Cupid's Christmas (Serendipity #3)(38)
“Don’t try to talk me out of it,” Lindsay laughed. “I’m really looking forward to this shopping trip. Dad and I can go to a football game anytime—”
“No we can’t,” John said. “This is the last home game of the season…” But by then, Lindsay had moved on to talking about a pair of shoes she’d seen online.
After John left the table, Eleanor turned to Lindsay, “Maybe you should go with your dad,” she said. “Ray hasn’t called yet. I think I’d better stay here and wait for his call.”
“You don’t have to be at home to get the call,” Lindsay said. “I can just program the house phone and have it redirect all the calls to my cell.”
“Will the caller know they’re being sent to your phone?”
Lindsay shook her head. “Nope. The house phone will ring once, then pause for a second and start ringing on my cell.”
“Good,” Eleanor said. She didn’t mention that if Ray heard such a message he’d more than likely hang up. He’d already made numerous comments about her favoring Lindsay over Traci. At the time she’d tried not to give credence to such comments, but Ray hammered them home every chance he got. The last time he’d said it, Eleanor suggested that she had to be nice since Lindsay was John’s daughter. “Precisely!” Ray replied, with icicles hanging off of every syllable.
At a few minutes after eleven, Lindsay parked the car on Fifteenth Street and they started walking toward Market. As they passed the shops, they saw window after window filled with festive red dresses, sparkling jewelry, and Christmas trees. “So soon?” Eleanor sighed. “The stores are ready for Christmas and it’s not even Thanksgiving.” She didn’t say it, but I knew what she was thinking. Eleanor was wishing the days would slow down. To her mind, time was the great healer; it bridged the gap in friendships, brought new loves and erased old angers. If given enough time, she believed, anything might be possible.
When they passed by the Hallmark store Lindsay grabbed Eleanor by the hand and pulled her into the shop. They walked in and out of the aisles looking at trees decorated in a dozen different themes—nutcrackers, teddy bears, ballerinas, gold trees with glittery bows, silver trees with shiny globes, even what was supposed to be a natural tree hung with plastic pine cones and silk magnolia blossoms. Lindsay stopped in front of the angel tree, “This is my absolute favorite,” she sighed.
“Mine too,” Eleanor replied. The two of them spent over an hour in the store and when they finally left Eleanor had purchased a box of Christmas cards, two hand-painted ornaments and four glittery angels.
The next stop was Macy’s.
They started in the China department and once they’d purchased the two place settings they came for, they moved on to dresses and sportswear. I could see there were moments when Eleanor allowed herself to get caught up in the excitement of the season, times when she could forget about the call she was both anticipating and dreading, times when she could think only of the sweater she slipped over her head or the pants that zipped without pinching, but trust me, those times were few.
It was almost four o’clock when Eleanor could hold it in no longer. “I’m worried that Ray hasn’t called,” she told Lindsay.
“Call him again,” Lindsay suggested and handed her the cell phone.
Eleanor punched in the number and waited. The telephone rang six times and then the answering machine clicked on. She’d already left a number of messages, and had nothing more to add to what she’d already said, so she clicked end and handed the phone back to Lindsay. “No answer,” she lied. “I guess they’re out.”
When they left the store at five-thirty, darkness was already settling into the sky. Lindsay glanced at her watch, “We’d better hurry,” she said. “Matthew is picking me up at seven.” They were standing on the corner of Market and Fifteenth when the phone in Lindsay’s pocket jangled. She switched the shopping bag to her left hand, pulled the phone from her pocket and said, “Hi.” She expected the caller to be Matthew.
“Who’s this?” the voice asked.
“Lindsay Gray,” she answered, then she remembered the call Eleanor was waiting for. “Is this Ray?” she said.
“Did my mother put you up to this?”
“Nobody put me up to anything,” Lindsay said. “Your mother is right here, and she’s the one who wants to talk to you. Hold—”
Before she could finish the sentence, Ray started to talk again. This time it was in a loud angry voice. “I have nothing to say, so don’t put her on the phone!”
Lindsay had no love of Ray as it was, and her intention had been to simply hand Eleanor the phone, but the anger in his voice triggered hers. “Hey! Just a minute there, watch how you’re talking! All your mother wants—”
Eleanor caught the gist of the conversation and realized it was Ray. She turned toward Lindsay and reached for the phone, that’s when she saw the black car slam into the curb. A fraction of a second later the car was airborne and sailing toward Lindsay’s back. There was no time for warning, no time to step aside, the only thing she could do was what she did. Eleanor plowed shoulder-first into Lindsay’s side and sent the girl sprawling across the sidewalk.
Ray continued talking…“I know what she wants and you can tell her to forget it. I’m not interested in anything…” He stopped when he heard the shriek of rending metal and the screams that followed. “Lindsay? Mom? Mom…”