HER PREDICTION HAD come true.
In this instance, Kara hated being right. But just as soon as Jason heard about her youthful mistake, he’d done exactly what she’d worried he would do...run. Of course, part of it was her fault. She’d waited too long to tell him about Shaun, and she hadn’t prepared Jason at all. The whole situation couldn’t have been handled any worse if she had tried.
Days had passed since that fateful night and Jason had completely avoided her, both in and out of the office. The devastation of him turning away like this made her anxious to find a new job. She’d let herself get in too deep with him. She’d let herself trust him, rely on him. In that instant, she realized how he’d sneaked past her best defenses.
She’d fallen in love with him.
She wasn’t in love with the boy he used to be, the youth of her memories. No, she loved the man who’d saved her from a snowstorm and opened his home to her. The man who’d put her and Samantha’s happiness above his own by taking time away from renovating the resort to decorate cookies and read a bedtime story.
What if Kara had told him she loved him? Would he have still walked out the door? Probably. He was unable to accept that she’d had a child with his best friend. The fact that their engagement had been officially dissolved at the time seemed completely immaterial to him.
But none of it mattered now. Whatever she’d thought they were building together was over and done. She had to focus on the new job she’d been offered in Ohio. It was in the next state, not that far from her family...or Jason, not that he’d ever visit them.
“Mommy, Mommy, look.” Samantha hurried into the kitchen, holding a folded piece of red construction paper.
“What do you have there?”
“A Christmas card. See?” She held it two inches from Kara’s face.
A step back allowed Kara’s eyes to adjust and focus on the highly decorated paper. She noticed the green cutout of a Christmas tree and the shape of an angel at the top, reminiscent of the tree topper Jason had given them. Kara’s bottom lip started to tremble at the thought of never having him drop by their house with little gifts for Samantha, or just to share a cup of hot cider and discuss his day with her.
“Do you like it?” Samantha asked, jarring Kara back to the present.
“It’s lovely. You did a great job. But didn’t we have a long talk about you not using the glue without asking?”
“Uh-huh. But it was a surprise.”
“I understand, but don’t do it again.” She didn’t have the heart to be more assertive. “You’re quite the artist. I like how you used glitter to make the garland on the tree.”
Her daughter ducked her head and shrugged. “I wanted it to look just like the tree Jason gave us.”
Kara swallowed the lump that formed in her throat at the mention of his name. She had yet to tell Samantha that he wouldn’t be coming to visit anymore. She knew it must be done sooner rather than later, but she also knew how attached her daughter was to him. How in the world was Kara supposed to break her heart?
“I have another picture I have to finish.” Samantha turned and started out of the room.
“Wait,” Kara called. “Don’t you want me to put your card on the fridge?”
“Uh-uh. I made it for Jason.”
Kara picked up the card and opened it. “Merry Christmas, Jason. We miss you. XOXOXO Samantha.”
This was the moment she’d been dreading. Kara backed against the counter for support. “But honey, he’s really busy with the resort. I don’t know if he’ll have time to visit again.”
Samantha pressed her hands onto her hips. “Then you can give it to him at work.”
“I’ll try.”
“You have to. Promise?”
Unable to deny helping her daughter with this gesture of kindness, Kara said, “I promise.”
“Don’t forget.”
She wouldn’t forget the card or Jason. Although she couldn’t wait around for something that obviously wasn’t meant to be. She’d been down this road before, but this time she knew she had to move on—to do what was best for her and Samantha. No matter how much it hurt.
Jason leaned back in his office chair late Thursday morning. He ran a hand through his hair, not caring if he messed it up. He didn’t have any appointments, just a huge stack of mail, files to review and invoices to sign. He’d spent most of the week working on the lift on the double-diamond run. It’d taken three tries to get the right parts for such an old piece of equipment, but at last they’d done it. Things were finally on track for the grand reopening in two more days.
He’d spent months working toward this moment, and now that it was almost here, he should be excited, bursting with happiness. But without Kara and Samantha around to share his accomplishment, he was empty inside. They’d provided him with the driving force to overcome unforeseen problems and the strength to push through the long hours.
