Miracle Road: Eternity Springs Book 7 (36 page)

He heard the door open behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder. He wasn’t surprised to see his twin attempting to maneuver through the doorway on his crutches. Tony undoubtedly sensed his turmoil.

“Hold on a minute,” Lucca said, moving toward him. “Let me get the door.”

After Tony crossed the threshold, he tossed Lucca the jacket he’d draped over one crutch. “Do us both a favor and put this on before Mom sees you.”

Lucca’s mouth twisted, but he did as his brother asked and then returned to his spot at the railing. Tony hobbled across the porch and stood beside him. “So, do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Yeah, but later. Not here.”

Tony nodded. “It’s obvious that you have a beef of some sort with Hope, so I’m offering a distraction. I have a favor to ask you, bro. A big one.”

“Oh?” The prospect of having something to think about other than the situation with Hope pleased him. “Okay, ask it.”

“The doctors tell me I’m not gonna heal on my own this time around. I need to have surgery.”

Lucca grimaced. “Dammit, Tony. I’m sorry. I feel responsible.”

“Good. Because I need your help. My doctor has an opening in his schedule later this week, but our team leaves for New York the day after tomorrow. My head assistant coach is out with the chicken pox, of all things. He caught it from his kindergartener. So …” He met Lucca’s gaze. “I need you to fill in for me at the Holiday Classic.”

Lucca’s heart thudded. His mouth went dry. “Coach? You want me to coach?”

“It’s an important tournament. You know my system. I need you.”

Return to collegiate coaching? Lucca’s first reaction was to refuse out of hand, but even as the words formed on his tongue, he hesitated, and his thoughts went to Hope.

How could he argue against her allowing fear to rule her life when he was guilty of the same offense?

He couldn’t. He had to do this. For the sake of his child and his child’s mother. For the sake of the family he wanted, he needed to defeat this particular fear. He sucked in a deep breath, filling his lungs with freezing air, then exhaled in a rush. “Okay. Yes. I’ll do it. I’ll coach the Holiday Classic in your place.”

Tony’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Excellent,” he said, his smile wide. “I’m so glad. That’s the best gift ever.”

“So I can take back the one I put under Mom’s tree for you?”

“Hell, no.”

Lucca laughed, feeling as if a great weight had been released from his shoulders. “Let’s go inside. I’m freezing, and, besides, Mom is peering through the curtains at us.”

“She’s probably ready to go home so she can start cooking our Christmas Eve feast. Did you see the size of that tenderloin roast she bought?”

“You mean the cow that’s in the refrigerator?” Lucca joked.

The brothers went inside, and soon the entire family prepared to take their leave. His mood having mellowed, Lucca looked around for Hope, thinking to improve upon his earlier response to her Merry Christmas wish, but Sarah Murphy told him she’d left through the back door while he’d been on the front porch with Tony. Telling himself that he’d catch up with her later, he turned his attention to his family, determined to enjoy the occasion.

The traditional Romano family Christmas meant opening gifts prior to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. This year, following a feast where Zach and Max arm wrestled for the last slice of roast and their mother actually rationed the Italian crème cake, the family congregated downstairs and waited for Maggie to finish a phone call with her sisters. Christmas music played softly in the background, and conversation between the siblings was easy. Richard Steele was in Denver with his family for the Christmas holidays, and Lucca had to admit he was glad. While he and his siblings were growing accustomed to the idea of the new man in their mother’s life, he was glad to have another year before they’d need to expand their traditions.

Including a baby would be an easier adjustment. His mother had been preaching about wanting grandchildren for years, and he knew how excited she was at the thought.

“Hey, you,” Gabriella said, coming up beside him. “You okay? You’ve been awfully quiet tonight.”

“I have a lot on my mind.”

“It’s Hope, isn’t it? You had a fight? You two hardly spoke to one another at Angel’s Rest. Honestly, I expected you to invite her to be here and go to church with us tonight.”

“We’re having … issues.”

“What sort of issues?”

He set his mouth and shook his head. “This isn’t the time for it. It’s Christmas Eve and I haven’t even tried to guess your present yet.”

