That Christmas Magic, page 3
“Maybe I’m catching a cold.” She offered the weak explanation and turned sharply toward her room.
Jo Marie’s smooth brow narrowed. This was Mark’s doing. She was convinced he was the cause of Kelly’s uncharacteristic display of emotion.
Something rang untrue about the whole situation between Kelly and Mark. Kelly wasn’t a soft, southern belle who fainted at the least provocation. That was another teasing comment Mark enjoyed hurling at her. Kelly was a lady, but no shrinking violet. Jo Marie had witnessed Kelly in action, fighting for her patients and several political causes. The girl didn’t back down often. After Thanksgiving, Jo Marie would help Kelly fine-tune a few witty comebacks. As Mark’s sister, Jo Marie was well acquainted with her brother’s weak spots. The only way to fight fire was with fire she mused humorously. Together, Jo Marie and Kelly would teach Mark a lesson.
“You want me to fix something to eat before you head for your parents?” Jo Marie shouted from the kitchen. She was standing in front of the cupboard, scanning its meager contents. “How does soup and a sandwich sound?”
“Boring,” Kelly returned. “I’m not really hungry.”
“Eight hours of back-breaking work on the surgical ward and you’re not interested in food? Are you having problems with your tonsils again?”
“I had them out, remember?”
Slowly, Jo Marie straightened. Yes, she remembered. All too well. It had been outside the hospital that she’d literally run into the dream man. Unbidden thoughts of him crowded her mind and forcefully she shook her head to free herself of his image.
Jo Marie had fixed herself dinner and was sitting in front of the television watching the evening news by the time Kelly reappeared.
“I’m leaving now.”
“Okay.” Jo Marie didn’t take her eyes off the television. “Have a happy Thanksgiving; don’t eat too much turkey and trimmings.”
“Don’t throw any wild parties while I’m away.” That was a small joke between them. Jo Marie rarely dated these days. Not since—Mardi Gras. Kelly couldn’t understand this change in her friend and affectionately teased Jo Marie about her sudden lack of an interesting social life.
“Oh, Kelly, before I forget—” Jo Marie gave her a wicked smile “—bring back some pralines, would you? After all, it’s the holidays, so we can splurge.”
At any other time Kelly would rant that she’d grown up with candy all her life and detested the sugary sweet concoction. Pralines were Jo Marie’s weakness, but the candy would rot before Kelly would eat any of it.
“Sure, I’ll be happy to,” she agreed lifelessly and was gone before Jo Marie realized her friend had slipped away. Returning her attention to the news, Jo Marie was more determined than ever to have a talk with her brother.
The doorbell chimed at seven. Jo Marie was spreading a bright red polish on her toenails. She grumbled under her breath and screwed on the top of the bottle. But before she could answer the door, her brother strolled into the apartment and flopped down on the sofa that sat at right angles to the matching love seat.
“Come in and make yourself at home,” Jo Marie commented dryly.
“I don’t suppose you’ve got anything to eat around here.” Dark brown eyes glanced expectantly into the kitchen. All five of the Early children shared the same dusty, dark eyes.
“This isn’t a restaurant, you know.”
“I know. By the way, where’s money bags?”
“Who?” Confused, Jo Marie glanced up from her toes.
“Kelly.”
Jo Marie didn’t like the reference to Kelly’s family wealth, but decided now wasn’t the time to comment. Her brother worked long hours and had been out of sorts lately. “She’s left for her parents’ home already.”
A soft snicker followed Jo Marie’s announcement.
“Damn it, Mark, I wish you’d lay off Kelly. She’s not used to being teased. It really bothers her.”
“I’m only joking,” Mark defended himself. “Kell knows that.”
“I don’t think she does. She was crying tonight and I’m sure it’s your fault.”
“Kelly crying?” He straightened and leaned forward, linking his hands. “But I was only kidding.”
“That’s the problem. You can’t seem to let up on her. You’re always putting her down one way or another.”
Mark reached for a magazine, but not before Jo Marie saw that his mouth was pinched and hard. “She asks for it.”
