Trading Christmas - Debbie Macomber [32]
“What about you?” Faith asked.
“I’m stuck in Boston, but it’s really a lovely town.” Still, none of that mattered now. “Oh, Faith, what a good friend you are to go to all this trouble for me.”
“Well, I tried.”
Emily wanted to weep. Despite everything, it seemed she was destined to spend the holidays by herself. Still, she’d had a wonderful evening with Ray and felt attractive and carefree in a way she hadn’t in years.
They talked for several minutes longer, making plans to call each other again. When she finished, Emily replaced the receiver and looked over at Ray, smiling.
“I take it she’s someone you know?”
Emily told him what had happened. “I was lucky I caught her. Faith was on her way outside to go sledding with the neighbor kids. She’s so good with children.”
“Faith sounds like a fun-loving person.”
“She is.”
“She’s staying, then?”
Emily nodded. “She and Charles have worked out a compromise.” Emily felt guilty about the whole mess. Poor Charles. All he wanted was to escape Christmas and have time to work without interruption. But, between Faith and the Kennedy children, Emily figured the poor man wouldn’t have a moment’s peace.
Ray drank the rest of his coffee and set his mug aside. “I guess I’d better head back to New York.”
Emily knew it was too much to hope that he’d stay on. “I can’t let you go without breakfast,” she said brightly.
Ray seemed almost relieved at being given an excuse to linger. “Are you sure I’m not disrupting your plans?”
“Plans? What plans? I’m here for another week and I don’t know a soul in town.” She opened the cupboard, looking for ideas, and found an old-fashioned waffle iron. She brought it down, oiled it and plugged it in.
“I wondered what happened to Mom’s old waffle iron,” Ray said as he leaned against the counter. He watched Emily assemble ingredients.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
She shrugged as she cracked an egg against the side of the bowl. “Not really… The truth is, I’m just delaying the inevitable.” It probably wasn’t polite to be this truthful, but she was beyond pretense. The minute Ray walked out that door, she’d be alone again and she’d enjoyed his company.
“Actually, I’m not hungry, either.”
“You aren’t?” The question came out in a rushed whisper.
Ray shook his head. “I was looking for an excuse to stay.”
He and Emily exchanged a grin.
“Do we actually need an excuse?” he asked.
Emily didn’t know how to answer or even if she should. “Do you have to go back to New York?”
“At the moment I can’t think of a single compelling reason.”
“Would you be interested in staying in Boston for Christmas? With me?” Normally she wasn’t this direct, but she had little to lose and so much to gain.
“I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather spend Christmas with.”
FOURTEEN
On a mission now, Faith walked down Main Street in Leavenworth and headed for her favorite grocery. Even after a number of years away, she was astonished by the number of people who remembered her. Five years earlier, she’d done her student teaching in Leavenworth and worked in Emily’s classroom.
Newly divorced, emotionally fragile and struggling to pick up the pieces of her life, she’d come to this out-of-the-way community. The town had welcomed her, and with Emily as her friend, she’d learned that life does continue.
The three months she’d spent with Emily had been like a reprieve for Faith, providing a much-needed escape from her badly bungled life. Once her student teaching was completed, she’d moved back to Seattle and soon afterward graduated with her master’s degree in education. Diploma in hand, she’d gone to California to be closer to family.
Although she’d moved away from Leavenworth, Faith had stayed in contact with Emily. Their friendship had continued to grow, despite the physical distance between them and the difference in their ages. In fact, Faith felt she could talk to Emily in ways she couldn’t talk to her mother. They were colleagues, but not only that, they’d both experienced the loss of a marriage,