He started toward the tree to begin the time-honored tradition of lifting the box marked to him from Gabi to shake, sniff, and study in his effort to figure out its contents. Soon, Gabi’s smart-aleck responses to his questions had him laughing, and when his mother entered the room a few minutes later and asked Zach to play Santa and pass out gifts, Lucca was overwhelmed by a warm rush of love for his family.

Max and Tony sat bickering over which songs should be included in a top-ten-rock-songs-in-history list. Savannah teased his mother about one of the gifts Richard had given her before he left that, apparently, his mom honestly loved.
If Dad had given Mom an electric broom, she wouldn’t have spoken to him until Easter.
Zach was giving Gabi a hard time about her handwriting on the gift tags, and his sister fired back about chicken scratching on sheriff’s department reports.

How incredibly lucky he was.

And how incredibly sad that Hope sat home alone with only Roxy for company.

The last of the anger and hurt that Lucca had nursed for the past week melted away, overwhelmed by a heart filled with love. Celeste had advised him to be patient and to listen to his instincts. Why had he forgotten that?

“Lucca?”

The sound of his name snapped him back to attention. Zach stood in front of him, a stack of gifts in his arms. “Oh, sorry.”

As his brother handed over Lucca’s gifts, he noticed the medal hanging on a chain around Zach’s neck. Savannah wore one like it. He realized he’d seen a similar necklace on a number of people in Eternity Springs.

As Zach returned to the tree to gather another stack of gifts to give out, Lucca turned to his sister-in-law seated beside him. “What’s the deal with the necklaces you guys wear? The wings?”

Savannah’s hand lifted to touch her pendant. “Celeste gave them to us. She calls it the official Angel’s Rest blazon. Sage Rafferty designed it and Celeste awards it to those she deems have embraced healing’s grace. Earning it has become a bit of a big deal here in town. She only gives it after a person overcomes a significant emotional wound.”

“Really?”

“I’m very proud to wear mine. It reminds me of how far I’ve come and how blessed I am. On days when I’m a little down or something bothers me, I can touch it and remind myself that I am strong and have the ability to overcome.”

“Really?” he repeated.

A ghost of a thought formed on the edges of his consciousness, but before he could wrestle it into form, Zach distracted him by saying, “Okay, I have two gifts left to pass out. One doesn’t have a tag at all and the other says … to Fig from Nana?”

The unmarked gift was Lucca’s for Hope that he’d forgotten to remove from the bag of gifts he’d brought over to his mom’s place. The fig … well … that must be his, too. He knew from his own reading that at eleven weeks, the baby was the size of a fig. He looked at his mother who gave him a sheepish grin. “It’s a happy thing. We’re all together and I can’t keep a secret like this for long.”

“I should have expected it, I guess.” He shrugged and shared the news with his family. “Hope is pregnant.”

They reacted with a loving combination of joy and concern, aware that he had problems with his relationship with Hope. “She’s afraid and considering her situation, that’s understandable. She needs to be convinced that she’s brave enough to tackle motherhood again.”

“Again?” Gabi asked.

Lucca hesitated. This wasn’t his story to tell, but she’d already shared the facts with his mother and, besides, he wanted to enlist their help. But before he launched into an explanation, the doorbell rang. Maggie answered it and Celeste Blessing stepped inside. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but Maggie, you left your handbag at Angel’s Rest, and when I opened it to determine to whom it belonged, I saw you had your church offering envelope inside, so I thought I’d drop it off so you’d have it tonight.”

“Thank you, Celeste. I’m so scatterbrained sometimes. I didn’t realize I’d walked off without it. Come in and join us, please. Have a cup of cider.”

“I don’t want to interrupt your family time.”

That ghost of thought Lucca had had solidified and he rose to his feet. “Please, Celeste. Do join us. I have something very important to ask you.”

“All right.” Celeste removed her coat and joined them in the living room. “What can I do to help?”

“You know about Holly, right? Hope told you when you met during her beach vacation?”

“Yes.”

He nodded, then turned back to his family and explained about Holly. Shock and compassion filled their expressions. “Poor Hope,” Gabi said. “That’s the most heartbreaking story ever.”

“It is,” Lucca agreed. “It broke up her marriage, but it didn’t break Hope. Did you see her tonight? Every time I turned around, she had a child in her arms. She doesn’t run from kids, she embraces them. She surrounds herself with them. She drives them on a school bus and teaches them to read and coaches them in a sport she hardly knows. She’s dedicated her life to children. Is that not the very definition of courage?”

