The Year the Cat Saved Christmas - a novella Read online

  "Jilly!" His strides ate up the distance. "Stop!"

  She broke into a run. He pulled up even with her.

  "We have to talk."

  She darted off the road and started up the hill. "Go to hell," she threw back at him.

  Was that some kind of secret code for I love you? He was willing to cling to any shred of hope that he hadn't come to his senses too late to save them.

  His foot caught on an exposed tree trunk and he stumbled and almost fell.

  "Serves you right," she called over her shoulder.

  "This isn't funny, Jill." He grabbed her forearm. "Stop! Listen to me! I love--"

  Chapter Six

  Jill hadn't meant to flip him over her shoulder but she'd been named Karate Mom of the Week and she couldn't pass up a golden opportunity like that. He had her so angry she could probably break boards with her pinky.

  "You threw me like a Frisbee," he said, as he looked up at her from the middle of a snowdrift and gasped for air. "When did you learn to do that?"

  "This summer. Mommy & Me karate classes. Want to see what I can do with my feet?"

  "No, thanks. I've had enough bodily injury for one day." He held out his hand. "Help me up, will you?"

  She shook her head and took a step back. "I wasn't born yesterday."

  His blue eyes were wide and innocent. "I'm not exactly in an offensive position, Jill."

  She hesitated.

  "You're the one who flipped me." He really did look helpless, lying there like a macho snow angel. "My butt's getting numb."

  "I suppose I owe you that much." She reached for his hand and a second later found herself lying next to him in the snowdrift.

  "You rat! You tricked me."

  "Stubborn redhead."

  Her fingers curled around some snow. "What was that?"

  "You heard me."

  "I was hoping I heard wrong."

  He met her fierce look with one of his own. "I called you a stubborn redhead."

  "Take it back."

  "The hell I will. You're the most stubborn woman I've ever known."

  "You pigheaded lout. How dare you call me stubborn."

  "You were born stubborn and you'll die stubborn."

  Furious, she scrambled to her knees. "I said, take it back."

  "Make me."

  "You asked for it, Whittaker!" She reared back and aimed her snowball right between his eyes.

  She wanted to pelt him with snowballs until he couldn't see straight. She wanted to bury him in snow up to his nostrils until he realized what a stupid fool he'd been. She wanted him to throw himself at her feet and beg her forgiveness. And then she would withhold it until he really began to squirm.

  He lobbed a few snowballs in her direction.

  "That's pathetic," she taunted, gaining confidence by the second. "Is that the best you can do?"

  She landed another missile right between his eyes.

  Splat!

  Splat!

  He was starting to look like a polar bear. "Jilly--"

  "Don't call me that! You lost the right to call me that."

  "--I don't want a divorce."

  "Well, that's too damn bad," she said, trying to ignore the foolish explosion of hope inside her heart. "You should have thought about that before you accepted that project in San Francisco."

  "I had to make the decision on the spot. I thought you liked San Francisco."

  "Everyone likes San Francisco." She let out a shriek of frustration. "Don't you get it, you fool? This isn't about San Francisco, David, this is about you."

  #

  About him?

  David forgot about the snowballs. Of all the things he'd expected her to say, that was at the bottom of the list.

  "You don't want that job in San Francisco any more than I want you to take it."

  "How do you figure that?"

  "Oh, David--" She tossed another snowball in his direction but it lacked conviction. He told himself that was a good sign. "If you're going to leave us for some stupid job, at least leave us for a job that's worthy of you."

  "You don't know what you're talking about."

  "I know all I need to know. I know you haven't been happy for a long time. I know you and I know it's all wrong for you to put your heart and soul into some design-by-committee project. You're a brilliant, passionate architect and you're being wasted--"

  "Damn it, Jill, don't you get it? It was either go to San Francisco or leave the firm."

  She didn't even blink. "Then you should have turned and walked out the door the minute they gave you that ultimatum."

  Deadbeats did things like that. Sons of bitches who walked out on their families and let their son bounce from foster home to foster home. The way his father had done to him.

  "You and the kids are my responsibility."

  "Why don't you let me be your partner rather than just your responsibility."

