A Forever Thing: A Contemporary Christian Romance NOVELLA (9 page)

Kelly watched him as he came around to the driver’s side.

“You can unlock the door now.”

The door swung open, he jumped out of the way before it clobbered him. Kelly hopped down and threw her arms around him.

He put his arms around her and held her, her body shook like an earthquake. “Hey, it’s okay. Everything is fine.” He kissed the top of her head.

“I’m sorry. It’s just that I was so worried about you, and when you didn’t come right away, I thought something happened to you and I couldn’t bear it.”

“Nothing happened to me. Look, I’m here.”

She pulled back. Love gazed back at him. “I’m so glad.” She stood on her tiptoes and pulled his head down. Her kiss was sweet and full of love. He could get used to this, and if he had his way, he would too.

When the kiss ended, with her still in his arms, he hated to shatter the moment, but he had to ask. “Kells, do you know if Angie took her laptop with her this morning?”

“No.” She frowned. “Why?”

“It isn’t on her dresser and a drawer was open in her room.”

“Let me call Marissa’s house and ask her.” She grabbed her phone out of her duffle bag and called.

Tate waited and scanned the perimeter, a habit from being a police officer.

“Hi, Chris. This is Angie’s mom. I’m sorry to bother you, but can I speak to Angie for a moment?”

Kelly nodded. “Oh, okay. Thanks.” She moved the cellphone away from her mouth. “She’s getting her now.”

He nodded.

“Hey, baby. No. Nothing’s wrong. Angie. No. I’m fine. Listen, I’ll tell you in a minute. I need to ask you something first.” Kelly shook her head. “Did you take your laptop to Marissa’s this morning?”

Tate stood there. He wished he could hear the other side of the conversation.

“Oh, okay. Well, next time make sure you shut the door tight, okay? No. You’re not in trouble. We just wanted to make sure nothing happened to it.” She looked over at him and smiled. “Yes, your plan worked.”

Even from a foot away he heard Angie holler, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

He smiled and joy flooded him. Angie’s approval meant a lot to him.

A nanosecond later, and an idea struck him. “Hey, before you hang up, do you mind if I talk to Angie for a minute?”

She shook her head no. “Sorry, what did you say, baby?”

Tate sent her a sheepish look of apology.

“Okay, that’s nice. Listen, you can tell me all about it tomorrow morning, okay? Tate wants to talk to you now. Okay. Love you, too, baby. Have fun. Here’s Tate.” She handed the phone to him.

He held the phone to his chest. “Why don’t you go on inside? I want to talk to Angie for a sec.”

She frowned.

“Please?” He batted his eyes at her like he’d seen Angie do when she wanted her way. Hey, it worked for Angie, maybe with a little hope and a prayer it would work for him too.

She shrugged. “Okay. Whatever.”

He laughed. Angie was rubbing off on both of them.

She grabbed her duffle bag and disappeared into the house.

Tate hiked his boot on the bumper of his truck and settled his arm on the top of his tailgate. “Hi, cupcake.”

Angie told him how happy she was and how she had worked it all out. When she finished, he asked her the question he wanted to. Not only did she agree, but he had to yank the phone away from his ear because she squealed so loud he was sure his eardrum had burst. He said his goodbye and hung up. Starting tomorrow he had work to do.

♥ ♥ ♥

Christmas Eve came bright and early. The whole day, Kelly and Angie prepared the house for that evening. Outside the snow fell in big fluffy flakes, and one could barely see the Christmas lights and lawn ornaments on her lawn or any of the neighbors because of it and the darkness that had descended on them.

Angie helped set the table with a Christmas centerpiece made out of pine branches, pinecones, red and white roses, baby’s breath, a gold ribbon and a little decorative nativity stick. Amazing how only three weeks ago, she was a rebellious child, and now she was her old bubbly self again.

For the twentieth time, Angie ran to the window, and Kelly laughed.