He picked up the phone to dial Kara’s extension, but then slammed it back down. He had no idea what to say to her. Now that he’d had time to calm down and think everything through, he realized how poorly he’d reacted to her admission. What had he expected? For her to be a saint, and loyal, after the horrible way he’d ended their engagement and left town without even an explanation?
He had only himself to blame for everything that had happened. His heart pounded with unrelenting exasperation. How could he have handled this situation so horribly? Maybe he was more like the man who raised him than he’d ever imagined—unreliable. Jason found it strange how he found himself in such a similar position to the one his dad had been in years ago, both of them loving a woman who had a child by another man.
Jason’s head hung low and shame washed over him at the way he’d failed while his father had succeeded. His dad had moved past the fact that Jason’s mom was pregnant with another man’s child. He’d married her and raised her baby as his own. Jason had to give the man credit; he’d tried to be a good father.
Jason shook his head. He hadn’t even stepped up to the plate and welcomed the woman he loved and the daughter of his heart into his life. His hands clenched. Instead, he had lived up to Kara’s worst nightmares and walked away from her. Again. She’d predicted that this was how he’d react when things got to be too much for him, and he’d proven her right.
There’d be no going back this time.
He ran his hands over his face. He’d really screwed up. Anger over his knee-jerk reaction balled up in his gut. After she’d forgiven him for leaving her, and accepted him, screwed-up genes and all, he’d overreacted to something she’d done years ago in a moment of confusion and pain.
A deep, guttural groan grew in the back of his throat. He’d ruined everything. His eyes closed as he tried to block it all out. Kara’s image refused to fade away. The anguished look in her green eyes ripped at his gut. He clenched his hand and slammed it down on the desktop, making everything shake. The desk calendar fell over, a pen rolled off the edge and the stack of paperwork requiring his attention teetered over, spilling onto the floor.
With a frustrated sigh, he rose to his feet, surveying the mess of files and correspondence. He placed everything in a haphazard stack on his desk. Maybe some work would take his mind off the chaos he’d made of everyone’s lives.
With a sigh, he sank down on his chair and tackled the very first item on the intimidating heap of paperwork. More than an hour later, he came across a plain white envelope. Jason looked at it and frowned when he found it still sealed. It was customary for his assistant to open everything and date stamp the correspondence. It wasn’t like her to miss things.
He slipped a finger beneath the flap and yanked, ripping open the envelope. He pulled out a folded piece of red construction paper. When he saw the crude cutout of a Christmas tree, he was quite puzzled. He flipped it open and smiled at the scribbled, green crayon message, with Samantha’s name printed across the bottom. He blinked repeatedly as he stared at the prettiest card he’d ever received.
Was it possible Kara didn’t hate him? His hands began to shake as his hopes started to mount. Was this her attempt at a peace offering? Or had Samantha merely insisted she deliver the card? Either way, he was deeply touched by the gesture.
He set it on the desk and sucked in a deep, calming breath. He couldn’t go off half-cocked—that was what had led him to this mess.
He glanced down. An old weathered envelope caught his attention. It was the letter from the man who’d hurt him so deeply—the same man who had taught him to fish and how to play ball. Jason stared at the envelope, remembering his promise to Kara to read it.
Maybe there really was such a thing as a Christmas miracle. Or maybe he needed to make a Christmas miracle of his own. He needed to prove to Kara that he had changed into a man she could trust with her heart, through the good and the bad. Words wouldn’t be enough. He needed to do more. Perhaps this letter was the perfect place to start.
He ripped open the envelope, bracing himself for a string of hateful words. But when he read: “Son, I’m sorry...” his gaze blurred. He blinked repeatedly and kept reading the heartfelt note. His father hadn’t meant what he’d said in his drunken rage. Jason checked the date, finding it’d been written almost seven years ago, while he was still in basic training. He’d wasted all these years being stubborn, thinking his dad hated him. But he’d been wrong.
Jason’s throat grew thick with emotion. Kara had been right all along. This was the season for hope and forgiveness.
A plan started to take shape in his mind. He’d show her that he could embrace the spirit of the season. He knew what must be done—the most important mission of his life. Operation: Win Kara Back.
