The Christmas Gift

“How did you know she was going to do that?” Krista asked.

“Lucky guess,” Alex said. “I’m gonna grab a quick lunch. There are sandwiches, chips and drinks in the back room. Want to join me?”

“I can’t,” she said. “I’m going to relieve my mom at the ball crawl. She needs the break more than I do.”

“Good luck convincing her of that,” Alex said.

“Oh, I’ll do it,” Krista vowed. “I can be very persuasive. It’s a Novak family trait.”

She sashayed away from him, her elf dress swishing as she walked. He watched her until she rounded an aisle and was out of sight, helpless to look away.

If she carried through on her threat to proposition him, he wasn’t entirely certain he’d be able to resist.

Especially if she added persuasion into the mix.

RAYNA NOVAK HURRIED through the parking lot to the flat gray building, her scarf shielding her face from the wind. She pushed through one of the double glass doors, expecting to be enveloped in warmth. Then she remembered.

An ice hockey rink was not the place to go in the winter if you wanted to be cozy. She unwrapped her scarf, slipped off her gloves and followed the sounds of men’s voices and blades sliding on ice.

Peering through the glass that partitioned off the rink to the scoreboard, she determined the ice hockey game was tied at two goals a piece in the third period.

A team of men in mismatched dark hockey sweaters, some with numbers affixed with masking tape, skated against players wearing white.

The swiftest of them wore the number seven because he claimed it was lucky. He stole the puck at the center line and streaked toward the goal with two much slower defenders in pursuit. He faked left, shot right and missed the goal entirely.

He swore, loud enough that Rayna heard from off the ice.

“Showing off for your girl doesn’t count unless you finish, Trey,” one of his teammates yelled.

Trey ignored him and narrowly lost out to an opposing player as they both chased down the puck.

Trey Farina’s girl.

Rayna supposed that was who she was. They’d been dating for about a year even though neither she nor Trey had ever discussed where their relationship was headed. They hadn’t agreed to be exclusive, either. They just were.

Rayna shivered. She hugged herself, not sure whether her tremble was from the cold or from what she had to tell Trey. Rayna had only found out herself that morning, a few minutes before her absentee sister woke up. The revelation had consumed Rayna so that she’d barely been able to perform her duties at the dentist’s office today.

In an alternate universe, she would have confided in Krista. An alternate universe where her sister was a friend rather than a stranger she hadn’t seen in eight years.

“Rayna, over here.” A petite woman in her twenties with a mass of curly red hair motioned to Rayna from mostly empty silver bleachers. Her name was Mimi. She moved over, patting the metal surface beside her.

“Trey’s having a good game,” Mimi told Rayna as she sat down. “He scored one of the goals and assisted on the other.”

“How about Bob?” Rayna asked, referring to the woman’s husband.

Mimi laughed. “Scoreless, the same as always. What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were too busy at the dentist’s office to come to the games.”

Rayna wouldn’t be here today, either, if she didn’t need to get Trey alone, a nearly impossible feat. He lived in a house with three other guys, one of whom was always around.

“The office closed early today,” Rayna said. “I stopped by to remind Trey he’s supposed to come Christmas caroling tonight with my family.”

“Smart girl,” Mimi said. “There’s already talk of going drinking after the game. You’ve got to keep your guy in check. That’s why I’m here.”

A tremendous shout erupted from the ice. Arms up-raised, Trey stood in front of the net and a sprawling goalie. The referee signaled a good goal with a tomahawk chop of his arm. Trey’s teammates on the ice mobbed him with hugs.

“Applaud,” Mimi told her. “That way Trey will think you saw him score the winning goal.”

Less than a minute remained in the game. The trailing team pulled its goalie to get an extra skater on the ice, but this was low-level ice hockey. The offensive players weren’t skilled enough to keep control of the puck. The buzzer sounded, signaling the end of the game.

Trey let out a victory whoop. He skated past Rayna, stick raised in the air. She smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. While Trey went through the postgame handshake line, Rayna walked to the spot where the players came off the ice.

Trey finished shaking hands with the opposing team members first and skated full tilt toward her, executing a hockey stop before he reached the exit. Ice shards sprayed in the air.

“Woooo-hoooo!” he cried.

