“We’ll be gone for about an hour,” she informed him as she wrapped herself in her favorite soft red scarf. Miss Carolyn knit it for her last year, and though it was full of holes and missed stitches, Kate couldn’t bear to leave home without it. “Are you going to change the locks while we’re out?”
“I could come with you.”
Kate blinked. The offer… It sounded generous and kind. Which couldn’t be true because she wasn’t sure Clark Woodward had a generous or kind bone in his body. Kate’s pulse quickened.
“What?”
“It’s…” He cleared his throat. “Your things are heavy. I could drive you, I mean. That way you don’t have to carry them back down the hill.”
“Really?”
“It would be easier than taking this down by ourselves,” Michael offered, though his skepticism was plainly written on every corner of his face.
“It will be good,” Clark said. “You know, for the people in town to get to know me.”
…Before you take their jobs away. Kate struggled with this Clark Woodward character. Every time she thought she got him, every time she saw some light poking out through the cracks in his walls, she remembered why she was here in the first place. He was close to destroying the town, trying to take away everything they held dear.
She wanted to see the best in him, and more than anything she wanted to find a way to make him happy in the same way his family made this town happy for so many years. And yet…he seemed to go out of his way to make himself out to be the biggest jerk around. Until now. Until this moment.
“All right.” Kate handed him one of the crates, groaning under its weight. What had they bought these kids, lead bricks? “Take this. And pull the car around. We’ll be out in a minute.”
They departed. Emily and Kate remained in the living room. When the door closed behind the two men, signaling that they were really alone, Emily’s mouth popped into a perfect O and her eyes widened with fake horror.
“Wow. He’s…”
Kate held up a silencing hand. She didn’t need to like Clark to make her plan work, but she wanted to like Clark. No one deserved to be miserable at Christmas, not even the very cruel, but it would make things so much easier if she felt he had even a chance of being a good man.
“I’ve never heard you say a bad thing about another person. Don’t start now.”
“That’s not true. You’ve heard me say many bad things about many people. Most people, actually.”
“Still.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything bad about him. Just…”
“Just what?”
Emily’s hesitation spoke louder than any condemnation ever could. She was one of the most passive-aggressive, backhanded-compliment people Kate ever knew. You’d be on the receiving end of the world’s most beautiful smile while being told you’re a moron, but she’d say it so you thought she was lavishing praise on you. In the end, she picked up a storage tub, shook her head once, and said in the most piteous voice Kate ever heard:
“Bless his heart.”
Even if Clark hadn’t told her he’d rented this car, Kate could have guessed it. The sleek silver car hid a leather interior with a control panel so futuristic it might as well have been ripped out of a Star Trek ship. She could imagine him driving around Dallas in a usually broken-down clunker before she could imagine him forking over the thousands of dollars this car probably cost.
In the front seat, Michael guided Clark down the hill and the twisting, turning roads leading them to the back roads of Miller’s Point. Out here, things were even quieter than in town, if such a thing were possible. Kate’s request to turn the radio to 109.7, the local station that played all the holiday hits from yesterday and today, was firmly denied, and they rode into town in total silence, save for Michael’s occasional navigation tips.
“Yeah, and just pull in here.”
They turned up the familiar drive to the Lewisham house, where little Bradley and his family would be waiting for them. Sure enough, when they passed the tree line towards their humble house, Bradley sat on the front steps, tapping his feet and twiddling the famous Tiny Tim cane. Apparently, last night no one had the heart to tell him he couldn’t bring the costumes home. Kate’s gaze flickered to Clark. Was he heartless enough to take a fake cane worth less than three dollars from a little boy?
Probably not… Right?
Before the car even lurched to a stop, Bradley launched himself at the machine, shouting Kate’s name as loud as he could. It was a good thing no one else lived out here, or he’d be disturbing the entire neighborhood.
“Miss Kate! Miss Kate!”
No matter how many times she heard it, she always got a thrill of the maternal every time one of the children in the festival called out to her. Leaving the donation tub behind her, she leapt out of the car and scooped him into her arms, hugging him tight.
“How’s it going, Bradley?”
Bradley, as it turned out, wasn’t interested in telling her about his day. Missing front tooth and all, he spluttered, “Are we going back? Is the festival back on again? Do I need to go get my hat?”
The belief in his eyes that everything was set right again stabbed a knife straight between her eyes. This boy with the saucer-big brown eyes believed she had the power to wave a magic wand and make everything well again.
She hoped she could prove him right.
“No, buddy. We’re still working all of that out, but—”
“Will you tell me why?”
Still holding him in her arms—he was too big for
