Christmas Nights(6)

A figure climbed out and waved. “Hey Travis!”

Janie nudged him in the leg with her knee. “It’s Stella,” she whispered fiercely. “Let me…”

He stepped back before she finished, and she leapt out of his truck. He experienced a physical pang to have her move away. With a hard shake of his head, he closed the passenger door and tucked his hands in his jacket pockets, following Janie slowly.

“Hey hon, I thought you were spending the night with Kayla,” Janie said as she met Stella on her approach.

“I was supposed to, but she’s got a stomach thing. She was fine earlier, but now she’s throwing up. Her mom came to get her from recital and offered to take me home on the way.” Stella glanced past Janie to Travis and gave a little wave.

“Hey Stella, how’s it going?” he asked, striving for a casual tone.

He was still mentally redirecting his body. A single kiss, and he felt like he was on fire, lust galloping through him. But right here, right now, Janie’s daughter was busy chattering about how much she didn’t want to catch whatever her friend had. Janie stepped past Stella and approached the car to speak through the window.

Travis had reached Stella’s side by then, and she glanced over with a smile. “How was dinner?”

He was unaccustomed to teenage daughters querying him about dates, but he gamely went along with her question. “Dinner was great. How was recital?”

Stella shrugged. “Boring. I’ve got my part down, so mostly I play it over and over while a few others are still trying to nail their parts.”

Janie gave a wave and stepped away from the car, which slowly eased past his truck in the drive and made its way back to the road. Janie reached their side and opened her mouth to speak, but Stella cut in. “We should have Travis in for hot chocolate, Mom.”

“Uh, well, I don’t know if Travis…”

When Janie glanced to him, her eyes questioning, he nodded quickly. He wasn’t ready to give up any time with her. “I’d love to,” he said quickly. When Stella flashed a grin at him, he bit back the urge to laugh. He couldn’t say why, but he sensed he had an ally in her.





Chapter 5





Janie brushed the snow off her windshield and tapped the snowbrush on her tire, knocking the loose snow off. She climbed in her car and turned the heat down. Stella had started her car for her a while ago on her way to get on the bus. Janie paused to look beyond the house. Kachemak Bay sparkled under the bright sunshine. The snowstorm last night had dropped close to a foot of snow and cleared out before morning. The mountains on the far side of the bay were stark against the sky, their white peaks towering high over the water. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She’d barely slept last night. After Travis had kissed her senseless and then stayed for hot chocolate with her and Stella, her mind ran laps most of the night—obsessing over just what the hell she’d been thinking by kissing him.

Just because you’ve been avoiding men for years doesn’t mean you should keep doing it. It’s not worth it, that’s why. You know perfectly well not all men are anything like your mom’s ex. Stop letting the past call the shots.

She shook her head, trying to knock her mind off its back and forth chatter. She had one very good reason for avoiding men. After her father died, her mother got involved with Randy Price. He was charming and solicitous at first. Within six months, he’d moved in with them and Janie was struggling to accept the possibility her mother might get married again. She’d adored her father and had been devastated when he died in a fishing accident in the Bering Sea during crab season. She didn’t actively dislike Randy at first, but it was hard to accept the role he played in her mother’s life and, by extension, hers. After Randy had been living with them for a while, things slowly started to change—the pace was so gradual, nothing was obvious until it was too late. Next thing she knew, her mother rarely left the house and isolated herself from her friends. Randy constantly made belittling comments about her mother’s appearance, her cooking, her cleaning and just about everything. Janie watched her strong, confident and independent mother become a shadow of herself. The man who’d seemed to be caring and loving was anything but.

Janie had been worried about her mother, but she had no idea what to do about it. There were a few times she heard them argue. Bruises showed up every so often on her mother, and her mother always had a quick excuse for how they happened, even once when her eye was swollen shut. She claimed she’d slipped on the ice and collided with the door handle on her car.

