Home for Christmas. Debbie Macomber
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smiled. “I wanted to thank you, too,” she murmured.
“For what?” He cut into an enchilada with his fork and glanced up.
“For giving me a recommendation at Tumbleweed Books.”
“Hey,” he said, grinning at her. “No problem.”
“Annie called me this morning and said I have the job.”
“That’s great.”
“I’m thrilled. I’ve always loved books and I look forward to working with Annie.”
He should probably mention that the bookstore owner was Jane’s best friend, and would have, but he was too busy chewing and swallowing—and after that, it was too late.
Nicole checked her watch. “I’d better be going. Like I said, I’m meeting a…friend. If you don’t mind, I’d like to buy your dinner.”
Her words took him by surprise. He couldn’t imagine what had prompted the offer.
“As a thank-you for the job reference,” she explained.
He brushed aside her offer. “It was nothing—I was glad to do it. I’ll get my own meal. But let me pay for your drink.”
She agreed, they chatted a few more minutes, and then Nicole left. She hadn’t said whom she was meeting, and although he was mildly curious, Cal didn’t ask.
He sauntered out of the restaurant not long after Nicole. He’d been dragging when he arrived, but with his belly full and his spirits high, he felt almost cocky as he walked toward his parked truck. He supposed he was sorry to hear about Jennifer’s marital troubles—but not very sorry.
As it happened, Cal did miss Jane’s phone call, but was quick to reach her once he got home and had listened to her message. She sounded disappointed, anxious, emotionally drained.
“Where were you?” she asked curtly when he returned her call.
Cal cleared his throat. “I drove into town for dinner. Is everything okay?”
“Mexican Lindo, right?” she asked, answering one question and avoiding the other.
“Right.”
“Did you eat alone?”
“Of course.” There was Nicole Nelson, but she hadn’t joined him, not technically. Not for dinner, at any rate. He’d bought her drink, but he didn’t want to go into lengthy explanations that could only lead to misunderstanding. Perhaps it was wrong not to say something about her being there, but he didn’t want to waste these precious minutes answering irrelevant questions. Jane was sure to feel slighted or suspicious, and she had no reason. At any rate, Annie would probably mention that she’d hired Nicole on his recommendation. He could deal with that later. Right now, he wanted to know why she felt upset.
“You’d better tell me what’s wrong,” Cal urged softly, dismissing the thought of Nicole as easily as if he’d never seen her. Their twenty minutes together had been trivial, essentially meaningless. Not a man-woman thing at all but a pandering to his ego. Jane was his wife, the person who mattered to him.
“Dad didn’t have a good day,” Jane said after a moment. “He’s in a lot of pain and he’s cranky with me and Mom. A few tests came back and, well, it’s too early to say, but I didn’t like what I saw.”
“He’ll be home soon?”
“I don’t know—I’d thought, no, I’d hoped…” She let the rest fade.
“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. Take as long as you need. I’ll manage.” It wasn’t easy to make the offer, but Cal could see that his wife needed his support. These weeks apart were as hard on her as they were on him. This was the only way he could think to help.
“You want me to stay longer?” Jane demanded.
“No,” he returned emphatically. “I thought I was being noble and wonderful.”
The tension eased with her laugh. “You seem to be getting along far too well without me.”
“That isn’t true! I miss you something fierce.”
“I miss you, too,” Jane said with a deep sigh.
“How did lunch go with your friends?” he asked, thinking it might be a good idea to change the subject.
“All right,” she said with no real enthusiasm.
“You didn’t enjoy yourself?”
Jane didn’t answer immediately. “Not really. We used to be close, but that seems so long ago now. We’ve grown apart. Julie’s into this beauty-pageant thing for her daughter, and it was all she talked about. Every weekend she travels from one state to another, following the pageants.”
“Does her daughter like it?”
“I don’t know. It’s certainly not something I’d ever impose on my daughter.” She sighed again. “I don’t mean to sound judgmental, but we have so little in common anymore.”
“What about Megan?”
“She came with her twelve-year-old daughter and is terribly bitter about her divorce. At every opportunity she dragged her husband’s name into the conversation with the preface, ‘that bum I was married to.’”
“In front of her kid?” Cal was shocked that any mother could be so insensitive to her child.
“Repeatedly,” Jane murmured. “I have to admit I felt depressed after seeing them.” She paused, took a deep breath. “I can only imagine what they thought of me.”
“That concerns you?” Cal asked, thinking she was being ridiculous if it did.
“Not in the least,” Jane was quick to tell him. “Today was a vivid reminder that my home’s not in California anymore. It’s in Promise with you.“
“I hate to trouble you,” Nicole said to Annie. She sat in front of the computer screen in the bookstore office, feeling flustered and impatient with herself. “But I can’t seem to find this title under the author’s name.”
“Here, let me show you how it works,” Annie said, sitting down next to Nicole.
Nicole was grateful for Annie Porter’s patience. Working in a bookstore was a whole new experience for her. She was tired of banking, tired of working in a field dominated by women but managed by men. Her last job had left her with a bitter taste—not least because she’d had an ill-advised affair with her boss—and she was eager to move on to something completely new. Thus far, she liked the bookstore and the challenge of learning new systems and skills.
Annie carefully reviewed the instructions again. It took Nicole a couple of tries to get it right. “This shouldn’t be so difficult,” she mumbled. “I mean, I’ve worked with lots of computer programs before.”
“You’re doing great,” Annie said, patting Nicole’s back.
“I hope so.”
“Hey, I can already see you’re going to be an asset to the business,” Annie said cheerfully, taking the packing slip out of a shipment of books. “Since you came on board, we’ve increased our business among young single men by two hundred percent.”
Nicole laughed and wished that was true. She’d dated a handful of times since her return to Promise, but no one interested her as much as Cal Patterson. And he was married, she reminded herself. Married, married, married.
She should have known he wouldn’t stay single long. She’d always found Cal attractive, even when he was engaged to Jennifer. However,