He stepped onto the threadbare carpet. Trey wasn’t the best-looking man Rayna had ever dated, but his looks were compelling. Thick brown hair, blue eyes that danced with excitement, well-shaped lips that were almost always smiling.

Rayna thought she’d fallen in love the first time she’d seen him, when he’d sauntered into the dentist’s office for a checkup.

“Did you see that goal?” Trey yelled.

Before she could answer, Trey bent down, swept her into his arms and kissed her. She had to stand on tiptoe because in his skates, he was about three inches taller than normal. His cool lips sent hot sensation sweeping through her—nothing new. She always reacted to him that way. She never wanted his kisses to stop, either, though they inevitably did.

“Mimi said you had two goals today,” Rayna said.

“It was a good day at the office!” Trey didn’t actually work at an office. He was twenty-two, a year older than Rayna but not as sure what to do with his life. He was currently working as a manager at a trendy clothing store and talking about going to bartending school. Sometimes when Alex and his father were particularly busy, Trey helped out at Costas Landscaping.

“I’ll shower and change clothes,” Trey said. “Wait for me, okay?”

“Sure.” Rayna moved toward the now-empty bleachers and took a seat. She wasn’t sure where Mimi was but Trey had stopped outside the locker room to drink at the water fountain.

Trey’s teammates skated off the ice, laughing and talking. None of them looked toward the bleachers, probably because they typically had so few fans in attendance.

“You’re really not coming with us, Bob?” the stockiest player asked Mimi’s husband.

“Can’t,” Bob said. “Mimi has plans.”

“Cancel ’em,” the stocky guy said. “A guy should do what a guy wants to do.”

“Unless he’s married. Then he’s screwed,” another of the players joked as they duck-walked on their ice skates to the locker room. Trey held the door open for them. “You’re coming with us, right, Trey?”

“Damn straight,” Trey answered.

“Your girlfriend won’t mind?”

“She’s cool,” Trey said as he disappeared inside the locker room. Rayna could just make out his next words. “We’re not serious or anything.”

“But—” Rayna started to protest but nobody could hear her. She probably wouldn’t have finished the sentence anyway. If Trey didn’t want to go caroling tonight, she wouldn’t force him.

Not after finding out he wasn’t serious about her.

Rayna got up and headed for the exit, vaguely crossing paths with Mimi. She called to her friend to let Trey know she’d had to leave, then rushed out of the arena, tears already streaming down her face.

She wouldn’t tell Trey she was pregnant, either.

CHAPTER FOUR

IN ALL HER YEARS OF caroling, Krista had never heard a more off-key rendition of “Silent Night.”

Not everybody in their group of eight was hitting sour notes. Krista, her mother and her grandmother could sing a little. Charlie Crosby had a pleasing baritone, Milo Costas was more or less on key and the neighbors who’d joined them were mainstays in the church choir.

That left Alex.

He was singing about sleeping in heavenly peace, confidently belting out the word peace so it sounded as though it had two syllables.

The elderly man and woman just inside the threshold had been smiling since they opened the door to a care basket and a choir. The man’s smile grew. He laughed. The woman poked him in the side with her elbow.

Mirth rose from Krista’s diaphragm, begging for release. She stopped singing and clamped her hand over her mouth. Her chest rose and fell in silent guffaws.

The song ended, and the couple applauded. The elderly man caught Krista’s eye and winked.

Alex was standing next to Krista at the rear of the group. He edged closer and whispered, “Are you and that man laughing at me?”

Krista removed her gloved hand from her mouth to issue a denial, leaving nothing to hold back the laughter. It burst forth, like a car horn. She swallowed it back, only half-successfully.

“No,” she said on a half giggle.

“Yes, you were.” Alex placed a hand over his heart. “I’m wounded.”

“You sounded like it when you were singing,” Krista quipped in a voice only loud enough for Alex to hear and broke into more laughter.

The flat line of Alex’s lips crinkled. Then he laughed, too.

“Shall we sing another carol?” Krista’s mother sent Krista and Alex a withering look. “Mr. and Mrs. Dombrowski enjoy the religious ones.”

Krista clamped her lips together. So did Alex. They exchanged a guilty look, and Krista felt about ten years old. She giggled again. Her mother looked more stern.

