1225 Christmas Tree Lane Read online

  “Did Cliff know about him?”

  “Not at first. You see, this other man lived in another city and we e-mailed back and forth, and he became my obsession.” Grace’s mouth tightened. “I knew all along that he was married and yet I allowed our Internet romance to continue. He said he was getting a divorce.”

  “It was a lie?”

  “Oh, yes, but I believed him because I wanted to. And then I learned the truth.”

  “Did Cliff find out about this other man?”

  Regret flashed in her eyes. “Yes—and as soon as he did, he broke off our relationship.”

  “Oh, no! You nearly lost Cliff?”

  “As I said, I’d learned the truth about Will by then and was crushed to lose Cliff over him. I was angry with myself for being so gullible and naive. I’d lost a wonderful man because of my foolishness. For a long time I could hardly look at my own face in the mirror.”

  “That’s how I feel now,” she murmured. Will, she thought. She’d heard that name before….

  “It does get better, Mary Jo, I promise you that. Will, the man I was…involved with, did eventually lose his wife. She divorced him and, while I believe he had genuine feelings for me, it was too late. I wanted nothing more to do with him. So you see, he really was the one who lost out in all this.”

  “Cliff forgave you?”

  “Yes, but it took time. I was determined never to give him cause to doubt me again. We were married soon after that and I can honestly say I’ve never been happier.”

  “It shows.”

  “Cliff is everything I could want in a husband.”

  The door off the kitchen opened and Cliff came in, brushing snow from his jacket. He hung it on a peg by the door, then removed his boots. “When I left, you two were sitting right where you are now, talking away.”

  Grace smiled at him. “I was about to change my clothes,” she said. “Keep Mary Jo entertained until I get back, will you?”

  “Sure thing.”

  Grace hurried out, and Cliff claimed the chair next to Mary Jo. As he did, he eyed the crumpled tissues. “Looks like you two had a good heart-to-heart.”

  “We did,” she admitted and then with a sigh told him, “I’ve been very foolish.”

  “I’m sure Grace told you we’ve all made mistakes in our lives. The challenge is to learn from those mistakes so we don’t repeat them.”

  “I don’t intend to get myself into this predicament ever again,” Mary Jo said fervently. “It’s just that…” She hesitated, uncertain how much to tell him about her brothers. “I feel like my family’s smothering me. I have three older brothers and they all seem to think they know what’s best for me and my baby.”

  “They love you,” he said simply.

  She nodded. “That’s what makes it so difficult. With my parents gone, they feel they should be the ones directing my life.”

  “And naturally you take exception to that.”

  “Well, yes. But when I tried to live my life my own way and prove how adult I was, look what happened.” She pressed both hands over her stomach, staring down at it. “I made a mistake, a lot of mistakes, but I discovered something…interesting after I found out I was pregnant.”

  “What’s that?” Cliff asked. He stretched his long legs out in front of him and leaned back, holding his coffee mug. She noticed that his hand-knit socks had a whimsical pattern of Christmas bells, at odds with his no-nonsense jeans and shirt.

  “Well, at first,” she began, “as you can imagine, I was terribly upset. I was scared, didn’t know what to do, but after a while I started to feel really excited. There was a new life inside me. A whole, separate human being with his or her own personality. This tiny person’s going to be part David, part me—and all himself. Or herself,” she added, refusing to accept her brothers’ certainty that the baby was a boy.

  Cliff smiled. “Pregnancy is amazing, isn’t it? I can’t pretend to know what a woman experiences, but as a man I can tell you that we feel utter astonishment and pride—and a kind of humbling, too.”

  “I think David might’ve felt like that in the beginning,” Mary Jo whispered. He really had seemed happy. Very quickly, however, that happiness seemed to be compromised. By fear, perhaps, or resentment. She wanted to believe he’d loved her as much as he was capable of loving anyone. She now realized that his capacity for feeling, for empathy, was limited. Severely limited. Barely a month after she learned she was pregnant with his baby, David had become emotionally absent. He continued to call and to see her when he was in town but those calls and visits came less and less frequently, and the instant she started asking questions about their future, he closed himself off.

