was
more awake now, realizing it must still be very early in the morning. She liked
that Mark held her like this, even in his sleep. It made her feel special,
needed—even if he wasn’t aware of what he was doing.

She sighed in pleasure and shifted against him, trying to
get more comfortable, since he was now lying on one of her arms. Her motion
must have woken him, however. She felt something change in his body.

Looking up at his face, she could see that his eyes were now
opened.

“You’re on my arm,” she said, giving the limb in question a
tug.

“I’m willing to bet that you’re the one who rolled over on
me, so you only have yourself to blame.”

A little tremor of affection and excitement ran through her
at the soft, fond sound of his voice. The only time she’d heard him like this
since he’d returned was that morning a few weeks ago in the hotel room.

“I was cold,” she explained with a small smile.

“Uh-huh.”

“We’ve had this conversation before, you know.” She
readjusted herself, since he’d moved to free her hand, but she kept one of her
arms wrapped around him, not wanting to lose the intimacy she felt.

“I know.” He wasn’t smiling, but it sounded like there was a
smile in his voice anyway. His hand slid down her back toward her bottom.
“You’re not wearing very warm pajamas, so there’s that.”

She wore a little red satin camisole with matching pants,
since she’d wanted to look pretty for him as they went to bed. “I didn’t want
to get out from under the covers to put something warmer on.”

His hand had continued stroking her back, and now it moved
around to the front, so he could feel the small swell of her breasts. Sophie
wasn’t in a sexy mood, but the touch felt incredibly nice, and it touched
something very deep in her heart. She released a long sigh.

“I think your breasts have gotten bigger,” he murmured
thoughtfully, as his fingers played with the nipple.

She gasped in surprise. “Since when? Since last night?”

He chuckled. “No. Since before I…since before. Haven’t they
gotten bigger?”

She rolled over onto her back and pushed down the covers to
look. Her nipples were tight from the cool air and his touch, but in general
her body looked the way it always had. “I don’t think so. They’re the same as
always. Mostly flat.”

He was staring at her too, and he rolled over so he was even
closer, eyeing her chest with almost playful gravity. “Definitely bigger.”

“I still wear the same bra size.”

“You better lift your shirt up so I can take a better look.”

She giggled and pulled the covers back up over her. “It’s
way too cold for that. You’d have to turn the heat up higher.”

For a moment, he had the oddest look on his face.

“What?” she asked, unsure of what the expression meant.

“I’m thinking.”

Realizing he was debating the merits of turning up the heat
and looking at her breasts, she choked on a laugh and wrapped her arms around
him. She didn’t feel like sex—not at barely four in the morning—but she wanted
to be close to him.

And this silly conversation was the closest she’d felt since
he’d returned.

Five

They both dozed off again, and Mark
was still sleeping when Sophie woke up again, this time at about six-thirty in
the morning.

She’d gotten into the habit of going to get a cup of coffee
and then climbing back in bed to drink it and watching the news headlines every
morning. She didn’t want to wake Mark up, so she turned the volume on very
soft.

She was sliding on her slippers when she saw his eyes open.

“Sorry,” she said with a sheepish smile. “Did I wake you
up?” She felt a happy chill at the memory of their sweet conversation earlier
that morning. Things were getting better. He was opening up. Today might be
really good.

He shook his head, his expression calm, not quite as
expressive as it had been a few hours ago. “No. It’s fine.”

“Do you want some coffee?”

“Sure.”

She left and returned a few minutes later with two cups of
coffee, and she felt a silly little thrill at the fact that she was getting to
drink coffee in bed with her husband this morning.

He thanked her and propped himself up on his pillows so he
could drink it without spilling.

She turned the volume louder, and they watched in silence for
a few minutes.

“This is really good,” Mark said, after a little while.

It was so close to what she was feeling herself that she
just murmured, “Yeah.”

Then she realized he wasn’t talking about the whole morning
experience. He was just talking about the coffee. “I just bought it the other
day. It’s gourmet Columbian. They just got it in at the grocery store down the
block.”

He smiled, the way he used to smile when he thought she’d
spent too much money on something but wasn’t annoyed by it.

“You just said it was good,” she said, reaching over to give
his beard a little tug. “So you know it was worth the money.”

He chuckled. “You’ve left me with no argument.”

“Exactly.”

They were both smiling when the commercials ended and the
weather came on.

“I can’t believe we might have snow this weekend.”

“It’s already the first of December. I can’t believe it.
Christmas will be here soon.” She swallowed the last of her coffee. “At least
you’ll be here this Christmas.”

“Yeah. I guess so. It seems strange to think about Christmas.
It seems strange to think about a lot of things.”

She tensed up internally but managed not to let it show in
her body. She didn’t want to make it seem like Mark’s words were significant.

They were, though. At least to her. It was the first time he’d
said anything personal, anything about his feelings about being home again, on
his own initiative.

