Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Series, Volume 3

  “Anytime you want, Dad,” Bailey threw in. “Early, though. You should be here when we open gifts.”

  “I have a really bad headache,” Danielle reminded him.

  “Why don’t we wait until morning and see how Danielle feels,” Beth said.

  Their mother was being far too congenial. In fact, she was ruining everything. Bailey had hoped it would be just the four of them. If her parents could be together, remember Christmases past and enjoy each other’s company, then maybe they’d finally figure things out.…

  Their father shook Ted’s hand. Why did everyone have to be so darned polite? The two men locked eyes for an instant. Bailey hoped her father was staking claim to Beth, but she couldn’t read his expression.

  “Bailey and I’ll do dishes,” Sophie offered.

  Bailey stared at Sophie. What was her sister doing? The last thing they needed was to give their mother time alone with the local vet. She was half-smitten with him already. Smitten. That was an old-fashioned word, one their grandmother might have used, but Bailey had always been fond of it.

  She followed her sister into the kitchen. “Why’d you do that?” she cried.

  “I thought you wanted to discuss ideas about getting Mom and Dad together.”

  “By leaving her alone with Ted?”

  “Oh…yeah. I guess I didn’t think about that.”

  “No kidding! Well, you keep an eye on them,” commanded Bailey. “If they get too close, tell me.” Sophie obediently pushed the door open a crack and looked out. Bailey started loading the dishwasher. Thankfully, their mother had emptied it earlier, so all Bailey had to do was put the rinsed dishes inside.

  “You ready to go back out?” she asked five minutes later.

  Sophie shook her head. “No,” she said flatly. “Go ahead without me.”

  “No.” It was important to Bailey that they present a united front.

  Her sister took her time transferring the leftover salad to another bowl and wrapping up the bread, which Bailey noticed had barely been touched. She didn’t want to be catty but Danielle had been a little too generous with the garlic. Their father hadn’t tasted more than a bite or two. And Bailey was convinced he’d only eaten that to be polite.

  To her credit, Danielle had created a halfway decent salad using the bottled dressing. But then who could go wrong with store-bought dressing?

  “What are Mom and Ted doing now?” Sophie asked.

  Bailey peeked out the swinging door, stepping around her sister. She saw that her mother and Ted had returned to the dining room table and were finishing their coffee. The atmosphere was almost…intimate, vastly different from what it’d been earlier. His arm across the back of an empty chair, Ted was leaning back, speaking animatedly about one thing or another. Whatever he was saying obviously amused Beth, who laughed more than once. She looked relaxed and at ease.

  This wasn’t how it was supposed to be! It should be Dad in that chair. It should be Kent laughing with Mom. Not Ted Reynolds. Bailey didn’t have anything against him; he was a decent guy. But he wasn’t their father.

  “Well?” Sophie said from behind her.

  “They’re getting along just fine,” Bailey muttered.

  “We should break it up,” Sophie said, drying her hands on a kitchen towel. Everything was inside the refrigerator and the counters were wiped clean.

  Bailey swung open the door. “Okay if we join you?” she asked, feigning cheerfulness.

  “By all means.” Ted removed his arm from the back of the chair, straightened and set his cup on the table.

  “How long have you two known each other?” Sophie asked.

  “A while.” Beth was the one who answered. “I’ve brought more than one dog to Ted. He helps me with the rescues, too.”

  “You must like animals,” Sophie went on.

  Bailey thought that was a dumb remark. The guy was a vet; obviously he liked animals.

  “I do.” Ted hesitated. He must’ve thought it was a dumb remark, too. But then he added, “And I like your mother.”

  His announcement fell like bricks from the sky.

  “What about my dad?” Bailey asked.

  “Yeah, our dad,” Sophie echoed plaintively.

  “Oh, dear,” Beth whispered. “If you two have any hopes that your father and I are getting back together, you need to forget them. It’s much too late for that.”

  Fourteen

  “Who’d be calling on Christmas Eve?” Bobby Polgar asked when Teri hung up the phone. It was after dinner, and the children were—finally—all snug in their beds.

  “Beth Morehouse,” Teri said. “She wants to know if it would be all right if she dropped the puppy off tonight instead of in the morning.” Actually, it sounded as though Beth needed to get out of the house.

  “What did you tell her?”

  “I said come on over.”

  Bobby glanced into the family room, where he had three scooter-riders out of the boxes ready for assembling. The triplets were eight months old now and crawling. Robbie, the firstborn, was already standing on his own. Teri figured he’d be walking soon; the boy was fearless. Little Jimmy, the middle child and the smallest, was content to continue crawling, and Christopher, the youngest by a couple of minutes, loved sitting on the floor, banging pots and pans. Bobby felt sure their son was destined to be a drummer.

  “I asked James to give me a hand assembling these,” Bobby admitted a bit sheepishly.

  “You’ll do fine.” Her husband might be a chess genius, but he didn’t excel in certain other areas—like household repairs. Or “assembly required” toys.

