Under the Christmas Star Read online

  Don’t mislead this guy, Joy. He was just a client doing her a friendly favor. She didn’t need to be suggesting that he should meet her family.

  Instead, she said, “Do you have a factory or something?”

  “We will. We just signed the papers on a building in South Seattle.” He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a business card. “I just had these printed up this morning. You’re the first person I’ve gotten to hand one to.”

  “I’m honored.” She looked down at the card. “Think Tiny. Nice name. It’s in SoDo?”

  “Yeah. Close to Pioneer Square. It’s one of those funky old brick buildings that’s been around forever. It used to be a garment warehouse.”

  “Nice. It sounds like you’ve got your life on track.”

  “I like to think so. How about you?” He tugged the tree a little closer to the edge, then got a firm grip on it and lowered it to the pavement. “Have you always worked at a vet’s office?”

  “Not at all. I was a receptionist for a mortgage company before I had kids. So when I had to go back to work, I answered an ad for the vet’s office. Dr. Collins hired me as a receptionist, but Becky’s starting to train me to be a vet’s assistant. I’m hoping to eventually go back to school to earn my associate’s degree so I can become a veterinary technician.”

  “Nice. Working full time, going back to school, and being a mom.” He made a clicking sound. “A real-life superhero.”

  “Well, I don’t know about that. School’s just a dream right now. And I have a ways to go before I can cut back on the hours for the mom job.” She looked away, suddenly ultra-aware of all the self-imposed implications attached to that statement. At this moment, Ty’s high school graduation seemed like a thousand years away.

  Catching herself before that particular train of thought made it too far down the track, she shifted her focus to the tree, which looked surprisingly diminutive next to Kyle’s masculine frame. “Thanks again for doing this.”

  “Do you want me to get it set up inside for you?”

  “That would be amazing. I just need to get the stand from the garage.”

  While Kyle moved the tree onto the grass and started to free it from its netting, Joy went around to the side of the detached garage that stood a short distance from the house. Taking out her keys, she reached for the knob to the small door on the side of the building, then jumped back as it opened and a man appeared, looking as startled as she felt.

  “Mike!” All the air left her lungs and her heart just about flew out of her chest. “What are you doing here?”

  A smile lifted one corner of his mouth, like he found it funny that he had startled her. “You knew I was dropping off Charlie’s boots.” He stepped back around the door, then reappeared holding the ladder.

  “Y…yes, but you didn’t say when.” Looking past him, she saw that his Lexus was in the spot where he used to keep it. “Why didn’t you park in the driveway?”

  He shrugged. “It looked like rain.” Making a move to shove the ladder through the doorway, he gave her a raised brow look that told her to move or get knocked down.

  As she realized the awkwardness of the situation, she stepped into the doorway instead, effectively blocking his exit. “What are you doing with my ladder?”

  Huffing out a slow breath, he set the ladder down and paused, like he was gathering his patience so he could explain what, to his way of thinking, should be obvious. “I noticed that the drainpipe in front was loose and I thought I’d fix it. Then when I came in here to get the ladder, I saw that both of those lightbulbs were out.” He raised his finger toward the ceiling in a slow, deliberate point, as if explaining the situation to someone who was even dimmer than the burnt-out bulbs. “So I replaced them for you.”

  “Oh.” She nodded, feeling like the ungrateful dummy that he had been implying she was.

  Giving her a satisfied? sneer, he pushed his way past her and out the door. He rounded the corner, then slowed at the sight of Kyle shaking out the tree. He threw a suspicious glance back at Joy, then pasted on a friendly smile and continued down the driveway.

  Seeing him, Kyle cast a questioning look at Joy. Before she could speak, Mike shifted his grip on the ladder and shoved his hand out at Kyle.

  “I’m Mike. Mike Bennett.”

  His emphasis on their shared last name was subtle, but the message was clear. She gave Kyle an apologetic look as she hurried to position herself between them, like they might require a referee. “This is Mike. My ex-husband. Mike, this is my friend, Kyle.”

  Mike worked his jaw, seeming to roll her word choice around in his head.

  “Kyle was just helping me with our tree.” Why did she feel like she’d done something that needed defending? She had every right to have a friend help her pick up some of the slack that Mike’s absence had created.

  “Thanks.” Mike ran a territorial gaze up and down the tree before returning his focus to Kyle. “I’ll get it from here.”

  He reached out and took the tree with the hand that wasn’t gripping the ladder, which struck Joy as both ridiculous and a little funny. Kyle released his hold and took a polite step back, allowing Mike to stand there holding the tree like he was some kind of conquering hero.

  Joy thought fast. “Mike, the tree stand is on a shelf in the garage right next to the back door. Would you go get it, please?”

  He hesitated, then made an unruly three-point turn and headed back toward the garage. He stopped on his way to lean both the tree and the ladder against the side of the house.

  As soon as he was out of earshot, Joy lifted her hands to the sides of her face. “I am so sorry. I had no idea he would be here.”

  Kyle gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s really okay.” He nodded toward the house. “The kids will be happy to see him, right?”

