This Holiday Magic Read online

  She raised an arched brow in question.

  “When I said I had something to ask you, you proceeded to tell me about Keisha’s background. All I wanted to know at the time was why an eight-year-old had a mobile phone.”

  “Oh,” Renee said, “yeah, that. It’s not what most people think. You know, the whims of an overindulgent parent. That phone is Keisha’s security blanket. She knows that with it, I’m just a phone call away. And so are the police if she’s ever in need of help. I programmed your number into it, as well,” Renee admitted rather sheepishly. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  Last week or last month, he might have. But not now and he told her so.

  “I take it she’s not supposed to be chatting it up with old friends in Durham?”

  “Hardly. And I’m going to have to address that.”

  “This child-rearing is tough business,” he said.

  “Tell me about it.”

  * * *

  The girls were pretty quiet on the drive back home. Instead of high-energy Christmas music, Trey turned on an old-school love-jam station and kept the volume low.

  “Kelly, wake up,” Trey said when he pulled into the driveway.

  “I’m not asleep,” a small voice said from the backseat.

  “All right,” he said. “Say good-night and head upstairs for a bath and bed. I’ll be up in a bit.”

  He disengaged the child locks and then opened the back door. Kelly climbed out of the truck while Keisha got out on the opposite side. Without a word, Keisha went to her and Renee’s side door, opened it with a key she produced from her pocket and then slipped inside.

  Trey watched her and frowned. When he got around to Renee’s door, he opened it and stepped inside of it, trapping her in a claim-staking move.

  “What’s gotten into them?”

  “Long day. An emotional one for Keisha.”

  Trey put his hands on the roof of the truck. “Christmas is next week. How are you and Keisha going to celebrate?”

  “A quiet day at home?” She voiced the statement like a question, as if asking him if he had another option in mind.

  “How about we spend it together?”

  “What are you asking, Trey?”

  His gaze melded with hers. When he lowered his head, Renee rose to meet him. This kiss wasn’t like the others. This one was filled with long-bottled passion, with the longing that spoke of two hearts that were destined to beat as one.

  “I want you,” he murmured.

  “I know. But we can’t. The girls.”

  A guttural growl was his only response to the obstacle that he knew they faced. Their living arrangements and their daughters made it almost impossible for them to find private time beyond stolen kisses like…

  The wind buffeted the door, and Trey chuckled.

  “Mother Nature is trying to give me an alternative to a cold shower.”

  “We both should get out of the cold.”

  “We could warm each other up right here.”

  She tapped his chest. “Kelly is waiting for you. And I think Keisha and I are going to be talking for a while.” She swung her legs around. Trey caught her, sliding her down his body so she could feel the proof of his arousal.

  “Mmm,” she purred.

  Renee lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck. “Good night, Mr. Calloway,” she murmured before gently meeting his lips with her own.

  * * *

  Trey waited at the Navigator’s door until Renee was inside her house and the kitchen light flickered off. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his frustrated libido, then closed up the car and headed inside his house.

  When he spied both the candy cane crushed into myriad pieces and the photo of Kelly with Santa on the floor at the base of the stairs, he immediately knew something was wrong. She’d been giddy about her time with Santa, so seeing the photo on the floor was troubling.

  “Kelly!”

  He took the stairs two at a time, calling her name. She wasn’t in her bedroom and he rushed to the bathroom. It, too, was empty. There was no water in the tub, no indication that she’d even been in there.

  “Kelly!”

  Panic rushed through him. How could something have happened to her inside the house?

  “Kelly, can you hear me?”

  He pushed open the door to her playroom and stopped in his tracks. There sat his little girl on the daybed, her coat still on and clutching one of her dolls. She was crying softly, the tears more heartbreaking than if she were sobbing uncontrollably.

  Trey ran to her and scooped her up in his arms. “Baby, what’s wrong? Are you hurt? What happened?”

  He sank to the floor with her in his arms. He saw no blood, no visible wounds and thanked God for that.

  “Kel, princess, tell Daddy what’s wrong.” The girl sniffled, hiccuped, then started crying in earnest. “Kelly, talk to me, baby, please.”

  He held her tight, rocking her and trying to calm her enough so he could find out what had happened in the few minutes she’d been in the house.

  When her words finally came, they tore from her in great anguished gasps.

  “Keisha…said…there…is…no…Santa…Claus.”

  Chapter 9

  “You did what?” Renee all but screeched. “Keisha, how could you?”

  Keisha snatched up a hairbrush from her dresser. “She needed to know the truth.”

  Her words were cold, almost calculating, as she brushed her hair and reached for a fat plastic roller.

  Renee was so angry she was practically vibrating. Keisha’s early childhood had been far from idyllic, but that was no excuse for ruining Kelly’s.

  “Sit down, Keisha.”

  “I’m doing my hair.”

  “I said, sit down.”

  Renee had never, ever raised her voice at Keisha, so the order stunned the both of them. But Renee held her ground. Wide-eyed, Keisha put the brush on the dresser and backed up to her bed, her eyes never leaving Renee’s. She sat and Renee stood, arms crossed.

