“What’s wrong?”
“Just a little twinge, don’t worry about it. “After we finish the tree, I will go and lie down.” She looked at where he was putting the green tinsel. “Oh, for heaven’s sake! That is too crowded. Move it back a little and put it on that branch where there is nothing yet. You really have not done this before have you?”
“I told you.” He told her sardonically. “Like this?”
“You are doing well.” She plucked out a couple of the bulbs and started putting them on the branches. “I am not supposed to love Christmas,” She murmured as she twined the cord around the twigs.
“What do you mean?”
“My mother said it is a pagan holiday. So, we never had tress or anything like that in our home.”
“Your mother is a- “
“Fanatic. A zealot, if you could call it that. She claimed that God called her to come out of the world and forsake everything in it.” She told him with a shrug, turning away to hang another bulb. “I spent most of the holidays over at my best friends’ homes and got a taste of what it was really like. The trees, the lights and the food!” she reached for another bulb and he handed it to her. “There was this longing to have that at my home and I begged my mother to let us get a tree and I would decorate it, but she refused. I had to content myself to going to my friends’ houses to enjoy the holiday.”
“What about your dad?” he asked her softly, sensing the loneliness that she was doing her best to hide.
“Died in the army when I was a little girl. I barely remember him.”
“So you decided that when you were old enough you would always celebrate the holidays.” He prodded, wanting more than anything to gather her into his arms.
“I did,” she told him with a laugh. “hand me the candy canes. The first time my mother came over for the holidays she spent the entire time lecturing me on idols and the danger of concentrating on material things.”
“You did not ask her kindly to leave?” he teased her.
She turned to look at him, her dark brown eyes twinkling. “There is hope for you yet, Cox.” She turned back to the tree. “I was brought up in a rigid home and respect and honor for parent was drummed into me every single day of my life. I went to church five times of the week and was on the choir. I helped out in the kitchen, taught Sunday school when I was old enough and went out on mission walks where we talked to people about Jesus and what he had done for us, how kind he is and how forgiving and I hated every minute of it! As soon as I could, I left home and never went back to a church which pissed my mother off and broke her heart as she claimed. She went on her toes to hang a few more bulbs before turning to look at him. “Don’t just stand there looking pretty. You are up.”
He turned away and had to fight not to drag her into his arms! His emotions were veering dangerously close to the surface and he wanted to take her back to his suite and make love to her until she forget her lousy childhood! “Now I understand why the fascination with the tree,” he teased lightly. “It was almost too big to fit inside the living room. Hand me another bulb and some tinsels.”
“Now you are getting it,” She told him admiringly. “It looks halfway decent.”
“Why thank you,” he told her mockingly.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“We dated for six months and aside from what I read in the papers, I really do not know much about you.”
“I am an only child and I pretty much got everything I wanted for Christmas.” he told her drolly.
“Very funny but you know that was not what I meant.”
“My father was crazy in love with my mother, but you could not blame him. She was beautiful, not just physically but on the inside as well. They went everywhere together, and the funny thing was that before he met her, he was not one to settle for just one woman.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “A family trait.”
“I am afraid so,” he told her with a wry smile. “She cured him of that habit and he never looked at another woman again.”
“How did she die?”
he turned to hang the rest of the bulbs and Shelby waited for him to continue. “Brain aneurysm. The doctors couldn’t do anything. My father never quite recovered from her death and lost interest in the business. My uncle and I had to step in.”
“You did a very good job.”
He turned to look at her in surprise and smiled at the solemn look on her face. “Thank you.”
“You loved her.”
“She was easy to love. She taught me a lot of things and most of all never to allow what I have to make me think I am better than anyone else. She was always doing something for someone. Wanted to make the world a better place.”
“It’s funny. My mother claims to be a child of God, a God who is supposed to be so loving and yet the church she belongs to have all these rules and regulations. They talked about people as if it doesn’t matter that they didn’t come from that congregation. They also talked about what they did for people. The pastor, a man I really dislike preaches about how good they are and how the rest of the world don’t measure up to them!” she took a deep breath and turned to him with a bright smile on her face. “And I promised myself that I would not let anything get me down during the holidays, least of all my mother and her church members.” Her eyes brightened. “I have another holiday tradition.”
“I bet you do.” He shoved his hands into his pockets to keep from crushing her into his arms. “What is it?”
“S’mores.”
“What?”
“Chocolate and marshmallows. We have a real live fire right here and there is chocolate and marshmallows in the cupboard. We could sit by the fire and roast some marshmallows before we turned in for the night.”
“Shelby- “
“Come on!” she hung the last bulb and turned to leave the room. “We have to practice this for when the twins come.”
“After this it is bed for you.”
“I promise.” She stood in the center of the room and looked around. “I love the space.”
“I thought you did not cook.”
“Oh, I cook honey. I am a black woman who was pretty much left on her own as a child, so I learned how to.” She rummaged through the pantry, missing the flash of anger on his handsome face as he thought of her as a child having to fend for herself.
“Ready?”
“Lead the way.”
Chapter 6
He woke up to the smell of cooking on Christmas morning and for a moment thought that he was in his apartment with his housekeeper cooking the meal. But then reality surfaced as he opened his eyes to the watery sun shining through the thick drapes that was only pulled halfway. He remembered spending several minutes well, standing by the window and looking outside after he had turned in for the night. Shelby had insisted that they ate by the fire, right after the housekeeper had left for the night and they had talked. She had entertained with stories of the things that had happened when she used to attend church and had somehow managed to turn what was apparently a very sad and lonely childhood life into one of hilarity. Gray had a feeling that it had been deliberate, and he had seen through the ruse. He had walked her up the stairs and seen to it that she was inside her suite before going to his, but he had been unable to sleep. He was aching for her and had almost turned around to persuade her to let him make love to her. He had tossed and turned in bed, with a hard on that would not go down.