“Angie, he’ll be here. He’s probably still at work. He warned us he might be late with all the snow. I’m sure he’s probably finishing up some paperwork or something and he’ll be here soon. Come in here and finish setting the table, please.” she hollered over her shoulder as she leaned down to take the ham out of the oven and basted it once again.

A minute later and Angie got to work setting their Christmas china out and their best silverware and glasses. She gave it a lot more care and attention than she normally did. Not only had she given
it
more care, but she had also set the different sized candles Tate had brought over out on the hearth, the end table, and coffee table too. The living room flooded over with lit scented candles. Her house smelled like vanilla, citrus, pine, and berry. A weird combination, but Kelly didn’t mind.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
played softly over the surround sound speakers throughout the house. Angie’s idea. Kelly was glad to see her daughter getting into the Christmas spirit again. It was all because of Tate.

Over the past three weeks, whenever Tate came over after work or on his days off, he and Angie had huddled together. Every so often they glanced over at her, whispering, and plotting. During that time, several gifts had shown up under the tree with her name on them, and Tate had told Angie to call him Tate instead of Officer Baker. The whole rest of the day, Angie went around the house the first day saying Tate’s name over and over, skipping along as she did.

With Angie’s help, there were several presents under the tree with his name on them too. So, with what she’d already bought for Angie, and Tate’s contribution, there wasn’t enough room under the tree for them all. They had to stack presents along the wall near the tree. Angie could hardly wait to open her presents. Their tradition had always been to open one gift on Christmas Eve and the rest Christmas morning. But, Angie had always managed to talk her dad into letting her open more than one. Would she talk Tate into it too?

Kelly wiped the counter down. She glanced at the retro cat clock and frowned. 5:57. She thought Tate would be here by now. Worry smoked through her. Should she give him a call? What if he was busy giving someone a ticket or booking a criminal? No, she’d better wait and just be patient. After all, he did say he would probably be late. She hung the dishrag over the dishrack and lowered the heat on the oven to warm. After she inspected the job Angie had done decorating and setting the table, she smiled and headed to the living room to tell her daughter what a great job she had done on it.

In the living room, Kelly found Angie standing at the big picture window with the curtain pulled back, peering out the window toward the driveway then up the street.

Kelly walked up behind her. Her daughter gazed up at her, chewing her lip. Only this time it wasn’t the same as when she was contemplating something, this was worry.

“Mom, I know you said he warned us he’d be late, but he’s really, really, really late. You don’t think he…?” Worry clouded her eyes.

She knew what her daughter was about to say. She was afraid history had repeated itself. “No. He’s fine. I’m sure.” She pulled Angie back against her, draped her hands over her daughter’s shoulders, and held her as they waited. Soon, she herself started looking up the street, hoping to see Tate’s headlights shining through the huge snowflakes feathering down from the sky and blanketing the ground. In the past two hours, four fresh inches had accumulated on top of the six inches that was already there.

“Let’s get some hot chocolate while we wait for Tate, okay?” She pried her daughter away from the window, made them each a K-cup pod of hot chocolate, and sat down on the couch near the fire.

It wasn’t but a minute before Angie jumped up and ran to the window. Every other minute, Angie alternated between sitting on the couch sipping her hot chocolate, and running to the window. Between the two, she paced in front of the blazing fireplace while glancing at something behind the tree. One of her presents no doubt.

Minute after minute ticked slowly by. With each one, Kelly’s anxiety and worry grew.

Candles melted to half their original size.

Where was Tate?

♥ ♥ ♥

On Tate’s way to Kelly’s house, he came onto a twenty-three car pileup on the highway. Though he was off duty now, he was still obligated to help. Even if he wasn’t, he would help anyway. Due to the massive injuries, he didn’t take time to stop and call Kelly and was glad that he had warned her earlier that he might be late due to the weather. Snowstorms like this always produced accidents. This accident was one of the worst ones he’d seen all day. The victims needed help and they needed it now. Tate went from one vehicle to another helping wherever and however he could.

