*“Taste this.” Harper held out a small plastic container and offered each aunt a square of her third attempt at peanut butter fudge. The first batch was a sticky disaster, even though she followed the directions to the letter. The second was dry and crumbly as sand. She ended up running to Deke’s for more marshmallow cream, peanut butter, and evaporated milk to make a third batch. “I think I finally got it right.”
Now she was in Aunt Mary’s kitchen, ready to go to the showboat with them for the Flahertys’ annual Christmas Eve party and show.
Aunt Dot nibbled the edge of her piece. “It’s … good.” But she didn’t sound too convinced.
“You don’t like peanut butter, Dorothy June. What kind of judge are you?” Aunt Mary took a bigger bite of her piece. “It’s delicious, Harp.”
Harper heaved a sigh of relief. “Third time’s a charm, I guess.” She left the container on the counter. “I have a plateful for today and one for tomorrow. Tell me about this party—is it even a party?”
Aunt Mary chuckled as she put her mince pie in a pie basket and closed it. “It’s a party and a variety show and a Christmas celebration. Started several years ago at the Flahertys’ winery, but after Aidan refurbished the showboat, they moved it there, and he turned it into a holiday extravaganza that brings about hundred people out on Christmas Eve afternoon. We all bring our favorite dishes for the pitch-in; there’s wine and lots of singing and laughter.”
“Mac as Santa is worth the trip, I promise,” Aunt Dot added.
“Can’t wait,” Harper automatically replied and then realized it was true.
As they made the quick trip down to the showboat, the crowd of townspeople heading the same way boosted her spirits even more. She’d spent most of the season seeing Christmas in River’s Edge through Cam’s eyes, but it was time to discover her own holiday spirit. The weight of grief had lifted in the past weeks, and she’d made the conscious choice that nothing would dampen her newfound joy. Not now that she’d just rediscovered it.
The showboat glistened bright white and red, even in a rather watery December sun, but the weather didn’t matter. Christmas was in the air and it seemed like the whole town had come out for Aidan’s show, although it was really only a large contingent of the Flahertys’ closest friends and family that filled the tables in the cozy theater.
“Harp! Over here.” Anna was waving frantically from a table to the right of the round stage that jutted out into the room.
The Walkers took up two of the eight-seat tables, but Anna had saved seats for the three of them. Noah Barker was with them, too, as well as Judge Harry Evans, and the two older gentlemen held chairs for Dot and Mary respectively. Harper was well aware that Dot and Noah had been an item for months, but as she eyed the flourish with which Harry took Mary’s coat and hung it on the back of her chair and the slight blush in Mary’s soft cheeks, she couldn’t help wondering.
Judge Harry was a handsome widower in his early seventies, with a thick mane of white hair, sparkling blue eyes, and an infectious laugh that boomed. He was also about six inches shorter than Aunt Mary, but with their heads nearly touching as Harry shared some private story with her, they looked … well, intimate. Harper’s heart thumped a little faster as she shed her jacket and settled into a chair between Anna and an empty seat. How fun would it be for Aunt Mary to fall in love? No one deserved a happily-ever-after more.
Anna nudged her. “Harp, check it out.”
Harper blinked and pulled her attention away from her aunt and the judge. “What?”
Anna tilted her head toward the empty seat, and when Harper took a closer look, she shook her head and chuckled. Someone, probably Anna, had printed off an eight-by-ten photo of Cam—it looked like it was a couple of years old because in the photo he was clean-shaven. Glued to a narrow piece of balsa wood, the whole affair was taped to the back of the chair. “He’d hate missing this and we miss him being here. So, I figured, why not?”
Harper grinned and pulled Anna into a quick hug. “I love it.”
Anna returned the hug with gusto. “I’d sorta hoped we could FaceTime him into this—he loves the Flahertys’ Christmas Eve show, but I couldn’t get him.”
“I texted him earlier to tell him how much I … we,” she corrected, “will miss him.”
Anna raised one brow. “You falling in love?”
Harper sighed. “Maybe … I don’t know. Probably. I came here to escape, Anna. I hoped the grief wouldn’t follow me here, but it did. Then I met your brother and suddenly, there was light again. He makes me happy. He makes me want to be back in the world. Whether it includes Cam or not, I can see a real future for myself now, where before there was nothing but sadness.”
Anna’s sharp gaze softened. “Sounds like love to me.”
Harper smiled. “Or at least the seeds of love.”
“And the whole soldier thing? You told me you didn’t know if you could handle that or not.”