  “Yes. They do enjoy spending time with their dad.” She swallowed a sigh. Why did she feel so disappointed? It wasn’t like they had planned for Kyle to stay. “Thanks again for helping me with the tree. That was huge.”

  “My pleasure.” He half turned and took a step, then looked at her again like maybe he felt the same inexplicable disappointment. But all he did was give her a little nod and head for his car.

  She just stood there, watching him walk away, feeling helpless against that all-too-familiar loneliness that threatened to quietly overwhelm her.

  As Kyle got into his car and went through the motions of making his departure, he wanted to kick himself. What was he doing? He had just inserted himself into a situation where he had absolutely no business.

  The smell of pine wafting up from where his tree rested in the backseat just made things worse. He had to admit that the only reason he had told Joy that he was getting a tree was because it sounded like a plausible reason to offer to help with hers. What a lunkhead.

  Letting out a sigh that threatened to morph into a groan, he turned the corner at the end of her block. Who was he trying to kid? Yeah, Joy was great. Fantastic. Plus, her kids were about as adorable as any he’d ever met. And her sister? He chuckled, in spite of himself. She had made it pretty clear that she liked the idea of his tagging along. It had been hard to miss the little looks she’d given Joy at the tree lot. Looks that, if he had any kind of discernment when it came to reading women, were meant to encourage Joy to keep talking to him.

  Now that he thought about it, maybe that meant that he had an ally on the inside. Joy and her sister seemed really close, so maybe if he’d made a good impression on Victoria, that might work in his favor.

  He stopped at a red light and rubbed his hand across his jaw. What good was that going to do? He hadn’t even gotten Joy’s phone number. It wasn’t like he’d expected to be invited to stay for dinner and the trimming of the tree, but he had at the very least planned to ask her out for coffee if things went well. And they had been going well, until Mike showed up. That was when he had realized that Joy’s life was probably difficult enough without him getting in the way.


  According to what Joy had told him about Mike, he wasn’t exactly a prince. But they had kids together, and he was clearly still very present in her life. The last thing Kyle wanted was to cause any kind of trouble for her.

  Still…Joy had been giving all the signs that she was interested in him…hadn’t she?

  The light turned green and he took the turn onto Market, heading for home and Henry, who was uncomplicated and easy to understand. If only he could say the same for women.

  For the second week in a row, Joy had gone to church with Victoria and Brian, and this time she had taken the kids. Last week, she’d felt a little lost, but today the sermon had made more sense to her. And the kids had been chattering since they’d gotten into the car about the fun they’d had in their classrooms.

  Stopping at a red light, she shifted in the driver’s seat. She’d felt so restless ever since her confusing encounter with Mike the night before. After he’d fixed the drainpipe and set the tree up in the living room, he’d been unusually cheerful. The kids had been so excited to see him that Joy had felt compelled to ask him to stay for dinner, inciting more than the usual number of stink-eye glares from Victoria. And when the kids had begged him to stay to help decorate the tree, she’d been shocked when he hadn’t come up with some excuse to say no. He had actually stayed. And participated. Cheerfully.

  Joy sighed at the memory as she turned onto their street. What had gotten into him?

  He had never been an enthusiastic participant in that ritual before. In fact, most years she and the kids gave up on waiting for him to get home from work and just went ahead without him. That had pretty much been the story of their lives.

  “Mommy, look at our house!”

  Charlie’s excited exclamation, accompanied by her brother’s squealing, gave Joy a start. She braced herself, like she might look up to find their house either on fire or gone.

  “What, honey?” Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Joy wondered for a second if the kids were playing some kind of game. But as they got closer, she saw it.

  “The lights!” Ty announced.

  Following his gaze upward, she saw that the eaves of the house were indeed perfectly lined with rows of unlit lights. What was going on?

  As she pulled into the driveway, she considered every possible explanation for the Christmas-ification of her house, including elves and charitable neighbors. By the time she got the kids out of the backseat, she had her answer. Mike had come around the corner of the house and was standing there with a big grin on his face.

  The kids ran over to greet him then jumped up and down, shrieking with delight. Mike looked up, admiring his work, then turned to Joy, who just stood there, speechless and confused. Mike had actually done this on his own, without being asked or letting her know what important thing wouldn’t get done if he took the time to do this. There had to be a catch.

  “Turn them on, Daddy!” Ty bobbed on his toes, clapping his mittened hands together.

  “I’m not quite done yet.”

  “You guys go in and get washed up.” Joy handed her keys to Charlie. “Then after lunch, you can come back out and see the lights.”

  They gave their usual protest, which was met with Joy’s usual mom-glare, and they ran to the house.

  “Mike, what…” She held a hand up toward the house.

  “I know how much you like the lights. I wanted to make you happy.”

  She raised her eyebrows, fighting the urge to point out that if he had really wanted to make her happy, he wouldn’t have cheated on her then walked out. Instead, she settled on a mostly sincere, “That was thoughtful.”

  Wanting to know what his motive was but not wanting to be so blunt about asking, she tried a different approach. “What’s with the sudden interest in home projects? Are you turning over a new leaf?”