  "You've always been my partner," he said as the truth of her words pounded inside his brain. "You gave up a lot for me, Jilly and I owe you."

  "You owe me." Her voice was soft, ineffably sad. He wondered if it was finally too late. "If that's what you think our marriage was about, then there really isn't any hope for us."

  She turned and started to walk away and he knew that if he let her go, nothing else that happened in his life would matter a damn.

  "Jilly."

  She hesitated.

  "You could have had an easier life with someone else."

  "Maybe," she admitted, "but I couldn't have had a happier one."

  He reached for her hand. She entwined her fingers with his. There was still a chance.

  There had to be.

  "Tell me you want to go to San Francisco," she whispered. "Tell me that I'm wrong, that this project is important to you. Tell me that this job in San Francisco will make you happy and I'll get the kids and follow you."

  The truth was staring him in the face and he couldn't avoid it any longer. "You're right about the job," he said. "It's a lousy project and I'd be a pawn of the Japanese consortium, but if I want to stay on with the company, this is part of the deal."

  "And you call me stubborn." The faintest beginnings of a smile flickered at the corners of her mouth. "We're supposed to be a team, you fool. We were a team when you got that first big promotion. We were a team when I quit my job to write my book. We were a team all those years when it seemed like we'd never have a baby. Why should this be any different?"

  "You went through hell to have the twins," he said, remembering. "The doctors, the surgeries--"

  "And you worked around the clock to make it possible. We did it together the same way we can do this. The same way we can do anything we put our minds and hearts to."

  #

  He doesn't hear you, Jill. He doesn't understand. Her heart sank. David was looking right through her as if she wasn't even there. She pulled her hand away. "David," she snapped, "the least you can do is pay attention." This was their future she was talking about. Their children's future.

  "Look," he said, pointing. "It's Sebastian!"

  "Oh my God!" A fluffy cat with huge muttonchops and a bushy striped tail stood on the top of the hill, looking down on them.

  Sebastian didn't so much as blink as they slowly made their way up the snowy hill to where he stood. When they were within ten feet of him, he turned and bolted, running faster than he'd run in years, straight through the open front door of the cottage.

  Same shutters, same window boxes, same aura of love and magic. It looked exactly the same as always.

  David and Jill exchanged glances.

  "There are a lot of memories in that cottage," she said.

  "I know," he said, reaching for her hand. "But I can take it if you can."

  They crossed the threshold and the years seemed to fall away.

  "I can almost see us," Jill whispered, "the way we used to be."

  David nodded. "By the window, where we used to watch the sun rise."

  "O
h, Davey," she said. "We look so young."

  "We look so happy."

  "We were happy."

  "We didn't have a pot to pee in."

  "We had everything we needed." She drew in a deep breath. "We had each other."

  "I love you, Jilly." He gently drew her into his arms. "Everything I've ever done in life, I've done for you."

  "I know," she said. "I was afraid you'd forgotten."

  "Never. When you asked for the divorce, I thought--"

  "Shh." She raised up on tiptoe and placed her index finger against his lips. "I never really wanted a divorce." She told him how much she'd missed him, how much she hated the way they'd drifted apart. "All I wanted to do was make you open your eyes and realize we need you more than we need your paycheck." She hadn't expected the avalanche of emotions her words would set in motion.

  He kissed her with all the passion and pain a heart could bear. They had come so close to losing everything that mattered, all that was real and true and lasting.

  "We might be in for some more tough times," he said, stroking her hair back from her face.

  "Maybe not that tough," she said, her eyes twinkling. "I'm a lot more successful than you realize." She quoted him a figure. She saw the look of fear flicker behind his eyes. "I'm with you because I want to be, Davey. Not because I have to be."

  "Give me a year," he said, his voice husky with emotion, "and I'll give you some competition."

  "Give me your heart," she whispered, "and I'll give you forever."

  Sebastian meowed from atop a kitchen chair.

  "You big wonderful cat!" Jill forced him to endure a hug.

  David scratched Sebastian behind the ear. "We owe you fella. There'll be a Christmas catnip bonus in your stocking tonight."

  "Oh my God!" Jill cried. "It's almost five o'clock on Christmas Eve! We've got to get home!"

