dentist.”
“Did you have a nice time?”
“Yes, but I wanted to stay home with you. You slept a long time,” she said. Then her glance fastened on the Christmas present in Andrea’s hand and she looked at her. “Did you bring that to Daddy?”
Finally a connection. Since her talk with Rick, Andrea felt she had permission to do what came next, but her heart was pounding too fast. “No. I brought it for you.”
“But it’s not Christmas yet.”
“I thought you might like it now.” She handed it to her.
“What is it?”
Rick lowered her to the floor. “Why don’t you open it and find out?”
Tessa quickly tore off the paper. “Look, Daddy—it’s the gingerbread man!” she cried. For the first time since the disaster at the shop, Rick’s daughter looked up at her with a smile.
“I promise that Santa will bring you your gingerbread man. But while you’re waiting for Christmas morning, this will be fun to read. It was one of my favorite stories growing up.”
“Mine is Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.”
Andrea’s heart melted. “I loved those stories, too.”
“My favorite’s about the boy who wouldn’t clean up his room.”
“That’s a really good one. My mother used to read them to me. I think my favorite was the Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker Cure. But the really funny one was about the Radish Cure.”
A giggle escaped. “I know. Will you read the gingerbread man to me?”
Andrea’s gaze darted to Rick, whose eyes glowed with a warmth she could feel permeate her body. “I’d love to. Come and sit down on the couch by me.”
Together they went through every page identifying all the characters while she read the story. Tessa was totally engrossed.
Andrea would always treasure this moment, but now it was time to go while she could leave with a good feeling. She closed the book and put it in Tessa’s hands. “That was fun. Thank you for letting me read it to you. Now I have to leave.”
“You do?” Andrea heard a slightly wistful tone. Well, what do you know? she thought.
“Yes, but I bet your daddy would love to read it to you. He’s been waiting for you to come home and needs to get back to bed.” Andrea’s gaze flew to Rick’s. “Get better soon. I’ll see myself out.”
To her shocked surprise, Tessa followed her to the door. “I love my book.”
“I’m glad, darling. Bye.” She left the house, closing the door behind her. This was the best way to end things. Cold turkey.
Before long she pulled into her mother’s driveway. “Mom?” she called out when she entered the house.
“In the kitchen.”
Andrea found her making the fondant for the pecan rolls she gave to her friends at Christmas. “How soon will Rex be over?”
“Not for a couple of hours. I want to hear more about you and Tessa’s father.”
“I left the party early to get home because of Dad. Rick insisted on doing an inspection of the shop and the loft. He said there’s a firebug on the loose. On his suggestion I bought some dowels and put them in the windows.”
“That’s a good idea, honey. I’m worried about you staying there.”
“I’ll be fine, Mom.”
“Then why are you so tense?”
“Is it that obvious?” She averted her eyes.
“I’m your mother.”
“I made a huge mistake. He...kissed me and I let him.”
“Was it a terrible experience?”
Andrea could hardly swallow remembering the rapture she’d felt. “No, of course not.”
“But?”
“I didn’t want it to happen.”
“That’s not really true—otherwise you would have stopped him. I’m glad this happened. Darling—Gunter’s been gone fourteen months. You’re free to look at another man and to care about one again. I have eyes and can see how attractive Captain Jenner is. You wouldn’t be a woman if you didn’t notice him.”
“But there’s a big problem, because he’s too gorgeous!”
Her mother laughed out loud before she poured the hot fondant onto a buttered marble slab. “Well, you’ll have to blame his genes for that. Andrea, you’re so young, with a whole life ahead of you. You knew someone else had to come along one day.
“Why does the idea of getting to know this man cause you so much angst? Don’t let guilt that you might be betraying Gunter’s memory prevent you from getting to know him or any man better.”
“It’s not guilt, Mom. Trust me.”
“I’m glad to hear it. So what’s wrong?”
“I told you before. After losing Gunter, I don’t want to care for a man whose chances of dying on the job climb astronomically because of his profession.”
Her mother studied her for a long moment. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
“Yes. I feel doubly sorry for Tessa. She lost her mom. One of these days she could lose him, too. That poor little girl will spend her whole life worrying about him. You should have seen her earlier. She’d been with her grandmother, but she came running into Rick’s house like a rocket to hug him. It caught at my heart. Rick admitted his late wife didn’t like his job either.”
“Well, you have to look at it this way. He’s one of those selfless men who loves what he does for a living. What would we do without his kind? In caveman days he would be the one who went out to hunt for meat to bring back for everyone,” she teased. “Seriously, some men are made that way. You can only admire them.”
“I do, and I’ve always asked myself how they can do it, but now it has hit home to me in a more personal way. Yesterday should have been his day off, yet there he was in the heart of some holocaust with no one to save him.”
“I understand they work on the buddy system.”
“Even so, they can die. One did yesterday.”
Her mom let out a troubled sigh. “What are you going to do?”
“I have no intention of going out with him again.”
By now her mom was spreading the pecans on the paper. “Did you tell him that before or after he kissed you?”
Andrea’s