  “It’s not all that different with my horses,” Cliff was saying.

  His words broke into her reverie. “I beg your pardon?” What did he mean? They hadn’t been talking about horses, had they?

  “I’ve bred a number of horses through the years and with every pregnancy I feel such a sense of hopefulness. Which is foolish, perhaps, since even the best breeding prospects don’t always turn out the way you expect. Still…”

  “I met Funny Face today.”

  Cliff’s eyes brightened when she mentioned the mare. “She’s my sweetheart,” he said.

  “She seems very special.” Mary Jo remembered the moment of connection she’d felt with this horse.

  “She is,” Cliff agreed. “She’s gentle and affectionate—a dream with the grandchildren. But as far as breeding prospects go, she was a disappointment.”

  “No.” Mary Jo found that hard to believe.

  “She’s smaller than we thought she’d be and she doesn’t have the heart of a show horse.”

  “But you kept her.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of selling Funny Face. Even though she didn’t turn out like Cal and I expected, we still considered her a gift.”

  Mary Jo released a long sigh. “That’s how I feel about my baby. I didn’t plan to get pregnant and I know David certainly didn’t want it, yet despite all the problems and the heartache, I’ve come to see this child as a gift.”

  “He definitely is.”

  “He?” She grinned. “Now you’re beginning to sound like my brothers. They’re convinced the baby’s a boy.”

  “I was using he in a generic way,” Cliff said. “I imagine you’d prefer a girl?”

  “I…I don’t know.” She shrugged lightly. “There’s nothing I can do about it, so I’ll just leave it up to God.” She was somewhat surprised by her own response. It wasn’t something she would’ve said as little as six months ago.

  During her pregnancy, she’d begun to reconsider her relationship with God. When she was involved with David, she’d avoided thinking about anything spiritual. In fact, she’d avoided thinking, period. The spiritual dimension of her life had shrunk, become almost nonexistent after her parents’ death.

  That had changed in the past few months. She thought often of the night she’d knelt by her bed, weeping and desperate, and poured out her despair, her fears and her hopes. It was nothing less than a conversation with God. That was probably as good a definition of prayer as any, she mused. Afterward, she’d experienced a feeling of peace. She liked to imagine her mother had been in the room that night, too.

  “You’ve got everything you need?”

  She realized Cliff had spoken. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” She hated to keep asking Cliff to repeat himself, but her mind refused to stay focused.

  “I was asking if you have everything you need for the baby.”

  “Oh, yes…Thanks to my friends and my brothers.” Mary Jo was grateful for her brothers’ generosity to her and the baby. Their excitement at the idea of a nephew—or niece, as she kept telling them—had heartened her, even as their overzealous interference dismayed her.

  Linc, who tended to be the practical one, had immediately gone up to the attic and brought down the crib that had once belonged to Mary Jo. He’d decided it wasn’t good enough for her baby
and purchased a new one.

  Mary Jo had been overwhelmed by his thoughtfulness. She’d tried to thank him but Linc had brushed aside her gratitude as though it embarrassed him.

  Mel was looking forward to having a young boy around—or a girl, as she’d reminded him, too—to coach in sports. She’d returned from work one day recently to find a tiny pair of running shoes and knew instantly they’d come from Mel.

  And Ned. Her wonderful brother, Ned, had insisted on getting her a car seat and high chair.

  Mary Jo had knitted various blankets and booties, and her friends from the office had seen to her layette in what might have been one of the largest baby showers ever organized at the insurance company. Other than her best friend, Casey, no one had any inkling who the father was, and if they speculated, they certainly never asked. Regardless, their affection for Mary Jo was obvious and it made a difference in her life.

  Grace returned just then and Mary Jo heard the sound of a car door closing. The front door opened a moment later and a girl of about five ran inside. “Grandma! Grandma!” she cried. “I’m an angel tonight! I’m an angel tonight!”