Rolling her eyes, Jo Marie continued adding the fire-engine-red color to her toes. It wouldn’t do any good for her to argue with Mark. Kelly and Mark had to come to an agreement on their own. But that didn’t mean Jo Marie couldn’t hand Kelly ammunition now and again. Her brother had his vulnerable points, and Jo Marie would just make certain Kelly was aware of them. Then she could sit back and watch the sparks fly.
Busy with her polish, Jo Marie didn’t notice for several minutes how quiet her brother had become. When she lifted her gaze to him, she saw that he had a pained, troubled look. His brow was furrowed in thought.
“I lost a child today,” he announced tightly. “I couldn’t understand it either. Not medically, I don’t mean that. Anything can happen. She’d been brought in last week with a ruptured appendix. We knew from the beginning it was going to be touch and go.” He paused and breathed in sharply. “But you know, deep down inside I believed she’d make it. She was their only daughter. The apple of her parents’ eye. If all the love in that mother’s heart couldn’t hold back death’s hand, then what good is medical science? What good am I?”
Mark had raised these questions before and Jo Marie had no answers. “I don’t know,” she admitted solemnly and reached out to touch his hand in reassurance. Mark didn’t want to hear the pat answers. He couldn’t see that now. Not when he felt like he’d failed this little girl and her parents in some obscure way. At times like these, she’d look at her brother who was a strong, committed doctor and see the doubt in his eyes. She had no answers. Sometimes she wasn’t even sure she completely understood his questions.
After wiping his hand across his tired face, Mark stood. “I’m on duty tomorrow morning so I probably won’t be at the folks’ place until late afternoon. Tell Mom I’ll try to make it on time. If I can’t, the least you can do is to be sure and save a plate for me.”
Knowing Mark, he was likely to go without eating until tomorrow if left to his own devices. “Let me fix you something now,” Jo Marie offered. From his unnatural pallor, Jo Marie surmised that Mark couldn’t even remember when he’d eaten his last decent meal, coffee and a doughnut on the run excluded.
He glanced at his watch. “I haven’t got time. Thanks anyway.” Before she could object, he was at the door.
Why had he come? Jo Marie wondered absently. He’d done a lot of that lately—stopping in for a few minutes without notice. And it wasn’t as if her apartment were close to the hospital. Mark had to go out of his way to visit her. With a bemused shrug, she followed him to the front door and watched as he sped away in that rundown old car he was so fond of driving. As he left, Jo Marie mentally questioned if her instincts had been on target all along and Kelly and Mark did hold some deep affection for each other. Mark hadn’t come tonight for any specific reason. His first question had been about Kelly. Only later had he mentioned losing the child.
* * *
—
“Jo Marie,” her mother called from the kitchen. “Would you mind mashing the potatoes?”
The large family kitchen was bustling with activity. The long white countertop was filled with serving bowls ready to be placed on the linen-covered dining room table. Sweet potato and pecan pies were cooling on the smaller kitchen table and the aroma of spice and turkey filled the house.
“Smells mighty good in here,” Franklin Early proclaimed, sniffing appreciatively as he strolled into the kitchen and placed a loving arm around his wife’s waist.
“Scat,” Jo Marie’s mother cried with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I won’t have you in here sticking your fingers in the pies and blaming it on the boys. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes.”
Mark arrived, red faced and slightly breathless. He kissed his mother on the cheek and, when she wasn’t looking, popped a sweet pickle into his mouth. “I hope I’m not too late.”
“I’d say you had perfect timing,” Jo Marie teased and handed him the electric mixer. “Here, mash these potatoes while I finish setting the table.”
“No way, little sister.” His mouth was twisted mockingly as he gave her back the appliance. “I’ll set the table. No one wants lumpy potatoes.”
The three younger boys, all in their teens, sat in front of the television watching a football game. The Early family enjoyed sports, especially football. Jo Marie’s mother had despaired long ago that her only daughter would ever grow up properly. Instead of playing with dolls, her toys had been cowboy boots and little green army men. Touch football was as much a part of her life as ballet was for some girls.
