Following the dinner prayer, David lifted his head and opened his eyes. Everyone around him was smiling— Joy, Allison and Sondra. Even Brock had a big grin on his face, probably because he was comfortable out of uniform and dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt.
“‘God bless us every one!’” Sondra called out in her best Tiny Tim imitation from A Christmas Carol.
Bah. His own traditional Dickens line was on the tip of his tongue again, but he glanced at his friends and took a drink of water instead. They all were his friends now, even Sondra, though it had taken a Christmas dinner of horrors to cement their bond.
He couldn’t help smiling at her suggestion that they order out and her determination to find at least one place open on the holiday. Only one had been, but she’d been great—first in not blaming him for the turkey fiasco and then in working with him instead of against him to find a solution. He met Sondra’s gaze as he raised his water glass.
“Yes, every one,” he said finally.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starved,” Brock said as he threw open one of the boxes and lifted out a slice of pizza. “It’s been a long day—what with booking bank robbers and solving a stack of cold cases.”
“Hand out a lot of tickets to families going a little too fast on their way to grandma’s house, did you?” David even managed to keep a straight face when he asked it.
The deputy grinned. “Just a lot of warnings. Have to make sure everyone gets there in one piece.” Finally, Brock took a bite of the pizza, and his expression was one of pure bliss. “Everything but anchovies. How’d you know that was my favorite kind?”
“How do you know there aren’t anchovies on that pizza?” Allison asked her husband nonchalantly as she cut up tiny bites and set them on Joy’s high chair tray.
Brock looked suspiciously at the pizza for a few seconds before frowning at her.
“You’re safe,” Sondra told him. “Your wife promised another round of toilet hugging if we put fish on her pizza.”
Though Allison had taken special pains with her makeup and hair to look her best before Brock came home from work, she appeared a little paler than before. The dark circles beneath her eyes were a little more pronounced. She’d been resting for quite a while earlier. Was she sick again?
“Are you okay, pal?” David studied her across the table as he asked.
Allison smiled, but her gaze didn’t quite meet his. “I’m fine. Our outing to the services just took more out of me than I expected. I’ll probably make it an early night.”
“Of course she’s fine.” Brock grinned. “She’s beautiful. But she’s got a tough job carrying around our baby while chasing after our big girl. God’s got some great plans for this little one.”
He touched his wife’s abdomen for a few seconds and then lifted her hand. Their fingers laced as if they’d practiced that very gesture daily just to make it appear so effortless now.
David smiled over the love his friends had been so fortunate to find. Suddenly, though, he found himself staring down at Sondra’s hand as it rested on the table next to him. The same hand that had gripped his in a firm but cold handshake the night of the nativity performance.
Now he could see that it wasn’t a fragile hand. It appeared strong, with fine long fingers and short-trimmed nails. It would probably be warm, too. He wondered how it would feel to fold his fingers around hers and feel them closing over his in a gesture that would be more about sharing than leading or following.
“Hey, good thing these two messed up Christmas dinner. I like pizza better than all that froufrou stuff anyway.”
David startled at Brock’s words and took a drink of his water to cover his discomfort. What was wrong with him? When had he gone from not liking Sondra at all to definitely not not liking her? He was about to damage his reputation as a ladies’ man if he let this particular woman get under his skin.
If Sondra noticed his slip, she didn’t make any indication, but the hand he’d been regarding slipped gracefully into her lap to grip her napkin. “Hey, Brock, don’t accuse us of not being froufrou. We still have Aunt Mary’s china and crystal, and a whole batch of chocolate chip cookies that we made with Allison’s help.”
“I stand corrected then. I just want to compliment the chefs on our great Christmas dinner.”
“I’m partial to peanut butter toast myself,” Allison replied.
Sondra lifted an eyebrow and looked back and forth between the two of them.
David leaned his head toward her to explain. “That’s supposed to be an inside joke about their first date, which really was a makeshift Christmas dinner after they’d been searching all day for Joy’s birth mother.”
