Last Chance Christmas (Last Chance #5)(15)
Author: Hope Ramsay

He stood rooted to the ground and listened to the muffled strains of “Silent Night” and the unmistakable sound of his girls singing.

What the hell?

He rushed to the front door and practically tore it off its hinges as he opened it, his heart thumping. He stepped into the living room halfway expecting to find a woman with long honey hair and a curvaceous figure sitting at the piano, her long fingers dancing over the keys.

His disappointment knew no limits.

Lark Chaikin, with her slim body and her short spiky hair, was playing Sharon’s piano. And that wasn’t all. The furniture in his living room had been rearranged to make room for the old artificial Christmas tree.

Nothing was as it should be. The tree was wrong—there weren’t any red ribbons on it. The angel for the top was missing. Sharon would never have put tinsel and lights around the side window like that.

“What the hell is going on here?” he yelled, focusing right on Lizzy, who was standing beside a teenaged boy that Stone didn’t recognize. “Who gave you permission to move the furniture?”

He rounded on Lark. “And I don’t recall inviting you to my house. Close the piano, now… please.”

Lark looked up, her mouth thinned, and her dark eyes looked wounded. “I believe this was the Sorrowful Angel’s idea,” she said.

Stone opened his mouth and shut it again. The words that wanted to come out were vile and profane. They weren’t suitable for his daughters to hear.

He glowered at Lark and hissed. “I know your father had ways of doing things, but they aren’t mine. Please leave my house.” He turned on the boy. “Who are you?”

“David Raab.” The boy’s voice cracked, and his cheeks got red. “Uh, it’s nice to meet you, Chief Rhodes. Um, Lizzy and Haley were just giving me and Ms. Chaikin a little dose of Christmas.”

Stone stood there staring at the boy. Where the hell had this kid come from?

“David’s new in town,” Lizzy said. “His father works for Uncle Hugh. And tomorrow night, I’m going over to David’s house to light some Hanukkah candles and eat potato latkes.”

Hanukkah candles? Stone narrowed his gaze and pointed a finger at the boy. “Go home, David.” He turned toward Lark. “You, too.”

Then he turned on Haley. “Go to your room. You’re in serious trouble. You know good and well that the boxes in the attic are off-limits.”

Haley stared up at him with a face that was a miniature of Sharon’s. “But Daddy,” she said, “I told you last night that the angel said you needed to get out of your rut. We were just trying to help.”

He saw red then. “Go! All of you!” He turned and stormed into the kitchen, where he picked up the water kettle and threw it with all his might against the back wall. It crashed and left a big hole in the drywall.

He stared at the hole in the wall for an eternity, struggling to breathe. For a moment, just as he’d gotten out of his car and heard that music coming from his living room, something long dead had kicked right back to life inside him.

What the hell was it? Hope?

It didn’t matter. Because now all the light and air and life inside him was draining right into that stupid, stupid hole he’d just put in the wall.

Chapter 9

Can we talk?” Lark asked. She stood in the doorway to the little kitchen at the back of Stone Rhodes’s house.

The chief of police stood with his back to her, his tan uniform shirt stretched across his broad shoulders. He was breathing hard and staring at the hole he’d just put in his wall.

“No,” he said.

“What a surprise.” She stepped a little farther in the room, inexplicably drawn to him. “I understand how you feel.”

He turned around, flashing angry green eyes at her. “Don’t tell me you know how I feel because that’s just bullshit.”

“I do. I know how it feels to lose someone you love. We’re more alike than you realize.”

They faced off, time stretching out. He was hurting. She understood. She was hurting, too.

Maybe she could reach him and make him see. “I had a really bad day today, so when your daughters suggested putting up Christmas lights and decorations, it seemed like a good idea. They helped me forget about the dark stuff going on in my life for a little while. I’m grateful to them. Can you accept that?”

“Well, what if I didn’t want a tree and decorations?” His voice sounded deep and rusty.

“Stone. Really. You just yelled at your kids for putting up a Christmas tree.”

“Thanks for making me feel better,” he said.

She didn’t miss the sarcasm. She took that as a positive sign, so she continued. “I also thought that putting up a Christmas tree was a better thing to do with your kids than sitting at the doughnut shop talking about what it’s like to be a war correspondent.” She let her gaze drift away for a moment. She’d been feeling shaky all day, ever since the debacle in the swamp.

“I told Lizzy she wasn’t to pester you.”

She looked back at him, just in time to see muscles bunching at his jaw. “No, you told Lizzy that she wasn’t to speak with me. There’s a difference. And she’s old enough to know it.”

“And what about the boy?”

“He’s a photographer for the school paper. He’s smart and nice. You should let Lizzy sample his mother’s latkes because, honestly, homemade latkes are to die for.”

Stone gave Lark an utterly confused look.

