A Mrs. Miracle Christmas(41)

The girl smiled and blinked several times. “I want you to know you’re going to be a really good mommy.”

Helen watched as the color drained from her granddaughter’s face. “Thank you, Bella.” Laurel’s cheeks quivered with a forced smile.

Helen noticed the effort it took for Laurel to blink back tears.

“My mommy thinks so, too.”

At what cost, Helen could only speculate, but Laurel managed to give a gracious reply and gently hugged the child.

“Okay. I have to go now,” Bella said, breaking away from Laurel. “Merry Christmas!”

“The same to you, Bella.”

Helen watched as the girl scooted across the auditorium floor and back to her mother. Bella’s mother gave Laurel a small wave before tucking her arm around her daughter’s shoulders and leading her out of the room.

“I had Bella in first grade,” Laurel told her grandmother. “She’s a sweet, good-natured child, and her mom was a wonderful homeroom parent. It’s a lovely family.”

    Mrs. Miracle joined them and complimented Laurel. “You did a fine job.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Reaching out, Mrs. Miracle gently squeezed Laurel’s forearm. “Trust,” she whispered.

Laurel’s returning smile was forced. “I’ll see you both at home.”

“Don’t be long,” Helen said.

“I won’t be,” she promised.

From the forlorn look about her, Helen knew home was the one place her granddaughter needed right now, above all else. As Laurel had done as a ten-year-old girl, she would go to the place where she could find the comfort and the security that her heart needed.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN




Laurel stayed behind to be sure the auditorium/gymnasium was cleared and put back in order. The maintenance staff was busy taking down the folding chairs when Laurel turned and saw Zach standing in the back with his hands in his pockets, studying her.

She stood, frozen in place. A wrecking ball couldn’t have moved her. She was certain all the blood in her body had stopped flowing.

For what felt like an eternity, all they did was stare at each other.

It was Zach who moved first, walking toward her in slow, deliberate steps. He didn’t look any better than she felt. His clothes were rumpled and his hair askew.

    “Hey,” he said, his voice low and tight. His eyes locked on her.

Unable to speak, she nodded in return.

“You did good. The program was great.”

“You were here?”

He nodded. “Last row, behind the tuba player’s mother,” he said, one side of his mouth tilted upward in a half-smile. “I said I’d come, didn’t I?”

So that was it. He was fulfilling a promise. She squared her shoulders. “I need to get home.”

“Can you spare the time for a cup of coffee?” he asked.

Oh, how she was tempted. Her shattered heart leaned toward him as though drawn by a magnet. Everything in her wanted to say yes, but she couldn’t. He’d made the decision when he walked out the door and didn’t return. Laurel knew she’d need a clean break, otherwise that door would become a revolving one. She had to be strong. “I…I don’t think…”

“Please?”

That lone word was her undoing. All her resolve melted as her heart caved in. “Okay.”

Because there’s a Starbucks on nearly every corner in Seattle, they decided to meet there in the next fifteen minutes.

Zach got there first, and by the time she arrived, he was at the counter, ordering their drinks. Laurel found them a table by the window. Almost instantly, Zach returned with two drinks.

    “I got you a peppermint latte,” he said. “Your favorite.”

“Thank you.” She looked down at the drink rather than meet his gaze.

“My guess is you went without anything to eat this morning.”

Her stomach wouldn’t tolerate food and he knew it.

Silence stretched like a summertime taffy pulled between them, rough and sticky. Zach was the one who’d asked her for coffee, and so she waited for him to speak first.

“I drove around most of the night,” he said, his voice hoarse and full of emotion. “That gave me plenty of opportunity to think about what you said. Did you mean it, Laurel? Were you sincere in saying you wanted me to find a wife who could give me a family?”

She sipped her latte before she replied. “Yes. I meant it.” Even now, after all these hours, she could tell that he still had trouble believing her.

Zach leaned back in the chair and ran his hand over his face. “Don’t you know by now that I don’t want anyone but you?”

“Please,” she whispered, her voice so faint she couldn’t be sure he heard her. “Please don’t make this any more difficult than it already is.”

    “Don’t you understand? What more do I need to say to convince you that you’re far more than my wife? You’re my best friend, my entire life. I don’t know how you can even think you’re not enough for me, when you are my whole world.”

She raised her head and met his eyes. His look was dark and intense, pleading.