“Let’s do ‘Angels We Have Heard on High,’” Grandma Novak suggested.

Krista caught Alex’s eye and placed a shushing finger to her lips. “Not as loud this time. It’s okay to hear the angels, but not you,” she whispered.

“Smart aleck,” he said without heat.

With Krista’s mother directing frequent warning glances in their direction, Krista got through the carol without laughing. It helped that Alex took her advice and turned down the volume.

While the couple thanked them, Krista grabbed Alex’s hand. “Let’s get out of here before my mom has a chance to scold us. I know the way to the next house.”

Krista wasn’t so much afraid of her mother as she was eager for an adventure. Caroling had never been so much fun. “Faster,” she said over her shoulder, smiling at Alex.

He smiled back. He wore gloves and a brown winter jacket made of a fabric that retained heat. He was hatless, his thick black hair rustled by the wind. With his skin ruddy from the cold, he looked vital and alive.

For the hundredth time that day, Krista thought about what the blonde had said at the Christmas shop. Was it really possible that Krista had broken Alex’s heart? She couldn’t put much credence to it. Their relationship, however intense, had been too brief. Neither could she get the possibility out of her mind.

“Krista! Alex! Wait!”

They’d barely made it twenty yards down the sidewalk before Krista’s mother hailed them. She was securely wrapped in order to fend off the cold, with only her face showing through an ice-blue scarf. “What got into you two back there? The seniors want to hear you sing, not laugh.”

Krista remembered the delight in Mr. Dombrowski’s eyes when his gaze met hers. “I think Mr. Dombrowski liked it.”

“Only after you started to behave,” Krista’s mother said. “I know you haven’t been home in a long time, Krista, but you know how important this program is to your grandmother.”

Krista did know. Grandma had come up with the idea years ago to deliver holiday care baskets accompanied by Christmas carols to the elderly and shut-ins of the community. Grandma got lists of names and addresses of the willing from area senior centers and assigned caroling teams routes, with most of the stops within walking distance. This year, the Novaks’ group had five destinations.

“We’ll be good from now on.” Krista caught Alex’s eye and waggled her brows. “Won’t we, Alex?”

He did a nice job keeping a straight face. “We will.”

“You have to hold up your end of the bargain, too, Mom,” Krista said. “One house and then you go home.”

Her mom had only struck the deal after the Novaks threatened en masse to call off the caroling.

“I know your tricks, Krista Novak.” Her mother wagged a finger. “You’re trying to deflect attention from yourself. If you think that will work, you—”

“Look, there’s Rayna,” Krista interrupted, nodding toward her sister, who was walking toward them with the rest of the group. “Didn’t you say she was bringing her boyfriend, Mom?”

“Why, yes. Trey’s supposed to be with her.” Her mother’s forehead creased. “I’ll go find out what happened.”

She left Alex and Krista and headed for Rayna.

“Nice misdirection,” Alex said.

“Thank you.” Krista executed a little bow. “I learned that from my Grandma. Anytime Mom says something Grandma doesn’t like, Grandma changes the subject. That’s probably how she’s been able to live under the same roof with my mom all these years.”

“I think it’s because Grandma Novak doesn’t take herself too seriously.” Alex had resumed walking toward the next house on their list, and Krista fell into step beside him. “She keeps things in the house light.”

“You mean because my dad’s in a wheelchair?” Krista couldn’t hold back the question, both wanting to hear how her father was coping eight and a half years after the accident and not wanting to know. Except couldn’t she make an educated guess? Her father had been mostly sequestered in the office by himself since she arrived. That didn’t paint a picture of a well-adjusted man.

“Well, yeah,” he said, “but not only because your dad’s paralyzed. Rayna’s twenty-one going on thirty-one, and your parents…how can I say this…? They like to agree to disagree.”

Krista couldn’t have summed up her family more succinctly than that, especially Rayna. She didn’t know her sister well enough to make an astute observation.

“Diplomatically put,” she said.

“Eleanor and Joe don’t put anything diplomatically,” Alex said with a grin. “Used to freak me out until I caught on that was the way they interacted.”

It had taken Krista most of her childhood to reach that realization. “You know my family awfully well.”

