A Forever Christmas - Missy Tippens Mills & Boon Love Inspired

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heart sank. For some reason, she wanted badly to connect with him. “Well, I don’t know. Soon, I’m sure.”

      Chase settled into a sitting position in her lap. His carrot-colored curls brushed her chin, tickling, so she smoothed his hair.

      “Here, I brought the crayons.” She pulled the supplies out of her bag and divided them between the boys.

      Chase jumped right in and started to color. Hunter simply stared toward the door, waiting.

      A few minutes later, voices sounded in the distance making her stomach do a dance of nerves. She glanced at Hunter, and it seemed he’d heard too. He sat up straighter. Watching.

      A moment later, Gregory filled the doorway. His gaze zoomed straight to hers.

      “Boys,” he barked. “Time to go.”

      Hunter bolted as if his dad’s voice had shot him out of a gun. He hurried over and glued himself to Gregory’s side.

      Chase nuzzled closer to Sarah. “Hey, Dad, Miss Sawah gave us cookies!”

      “I hope you told her thank you.”

      “Thank you,” he said, looking up at her with his gorgeous blue eyes, so much like his dad’s.

      “You’re welcome.”

      Gregory nudged his oldest son. “Hunter?”

      “Thank you for the cookies.”

      “You’re welcome.”

      Chase still didn’t seem inclined to leave, so she set him on his feet. He turned and gave her a quick hug before running across to join his family.

      “I appreciate your help,” Gregory ground out as if every word cost him.

      Would they ever be able to get over their past?

      She watched as they walked away. Sometimes relationships were too complicated, too painful to move beyond.

      Friday was nothing but frustration for Gregory. First, he had to run a new blower out to one crew. No sooner had he gotten the broken one back to the shop, than the other crew called about a broken down trimmer. Then a customer complained, so he had to ride by and check that out, to see what kind of job the guys had done.

      Sure enough, they’d forgotten to mulch the back of the bank.

      He didn’t want to lose the bank’s account, so he got on the phone to talk to the crew and tell them to go back and finish. Then he followed up by doing a ride through to check all their jobs for the day.

      Once everything checked out, he finally had time to hit the two job bids he’d planned to do that afternoon. But he was behind.

      He dialed his dad.

      “Can you pick up the boys for me? I really can’t be late again this week.”

      “Sure. How about we meet you at Minnie’s for dinner?”

      “Thanks, Dad. I owe you.”

      “You know, I’d be glad to babysit anytime you plan a date.”

      “Yeah, yeah. Keep wishing.”

      “It’s time.”

      He refused to have this conversation again. “See you at Minnie’s,” he said and disconnected the call.

      Why wasn’t he ready to date again? Surely he wasn’t normal. Didn’t most men remarry pretty quickly after losing a wife or after divorce? And even though his wife had deserted him, it had been four years. Surely that was long enough to heal and to move on.

      But for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to take that step.

      Maybe it was the pool of eligible women. There wasn’t a soul in town who appealed to him. Although Molly had made it clear she was interested.

      She was a gorgeous woman. Sweet. Fun. Talented. Would make a great mom. Why didn’t he jump at the chance?

      Sarah’s face flashed through his mind. Just like it always did when he let himself think about women. No one ever seemed to measure up to his high school sweetheart.

      No wonder he didn’t want to date again.

      Sarah ran a hand over the freshly laundered costumes, stacked and ready to go back to the church. She’d spent the day drawing up a plan for the set. And she’d gone to the church for a lesson on how to operate the sound system. She appreciated the distraction while her mom and dad went about Christmas-as-usual.

      As if there could be Christmas-as-usual this year.

      Anything joyful or celebratory seemed almost obscene to her. A child had died, and yet the world seemed to go on. She was trying hard not to let her distaste show.

      She struggled with the dissonance. She knew she should probably be praying about her grief over Peter, praying for his family, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t.

      Peter had been her favorite student—a sweet, affectionate, lonely little boy. He depended on her for support while his parents worked all the time, leaving him in the care of a nanny. Sarah had probably been too attached.

      Then he’d become sick. And afterward, the cancer diagnosis.

      God had ignored her desperate pleas on Peter’s behalf. Why would He listen to her now?

      Anger bubbled deep inside, but she tamped it down. Being mad at God was a scary thing. Something she didn’t want to dwell on.

      Yes, she should go out to eat. Get out of the house so her mind wouldn’t work overtime.

      She called Donna Rae, but they’d already eaten, since little children needed to eat early.

       Like Hunter and Chase should have yesterday.

      She grabbed her purse and keys. Maybe she’d run to Minnie’s and get some of her famous fried chicken.

      She drove into town and lucked into a parking spot on the downtown square, right in front of Minnie’s Meat And Three. She’d loved to hang out here with her friends in high school. To order a good old-fashioned chocolate milkshake and a side of French fries.

      Bells jangled as she walked inside, the sound reminding her of better times.

      “Well, if it isn’t Miss Sarah Radcliffe,” Minnie said in her deep, raspy voice. Sarah and her friends had always thought she sounded like a frog.

      “Hi, Miz Minnie. How are you doing?”

      “I’m doing as well as can be expected. Are you eatin’ in tonight?”

      “Um…” Should she get it to go? But she’d wanted to get out of the house. For the distraction. But now that she was here, she—

      A familiar voice grabbed her attention. A little voice.

      She quickly scanned the restaurant in her peripheral vision. Harry, Hunter and Chase sat at a table in the corner. And there was a menu in front of the empty fourth chair. For Gregory?

      “It’s to go.”

      “Well, whataya have?”

      After she placed her order, Minnie said, “A milkshake and fries too?” She gave a rattling laugh, followed by a couple of hacking coughs.

      Sarah found herself smiling. “Um, I could go for that milkshake.”

      “There’s Miss Sawah,” the little voice called from across the room.

      Distraction couldn’t work if the subject of her thoughts sat in front of her. But she walked over to them, hoping she’d get her food and get out of there before Gregory arrived. “Hi, Chase. Hunter.” She nodded at Harry. “Mr. Jones.”

      “Hi, Sarah. Care to join us?”

      She could see that he didn’t really want her to. And

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