Page 151 of The Blessings of Christmas
This was why he’d come back. Because he missed the town. Missed the simple, quiet certainty of living here. New York was a busy place with a lot of noise. While he was living in his mother’s apartment and going out to appointments, his head had ached by the end of the day. The bumper-to-bumper traffic, the people who rushed past without making eye contact––everything gave the feeling that all anyone here cared about was getting someplace else.
The constant noise and movement exhausted him. Even his morning jogs had not provided relief. Not even the tempting smells of the early morning cafés could cut through the pollution from all the cars. His lungs had tightened in protest. Jogging in the Amazon had been impossible. He’d looked forward to coming back to the running and hiking trails in the States. But not in the big cities. He'd been so relieved to find a woman from his high school who seemed to share his need to have a simple life. He couldn't wait to have Darcy come to Sweetwater Creek.
Returning here had been a given for Malcolm.
Of course his mother hadn't agreed. “But why are you going back to Sweetwater Creek, that little town?” his mother had asked when he’d shared his plans with her.
“Because I love it. Because that's where Darcy and I are going to live.”
“Does she know that?” His mother had looked shocked. Living in a small town was something she would never have considered. She’d glanced over at him as they sat in the solarium that day, designer glasses perched on her aristocratic nose. He loved his mother and accepted her foibles, although sometimes it took effort. Malcolm had learned patience from his father, who had always called Mom his “uptown girl.”
But Malcolm had limits. And after learning the simple ways of survival in the jungle, he’d come back looking for similar simplicity.
“She's open to it.” Malcolm knew that once Darcy saw the small town and experienced it, she'd love Sweetwater Creek just the way he did. She was a levelheaded girl, always had been that way in high school.
But his mother didn't agree. “For heaven’s sake, Malcolm, she went to Vassar. Her parents have that place in the Hamptons. A small town hardly seems to be something Darcy Hightower would consider.”
They’d had this discussion before. None of this was new or surprising. They often didn't agree. When he’d told his mother of his plans to go into the Peace Corps, she’d thrown a fit. Although Aurelia Sutter spent quite a bit of time at meetings for fundraisers, she’d never packed boxes at the food bank. But when it came time to donate to that cause, she was very generous. He would give her that.
Of course she wished him well when he’d left for his post in the Amazon. She’d hugged him so hard and it wasn't until later that he realized his mother had been crying. Oh he knew that she didn't approve. He also knew that she would pray for him while he was gone. After all he was an only child, and his dad had been gone a long time.
When Malcolm had returned in bad shape, his mother had been visibly relieved but very concerned. A woman of action, she had put him in touch with the doctors he needed to see. But he didn't miss the comments his mother made under her breath about him catching some terrible disease in the jungle. He hated to worry her. So he hadn’t shared any of the details about his medical appointments. Time would take care of everything. Soon he hoped that, in the right environment, he would be back to his old self. Well, almost his old self.
He was here now in this peaceful place. The simple Christmas decorations of the square soothed him. Soon the town would have a living creche set up in the square. People from the church would volunteer to be Mary and Joseph in the evenings. The baby Jesus would arrive on Christmas morning. The women would see to that. They probably had at least three new mothers on a waiting list to wrap their infant in “swaddling clothes.” During any viewings, the mother would of course stay close by. The infant provided a beautifully authentic touch to the iconic scene.
Malcolm had come home. And that feeling of comfortable familiarity waited for him when he’d entered the library. Books had been the foundation of his life and so was helping the less fortunate. When technology became a part of library services, he was immediately interested. And now the other activity he was involved in was doing well. Malcolm had developed an app that would bring people in need in touch with those who could make their lives better. Right now, it was still in development but several philanthropists were interested. He liked helping people. When Victoria had mentioned the Open Hearth, he saw it as another opportunity to make a small difference.
His time in the Peace Corps had made it clear that many people had a tough life. They didn't have access to all the things that had made his own life almost laughably easy. The healthcare available in New York was a far cry from the medicinal herbal healing that he’d found in the Amazon.
Looking around his modest living room, he chuckled. The furnishings that Victoria had left behind were so feminine, from the overdone purple velvet sofa to the gilded French provincial coffee and end tables. But in time he would change all that. Maybe he should leave those decisions until Darcy arrived. She might enjoy going to yard sales to pick up things. They hadn'ttalked about furniture yet. Maybe they weren't at that point. Well, there was time for that.
Christmas was coming, and his mother had mentioned giving Darcy his grandmother’s engagement ring. Why was he hesitating? Probably because the family heirloom with its retro setting might not be Darcy's choice.
Was that the only reason? He had plenty of time, didn’t he?
CHAPTER 6
Josie took her time warming up that Saturday morning with Malcolm. First she stretched her arms to both sides, twisting her torso so he might appreciate how great she looked in the skin-tight shorts with a special pocket for her phone. Goodbye saggy drawers that she’d dropped off at Goodwill. Josie had made some updates in her running attire. Bending over, she twisted so he got a clear view of her hot pink racerback tank top.
“And now over we go.” When she touched her toes, the designer sunglasses she’d scored at Coralee’s clattered to the cobblestones.
Malcolm quickly snatched them up. “Square glasses, huh? Pretty fancy.”
Standing, she grabbed the glasses. The polarized lenses now had a scratch across the right eye. If Josie had paid full price, she would be slitting her wrists.
Next to her Malcolm went back to stretching his hamstrings, paying no attention to her whatsoever. A quick sideways glance told her that instead, he was staring at the horizon. Dawn had just broken. So, he was more interested in the rising sun than he was in her skintight shorts?
Glasses safely in hand, she took a deep breath. “Deep breaths.” Had he noticed her plump lips? Josie had found some lip plumper with great reviews on Amazon. And it tasted like peaches. Couldn't get much better than this, could it? “Breathing out and then taking in another deep breath…” She tried to appear deeply in tune with her body, murmuring her actions.
Another sly sideways glance told her that he was jogging in place, eyes forward.
“Hey, is that an order?” he teased without even giving her a look. Not even one glance. How frustrating. This racerback top seemed to be yanking Josie’s shoulders together. Maybe buying a size medium had been aspirational. She rotated her shoulders.
What did it matter? She could probably stand on her head and Malcolm still wouldn’t look at her. Instead he was concentrating on the sky. Finally he took a deep breath but closed his eyes while he was doing it. “Sure smells great around here,” he said.
She slyly moved a bit closer, smacking her lips together. Maybe that would release some of the peach fragrance. Emily would be proud of her sneaky efforts. But Malcolm still wasn't opening his eyes. “You have no idea how bad the air is in New York,” he mumbled. “Air pollution from trucks and way too many cars. Maybe I was just oversensitive to it after being in the Amazon so long.”
“How terrible. That would really suck.” Okay, he opened his eyes. But he was only looking at their surroundings. Not at her.
