A Little Country Christmas - Carolyn Brown Page 0,141

each other. Since Brenda had never said one word about emoting any joy, Jim reckoned the choir had a right to be skeptical.

“All right, from the beginning,” Brenda said, waving her baton, counting out the beats. Jim began to play and the choir began to sing.

And behold. They made a joyful noise.

* * *

When the choir sang the last few notes of “Joy to the Whole World,” goose bumps rippled over Brenda’s skin. Man. These people could really sing. They were, despite the rocky beginning, capable of a great deal more discipline than her high school students ever had been. And to her amazement, once they’d put their music down and just sang, a contagion of smiles broke out.

She wasn’t immune. Somehow, for a short moment, the joy of the music seeped into her grinchy heart, which, unlike Dr. Seuss’s character, didn’t need to grow any bigger. Brenda’s heart wasn’t small; it was just fragile. It had been shattered so many times in the past, and sometimes the glue that she used to patch it back together seemed brittle.

But as the chorale ended on the phrase “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” she felt something knit back together. Somehow the music had made its way into her chest like some healing medicine.

“That’s more like it. Well done,” she said when the last vibration ebbed away. “Let’s end on that high note. I’ll see y’all next week.”

The choir headed for the doors, but most of them had smiles on their faces, and it reminded her of those good days in Muncie when the kids had performed well. Funny how she’d forgotten that half the battle was making the choir believe in itself. She’d been so drawn down by the tragedy of Katie’s death that she’d blocked out the happy moments.

In any case, she felt confident that the chorale was ready for their performance. Even more important, they knew they were ready, and that confidence showed. When the lead soprano waved good-bye and wished her a good week, that was a major turnaround.

Her insides warmed a little more, as if she’d just taken a sip of warm mulled wine. And maybe that was why she was so unprepared when Jim strolled up to stand right in front of her podium.

“You got a minute?” he asked.

She looked up, her body sending her conflicting messages. Fight, flight, or wait until the auditorium cleared and kiss him one more time?

The flight instinct took over. “I’m sorry, I need to get—”

“I was wondering if you had time to work on the sonata this week,” he interrupted in his typical Jim manner. The man didn’t take no for an answer. It was a proven fact. Besides, she loved playing music with him. Maybe she loved it too much.

She didn’t want someone who was determined to charm her into doing his bidding. Maybe that was the big hurdle. She’d been charmed before. She’d been used. She’d been filibustered, and bullied, and had lost her way.

So she gathered up her music. “No, Jim, I—”

“Brenda, are you going to let a little mistletoe get in the way of a new friendship?”

She looked up at him. Big mistake. That twinkle in his eye was so adorable, and sexy. It reminded her of…

No, wait. No.

It didn’t remind her of Daddy. It was just hard to resist. But she was going to resist. She had to. She couldn’t afford to have another man in her life, unbalancing things, making her care and then hurting her or, worse yet, leaving her. “Is friendship what you want?” she asked, her voice hard.

“If that’s all I can have.”

She shook her head. “You’re a terrible liar.”

“Okay, so I admit it. I liked kissing you, Brenda. It’s been a long time since I’ve kissed anyone and enjoyed it. And if you tell me you didn’t enjoy it, then you’re a liar.”

She looked away from those twinkly eyes. “I did enjoy it,” she said in a soft voice. “But I can’t trust it.”

“Because you were hurt before?”

She shrugged. “Of course. Why else? And besides…” She pulled her music from the stand and walked away from him down the aisle to the seat where she’d left her coat and purse.

“Besides what?”

She plucked her coat from the seat and turned. He was still standing up by the stage. “I can’t afford that kind of thing. I’ve learned how to live without it. And I just want to be left alone. I thought I made that clear from the start.”