With Mark out of the kitchen, Jo Marie’s mother turned to her. “Have you been feeling all right lately?”
“Me?” The question caught her off guard. “I’m feeling fine. Why shouldn’t I be?”
Ruth Early lifted one shoulder in a delicate shrug. “You’ve had a look in your eye lately.” She turned and leaned her hip against the counter, her head tilted at a thoughtful angle. “The last time I saw that look was in your Aunt Bessie’s eye before she was married. Tell me, Jo Marie, are you in love?”
Jo Marie hesitated, not knowing how to explain her feelings for a man she had met so briefly. He was more illusion than reality. Her own private fantasy. Those few moments with the dream man were beyond explaining, even to her own mother.
“No,” she answered finally, making busy work by placing the serving spoons in the bowls.
“Is he married? Is that it? Save yourself a lot of grief, Jo Marie, and stay away from him if he is. You understand?”
“Yes,” she murmured, her eyes avoiding her mother’s. For all she knew he could well be married.
Not until late that night did Jo Marie let herself into her apartment. The day had been full. After the huge family dinner, they’d played cards until Mark trapped Jo Marie into playing a game of touch football for old times’ sake. Jo Marie agreed and proved that she hadn’t lost her “touch.”
The apartment looked large and empty. Kelly stayed with her parents over any major holidays. Kelly’s family seemed to feel that Kelly still belonged at home and always would, no matter what her age. Although Kelly was twenty-four, the apartment she shared with Jo Marie was more for convenience sake than any need to separate herself from her family.
With her mother’s words echoing in her ear, Jo Marie sauntered into her bedroom and dressed for bed. Friday was a work day for her as it was for both Mark and Kelly. The downtown area of New Orleans would be hectic with Christmas shoppers hoping to pick up their gifts from the multitude of sales.
As a travel agent, Jo Marie didn’t have many walk-in customers to deal with, but her phone rang continuously. Several people wanted to book holiday vacations, but there was little available that she could offer. The most popular vacation spots had been booked months in advance. Several times her information was accepted with an irritated grumble as if she were to blame. By the time she stepped off the bus outside her apartment, Jo Marie wasn’t in any mood for company.
No sooner had the thought formed than she caught sight of her brother. He was parked in the lot outside the apartment building. Hungry and probably looking for a hot meal, she guessed. He knew that their mother had sent a good portion of the turkey and stuffing home with Jo Marie so Mark’s appearance wasn’t any real surprise.
“Hi,” she said and knocked on his car window. The faraway look in his eyes convinced her that after all these years Mark had finally learned to sleep with his eyes open. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that Jo Marie was forced to tap on his window a second time.
“Paging Dr. Early,” she mimicked in a high-pitched hospital voice. “Paging Dr. Mark Early.”
Mark turned and stared at her blankly. “Oh, hi.” He sat up and climbed out of the car.
“I suppose you want something to eat.” Her greeting wasn’t the least bit cordial, but she was tired and irritable.
The edge of Mark’s mouth curled into a sheepish grin. “If it isn’t too much trouble.”
“No,” she offered him an apologetic smile. “It’s just been a rough day and my feet hurt.”
“My sister sits in an office all day, files her nails, reads books and then complains that her feet hurt.”
Jo Marie was too weary to rise to the bait. “Not even your acid tongue is going to get a rise out of me tonight.”
“I know something that will,” Mark returned smugly.
“Ha.” From force of habit, Jo Marie kicked off her shoes and strolled into the kitchen.
“Wanna bet?”
“I’m not a betting person, especially after playing cards with you yesterday, but if you care to impress me, fire away.” Crossing her arms, she leaned against the refrigerator door and waited.
“Kelly’s engaged.”
Jo Marie slowly shook her head in disbelief. “I didn’t think you’d stoop to fabrications.”
That familiar angry, hurt look stole into Mark’s eyes. “It’s true, I heard it from the horse’s own mouth.”
