Trading Christmas - Debbie Macomber [63]
“Looks like you bought out Saks Fifth Avenue,” Charles said as he took the packages from her hands.
“Just the baby department, but Charles, I couldn’t help myself. Everything was so cute.”
“Buying anything is a big mistake,” Ray told them, helping Emily with her shopping bags. “Mother’s waited all these years to spoil her first grandchild. My guess is she has stock in Toys ‘R’ Us by now.”
“Don’t forget a certain aunt and uncle, too,” Emily murmured.
Faith wrapped her arm around Charles’s and laid her head against his shoulder.
Emily read her perfectly. “Listen, why don’t you two go to your room and rest for a little while? Faith needs to put her feet up and relax. Ray and I will have a drink and catch up. Then, when you’re ready, we’ll go out for dinner.”
Faith nodded, grateful for her friend’s sympathy and intuition.
Charles led the way to the elevator. He didn’t speak until they were inside. “You overdid it, didn’t you?”
“Only a bit. I’ll be fine as soon as I sit down with a cup of herbal tea.”
Her husband tucked his arm protectively around her and waited until they were back in the room to kiss her.
Then he ordered tea.
“Did you two have a chance to visit?” Ray asked as Emily removed her coat and slung it over the back of her chair. They’d entered the bar, securing a table near the window. “Or was shopping at the top of your priority list?”
“Actually, we did some of both. It’s just so good to see Faith this happy.”
The waitress came by, and Ray ordered a hot buttered rum for each of them.
“I can’t believe the changes in her,” Emily said. “She’s so much more confident.”
“I was going to say the same thing about Charles,” her husband said with a bemused grin. “I hardly recognize my own brother. Until he met Faith, all he cared about was history—in fact, I think he would’ve preferred to live in the eighteenth century. I feel like I finally have a brother again.”
The waitress brought their drinks and set them on the table, along with a bowl of salted nuts.
“Do you suppose they’re talking about us in the same way?” Emily asked. “Are we different people now than we were a year ago?”
“I know I am,” Ray said.
“I think I am, too.”
Emily reached for a pecan, her favorite nut, and then for no discernible reason started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“Us. Have you forgotten the day we met?”
Ray grinned. “Not likely.”
“I was so miserable and upset, and then you happened along. I glommed on to you so fast, I can only imagine what you must’ve thought.”
“You glommed on to me?” he repeated. “That’s not the way I remember it.” Ray grabbed a handful of nuts. “As I recall, I found out that my brother had traded homes with this incredibly lovely woman. The explanation was reasonable. All I had to do was reassure my mother everything was fine and catch the train back to New York.”
Emily lowered her eyes and smiled. “I’m so glad you ended up staying.”
“You think I missed the last train by accident?”
“You didn’t?”
“Not by a long shot. As my mother would say, I was smitten. I still am.”
“That’s comforting to hear.”
“Christmas with you last year was the best of my life.”
“Except for the Christmas you got the red racer.”
“Well, that was my second-best Christmas.”
“And this year?”
“When Christmas comes, I’ll let you know.”
“You do that,” Emily whispered, raising her glass in a toast to the most wonderful Christmas gift of her life.
THE FORGETFUL BRIDE
For Karen Young and Rachel Hauck,
plotting partners and treasured friends.
PROLOGUE
“Not unless we’re married.”
Ten-year-old Martin Marshall slapped his hands against his thighs in disgust. “I told you she was going to be unreasonable about this.”
Caitlin watched as her brother’s best friend withdrew a second baseball card from his shirt pocket. If Joseph Rockwell wanted to kiss her, then he was