Love Promises (Sully Point, Book 4) (15 page)

"Nursing Jenny. She's slowly weaning her, but
she still nurses her a couple times a day."

Maggie sat down at the counter, and reached over
for a bowl of chocolate candy that was sitting out. She unwrapped a piece and
popped it into her mouth. "You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking I'm
going to have to plan a wedding. With my mother. Do you have any idea what that
will be like? She is going to want to design the wedding. And who knows what
Eric's mother will be like. I haven't got a clue about her."

Holly asked, "Will your mother really want to
design it?"

"Yes. I know for a fact that she has been
designing wedding dresses for me and for my sisters since we were little girls.
She has a special file filled with her ideas for our weddings."

"Wow," Anna said, watching Maggie eat
another chocolate. "Are you okay with that?"

"It will depend on whether or not I like the
dress," Maggie said with smile.

"How can you eat the way you have today and
stay so small?" Anna asked.

Maggie was surprised. She looked at the chocolate
in her hand and then back up to the two women. "I must be more
stressed out by this wedding thing than I thought. I am just craving chocolate,
a sure sign of stress for me."

Julia walked in with a smile on her face.
"Frank just poked his head in the door. The sheriff called and said they
expect the power back on by tomorrow morning."

Maria smiled and thought about how she couldn't
wait to get back to her apartment to really celebrate with Eric.

That night they decorated Holly and Jason's
Christmas tree. Since they weren't always at the house, they had a large nine
foot artificial tree with a ton of lights already on it. Jason and the rest of
the men brought out box after box of ornaments.

"What on earth are you doing, Holly? There's
enough decorations here for twenty trees," Frank said.

"Now Dad, you just don't understand. The
latest concept in tree decorating is to really fill the tree up, from the
inside out. Let's turn on some music and get started."

Maggie sucked on a candy cane while putting little
glass star ornaments on the tree. She had never put up a tree of her own at any
apartment she'd lived in, since she usually went home for Christmas. She
wondered if maybe this was the year to have a tree of her own. Or, better
still, why not wait until next year after she and Eric were married and living
in their own place? She liked that idea, but it made her think about all the
decisions they needed to make, like where to live. Eric had never intended to
stay permanently in Sully Point. And if they both wanted to go back to school,
it didn't make much sense to buy a house here.

"Darling, you're attacking that candy cane
like it did something wrong," Eric said.

She jumped, startled to find him standing beside
her. "Goodness, you scared me. I was thinking. Do you realize all the
stuff we need to figure out? Like housing. Where will we live?"

"Wherever we want to, I guess. I hadn't
thought about it yet."

"Eric, we have to start thinking of these
things. And what about--"

"Stop," he said, holding up a hand.
"We'll work it out, all of it. We don't need to worry about it tonight,
okay?"

She looked into his face and found strength there,
and a sense of calm. He was right. She had been starting to spin in mental
circles over everything.

"Eric, what was your Christmas usually like,
with your family?" Frank asked.

"Pretty much like anyone else's, I guess. We
usually had a real tree that got put up around the second week in December. My
mother is a teacher. She retired this year. But it meant she got off for school
vacation like I did. We spent days baking cookies, breads, pies and cakes that
she gave away to families of her students, and friends in the neighborhood. I'm
still pretty good at making cookies."

"How did I not know this?" Maggie asked.
"What kind of cookies?"

"Go on, Eric. Ignore my little sister's
cookie fetish," Sam said.

Eric smiled at her. "Sugar cookies and yes,
chocolate chip. Anyway, my father is a supervisor at a software company. Or rather,
he was. He retired when Mom did. When I was little, he started bringing home
computers from work that weren't being used anymore because they were too old.
My interest in them started from those first computers. He didn't think it was
strange at all when this kid of four years old got into computers. My mother
did, though. With her help I didn't have to go through too many boring years in
the school system. Which was good and bad, I suppose."

"I like how you turned out," Maggie
said. "So it was good."