“Yeah. I guess it would. Is there anything in particular you
want to do this Christmas?”

“Were you going to your folks?”

“I was originally, since I thought I’d be on my own. But we
can visit them either before or after Christmas. It might be more comfortable
if we just spent Christmas on our own. Unless you wanted to do something else.”

“No. On our own sounds good. I’m not sure I’m ready to be
around a lot of people yet.”

“Sure. We’ll spend Christmas just the two of us.” She smiled
and reached down to squeeze his hand.

“Do you want more coffee?” he asked, pulling his hand away.
It wasn’t rude or abrupt in any way, but it felt like he wanted to get away
from her.

“Sure. Thank you.”

He got out of bed, and she watched him walk toward the
kitchen in just his underwear. He’d always had a very nice ass, and it was firm
and tight still, even though the rest of him was too thin.

For just a moment, she felt like he was a stranger. An
actual stranger. In bed with her. Getting her coffee.

She wondered if she really knew him at all.

She’d brushed the thought away and was smiling when he
returned.

“What did you want to do today?” she asked, when he climbed
into bed beside her.

“I don’t know.”

She didn’t want him to just lie around all day, even though
it might be his first inclination. It felt like he needed something to do,
something to occupy his mind. She knew very well that, if one was unoccupied,
it was very easy to brood, and Mark was always a “doing” sort of person. “Why
don’t you come to the bookstore with me?” she suggested. “You can help out, if
you don’t have anything else in mind.”

He actually looked relieved, as if the pressure of
decision-making had been taken away from him. “Okay. That would be fine.”

Sophie smiled as she sipped her coffee.

It was definitely a good day. Not only did she get to drink
coffee and watch the news with her husband, but she also got to go to work with
him.

It wasn’t like it used to be—pretty soon, they’d have to
work on getting him back to his old self, where she didn’t always have to nudge
him into doing things—but, still, this was nice.

***

The morning went really well.

Her grandfather was kind and easy-going, and he was happy to
see Mark without trying to crowd him. Sophie let her grandfather handle the
cash register while she and Mark worked in the back room, re-organizing the
stock the way she’d been wanting to do for a while. They also switched out the
fall-themed knickknacks on the front shelves with Christmas-themed knickknacks.
Mark walked to the sandwich shop two doors down to get lunch for the three of
them, and Sophie was almost flushed with happiness at having such a good day
with him.

When Thomas Morgan, Abigail’s husband, walked into the store
in the middle of the afternoon, Sophie was happy to see him. She wanted to
introduce him to Mark. She was hoping the two men could be friends.

Thomas was a surgeon at the local hospital, and he always
came across as competent and self-possessed. He smiled when he saw Sophie. “I
need a Christmas present for Mia, and all she ever wants is more books,” he
said. “Do you have anything she hasn’t read yet?”

Sophie made a face. Thomas and Abigail’s daughter read as
well and as much as a child twice her age. “I don’t know. She’s read through my
kid’s section.”

“Abigail gave me strict instructions that I was to stick to
age-appropriate books.” He curled up his lip in a way that made Sophie chuckle.

She glanced behind her to see if Mark was around, but he’d
gone to the bathroom and must not have come back out yet.

Focusing on the problem at hand, she mentally scanned her
inventory. “Oh,” she said, walking over to the glass case in which they kept
the rare or more valuable books. She indicated a row near the bottom of the
case. “Has she read these?”

Thomas leaned down to look. “No. I don’t think so. I’ve
never heard of them. Are they any good?”

“Yes. I loved them. They’re about a hundred years old now,
but they’re so much fun, and they’re well written. They’re about girls who are
friends, and the books grow up with the girls, so the later books are a lot
harder.”

Thomas had pulled the first book off the shelf. “This is too
easy for her.”

“Yeah, but look at this one.” She pulled off one of the high
school books and opened it. “The reading level grows up with the girls. She
might not be ready to read the older ones yet, but she can definitely read the
first six.”

“Okay.” He was scanning pages quickly, and Sophie was quite
sure he was reading them thoroughly at a very fast speed. Thomas was incredibly
smart. Sometimes intimidatingly so. That was obvious from just a simple
conversation. “This doesn’t look too shallow.”

“I think Mia would really like them. But I can order them in
paperbacks if you want. These are early editions and so they’re pretty
expensive.”

Thomas opened the front flap to look at the price written in
very faint pencil. “This is fine. I’ll take these for her. I’ll make sure she
takes care of them.”

Sophie perked up. She hadn’t even had to use aggressive
sales techniques, and she’d made the most lucrative sale for the store in
several months. “Great. I’ll get them packed up. It’s a wonderful present.”

She was packing the books up and laughing about Thomas’s
account of how Abigail had crouched down to pick out a box of cereal in the
store and then had been unable to stand up again in her very pregnant state
when she felt a presence at her side.

