Be Mine at Christmas(3)
Author: Brenda Novak

“So who do you think is still there?”

“Sheila Gilbert, a friend of mine and your mother’s from high school, according to last year’s Christmas card. Other than that, probably just a few teachers I had when I went to school and some of the older, more established folks.”

“What about boys?”

Angela switched lanes to go around a semi. “What about them?”

“Won’t you want to visit some of your old boyfriends?”

“I didn’t have a lot of boyfriends.” When her mother had died eight years after her father, Angela had only been ten years old. She’d gone to live with her aunt Rosemary, until Rosemary had fallen and broken her hip. Then Angela had moved to Virginia City to live with Betty, who was a distant relative of Rosemary’s husband and also Kayla’s grandmother. From then on, Angela had spent most of her time trying to keep Stephanie, Betty’s real daughter, out of trouble. But she didn’t add that. Neither did she admit that the one man they probably would see was the person who made her the most uneasy. She doubted Kayla’s father had moved on, like so many others, because he came from some of the earliest Irish miners to settle in Virginia City and had a lot of family in the area. And, if he’d married Danielle as everyone had expected, he’d have even more reason to stay. Her parents owned one of the nicest hotels in the Comstock region.

Kayla studied her for a moment. “Whoever sees you is going to be impressed.”

Angela chuckled. “Why’s that?”

“You’re still so pretty.”

Still? Actually, Angela had bloomed late. She’d been tall, skinny and reserved, a foil for the boisterous and impulsive Stephanie. But at least her acne was gone, she knew how to apply a little makeup and she’d gained fifteen pounds in the places she’d needed it most, so she was no longer flat and shapeless. Overall, Angela was satisfied with her appearance—and grateful to feel comfortable in her own skin. Maybe her years in sales had done that for her. She’d been marketing large office buildings since graduating with a business degree from the University of Colorado at Denver and dealt with a wide variety of people. That experience had endowed her with confidence poor Stephanie had always lacked.

“You dress nice,” Kayla was saying, continuing her list of Angela’s assets. “And you have a really great car. I love this car.”

“Fortunately, it’s easier to make money in Denver than it is in Virginia City,” Angela said.

“Is that why you moved away?”

No, they’d moved because they’d had to leave. In a hurry. “Your nana wanted a change of pace,” she said.

“And you were still living with her?”

“I had my senior year to complete. But I would’ve gone even if I’d already graduated. It was time for college, so I had to go somewhere. And I wanted to help take care of you.”

Kayla made a face. “Since my own mother can’t do anything.”

Angela didn’t respond. She never complained about Stephanie, but she didn’t overreact if Kayla made an occasional derogatory comment. The girl had a right to her anger. Stephanie had let them all down in the worst possible way. Sometimes Angela couldn’t believe that the friend she’d loved like a sister had made the choices she’d made.

They drove in silence for several minutes. Angela was about to turn the music back up when Kayla spoke again.

“Do you think you’ll ever get married?”

“Maybe.”

“You don’t date much.” The words sounded almost accusatory.

“I’m too busy with work.”

“Most people go out at night,” she said. “You’re usually home by six, remember?”

Angela shrugged. She didn’t like leaving Kayla home alone. “I’ll meet the right man eventually.”

Kayla seemed thoughtful, almost brooding. “What if you find someone, and he doesn’t like me?”

“I can’t imagine anyone not liking you.”

Kayla’s attention shifted to the scenery flying past her window. “You’ve forgotten Barbie and her friends,” she said bitterly.

“Shallow, mean girls don’t count.”

“What about Jordan? He was nicer than everyone else. Until they started teasing him about me.” Her tone turned glum. “Now he won’t even look at me.”

“That could change as you get older.”

“Still. I know you feel like you owe Nana for taking you in, but I don’t want to be the reason you don’t have a life of your own. You’re not the one who got pregnant at sixteen.”

Angela reached across the seat to squeeze Kayla’s hand. “Kayla, I love you. You’re a central part of my life, and no one will ever change that.”

“But don’t you wish I had a father who’d come and take me off your hands?”

“No, I don’t,” she said, and she realized as she spoke that it was true. As difficult as the past year had been, she didn’t want to lose Kayla. Kayla was her only family.

CHAPTER TWO

MATTHEW JACKSON SAT with longtime friend and fellow firefighter Lewis McGinness at a table in the bar and restaurant on the first floor of the Old Virginny Hotel. With wooden oak floors, flocked wallpaper, a dark, ornately carved bar and a tin ceiling, the place had been restored to the glory it had known as a saloon in the booming silver era that had once made Virginia City the most important settlement between Denver and San Francisco. There was even a man dressed in nineteenth-century costume playing lively Christmas carols on a piano in the far corner, next to a Christmas tree adorned with paper chains and popcorn strands.

It was all for the benefit of the tourists, of course—a group of whom stood brushing the snow from their coats and marveling over the glass case by the register, which contained a few items originally owned by the famous 1860s soiled dove, Julia C. The display was designed to generate interest in the Bullette Red Light Museum down the street, where folks could see more intimate items, as well as some nineteenth-century medical instruments, all for a buck.

It was worth a buck, right?

Matt shook his head. Heaven knew something had to stimulate new interest in this town. Cut into the side of a mountain almost two miles above sea level, with its houses and businesses sitting on as much as a forty-percent grade, it wasn’t a convenient place to live. Although, at its peak, the town had boasted nearly thirty thousand citizens, it was down to about fifteen hundred and had been struggling since the early 1900s, when the mines had played out. But Matt had never thought of it as desperately hanging on to what once was. It was home, pure and simple. And yet, as the snow piled higher and higher outside, he had to acknowledge that Virginia City had seen better days, even in his lifetime.