He lay still and quiet for a while, his face against her hair, inhaling her sweet scent. Minutes passed before he whispered, "You awake?"

"Barely," she said.

"I think I forgot to do something..."

She rolled onto her back. "Are you leaving again?"

He grinned down at her and shook his head.

"What did you forget to do?"

"I forgot to make love to you." Just pressing up against her, even against those boring flannel pajamas, he was already aroused.

"Are you really waking me up for sex?" she asked him.

He grinned as he nodded, looking down at her beautiful face. He covered those soft, pink lips with a searching kiss. "I need you," he said. "I want to be inside you." He had never wanted anyone the way he wanted her. In fact, he had never wanted anyone else. "If I say please?" he whispered against her cheek.

"I can hardly say no, since you're so polite...."

"Good, I'll remember that. I'll mind my manners at all times. For the rest of my life." And then he stopped talking, kissing her while he made those pajamas go away....

"Mom?" Becca said into the phone the next day. "When you went to San Diego to be with Daddy, did you ever wonder if you'd made a terrible mistake? Even though you loved him?"

"Did I cry for my mom and dad? Was I sometimes real lonely without my girlfriends? The answer is yes. I told you, it wasn't easy."

"How did you do it? How did you make that decision and then stick to it?"

"Well, it's been so long...but there was the story of Ruth from the Bible. My dad was real big on the Bible sometimes. Ruth left the family she knew and went with her new husband. She said, 'Your people shall be my people.' I know that's supposed to be biblical, but I actually found it romantic. Of course, at the time, I didn't realize your Dad's people would include the beer-drinking champion of the Naval base, a few fellow football fanatics he couldn't be away from if there was a game playing anywhere in the universe, a bowling team and a very sour-smelling fishing buddy who might show up for a meal once a week."

Becca laughed softly.

"A Navy second lieutenant's pay was pretty small, I didn't have a job in San Diego and my parents lived on the opposite coast. Leaving them for the man of my choice meant not seeing them for a long time-air travel was pricey, there wasn't email and long-distance phone calls were expensive." Beverly paused. "What's happening, Becca?"

"Oh...just pondering... Denny so loves this town...."

"I suppose you think I was born yesterday," Beverly said. "Becca, I haven't made it any secret that I wanted a different partner for you. One who was going to be successful enough to take you to Europe and the kids to Disney once a year. But I'd be less than honest if I didn't admit I followed my heart. Besides, you can't cry alone at chick flicks for the rest of your life. I might not like it, but I understand you have to confront it."

"I don't cry alone at chick flicks!"

"Yes, you do. Maybe you can bring him home. This was his home once, after all," Beverly said.

"You were so angry with me for coming up here and now it sounds like you might actually understand!"

"Tell him we're having ham and turkey for Christmas," Beverly said.

Although Becca laughed, a few tears slid down her cheeks.

Thirteen

Becca had hoped to see Megan the day after her "accident" but she didn't show up at the church for homework. Since her little brother also hung out at the pastor's house or around the church, she asked Jeremy where she was. "Home, coughing," he said.

"Oh, no. She's sick?"

He shrugged. "Sorta. She barks like a dog."

"Not good," Becca agreed.

When Lorraine came to pick up Jeremy on her way home from her job, Becca was able to ask after Megan. Lorraine was keeping her home, giving her cough syrup and Tylenol and shoveling chicken soup into her. "Her biggest worry is that if she has to miss the pageant practice on Saturday afternoon, she won't get to be Mary!"

"If she were one of the singing angels, missing practice could be dicey," Becca said. "But Mary doesn't have to do anything but sit beside the manger. I'll double check with Ellie and Jo, but I think her role is safe even if she misses Saturday, as long as she's not contagious. And please, don't let her talk you into letting her come to practice until she's better. Whatever she's got? No one wants to share it!"

"Whew! This is about the most special thing she's had going on in such a long time. I'd hate to tell her she has to give it up."

"Nah, don't tell her that. Tell her she has to rest and eat chicken soup."

Friday was the last day of school before the holiday vacation and Saturday afternoon there was a rehearsal at the church for the Christmas Eve Nativity Pageant. On Sunday, some of the women got together to watch those Christmas movies at Paige's house. When Becca passed through the bar's kitchen to enter their quarters, she was stopped short by the accumulation of tons and tons of food. "Wow, preparing for a flood?"

"Christmas boxes," Preacher said. "We used to do it out in the bar where we had more room, but since the tree made us famous and we have so many visitors in town, we're doing it in the kitchen and in our serving room."

"When do they go out?"

"Christmas Eve is next Friday-but we'll start delivering tomorrow. It's almost all nonperishable so people can save it or eat it right away. That was Mel's idea-she said if we're bringing food to people who are hungry, let 'em eat!"

"I thought you gave turkeys?"

"Some, about a dozen. But canned hams work well, too. We don't want to deliver birds to anyone who might have oven issues-as in no gas. There are people around who make due on fireplace heat."

"Do you put them all together before delivering?"

"Nope. We deliver 'em as they're ready. We have a lot of people volunteering. We'll be at it most of the mornings this week, I imagine. Paige insists on making more cookies-there are families with kids."

We're so lucky, Becca thought. When I get home, I'm going to be better about volunteering.

Mel had a babysitter with her little ones and the town doctor was in charge of his three-year-old twins so his wife, Abby, could attend the hen party. Jack's sister, Brie, came for a couple of hours and Jo and Ellie stopped by. Jo brought some pageant costumes with her, along with a sewing box, enlisting help in hemming angel's robes.

Everyone had a pageant costume in their laps, there were Christmas cookies, coffee, tea and punch on the dining table and the first movie of the day was It's a Wonderful Life. There was a little light chatter, voices low so as not to disturb the movie too much.

"Jack said he can't understand why we're going to so much trouble for this pageant. He was a shepherd when he was seven and he wore his father's bathrobe."

"Did he tell you he wore that old plaid bathrobe till he was thirteen?" Brie whispered. "When he wasn't a shepherd, he was a Jedi warrior."