Summer Reading Suggestion: Sing We Now of Christmas!
From the desk of Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy……
It’s official now – summer is here! It’s the season for
sunshine, family reunions, swimming, a trip to the lake. Here in the US it’s almost time to celebrate
the Fourth of July. With a wardrobe of
shorts, swimsuits, and sandals, a Christmas-themed romance may seem like the
last thing you’d want to read but maybe not.
I actually enjoy reading something with a holiday story in the heat of
the summer but my first Christmas release from 2011, Sing We Now of Christmas
fills in a year, from one Christmas to another. The story begins on the Fourth of July when
Johnny heads off to the lake fishing.
Apparent tragedy destroys Jessica’s world but she clings to hope anyway. Here’s the blurb, the entire first chapter,
plus buy links and my links!
Blurb:
When Jessica Martin met Johnny Devereaux that December,
holiday magic filled the air but their love was no enchantment….he was, without
doubt the love of her life and by summer, they were happy newlyweds with all
their life and holidays ahead.
But when he failed to return home from a fishing trip on the
Fourth of July, Jessica’s world is rocked to the foundation and when the
authorities tell her that her husband is missing, presumed dead, she refuses to
believe it.
As the months and seasons pass, no one else holds out hope
but Jessica believes.
She knows he’ll be home for Christmas no matter what. Her family calls her crazy, Johnny’s family
tries to help her find closure but Jessica’s heart refuses to surrender hope.
When Christmas comes, the truth will come out to shock them
all.
Chapter One
The Fourth of July
“Hey, are
you comin’ with me?”
Johnny’s
whisper sliced through layers of sleep and she stirred, uncertain whether or
not it was morning or midnight. She felt
the bed sink as he sat down beside her. “What?”
“I’m going fishin’, remember? It’s the Fourth
of July and everyone’s coming down to the cabin later. Are you comin’ with me now or going down
later?”
Jessica stirred, sat up and scrubbed her face
with both hands. “What time is it?”
“It’s
almost four.”
She moaned.
“It won’t be daylight for almost two hours.
I want to sleep.”
He laughed
with that rich, full sound that she adored. “You can. I just didn’t want to leave without telling
you and giving you once last chance to come with me.”
“Do you
have to go so early?” She loved going out on the lake with him but she hated
rising before the sun.
He grinned,
facing her from where he sat on the edge of their bed. “I do if I want to catch anything. I like to hit the lake before daylight. What time are you coming down?”
Jessica struggled to make her mind work
through the remnants of sleep fog. “I
guess noon or a little after. When’s
your mom going to be there?”
“I think she said by four. Amy’s coming too and so is Tad.”
His sister Amy had been a bridesmaid
in their May wedding and Tad served as Johnny’s best man. His girlfriend, Isobel, helped to cut the
cake at the reception. “Is Isobel going to
come too?”
“I think
so. Honey, I need to go if I’m going.”
“Okay,” she
said with a yawn. She sat all the way up
and circled his neck with her arms. He
kissed her, a full and potent kiss that promised more to come later. Jessica considered heating things up, knowing
that if she did, she could get him to stay later but she didn’t. He loved fishing and she wanted him to have
that solitary time out on the water that he wanted.
“I’ll see
you this afternoon,” he told her. “You
be careful driving down and watch the holiday traffic, okay?”
“I will,”
she promised. “Have fun and catch lots of fish.”
“I’ll do my best. See you, honey.”
“I’ll do my best. See you, honey.”
With
another quick kiss, he was off the bed and out the door before she could say
anything more. He never said good-bye –
it was their personal thing, something he taught her on the very first night
that they met. She remembered that
moment as she laid her head on the pillow.
“I’ll call you.”
“If you
don’t, I’ll call you.”
He grinned, “You won’t have to, Jessica. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Promise,”
she said and he traced a cross over his chest.
“Cross my
heart,” he said, “See you.”
“Good,” she
said, meaning to tell him good-bye but he put one finger across her lips.
“There are
no good-byes but one and that one is final,” Johnny said, “so don’t ever say
it.”
Jessica
smiled and touched his face with her hand.
“Then I’ll say, later.”
He liked
that and he touched his mouth to hers once more, brief and fleeting. “Later, darlin’.”
In the thin-walled apartment
building, one of six in the complex, she could hear his boots thump each stair
on his way down and the downstairs door slam when he exited. She imagined him going out through the soft
summer darkness, the still before dawn and putting his fishing gear behind the
seat of his old vintage Chevy truck. He would be pulling the boat and trailer
behind all the way to Grand Lake.