  “What would possess you to do something so mean-spirited and hurtful? Why did you deliberately ruin Christmas for Kelly?”

  “I told her the truth,” Keisha said, a defensive and combative tone in her voice that forced Renee to cock her head at her in warning. Keisha looked at the floor then said, “We were in that store and she kept going on and on about how Santa was gonna bring her this and that because she’d been a good girl all year. But there’s no such thing as a man in a red suit who flies around and delivers gifts to kids he doesn’t even know.”

  “Keisha, because you don’t believe in Santa is no reason to steal that wonder and joy from someone else. Kelly is younger than you are. She looks up to you. You had no right and no authority to do what you did.”

  “I didn’t steal anything from her.”

  Renee came over and sat next to Keisha, taking the girl’s hands in hers. She needed to explain this in a way that would be a lesson. She also wondered how much of this behavior was Keisha’s way of coping with her birth mother’s death. A passive-aggressive lashing out at Kelly as a substitute for the adults who hadn’t told her a truth she needed to know.

  “What you took from Kelly, Keisha, is a gift that you never received because your…because Janice was so focused on her own issues that she didn’t take care of you the way a mom should take care of a little girl. I’m so sorry that you had to live the way you did, but I’m also glad for it.”

  Keisha reared back. “Why?”

  “Because I would have missed out on the gift of having you in my life.”

  “That’s not a gift. A gift is a present that’s all wrapped up.”

  Renee nodded. “That’s one kind. But there are also intangible gifts, the ones
you can’t touch or see but ones that you feel in here,” she said, lifting Keisha’s hand to her heart. “For little kids, that’s what Santa Claus is. They believe in him in their hearts.”

  “I can tell her I didn’t mean it.”

  Renee’s mobile phone rang then. She pulled it from her jacket pocket, glanced at the display and tucked it away after turning off the ringer. Trey. It didn’t take much thought to know why he was calling.

  “The thing about this particular gift is that once it’s out of the bag, there’s no taking it back, Keisha. You just have to go forward. But I think an apology to Kelly and to Mr. Calloway is in order as a first step.”

  Keisha sighed. “Does this mean I’m not getting anything for Christmas?”

  Admittedly, the thought had crossed Renee’s mind, but that wasn’t a solution. “Why don’t you start with that apology? We’ll let Christmas take care of itself.”

  * * *

  Trey didn’t know who was more devastated by Keisha’s revelation: Kelly or himself.

  He had so been looking forward to this Christmas. He’d known, of course, that the Santa gig would be up sooner or later. He’d counted on at least one more year of the innocence of youth, the delight and wonder in Kelly’s eyes on Christmas morning.

  Instead, tonight he’d talked to her about the spirit of Christmas, of giving to others while enjoying the beauty of the season, like all the light displays and the music. He’d gotten her settled in bed with her favorite dolls and bent to kiss her. Her final soft question nearly broke his heart.

  “Daddy, does this mean I’m not going to get any toys even though I was good this year?”

  He’d assured her that there would be plenty of gifts and toys under the tree. He’d stayed at her bedside until she’d fallen asleep.

  Then he called Renee. Twice.

  After both calls went to voice mail, he was of a mind to head next door for a few choice words with Renee about Keisha. When he heard a soft knocking at his side door, he knew who it was. He stalked to the kitchen and yanked the door open.

  “What the hell, Renee!”

  The rest of his frustrated tirade died on his lips when he saw Keisha standing there, looking as if she were about to face a firing squad, and Renee standing two steps behind her.

  “Mr. Calloway, I’m sorry about what I said to Kelly. And I’m sorry I ruined Christmas.”

  Trey let out a deep breath. In the face of her contrition, all of the angst and anger he’d been feeling dissipated like the breath expelled from his body.

  He stepped back. “Come inside out of the cold.” He motioned to them with his hand.

  Keisha shuffled inside followed by Renee, who mouthed “I’m so sorry” as she passed by him.

  Keisha jammed her hands into the pockets of her jacket. “Is Kelly still up?”

  “She’s already asleep.”

  “Oh.” Keisha glanced at Renee as if for direction in this uncharted territory.

  “She was pretty upset, Keisha,” Trey said.

  “So was Mom,” the eight-year-old said, sounding defeated.

  “Since Kelly is asleep, you can head back to the house, Keisha. I’m going to talk to Mr. Calloway for a few minutes,” Renee said. “I expect to see you in bed when I get back.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Keisha then looked at Trey and he recognized the telltale signs on her face. She was trying not to cry.

  “I didn’t mean to mess things up. Really,” she said, her lip quivering. “I—I don’t want you to hate me forever.”

  He heard Renee gasp and knew that whatever apology may have been coerced out of Keisha, this one was real…and heartrending.

  “Keisha, I don’t hate you now or ever. I was just disappointed.”

  Her face crumpled, and for the second time that night, Trey found himself hugging a little girl close as she cried.

  * * *

  “We make quite the pair,” Renee said a little while later in Trey’s kitchen.

