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A
Most Unwelcome Gift
(From Gift of Love collection)
Released Sept. 2000
When Tessa and Jarred Baker arrive at their parents’ secluded mountain cabin for a holiday visit, they get a shock they hadn’t bargained for. Their marriage already wavering in the danger zone, the two must learn to talk, listen, and forgive. Can a well-meaning gift be the catalyst that will start their marriage on the road to renewal?
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One
Tessa slammed the phone down, tears filming her
brown eyes. Almost immediately it rang beneath her fingertips and she jumped,
startled. Wary, yet hopeful, she picked up the receiver again and croaked out a
stiff “hello?”
“Tessa? Tessa, dear, is that you?” Strains of
“We Wish You a Merry Christmas” played in the background.
How ironic.
“Are you there, dear?”
Tessa blew out a soft, disappointed breath and
tucked a long strand of straight, honey-blonde hair behind one ear. “Yeah,
Mom. It’s me.”
“What’s wrong? You don’t sound well.”
Inwardly Tessa gave a sarcastic laugh. Well? Why
shouldn’t she “sound well”? Her storybook marriage was only crumbling to
dust around her feet . . .
“Tessa?”
“Sorry, Mom. I was off in my own world for a
minute there.” Tessa wiped away a couple of stubborn tears with her fingers
and angrily rubbed the moisture onto the leg of her jeans. She took a deep
breath. “I’m fine. What’s up?”
“Dad and I want to invite you and Jared to the
cabin tomorrow night.”
Tessa grimaced. “Sorry. Jared can’t make it.
Work . . .you know how it is.”
“Doesn’t he get Christmas vacation this
year?”
Tessa’s lips turned upward in a bitter smile.
“Yes, but he’s already made plans. He wants to get a jump on the Pearson
commission,” she explained for probably the tenth time that week. They had
been invited to a number of parties already.
“I really wish you’d ask him for me, dear.
It’s very important. Please, tell him I said so.”
Instantly Tessa straightened, her brow puckering
into a worried frown. “Are you and Dad all right?”
“Well . . . there is a problem.”
“It’s about the doctor’s appointment Dad had
last week, isn’t it?” Tessa closed her eyes with dread. “Oh, Mom, tell me
it’s not his heart again?”
“No, dear. Just please be here tomorrow--both of
you. Plan to come at 6:00 for dinner. I have to go now. Your father is calling.
Bye, honey.”
“Mom . . .?”
Tessa
blew out a breath. She lowered her hand and looked with frustration at the
humming receiver, finally dropping it into its cradle. Barefoot, she rose from
the white leather divan and padded over the lush carpet to the kitchen. She
turned off the oven, shook the meat out of the pan back into the tin foil and
stuck it in the freezer. Resigned, she retrieved a TV dinner-for-one from the
stack and tossed it into the microwave, preparing herself for another lonely
night.
Jared
wouldn’t appreciate this intrusion into his preconceived plans, but her mother
had sounded so strange over the phone. Besides, if he can stay for the office
Christmas party--which he’s always claimed a strong dislike for--then he can
certainly spare his wife a few hours, Tessa thought, clamping her lips
together tightly.
Memory of the earlier phone call and the sound of
sultry feminine laughter in the background, alarmingly close to Jared, pricked
at Tessa’s mind. Perhaps there was a reason her husband had developed a sudden
liking for office get-togethers . . .
An insistent “meow” at her feet shook Tessa
from her disturbing thoughts, and she looked down at the silver tabby brushing
against her ankles. “Well, Cinders, it looks like it’s just you and me
again. Time for another rollicking night at the Baker household.”
Several strong “meows” followed, and Tessa
reached up to the high shelf for the cat food. “Yeah, I know, I know,” she
muttered as she stuck the can under the opener and pressed the lever down.
“Your love is conditional.”
Was Jared’s? Or did he even care anymore?
***
Dully, Tessa watched the stark branches of oaks,
hickories, maples and other trees fly past the passenger window. Cold drizzle
fell, matching her mood, as the BMW sped up the incline. She hazarded a glance
at her husband.
Jared looked straight ahead, one hand on the wheel.
Laughing, he wrapped up the conversation with his boss on the cell phone,
assuring the woman he would have the finalized plans for the high-rise office
building on her desk next week at the latest. Finally, complaining of the
possibility of weather interference producing a bad connection, Jared said his
good-byes, punched a button with his thumb and set down the phone.
“Did you have a good time at the party last
night?” Tessa asked, unable to keep the hurt note out of her voice.
Jared’s hand gripped the wheel, and a nerve
ticked near his clean-shaven jaw. He threw a suspicious glance her way. “Okay,
Tessa. What’s this all about?”
“About? I just asked a perfectly simple
question.”
“Yeah, right. The first time you’ve opened your
mouth since we left home--” He shot a look at the digital clock on the
console, “--exactly forty-three minutes ago.”
She shrugged and pulled her leather bag hanging
from her shoulder close, clutching it on top of her lap in a defensive gesture.
“It’s a bit difficult to talk to a man with an instrument attached to his
ear most of the time.”
“I’ve been talking to Sharon for the past four
and a half minutes. That still leaves thirty-eight and a half minutes
unaccounted for.”
Tessa blew out a frustrated breath. “Okay, okay,
no need to get so analytical, Jared. I was just trying to make conversation.
