A Mrs. Miracle Christmas(30)

As he headed home, Zach continued to reason with himself and rationalize his actions. He’d already decided not to tell Laurel he hadn’t returned the baby clothes. Nor was he comfortable sharing with her what he’d received in the white-elephant exchange. Both would hurt her. Rather than rub salt in her wounds, he decided to hide the cigars along with the baby clothes. That would be best all the way around, he reasoned to himself. If she did ask, he’d find a way to sidestep her questions.

    He recalled with relief that she was staying after school today for parent-teacher meetings. If he could tuck them away in the nursery before she got home, Laurel would never find either the clothes or the cigars. She never went into that room. Not since Jonathan left.

As luck would have it, the commute home was worse than normal. Even the bus driver was becoming impatient with the unusually heavy traffic. As the bus came to a halt at every red light, Zach impatiently bounced his knee in irritation, waiting for the signal to change. Normally the ride home relaxed him. He would read or close his eyes and go with the flow. Not so this evening. He was on a mission to arrive before Laurel.

From the bus stop, he nearly raced the two blocks to the house. The garage door was shut, and he couldn’t even see if her car was there. Bounding up the porch steps and through the front door, he found Helen knitting in her favorite chair and Mrs. Miracle sitting next to her. Helen had a bundle of pink yarn at her side and was intently working her knitting needles.

“Is Laurel home?” he asked breathlessly.

    “Not yet,” Helen said, looking at him quizzically. “My goodness, Zach, where’s the fire?”

“I’ll explain in a minute.” He dashed into the nursery and tucked the clothes and cigars into the bottom drawer of the dresser. Confident that his secret was secure, he quickly closed the drawer and exited.

With both items safely out of sight, he gave a huge sigh of relief and joined the ladies in the living room. He prayed he had pulled this off without Laurel ever knowing.

Mrs. Miracle, he noticed, paid avid attention to her knitting, wearing a rather amused smile, while Nana studied Zach, her eyes wide with curiosity.

“What was that all about?” Helen asked, setting her knitting aside.

“Long story,” Zach replied, unwilling to explain.

Helen’s face softened. “You got a special Christmas gift for Laurel, and you wanted to hide it before she got home. You’re so thoughtful, Zach. I’m glad she has you in her life.”

Zach pretended to ignore Helen’s compliment, which, with his guilt, didn’t feel like one.

“How did the white-elephant exchange go this afternoon?” Mrs. Miracle asked.

Zach snapped his head around toward the older woman. He didn’t recall mentioning anything about the gift exchange to her or to Helen.

    Mrs. Miracle continued to nonchalantly tug away on her skein of yarn, awaiting his reply.

“It went fine,” he said, being as vague as possible.

“Oh yes, the gift exchange,” Helen said. “Laurel mentioned you were taking that funny-looking polka-dot sweater you got last Christmas.”

“I did.”

“What crazy gift did you get this time around?”

The direct question was difficult to avoid, so he mustered up a generic reply. “It was something goofy, as usual.”

“But a useful one,” Mrs. Miracle added, seeming to have some sort of insider information. “Something you might well need, and soon.”

“Perhaps,” Zach said with a confused look on his face. She made it sound like she knew what he’d unwrapped at the office gift exchange that afternoon.

Mrs. Miracle laid aside her knitting. A serious look came over her face. “Zach, you do realize that God hears our prayers, don’t you?”

He stared at her, surprised by her question. Was she implying that she knew all about his prayer at his desk that afternoon? Maybe he and Laurel had taken this stranger at face value, never questioning her sudden appearance at their front door. Granted, Mrs. Miracle was doing a great job with Laurel’s grandmother, but that wasn’t the problem. This woman seemed to know far more than she should. Something wasn’t right. Zach silently determined that it was time to check into her background and find out who exactly this woman was.





CHAPTER ELEVEN




When Laurel awoke, Zach was already down in the kitchen getting their morning coffee ready, earlier than normal. Slipping out of bed, she quickly showered and dressed, then headed down to the kitchen.

“I’m surprised you’re ready this early,” Zach said as he fixed the collar on his shirt and threw a pull-on sweater over his head while she poured a cup of coffee.

“I need to get to the school early,” she reminded him. With the holiday program just days away there were several loose ends she needed to take care of, and mornings were her best time. By the end of the school day, she was rattle-brained, and she worried that she might overlook something. She wanted to kick herself for volunteering to oversee the entire program. What had she been thinking?

    “How’s the production shaping up?”

Laurel took that first restorative sip. “About as good as can be expected.”

“I meant to tell you the other day—I got the time off, so I’ll be there.”