She was getting old. She wanted children. She wanted a family of her own-someone she could hand the old ornaments off to. But if she accepted that cat, she was accepting the end of that dream.
No way. She pushed the cat aside. It didn’t get the message. It came right back at her, cute as a button and looking for love.
Matt looked up from his cup of coffee as Annie stepped into the kitchen. She looked like something out of a Christmas movie in a red-and-white snowflake sweater, her hair in a ponytail with a red ribbon.
“Thanks for all your help last night,” she said, as she leaned in the kitchen doorway. “I just checked in with the nursing home. They open for nonfamily visiting hours at ten am. I’ve got an early appointment at the beauty shop, and after that, I can run you up to Orangeburg. I’ve got some last-minute shopping to do; then I have to get back here to cook before my friends arrive for Christmas Eve dinner.”
“I’ve been an imposition, haven’t I?”
“No, it’s all right.” She seemed so nervous with her arms crossed over her breasts, as if she were trying to shield herself from him.
He came to the decision he’d been mulling over for most of the night. “Look, I’ve been thinking about what you said last night, about Ruth’s present.”
“Oh? What did I say? I don’t remember saying anything in particular.”
“You asked me why I wanted to deliver a present that’s probably going to make her very sad.”
“I asked that? I mean, I think you should think about what you’re doing. After all, Ruth is ill and she’s not entirely with it, you know.”
“Okay, maybe you didn’t. But it’s still a good question, isn’t it? I’ve been trying to decide why I wanted to come here and deliver that stupid gift. And well, the thing is, I’m not sure I came here for the right reasons.”
“What do you think are the right reasons, Matt?” Her gaze seemed to focus on him, as if she really cared about his answer.
He shrugged. “When I took that present from out of Nick’s effects, I told myself I was going to do his grandmother a favor. I thought it might be hard for her to get a Christmas present from a person who had died. I thought maybe I could come and say a couple of words to her, you know, about what a great buddy Nick had been.”
“That seems like a good reason, Matt.”
He nodded. “Yeah, but there was something else. I realized it last night while I was helping you with the tree.”
“What?”
“The thing is my Christmases as a kid were crummy. They sucked. But Nick used to talk about Christmas all the time. He used to tell stories about how his grandmother made a big roast with mashed potatoes. He used to talk about his parents kissing under the mistletoe, before they died.” Matt’s voice wavered, and he stopped and took a big breath.
“So you thought you’d come and experience that?” Annie said.
He turned away and looked out the window that opened on to the back yard. The window had lacy curtains, and outside the rain was pouring down.
“My dog died three weeks ago,” he said in a voice that he could barely control. “They shipped me home, and because the dog died, they let me out a little early. I had already told them I wasn’t going to re-up. Now I just want…” He shook his head and pressed his lips together.
“Oh, Matt, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
Then he turned back toward Annie. “Losing the dog was hard. He wasn’t killed in action. He just got sick and had to be put down. He was getting old anyway, and I had planned for the two of us to retire together. But now I’m alone. And being a soldier is the only thing I know how to be.”
“Matt, every returning soldier has an adjustment period.”
“I know. But I came here looking for Ruth. I thought maybe she would have some wisdom for me, or at least maybe a slice of her apple pie. God, Nick used to talk about that pie all the time, especially when we were stuck eating MREs. And then I found her house all boarded up, and I was lost. I went to the church because I knew she was a member there. To be honest, I heard the cat yowling, and Holly kind of led me right there.”
“Really?”
He gave her a short nod. “And then I heard you singing, and it was like, for an instant I felt like I’d… well, hell… I don’t… like I’d come home. And that’s ridiculous because I don’t belong in Last Chance. I’m a street kid from Chicago.”
She blinked down at him but didn’t say a word.
“I’ve scared you again, haven’t I?”
“No, it’s more like I’m a little surprised. What was your dog’s name?”
“Murphy. He had liver failure. He’d been a pretty hard worker for six years. He saved a whole lot of lives over there, sniffing out IEDs. He was a good, hard-working, war dog.” Matt swallowed before the emotion ate him up.
“I’m sure he was. You know, you should take Holly. She’d be a comfort to you.”
He nodded and took a calming sip of his coffee. Annie really didn’t want that cat, did she?
“So, uh,” Annie said, “I have an early appointment at the Cut ’n’ Curl. I won’t be more than an hour at most.” She turned on her heel and strode out of the room like she was trying to escape his toxic emotions.
Matt watched her go. He really needed to get a grip. He probably needed to put that stupid gift under Annie’s tree and go see about taking a bus to someplace warm and sunny.
Annie’s appointment at the Cut ’n’ Curl was for nine in the morning, and even at that early hour several members of the Christ Church Ladies Auxiliary were already present and accounted for. It being both Saturday and Christmas Eve, Ruby Rhodes, Last Chance’s main hairdresser, had opened up an hour early.
Thelma Hanks was having her roots touched up. Lessie Anderson was in Ruby’s chair getting a wash and set, and Jane Rhodes, Ruby’s new daughter-in-law, was giving Miriam Randall a manicure.
“Hey, Annie,” Thelma Hanks said after Annie had hung her coat in the closet. Thelma had just looked up from one of those romance books Ruby kept on a shelf at the back of the shop. This particular book had a cover featuring a naked male torso.
“How are you doing, honey? Everything okay?” Thelma’s voice was laden with concern. All the women in the shop stopped what they were doing and watched Annie as she sat down in one of the dryer chairs. “What?” she asked, flicking her gaze from one woman to another.
“We’re just concerned, sugar,” Ruby said.
Ruby and her customers had been Mother’s friends. Mother had been an active member of the Auxiliary. She had a standing Wednesday appointment at the Cut ’n’ Curl, so it was just natural that they would be worried about Annie this Christmastime.
It was her first Christmas alone. And everyone seemed to be working hard to make sure she didn’t have a minute to be sad about it. She’d received invitations to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner from Ruby, Lessie, Thelma, Miriam, and several of Mother’s other friends. She had declined them all and had invited some of the members of the book club to dinner instead.
Mother had not fully approved of the book club. She was living in the last century and looked down her nose at Nita and Kaylee, because of their race. But Annie had always counted them as friends, even in the face of Mother’s disapproval. And now Annie could invite whomever she wanted to dinner, without hearing Mother’s ugly complaints.
“I’m fine,” she said to the ladies in the beauty parlor. “I’ve got my tree all trimmed, and I’m going up to the Target in Orangeburg for some shopping this afternoon, and then Nita and Jenny and a few other friends from the book club are coming over for dinner before midnight services.”
“I’m so glad to hear that,” Ruby said, “what with Nita’s daughter being off in Atlanta this year. It’s nice the two of you are spending time together.”
“So, honey, have you taken my advice yet?” Miriam asked from her place at the manicure station.