The Christmas Sisters (36 page)

She clutched the tiny figure of the Christ child to her chest.
“In me, Daddy.
In me.”

He looked out over the sanctuary. “May you all be able to say the
same.
Jesus has a home in me and in my church.
Merry Christmas!”

Tw
enty-Five

“That was the best Christmas
ever
!”

“Oh, Bert, you say that every year.” Fran walked behind the upholstered chair and surreptitiously perched a big, gold-and-red bow on top of her older sister's
poofed
-up new hairdo.

Nan took her twin's arm and shared a silent giggle.

“Well, it was. Now you can't argue with me that this wasn't one of our most special Christmases of all.” Bert crossed her arms.

“I wish Mama would have been here,” Collier curled up on the couch next to Jessica. “That would have made it perfect.”

“Oh, I like it this way.” Jessica adjusted the shining gold bracelet on her raised wrist. “When we get back home, we still get to open more presents.”

“How could you possibly need more presents? I got you way too much to begin with, and then your father—”
Petie
snuggled close to Parker, sitting on the floor by the fireplace. She smiled at him like a kid in the throes of first love. “Did I thank you for my new ring, sugar?”

“Not properly, but you can do that later,” he teased, kissing her cheek.

“Parker.”
She giggled.

The whole scene would have made Nic sick to her stomach if she didn't feel positively stupid with sappiness herself today. She hugged Willa close, who sat in her lap playing with a new doll.

“Don't forget to thank Sam, too.” Parker nodded at the man standing behind Nic. “He's the one who dragged me off to the mall and headed straightaway to the jewelry store.”

“Jewelry store?”
Every female in the room but Willa echoed the words and/or turned her head to focus on Sam, but none with more interest than Nic.

Sam winced then sighed, and his shoulders slumped forward slightly. “Might as well accept it, I guess.”

“Accept what?” Aunt Bert jerked her head up and her bow crown bobbed.

“That my days of being able to keep secrets are over.”

“Can't keep a secret in a small town, can he, girls?” Bert looked to the two of her sisters present this late Christmas morning.

“Nope.”
Fran wrinkled her nose in mischief at Bert's wobbling bow. “In a town this size if one person knows what you're up to...”

“Everybody knows,” Nan finished for her identical twin.

Nic folded Willa deeper into her arms as thoughts of jewelry stores and Sam's secret fell away to one last deeper concern. “
Ain't
that the truth?”

His hand caressed her shoulder.

She shut her eyes to savor the warmth of his touch, but it did not ease her anxiety.

“I don't suppose y'all would excuse Nic and me for a little while?”

She looked up at him.

“I thought we might go for a walk through town.”

“Hey, you two.”
Claire drove alongside them, slowed her SUV to a crawl, and rolled the window all the way down. “I'm on my way over to pick up Reggie's mama and take her back to the house for supper. What are you up to?”

“Nothing!”
Nic stepped out from under his arm.

“Wasn't tossing out an accusation.
I like seeing you two out together. You make a nice couple.” Claire laughed,
then
waved one hand toward Sam.
“Didn't get a chance to tell you last night.
I loved your sermon.”

“Thank you, Claire. Hope this means we'll see you and the boys at services?”

“Count on it.” She tipped her head then raised an eyebrow. “But you can also count that it isn't over with Lee and his following. Some people will never accept the likes of Sam Moss as the minister of our church.”

“There are problems with me and my upbringing that run deep in this town. I respect that and am willing to address it, but I won't compromise my beliefs to make a few people find my presence here more palatable.”

“Good for you. You have more than a fair share of supporters now.” Claire nodded. “By the way, don't let me get away without telling you how dear I found it, you bringing Willa up last night.
Just precious.”

Sam grinned.

“You did the right thing acknowledging her in front of everyone last night.”

Nic set her jaw. “Bet it set quite a few tongues wagging around punch bowls and Christmas trees last night, though.”

“Oh, let '
em
talk.” Claire feigned a sour expression. “In the end what can they say really but that soon as he found out about her, Sam started doing right by his child?”

“They can say a lot more than that, and you of all people know it, Claire.” Anger and hurt clashed in Nic's brown eyes.

“Me?”

“You were at that New Year's Eve party when my daddy walked in and found me with that boy Reggie invited home from college.” Nic shut her eyes and grimaced as if the words burned in her throat. “I don't even know his name and he never knew mine, but everyone in town knows there is that small chance that he is the biological father of my child.”

“So, you take a test,” Claire shrugged in that small gesture gave them their first glimpse of how small this was to most people.

“Happy to do that, but no matter what the results, I'm Willa’s father.”

She looked at Sam and gave a sweet, sad smile.

He pulled her into a tight hug that he hoped would say what words never could.

“But you are together now.” Claire's voice literally lilted. “Given any thought to my idea about...you know?”

She began to hum the wedding march.

Sam gazed into Nic's tear-bathed eyes. “As a matter of fact, if we could ever find a few minutes alone—”

“Say no more. I
gotta
git
anyway. Reggie's mama is probably waiting out on the porch for me to drive up this very minute.” She started to roll the window up, then stopped and poked her nose above the glass.
“Oh, one more thing, Reverend.
We saw some snowbirds this morning. Kids practically covered the front lawn with crumbs hoping to get some nibbles. And we weren't the only ones.”

Sam laughed. “Thank you for telling me, Claire.
For everything.”

“Merry Christmas, y'all!”
She waved then spun off in a cloud of dust.

“That
makes,
what?
Our fourth report of a sighting this morning?”

“I think some of them might be sparrows,” Nic warned.

“Not me.” He shook his head. “Besides, how can you say that? You saw a couple
yourself
.”

“Ours were real snowbirds.” She tipped her chin up.

“Real. Yes. Just like we're a real family now and we know it for sure.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close.
“Except for one bothersome little detail.”

“Sam?” She cocked her head.

He couldn't tell if he read apprehension or anticipation in her reaction. He decided not to try to figure it out. “I broke your heart nine years ago and made a mess at my first attempt to do this a few days ago. This time I want to
do
it right.”

She bit her lower lip.

He got down on one knee, right there on Persuasion Street somewhere between the church and the Dorsey house.

“Sam, we're sort of out in the open here.”

“And that's the way I want it. The way it should be.
Nic.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small red velvet box. “Would you—”

“Yes!”

“You didn't let me finish.”

“If you are going to marry into the Dorsey family, sweetheart, not finishing your sentences is something you'll have to get used to.” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him again and again.

“I guess I can do that.” He returned her kisses.
“How about a New Year's Eve wedding?”

“A week from now?”

“Why not?
Like Claire said, we have a chance to set everything right. Why not start with New Year's Eve?”

“I love you, Sam Moss.”

“I love you, too, Nicolette. I always have and I always will.” They pulled each other into a deep embrace, gazed into each other’s eyes then shared a long overdue kiss that made the years and the hurt and the fears of never finding each other again melt completely away.

And from the bushes a few feet away, a flock of snowbirds took flight.