Lightly shaking her head from side to side to clear her thoughts, Jo Marie still came up with a blank. “But who?” Kelly wasn’t going out with anyone seriously.
“Some cousin. Rich, no doubt,” Mark said and straddled a kitchen chair. “She’s got a diamond as big as a baseball. Must be hard for her to work with a rock that size weighing down her hand.”
“A cousin?” New Orleans was full of Beaumonts, but none that Kelly had mentioned in particular. “I can’t believe it,” Jo Marie gasped. “She’d have said something to me.”
“From what I understand, she tried to phone last night, but we were still at the folks’ house. Just as well,” Mark mumbled under his breath. “I’m not about to toast this engagement. First she plays at being nurse and now she wants to play at being a wife.”
Mark’s bitterness didn’t register past the jolt of surprise that Jo Marie felt. “Kelly engaged,” she repeated.
“You don’t need to keep saying it,” Mark snapped.
“Saying what?” A jubilant Kelly walked in the front door.
“Never mind,” Mark said and slowly stood. “It’s time for me to be going, I’ll talk to you later.”
“What about dinner?”
“There’s someone I’d like you both to meet,” Kelly announced.
Ignoring her, Mark turned to Jo Marie. “I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.”
“Jo Marie, I’d like to introduce you to my fiancé, Andrew Beaumont.”
Jo Marie’s gaze swung from the frustrated look on her brother’s face to an intense pair of gray eyes. There was only one man on earth with eyes the shade of a winter sea. The dream man.
Two
Stunned into speechlessness, Jo Marie struggled to maintain her composure. She took in a deep breath to calm her frantic heartbeat and forced a look of pleasant surprise. Andrew Beaumont apparently didn’t even remember her. Jo Marie couldn’t see so much as a flicker of recognition in the depth of his eyes. In the last nine months it was unlikely that he had given her more than a passing thought, if she’d been worthy of even that. And yet, she vividly remembered every detail of him, down to the crisp dark hair, the broad, muscular shoulders and faint twist of his mouth.
With an effort that was just short of superhuman, Jo Marie smiled. “Congratulations, you two. But what a surprise.”
Kelly hurried across the room and hugged her tightly. “It was to us, too. Look.” She held out her hand for Jo Marie to admire the flashing diamond. Mark hadn’t been exaggerating. The flawless gem mounted in an antique setting was the largest Jo Marie had ever seen.
“What did I tell you,” Mark whispered in her ear.
Confused, Kelly glanced from sister to brother. “Drew and I are celebrating tonight. We’d love it if you came. Both of you.”
“No,” Jo Marie and Mark declared in unison.
“I’m bushed,” Jo Marie begged off.
“…and tired,” Mark finished lamely.
For the first time, Andrew spoke. “We insist.” The deep, resonant voice was exactly as Jo Marie remembered. But tonight there was something faintly arrogant in the way he spoke that dared Jo Marie and Mark to put up an argument.
Brother and sister exchanged questioning glances, neither willing to be drawn into the celebration. Each for their own reasons, Jo Marie mused.
“Well—” Mark cleared his throat, clearly ill at ease with the formidable fiancé “—perhaps another time.”
“You’re Jo Marie’s brother?” Andrew asked with a mocking note.
“How’d you know?”
Kelly stuck her arm through Andrew’s. “Family resemblance, silly. No one can look at the two of you and not know you’re related.”
“I can’t say the same thing about you two. I thought it was against the law to marry a cousin.” Mark didn’t bother to disguise his contempt.
“We’re distant cousins,” Kelly explained brightly. Her eyes looked adoringly into Andrew’s and Jo Marie felt her stomach tighten. Jealousy. This sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach was the green-eyed monster. Jo Marie had only experienced brief tastes of the emotion; now it filled her mouth until she thought she would choke on it.
“I…had a horribly busy day.” Jo Marie sought frantically for an excuse to stay home.
“And I’d have to go home and change,” Mark added, looking down over his pale gray cords and sport shirt.
