‘Twas the Love Before Christmas

24. Noah

Chapter twenty-four

Noah

I took Wally out for his walk, as per my routine in the morning. However, since before I had even gotten up this morning, Catherine had been on my mind. She had been so beautiful at the dance last night. I should have stood up to Tiffany earlier than I did. I hadn’t wanted to make a scene last night. However, now I realized that I should have made some small scene so that Tiffany couldn’t convince Catherine that I was seeing her, as she had done rather successfully. Besides, it didn’t help that my parents had wanted to help Tiffany out.

She had stayed in a guest room last night. She had a flight home today, thankfully, and I was ready to see her leave. I just wanted my life to return to normal.

As I walked into town, I realized Catherine couldn’t know how little I cared about Tiffany. She wasn’t important to me. Not in the way Catherine was, anyway. I had to get that across to her somehow.

Wally seemed to notice my lack of focus, and he stopped walking. He pawed at my leg as if he was trying to get some information that would only pass my lips in that manner. I laughed a little and bent down to pet him.

“Oh, Wally. It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m already struggling to feel the spirit today,” I said softly. “If Catherine didn’t want anything to do with me, I would understand entirely. Last night turned into a disaster, and I think Tiffany scared her off completely. How can I fix this mess?”

Wally didn’t have any sound advice for me. He just whined. I laughed a little. There was no way he could fix this issue. It would have to be something I fixed, and it didn’t seem like I could do that on this walk. At least, not with any of my ideas so far. I wasn’t even sure that Catherine would open the door for me.

“Well, Wally, why don’t we head on home? There’s nothing open this time of morning on Christmas Eve Day,” I said as we took a lap around the block. “Come on, Wally. Let’s go home.”

Wally didn’t have any objections to this other than to play in some fresh snow on the side of the road. I managed to keep him out of the road on the way home. I still couldn’t get Catherine off my mind, though. How was I going to do anything to make her see that I didn’t want Tiffany?

I only wanted Catherine.

The walk home with Wally was relatively silent, as the walk into town had been. Wally needed a lot of time out and about; otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken him into town and around the block.

But that wasn’t the only reason I was quiet. Leaving Catherine with a bad impression made me physically ill. I needed to find the words to explain what Tiffany had been trying to do without putting the blame on Catherine. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but Tiffany’s that she had come to the dance. To get Catherine to let her guard down as she had begun to at the dance only to have Tiffany come up and startle her away wouldn’t do.

And I needed to at least apologize for that. Perhaps if I was upfront about what Tiffany had been trying to do, Catherine would see reason. Direct communication worked in the past for us. No reason it shouldn’t work today. I took a deep breath, attempting to redirect the nerves. Direct, calm, communicative. That was all I needed to be.

But Catherine had to be open to hearing me out. She was the only part in all of this that I couldn’t control.

However, when we got home, I found that Tiffany was not in the living room. Nor was her luggage.

Since I had come in the kitchen door, I decided to go check the front porch. If she needed a ride, that was the best place to wait. Before trudging through the house, I took Wally’s leash off and put it up where it belonged. Then, I walked to the front porch, where Tiffany was waiting with her luggage.

“Oh. Hi,” she said when I opened the door. “I thought it would be better for me to wait out here.”

I shut the door behind me, taking her hand as I stepped out onto the slippery front porch.

“You know you can wait inside,” I said. “It’s pretty cold. Could wait in the hallway by the front door where it’s warm.”

“My ride should be here soon enough. Besides, after seeing how fiercely you defended Catherine last night, I don’t think it’s right of me to be here any longer than I should be. I don’t think you’ll ever stop loving her. I’ve come to terms with it.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“I’m sorry if I messed things up for you. You should go talk to her, not sit here with me waiting for my ride to the airport,” she said. “Go on, then. Don’t you ruin your chances because of me.”

Just then her ride pulled up in front of the house. I helped her with her luggage to the car.

“Hey. Travel safe, Tiffany,” I said. “I may not want to get back with you, but I can at least hope you’ll travel safely.”

“Thanks.”

With that, she got into the car, and it drove away. Through all this, Wally had managed to get out of the house—probably through the doggy door on the back door —and gone right over to Catherine’s house. He was on the porch, sitting as if he had been told to sit there for treats. I sighed and went to fetch him.