“Remind me never to confide in you again because you can’t keep a secret.” Allison’s attempt at a scowl failed when her lips turned up.
David grinned back at her. “Um, Allison, never tell me anything again because I can’t keep a secret.”
Sondra straightened in her chair, her slice of pepperoni pizza still dangling in her hand. “I, however, am available should you need a good listening ear that doesn’t belong to a blabbermouth.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Allison answered, but she looked back and forth between her cousin and friend, as if waiting for the next round of ammunition to be discharged.
David raised both of his hands, palms up. “What? Do you think I’m going to wrestle her to the floor until she cries uncle and says she’ll stay away from my friend?”
“It crossed my mind,” Allison said in a small voice.
Brock chewed on his pizza, trying not to smile. Sondra looked away, appearing determined not to make eye contact with any of them.
David pressed his lips together but just couldn’t keep a straight face. Once he started laughing, he couldn’t stop that, either. “Okay, I deserve that.”
Sondra raised her hand. “Me, too.”
And she started laughing. Brock and Allison followed. Even Joy got in on the action with her high-pitched tinkling laugh, as she clapped her hands in delight.
When he could finally talk again, David turned back to Allison. “So why’d you do it? Or rather why’d you let us do it?”
“I already told you, I wasn’t in a position to turn down offers as much as I still had to do to get ready for Christmas.” She paused to smile at Sondra and David by turns. “You two were competing so hard that this house is cleaner than it’s been in a long time.”
“Except the oven,” Brock chimed.
She nodded. “Except that.”
Sondra waved her fork to get a turn. “I’ll be cleaning that tomorrow, remember?”
“We,” David said simply.
“Right,” the other three chimed.
Allison waved her hand. “Anyway, with me out of commission and with Brock out protecting holiday travelers, we couldn’t have done all this without you guys. You’ve made our first Christmas as a family so special.”
Brock nodded his agreement. “Yeah, thanks, you two. We really appreciate it. I hated not being here when Allison needed me, but you really came through for us.”
They had, hadn’t they? But as much as the praise flattered David, it embarrassed him, too. Didn’t they realize that even with competing against Sondra, he’d had the best Christmas of his life with them?
The holiday felt different at the Chandler house, as if it was about faith and family, giving and cherishing. If the celebration had touched his heart, just imagine what an impact it would have had on him if he still believed all the lessons he’d been taught in Sunday school.
Disquiet filled him, so David pushed the thoughts away and glanced over at Sondra. She was staring down at the table and twirling her fork in a puddle of pizza sauce and peas on her plate. Clearly, Brock and Allison’s praise had affected her, perhaps even humbled her the way it had him.
“Joy sure loved all her toys, especially her baby doll,” Sondra said to fill the lull.
Brock laughed. “Not as much as she loved the boxes, the wrapping paper and the bows.”
Sondra’s head came up, and she quipped, “Even the ones that David wrapped.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my wrapping ability.”
But one side of Allison’s mouth popped up, and soon they were all laughing again. Though a fire crackled in the fireplace in the family room, no one in the Chandler house needed it for warmth. It was all around them.
David’s chest tightened. He’d always told himself he didn’t want or need any of this—a home, a family, something more permanent than the stacked crates of law books and the pressed board dressers in his apartment. But now he wasn’t so sure.
Had Sondra changed his mind? No, they barely knew each other. Still, the fact that he was having these thoughts told him he needed to step away and get his head on straight. To sequester himself in a jury room under lock and key. He certainly couldn’t do it while Sondra was sitting right there beside him—close enough to touch.
When the snickering finally settled, David pushed away from the table and stood. He stacked several plates to carry into the kitchen.
“Here, let me get those.”
Instead of grabbing for her own stack, Sondra reached for the dishes in David’s hands. The brush of her fingers over his was unintentional, yet downright electric. David pulled his hand away but not before he shot a glance across the table to see if the sparks had burned anyone else.