♥ ♥ ♥

At seven-thirty Kelly decided to turn on the news while Angie was in the bathroom. An earlier televised scene of a huge accident on the highway appeared. She stepped closer to the TV screen and searched through the mangled cars to see if any of them was Tate’s. The camera showed one mangled car after another. Semi’s, SUV’s, compact cars, pickups, ambulances, fire and rescue trucks, and patrol cars. For one brief second, Kelly caught a glimpse of what looked like the back of Tate’s truck, only she couldn’t tell for sure if it was his as the camera had gone by so fast and the visibility was horrible. Nor could she tell if that truck had been wrecked. What if it was Tate’s? Her stomach lurched and she was about to lose her hot chocolate.
Dear God, no. Please.

Before she got all the way through her prayer, the doorbell rang.

Memories of the night Brad had been killed flooded into her mind. Two police officers had come to the door, one of them a female cop, to deliver the news that Brad was gone. Was that who was at her door now?

“I’ll get it, Mom.” Angie barreled toward the door.

Kelly raced her daughter to the door and swung it open, preparing for the worse.

♥ ♥ ♥

There wasn’t even a millisecond of warning or hesitation from the time the door opened to the second Kelly was in his arms.

“Tate. Oh thank God you’re safe.” Kelly clung to him like a dryer sheet on a sweater.

Angie pressed into the side of his leg, her arms around his back and her mom. “I thought. I thought,” Angie sobbed.

“Hey, whoa. It’s okay. I’m fine.” Still, he felt terrible for the worry he had caused both of them, and his hug said as much. With them still clinging to him, Tate stepped inside and pushed the door closed with his foot. He let Kelly go, squatted down, and pulled Angie into his arms. “I know what you thought, cupcake, and I’m sorry. I never meant to worry you. There was a wreck on the highway and I had to help. When I finished, I tried to call but there wasn’t any cell reception.” His gaze slid to Kelly’s. Since yesterday, her face had aged ten years. It was all his fault.

“I’m so glad you’re okay” Angie wiped her eyes off on her sleeves and Kelly didn’t say a word this time. She just stood there and gazed up at him as the years melted away from her face like the snow on his boots in the warm room.

He straightened and scraped the remaining snow off his boots and onto the throw rug. When he finished, he took both of their hands, and led them over to the Christmas tree. On the way, he spotted the candles he had asked Angie to put out. Regret pushed through him seeing them melted halfway down, a sign of how long they had waited for him to come.

This was his first Christmas Eve with Kelly and Angie and it wasn’t the way he had planned it at all. He had wanted it to be special.

One they would remember forever.

One that would ease the pain of their Christmas Eve three years before.

Instead, all he had managed to do was add to their worry.

As bad as he felt, there was nothing he could do about that now, but he would do his best to make it up to them. When they reached the tree, he gazed down at Angie. “You ready, cupcake?”

Angie smiled up at him. Even though her eyes and nose were red from crying, the smile she gave him said it all. He was forgiven.

From behind the tree, Angie pulled out a small box and handed it to Tate. She clutched her hands under her chin and gazed up at him and over at her mother.

Kelly stood there, her wide eyes went back and forth between him and Angie, and her mouth drifted open. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“You’ll see.” He handed her the box.

♥ ♥ ♥

Kelly’s insides fluttered. Was this what she thought it was? “What’s this?”

“Open it, Mom, and you’ll see.”

Hope and anticipation gazed up at her.

Kelly removed the gold bow and shiny blue wrapping paper. Expecting an engagement ring, her smile dropped when instead of a ring, a piece of paper lay neatly inside. Her gaze came up to Tate’s.

“Read it,” he said with a smile on his face.

“Yeah, Mom. Read it.” Angie stepped next to Tate. They both stared at her with eager eyes.