Bring Me Home for Christmas (Virgin River #16)(33)

Then the holiday proceeded, so different from her usual experience. Although Becca and Rich each had their own places in San Diego, they spent Thanksgiving at their parents’ house, just the four of them. Dinner at Jack’s was a gathering of friends and neighbors. The TV was turned off, the tables were pushed together and all the little decorations Chris helped to make adorned a long table. Becca not only enjoyed meeting a few couples from town, but she was, unsurprisingly, a magnet to the kids and spent a lot of time reading stories to Mel and Jack’s little ones, as well as Dana. Chris was too old to be read to, of course, but that didn’t keep him from hanging real close.

There were twenty people, including the kids, who sat down to a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Afterward, rather than poker and cigars, Denny and his friends, along with Jack and Preacher, indulged in several cribbage games, while the women sat around the fire and gossiped.

“How do you normally spend the holiday, Becca?” Mel Sheridan asked her.

“At my parents’ house. While the guys have a whole day of football, that’s when my mom and I get a start on our favorite holiday movies—It’s A Wonderful Life and some of the Bing Crosby classics like Holiday Inn. My mom loves Christmas, and so do I. We start celebrating right after Thanksgiving. This year will be so different for them. When my mom found out Rich and I would be out of town, she informed my dad that he was taking her to Cabo, where they’d golf and lounge around the beach. He’s probably recording the football games for later.” She looked at her watch. She’d have to call her mother before Rich went back to San Diego. She dreaded it.

“We’re going to have to do the holiday classics.” Paige said. “It’s been years since I’ve watched some of those great old films. Let’s pick a time to get some of the women together for movies! It’ll get us in the Christmas spirit.”

“I’m in,” Mel said. “Especially if we can get the guys to watch the kids. How about you, Becca?”

“If I’m here,” she said with a shrug.

“How long do you think you’ll stay?”

“I’m not sure. We’ll see what the doctor says next week.”

Mel grinned at her. “I think there’s more to this broken ankle than meets the eye.”

“I beg your pardon, I’ll have you know I have screws in my joint!”

“And an ex-boyfriend in your crosshairs,” Mel said.

“Purely a coincidence. I have a boyfriend. He lives in L.A., but we’ve been exclusive for a year. But if I’m here, I’d love to watch movies with you.”

A bit later, while Mel was gathering up her kids for home and Paige was settling hers into bed, Becca used the phone to leave another message for Doug. “Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, sweetie. We had a town gathering at the bar and, you know what? It was really fun. I’m going to head for bed now and I’ll try you again tomorrow.”

She didn’t even wonder why he wasn’t picking up. She was relieved.

That’s when she began to know the truth about why she came to Virgin River. To find what she’d lost with her first love.

The cutting of the Virgin River Christmas tree was an all-day affair that involved way more spectators than actual woodsmen. First, there was the hunting for the tree—a thirty-foot fir high in the mountains. Becca watched from the truck the entire time. Then there was the cutting down. She would’ve expected that to take seconds, but it took a very long time and involved pulleys and ropes and chain saws. Next came the netting and dragging of the tree along barely visible old logging roads. Only big pickups with four-wheel-drive ventured back into the thickest part of the forest.

Once the tree was dragged as far as a main road, a local builder, Paul Haggerty, and his crew met it with a big flatbed truck and their hydraulic gear to lift it and haul it the rest of the way. By the time the tree made it to Virgin River, it was dark, but half the town seemed to be present to look at their catch, so to speak. There was lots of “oohing” and “aahing” going on.

On Saturday, the tree was erected—a process that took many hands and more of Paul Haggerty’s equipment and men.

“The first time we brought a tree this size into town, it was just Jack, Preacher and Mike Valenzuela standing it up,” Mel told Becca. “During the night, it fell down. Thankfully not on the bar!”

Becca sat on Jack’s porch between Mel and Paige. They all held hot drinks. Her eyes grew large at the prospect of that huge tree falling on the bar. She couldn’t run, after all. “Should we move?” she asked.

Mel just laughed. “I think now that Paul’s on board with this project, we’re in pretty good hands. And I think your brother and his friends are kind of enjoying this. Too bad they won’t see it completely decorated.”

“That must take a long time,” Becca said.

“A day or day and a half, and at least one cherry picker,” Mel told her.

It was past noon before that tree was upright and stable. Mel and Paige were back and forth to the porch, taking children in and outside. By afternoon, a couple of cherry pickers had arrived and the stringing of the lights commenced.

Becca was surprised she wasn’t frozen to the bone, but she couldn’t stand to miss a second of this process. And neither could anyone else! Townsfolk came and went throughout the day, everyone with a new opinion about the tree. By then, night was falling, although it was only about five, and Jack and Denny were fastening up the last of the lights.