‘Twas the Love Before Christmas

2. Noah

Chapter two

Noah

I couldn’t believe who my dog had managed to find, but it didn’t explain why he had decided to get all excited and knock her over. In the large crowd – with almost all the inhabitants of Indigo Lake included – Wally managed to find the one person in town I hadn’t seen in a couple of years. Catherine St. James, beautiful as ever. Her eyes brimmed with excitement, making my heart thud against my rib cage. She stood before me, her hand on Wally’s head, giving him gentle pets. She quickly pulled her hand away, but Wally whined, dragging his paws along her leg for more pets.

Catherine laughed, already bending down to keep petting him.

“Okay, okay. I suppose I can keep petting you… if it’s all right with you, Noah?”

“That’s fine by me,” I said as I moved to allow some slack in the leash. “Though, I must say that I’m surprised by how excited he is tonight. He’s not done anything like this since he was a pup.”

The way Wally had taken off so suddenly yanked on my injured arm, an injury I had suffered the last game of the season. The doctor had told me I had healed well but would still feel some aches and pains for another year or so – until it was completely healed. I needed to be cautious with my movements. I switched hands so I could hold the leash with my healthy hand and arm.

“Mom told me you were home for the holidays?” Catherine said. It was casual, judging by how she kept her attention on Wally.

“Yeah, well, I missed last Christmas, and I usually try and make it home if I can,” I said. “Been here a little longer than originally planned. Getting injured while playing is no joke.”

That got her attention away from Wally. She looked up with some concern on her face.

“And your dog here searching me out probably didn’t help. I see that you’re holding the leash in the other hand now,” she stated.

I nodded slowly. While I hadn’t been exactly ready for this conversation, I had a feeling that it would come up. She had come home most years – bar a few years where she had gone to see her significant other’s family or one of her friends’ family. This year, she hadn’t come with anyone. Of course, I could be wrong, and he could be off getting her a hot chocolate, and I had come at an awkward time.

“So, how are you, Catherine? How’s work going for you?”

I wasn’t really sure what to say. I brushed some of my dark hair out of my eyes restlessly, an old nervous habit I had been trying to break since high school. If Catherine remembered it, she didn’t say anything about it.

“I’m doing well, thank you. And work’s going well enough, I suppose. Though, it’s a shame that being promoted so much has taken me away from the thing I loved the most about the job in the first place: the writing,” she said. “When you’re in social media management for an outdoors company like Upcountry Adventures, the only writing you do is the memos to your employees. Or, at least, that’s all I’ve had time for. I’ve had to do so much other stuff that I feel like I want a demotion now… but I don’t know how to get that and keep the pay. At least I’m no longer struggling to pay my rent and food with this job.”

I pursed my lips. As much as I hadn’t wanted to retire early, it sounded like problems were afoot at Catherine’s place of employment, too. I’m sure she could work it out. She had always been able to take on problems that had to do with other people. She had been the epitome of a social butterfly. I had been a little more reserved in my interactions with others, except for sports. I didn’t hold anything back when it came to sports of any kind.

“But how has your work been? With the injury and all?”

“It’s been… all right,” I said. “I hurt it in the last game of the season, so that was good. At least, the timing. The injury was a little discouraging, but I’ve been recovering well.”

The conversation stalled here. I wasn’t sure what else to ask her, and Catherine didn’t know what to say, either. I found that odd. Usually, Catherine was the one who kept the conversation flowing. I had half-expected her to do the same thing here. However, I supposed it was unfair of me to expect that she would know anything more to say. It had been years since we’d had a real conversation.

“Are you still with Rose?”

Catherine brought up the one thing I hadn’t wanted to discuss with anyone. But if Catherine couldn’t ask, who could? I had been dating Rose for a long while. My parents hadn’t believed our break-up was called for. Didn’t matter what they had wanted, though. I couldn’t see myself living happily with Rose. What mattered was my happiness, not simply putting a ring on a woman’s finger for the sake of getting married. And marriage – no matter how much I wanted it – was not a competition. Often had to remind myself of this over the years since I naturally wanted to be the best at everything.

It stung that Mary had married before I had, but not all of us were so lucky in love.

Didn’t help that I knew when it was better to break it off than stubbornly hold onto the remnants of a relationship that had fractured because of individual choices. I winced. Individual choices had been the reason Catherine and I had broken up to an extent, as well. Neither of us had wanted to give up our dreams for the other.

Now look where we were.

“We broke up about a year and a half ago. So last year, I had the opportunity to visit one of my teammates for Christmas in Aruba, which allowed me to avoid having to answer all the questions my parents were going to ask,” I said. “And you? How’s Alexander?”

"We aren’t together anymore," she confessed. "I realized our relationship wasn't moving forward, and I couldn’t keep pretending it was enough. I was settling with him because there was no one else I wanted a relationship with for a while." She gave a small shrug. "I need a partner willing to build a future with me, not someone who gives vague answers and leaves me heartbroken when it becomes clear he has no interest in the life I thought we were planning."

“It sounds more like you two grew apart,” I mused. “But it never gets any easier to break up a relationship when you realize there is nothing more to be had from it. I’m glad you had the courage to step away instead of just settling because you don’t want to be alone.”

“Well, there’s no fun in settling.” She shook her head. “And there… isn’t much more to it than that. Do you mind if I ask what happened to you and Rose? You two seemed so happy.”

Catherine’s career in writing always made her a little more of a snoop than I had appreciated, but this year, I didn’t mind so much. Mom and Dad had gotten all their questions answered over text, and so far, she was the only one to ask me about Rose. I didn’t think it really mattered at this point.

“Rose was…she wasn’t sure she wanted to marry me. Or, not just me. She wanted my blessing to have an open relationship,” I said.

