The Christmas Gift. Darlene Gardner

I was in the hospital.”

      “You shouldn’t have told her you were dying,” Joe said.

      “I did nothing of the sort!” Eleanor denied. “You better watch what you say to me, Joe. If you stress me out, my ulcers will come back.”

      “I talked to your doctor,” Joe retorted. “He said your ulcers were caused by bacteria.”

      “Probably caused by bacteria,” Eleanor said. “Not definitely.”

      “I’m gonna hang up my coat,” Alex announced before Joe came back with another zinger. It used to seem to Alex that the Novaks were on the brink of divorce until he realized they enjoyed arguing. They were actually the most devoted couple Alex knew. Eleanor acted as Joe’s nurse. Joe had cried when Eleanor had been admitted to the hospital. “Dad, can I take your coat?”

      Alex’s father handed over his black overcoat, then slipped off his fake white beard and gave that to Alex, too. “Can’t risk getting food in my valuables.”

      Alex smiled and headed for the coat closet in the foyer, one ear listening for Krista’s return. He admitted to himself he was angling for a moment alone with her. He stepped back to make room when she came in the front door.

      In her high-heeled boots, she was only a few inches shorter than him. For a moment, they stared at each other and it seemed to Alex that electricity rather than blood flowed through his veins.

      He finally found his voice. “How have you been?”

      “Fine.” She cleared her throat, the sound a sexy purr. “Now that I’ve gotten over the shock of seeing you in my parents’ kitchen.”

      “My dad and I are here a lot,” Alex said. “We couldn’t ask for better neighbors.”

      She tilted her head quizzically. “You live with your dad? In this neighborhood?”

      When she knew him, Alex had been renting a one-bedroom apartment in downtown Jarrell above a hardware store. Back then, his father had lived in an equally small condo he’d purchased after Alex’s mother died and he sold the house where Alex had grown up.

      “I moved in when he bought the house next door,” Alex said.

      “Recently?” Krista asked.

      “Three years ago,” Alex said.

      “Nobody told me,” Krista muttered.

      Nobody should have to tell her. If she visited her parents even semiregularly, she’d know who their neighbors were.

      She unbuttoned her coat and slipped it off to reveal a long blue sweater worn over skinny black jeans tucked into her boots. The clothes were wrinkled from traveling, but the jeans outlined the shape of her lovely legs and the sweater hugged her breasts. He took the coat from her and missed the rod on his first attempt at hanging it up.

      “How long are you home for?” he asked.

      “Now that I know Mom’s okay,” she said, “just until the day after Christmas.”

      The news hit Alex like a snowball to the face. Holding back his reaction would have been impossible. “You’re kidding me! That’s only four days. You haven’t been home in eight years!”

      Krista’s spine stiffened and her chin lifted. “I wasn’t going to come at all. I made other plans.”

      “Are your plans more important than being with your family?” Alex had witnessed Eleanor’s tears when she talked about how much she missed her daughter. “Look at the lengths your mother went to get you here.”

      “You’re out of line,” Krista said tightly.

      “Why?” Alex shot back. “Because I’m telling you something you don’t want to hear?”

      She glared at him.

      “Alex! Krista!” Eleanor’s voice drowned out the Christmas carols drifting through the house. “Time for dinner.”

      Alex swept a hand in front of him, calling himself a fool for maneuvering to be alone with her. “After you.”

      With a toss of her head, Krista preceded him into the kitchen. He fought to keep his eyes from dipping to the sway of her hips, reminding himself that what had happened between them had been very brief and very long ago.

      He’d been right to break things off the instant Krista told him she was moving to Europe, no matter how wrenching the decision had been.

      A woman who could stay away from her family for eight years, returning home for a few days only because she thought her mother was gravely ill, was not the one for him.

      KRISTA COULD BARELY taste the honey ham she was chewing, although she was sure it met her grandma’s excellent standards. Her body was still on Prague time, where it was 2:00 a.m. That wasn’t all.

      The mother she thought was dying sat at one end of the long dining room table, her paralyzed father at the other. Grandma smiled and laughed like nothing had changed and the only man Krista had slept with after one date was seated next to her in silent disapproval.

      Krista felt like she was caught in a snow globe after it had been shaken. Her vision seemed hazy and her equilibrium off. Her temper, though, was still broiling. How dare Alex judge her when he didn’t know the whole story?

      “Nobody’s said why Rayna isn’t here.” Krista and her sister weren’t close. Krista had made some overtures over the years and the miles, but Rayna seldom responded.

      “She’s working,” Alex answered. He would have been easier to ignore if he didn’t smell better than the food. “The dentist is open late for the next few days.”

      Did that mean Rayna already had her associate’s degree in dental hygiene? Krista was relatively sure her sister was still taking classes at a community college near Harrisburg but could be wrong. Krista certainly wouldn’t ask, not with Alex in the room.

      “Why didn’t you bring your girlfriend, Alex?” her father asked.

      Krista refused to acknowledge her sense of disappointment. It didn’t matter to her if Alex was involved with someone. Come to think of it, why wasn’t he married? Even eight years ago, it had seemed to Krista he’d been in the market for a relationship with a future.

      “Alex broke up with Cindy before Thanksgiving,” Krista’s mother answered before Alex could. “Don’t you remember, Joe?”

      “How am I supposed to remember all Alex’s women?” Her father sat in his wheelchair instead of one of the dining room chairs, a constant reminder that he was paralyzed from the waist down. “Seems like he has a new girl every year.”

      Krista thought a year was a long time. She couldn’t remember the last guy she’d dated for more than a few months.

      “He’s looking for the right woman so he can settle down and raise a family,” Ellie said. “Aren’t you, Alex?”

      Grandma wagged a finger at her daughter-in-law. “Don’t put Alex on the spot like that, Ellie. I’m sure he doesn’t like it.”

      “I wouldn’t keep coming over here if I minded.” Alex smiled at her mother, but Krista noticed he hadn’t answered the question. She wondered if both Krista and her mother had Alex pegged wrong. He was thirty-two, after all. Maybe he was a serial dater, like Krista.

      “You can ask me about Charlie,” her grandmother said.

      Krista felt like someone had just shaken the snow globe harder. Who was Charlie?

      “He’s auditioning to be my new beau.” Grandma addressed Krista, answering one of her unspoken questions but raising others. Auditioning? “Your grandpa’s been gone a long time so I figured it was time I got myself one. You’ll never guess where I met him.”

      “The senior citizen’s center?” Krista guessed.