Allison had looked away at the right time to miss the exchange, but Brock was staring at him. He lifted a brow.
As if she recognized a tense moment about to become even more strained, Joy spoke up then, her loud babbling filling the room again. As soon as she had all of their attention, the one-year-old reached up her arms and said a brand-new word: “Tonda.”
Sondra glanced back over her shoulder as she carried an armload of dishes into the kitchen. Close behind, David balanced heirloom china in one hand and an empty pizza box in the other.
Taking up the rear, Brock carefully carried four water glasses.
“Okay, you guys, just set them on the counter and get out of our kitchen,” Brock said. “I’ll take care of all this as soon as I get Allison and Joy settled.”
Sondra shook her head. “It will only take us a few minutes to get this put away. By the time they’re both in bed, we’ll be done and you can relax.”
Brock set the dishes down and crossed his arms, his legs in the wide stance of a standoff, and the deputy probably wasn’t in the habit of losing those.
“You two have done more than your share today. The least I can do is clean up.”
David tilted his head at an odd angle and lifted his eyebrow. “Does this mean you’re cleaning the oven?”
“Not a chance. You two can take that one on tomorrow. But for now, I want you to vamoose.”
David nodded. “Okay. I guess I’ll go home then.”
“And I’ll help Allison get ready for bed,” Sondra said. They both started toward the dining room.
“Wait,” Brock paused until they stopped. “I was just thinking that there’s a really cool Christmas lights display at Hope Park. We’d planned to take Sondra to see it, but since Allison’s a little tired, why don’t the two of you go together?”
The deer-in-the-headlights look on David’s face would have been funny if it hadn’t hurt so much. Was being alone with her really such a horrifying idea, especially when Brock’s suggestion had sounded like a fine one to her? Too fine for her own good sense.
“It would be great, but I shouldn’t. It’s getting late, and I need to get home.”
Brock cocked his head, seeming to enjoy watching his guest squirm. “Oh, it’s not that late. You could walk around the park for an hour and still be at home by ten.”
Backing away a step, David tried again. “I still haven’t stopped by to exchange gifts with my parents yet.”
“Didn’t you say your mother would have a houseful of guests and that you could go by tomorrow?”
“Sure, but—”
“I’d really appreciate it. Allison would, too.”
David was trapped, and they all knew it. He shrugged and turned to Sondra. “It is a really clear night, so the displays will look great. Want to go see them?”
It was Sondra’s turn to be horrified. She couldn’t bear the idea of forcing him to escort her. She’d never had to coerce a man into taking her out before, and she wasn’t about to start now.
She rolled her lips, too embarrassed to look at him, so she glanced at Brock instead. “You know, I’m kind of tired, too. Maybe I’ll just turn in early.”
Taking a deep breath, she gathered her courage and faced David. “Thanks so much for the offer, but I think I’ll have to—”
She didn’t even have the word “decline” formed in her mouth before Brock stepped between them. “You guys are really disappointing me. If you two early-to-bed homebodies are the best examples of quality singles we have around here, then the future for Destiny looks dim.”
Instead of responding to Brock, David turned back to Sondra again. “Come on. It will be fun. We can’t disappoint the old married folk, can we?”
“Well, with an offer like that, how can I refuse?” And how could she be so pathetic as to have a tripping pulse and sweaty palms over an offer like that?
Brock let out an audible sigh. “Good then, that’s settled. I didn’t think I would ever get the two of you out of my house so I could be alone with my wife.”
When both of them jerked their heads to face him, Brock grinned. “Tomorrow’s our anniversary, you know.”
Sondra was glad this outing would make someone happy because, whether he’d painted on a smile for it or not, David didn’t wanted to be with her. But hadn’t this whole week been about doing something for her cousin’s benefit instead of hers? Her thoughts settled, she grabbed her parka and headed for the door. This would be a night they would probably both remember—as a torture for him and a humiliation for her.