Janie was in her early teens by then and, as was often the case, was testing the limits left and right. One afternoon, she talked back to Randy when he complained about her mother’s cooking. He’d looked over at her, his eyes cold, and then stood up, punching her where she sat at the table. Hard. Janie’s chair had toppled over, and she’d curled up on the floor, pain shooting through her jaw where his fist had connected. Her mother stormed across the kitchen and threw a cast iron pan at Randy. He fell like a stone. Janie was the one who called the police and held her mother while she cried. She’d watched while it took her mother several years to make it back to the strong woman she’d once been.

The subsequent trial had been grueling. Even though he’d broken Janie’s jaw and she’d been willing to testify, Randy had fought the charges relentlessly. Janie had learned the hard way how little the courts supported women and children in cases such as that. Since her mother had avoided filing charges on him again and again, there was little official history for Randy’s abusive behavior. He claimed to have learned from past offenses with an ex-girlfriend and had been a model participant in an anger management group. Eventually, he was convicted and sentenced to a puny six months in prison. As soon as he got out, he was back in town and tried again and again to woo her mother back. She managed to hold her ground, but it wore on her. He was arrested yet again when Janie came home to witness him knock her mother out on the front porch. This time, he was sentenced to a full year, which still seemed pathetic to Janie. He hadn’t returned to Diamond Creek in the years since, but Janie kept tabs on him. The last she knew, he was living in Fairbanks and had added to his list of arrests for domestic violence with another girlfriend.

The view had gone hazy in front of her as she thought about why she’d generally avoided men like the plague. Randy had seemed nice at first. She didn’t trust herself to know if someone was out to fool her just like her mother had been fooled. It had nearly destroyed her mother. Until Travis, no man had tempted her to bother trying. With a shake, she forced her mind to the moment. She needed to get to work.

That evening, she sat in the back of the high school auditorium while Stella gamely played through another piece during recital practice. Piano had turned out to be a saving grace for Stella. She was naturally gifted and loved playing. It was the one activity Janie had managed to nudge Stella into during the first few years after she’d started staying with Janie. Stella had been socially awkward and shy, preferring to be invisible back then. She was still on the shy side, but piano lessons and her subsequent participation in band at school had helped her find friends and gave her something to be proud of.

Janie and a few other mothers took turns carpooling for the kids in recital practices, and tonight was her turn. She used the time to grade homework and plan assignments out for her classes. She finished one stack of spelling homework and slipped it into a folder.

“Hey Janie,” someone said.

She glanced up at the sound of her name and grinned when she saw Ginger Sanders sidling her way down the narrow aisle. Ginger was a speech therapist at school with her. They often took lunches together. Ginger’s straight dark hair was tied back with a bright red ribbon.

She plunked down beside Janie with an elaborate sigh, her blue eyes twinkling when she glanced to Janie. “Grading homework, huh?”

Janie nodded. “Of course. I usually get all caught up when I’m on carpool duty. What brings you here?”

“We had to schedule a few planning meetings for some kids, and Principal Turner decided we should do them after school.” Ginger rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I’ve worked with Nancy for years, but it’s always driven me nuts that she wants to do things after hours.”

Janie returned the eye roll. “I know. God love her, but the few times I’ve been stuck doing that, we’re there for hours.”

Ginger nodded emphatically. “Exactly! It’s almost eight o’clock! Anyway, when I was passing by, I saw you hiding back here, so I thought I’d pop in. What’s up?”

“The usual. You know how busy it’s been at school. Between that and Stella, that’s my life.” As she made the comment, she realized how true it rang. That was her life—work and her daughter. She loved her job and loved Stella to pieces. When she’d become a foster parent, she hoped to simply be able to be there for children passing through rough times. She never forgot that if she hadn’t had a mother who stood up for her and a family to rely on, she might very well have ended up in a similar situation because of Randy. Yet, she hadn’t counted on Stella landing in her lap and almost instantly crawling into her heart. Adopting Stella brought so much to her, and she felt so enriched by how their family had come to be. Yet, beyond that and her own family and friends, her world was a small circle. Travis, who seemed permanently camped in the edges of her mind now, strode boldly front and center.