Bring Me Home for Christmas

pack. And you came up here with one suitcase. Bottom line is, I can’t stand the idea of even spending a few days away from you if I don’t have to.”
    “Good, because neither can I!”
    “So here we are, two jobless people—ought to be interesting. I’ve saved money since living here—when you live in one furnished room and work two jobs, it’s not that hard. And there’s that money from the sale of my mom’s house when she died—that was going to go toward a house of my own. Now it will be a house of our own, but it might not come as fast, honey. With neither of us working yet and real estate so much more expensive in San Diego—”
    “I don’t care,” she said. “I have a cute apartment. And I’ll get a job. I’ll do whatever I have to if I don’t get a teaching job. I have office experience, waitress experience—”
    He stroked her pretty blond hair. “You should be with kids. I’ve seen you with them. There’s no question that’s were you belong.”
    “I will be, but if it takes a while to find a teaching job, I’ll just work somewhere else while I’m looking.”
    “You’re unbelievable, you know that?” he said. “I wondered why you weren’t all jazzed about going home. Crap, once again it was me—just because I didn’t say the right things!”
    “Or I didn’t ask the right things,” she said. “I have to be honest, I was afraid to ask. I didn’t want to cry when you told me you just couldn’t come with me.”
    “Listen, you’re first, Becca. I’m going to teach you to trust me again somehow. Right now, just remember you’re first. What you need is the top of the list. Always.” Then he laughed. “That Jack, sometimes the guy is brilliant, you know? I was telling him tonight that I was leaving—saying goodbye, really—and I told him that I had kind of liked the idea of growing a family in a place as clean and safe as this. He told me to remember that the safest place to grow a family is in a happy marriage. I’m going to make you happy, Becca, because I love you. You’re what keeps my heart beating.”
    “Denny,” she said, her eyes welling up with happy tears.
    He rubbed a thumb under one eye. “You didn’t want to cry, remember?”
    “Then don’t be so wonderful all the time.” She sniffed. “Now what?”
    His eyes took on a naughty gleam. “Well, the plans are set. The schedule is set.” He started unbuttoning her pajama top. “I guess I’ll just have to work you out for a while. In fact,” he said, putting his big hands on her small butt, “if you just climb up on my lap, you wouldn’t be putting any weight on that ankle…”

Fourteen
    The routine of having Denny get up in the early morning, make her coffee and leave her curled up under the down quilt while he went off to work was an easy thing to adjust to. When the phone rang beside her bed, she eyed the clock as she rolled over. It was eight-thirty. She was surprised she’d slept so late, as excited as she was to pack up to leave. She reached for the phone and said hello.
    “Becca,” Jack said. “Are you awake?”
    “Sure,” she said.
    Jack laughed. “No, you weren’t. Have you looked outside yet?”
    “Why?” she asked, sitting up in bed.
    “We had heavy snowfall during the night. I’m going to come down there and clean off the steps and salt them. When you’re ready to leave the apartment, you have to call me. The street is under almost two feet of snow. So, it’s nonnegotiable—you could break your other leg and your neck.”
    She thought about that for a second. “What are you going to do?”
    “I’m going to drive down there in Preacher’s truck to pick you up—Denny took mine out to the farm. When you get up, you’ll see a mound in the driveway—that’s Denny’s little truck. I’ll drive you to the bar or wherever you want to go. And dress warm. We have more snow forecast.”
    “Why is Denny in your truck?”
    “That Nissan of his wasn’t gonna make it all the way out there, even with chains. We’re not a priority for plowing—we generally do our own.”
    “When will you be down here?” she asked.
    “Ten minutes. It’ll take me twenty to clean off and salt your steps. You can go back to sleep, if you want to—I just didn’t want the noise to scare you.”
    “Thirty minutes gives me plenty of time to dress and be ready to leave. But take your time. I don’t want you to have to wait for me.”
    As Jack carried Becca down the snow-crusted stairs a