After her parents went to bed, they returned to paying attention to each other. The kiss he gave her before he left promised more than friendship. And to think she hadn’t wanted to come home for the holidays!
On Christmas Eve, the family attended the candlelight service for one of the Brown family’s twice-yearly church appearances: Christmas and Easter. The folks figured those two celebrations covered it all.
Darby was coming to believe that there were a lot of days she could fill in between those two, but she was happy to start with this special night.
And it was special. Gregory sat a couple rows over with his parents and older brother. He smiled at her, and her heart warmed. The cherry on top of the red velvet cupcake was sitting next to her sister, knowing that the barrier between them had started to come down.
“As we light our candles, can we say to each other, ‘The Lord bless you’?” suggested Pastor Grant.
Darby sure could, with all her heart. “I mean it,” she added after she’d lit her sister’s candle.
“I know you do,” Erika said, and that meant the world to Darby.
After the service, the Colliers hosted a caroling party, and even though Darby couldn’t carry a tune for an inch, shehappily stood next to Gregory and attempted to sing “Joy to the World.” She sounded like a crow next to his beautiful tenor voice, but he didn’t seem to care.
As they stood in the Colliers’ living room with the rest of the carolers, drinking eggnog punch, she said to him, “When did you grow such a gorgeous voice?”
“After puberty,” he replied.
“You should be onThe Voice.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to be a performer. I’m happy where I am, doing what I’m doing.”
Making a difference in young lives. It was more than she could say for her own work. What was she doing with her life? Whatcouldshe be doing? She had no idea.
“Lucky you,” she said.
“Lucky because?”
“You’re doing something important.”
“Everyone can do something important for someone. You don’t have to do good deeds for a living, you know. Just when the opportunity comes around.”
She gave a snort. “Good deeds aren’t exactly my forte.”
“Could be. You know, there are a lot of kids at school who struggle with reading. Many of ’em will graduate by the skin of their teeth. College won’t even be an option. How can it be when you can’t read?”
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to not be able to read,” Darby said.
Carolyn Keene had showed her how to be a girl sleuth when she was a child, and Victoria Holt and Debbie Macomberhad kept her dreaming about love once she got older. It was hard to wrap her mind around someone not being able to experience that enjoyment. And, yes, how could you make it through college if you could barely read?
“I know, right?” said Gregory. “But it’s true. The school is putting together a volunteer program, matching up people with skills in English who can help. You’d be perfect.”
“Except I don’t live here anymore.”
“You could though.”
Coming back home. Once upon a delusion, she’d thought she was way too good to get stuck in Eagledale. Now she half-wondered if she was good enough yet to come back.
“Think about it,” he urged, and she promised she would.
Was there a way she could bury the old Darby, her old reputation, and build a new life here? Even just tonight, two of the Colliers’ guests had avoided her and moved to the other side of the room when they saw her coming.
“I don’t know if I’d fit,” she mused, looking their direction.
“The old you might not have. But I haven’t seen her since you got back. Have you?”
“Glimpses. But she’s on her way out.”