  She reached down to scoop up Sebastian but he leaped from her arms and darted toward the living room.

  "What's his problem?" David asked as Jill hurried after the cat. "We're taking him home to a warm house and a full dinner bowl. You'd think he had something better to do."

  Jill's laugh floated toward him as he reached her side. "Apparently he does have something better to do!"

  "You old son of a gun," he said, shaking his head. "Who would have guessed you had it in you?"

  Sebastian stood guard while a beautiful tortoise-shell cat nursed a quartet of kittens, one of whom bore a strong resemblance to a certain Maine coon cat.

  Jill looked at David. David looked at Sebastian. Sebastian's chest seemed to swell with pride.

  "If I didn't know better," Jill said to Sebastian, "I'd think you planned this whole thing to bring us back together." She met David's eyes. "That's impossible, right?"

  He hesitated. "If you'd asked me that this morning, I would have laughed."

  "David--"

  "Look at the evidence, Jilly. We're here in the cottage with Sebastian and his offspring. Pretty incredible, if you ask me."

  "And we're together," she said as a sense of wonder built inside her heart. "You wouldn't think a cat could--"

  David looked at the little kitten who was Sebastian's mirror image. "I'm starting to think anything's possible on Christmas Eve." He drew her into his arms. "We found each other on Christmas Eve, didn't we?"

  "Twice," she said as her heart soared. "And this time I'm not letting go."

  Epilogue

  Outside the snow fell steadily, brushing against the window like angel wings. There was music in the air and more than a touch of magic. It was Christmas Eve and Sebastian's family was home where they belonged.

  The Boy and Girl were settled upstairs in sleeping bags. His people had told them Santa Claus came early and brought them a wonderful surprise. Who could resist kittens? Even Sebastian had a soft spot for the little balls of fluff.

  And Princess wasn't half- bad herself. Sebastian was only a cat, after all. Even he couldn't help being partial to a pair of big green eyes and a silky coat.

  Ah, but that one kitten--now he was really something special. Sebastian knew it wasn't simply his pride speaking or his vanity. That little Maine coon cat was the one he'd been waiting for. The kitten was strong and curious and brave. Sebastian could teach him things, important things, like how sometimes a cat had to do the impossible to keep his family together. It was an important lesson and he would see to it the little one learned it well.

  "We're going outside for a minute," the Man said to him. "You take care of things for us, you old devil."

  The Woman kissed the top of Sebastian's head then followed the Man out the door. Sebastian leaped onto the windowsill and watched as they made their way through the deep snow to the wooden sign that had been in the front yard for months now. She pulled it out of the ground and handed it to the Man who broke it over his knee then threw the pieces as far away as he could. Then, to Sebastian's delight, they wrapped their arms around each other and he knew they would be out there a long time.

  His son meowed. Sebastian leaped down from the windowsill and pressed his nose against a tiny ear. One day you'll love them as much as I do, he thought. When I'm gone, you'll be here to take care of them and keep them safe from harm.

  Sebastian yawned. He wasn't at all tired but maybe a short nap wasn't such a bad idea. Tomorrow was Christmas and he knew how his humans were about Christmas.

  He'd be lucky if he managed to get any rest at all. Funny how Christmas had managed to come, even though there was no tree or twinkling lights or presents stacked up higher than a cat could jump.

  Maybe Christmas was more than presents and laughter. Maybe it had something to do with the feeling inside his heart that seemed to grow stronger each year that he spent with his people.

  His family.

  Sebastian yawned again. He wasn't tired but it would feel nice to lie next to the fire and dream. He settled his ancient bones near the fireplace and was about to doze off when his son curled up next to him, his sturdy little body pressed close to Sebastian's side.

  The front door squeaked open then shut and he heard the sounds of whispers and laughter from his people. He had waited a long time to hear the house echo again with those sounds and he congratulated himself on a job well done. There would be many more happy Christmases spent in this house and he intended to be around a long time to enjoy them.

  Life was good, Sebastian thought as he fell asleep next to his son.

  Very good indeed.

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  About the Author

  Barbara Bretton is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of over fifty
novels, including contemporary, paranormal, and historical titles. Over twelve million copies are in print in over twenty languages. Her stories have received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist.

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