Twelve Days of Christmas (12 page)

She hesitated and noticed the line at the bus stop was getting short. “I'll go if you kiss me.”

He stiffened and shook his head. “Not in this lifetime. I don't do PDAs.”

“Just shut up and kiss me,” she demanded, grabbing his hand and leading him toward the bus stop.

“Julia…”

“Are you going to stand here and argue with me so I miss the bus, am late for work, get fired, and go on welfare?”

He grinned and then his gaze softened as he cupped the side of her face. As if drawn by a will greater than his own, he leaned down and gently pressed his lips over hers. “Satisfied?” he asked as he released her.

“No, but it should be enough to carry me until tonight.”

The bus was about to close its doors when she jumped up onto the step, turned, and waved to Cain. “I'll text you later,” she called out after him.

Looking disgruntled, he shook his head as if their kiss had punctuated everything he'd just said.

Ten minutes into her lunch break, Julia was too excited to sit still. She grabbed her phone and sent Cain a text.
Call me ASAP.

She didn't have long to wait. Her phone rang within seconds of sending him the text.

“What happened?” He sounded breathless, as if he'd raced up three flights of stairs. “Are you okay?”

“Better than okay,” she blurted out, clenching her fist against her front. “Oh Cain, the most wonderful, exciting thing has happened and I had to tell you. I didn't mean for you to think anything was wrong, but I couldn't text this, I just couldn't. I needed to hear the sound of your voice.”

“Tell me what?”

She needed to tiptoe around this carefully, not revealing too much. She definitely couldn't mention the contest or the blog. “I applied for a social media job, and, Cain, I got a call this morning and I was awarded the position. I'm so excited I could just scream. This is what I've worked so hard for all this time, and now it's a reality.”

He chuckled at her joy and excitement. “Congratulations, sweetheart.”

Sweetheart
?

She froze, her breath trapped in her lungs. “Did you just call me
sweetheart
?”

“Did I?”

He seemed surprised, but she knew it was a ruse.

“You can't say stuff like that over the phone,” she told him. “It's against all the laws of love and life.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Everyone knows this,” she insisted, too happy to care. “It's like this unwritten rule. When you say something romantic and beautiful, it has to be said to the woman when you're face-to-face.”

“Am I supposed to apologize now?”

“No, never. What you need to do is say it again, multiple times, but only when we're together. Promise me you will.”

“If you insist.”

“I'm serious, Cain.”

“Okay, fine, I promise. Now go back to the bit about the job. When do you start?”

“Almost right away. I need to give my two weeks' notice and then I should be able to start right after the first of the year. I'm so happy. Do you know how long I've waited for this?” She had Cain to thank, but she couldn't tell him now. Not yet but soon.

“I'm happy for you, baby.”

OMG. “There, you did it again. You called me
baby
. Stop, please stop; otherwise, I might do something really foolish, like cry or shout or act completely out of character. A person can only hold so much happiness inside them at a time.”

“If I was with you now I'd kiss you senseless.”

“You would?” It felt as if her heart was melting; her knees were already weak. She hadn't been kidding when she said she could only take so much happiness at a time.

“You have no idea, do you?”

She could tell he was serious by the timbre of his voice.

“Yeah,” she answered, sobering herself. “I think I do.” Cain was simply stating the very things she was feeling. She could barely wait for that evening when she saw him.

“Be ready tonight,” she said. “I'm going to make you say everything all over again. You must. It's required in order to right the universe.”

“Then, by all means, we can't have the universe spinning out of control.”

Julia didn't know if she could wait that long. “Maybe you could meet me at Manor House.”

Oops, that was a mistake. He wasn't supposed to know that she'd been secretly visiting his grandfather.

“Manor House? What are you doing there? Is there another concert?”

Exhaling a deep breath, Julia sat down and leaned forward, pressing her elbows against her knees. “No. I…I have a small confession to make.”

“Julia…?” The hesitation in his voice rocked her.

“It's nothing bad, I promise.”

“Let me be the judge of that.”

She squeezed her eyes closed. “I met your grandfather.”

Her words were followed with a hollow silence. She counted to twenty before Cain spoke again.

“When did you meet Bernie?”

She might as well ease him into the truth. “Shortly after the concert.”

“How?”

“Can we talk about this later?”

“No.”

“All right, full confession: I saw the two of you together at the concert and I figured you must be related, so I went to visit him. Actually, I've been to see him twice.”

“Why?”

How she wished he'd do more than ask her one-word questions. “Are you angry?”

He repeated the question. “Why?”

“Because I wanted to know more about you. Bernie's great. I brought him the cookies you refused. He claimed they were his favorite, but I think I could have baked just about any kind and it would have been his favorite.”

“You bribed him with cookies?”

