The Perfect Christmas - Debbie Macomber [64]
Matt swore under his breath. Any tenderness he’d felt earlier shattered.
“You’re leaving me to deal with Christmas, the shopping, dinners, everything. I can’t take it anymore.”
“Take it?” he shouted. “Do you know how many women would love to be able to stay home with their families? You have it easy compared to working mothers who’re out there competing in a man’s world. If you think shopping and cooking dinner is too much for you, then—”
Pam’s expression grew mutinous. “My not working was a decision we made together! I can’t believe you’re throwing that in my face now. If you’re saying you want me to get a job, fine, consider it done.”
Matt’s fist tightened around his briefcase handle. That wasn’t what he wanted, and Pam knew it.
“All I’m saying is I could use a little support.”
“It wouldn’t hurt you to support me, either,” she snapped.
They glared at each other, neither willing to give in.
“Have a good time,” she said flippantly. “Just go. I’ll do what I always do and make excuses for you with the children and your parents. I’ll be at the school for Jimmy, so don’t worry—not that you ever have.”
If Matt heard about this stupid Christmas pageant one more time, he’d blow a fuse. Rather than continue the argument, he headed out the door. “I’ll call you in the morning.”
“Don’t bother,” she exploded, and slammed the door in his wake.
Matt had taken his wife at her word and hadn’t phoned once in the past three days. It was the first time in fifteen years on the road that he hadn’t called his family. Pam had the number of his hotel, and she hadn’t made the effort to call him, either. They’d argued before, all couples did, but they’d never allowed a disagreement to go on this long.
Now as he stood in the crowded depot, waiting for the train to arrive, Matt was both tired and bored. For a man who’d purposely avoided any contact with his wife, he was in an all-fired hurry to get home.
This should be the happiest Christmas of Kelly Berry’s life. After a ten-year struggle she and Nick were first-time parents. She liked to joke that her labor had lasted five years. That was how long they’d been on the adoption waiting list. Five years, two months and seventeen days, to be exact. Then the call had finally come, and twenty hours later they’d brought their daughter home from the hospital.
In less than a day, their entire existence had been turned upside down. After the long frustrating years of waiting, they were parents at last.
This would be their first trip home to Macon, Georgia, since they’d signed the adoption papers. Brittany Ann Berry’s grandparents were eager to meet her.
The infant fussed in her arms and let loose with a piercing cry that cut into Neil Diamond’s rendition of “Jingle Bells.” A businessman scowled at them; Nick, muttering under his breath, grabbed the diaper bag. Doing the best she could, Kelly gently placed the baby over her shoulder and rubbed her tiny back.
“She’s all right,” Kelly said, smiling to reassure her husband while he rummaged through the diaper bag in search of the pacifier.
As Nick sat upright, he dragged one hand down his face, already showing signs of stress. They hadn’t so much as left the train depot and already their nerves were shot. Despite their eagerness to be parents, the adjustment was a difficult one. Nick had proved to be a nervous father. Kelly wasn’t all that adept at parenthood herself. She smiled again at Nick, accepting the pacifier. Everything would be easier once Brittany slept through the night, she was sure of that.
Her two older sisters were much better at this mothering business than she was. Never had Kelly missed her family more; never had the need to talk out her fears and doubts been more pressing.
This flight home was an extravagance Nick and Kelly could ill afford. Then the storm had blown in, with all its complications, and they’d been rerouted to Boston by train.
A whistle sang from the distance, and the sound of it was as beautiful as church bells.