“That happens when you live next door,” he said.

Even though he openly disapproved of her own dealings with her family, Krista couldn’t pass up this chance to find out more about her sister’s life. She already knew Rayna had five months of school left. It was the personal stuff that interested Krista more.

“Do you know what the deal is with Rayna’s boyfriend?” she asked. “Any guess why he didn’t show tonight?”

“Trey? It’s hard to sum him up. He’s a bit of a free spirit.”

“So he’s irresponsible?” Krista asked.

“More like irrepressible. It’s impossible not to like the guy. If there’s a good time to be had, Trey will find it,” Alex said. “But he’s not the caroling type.”

“Neither are you,” Krista pointed out.

“Hey, I come every year,” he said.

“Do you always sing so loud?”

“Pretty much. I fake confidence.” He laughed. “That’s what us guys do when we’re in over our heads.”

“Good thing I’m here to keep you in line,” Krista said.

“Oh, yeah. I just love having a woman around who’s blunt enough to tell me I sound like I’m dying.”

“Not dying—wounded,” Krista said. “The wounded have greater lung capacity.”

He threw back his head and let out another deep chuckle. Krista joined in. They’d laughed a lot in the past, too, including over the spilled poinsettias. She found it attractive that he didn’t take himself too seriously.

Grandma Novak caught up to them on the sidewalk with Charlie Crosby next to her. “We’re sticking with you two. You’re having more fun than everyone else.”

“It does the heart good to see a young couple enjoying each other,” Charlie remarked.

Krista shook her head. “We’re not a couple.”

“Really?” Charlie wore a long black coat with a top hat that might have looked foolish on anyone else. On Charlie, it looked dignified. “You’ve never been a couple?”

Krista exchanged a look with Alex, silently requesting help in how to handle the situation. He shrugged.

“Aha! I saw that look!” Grandma cried. “I knew something went on between you after the poinsettias dropped!”

“It was a long time ago, Grandma.” To Charlie, she clarified, “Eight years.”

Charlie tipped his top hat. “Bully for you for managing to keep the spark alive.”

Charlie could tell there was still fire between them? That could only lead to problems. “Alex and I didn’t keep in touch.”

“So the spark reignited?” Charlie asked.

“There is no spark,” Krista lied. She tugged on Alex’s arm. “Tell them, Alex.”

“No spark,” he agreed.

“Can both the lady and gentleman protest too much?” Grandma asked.

Krista was about to object more vigorously when her grandmother laughed. “You should see your face, Krista. We’re teasing!”

“I wasn’t,” Charlie stated. “I really think they look like a couple.”

The rest of the carolers were gaining on them. Krista expected her mother to be leading the way, demanding to know what they’d been discussing. Her mom, though, must have kept her word and returned home.

“Appearances can be deceiving,” Krista told Charlie with more levity than she felt.

At the next house, Milo was deputized to ring the doorbell because he carried the care basket corresponding to the address.

Alex stepped aside so his father could move to the front of the group. “It’s come to my attention that it’s better if I keep to the rear,” Alex remarked.

Milo patted his son on the shoulder. “Somebody finally told you that you can’t sing, huh?” He nodded at Krista. “Good girl.”

“I took it like a man,” Alex said. “Didn’t even cry.”

Krista grinned at him. Alex smiled back.

“You two are the cutest couple!” the neighbor lady who sang in the church choir remarked as she passed by with her husband to their rightful place at the front and center of the carolers.

“Did I hear right?” Rayna was the last to arrive. She addressed her question to Alex, not even glancing at Krista. “Do you and my sister have something going on?”

“Nope,” Alex said. “Not a thing.”

Krista listened to Alex’s casual denial with dismay. He seemed to think this troubling development was no big deal. If she were a member of just about any other family, she’d be inclined to agree. Priority number one was getting Alex alone so she could explain the precariousness of their situation.

It was either that or suffer through a couple days of hell.

ALEX HAD NEVER BEEN more glad for a song to be over.

The temperature seemed to have dropped at least ten degrees since they’d started caroling, although there was no sign of the snow that was in the forecast.