  Grace knelt down, clasping the child’s hands. “You’re going to be an angel in the Christmas pageant?”

  The little girl’s head bobbed up and down. “In church tonight.”

  Grace hugged her granddaughter. “Oh, Katie, you’ll be the best angel ever.”

  The girl beamed with pride. Noticing Mary Jo, she immediately walked over. “Hi, I’m Katie.”

  “Hi, Katie. I’m Mary Jo.”

  “You’re going to have a baby, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  The door opened again and a young couple came in. The man carried a toddler, while the woman held a large, quilted diaper bag.

  “Merry Christmas, Mom,” Grace’s daughter said, kissing her mother’s cheek. She turned to Mary Jo.

  “Hello, I’m Maryellen. And I’m so glad you’re going to be joining us,” she said, smiling broadly.

  Mary Jo smiled back. She’d never expected this kind of welcome, this genuine acceptance. Tonight would be one of the most memorable Christmas Eves of her life.

  Now, if only her back would stop aching….

  13

  “Officer, let me explain,” Linc said, doing his best to stay calm. His brothers stood on either side of him, arms raised high in the air. The deputy, whose badge identified him as Deputy Pierpont, appeared to have a nervous trigger finger.

  The second officer was in his car, talking into the radio.

  “Step away from the vehicle,” Pierpont instructed, keeping his weapon trained on them.

  The three brothers could’ve been playing the children’s game, Mother, May I as they each moved forward one giant step.

  “What were you doing on private property?” Pierpont bellowed as if he’d caught them red-handed inside the bank vault at Fort Knox.

  “We’re looking for our sister,” Mel blurted out. “She ran away this morning. We’ve got to find her.”

  “She’s about to have a baby,” Linc said, feeling some clarification was required.

  “Then why are you here?” the deputy asked, his tone none too friendly.

  “Because,” Linc said, fast losing patience, “this is where we thought she’d be.”

  The second officer approached them. His badge said he was Deputy Rogers. “We had two separate phone calls from neighbors who claimed three men were breaking into this house.”

  “We weren’t breaking in,” Mel insisted, turning to his brothers to confirm the truth.

  “I looked in the window,” Linc confessed, shaking his head. “I didn’t realize that was a crime.”

  Pierpont snickered. “So we got a Peeping Tom on our hands.”

  “There’s no one at home!” Linc shouted. “There was nothing to peep at except a crazed cat.”

  “I tried to open the back door,” Mel said in a low voice.

  “Why’d you do that?” Rogers asked.

  “Well, because…” Mel glanced at Linc.

  As far as Linc was concerned, Mel was the one who’d opened his big mouth; he could talk his own way out of this.

  “Go on,” Rogers prodded. “I’d be interested to know why you tried to get into this house when your brother just told us you were searching for your sister and that you knew there was no one here.”

  “Okay, okay,” Mel said hurriedly. “I probably shouldn’t have tried the door, but I suspected Mary Jo was inside and I wanted to see if that elderly couple was at home or just hiding from us.”

  “I’d hide if the three of you came pounding on my door.” Again this was from Deputy Rogers.

  “What did I tell you, Jim?” Pierpont said. Mel’s comment seemed to verify everything the officers already believed. “Why don’t we all go down to the sheriff’s office so we can sort this out.”

  “Not without my attorney,” Linc said in a firm voice. He wasn’t going to let some deputy fresh out of the academy railroad him. “We didn’t break any law. We came to the Rhodes residence in good faith. All we want…all we care about is locating our little sister, who’s pregnant and alone and in a strange town.”

  Just then another car pulled up to the curb, and a middle-aged man stepped out, dressed in street clothes.

  “Now you’re really in for it,” Pierpont announced.

  “This is Sheriff Troy Davis.”

  As soon as Sheriff Davis approached, Linc felt relieved. Troy Davis was obviously a seasoned officer and looked like a man he could reason with.

  The sheriff frowned at the young deputies. “What’s the problem here?”

  They both started talking at once.

