Nick did a great job on stage, ringing bells to keep everyone on the beat. The guy belted all his Christmas songs with an extra dose of cheer.
Jacob worked through the crowd, finding his mom, who was close to the Hall family. He avoided eye contact with Lauren for the time being. He heard sniffling at a break in the music while everyone shuffled pages.
Glancing around while keeping his face down, he realized it wasn’t Lauren who was crying, but his mom. “Mom?” He touched her arm to get her attention. When she met his gaze, he saw tears pooling in her eyes. “What’s going on?”
She sniffed, fishing a tissue out of her coat pocket. “It’s so silly.”
“No, it’s not.” He put his arm around her shoulder.
“This was Lou’s favorite part of the day.” She dabbed at her tears. “He loved Christmas so much.”
“Aw, Mom. You should have gone on the cruise.” If all this reminded her of Dad, then she shouldn’t be here right now. He was such a heel. He could have insisted they go.
She huffed at him. “I wanted to do all this for him, in his memory. I thought it would bring some kind of closure or something. I’ve been running around like a crazy lady, trying to do all the things he loved by myself, and I’m worn thin and don’t feel closure.” She crumpled the tissue and found another.
“How many of those do you have in there?” he teased.
She chuckled through her tears. “Enough. When you buy the casket, the funeral home should offer you stock in the Kleenex company.” She blew her nose. “On top of all that, I didn’t get half the decorations up on the house, and I forgot to make the homemade syrup.” She sighed heavily. “I need to face the truth that Christmas won’t be the same without him.” Her shoulders fell forward. “I’m going home.”
Jacob turned to her.
“You can stay,” she offered.
He probably should get to work on Lauren and being nice to her. No–extra nice, like Quik advised. But Mom needed him. “I’m coming with you.”
“You’re a good son.”
He shrugged. “It’s not that. You have the good cocoa mix at your house. I’m out.”
She swatted his stomach and smiled. “Tease.”
They did their best not to draw attention as they left. At the edge of the crowd, Jacob felt a pair of eyes on him and turned to find Lauren watching, her forehead wrinkled in question. He lifted a shoulder and gave her a watery smile. It was good that he’d have another chance with her tomorrow because Mom needed him tonight.
If Lauren knew what was happening, she would have told him to go. She was kind of like that. In fact, she was better at this than he was, and he wished she were walking next to him.
Perhaps next Christmas.
CHAPTER13
Lauren woke up the following day with an epic plan for this Christmas. A holiday project like she’d never had before. Sure, she’d concocted holiday schemes–usually involving the perfect present for her mom or a snowball ambush for her brother. But this was different.
After she’d watched Jacob walk his mom home, she’d realized that she had a gift staring her in the face. Mrs. Morris would never get another Christmas with her husband. It was tragic and brought tears to Lauren’s eyes. She missed Mr. Morris too. He was the jolliest of them all and had a silly side that relaxed people. Like, he was confident in himself and therefore could laugh at his own expense. Though he was never cruel or crude–but one of those people who didn’t take himself too seriously.
Well, she had another chance at Christmas with her cheating, no-good fiance. A man who deserved to have his pride stripped away and his sins exposed for the world to see. She was going to expose him for the liar he was–in front of the whole town.
The best part?
He would feel all the things she’d felt when she found out about the secretary with the assets: humiliation, rejection, embarrassment, and more. What could be better than seeing someone eat their just desserts?
This Christmas would be one for the books.
The only problem with her plan was that she had to wait all day to pull it off.
She found that a woman scorned and on the verge of evening, the score could be patient. Most patient indeed! She grinned as she handed out orange rolls with her parents. She laughed with neighbors and friends they met on the street.
The one place she avoided was the gingerbread contest. No way was she walking into the civic center and bumping into Jacob Morris! He’d already told her once that she’d gotten engaged too soon, and she certainly didn’t want to hear what he thought of her life today. Nope. Today was not about looking back but looking forward. All the way to the sing-along that night, as a matter of fact.
Playing games with her family was a joy; she engaged in each moment, tackling her candy-cane minute with gusto. She even impressed Collin.