Harper shrugged. “It’s who he is. I see that so clearly now, and it’s part of what I lo—what I like about him. How giving and caring he is. How he goes out of his way to help.” She lifted her hair out of her collar and dropped the mass back onto her shoulders as she considered her next words. “You know, after the earthquake hit, his mind went immediately to getting to Missouri. You could practically see him switching gears almost before the call came from the reserves. He was mentally calculating what he needed to do to help. Honestly, I think he’d have been down there even if he wasn’t a soldier.”
Anna nodded. “Yup. That’s our Cam.”
“After Drew, I swore I’d never fall in love with another soldier. Be careful saying never. The universe has a way of laughing at you when you do.” She gave the photo a little affectionate tap, then closed her mouth as Aidan Flaherty—she was still in disbelief that Pete Atwood was standing onstage only a few feet away—tapped a mic to get the crowd’s attention.
“Hey, everyone.” After a few minutes and a few more taps, the crowd settled down. “As soon as Father Jason blesses this amazing feast y’all have brought, we’re opening up the food lines and serving from both sides of the tables. While we eat, we have a special surprise. Mrs. Paulino’s choir from the elementary school is going to entertain us with some Christmas songs.” He extended one arm as twenty or so kids in white choir capes with big red bows lined up on risers behind him and a piano was wheeled in from stage left. “We’ve got a fun show for you that starts in exactly forty-five minutes, so eat up.” He pointed to the two Walker tables. “Tables one and two, you get us started; the rest can follow in numerical order. There are pitchers of water and wine on the tables, which I see some of you have already discovered.” He looked down at the table where they were sitting. “Mary Higgins, nobody’s counting, but I’m pretty sure that’s at least the second time Harry’s added my brothers’ sparkling Traminette to your glass.” He grinned that inimitable grin that Harper knew so well from his TV days.
Aunt Mary raised her glass and brought the whole crowd to their knees laughing with her comeback. “Don’t worry about me, Aidan—I can handle the wine … and Harry.”
“Don’t doubt that for a minute.” Aidan winked at her before he said, “Folks, be sure to grab your napkins and silverware when you get your plates. Enjoy, my friends.” He handed the mic off to a handsome young man in a clerical collar, who led them in a lovely prayer blessing the food, Christmas, and all who were suffering on that Christmas Eve.
In her heart, Harper added a small prayer of her own for Cam and his safe return, acknowledging that prayers like that would be a part of her life again if she and Cam ended up together. The thought didn’t make her stomach roil as it might have a few months ago. Instead, a surprising swell of pride filled her, not unlike the way she’d felt the first time she’d seen Drew in his dress uniform. She was indeed proud of Cam and his service, and that outweighed any negative feelings or fear she might have harbored. She glanced back at the photo taped to the chair as she followed Anna to the serving table and a tingle went through her.
She couldn’t wait for him to come home.
*
Harper walked slowly up from the River Walk toward home. The Flahertys’ Christmas Eve party had been a huge success. Despite missing Cam so bad she ached, the fun and laughter and singing had kept the loneliness for him at bay for a couple of hours. The songs filled her Christmas well to overflowing and now she was headed back to finish her laundry and chill with a book and a cup of tea. She also had gifts to wrap, and she wanted to check in with her parents and Shawna. Aunt Mary had invited her to join her, Harry, Noah, and Dot for table games and cookie baking, but she’d declined, saying she’d meet them at the ten P.M. candlelight service at St. Agnes church.
At home, she switched on her trees, checked their water levels, added a bit more to the one in the living room, and turned on Pandora’s Christmas Classics. She pulled out her gifts for Anna and Jazz—framed quilt squares she’d created with colored pencils. A flyaway geese pattern for Anna and a pinwheel pattern for Jazz. She’d found a couple of antique walnut frames at Clyde’s Antiques and Uniques, cleaned them up, and added a coat of beeswax to each one. Now they shone with a satin finish that set off the drawings perfectly.
For the aunts, who wanted for nothing at all material, she’d found tickets online to a James Taylor concert in Indianapolis. The show wasn’t until June, but that would give the two dear woman a chance to make plans and hotel reservations, which she included in her gift package to them.
For Cam, she’d drawn a large detailed charcoal and pencil sketch of him working on the dower chest. She caught his expression of concentration—his teeth worrying his lower lip as he stood gazing at the chest, one hand on a routed corner. While the background was done in shades of gray, she’d drawn the box in colored pencil, capturing all the colors and designs she’d painted. Cam’s features and clothing were also in color, his red plaid flannel shirt, his blond hair and darker scruff, and his gray-blue eyes contrasted against the grays of the background. Gazing at the portrait, framed simply but elegantly in ebony, she hoped he’d get her message—that he had brought color back to her world.
*
The Christmas Eve candlelight service was exquisite and peaceful. Harper sat shoulder to shoulder between her aunts as Father Jason read the nine lessons and the congregation and choir sang all the beautiful old carols. As they rose with their lighted candles in the darkened sanctuary to sing “Silent Night,” for a benediction, Aunt Mary reached for her hand, giving it a little squeeze. Tears thickened Harper’s throat.