“It’s more than I could do, that’s for sure,” Max said.

“The girl has guts,” Tony agreed.

Lucca stared at Celeste intently. “She doesn’t see it, and I think she needs a symbol. It’s Dorothy and Oz and the Cowardly Lion, only the Yellow Brick Road is a Miracle Road. She’s been given a miracle, a second chance to have a family, but she thinks she doesn’t have the courage to accept it. Only, she does have the courage. She’s proved it by the way she’s chosen to live her life since Holly was stolen. Celeste, I think she needs the recognition. She needs the outward symbol.”

“You want me to award her an Angel’s Rest blazon?”

“I do. I think she’s earned it. Don’t you?”

Celeste’s eyes warmed, and her smile spread wide. “I think that’s an exceptional idea, and especially appropriate considering the other purpose behind my visit here tonight.”

She reached into her purse and pulled out a small white velvet box wrapped in gold ribbon, which she handed to Lucca. “Word got around that you have agreed to coach Tony’s team in a tournament so that he can have surgery on his knee.”

“That was fast,” Lucca observed, tugging the ribbon.

“The small-town telegraph is a wondrous thing.”

Grinning, Lucca opened the box. “A medal for me?”

“Yes. Allow me?” Celeste removed the chain from the box and, after motioning for Lucca to bend down, slipped it over his head. “In recognition of your embrace of love’s healing grace as evidenced by your return to collegiate coaching, I award you the official Angel’s Rest blazon.”

“I’m going to cry,” Maggie said.

“Me, too,” Gabi added. “I’m jealous. I want one.”

“There she goes again,” Max said. “Always wanting what everyone else has.”

“Oh, hush, or I’ll take back your Christmas present.”

“Speaking of presents,” Tony said. “Can we finally open them? We don’t want to be late to church.”

“Tear into ’em, kiddos.”

Accompanied by the sound of tearing paper, Lucca bent and kissed Celeste on the cheek. “Thank you, Celeste. This means the world to me. And I thank you even more for agreeing to my point about Hope.”

“She has a loving soul and a tender heart. You were right to recognize her courage, but I must caution you to remember that her wounds are deeper than most. I spoke to you before about the need for patience.”

“You’re right. I will remember.”

“Oh, cool!” Tony said. “A Nerf Blaster. This is awesome. Thank you, Gabi.”

Max laughed. “I got one, too.”

Lucca looked at his brothers’ gifts from Gabi, then searched for his own present. “Those are solid. You better not have left me out, sis.”

Zach shot a dart at Lucca and laughed. Minutes later, the foam was flying as the four grown men reverted to boyhood. Maggie Romano moved to stand beside Celeste. “Gabi always gives her brothers toys for Christmas. It’s a Romano family tradition.”

“You are blessed with your family, Maggie.”

“Don’t I know it.” Maggie gave Celeste a hug and added, “Blessed with my family. Blessed with my friends. Blessed to have found a home in Eternity Springs.”

“Amen,” said Celeste. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” Hope said as she handed Roxy a big rawhide bone. The dog carried it over to her bed and stretched out to slobber and chew. Hope hummed “Silent Night” as she stoked the fire, intending to chase away the chill that lingered in her bones after the walk home from the midnight church service. Maybe she should have accepted the Davenports’ offer of a ride home, but it had been such a gorgeous, starry night, and her heart had been so full and warm from the fellowship of the service that she’d wanted to prolong the moment.

Plus, she hadn’t looked forward to going home alone.

She glanced over to her Christmas tree, where only the red foil– wrapped gift remained. Had things been different, she might have spent the evening with the Romanos, she knew. She always felt lonely on Christmas, but this year was worse than ever. Walking home from church, seeing lights on in her neighbors’ houses, she’d felt a little like Scrooge gazing into Tiny Tim’s window.

Better she had attended the daytime service. Nothing felt quite so hollow as standing outside in the dark alone looking inside where people were gathered in a warm, bright place.

“You think you’re lonely this year, imagine how you’ll feel next,” she murmured. Instinctively, she covered her womb with her hand. Could she really give this baby up? Did she honestly believe that her child would be better off without her in his or her life? Or had that been nothing more than panic talking in the wake of the accident?