  “Are the boys down for the night?” Bobby asked.

  Teri nodded, too exhausted for a detailed description of what it took to get all three to fall asleep at roughly the same time. Their nanny had the next two days off to spend the holidays with her family, and it felt like she’d been gone for a month. Teri’s sister, Christie, had agreed to help make Christmas dinner and look after the triplets.

  “Come and sit with me,” Bobby said, holding his arm out to Teri.

  She sat beside him on the sofa and laid her head on his shoulder. Bobby was semi-retired these days, following the birth of his sons, and Teri was grateful. Bobby and his best friend, James, had developed a chess-based computer game that consumed a great deal of their time, since they were now working on the second version. Still, Teri was glad to have her husband at home instead of on the road.

  Closing her eyes, she remembered how she’d met Bobby Polgar. It had definitely been an unusual introduction.... He was in a championship chess match in Seattle and to everyone’s shock he was losing. The chess world was aghast that the great Bobby Polgar could be toppled. One look at the chess player on the TV screen told Teri what his problem was. Bobby was distracted by his hair, which was too long and kept flopping in his eyes. He needed a cut.

  In retrospect she was astonished that Security had let her through to see him. When she explained why she’d come, Bobby had stared at her as if she was some kind of lunatic, but he’d allowed her to trim his hair. Then she’d quietly left. Bobby had gone on to win the match and afterward he’d sought her out. Crazy as it sounded, that was how it all began.

  She wasn’t quite sure when she fell in love with him. In the beginning, she’d fought against having any feelings for this man. Really, what could come of it? She was a hairdresser from a little backwater town and Bobby Polgar was a champion chess player admired by the
whole world. He might be infatuated with her for a while, but his affection would quickly wane. She’d bore him, and Bobby would soon grow tired of her.

  Talk about an odd couple! But fall in love with him she did, despite her efforts not to. And when she fell, she fell hard.

  She’d questioned why an intellectual like him—a celebrity to boot—would love someone like her. He’d said that she brought emotion into his life, that he liked her practical and intuitive approach, that she’d taught him how to feel.

  Before that tournament in Seattle, every minute of Bobby’s life had been involved with chess. He lived, breathed and slept chess. It was all he thought about, all he cared about…until he fell in love with her.

  “You’re smiling,” Bobby said now, brushing the hair off her forehead almost as if she were a child.

  “I was remembering our honeymoon.” They got married in Las Vegas. Bobby had been in a chess competition there, and they were given the most luxurious penthouse suite in the hotel. The morning after their wedding night, Bobby had to leave for a chess match. Teri had stayed in bed and turned on the television to watch her husband play.

  She knew from the first move he made that his mind wasn’t on the game. He was thinking about her, thinking about coming back to the room and making love to her again. Then something happened; she could almost see the transformation taking place.... His expression changed. Even his posture changed. Bobby had realized that the sooner he won, the sooner he could return to their room. His focus, his attention, went straight into the game. His opponent didn’t stand a chance. The poor man lost in record time. A second later, Bobby popped out of his seat and raced for the elevator, the camera crew on his heels.

  Teri had been waiting for him....

  The doorbell chimed and Teri sighed, not wanting to leave the comfort of her husband’s arms and the warm memories that had wrapped themselves around her. She started to get up, but Bobby stopped her.

  “I’ll get it.”

  As Bobby was rising to his feet she slipped her hand around his neck and brought his mouth down to hers for a lengthy kiss. They broke it off when the doorbell chimed again.

  Bobby’s glasses were askew and his face flushed by the time he moved away from her. He cleared his throat. “You need to warn me before you do that,” he muttered.

  “Okay, I will,” she said, smiling up at him. “That was just to say how much I love you.”

  Bobby cleared his throat again and gave her a small, crooked smile. He never quite knew how to respond when she mentioned love. “Thank you,” he whispered, then hurried to the door.

  In a minute he was back with Christie and James. They were another odd couple, Teri mused. When she’d first met James Wilbur, she hadn’t known what to think of the tall, exceptionally thin man who served as Bobby’s driver. It wasn’t until much later that she discovered James was Bobby’s dearest friend. He’d been a chess prodigy like Bobby, but James had suffered a breakdown caused by all the pressure. He’d disappeared from the public eye and been forgotten by everyone except Bobby. Her husband refused to abandon his friend, so he’d hired James as his driver. For years no one had recognized Bobby’s chauffeur as the teenager who’d made chess history along with Bobby Polgar.

  As soon as James met Christie, he fell for her. Teri hated to be the one to tell him, but her younger sister came with plenty of baggage, just like she had. To her complete surprise, Christie had fallen in love with James. Their relationship had been a series of stops and starts, had taken a number of unexpected turns. But in the end Christie had dumped the losers who’d taken advantage of her, gone back to school and straightened out her life.