So very much had changed in these short weeks before Christmas—not only her circumstances with a new job and a new home, but also inside Harper herself. Although Drew’s death still brought a pang, the bone-deep sorrow had subsided and with that, a new sense of peace and purpose had been born in her. The aunts had worked tirelessly and patiently to bring her back to the land of the living. This town and her new friends—Anna, Jazz, and all the others—had helped her see what was possible again. And Cameron… Ah, Cameron. He was in her future, of that she was certain.
In her old life, she’d had an order in her head—college, teaching, husband, house, kids… A tidy list that had broken down in the blink of eye, and she couldn’t even catch her breath for months after Drew had passed. Now, her whole life lay open and amazing before her. She was still a little breathless, but this time with anticipation.
On the church steps, she hugged the aunts, whispered she loved them, and headed up Main Street toward home. Maybe she’d be able to call Cam. It was a clear starry night, and when she’d checked the weather in Missouri, it was the same there, so there was a chance he’d have service. The storefronts she passed along Main shone with twinkle lights, even Carly’s tree in Mac’s diner window blinked red and green. Harper peered in the door and noticed the mistletoe ball turning in the breeze from a nearby ceiling register. Her warm breath left a circle of mist on the door and, with her gloved finger, she wrote Cam on the glass. She ached for him, longed to kiss him under the mistletoe, but…
Mistletoe. That was the one thing she missed as she’d decorated her apartment. Mac had lighted her way with white twinkle lights wound around the banister and the rails around her landing. Carly had lent her a wreath for her door, holly sprigs for a vase on her table, and a silk pine swag to hang along the edge of the bar, but otherwise her only other decorations were her Christmas trees. As she passed the quilt shop, she suddenly turned at the alley toward Mary’s house. She needed mistletoe.
She opened the back gate and saw a glow in the kitchen. Aunt Mary always left the small lamp on the countertop lit. With her key, she unlocked the back door and almost tripped over a stack of boxes in the tiny mudroom. Flipping on the light, delight filled her as she realized the boxes were the ones that held her aunt’s holiday decorations. Just what she was looking for. Maybe, just maybe there’s…
She pulled the flaps on the top box and found tissue paper and a couple of empty ornament boxes. The carton below it contained garland and a pinecone wreath and … yay! A rather bedraggled stem of silk mistletoe. The silver thread for hanging it was fraying and it was missing some of its white berries, but it was still presentable.
She pocketed it, closed up the boxes, and slipped out the back door, locking it behind her. She could tell Aunt Mary tomorrow that she’d snuck in, but tonight, she would hang it above her door in anticipation of Cam coming home to kiss her. Not that they needed mistletoe for kissing. They’d had plenty of great kisses already. But it was Christmas—Cam’s favorite time of year, and kissing him under the mistletoe, even if that happened after the holiday had been and gone, felt important.
As she approached the garage behind Mac’s, it appeared there was a vehicle parked on the other side of her SUV. Curious, she started to explore when a figure huddled on the landing at the top of her steps slipped into her periphery. She backed up, blinked, then with a gasp rushed up the stairs. “Cam!”
He was wearing his heavy winter uniform parka with the hood pulled up over his head and his arms wrapped around his middle. When she cried out, he lifted his head and despite the exhaustion that was clear on his face, a glint showed in his eyes—a spark of happiness. “Merry Christmas, you,” he said in voice that was gravelly with fatigue.
“How … what … why…” Harper was so gobsmacked that she couldn’t even string words together into a cohesive sentence.
He shook back the hood and answered her one-word queries in order. “Reinforcements arrived. They sent us home. I need you.”
She leaned down, stroked back the blonde hair hanging in his eyes, and pressed her lips to his forehead. To each bristly cheek. And then to his lips. He didn’t reach up and put his arms around her, but he closed his eyes and returned the kiss with a fervor she’d never known before. After a moment of pure ecstasy, she pulled back and touched her forehead to his. “Welcome home.”
All off a sudden, she thought she heard an odd sound coming from … inside Cam’s jacket? Really? She backed down a couple of steps, frowning.
Cam unzipped his coat. “I brought you a gift from Missouri.” And there in his hand was a kitten—white, brown, and black calico—shivering and mewing. “She lost someone she loved, too, and she needs a new home.”
Harper put out her hands and the kitten curled herself into them. “She’s beautiful,” she managed around the lump in her throat, and held the tiny ball of fluff up to her cheek. “What’s her name?”
Cam smiled. “I’ve been calling her Misty, short for Mistletoe—you know, because … Christmas.”