Bring Me Home for Christmas

was just one thing! There were other, far more exciting things to her. Spending her days with children who were just learning to learn. Helping them construct art projects that showed their imaginations. Having learning games that were fun and funny. And field trips—she loved field trips! The parents of her kids were always running for their lives and hiding under beds to avoid being chaperones, and Becca loved field trips.
    “You couldn’t do it,” she said to Jack. “You have to have it certified—the whole school. That’s the only way you get funding. You’d need a school board. You’d have to form a PTA.”
    “Hey, if we can pull a bunch of church deacons out of this run-down, sinful town, we can manage a school board and PTA.” He grinned.
    A bunch of guys came into the bar, all rosy-cheeked and laughing. Jack excused himself and set them up a few drinks, absorbed the latest news and left Becca alone to think. She had a good ten minutes before he was back. He wiped off the bar in front of her.
    He studied her for a moment. Then he said, “If I screwed up your last night in town by tossing out crazy ideas, I’ll have to apologize.”
    She turned those crystal-blue eyes up at him. “I kind of miss my mom,” she said. “She wasn’t exactly supportive of me coming up here.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t as last minute as I said. I was sort of plotting it….”
    He turned a fake shocked expression on her. “No way.”
    She smirked. “I really had no idea what I was walking into. It was quite a gamble. After all, Denny could have been committed.” She lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “It’s not as though that’s the kind of thing he’d be likely to tell Rich.”
    “It worked out for you, Becca. And I’m glad.”
    “Thanks. He’s a really special guy.”
    “You’re a special young woman.” He leaned on the bar. “Tell me something. Aside from Denny, who is now your slave till the end of time, what do you really want? What’s your big dream?”
    She shrugged again. “It’s totally crazy,” she said, staring into her wineglass.
    “Come on,” he urged. “Lay it on me.”
    She looked up. She took a steadying breath. “When I was a little girl, I had a couple of teachers who were so awesome, I sometimes liked to pretend they were my big sister or aunt or even my mother. We had one of them to dinner once—Miss Tindle. She was young and sweet and made me love school. Then there was Mrs. Dallas—she helped me love school again after an awful teacher just traumatized me. I had a teacher in junior high, Mr. Hutchins… I loved that man. I had such a hard time in his math class and he still managed to make me feel smart. He was so funny, so patient, so there for every one of his kids.” She blinked. “That’s what I want. I want to be that teacher to some kids. I want some twenty-five-year-olds or forty-year-olds to say, ‘I’ll never forget Miss Timm—without her, I’d probably be nowhere.’”
    He covered her hand with his big paw. “I have a feeling about you, Becca. I have a feeling you already are that teacher.”
    She smiled. Then she said, “Are you serious about that prefab modular school?”
    He gave a nod. “As a heart attack.”
    “I think you might’ve just totally screwed up my plans for Christmas….”

Contents
    Seventeen
    Becca begged a moment of privacy in the Middletons’ house to call her mother. “You were right,” Becca said. “I was taking a big chance coming up here like I did.”
    “Oh, honey,” Beverly said. “This doesn’t sound good. What happened?”
    “What happened is, I fell totally in love. With Denny, of course, but also with the kids. With the bartender and his wife. With the town. Denny wants to live here and…” She took a breath. “And I have a job offer. Jack offered to put up a schoolhouse for me. So I can teach the little kids.”
    “You can’t be serious,” Beverly said.
    “I am totally serious.”
    “Then why do you sound down?”
    “Well, there’s only one thing wrong with it. It’s much too far from one of my best friends.” She felt her throat thicken even as her vision blurred with tears. “We don’t agree that often, Mom, but at the end of the day, you’re always on my side.”
    “Oh, Becca,” Beverly said. “Best friends are never very far apart. The job sounds great, but what I really want to know is, have you made the right decision about Denny?”
    “Oh, yes. He is the man I missed so