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“Hey, we try,” Tom assured both women.
“We know,” Elizabeth said.
Jack knocked quietly on Tom’s door.
“Tom, are you asleep?”
“No. Come in.”
Jack opened the door and found him in the wing chair. “I was thinking about Christmas. Brady was telling me about not having had a Christmas tree yet. He said his mommy promised that one day they’d have one.”
“He’s never had a Christmas tree?” Tom asked, incredulous.
“Yeah,” Jack said. “I told him maybe we could have a tree this year. I was thinking tonight after dinner would be a good time to go shopping for one.”
“Good thinking. Shall we keep it a secret? We could decorate it tonight, too.”
“I think that would be good. We can show Elizabeth what we have and maybe she could buy what else we need.”
Tom smiled. “I’m so glad they’ve come. It will be fun to have a real Christmas again.”
“You will, Tom. You’ll have a Christmas and so will Elizabeth and the kids. I’ll make sure of it.”
“A Christmas tree!”
Brady could hardly contain his excitement when Jack mentioned the possibility of going for a tree that night after dinner.
“Where do we go to get one?” Brady asked him.
“At the Christmas tree lot in town. Do you want to go?” Jack asked casually.
“Can I, Mommy? Please?”
“I don’t know, Brady. Maybe they want to pick out their tree without us—”
“It will be our Christmas tree, Elizabeth,” Tom said.
“And I think Brady would give good advice about the tree,” Jack said. “In fact, as cold as it is, I’m not sure Tom wants to wander around looking at all the trees.”
“Won’t it be too cold for Brady?” Elizabeth asked anxiously.
“No. I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Jack waited for her response.
After a quick look at Brady, Elizabeth agreed that her son could go. “Go get your coat and hat and gloves, Brady, and bring them to me.”
“Any requests?” Jack asked.
“Yes,” Tom said. “I think you should invite Elizabeth to go. I’ll help Carol clean the kitchen and we’ll babysit Jenny.”
“Oh, no!” Elizabeth protested. “I wanted Carol to stay so she could enjoy a nice meal, not to babysit.”
“I think you should go,” Jack said. “We might need help choosing the right tree.”
Brady came running down the stairs, holding his coat, gloves and hat out to his mother.
“I think she’s going with us, Brady, so we can get the best tree possible.”
“You’re going, too, Mommy?” Brady asked, his eyes lighting up even brighter.
“Well?” Jack added.
“Yes, I’ll come if Carol doesn’t mind. But you can leave the dishes for me to do. Jenny will be up soon.”
“We’ll see.”
Brady would’ve taken the first tree they looked at. Jack cautioned him to look at a few more before he made his decision.
Amidst the delicate snow flurries floating in the cold night, Elizabeth wandered the tree-filled stands, her eyes as bright as Brady’s. When Jack saw her pause by a stately Frasier fir and circle it, checking it from every angle, he leaned down and suggested Brady go look at the tree his mother had found.
“Mommy, do you like this one?”
“I love it, Brady, but I think it might be too big.”
“I think it’ll be perfect,” Jack said, coming up behind her. He signaled the man running the tree farm. “We’ll take this one, Jonas.”
“Good choice, Jack. That’s the best tree I have this year.”
Brady beamed up at Jack. “We picked a good one, didn’t we?”
Jack patted the boy on his back. “We definitely did.”
“What do we do now?” Brady asked Jack.
“We pay for the tree, and Jonas here will trim the bottom off so it will soak up the water. Then we’ll put it in our truck and drive it home.”
Elizabeth stepped up and Brady put his arms around his mother, as far as his little arms could go. “Mommy, we’ve got our first Christmas tree!”
She bent down and hugged Brady. “Yes, we do, Brady, thanks to your grandfather…and Jack.”
Standing there with the snowflakes falling around them, mother and son looked so content, so beautiful that Jack couldn’t take his eyes off them.
They looked like an advertisement for the holiday season.
The perfect family.
Only one thing was missing. A dad.
Chapter Seven
EVEN though they didn’t decorate the tree that evening, Brady was still excited. Elizabeth was, too, though she tried not to admit it.