  A wounded look crossed his face. “I thought you’d be impressed.”

  “Oh, I am.” She thought about the lesson in church that morning. It had been about replacing anxiety with gratitude, something she could stand to work on. “Sorry, I don’t mean to always be critical. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” He dipped his chin toward the porch. “Hey, do you want to sit and talk for a few minutes?”

  “Talk?” A sharp arrow of dread grazed her gut. “What about?”

  “Not about anything. I just thought that might be nice. We don’t really talk anymore.”

  Anymore? They hadn’t talked much before the divorce either, or hadn’t he noticed? She couldn’t help but eye him with suspicion, but she shrugged. “Okay.” She made her way to the top step and sat, shivering as the cold of the wood passed through her wool slacks.

  Ambling behind her, like he wasn’t in his usual hurry to get to the next important thing he had to do, Mike admired the front window. “The tree looks nice.”

  She nodded, pleased that she’d remembered to set the timer for the lights to come on shortly before they got home.

  He sat next to her and let out a long breath. “I know this must be hard for you, considering the circumstances.”

  “The circumstances?”

  He drew in a long breath then let it out slowly, like he might be hoping that if he gave her enough time, she’d say it so he wouldn’t have to. When she just looked at him expectantly, he continued. “Because of me leaving last year in the middle of the holidays. That was terrible timing on my part. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  This sounded awfully insightful for a guy who hadn’t thought about anybody but himself at the time. She didn’t want to start a fight, so all she said was, “I’ll be fine.”

  “I know. But I could have handled things differently. I’ve been wanting to say that for a while but last night when I saw the tree…it just got me thinking.”

  His gaze tracked toward the driveway, to the spot where he had first seen Kyle holding the tree, leading her to wonder which one had actually gotten him thinking.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Her eyes narrowed on him. Had he actually just apologized? And was it for his entire list of misdeeds, or just the timing of his exit? Not that it really mattered at this point.

  Her stomach growled, reminding her that the kids were inside, unattended and waiting for lunch. “I accept your apology.” It seemed close enough to saying she had forgiven him, which wouldn’t actually have been true. She still needed some time on that one.

  Nodding, he looked at her again. “Anyway, I want to be here more for the kids. And for you.” He twisted just a little so that his knee touched hers, but she quickly drew hers away. “It wasn’t fair of me to just leave you to shoulder all the parenting on your own.”

  “Not all the parenting. You get to do it every other weekend.”

  He let out a sardonic chuckle. “You and I both know that filling them up with pizza and ice cream and taking them to the movies and the aquarium isn’t the same as being there for the day-to-day in-the-trenches parenting.”

  That was true. And not something that she had expected him ever to realize on his own. But her blood sugar was dipping, and she didn’t have the strength for psychoanalyzing.

  “So, if there’s anything you need,” he went on, “just ask.”

  She had heard that from him before. Like he thought offering to do something was heroic all on its own, and he resented the expectation to actually follow through. It was like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown. And she wasn’t in the mood to land on her backside.

  Besides, she had already told him what she needed, and he had acted like it was an imposition. So, rather than reminding him that she could use some extra time this week to help Victoria with the wedding, she just smiled tightly and said, “I don’t need a thing.”

  He nodded, seemingly satisfied and probably relieved that she hadn’t taken him up on his offer. Now he could feel good about himself without having to be inconvenienced.

  “I should go finish the lights.” He stood, then reached down to give her a hand.

/>   She stood there for a moment as he descended the steps. She was about to head for the door when he turned and looked up at her.

  “What am I thinking? You said you needed me to pick the kids up from after-school care this week.”

  “Oh…yes. That would be really helpful.”

  “Consider it done.”

  Joy stood there in a sort of shock. He’d remembered on his own. As he went to go finish the lights, that warm feeling that she used to get when he claimed to have done something to please her washed over her. Why did it still feel so good to believe that it might be real?

  Late the next afternoon, Joy and Victoria stepped out of Beverly’s Bridal Boutique in Pioneer Square, flush with the excitement of having just tried on their dresses one last time before the big day.

  Scanning the historic brick buildings lining both sides of the street, Joy felt a little adventurous. She hadn’t been to this part of town since she and Mike were dating. Suddenly, the temporary freedom of having kid-free time on a weekday made her a little giddy.

  “It’s almost five,” she pointed out as they started down the sidewalk toward the lot where they’d both parked. “You want to grab something to eat?” The idea of being served something delicious and eating it without having to stop to take someone to the restroom sounded like the ultimate luxury.

  “I can’t.” Victoria tapped at her phone as she walked. “Brian and I are meeting with our pastor before you and the other girls come over to work on the wedding favors.” She glanced up from her screen. “Wait, don’t you have to go get the kids?”

  “Actually…” Joy snagged her own phone out of her purse and gave it a quick check. She’d been expecting a cancellation message all day, but so far there hadn’t been one. “Mike is picking them up for me.”

  “What?” Victoria stopped short, staring at her like she thought she might be joking.

  “It’s true.” Joy paused, waiting for Victoria to move again. “He’s taking them to his place and feeding them dinner. I don’t have to get them till later.”