1225 Christmas Tree Lane - Debbie Macomber [5]
“I know, I know, it’s just that I hate leaving you so soon after you got here.”
“Go,” Bailey said, ushering her toward the door. “We’ll be fine. We’ll unpack our suitcases and put It’s a Wonderful Life in the DVD player.”
“I want to watch it, too,” Beth protested. It was their favorite Christmas movie.
“Okay, we’ll hold off until tonight. Now go.”
Walking out the door, Beth blew them a kiss, the same way she had every time she left for work when they were youngsters.
The second the door closed, Bailey turned to her sister. “Do you think Mom suspects anything?”
“I’m not sure….”
“I told you we needed to get our story straight before we saw her!”
“I didn’t think she’d drill us with questions the instant we walked in the door. Just remember, this whole idea was yours,” Sophie reminded her.
“But you agreed! Dad’s miserable without Mom, and Mom needs Dad whether she’s willing to admit it or not.”
“Well, she’s not willing to admit it, not yet,” Sophie said. She rinsed out the soup pan and placed it in the dishwasher. “I never really understood why they got divorced,” she mused.
“Yeah.” Bailey was wiping off the kitchen counter. “It didn’t make any sense.”
“When they told us I thought they were joking. Some joke, huh?”
“Could there be anyone else involved?” Bailey asked, growing introspective. “Mom mentioned that vet again. Ted something.”
“Ted Reynolds. She hasn’t dated in ages, but she seems to like him. He could be trouble.”
Bailey frowned. “The problem with Mom is that she’s living inside an…an emotional cocoon.” She nodded, pleased with that description. “She’s consumed by this tree farm so she doesn’t have to think about Dad or the divorce or anything else.”
“Who made you the expert?” Sophie muttered.
Bailey ignored the sarcasm. “I took this really great psychology class, and I recognized what Mom’s been doing for the past few years. We’ve got to shake her up, make her realize the divorce was a terrible mistake.”
“It’s not just the tree farm, it’s those darn puppies,” Sophie lamented. “With puppies constantly showing up on Mom’s porch, she can focus all her attention on them. She spends a lot of time training her dogs for those canine therapy programs—”
“And being the unofficial rescue facility,” Bailey threw in.
Sophie nodded. “And now there’s this Ted guy. Getting Mom and Dad together isn’t going to be as easy as you think.”
“What did you tell Dad?” Bailey asked.
Sophie slouched into a chair and stared at her sister. “Just that it’s important to Mom that we all spend Christmas together.”
“Did he ask why?”
“Not really. He said he didn’t have any fixed plans for Christmas, and if Mom wanted him to come he would.”
“What are we going to tell them when they discover we arranged this?”
“What we should’ve said when they told us they were getting divorced. This is stupid. They should’ve tried harder.”
“They just grew apart, that’s all, but if they’d made an effort they could’ve gotten close again, right?”
“Right.”
“Marriage takes work,” Bailey said, feeling wise. The research for her recent psych essay on “Family in the New Millennium” had made that very clear to her.
“I just don’t want them to be upset with us,” Sophie said, worried.
“They can’t. It’s Christmas. We brought them together…okay, under false pretenses, but they can’t be mad because we’re only doing what’s best for them.”
“Amen. Sing it, sister.”
“We’ll sing it in two-part harmony.”
“Dad gets here when?”
“Tomorrow afternoon.”
“Perfect.” Sophie held up two crossed fingers. “I believe. I believe.”
“So do I,” Bailey echoed. This was going to be the most wonderful Christmas of their lives and it didn’t have a single thing to do with the wrapped packages under the tree. It was because of the gift they intended to give their parents.
And each other.
The snow had stopped falling, and the grounds were so pristine and lovely, they could’ve been on a book cover. Or a Christmas card. The evergreens were daubed with snow, giving them a flocked look that was more beautiful than anything Beth could reproduce