  He ran a hand over his face. “The joys of parenting. Kelly asked me if no Santa meant she wasn’t going to get any toys for Christmas.”

  “Keisha wondered if her stunt meant Christmas was canceled at our place. I truly wanted to say, ‘Yes,’ but with everything else going on with her, that punishment seemed extreme.”

  “You know what I’d like to do for Christmas?”

  “What?”

  His gaze raked her body and then he reached for her.

  Renee swatted his hands away. “Good night, Trey.”

  “No compensation for the aggrieved party?”

  “I’m not listening to you,” she said as she opened the door and headed across to her own house.

  * * *

  Christmas morning dawned cold and clear. Trey and Kelly were late for breakfast.

  “Kelly, come on.”

  “I’m just putting another bow on this package. I want it to be perfect.”

  Trey just shook his head. Yesterday, it had taken the better part of an hour for Kelly to perfectly wrap her gifts for Aunt Henrietta and Uncle Carlton. This one, for Renee, had enough bows and stickers on it to wrap six or seven gifts. But it was Christmas. His daughter was healthy and thriving. He was contemplating a new executive position at work. The great Santa debacle had blown over, and he had a gift for his next-door neighbor that he hoped would be received in the spirit it was to be given.

  “I’m leaving, Kelly.”

  “I’m ready now,” she said, appearing from the dining room, which had been converted into her gift-wrapping craft center.

  She had two packages in hand, one small and the other medium-size.

  It didn’t take them long to reach their destination for Christmas-morning breakfast. All they had to do was walk across their driveway to the house next door.

  Renee’s house had been transformed since the last time he’d been there—the night he’d picked her up for their drive to Raleigh, the evening things had changed for them. Today, it was filled with the scent of fresh-cut evergreens in sprigs and swags and something with cinnamon that was baking in the oven.

  “It’s so pretty,” Kelly said of the holiday decorations. “Can we open presents now?”

  “We’re going to eat first, Kel,” Trey said, smiling down at his daughter.

  The plan was to have breakfast and exchange gifts here. And later in the day, the four of them would go to Aunt Henrietta and Uncle Carlton’s for a big family dinner. Renee had initially objected to that, saying she didn’t want to impose on their family time. Trey had just laughed. “Only if you consider half the neighborhood and all of their employees family. It’s more of a giant open house with a never-ending buffet,” he had told her.

  A no-pressure meet-the-family gathering would be ideal, they’d ultimately decided.

  Kelly and Keisha managed to eat about three forkfuls of breakfast casserole and a nibble of cinnamon roll before declaring they were both too full to manage any more.

  Trey looked at Renee and they exchanged a humor-filled glance.

  “Go ahead,” Renee said.

  The girls dashed from the table and straight to the living room, where a tree was decorated with handmade ornaments and popcorn garlands.

  “Ooh,” Kelly exclaimed, kneeling to get a better look at Keisha’s Christmas haul. “You got a lot of stuff.”

  “Mom said Santa Claus must have decided that I was off punishment.”

  Kelly looked at Keisha for a moment, and then both girls fell over giggling together.

  “Look at this,” Keisha said, pulling out a box with a large doll in it. “I can’t believe I got this for Christmas. She’s beautiful.”

  From the doorway, Trey and Renee watched the girls. Renee stood in front of him, his arms around her wais
t.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “For what? You haven’t gotten your present yet.”

  “Yes, I did,” Renee said.

  He leaned around her shoulder and kissed her.

  “All of that,” Renee said, nodding toward the Christmas tree, where Keisha was showing Kelly a couple of the new outfits she’d gotten for Christmas.

  She felt him stiffen behind her, wary now.

  “I know, Trey.”

  “You know what?”

  She turned in his arms, tugged him back toward the table, and they sat. “I know you were the Angel Tree benefactor.”

  “What makes you…?”

  “You can deny it all you want,” she said. “But I know the truth. Because Keisha came out of CPS, she’s eligible for some of the programs they offer. Among them is the Angel Tree project at Christmas. Her information got transferred here from Durham in time to be able to participate in the program. When I picked up the bags last week at a local church, one of the ladies told me something she wasn’t supposed to.”

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “She pulled me aside and told me Keisha was picked by a Calloway. And that family is incredibly generous.”

  He didn’t deny it.

  “Kelly plucked that tag off the tree about six weeks ago when my aunt decided Angel Tree would be a family project this year. She liked that the girl’s first name started with a K like hers. I didn’t put it together until the day we went shopping. You’re not angry, are you?”

  “‘Angry’? How could I be angry?”

  “Maybe it was the universe’s way of saying ‘merry Christmas’ and ‘don’t mess this up.’”

  “Mess what up?” Renee asked.

  “Us,” he said. “I know I can be a tad overprotective at times.”

  “Just a tad?”

  He continued as if her smart-aleck interruption hadn’t bothered him. “And, as you know, I tend to jump to conclusions about some things.”

  Renee smirked.

  Trey laughed then. “Do you want this Christmas present or not?”

  “It depends,” she said with a grin. “Are you getting ready to get all mushy on me?”

  “Yes.”