1225 Christmas Tree Lane - Debbie Macomber [51]
“You’re smiling,” Bobby said now, brushing the hair off her forehead almost as if she were a child.
“I was remembering our honeymoon.” They got married in Las Vegas. Bobby had been in a chess competition there, and they were given the most luxurious penthouse suite in the hotel. The morning after their wedding night, Bobby had to leave for a chess match. Teri had stayed in bed and turned on the television to watch her husband play.
She knew from the first move he made that his mind wasn’t on the game. He was thinking about her, thinking about coming back to the room and making love to her again. Then something happened; she could almost see the transformation taking place…. His expression changed. Even his posture changed. Bobby had realized that the sooner he won, the sooner he could return to their room. His focus, his attention, went straight into the game. His opponent didn’t stand a chance. The poor man lost in record time. A second later, Bobby popped out of his seat and raced for the elevator, the camera crew on his heels.
Teri had been waiting for him….
The doorbell chimed and Teri sighed, not wanting to leave the comfort of her husband’s arms and the warm memories that had wrapped themselves around her. She started to get up, but Bobby stopped her.
“I’ll get it.”
As Bobby was rising to his feet she slipped her hand around his neck and brought his mouth down to hers for a lengthy kiss. They broke it off when the doorbell chimed again.
Bobby’s glasses were askew and his face flushed by the time he moved away from her. He cleared his throat. “You need to warn me before you do that,” he muttered.
“Okay, I will,” she said, smiling up at him. “That was just to say how much I love you.”
Bobby cleared his throat again and gave her a small, crooked smile. He never quite knew how to respond when she mentioned love. “Thank you,” he whispered, then hurried to the door.
In a minute he was back with Christie and James. They were another odd couple, Teri mused. When she’d first met James Wilbur, she hadn’t known what to think of the tall, exceptionally thin man who served as Bobby’s driver. It wasn’t until much later that she discovered James was Bobby’s dearest friend. He’d been a chess prodigy like Bobby, but James had suffered a breakdown caused by all the pressure. He’d disappeared from the public eye and been forgotten by everyone except Bobby. Her husband refused to abandon his friend, so he’d hired James as his driver. For years no one had recognized Bobby’s chauffeur as the teenager who’d made chess history along with Bobby Polgar.
As soon as James met Christie, he fell for her. Teri hated to be the one to tell him, but her younger sister came with plenty of baggage, just like she had. To her complete surprise, Christie had fallen in love with James. Their relationship had been a series of stops and starts, had taken a number of unexpected turns. But in the end Christie had dumped the losers who’d taken advantage of her, gone back to school and straightened out her life.
A year ago, over Christmas, she’d split up with James. A story in the press had identified him as James Gardner, the prodigy who’d disappeared. It might not have been such a big news item if not for the fact that he’d still been part of the chess world all that time. He hadn’t played in years, not since his collapse, but he enjoyed belonging to that world. Christie hadn’t been able to tolerate his deception, his inability to trust her with his secret. Eventually, however, they’d reconciled and their estrangement had led them to a greater understanding of each other.
Teri realized James was like Bobby, in that chess was all he knew. He’d acknowledged he no longer wanted to play high-pressure big-money chess, but liked being close to the game—and close to the one friend he could count on, Bobby Polgar.
“We’re here to help with the kids’ Christmas gifts,” Christie announced.
“Wonderful.” Teri patted the empty space next to her on the sofa. “We’ll let the