  A year ago, over Christmas, she’d split up with James. A story in the press had identified him as James Gardner, the prodigy who’d disappeared. It might not have been such a big news item if not for the fact that he’d still been part of the chess world all that time. He hadn’t played in years, not since his collapse, but he enjoyed belonging to that world. Christie hadn’t been able to tolerate his deception, his inability to trust her with his secret. Eventually, however, they’d reconciled and their estrangement had led them to a greater understanding of each other.

  Teri realized James was like Bobby, in that chess was all he knew. He’d acknowledged he no longer wanted to play high-pressure big-money chess, but liked being close to the game—and close to the one friend he could count on, Bobby Polgar.

  “We’re here to help with the kids’ Christmas gifts,” Christie announced.

  “Wonderful.” Teri patted the empty space next to her on the sofa. “We’ll let the men put together these toys while you and I visit.”

  “Sounds like a great idea to me,” Christie said. “By the way, the house looks gorgeous.” She gestured at the candles arranged on the fireplace mantel and at the Christmas tree, its lights reflected in the picture window overlooking Puget Sound.

  Falling in love had changed Christie, just as it’d changed Teri. The hard edges of her personality had softened. She’d proven to herself she could get whatever she wanted as long as she worked hard and persevered. Christie had recently graduated from Olympic Community College, and she planned to start her own business, photographing the contents of houses for insurance purposes. Teri was proud of her little sister.

  “I heard from Johnny this afternoon,” she told Christie. Johnny was their younger brother. He was in school, attending the University of Washington. “He’ll come over for dinner tomorrow. With his new girlfriend.” Johnny never lacked for girlfriends, but he hadn’t met anyone who was going to change his life. Not yet.

  Teri had been more of a mother to him than their own. Another memory floated into Teri’s mind. Soon after she’d married Bobby, Teri had made a huge dinner and invited her family to the house to meet her husband.

  Sadly, her mother had arrived half-drunk, and from the moment Ruth stepped through the door, she did nothing but find fault with Teri.

  Bobby wasn’t about to let his mother-in-law insult his wife and had handled the situation in a firm, yet subtle way. He’d wordlessly picked up Ruth’s purse and set it by the front door, indicating it was time for her to leave. Ruth had immediately taken offense and, dragging her fourth—or was it fifth?—husband, she’d stomped out.

  “James, what do they mean by a flat-head screwdriver?” Bobby and James sat on the family room floor with the pieces of one scooter scattered about the room. Bobby held out the instruction sheet, frowning at the diagrams. Then he turned it upside down before turning it right side up again.

  “I didn’t know there was more than one kind of screwdriver,” James confessed.

  “You learn something new every day, right?”

  “Right,” James agreed.

  “I’ll get a flat-head screwdriver for you,” Teri said, sliding off the sofa.

  Bobby gazed up at her as if she were the most brilliant woman who’d ever lived. “You have one?”

  “That and a Phillips and a square tip…” She went to the kitchen drawer and returned with the required screwdriver.

  “Do you need anything else?” she asked, handing it to him.

  “Uh…” He showed her the instruction sheet. “Can you tell me what I’m supposed to do with that?” He pointed to the drawing of a part.

  “Teri,” Christie said, getting up from the sofa. “It looks like these two are going to need a bit of assistance.”

  “Looks that way,” she concurred.

  “We can do this,” Bobby
insisted.

  “Yeah,” James echoed, but without much conviction.

  “Do you want them to help us?” Bobby asked his friend.

  James regarded Christie, and then Teri. “I don’t think it would hurt. What about you?”

  “I don’t need help,” Bobby said, “but if Teri wants to volunteer I won’t stop her.”

  Teri and Christie exchanged an eye-rolling glance.

  All of them were on the floor when the doorbell chimed yet again.

  “That’ll be Beth Morehouse,” Teri said.

  “Oh, were you expecting her?” Christie asked. “Why’s she here?”

  “Delivering a puppy,” she said on her way to the door.

  “Teri, don’t tell me you and Bobby are getting a puppy!” Christie called after her.

  “No,” James answered on her behalf. “We are.”

  “James!” Christie yelped. “Isn’t this something you should’ve discussed with me first?”

  “Well…”

  Before he could respond, Teri walked into the living room, followed by her guest. Beth held a basket—with a small black puppy staring out. The little creature wore a pink bow that contrasted with its glossy fur.

  “Oh, she’s adorable.”

  “Yes, and she’s all yours,” James told her. “Merry Christmas, darling.”

  “Merry Christmas,” Christie said, her voice choked.

  “Why are you crying?” James asked, drawing his wife into his arms.

  “I…I always wanted a…dog.”

  “I know.”

  Christie threw her arms around James’s neck.

  Teri took the basket out of Beth’s arms. “Thank you so much for bringing over the puppy.”

  “I was happy to,” Beth said. “I know this little girl will have a wonderful home, so thank you.”

  “Our pleasure,” Christie murmured.

  James kissed her forehead. “Merry Christmas, my love,” he said again. “I thought we could name her Chessie.”