  “We got a call from dispatch,” Pierpont began.

  “Two calls,” Rogers amended.

  “From neighbors, reporting suspicious behavior,” Pierpont continued.

  “The middle one here admits he was trying to open the back door.”

  Mel leaned forward. “Just checking to see if it was locked.”

  Linc groaned and turned to his brother. “Why don’t you keep your trap shut before we end up spending Christmas in jail.”

  To his credit, Mel did seem chagrined. “Sorry, Linc. I wanted to help.”

  Linc appealed directly to the sheriff. “I understand we might have looked suspicious, peeking in windows, Sheriff Davis, but I assure you we were merely trying to figure out if the Rhodes family was at home.”

  “Are you family or friends of Ben and Charlotte’s?” the man asked, studying them through narrowed eyes.

  “Not exactly friends.”

  “Our sister knows Ben’s son,” Ned told them.

  Mel nodded emphatically. “Knows him in the Biblical sense, if you catch my drift.”

  Linc wanted to kick Mel but, with all the law enforcement surrounding them, he didn’t dare. They’d probably arrest him for assault. “Our sister’s having David Rhodes’s baby,” he felt obliged to explain.

  “Any day now,” Mel threw in.

  “And she disappeared,” Ned added.

  “If we’re guilty of anything,” Linc said, gesturing with his hands, “it’s being so anxious to locate our sister. Like I said, she’s alone in a strange town and without family or friends.”

  “Did you check their identification?” the sheriff asked.

  “We hadn’t gotten around to that yet,” Deputy Rogers replied.

  “You’ll see we’re telling the truth,” Linc asserted.

  “None of us have police records.”

  With the sheriff and his deputies watching carefully, Linc, Mel and Ned handed over their identification.

  The sheriff glanced at all three pieces, then passed them to Pierpont. The young man swaggered over to his patrol car, apparently to check for any warrants or arrest records. He was back a couple of minutes later and returned their ID.

  “They don’t have records.” He seemed almost disappointed, Linc thought.

  The sheriff nodded. “What’
s your sister’s name?”

  “Mary Jo Wyse,” Linc answered. “Can you tell us where we might find the Rhodes family? All we want to do is talk to them.”

  “Unfortunately Ben and Charlotte are out of the country,” the sheriff said.

  “You mean they aren’t even in town?” Mel asked, sounding outraged. He turned to Linc. “What are we going to do now?”

  “I don’t know.” Mary Jo must have discovered this information about the Rhodes family on her own. The only thing left for her to do was head back to Seattle. She wouldn’t have any other options, which meant this entire venture through dismal traffic, falling snow and wretched conditions had been a complete waste of time.

  “She’s probably home by now and wondering where the three of us are,” Linc muttered.

  “Maybe.” Ned shook his head. “But I doubt it.”

  “What do you mean, you doubt it?” Linc challenged.

  “Mary Jo can be stubborn, you know, and she was pretty upset last night.”

  “We should phone the house and find out if she’s there,” Linc said, although he had a sneaking suspicion that Ned was right. Mary Jo wouldn’t give up that easily.

  “Sounds like a good idea to me,” Sheriff Davis inserted.

  Linc reached for his cell phone and called home. Five long rings later, voice mail kicked in. If his sister had gone back to Seattle, she apparently wasn’t at the house.

  “She’s not there,” Linc informed his brothers.

  “What did I tell you?” Ned sighed. “I know Mary Jo, and she isn’t going to turn tail after one setback.”

  This was more than a simple setback, in Linc’s opinion. This was major.

  “Have you tried her cell phone?” the sheriff suggested next.

  “Yeah, we did. A few times. No answer,” Linc said tersely.

  “Try again.”

  “I’ll do that now,” Linc murmured. He reached for his phone again and realized he didn’t know her number nor had he programmed it into his directory.

  He cleared his throat. “Ah, Ned, could you give me the number for her cell?”

  His youngest brother grabbed the phone from him and punched in Mary Jo’s number, then handed it back.