And he didn’t have a moment to lose. He’d already wasted seven years. He could be a reliable, steadfast man for Kara and a father to the little girl who’d already claimed a permanent spot in his heart. He wouldn’t repeat his or his father’s mistakes. He’d make sure both Kara and Samantha knew how much he loved them.
Jason shoved back from his desk. With long strides he headed for the office where Kara’s desk stood. When he found her chair vacant, he spun around, scanning the shelving units, file cabinets and other desks. No Kara.
What if she’d quit? His chest tightened.
“Mr. Greene, do you need something?” asked Sherry, a redhead wearing a festive reindeer sweater.
“First, it’s Jason, remember?”
She smiled, then nodded.
“Do you know where Kara is?” He’d track her down to the ends of the earth if that was what it took. He couldn’t lose this chance to set things right. Something told him it would be the last chance he got.
“Oh, well...”
“Spit it out,” he said, lacking any patience.
“I took a message for her when she stepped out to get some coffee. When I gave her the note, she grabbed her things, said she didn’t know when she’d be back and ran out the door.”
Had something happened to Samantha? Jason’s heart lodged in his throat. But surely Kara would have said something. Then he realized, with the way he’d left things between them, he’d be lucky if she ever spoke to him again. And he couldn’t blame her after the ass he’d made of himself.
“Do you remember the message?” he asked, praying for a little help here.
Sherry nodded. “It was the Pleasant Valley Care Home.”
Regret sucker-punched him. His breath hitched. Kara’s prediction had come true. Something had happened to his father and Jason had been too stubborn to go to him, to hear him out. Now it was too late to give his dad some peace of mind. Or was it? Was his guilty conscience jumping to conclusions?
“What did the message say?” he asked, poised to rush out the door.
“For her to come to the home—that Joe needed her.”
Jason still had a chance to make things right.
He bolted toward the parking lot, hoping he wouldn’t be too late to put his father’s mind at ease. Jason might not have liked the drunk he had become, but the man he used to be, when Jason’s mother was alive—he owed that man a bit of peace.
And Kara shouldn’t be shouldering this all by herself. She might not want him there, but he owed it to her to at least make the attempt.
Jason clung to the hope that he wouldn’t be too late as he tramped the accelerator on the way to the sprawling facility. He took the first available parking spot and ran to the door.
Out of breath, he said to a small group of women behind the counter, “I’m here to see my father.”
One with bleach-blond hair and blue eye shadow directed him to sign in, gave him directions to the room and buzzed him through the double doors. Though the process took only a couple of minutes, each second dragged on forever.
The muscles in his shoulders and neck grew rigid as Jason strode down the wide corridor, checking each room number, his hands balled up at his sides. At last he reached room 115. He fully expected to see a flurry of nurses shouting out lifesaving orders, but instead the lilt of laughter echoed through the doorway. Kara was laughing?
He stood there in the hallway, breathing a sigh of relief. Little by little, his body began to relax. His father had to be okay or she wouldn’t be laughing.
Suddenly he was caught up in a wave of second thoughts. Neither Kara nor his father knew he was standing just outside in the hallway. He could easily slip away and nobody would be the wiser. He’d be back...soon. Once he gave this reunion some thought and planned out what to say. Somehow “Hey, Dad, how’s it going?” didn’t quite work in this case.
His gaze swung back to the double doors leading toward the parking lot. It’d be so much easier, and he had so much work to do at the resort.
He’d stepped back when he heard someone say, “Mr. Greene, I see you found your father’s room. You can go ahead in.”
A pretty, young nurse with a brown ponytail was headed down the hall, carrying a white blanket. He vaguely remembered seeing her at the reception desk.
“Thanks.”
More footsteps sounded and then Kara stood before him, her face lit up with a smile. In fact, he’d say she was glowing.
“I knew you’d eventually find your way here. In your own time.”
His instinct was to deny he was here for any other reason than to check on her, but he couldn’t. The time had come to be truthful about the feelings he’d been running from for too long. As crazy as it sounded, if there was a chance to see the man who’d called him son, Jason wanted to take it.
