Part 29 (1/2)
”It's all going to be yours someday anyway,” Mom reminded her. ”We'd rather help you now, when we're alive to enjoy watching you use it.”
Emma hung her head. ”I just couldn't waste any more of your money.”
”Since when is opening a lovely shop where you teach women how to make works of art a waste of money?” her mother said, and hugged her again.
Jamie had been circulating with plastic gla.s.ses and Santa and Sarah were filling them with, thank G.o.d, no champagne, just sparkling cider. It would be a long time before Emma could even look at a bottle of alcohol.
Jamie climbed up on the counter and raised her gla.s.s. ”A toast,” she cried. She looked down at Emma. ”To my friend Emma Swanson, the richest woman in Heart Lake.”
She got down and hugged Emma while the band struck up ”Auld Lang Syne” and everyone started singing.
”Oh, my gosh,” said Emma, ”it's just like in-”
Jamie held up a hand. ”Don't. Say it.” And then she smiled and hugged Emma. ”You're still in business. This should help you turn the corner. Merry Christmas.”
It was such a movie moment. Emma burst into tears.
TWENTY-FIVE.
On Sunday at seven P.M., Jamie sat almost front and center at Lakeside Congregational Church, with Josh and his dad on one side of her and Emma on the other. Emma sat smiling and watching with rapt attention as the angel choir with Mandy perched toward the top sang ”Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
Coming in to church with Emma had felt a little like being part of a celebrity entourage. It seemed like half the congregation wanted to greet her, congratulate her on bringing the town together, or slip her a check. No wonder she was beaming. Heart Lake had given her a miracle and she'd be able to keep the shop open another six months; hopefully, enough time to plant her business roots deep in the community.
Now that they were seated the focus was off Emma and on the kids, and Mandy, with her earnest smile and big, brown eyes was cute enough to steal the show. But not enough to make Jamie unaware of the fact that she and Josh were sitting shoulder to shoulder. She'd promised herself that after tonight she wouldn't see him again, but maybe that was one of those promises that were meant to be broken. Maybe she should get to know this man better. Maybe he really was as easygoing as he seemed. What if he was? What if her theories about cops had been all wrong? What if this man represented healing rather than hurt?
A little girl in a red velvet dress walked to the microphone and began reading the Christmas story. ” '. . . and she wrapped him in swaddling cloth and laid him in a manger.' ”
On cue, Lissa laid a baby doll in a straw-stuffed wooden cradle as a redheaded, freckle-faced Joseph stood watch. Jamie could have had daughters like Lissa and Mandy if she'd only made the right choice the first time around. A deep yearning tugged at her heart, saying, ”You could have these girls if you made the right choice now. Come on, what are you waiting for?”
A heart-back guarantee, maybe. A chance to see the future and know she would never get hurt again. Who ever got something like that, though?
The shepherds came and the three wise men made their way down the aisle, the youngest tripping over his bathrobe and almost taking out the two in front of him. More little ones recited poems while Lissa solemnly watched over the baby Jesus. The angel chorus sang one more number, and then the program closed with everyone singing ”Joy to the World.” After that it was off to the fellows.h.i.+p hall to drink punch and eat cookies.
Mandy and Lissa found their dad and grandpa immediately. Mandy reached for her daddy, who hoisted her into his arms, but Lissa ran to hug Jamie. ”You came.”
”Of course I came. I couldn't miss your stage debut,” Jame said, hugging her back.
”Did I do good?” she asked, her eyes bright.
”Absolutely,” said Jamie.
Lissa moved close to her dad for a hug.
”You did great,” he told her. ”I was proud of you.”
Just what every little girl wanted to hear. Had someone told him that or did he know it instinctively?
”What about me, Daddy?” asked Mandy.
”You were the best angel of them all,” he said, and tweaked her nose, making her giggle.
”Can we get cookies?” she asked.
”Go for it,” he said, lowering her.
The minute her feet touched the ground she was darting through the throng after her sister.
”How about you ladies?” Josh asked. ”Want some punch?”
”Sounds great,” said Emma.
”I'll help him,” George said, and disappeared after his son.
”That man is perfect,” Emma said. ”Did you see the article about him in the Herald? I meant to give it to you.”
”No.”
Before Emma could go into detail a woman came up to her to remind Emma that she had been at the quilt shop the day before. And given five dollars.
Now Josh was back with punch. ”Lissa has a present she's dying to give you. Can you come by the house?”
”A present. But I thought-”
”It's nothing she bought at the festival. I don't have any idea what it is,” he said. ”Look, I know you're not interested, but if you could just humor me in this one thing.”
Now was the time to tell him she was rethinking that, but George had joined them and was handing Emma a punch cup, and then the pastor's wife was introducing herself. She'd tell him later. She'd drop off Emma, and then go to the house and find a moment alone to tell him. Just the thought of taking such a big chance made her heart speed up. She took a sip of her drink, then hiccupped.
Josh raised an eyebrow.
”Must be something in the punch,” she muttered.
Emma talked most of the way home, about the people she'd seen in church from the day before, about how cute the girls were, how nice the program was, how it all reminded her of her own childhood. Jamie let her talk on, pretending to listen while fear and hope argued the case for starting a romance with Josh Armstrong.
They were almost to Emma's place when Jamie realized her friend had fallen silent. ”You're quiet all of a sudden.”
”Just out of steam, I guess,” Emma said.
”No,” Jamie said slowly. ”That's not it. What's wrong?”
Emma sighed. ”Oh, I was just-” She bit off the sentence and looked out the window.
”Just what?” Jamie prompted.
”I know it's ungrateful, but I was just wis.h.i.+ng I had the whole happy ending. Maybe if Pye came back . . .” She shrugged. ”There's something kind of depressing about going to something fun and then coming home to an empty house.”
There were worse things to come home to. Jamie knew. ”So, move in with me already.”