“Come on, Wally. This is no place for us,” I said.

He whined and looked at the door. I sighed. At least Wally was consistent. So, I knocked on the door instead of making him get off the porch. If she didn’t answer, I could probably get Wally home without further incident. However, to my surprise, Sara St. James answered the door.

“What brings you here, Noah?” she asked with a soft smile.

“I was trying to get Wally off the porch and accidentally knocked. My apologies, Sara,” I said. “Come on, Wally. Let’s go home.”

I’d hoped to catch Catherine at home, but one of the cars in the driveway was missing. I took Wally home on that sour little note and spent the rest of Christmas Eve Day attempting to calm my heart and my head. All I could think about, though, was Catherine. I needed to tell her that I was over Tiffany, that she was gone.

The day turned into evening much quicker than I anticipated, and soon enough, I was getting ready for the town’s Christmas Eve service. It started at eight o’clock in the evening and went until about ten. It was always a beautiful service with the story of Jesus’ birth, the candles, and the music. But what came afterward was exceptional, too —the star-gazing. It was a tradition that had started a couple of years ago. For the time I had been home and done it, I had immensely enjoyed it.

Every year, the whole town went down to the lakefront for star-gazing. There was something restful about the silence and the way we all looked at the stars, all imagining what it might have been like to be there that Christmas night when the shepherds saw the star of Bethlehem.

“Come on, Noah! We have to go.”

Mom’s voice came up the stairs. I quickly threw on a pair of snow boots and hurried down the stairs.

When I arrived downstairs, Mom and Dad were both ready. They were dressed for church and for the stargazing that would come afterward. I joined them in heading out and couldn’t stop myself from glancing over to see if Catherine was coming. However, I found that both vehicles were gone already. That meant one of two things: Catherine was going elsewhere for the night, or her family had decided to take both cars to the Christmas Eve service.

I hoped that it was the latter instead of the former. No matter what happened, Catherine deserved to hear some explanation of what had happened at the dance last night, but it was too important for a text message. Could I catch her tonight while the town star-gazed to explain?

Mom drove the car out to the church building but I decided to drive separately, hoping I could spend some time with Catherine. The auditorium still had some Christmas wonderland decorations up, but it had been more or less converted to be used for the service. Everyone needed a seat, and there were still a few people putting up chairs in the very back of the auditorium for those who showed up later.

“Where do you want to sit this year?” Mom asked.

I shrugged and let her choose. We ended up sitting with Mary and Thad in one of the pews in the front of the church. Jess and Vanessa had been dressed in Christmas-appropriate dresses, with Jess’s dress having a red and green plaid skirt while Vanessa’s dress was blue with snowflakes. They were both adorable and ready for Christmas.

“Why don’t you go sit with Uncle Noah?” Mary asked Jess. “Just until the service starts. We did get here early.”

I helped Jess into the pew, and then she told me all about shopping for and picking out her dress. I listened solemnly.

“Well, I’m very glad you found one that fits you well, Jess,” I said when she finished. “Does it have a ribbon you can tie in a bow in the back?”

“Yes!”

Jess turned to let me see the bow on the back. Mary must have tied it because it was as elegant as it was even. I never would have been able to make a bow like that.

But, as all conversations must, this one ended when the service started for the night. Jess stayed beside me and kept quiet—even though she was busy coloring in a coloring book for half of the service—and I tried not to stare at Catherine.

She wore a white blouse with a red skirt today, and it looked as if she was doing everything she could to avoid conversation with anyone outside of her family. Even her brother, who I hadn’t realized was flying home for the holidays, was having trouble getting her to engage from what I had seen. My heart sank. That meant I was going to have my work cut out for me.

When the service ended, I made sure Jess went right back to Mary and Thad. Then, I made my way to where Catherine’s family had been sitting. However, my high school coach stopped me before I could get to her.

“It’s so good to see you again, Noah,” he said.

“And you, Coach O’Keefe.”

He pressed a note into my hand as we shook hands, and we ended up having some polite small talk. I shoved the note in my pocket, not too interested in it right now. I was more interested in catching up with Catherine after she left the room.

I managed to catch Catherine in the hallway, but it wasn’t easy. She was uninterested and attempted to get out the door before I could talk. I followed. She sighed in frustration when she realized that she wasn’t going to get rid of me that easily.

“Catherine, I just want to talk.”