Without any warning she shivered, felt a cold breath of something she
could not define and she sat up straight.
Maybe I should go with him after
all, maybe if I go after him, he can wait for me. I know he will.
From that first night, she’d
been connected to him in a way she never had been before, not with anyone. She could sense his presence with her mind,
feel it in her soul. She almost always
knew when he headed home from work, timing his arrival almost to the
minute. If he got off early, she knew
that too and in the moments they spent apart she sometimes could hone in on his
location like radar. Johnny felt
something similar and because of it, their connection ran deeper than most
couples. She didn’t understand it but
whatever was there h ad been between them since the first moment he touched
her.
Jessica
swung her feet over the side of the bed and reached for her robe. Then the moment faded and she felt silly. They
could be apart for a few short hours; she wasn’t that insecure or needy. Besides,
she didn’t want to ride all the way down to the lake, half-asleep, and
go out over the still dark waters, not even with Johnny, not when she could
curl up and go back to sleep. She heard
him start the truck, the familiar growl of the engine unmistakable and
relaxed. He could go have his fun and
she’d be down later. With that thought
in mind, she drifted back to sleep.
The low
bass rumble of distant thunder awakened her hours later and by the time that
she was up to pour her first cup of coffee, jagged lightning sliced the sky
like an illuminated knife. As she peered
out the window at the ominous sky, heavy with dark clouds, she remembered that
Johnny was out on Grand Lake in the boat.
In the same motion she flipped open her cell phone to hit speed dial
with one hand and with the other turned on the television. Jessica listened to the phone ring but he
didn’t pick up which meant nothing.
Reception out on the lake could be spotty at best and if a storm was
overhead there might be none.
She didn’t
really worry until she watched one of the area weather forecasters highlight a
monster storm that approached the region.
The huge red blob covered a large area and Jessica listened with
increasing anxiety as he talked about the dangerous storm, the potential for
large hail, damaging winds, deadly lightning and heavy rain. When he ended with the suggestion that all
the viewers should sit tight and stay put until the weather passed, she dialed
Johnny’s cell again but all she reached was his voicemail, again.
When the
storm hit Neosho, it struck with full force.
Jessica sipped coffee, too nervous to eat any breakfast, and watched as
harsh winds bowed trees over to sweep the ground with branches. Thunder roared above, strong enough that she
could feel the vibration rattle the windows and lightning flared with such
brilliance that she shut her eyes, momentarily blinded. Rain streamed down and she could no long see
but she heard the hail embedded within it.
On television, the morning news passed along warning after warning with
dire hints about the severity of the storm.
“It’s a
mess out there this morning,” one news anchor said with a pasted on smile to
the other who nodded agreement. “It’s
best just to stay inside and away from windows until this moves east of the
area.”
“We’re
getting reports that the worst of the storm struck in northeast Oklahoma. Damage reports are coming in from law
enforcement agencies and we’re hearing about some major power outages.”
Jessica
moved away from her window post and turned off the television. She’d heard more than enough.
Too tense
to go back to sleep, she showered instead, drank more coffee, and began
gathering up things to take down to the lake cabin. When she tried, she could
sense him, faint but there so she made a conscious effort not to worry. Their
suitcases were packed to stay for a couple of nights but she gathered up all
the extras she thought would be necessary, sunscreen, her favorite frying pan,
a blanket, camera, and more. Last of
all she loaded up the chocolate cake she’d made the day before, the potato
salad, and hamburger buns. She tucked
the deli sandwiches she’d bought for their picnic lunch into a cooler and
checked her list.
His
Devereaux kin should bring everything else and if they didn’t, she and Johnny
could run into Grove for supplies. By the time she had it all packed into her
car, a Ford Escort, it was almost nine so she’d be hours early. That meant that she could shed the low level
worry that simmered somewhere at the back of her brain sooner so she headed
out, west on Highway 60 under a sunny sky.
All the storm clouds had blown eastward.
Traffic on
the two lane highway was heavy on the holiday since the road led to both
several area casinos and lakes. Despite
that, she zoomed along until everything slowed to a crawl just west of the
Seneca turn-off. Cars, pickups and big
tractor trailer rigs backed up for miles in either direction and she sat,
fuming, fingers drumming a nervous beat against the steering wheel, unable to
go anywhere. Somewhere down the road
there must have been an accident but she couldn’t see past all the waiting
vehicles. She tried Johnny’s cell again,
four or five times but voice mail.