"I think they'd like it here, even though
they've lived in Seattle forever. It's a big city with a small town feel."

"Time to put the star on top of the
tree," Holly announced. "I need that ladder closer over here."

She climbed up and the tree was soon topped by a
glittering silver star.

Eric spoke quietly to Maggie. "One thing my
family always did was to go to church on Christmas Eve. How would you feel
about doing that?"

"I'd like it. I think the church has a
midnight service here."

"Then let's do it."

She nodded, thinking how they'd be making their
first Christmas memories together. It was turning into a special holiday
season.

That night, after the tree was admired and
marshmallows were roasted over the fire, she snuggled in bed next to Eric,
drowsy and warm and feeling more loved than ever in her life. It was amazing
how things turned out, she thought.

"Remember how I was going to hire you to be
my boyfriend? Bet you never thought it would end up like this, did you?"

Eric murmured, "Never in my wildest dreams."

"It feels like a dream to me. I'm so happy
I'm almost scared, scared it could all go away."

"It won't. We're going to be together
forever. We promised."

She relaxed against him. "Yes, you're right.
We did promise. Forever."

Chapter 6

The next week was filled with Christmas chaos.
Maggie was close to finishing all her gift projects, but it seemed that rest of
the family decided to do all their shopping that week. She spent a day with
Joshua while Anna and Sam went to the city to shop. While she was there she was
inundated with boxes being delivered by UPS and FedEx. She couldn't figure out
what they could have left to shop for in the city, since more than enough stuff
had been delivered to their home. Sam was known, however, for going overboard when
it came to holiday gift giving.

Eric had discovered that Sully Point had a
Christmas choir, and was spending lots of time with them rehearsing. They
planned to go caroling for two nights before Christmas, and would perform at the midnight church service on Christmas Eve. Maggie had told him he
was going to freeze his tush off walking around in the freezing weather for the
caroling, but Eric seemed excited to be part of the group.

Meanwhile the computers were arriving for the big
delivery. It was set for the week of Christmas. Julia was talking to the most
experienced computer users in town to get some extra help setting them up in
people's homes. The signup and vetting process for determining who would be
getting the computers had gone quickly and smoothly. Eric had told her that it
got to him every time a parent's eyes lit up at the thought of their child
having computer access.

Maggie was helping Cody to organize the food
giveaway for the week of Christmas as well. They had boxes of cereals, crackers,
oatmeal, bags of beans and rice, along with cans of fruit and vegetables in
boxes covered with shiny wrapping paper. Each family would get a pre-cooked
ham, along with pineapple, sweet potatoes, broccoli and more trimmings for the
Christmas dinner. They'd given away turkeys for Thanksgiving, and Maggie and
Cody had both felt ham was a good choice for this holiday.

The toys this year were being passed out by the
sheriff's office and the Red Cross volunteers. Maggie spent an afternoon
wrapping dolls, trucks, stuffed animals, and race cars.

She was at home at the end of the week, after
having shopped at the mall's craft and sewing shop earlier that day. It had
occurred to her that she and Eric needed to have stockings even if they didn't
have a tree put up this year. She bought velvet in green to match Eric's eyes,
and red for her. She had found some white fake fur to put at the top of each
stocking and was making snowmen and Christmas trees out of sequins to go on
them.

Her phone rang and she put it on speaker because
her hands were full of sequins.

"Maggie?"

"Mom! How are you?"

"I'm fine, but I had expected to hear from
you before this."

"Mom, I called you guys the night I got
engaged."

"Yes, but I thought you'd want us down there
for Christmas."

"Aren't you coming?" Maggie asked,
confused.

"We were waiting for you to invite us,
dear."

"Oh. Oops. I thought you had planned to come
down and stay with Sam. I had no idea. Can you guys still come?"

"Of course. I'm not sure we can get a flight
though, we may have to drive. This has gotten a bit confused."

"I'm sorry, Mom. I was thinking your visit
was already set up. Please do come."

