Free A Forever Thing: A Contemporary Christian Romance NOVELLA by Debra Ullrick Page B

Tate.
    Over the past three weeks, whenever Tate came over after work or on his days off, he and Angie had huddled together. Every so often they glanced over at her, whispering, and plotting. During that time, several gifts had shown up under the tree with her name on them, and Tate had told Angie to call him Tate instead of Officer Baker. The whole rest of the day, Angie went around the house the first day saying Tate’s name over and over, skipping along as she did.
    With Angie’s help, there were several presents under the tree with his name on them too. So, with what she’d already bought for Angie, and Tate’s contribution, there wasn’t enough room under the tree for them all. They had to stack presents along the wall near the tree. Angie could hardly wait to open her presents. Their tradition had always been to open one gift on Christmas Eve and the rest Christmas morning. But, Angie had always managed to talk her dad into letting her open more than one. Would she talk Tate into it too?
    Kelly wiped the counter down. She glanced at the retro cat clock and frowned. 5:57. She thought Tate would be here by now. Worry smoked through her. Should she give him a call? What if he was busy giving someone a ticket or booking a criminal? No, she’d better wait and just be patient. After all, he did say he would probably be late. She hung the dishrag over the dishrack and lowered the heat on the oven to warm. After she inspected the job Angie had done decorating and setting the table, she smiled and headed to the living room to tell her daughter what a great job she had done on it.
    In the living room, Kelly found Angie standing at the big picture window with the curtain pulled back, peering out the window toward the driveway then up the street.
    Kelly walked up behind her. Her daughter gazed up at her, chewing her lip. Only this time it wasn’t the same as when she was contemplating something, this was worry.
    “Mom, I know you said he warned us he’d be late, but he’s really, really, really late. You don’t think he…?” Worry clouded her eyes.
    She knew what her daughter was about to say. She was afraid history had repeated itself. “No. He’s fine. I’m sure.” She pulled Angie back against her, draped her hands over her daughter’s shoulders, and held her as they waited. Soon, she herself started looking up the street, hoping to see Tate’s headlights shining through the huge snowflakes feathering down from the sky and blanketing the ground. In the past two hours, four fresh inches had accumulated on top of the six inches that was already there.
    “Let’s get some hot chocolate while we wait for Tate, okay?” She pried her daughter away from the window, made them each a K-cup pod of hot chocolate, and sat down on the couch near the fire.
    It wasn’t but a minute before Angie jumped up and ran to the window. Every other minute, Angie alternated between sitting on the couch sipping her hot chocolate, and running to the window. Between the two, she paced in front of the blazing fireplace while glancing at something behind the tree. One of her presents no doubt.
    Minute after minute ticked slowly by. With each one, Kelly’s anxiety and worry grew.
    Candles melted to half their original size.
    Where was Tate?
     
    ♥ ♥ ♥
     
    On Tate’s way to Kelly’s house, he came onto a twenty-three car pileup on the highway. Though he was off duty now, he was still obligated to help. Even if he wasn’t, he would help anyway. Due to the massive injuries, he didn’t take time to stop and call Kelly and was glad that he had warned her earlier that he might be late due to the weather. Snowstorms like this always produced accidents. This accident was one of the worst ones he’d seen all day. The victims needed help and they needed it now. Tate went from one vehicle to another helping wherever and however he could.
     
    ♥ ♥ ♥
     
    At seven-thirty Kelly decided to turn on the news while Angie was in the