Frustrated, more than a little anxious, Jessica fumed but she didn’t
believe anything would have happened to her husband. Some deep faith within supported her belief
that God wouldn’t lead her to the love of her life and then take him away,
especially not less than six weeks after their wedding, not quite seven months after they met. That was impossible. Besides, if she could get a sense of him –
which she did – Jessica could hang onto that anchor.
Afraid that
her car might overheat during the lengthy wait, she rolled down the window and
shut off the engine. After the storm
that passed, the air felt sticky and hot.
That heat made her almost sleepy and to stay awake, she reminisced about
the night last December that she first met Johnny, at Rusty’s Nail in Joplin.
She got up to leave, unhappy because her
friend, Susan, spent all her time with the lead singer of the band, and backed
into someone. In her haste she almost
lost her balance. Strong arms caught her
and held her upright as a voice said, audible above the music but not loud,
“Whoa, there honey, take it easy.”
Jessica whirled, embarrassed, to
mumble an apology. All her words faded
away when she gazed into his eyes, dark brown and richer than sweet
chocolate. He looked back with interest
and she felt a strong sense of attraction.
He wasn’t the kind of guy she would give a second glance under any other
circumstance but tonight she couldn’t look anywhere else. Everything about him was opposite of what
she liked in a man – she liked tailored, Brooks Brothers business charm and he
radiated country cowboy.
He fit into his faded Wranglers as if they’d
been made just for his long legs and his pearl snap button blue patterned
Western shirt suited him. He towered
above her, taller by several inches even without the worn cowboy boots he
wore. She inhaled his scent, a potent
mixture of musky cologne, tobacco smoke, and beneath it all, Irish Spring
soap. His hands, still holding her arms,
were warm against her bare skin and she was glad, now, that she’d worn the
black silk halter top despite the cold instead of the red sweater she’d worn to
school. Jessica made her voice work with effort, “Thank you.”
“No problem,” he said and she
drank in his voice, strong and comforting with just enough Oklahoma twang to
make it interesting. “Would you care to dance?”
“I’d
love it,” Jessica said as he released his grip on her arms to grab her hand
instead. “My name’s Jessica Martin.”
“I’m Johnny,” he said and she committed the
name to memory, “Johnny Devereaux.”
He
led her onto the tiny dance floor just as Mark began to sing the softer,
sweeter vintage country song, Lookin’ For Love.
The old Johnny Lee song she remembered from that movie, Urban Cowboy,
now felt like a theme song. She recalled
watching it one late night in college, hating the boot scooting dance moves and
the mechanical bull riding but loving the scene where Debra Winger danced to
this same music with John Travolta. Such
a coincidence she mused, Johnny Lee, John Travolta, and Johnny Devereaux.
Johnny put his arms around her
and she cuddled close against him for the slow dance. They swayed together, their easy motions in
time with the music, and she felt safe.
Jessica’s head fell short of his shoulder and so as they danced, she
could hear the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.
Above them, the stationary silver ball that must have once spun
reflected the colorful Christmas lights strung above the bar and Jessica felt
the strangest sense of coming home in his arms.
She wanted to stay there forever, wrapped in that magic cocoon of his
embrace, and hold this moment close to her heart.
Jessica
savored that memory, just as sweet now as it had been on that incredible
night. Sometimes she couldn’t believe it
had just been not quite seven months ago, that until that December evening her
world didn’t include Johnny Devereaux.
Until then, she never believed in love at first sight but after that
dance, they were together and in love.
They never doubted the reality of it and by the time they married, down
at the lake over Memorial Day weekend, neither did any of their family or
friends. They were meant to be together,
Jessica and Johnny like Lucy and Ricky Ricardo,
Fred and Wilma Flintstone, Beauty and her Beast, even Johnny and June
Cash.
Comparing
them to other couples made her smile and some of her tension drained away. Everything would be fine as soon as she got
down to the lake. She could unpack the
stuff at the cabin, change into shorts, and sit outside on the deck waiting for
Johnny to come home with his stringer full of bass. If they got lucky, he’d be back long before
any of his family members started to show up and they could enjoy what Johnny
liked to call ‘a little afternoon delight’ after some old mid-1970’s song he
liked.