She glanced up to see Mark. He was looking between her and
Thomas, and there was something wary on his face.

Sophie smiled brightly. “Mark, this is Thomas Morgan.”

Thomas held out a hand in a friendly greeting. “I heard you
were in town. It’s great to meet you.”

Mark shook the other man’s hand but didn’t smile. He turned
to Sophie. “Do you need any help?”

She was a bit disappointed that he wasn’t returning Thomas’s
friendliness, but she wasn’t going to get discouraged. “Can you get a bag from
under the counter? One of the bigger ones, since we need to fit all the books
in.”

“Are you all planning to stay in Willow Park?” Thomas asked,
his green eyes thoughtful and intelligent as they moved from Sophie to Mark.

When Mark didn’t answer, Sophie said, “We’re not sure yet.
We’re still trying to figure things out.”

“Of course.” He pulled out a credit card, not batting an eye
when Sophie gave him the final, very high total. While Sophie slid his card, he
added, “Well, I hope you all end up staying, if it works out for you. Abigail
will be so sad if you leave town.”

Sophie smiled, ridiculously pleased by the comment, by the
evidence that Abigail valued their friendship as much as she did. “If we end up
leaving, I’ll definitely come back to visit. I’m not sure what I’d do without
her.”

Mark was still silent, and he felt bristly for some reason,
although she couldn’t imagine why he would be so. Since his mood seemed
prompted by Thomas, she decided not to extend the conversation. So soon Thomas
was on his way with his large bag of books for Mia and the suggestion that they
get together for dinner sometime.

When he was gone, Sophie turned to look up at Mark’s face.
She couldn’t read his expression as well as she used to—partly because of the
beard and partly because he wasn’t reacting in normal ways.

“Who was that?” he demanded with a frown.

No way to mistake that expression. “What do you mean? I told
you, his name is Thomas Morgan. He’s a surgeon at the hospital.”

“He knows you’re married?” Mark was glaring at the door out
of which Thomas had disappeared.

Sophie almost choked on her surprise. “What are you talking
about? Of course, he knows I’m married. He’s married too.”

“He was very friendly for being married.”

She was so baffled and astonished that she wasn’t as careful
as she normally was in her response. “That’s crazy! He’s a friend of mine, I
guess, but he’s mostly the husband of one of my best friends. He’s insanely in
love with his wife. He’s not remotely interested in me that way. You can’t
possibly think that I’d—”

“Okay,” Mark interrupted. He still didn’t look happy. “You
just seemed very friendly.”

Sophie was so flustered she couldn’t immediately respond.
She hadn’t been flirting with Thomas. She was sure of it. And he hadn’t been
flirting with her. Mark must have misread it and gotten jealous. He’d never
been jealous before. He’d never been that kind of man. He’d always found it
hilarious when men were interested in her, only to discover she was
unavailable. But Mark was still getting back to who he used to be and getting
used to their marriage.

It was natural that he’d be a little insecure about their
relationship. She wasn’t going to demand that he be reasonable, no matter what
her first instinct was.

“We’re friends,” she repeated. “That’s why we were friendly.
That’s all. Neither of us would ever dream of anything else. I promise.”

“Okay.”

She reached up to touch his face gently. “Mark? You believe
me, don’t you?”

Mark stared down at her, and finally he nodded.

She let out a breath. “I love you. There’s never been anyone
but you for me. You know that. I’ve waited for you all this time, and I’ve
never even imagined wanting anyone else.”

His shoulders relaxed slightly. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. It’s going to be a little weird between us
sometimes, I guess. Let’s just be ourselves, and we can work it out and get
back to where we were before. I’m sure we can.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s what you want, right?”

“Yes. I do. I want to be who we were before.” His words were
low and hoarse, and she knew they were sincere.

“Good, then. Me too. That’s what I want too. We can help each
other get there.”

She pulled his face down so she could kiss him. He kissed
her back, and she felt better about things between them.

There were going to be a few speed bumps, but they were
doing just fine.

***

After work that evening, they walked
down the block to the grocery store to pick something out for dinner, as she
always did.

“What do you feel like eating?” she asked.

He gave a half-shrug. “Anything is fine with me.”

She wished he would put forward a few opinions, but he
seemed more comfortable letting her make the decisions for the time being.

She could do that. She would do anything he needed her to
do. “Okay. Maybe steak tonight. That might be good.” Steak had always been his
favorite.

“Sounds good to me.”

They walked to the meat counter, and the store manager came
out of the back and greeted Sophie by name. He said he had in some great
sirloins, so they picked out two. Then they got potatoes and salad stuff and
were on their way home.

When they got to the apartment, Sophie pulled out her grill
pan and started to heat it up for the steaks. As soon as it was hot enough, she
put on the steaks.

“When did you learn to do that?” he asked, watching as she
worked.