She winced a little as I shared this with her.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Noah. No one deserves to hear that their partner wants to stay in the relationship but see others too,” Catherine said. “Have you dated anyone since Rose?” she asked.

Still full of questions that Catherine. “I did date another woman for a short time, on the rebound, I guess, but she was too brazen for me. Tiffany was her name. But that ended about as fast as it started,” I said.

Catherine remained quiet, caught up in her thoughts perhaps. Then, the dog snuggled up to her legs. “At least you have your dog here to care for your heart. What’s the dog’s name, anyway?” she asked as she petted the dog’s head. “And what kind of dog is he?”

“Wally,” I said, glad that she hadn’t lingered on the topic of Rose for too long. “And he’s a golden shepherd, a cross between a German shepherd and a golden retriever.”

“Wally. It suits him—playful and friendly-sounding.” She took a second to ruffle the fur around his ears. “When did you get him?”

“Well, one of our trainers, Ben, got Wally as a pup, trained him well, and brought him to the ball field every day. Wally and I got along famously. Then, Ben went for a job requiring a move and more office work. He just couldn’t leave Wally alone in his new house all day, so to make a long story short, I adopted Wally a couple of years ago, and it’s been great. He’s my close friend and confidant.”

She smiled at all I had to say.

“That’s good to hear. It’s always fun to have a pet who can give you a bit of a pick-me-up.”

I didn’t have a chance to say more before three young men were up beside me.

“I knew it was you! I told you Noah West was probably in town for the holidays,” one of them said. “We love your work in baseball. We watch all your games.”

Catherine laughed a little and moved to let the boys talk to me. They were all high school age, the same age I had been when I set my sights on a pro baseball career. I already had pro teams scouting me then, but I was determined to attend college first. It certainly helped me to be recruited by several universities with full scholarships. Apparently scouts really liked players with a bit of academic aptitude, even if they were maybe just a little too competitive on the field. Or in training. Or while jogging to stay in condition. How I hadn’t had shin splints or other running-related injuries in my career from powering through to home base confused me, in all honesty.

“Catherine! I thought that was you!”

A female voice took Catherine’s attention away, and I instantly recognized the dark brown hair of one of our old high school friends, Pamela Jackson. Catherine and Pam walked away from the crowd of people forming around me, and I was soon unable to hear anything except the praise of the people swarming me. I told Wally to sit and stay, which he obediently did. I quickly signed the baseballs, hats, magazines, paper – anything that they had that I could put my signature to. Eventually, Wally and I were able to make our way out of the crowd.

The autographs and the little advice I had shared seemed enough for them. Unfortunately, by the time I was free of the fans, Catherine and Pam had completely disappeared. I sighed. Wally whined softly, but I gave him some ear scratches to comfort him and told him, “Good boy.” Thankfully, he hadn’t tried to follow Catherine when she walked away.

Wally was well-trained, and I was surprised he had pulled me to Catherine. It must have been the crowds of people that excited him. I’ll have to keep better control of him in situations like this, I thought to myself. Then I sighed. There was no way I would find Catherine in this crowd, and I had been enjoying the conversation. Even if there wasn’t anything between us anymore.

At least I hadn’t missed the lighting of the Christmas Tree. That was the important thing I had come to see, and I was glad that everyone else was now turning their attention to the large tree.

“Welcome one and all to the annual lighting of the Indigo Lake Christmas Tree!”

The mayor’s voice came over the loudspeaker system. The crowd hushed as he welcomed everyone. I looked at the tree a little closer, wishing I could see all the details in the dark. I hated waiting for the lights to go on to see what they had chosen to do with the tree each year. At least for the years I’d been home.

“Thank you all for coming to this annual tradition. Now, I know some of you have been squinting, trying to make out what’s on the tree. So, without further ado, let’s light up the tree. Ten…!”

We all joined in the countdown, and soon, the tree was ablaze with white lights on each and every branch. The decorations had been simple this year. There was a brilliant blue ribbon woven through the tree, and the ball-shaped ornaments had the same blue details on them to match. The balls themselves were silver and gold, and the ribbon had silver and gold accents, turning it all into a harmonious whole.

The use of the color blue was obviously intentional. Our town of Indigo Lake was named after the Indigo Bunting. These birds had flocked to this area for years, usually found on the outskirts of town along the edges of the woods, but we often saw them around town and the lake, too. At least the males. The females were brown in color and harder to see. Then, in late fall, they would migrate south to their winter homes. So, this year, the tree was an homage to the Indigos. Very nice.

But my favorite part of all of it was the large silver star on top of the tree. It looked like a bright star, shining to lead the way for everyone, just as the star of Bethlehem had been all those years ago for the shepherds and wise men.

My chest filled with pure Christmas warmth. It was always strongest coming home to Indigo Lake, and I suspected it was because of things like this: activities where the entire town got together, mingled, and had a great time. Didn’t matter if there was snow, sleet, or hail; we’d all get together anyway for the festivities when the weather was clear enough.

A round of applause had started at some point while I was admiring the tree, and I added my applause happily to the crowd.

Then, I found my parents waiting for me just a few feet behind me.

“We saw that gaggle of young men and figured you were at the center,” Dad said. “I hate to see that I was right. You’re home for the holidays. Surely, your fans can understand that.”

“It’s all right, Dad. It wasn’t too much trouble. And they all backed off quickly when I said I just wanted to enjoy the Christmas Tree lighting,” I said. “But I don’t plan to give an encore if you catch my drift. Why don’t we head home? My shoulder’s feeling a little achy; Wally got excited and dragged me behind him.”

My parents laughed, and we headed to the car to work our way home.