Jack watched both of them, enjoying their excitement. He and Tom hadn’t bothered with much Christmas in the past couple of years. After losing his wife, and then his son turning his back on him, Tom never seemed to be in the holiday spirit.
Nor had Jack.
He hadn’t even gone back home the last few Christmases.
It wasn’t that he wouldn’t have been welcome. It just seemed so much easier to stay at the Ransom Ranch. Besides, Jack needed him.
Now, though, he realized how much they’d missed. Now that they had someone to share Christmas with.
They put the tree in a bucket of water in the barn. Even though it was cold, Brady stood there, starin at the tree, as if he thought it might jump up and start dancing around.
“Brady, you need to come in now. It’s cold out here.” Jack reached out to take the little boy’s hand. “Come on, let’s go inside.”
“But I think our tree might get lonely.”
“No, sweetie, trees won’t get lonely. You can come see it tomorrow morning, if you wear your coat and gloves.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
Jack took his hand and led him to the house.
“Oh, I’m glad you’ve come in. There’s a Christmas special on television,” Carol exclaimed as they came into the house. She was carrying Jenny, warming up her bottle.
“Go on back to the television room, Carol. I’ll bring Jenny’s bottle as soon as it’s warmed,” Elizabeth said.
“Okay, but I’ll let you feed her. You haven’t spent much time with her.”
“Thank you, Carol,” Elizabeth said.
Brady had already run to the television, joining his grandfather. He shouted to Elizabeth, “Mommy, it’s Frosty the Snowman.”
“Brady still sounds excited.” Jack was taking off his coat in the kitchen, hanging it on a peg by the door.
“He’ll probably be excited until Christmas is over,” Elizabeth said. The timer on the microwave beeped, indicating the bottle she’d put was ready.
“Here, let me have your coat,” Jack said, holding out his hand.
“Thank you.” She slipped out of her coat and handed it to him. Then she took the warm bottle and went into the television room. He followed her in.
Carol handed over Jenny, and Elizabeth settled in an upholstered chair and began feeding Jenny, talking to her about the Christmas tree they’d bought.
“Next year she can go with us.”
Elizabeth jerked her head up to find Jack standing beside her chair. “I didn’t know you were there.”
“I didn’t want Jenny to think we’d forgotten her.”
“She’s too little to go to buy a tree this year, but I wanted her to know that next year we won’t leave her at home.”
“That’s right, little Jenny. I’ll be sure to take you.”
Jack perched on the arm of the chair and continued to chat with Jenny. Her big blue eyes stared right at his face, following his every movement.
Elizabeth listened to Jack, too, hoping against hope that what he said was true. That there’d be a next year for them all to get a Christmas tree together. That they’d go see Santa and write a wish list to give him.
She had a wish list. She wished that Jack had been her husband, not Reggie. Jack wouldn’t have been unwilling to claim their daughter, as Reggie had. He wouldn’t have ignored his children, his wife.
She’d never understood Reggie. But she did understand that she’d never marry again. Not when her first marriage had been such a disaster.
The only good that had come out of her marriage were her children.
Now she would be able to take care of them the way they deserved. To be the kind of mother she’d always wanted to be. With the money transferred to her name she could stay home until Jenny went to school.
While she’d been thinking, she realized Jenny had finished her bottle.
Taking the bottle from Jenny’s mouth, she patted the baby on her back and burped her until she had success. Then she got up from the chair and carried the baby upstairs.
When she returned, her son was asleep on his grandfather’s shoulder. She leaned down to take him upstairs, but Jack stopped her.
“I’ll take him upstairs.”
“But he’s got to get undressed. I’ll come up with you.”
Once they reached Brady’s room, Elizabeth found his pajamas and changed him without waking him up.
“Man, he’s a deep sleeper,” Jack said.
“Yes, he is,” Elizabeth said with a smile.
“How did you manage while you were pregnant?”
“We didn’t go out often.”
“I don’t guess Reggie came to see you?”
“No. Especially not with the second pregnancy.”
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t want Jenny.”
“I don’t think that’s how babies are created.”
“Don’t tell Reggie that.”
