“Exactly what I said,” Richard told her.
“This is my favorite service of the year,” Maisey told them both, her chin set stubbornly. “Now you two stop pestering me and let me enjoy it.”
Richard’s gaze caught Anna Louise’s. She grinned at him. “At least get her inside where it’s warm. There will be hot chocolate and cookies at my place afterward. Will you join us?”
“Have you ever known me to miss a party?” Maisey retorted before Richard could get in a word. She tugged on his arm. “Let’s find a seat before they’re all taken.”
Inside the church, pine boughs and red ribbon had been used to decorate the ends of the pews. Thick white candles burned at the front of the church, their soft glow creating an atmosphere of quiet serenity.
They had been seated for no more than a couple of minutes when Mabel Hartley struck the first chords of “Joy to the World” on the piano. The choir led the congregation in the familiar carol. Maisey’s sweet soprano carried above the others. Even to Richard’s jaded ears, the sound was joyous. He listened for Anna Louise’s deeper, richer tones but couldn’t detect her voice amid all the others. He felt a sharp nudge from Maisey’s elbow.
“Sing,” she muttered when he glanced down at her. She lifted her hymnal so he could see the words.
At first he resisted, but his grandmother was watching him so hopefully that he finally began to mouth the once-familiar refrain. They went through the same thing with each carol. Richard stood stiff and silent, until Maisey poked him in the side. Then he at least formed the words, lip-synching along, regretting that he couldn’t recapture the feelings of wonder and anticipation that he had once felt as a boy on Christmas Eve.
The talk of peace on earth, goodwill toward men seemed like an empty refrain to him.
Slowly, though, the carols and passages of Scripture carried him back to another time in his life, a time when his parents had been alive and happy and anything had seemed possible. The hard knot in his chest began to ease.
By the time the service ended with Anna Louise’s clear voice singing the opening notes of “Silent Night,” an unfamiliar sensation seemed to be creeping through him. He realized with a sense of amazement that what he was feeling was a rare moment of absolute contentment.
* * *
Anna Louise stood in the doorway to the kitchen, listening to the laughter of her congregation, watching the excited children slowly give in to exhaustion. These people had become her family over the past few years. They had welcomed her. At times they had tested and challenged her. On occasion they had frustrated and angered her. But always they had filled her heart with their basic generosity and kindness. The people of Kiley were good people. She wondered if she would be with them this time next year.
“Why so sad?” Richard asked, coming up beside her.
“Just thinking ahead.”
“Afraid you’ll find only coal in your stocking tomorrow morning?”
She met his laughing gaze. “You’re the one who ought to be worrying about that. You’re much naughtier than I am.”
“We could change that.”
Anna Louise sighed, the sound a mixture of longing and regret. “You know we can’t,” she said, her voice far too wistful.
“Would the people of Kiley be appalled if I gave you a Christmas kiss? You are standing right here under the mistletoe, you know.”
She thought of how she had imagined just such a kiss when she’d hung the mistletoe in the doorway. A carefree, innocent kiss. Fat chance. If Richard Walton kissed her, mistletoe or not, there would be nothing innocent about it. She knew from past experience the man would curl her toes. She’d be on her knees praying for forgiveness from now until next Easter.
When she finally looked into Richard’s face again, she caught the amusement.
“If I had to guess, I’d say you took the idea of that kiss and ran with it,” he taunted.
“I was just weighing the benefits with the alternative.”
“Which is?”
“Eternal damnation.”
“For a kiss?”
“For what you and I both know would likely come after,” she said with blunt candor.
“Why, Miss Anna Louise, I can control my baser instincts, if you can.”
His playful mood charmed her, dared her to take chances. “Maybe that’s the problem. A man like you is pure temptation to a woman like me.”
His expression sobered for an instant. “And I have no business teasing you the way I do, do I?”
“No,” she admitted.
“Want me to stop?”
Her gaze clashed with his and her breath caught in her throat at the hint of desire she saw in his eyes. Because she couldn’t manage even a single word, she mutely shook her head. She would not, could not, deny herself this one instant of feeling outrageously desirable.
She felt his fingers against her cheek, just a whisper of a touch that sent longing swirling through her.
“Merry Christmas, Anna Louise,” he said softly.
“Merry Christmas, Richard.”
With that, the sweetest temptation she had ever known walked out the door, his grandmother right behind him.
* * *
The memory of that brief, tender moment stayed with Anna Louise all night long. Sometime toward dawn she recognized that what she was feeling toward Richard Walton wasn’t just some yearning to help him. It wasn’t a professional desire to save his jaded soul. No, what she was feeling was much more personal. She was falling in love with him.
Over the past months she had looked beneath that hard, cynical surface and found the man who cared so deeply that the agony in other parts of the world had irreparably hurt him. Watching him with Maisey, she had caught glimpses of the warmth and generosity he tried so hard to pretend didn’t exist. And she sensed that untapped within him was an unlimited capacity to love, if only someone was willing to work hard enough to cut through the barriers he’d erected.
The discovery that she wanted desperately to be that person left her trembling with anticipation and
