to him this night was as life affirming as rolling over in the night and feeling his arm tighten ever so slightly to secure her again, even as he still slept.
They woke to a slice of sunlight that had slipped through the bedroom curtains and made love again to celebrate the beginning of a brand-new day.
In the aftermath, Duke still held her.
“I don’t want to leave you,” he said.
Cathy sighed. “But you have to. You have work to do, and I will find my own way through this day. Don’t make me afraid to be alone.”
He hugged her. “You’re right, and I acknowledge I am overprotective.”
“But it always comes from love, and that’s never bad,” Cathy said. “Do you want me to make breakfast?”
“If I stay for that, then I will delay even more.”
She smiled. “Understood, and I’m going to go to the Crown sometime today and get some chocolate syrup.”
He laughed, then threw back the covers and got dressed while Cathy watched from beneath the covers, admiring the view…and then he was gone.
She was too warm and comfortable to get dressed and go out for a morning run, so she settled for sweats and a cup of coffee to jump-start the day. It wasn’t until later that she went to the Crown and noticed the houses in town were being turned into winter wonderlands even though they were missing the snow.
There were a few blow-up Santas that weaved and bobbed with the slightest breeze, and down the block, a sleigh and three little plastic reindeer in the act of taking flight perched precariously on a roof , while the Santa that went with them had been unceremoniously tied to the chimney. It looked more like he’d been taken hostage than that he was getting ready to climb down the chimney, but it was the thought that counted.
She was enchanted with the displays and felt obligated to stop at the hardware store and get a few strands of Christmas lights to string along the edge of her porch. Then she added a big green wreath with a red bow, and a hook to hang it on her front door. She thought about getting a small artificial tree for inside her house and then decided not to, since she would be spending the day with the Talbots again, so she paid for her things and then headed to the Crown.
Her entrance into the store did not go unnoticed. Almost everyone she approached stopped to comment something to her about her bravery, and the people who didn’t take time to come up to speak to her waved at her in passing.
Between the story Mavis Webb had published and the ad the private investigator took out in the paper apologizing for his part in what had been a fearful time for her, she had become the best-known face in town.
That was part of why she hadn’t wanted anyone to know about her presence at the Savannah Mall. She didn’t want to be associated with conflict and peril. She just wanted to be Cathy who loved Duke…and the newest resident of Blessings.
She was outside putting her bags into the car when she saw a young woman come out of the store with a toddler on one hip and a little girl that might be school age trailing her. She was carrying two bags of groceries and hunched against the weight of the baby and the sacks in her hands.
The little girl at her heels was wearing flip-flops instead of shoes and only had a little sweater over her clothes instead of a coat. The baby was in lightweight pajamas, and the woman was thin as a rail.
Cathy pushed her cart back to the outside rack, curious as to which car the woman was heading toward, and then realized the woman was afoot. Without thinking she ran to catch up.
“Hi, honey. I noticed you have your hands full here and thought you might like a ride home. My name is Cathy. I live over on Cherry Street. What’s your name?”
The young woman stared, almost as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.
“My name is Barrie. I live down in the Bottoms.”
“Where’s that?” Cathy asked.
“The other side of the tracks.”
That’s when Cathy remembered. She’d been down there before. “Okay. If you’ll wait right here, I’ll go get my car and load you all up and get you out of this cold wind.”
Barrie Lemons had been teased about her name for years and had given up