"All right. I'd better get off the phone and
make some plans. Talk to you later, Maggie. Love you."

"Love you, too."

She turned off her phone and shook her head. How
could she have messed that up? It seemed like this Christmas was rattling her
more than any previous one. Maybe being in love had something to do with that.

By the time Eric arrived, after another choir
practice, Maggie had decided that sequins were more trouble than they were
worth. She had managed to finish the stockings, even though her frustration
reached a high enough level to break out the hot chocolate. Hot chocolate was
her go-to stress reliever this holiday season. Chocolate in any form had become
her favorite food. Considering how healthy she normally was with her food
choices, she was a bit thrown by how much chocolate she was going for. But it
was just so good.

"You look frazzled," Eric said. "I
picked up dinner at the Diner."

"What did you get?"

"Meatloaf with gravy, mashed potatoes, green
beans. I thought a basic meal would be good."

He took the food into the kitchen and began
opening containers. Maggie took one look at it and dashed from the kitchen. She
barely made it to the bathroom before getting sick.

"Maggie! What's wrong?" Eric met her
coming out of the bathroom holding a washcloth to her forehead.

"Oh man, I don't know. That hit me out of the
blue." She walked over the couch and laid down, Eric covering her with a crocheted
throw. "I think I overdid the chocolate."

"Are you running a fever?"

"I don't think so. See if there's any ginger
ale left in the fridge. I want to sip something."

He was back quickly, and handed the glass to her.
She sipped it and then smiled up at him. "I'm already feeling better. Wow,
that really hit me." She started to sit up, but he put a hand on her
shoulder.

"Just stay down for a few minutes. You scared
me. I need to catch my breath." He was kneeling down and took her hand in
his.

She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. "I
think I'm okay. I got so frustrated, I was popping chocolates like popcorn. I
just ate too much sugar. Don't fret."

He nodded. "What got you that
frustrated?"

"Something special for us. Here, I'm okay
now, let me sit up." She sat up and leaned back against the sofa. "I
know we decided not to do a tree, but stockings sounded like a good idea to me
for our first Christmas together. There, on that side table. Bring those
here."

Eric found the stockings and turned back to her,
holding them up. "Maggie, these are wonderful! I've never seen anything
like them."

She beamed at him. "They did turn out pretty
good. Major pain to make, but we'll have them forever. Then we can add to them,
once we have children."

"Which will be a while into the future, but
we'll be ready to add more stockings by then," Eric said.

Maggie said, "We never talked about having
kids. I want them."

"I do too, but later. We have plenty of time,
and we both are talking about school. It makes sense to wait a few, maybe five
years or so, is what I'm thinking."

She nodded. "Yes, I suppose that makes sense.
But how many kids?"

"More than one. Don't get me wrong, I was
perfectly happy as a child. But I think it is good to have more than one."

"Sounds good to me. For now, though, let's
hang up the stockings."

Soon he was sitting next to her, arm around her
shoulders, as they gazed at the stockings. Maggie was very happy with how
they'd turned out, and Eric really did seem to like them.

"I hate to bring this up, but I'm
starving," Eric said. "I'm going to go heat up the food I brought."

"You know, I think I could eat something now.
Did you say you brought mashed potatoes?"

"Yes, but are you sure?"

"Yeah, no gravy, just the potatoes."

"Stay right here, and I'll bring them to
you."

Maggie watched him walk away and sighed. He really
was gorgeous. It seemed impossible that he was hers. He had his hair pulled
back again with the leather tie. She had begged Lucretia to engrave a silver
ring for his hair that she could give him for Christmas. Lucretia had agreed as
long as she promised not to bring up wedding and engagement rings until after
the first of the year.

"How's the choir doing?" she asked after
dinner.

"Very good. You'll be at the Grainger house
that second night we carol, right?"

"Yes. I think Frank said something about hot
apple cider and something good to eat for you guys. His is the last house on
the tour, right?"