Traffic
crept forward, one slow car length at a time and as she inched ahead, Jessica
daydreamed about their very first time together, that night they became
intimate. She’d come home late from her
teaching job and found Johnny there, asleep on her couch. When she went to change clothes, she found
that he’d transformed her ordinary bedroom into a lovely bower, a romantic
place where anything could happen – and did.
A vase of white, red, and pink roses stood
on her dresser, the fragrance of the flowers heavy and sweet in the room. Jar
candles sat near the posies on the table beside her bed, even on the
headboard. As they flickered, she caught
their scent, a rich gardenia smell she liked, one that reminded her of the
classic White Shoulders perfume. A brand
new comforter, soft and fluffy, covered her bed replacing the worn out old
discount store navy blue bedspread.
Jessica stroked her hand across the surface, admiring the white
comforter where big pink and crimson roses bloomed. Music flowed from her CD
boom box, not rock, not country but the pleasant sounds of Mannheim
Steamroller. Impressed by the effort
he’d made to create a romantic scene, she smiled.
If he could create this mood, then
she could follow his lead. Jessica opened
a dresser drawer and searched. She
rejected the full-length flannel nightgown, the faded and well-worn nightshirt,
the silky shorts she often slept in and pulled out the one piece of sexy
lingerie she owned with triumph. The
satin baby doll still had the store tags from when she bought it at clearance
after Valentine’s Day last year, unable to resist the pretty crimson
garment. She’d wondered who she might
wear it for or if she’d ever have the nerve but tonight, inspired by his
preparation, she changed into it. She
sprayed on a little Obsession and brushed her hair until it hung smooth past
her shoulders. Inside, she trembled
from a volatile combination of nerves and desire but she walked into the living
room with a siren’s strut only to find Johnny still asleep.
She knelt down, noticing the way
that his long eyelashes brushed his cheek and how a slight smile teased his
lips. Judging by his even breath he was
deep into sleep country but Jessica bent down to kiss his mouth, slow and
serious. He responded before he awoke,
his lips sculpting to fit hers and when he opened his eyes, he grinned.
“Hey, Johnny,” she said in the
huskiest whisper she could summon. “It’s
bedtime.”
He blinked, still smiling. “Is it?”
“Uh-huh,”
“Then come here, honey,” he said,
“let me rock you to sleep.”
He sat up and then snagged her with
his arms. He cuddled her on his lap and
began to kiss her with gusto. Johnny
tasted her with the same eager zeal she thought he would have for a good steak,
the perfect hamburger or maybe a fine wine.
Her appetite equaled his and she returned his kisses. Her arms locked around his neck to hold
tight as his hands roamed, caressing her with both ardor and appreciation.
When he gathered her up and carried her into the bedroom Jessica thought
she would swoon with delight. She loved
it, adored being mastered and loved with such intensity. He put her on the bed as her senses embraced
all the sensual triggers around her, the rich aroma of gardenias, the
delightful music that evoked emotion, the candlelit ambiance, and his touch
against her skin. Jessica gloried in it
and surrendered.
Any lingering restraint, old fears
from previous relationships that went sour vanished in the total power of
Johnny’s lovemaking. As they fondled
and caressed, kissed and touched, Jessica crossed the last boundary to the
total certainty that this man was the love of her life, her significant other,
forever.
When they came together like a force
of nature, on a grand scale like a cold and warm front intersecting, everything
was right. Their timing brought them
home together on a slow, full rush of delight, a pleasure that enveloped and
encompassed them both. In those moments,
that eternity that could never last long enough, they became one, united in a
way that transcended any words, any laws, any binding. Nothing could be more full or complete that
this and with wonder, with joy, they both knew it well.
After, as they unwound with sweet
lethargy they whispered together, words of love and promises that didn’t have
to be spoken to be valid. By the time
that the shadows cast by the candles grew tall on the walls, they knew they
would have to move but neither had energy or inclination.
“Oh,
Johnny,” she sighed, as a breath of warm air caressed her cheek. Now she couldn’t wait to get to the lake
cabin, not to relieve her fears but to make love with her man. Even the shattered glass, the broken red
plastic from taillights, the crushed vehicles and the remaining ambulance at
the crash scene failed to darken her mood.
Jessica using that memory, searched and found her anchor and she held it
tight, secure that everything would be wonderful as soon as she reached the
lake.
It was
their special place, their safe haven from the world.
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