“Potato pancakes,” Lark explained. “Latkes are the traditional Hanukkah food.”

“I see.”

“Do you? Really? Yesterday I told you that my father had a hard time letting things go. I think maybe you’re a lot like him. Stone, please, you should apologize to your children. And you should open up that piano and let someone play it. It’s a lovely instrument, and it shouldn’t be allowed to gather that much dust. I have a feeling your wife wouldn’t approve of it standing idle. And please, stop being angry at Haley because of her angel.” She stared at his wedding band.

“And who made you the judge of my life?”

“No one,” she said firmly.

They stood there staring at each other for a long moment that wasn’t even remotely awkward. It was crazy the way the silence between them sometimes became more eloquent than words. When they spoke, they often argued. When they were quiet, there was something else. A deep current of connection.

Just then, the screen on the front door slammed, and a female voice called out. “Stone Rhodes, where in the Sam Hill are you? I need to give you a piece of my mind.”

Stone closed his eyes, and the expression on his face was priceless—part annoyance and part guilty little boy. “Great,” he said on a gust of breath, “just what I need to make my day complete. You and my mother ganging up on me.”

An instant later, an older woman with dark curly hair bustled into the kitchen. It didn’t require a photographer’s eye to conclude that this newcomer was related to Stone. They had the same green eyes and bone structure.

The woman’s gaze swept the scene, lingered for a moment on the chief, and then turned in Lark’s direction.

“Well, I declare,” she drawled, “you’re Abe Chaikin’s daughter.”

“Yes, I am.”

“I’m Ruby Rhodes, Stone’s momma.” She reached her hand out, and Lark shook it. She had small, warm hands and a twinkle in her eyes.

“So, I hear you’ve been helping Haley with her angel.”

“Momma, don’t—” Stone’s words were a warning, but the tone was all wrong. Obviously, Ruby had her son exactly where she wanted him.

“Uh, maybe I should go,” Lark said. She’d already said too much.

“No, honey, there’s no need for that. Lizzy just called me up and told me the whole thing, and I have to say, it’s so nice to see Stone’s front room decorated for the holidays.” She turned toward her son and scowled. “The last few years he’s been something of a Grinch, haven’t you, son?”

“Momma, please.”

Ruby shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Well, he has. He’s been a grumpy Grinch.”

“Lizzy called you?” Stone asked.

“Yes, she did. She’s in her bedroom bawling her eyes out. She’s sure you’re not going to let her go to David’s house tomorrow, and that you’ll make her take all the decorations down, and that you were so nasty to Lark, here, that Lark will never speak to her again. All in all, son, I’d say you did yourself proud today in the alienating-your-teenaged-daughter department.”

“Right.” He looked away from both of them and studied the hole he’d just put in his wall.

Ruby turned toward Lark. “Honey, we’re having a big family dinner tonight, and I thought it might be nice if you’d come and join us. It would make Lizzy and Haley feel so much better if you did. They seem to have taken to you like ducks to water.”

“You want me to come to dinner, really?”

“Yes, I do. And if you want, you can play my piano all you want. It might be fun to have a little sing-along after dinner. It being the season for caroling and all.”

Stone let go of a deep, mournful sigh that might actually have been classified as a groan.

Lark studied his back for a long moment, aware of the attraction she didn’t want to feel. She should decline this invitation. Then again, Ruby was Elbert’s wife, and Elbert was the man standing in the way of her fulfilling Pop’s last request.

“I’d be delighted.”

Stone felt like he’d been trapped inside one of those stupid girlie shows on Masterpiece Theatre where the hostess holds a dinner party and makes sure that the two unmarried guests are seated next to each other. It was an interesting move on Momma’s part seeing as Lark was unlikely to be staying for a long time.

Plus it kind of pissed him off that Lark was worming her way into Momma’s confidence. Lizzy was already awed by her. And Lark seemed to have completely beguiled Haley, because she simply accepted the angel as a fact of life. His little girl had babbled all night about how the Angel liked Lark and how Lark liked the Angel.

It was annoying in some way he couldn’t quite articulate. And then there was the fact that Lark was…

Way too attractive.

The family had come together to help Momma decorate the big tree she always put in her front room. His brothers and sister had brought their new spouses, and Momma’s house practically burst at the seams. He felt like the odd man out this year. Everyone was so happy, and so settled, and so married.

He stood in the corner by Momma’s breakfront, sipping a longneck Bud and staring at the interloper in the parlor. Lark was reaching up to hang an angel on a branch above her head and her T-shirt rode up, exposing a wedge of creamy skin above the waistline of her jeans.

Unwanted heat flowed through him.

Haley pranced at Lark’s side, her golden hair escaping her ponytail. His little girl seemed to come alive in Lark’s presence. And to her credit, Lark was listening carefully and patiently as Haley directed the placement of every one of Momma’s angels.