“They said at the office there was an emergency.” He glanced into the room, but could only see the end of a bed and a couple of empty chairs.
“Everything is okay. Your father got worked up when a doctor he didn’t know tried to examine him. His doc went out of town for the holidays and the newest associate drew the short straw, pulling holiday duty.”
“You were able to sort it all out?”
She smiled and nodded.
Kara shouldn’t be here, dealing with his father and the doctors. She had enough on her hands being a single mother. It was time he started shouldering the responsibilities where his father was concerned.
“Kara,” a gruff voice called out, followed by a string of coughs.
“I’ll be right there.” She moved closer to Jason and lowered her voice. “Prepare yourself. He’s a mere ghost of the man you left seven years ago.”
Jason nodded, still not exactly sure what to expect. He couldn’t imagine Joe as anything but six foot four, with shoulders like a linebacker and a stogie hanging out the side of his mouth.
“One more thing,” she said. “If you came here to settle up on an old score—don’t. He can’t take the strain. He isn’t strong enough.”
Jason nodded once more.
“I mean it.” Her tone left no uncertainty about her seriousness.
“I get it.”
First, he’d deal with his dad, and then he’d talk to Kara. He started for the door, letting her follow him inside. His steps were slow but steady.
When at last he saw his father’s face, he stopped. A word of greeting caught in his throat. He blinked, unable to imagine someone could physically change so drastically from a vibrant man to barely more than a skeleton with yellowing skin.
Jason choked down his alarm. The pitiful sight doused any lingering resentment inside him. There was nothing he could say to hurt this man any worse than he’d hurt himself. His father had suffered enough.
“Son, you came.” A round of hacking coughs overtook him.
For a moment, Jason stood frozen, bombarded by his dad’s appearance, from the oxygen tube aiding his breathing to the sunken eyes and the bony hand covering his mouth as he struggled through the fit of coughing. It was the distressed look on his father’s face that finally kicked him into action. Jason stepped alongside the bed and filled a glass with water.
“Yes, Dad, I’m home.”
After handing over the glass, Jason peered over his shoulder to make eye contact with Kara, but she was gone. Their talk would have to wait a little longer.
“I...I was worried.” Joe paused to catch his breath. “Thought maybe I’d never lay eyes on you again.”
“I’m here.” He placed a reassuring hand on his father’s bony shoulder. Jason schooled his features, hoping to keep his pity and shock under wraps. “Whatever you need, all you have to do is ask.”
“You’d do that...now...after everything?” He coughed again.
“Yes.”
The one syllable said enough. Jason didn’t want to rehash the bad times, knowing they’d wasted too much time looking over their shoulders instead of appreciating the here and now. Besides, the letter had already told him everything he’d ever need to know. Too bad it’d taken him all these years to read it.
“Hey, Dad, remember those days when we’d head out with our fishing poles in hand to catch dinner?”
The corners of his father’s thin lips lifted. “You remember back then?”
“I remember, Dad.”
“We never did catch much.”
“But it was fun trying.”
“That it was.” This time it was his father who reached out to him, squeezing his forearm with cool hands. “I was worried you’d forget those times.” Another coughing fit overtook him and Jason offered him more water. When his breathing calmed, Joe continued, “I’m sorry it all went so wrong. I couldn’t handle your mother’s death, and I let you down.”
Knowing this was no longer about him, but about giving his father everlasting peace, Jason added, “But before that you were the best dad. I wouldn’t have made it to quarterback in high school if it hadn’t been for you teaching me to play ball at an early age.”
A twinkle came to his father’s sunken eyes just before his eyelids began to droop. Obviously, the emotional reunion and the coughing had zapped his energy.
“It’s okay, Dad. You rest now.”
“Son, tell Kara I still want my Christmas present.”
“I will.” Jason hoped she knew what his father was talking about, because he certainly didn’t. “I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you.”
“Promise?” Joe murmured. His eyes were completely closed now.
“I promise. You don’t have to worry anymore. I’ll be here when you need me.”
And he knew without a doubt that he wasn’t going anywhere—no matter what fate threw at him. He would be here for the loved ones in his life. Now he just had to convince Kara to trust in him.