Bring Me Home for Christmas - By Robyn Carr Page 0,65
father was so opposed to the idea of me living with my fiancé, he refused to help pay for the wedding.” She laughed a little. “For a while, he said he wouldn’t even attend unless it was in Virginia, but my mother put her foot down. It was a wonderful and scary time.”
Her mother stopped talking and silence enveloped them both. Wonderful and scary, thought Becca. That just about summed it up.
When Denny entered his apartment, only the bathroom light was on. Becca was curled onto her side, snuggled into the quilts, her hair fanned out over the pillow.
He ran his cold hands under hot water in the bathroom, stripped and crawled in beside her, spooning around her back. He slid an arm over her waist and pulled her against him. “Sorry I’m late,” he whispered. “Those people didn’t want to leave.”
“Hmm,” she murmured.
“Are you asleep?”
“Yes,” she whispered back, wriggling against him. “Shh.”
He lay still and quiet for a while, his face against her hair, inhaling her sweet scent. Minutes passed before he whispered, “You awake?”
“Barely,” she said.
“I think I forgot to do something…”
She rolled onto her back. “Are you leaving again?”
He grinned down at her and shook his head.
“What did you forget to do?”
“I forgot to make love to you.” Just pressing up against her, even against those boring flannel pajamas, he was already aroused.
“Are you really waking me up for sex?” she asked him.
He grinned as he nodded, looking down at her beautiful face. He covered those soft, pink lips with a searching kiss. “I need you,” he said. “I want to be inside you.” He had never wanted anyone the way he wanted her. In fact, he had never wanted anyone else. “If I say please?” he whispered against her cheek.
“I can hardly say no, since you’re so polite….”
“Good, I’ll remember that. I’ll mind my manners at all times. For the rest of my life.” And then he stopped talking, kissing her while he made those pajamas go away….
“Mom?” Becca said into the phone the next day. “When you went to San Diego to be with Daddy, did you ever wonder if you’d made a terrible mistake? Even though you loved him?”
“Did I cry for my mom and dad? Was I sometimes real lonely without my girlfriends? The answer is yes. I told you, it wasn’t easy.”
“How did you do it? How did you make that decision and then stick to it?”
“Well, it’s been so long…but there was the story of Ruth from the Bible. My dad was real big on the Bible sometimes. Ruth left the family she knew and went with her new husband. She said, ‘Your people shall be my people.’ I know that’s supposed to be biblical, but I actually found it romantic. Of course, at the time, I didn’t realize your Dad’s people would include the beer-drinking champion of the Naval base, a few fellow football fanatics he couldn’t be away from if there was a game playing anywhere in the universe, a bowling team and a very sour-smelling fishing buddy who might show up for a meal once a week.”
Becca laughed softly.
“A Navy second lieutenant’s pay was pretty small, I didn’t have a job in San Diego and my parents lived on the opposite coast. Leaving them for the man of my choice meant not seeing them for a long time—air travel was pricey, there wasn’t email and long-distance phone calls were expensive.” Beverly paused. “What’s happening, Becca?”
“Oh…just pondering… Denny so loves this town….”
“I suppose you think I was born yesterday,” Beverly said. “Becca, I haven’t made it any secret that I wanted a different partner for you. One who was going to be successful enough to take you to Europe and the kids to Disney once a year. But I’d be less than honest if I didn’t admit I followed my heart. Besides, you can’t cry alone at chick flicks for the rest of your life. I might not like it, but I understand you have to confront it.”
“I don’t cry alone at chick flicks!”
“Yes, you do. Maybe you can bring him home. This was his home once, after all,” Beverly said.
“You were so angry with me for coming up here and now it sounds like you might actually understand!”
“Tell him we’re having ham and turkey for Christmas,” Beverly said.
Although Becca laughed, a few tears slid down her cheeks.
Thirteen
Becca had hoped to see Megan the day after her “accident” but she didn’t show up at the church for homework. Since