“
Bribe
might be too strong a word.” She cleared her throat when she realized her voice had dropped to little more than a whisper. “We played cribbage. You have a wonderful grandfather; I like him, Cain. We were going to surprise you, but I guess I ruined that.”

“You invited him to have Christmas dinner with you, didn't you?”

“Yes. You're included.”

“That was the surprise he's been teasing me about. You're the surprise?”

“Yup. That would be me,” she said, raising her voice an entire octave.

“Now you're telling me visiting Bernie was the errand you had to run after work?”

She was surprised he remembered her mentioning that. “Yes.”

“He's quite taken with you.”

“Your grandfather told you about me?” Apparently, she wasn't the only one keeping secrets.

“Not specifically. Bernie said he met a lady friend who invited him to Christmas dinner. Didn't include me. He was adamant I should find my own sweetheart.”

“And you did, and before you argue, there's no reneging because you've already called me your sweetheart once today. You can't take it back. I won't let you.”

“I won't renege.”

“Good. Please don't be upset with me.”

“Going behind my back doesn't sit well with me, Julia, but I'm willing to let this slide, seeing that you've won over my grandfather.”

“Did I win you over, too?” she asked in low tones.

“We'll discuss that tonight. I'll see you at eight at the Boys and Girls Club and we can discuss this when I walk you home.”

“Okay.” She happened to catch a glimpse of her watch. “Oh no, my lunch break is over. I've got to get back on the floor.” She hated the conversation to end. Hearing Cain's voice, telling him her good news, would need to be enough until she caught up with him later.

Earlier he'd complained about the depth and strength of the development of their relationship. It pained him to let her know that she'd become important to him. What Cain didn't realize was the depth of her own feelings. No one was more surprised with how well this challenge had gone than Julia.

Bernie was waiting for her when she arrived later that evening. He sat in the same room where the church group had sung and brightened the instant he saw her.

“So you told him?” he said, grinning broadly when she took the chair next to him.

“It slipped out. He called you?”

“Oh yes. Wanted to know exactly what I'd told you. Don't think Cain's happy with either one of us, but don't you worry your pretty face, he'll get over it.”

Her shoulders relaxed. She'd been fairly certain Cain would contact his grandfather.

“You've made a big difference in his life in the last week or so,” Bernie said, grinning and looking pleased. “Hard to believe the change in that boy.”

Julia had almost forgotten the reason she'd scheduled this visit. “Oh, I'm so glad you said something. When was the last time you saw Cain?”

“Tuesday. He joins me for lunch on Tuesdays.”

“Did you notice anything different about him?” she asked.

“How'd you mean? He mentioned you, which surprised me. I told him I had a hot date for Christmas dinner and he should find his own woman because I wasn't sharing.”

She laughed before a small thrill went through her. “Cain mentioned me? What did he say?”

Bernie grinned, looking almost boyish. “Just that there was this woman in his apartment complex who was driving him nuts, wouldn't leave him alone. I went along with it, pretended I didn't know it was you. I asked him if he'd reported this woman to the police for hassling him.”

Julia gasped. “You didn't!”

“I sure did, and then Cain told me this troublesome woman had wormed her way into his life and she wasn't nearly as irritating as he first thought.”

Hearing this, Julia relaxed. “That's good to hear.”

“Now, what was it you expected me to notice different about my grandson?”

“His eyes,” Julia told him. “When we first met they were blank, indifferent, and, oh, I don't know, emotionless, I guess. Then last night I noticed a light in them, a spark, and it excited me. It made me wonder if you'd seen the same thing.”

Bernie pinched his nose, as if trying to conjure up his grandson's look the last time Cain had visited. “Now that you mention it, I think that maybe I did notice a change.”

“You did?” Bernie had no idea how much hearing that thrilled her.

“I detected a difference right off but wasn't able to put my finger on it. He's joining us for Christmas?”

“Yes. He might not know it yet, but he'll be there, if I have to drag him out of his apartment and across the hall.”

“I doubt my grandson will be fighting you. You got him, Julia. Hook, line, and sinker. That boy is completely taken with you. Been a long time since I've seen that much life in him. He's not one to show how he feels about things. Never has been. Even when that girl from his office used him, he barely said a word. It wasn't until afterward that I was able to connect the dots and realize how badly he'd been burned.”

“I'll never hurt him.”

“I know you won't.”

All Julia could do was hope and pray that was the case once Cain learned about the blog.

Julia stayed and visited with Bernie until it was time for him to join his friends in the dining room for dinner. With time to kill, she pulled out her laptop and started reading comments, but there were just too many.

She had more than a hundred thousand hits, and people were eager for an update. Wanting to keep the interest from waning, she decided not to wait until she got home to write her next post.

Pulling up a blank page, her fingers flew across the keyboard. She had a lot to report. A lot to say.