That’s all.”
“Which in and of itself is pretty remarkable.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her brows
drew together in a frown.
He shot her another look, his sable brown eyes
hard. “Take it any way you want it, Tessa. You usually do.”
Too hurt to reply, she whipped her head around and
stared back out the window. A hand-lettered wooden sign atop a weathered post
with the words “Old Acorn Lane” raced past.
“Jared! We missed the turn-off.”
The tires squealed as he slammed on the brakes, and
Tessa was amazed that the car didn’t skid on the wet pavement. He spun the
wheel to the left and made a quick U-turn, narrowly missing the trunk of a thick
oak, then steered the car onto the uneven dirt road--now slick with mud.
“Don’t know why your parents decided to get a
place in the middle of nowhere and can’t live in town like normal people do.
Makes it impossible for a person to find a place,” Jared grumbled, as the car
bumped up the long lane thickly flanked with towering trees, oaks being most
predominant.
Tessa kept her mouth shut, biting down on her
tongue to keep from making a stinging reply. He’d know exactly where her
parents lived, if he didn’t always have an excuse every time an occasion to
visit came up. Since her parents had bought the cabin in the woods a little over
a year ago, after Dad had had his heart attack, Tessa had been the only one to
traverse these back roads. Except for the solitary time Jared had accompanied
her last Christmas.
Christmas . . . did he even remember their fourth
wedding anniversary was coming up in a matter of days? Probably not. Unless a
business memo was attached to his desk or a note was written in his book of
appointments, he would have forgotten. Yet since only work-related items found
their way to those honored spots, the chance of his remembering their special
day was practically nonexistent.
Holding back a sigh, Tessa watched as her
parents’ cabin finally came into view. The simple building looked peaceful in
the midst of the heavily forested area, with the lazy trail of white smoke
uncurling from the stone chimney. Not for the first time Tessa wished she and
Jared could live in the country, with the Appalachian Mountains their only
neighbors, instead of residing in the overcrowded city. Somewhere between here
and her Great Aunt Ginny’s tourist cabin would be perfect.
Jared steered the shiny BMW beside her father’s
dirty black pick-up truck and turned off the ignition. Tessa waited; but the
door to the cabin didn’t swing open, and no one came flying out with arms wide
to greet them. Her brow wrinkled in concern as she got out of the car and
hurriedly followed Jared to the covered porch.
Before she raised her hand to knock, Tessa
couldn’t prevent herself from muttering, “Let’s not weigh Mom and Dad down
with our problems. And I’d appreciate it if you’d throw a smile my way now
and then--just to act as if you actually like me.” She firmly knocked on the
door then, giving Jared no chance to respond to her acid words. However, she
didn’t miss the angry glint that lit his dark eyes.
Silence.
Tessa frowned and tried to see through the brown
and gold plaid curtains of the window overlooking the porch. Incandescent yellow
light glowed through the material, but she couldn’t detect any movement from
within. She knocked again.
After about a minute had elapsed, Jared shouldered
her aside. “Let me try.” But even his insistent banging didn’t bring
anyone to the door.
They looked at one another, puzzled; then Tessa put
her hand to the knob and turned it. The door swung inward.
Warily, she entered, Jared close behind her.
Everything appeared normal. A huge stack of wood
rested near the fireplace--a crackling fire greeting them. A folded newspaper
lay near Dad’s easy chair, and the usual scent of cinnamon potpourri mixed
with the acrid-sweet smell of wood smoke and pine tantalized Tessa’s nostrils.
In the corner stood a small, live tree decorated with old-fashioned glass bulbs
and tinsel, wrapped gifts underneath. Gaily-decorated boughs and wreaths flecked
with red velvet bows hung over the mantel and on the walls.
However, her parents were nowhere in sight.
Confused, Tessa pushed open the swinging door to
the kitchen. The small blue and cream-colored room was sparkling clean. Too
clean. No pots with delectable foods simmered on the gas burners of the stove,
and the oven was ice cold.
“Jared . . .?” She turned to look at him, her
puzzlement evolving into worry. “It’s not like Mom not to have dinner
started by now. We’re late as it is.”
He frowned and shot a glance at his gold Rolex.
“I’ll check outside at the back. You look in the rest of the house.”
Tessa headed for her parents’ bedroom. The door
stood open, revealing a perfectly made bed covered with a colorful quilt in the
wedding ring design her mother had pieced together before she married.
Everything else stood neatly in its place.
Heart thudding against her chest, Tessa rushed to
the adjoining bathroom. Only gleaming porcelain, pine green rugs, and a shower
curtain decorated with tiny fish swimming through waving seaweed greeted her.
She stepped into the hall and had just put her hand
on the glass knob of the guest bedroom, when Jared came in the back door,
noisily wiping his feet on the mat. She hurried to him.
“Well?”
He shrugged, looking as confused as she felt.
“Nothing.”
“But Dad’s truck is here. Where could they
be?”
All of a sudden a motor revved up, then another,
followed by the sound of tires swiftly crunching on small wet rocks.
Jared’s eyes widened. “My car! I’d know the
sound of that engine anywhere,” he yelled, as he bolted for the front door and
Dumbfounded, they both came to a stop on the porch
and watched, as the red taillights of her father’s pick-up truck and Jared’s
BMW bounced down the lane, through the icy drizzle.
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