Grandma Novak had invited everybody to her house for hot chocolate and eggnog. The group made excellent time traveling the few blocks back to White Point Road, possibly because the wind was at their back.

“Mulled wine would be good, too,” Grandma remarked before she went into the house. “I know we have mulling spices but I’m not sure how much wine we’ve got.”

“We have some wine,” Alex offered. “I’ll stop by next door and get a bottle.”

“I’ll come with you,” Krista offered.

Alex wondered at her change of heart. Since they’d been mistaken for a couple, Krista had maneuvered to keep one caroler between them at all times.

“I’m anxious to see what Alex and his dad have done with the house. I used to play over there all the time when I was a kid.” Krista broadcast her reason as though she were a politician addressing an assembly. It gained her curious looks.

“We haven’t done much.” Milo stomped his feet and rubbed his hands to keep warm. “Why do you think we always hang out at your parents’ house?”

“Go on, you two.” Grandma Novak swept her right arm toward the house next door. “And take your time. There’s no rush on the mulled wine.”

The inside of the one-story ranch-style home where Alex lived with his father was nearly identical in layout to the Novaks’. A living room, kitchen and dining room accounted for one side of the house. A hall leading to the bedrooms and bathroom took up the other. The warmth from the radiator heating system made it feel cozy after the chill of the outdoors. Alex cocked an eyebrow at Krista’s scarf, hat and red winter coat.

“If you take all that off for the tour, you’ll just have to put it back on again,” he said.

“I’m not here for a tour!” Krista sounded as though she were stating the obvious when the situation was anything but.

“If I didn’t know better,” Alex said, slowly drawing out the words, “I’d think you were trying to get me alone.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

Alex’s muscles tensed, and the temperature in the room seemed higher than it had mere moments ago. Was Krista finally following through on the hypothetical she’d posed in the car? Was she propositioning him?

“We need to put a stop to this couple nonsense straight away,” Krista said.

Alex felt like a fool. The entire caroling group knew he and Krista were alone in his house. Of course she hadn’t been about to propose they make wild, passionate love. “And here I thought you were open to the idea.”

“To having another fling! Not to being a couple! Can you imagine what my mother would make of that?”

Alex wasn’t looking to build a lasting relationship with Krista, either, but hearing her reject the idea so forcefully stung. “Hate to break this to you,” he said, “but you added fuel to the fire by insisting on coming over here.”

Alex headed for the rear of the house and the wine rack he’d had built into the cabinetry a few years back when they’d had the kitchen remodeled. He examined the selection, aware without turning that she was close behind him.

“How else could I get a private moment with you?” Krista asked. “We need to discourage people from thinking we’re an item.”

The twelve-bottle wine rack was half-full, with a number of different types of red wines represented. “Any idea what kind of wine is best for mulling?”

“What? No,” Krista said. “I don’t have the faintest idea.”

“Maybe a merlot.” Alex had a choice of two brands, pulled out the less expensive bottle and held it up to her. “I got this one at the grocery store. I’m no connoisseur but I wouldn’t put mulling spices in fine wine.”

“Neither would—” Krista stopped talking midsentence. “Why are we talking about wine? We’re wasting time. We need a strategy.”

She’d taken off her hat, the only concession to being indoors, and the static electricity in her hair caused it to frizz. Her nose, the one he disagreed was too long, was red from the prolonged exposure to the cold. So were her lips. She’d looked so put together since arriving that he enjoyed seeing her frazzled.

“Why?” he asked. “What does it matter what your mother thinks?”

“You know what she’s like, Alex,” Krista said. “She’ll use any means possible to get me to move back to Pennsylvania. If she believes we have something going, that’s leverage.”

“I still don’t get it,” he said. “If you know you’re staying in Prague, what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that she’ll make my life miserable!”

“So tell her there’s nothing going on,” Alex suggested.

“It’ll have to be the truth.” Krista touched him on the sleeve of his jacket. “This flirting we’ve been doing, it can’t go any further.”

“We’ve been flirting?” he asked.

“I have.” She squeezed his arm. “I can’t forget how great we were in bed together. You were there. You must remember, too.”

Oh, yeah. He remembered.

“The past is the past,” Alex said. “The present is a whole new ball game.”

“So you’re not attracted to me anymore?” she demanded.