Christmas Spirit (Townsends of Texas #4)

Chapter 1

Ellyn

“Shanice, have you seen your father?” I ask my daughter.

She glances around at the various faces in the spacious ballroom.

Beautiful bouquets of fresh roses line the long, cherrywood tables that fill the space, while silver LED balloons hang overhead.

Among the table centerpieces sit the gold-rimmed glasses and silverware used to decorate for my ‘surprise’ fiftieth birthday party.

Except it really wasn’t a surprise when Rick, my husband, insisted that I pick out his clothes for tonight.

When I asked him repeatedly why he needed the perfect outfit for what was supposed to be a small dinner with just the family, he admitted it was because he and the girls decided to throw me a lavish birthday celebration.

“I think I just passed him in the hallway speaking to Lauren,” Shanice answers, dropping her hand to her protruding belly.

A weary look passes over her face.

I step closer, taking her free arm in my hand. “Baby, are you alright?” My gaze roams over her face. Though twenty-five, she has the air of a woman at least a decade older. She and Jake have only been married for a year, but I’ve noticed changes in her since that time.

Pasting on a smile, Shanice waves my concern off. “You know how it is.” She pats her belly. “I’ve just been on my feet a little too long today. But tonight isn’t about me.”

This time she squeezes my arm.

My heart strains in my chest. Shanice just came off of bed rest not too long ago. At seven months pregnant, I wonder if she’s not pushing herself too hard.

“As much as I appreciate all that you, your sister, and father have done for me tonight, remember to take care of yourself.”

I motion toward the front of the room where the family table sits.

“Why don’t you sit down before dinner? I’m sure they can bring an extra chair or stool so you can put your feet up.”

I do my best to keep my voice level in order not to be too insistent. She is an adult but it’s not hard to recall that this pregnancy hasn’t been easy on her.

“No, no.” Shanice takes a step back. “I’ll be fine until everyone sits. I should go check on Meghan to make sure everything’s set up for the video we had made.” She wraps me in a hug. “I Love you, Mom.”

“I Love you, too, baby.” I bite my tongue as she walks away, doing my best to ignore the unease that tightens my chest.

Instead of staring after my oldest daughter, I head toward the hallway to find my husband of twenty-five years. Along the way, multiple family members and colleagues of Rick’s pass, congratulating me on such a beautiful birthday celebration and for looking wonderful for my age.

“One day we’ll have to get together so you can tell me your secret,” Katrina, an accountant from Rick’s firm, says, laughing.

“Anytime,” I promise, knowing it’s never going to happen.

“I couldn’t believe it,” a feminine voice says before it bursts into laughter.

I have to stop myself from visibly cringing at the sound of her voice. Lauren, my husband’s long-term secretary.

As I turn the corner into a secondary hallway, I see Rick, Lauren, and two more of their colleagues in a semi-circle, talking and laughing away.

The scene itself is harmless. However, the way Lauren easily strokes her hand up and down Rick’s arm as she laughs, pulls at a long-buried instinct in my gut.

“Rick?”

Lauren drops her hand as soon as she hears my voice. Rick turns and looks at me with slightly widened eyes.

“Ellyn, honey. We were just talking about you,” he says. “Come, come.” He waves me over, slipping an arm around my waist as I approach.

“They’re serving dinner in the next few minutes,” I notify the group. “We should head to our tables.”

Rick, with his arm around my waist, waits a beat before we follow his colleagues into the dining area that doubles as the dance floor.

“The Billings merger is going well,” Rick whispers to me. “I knew it was an excellent idea to invite them tonight.”

My stomach muscles clench. “Yes, that was great planning on your part.”

“Wasn’t it? I’m certain by next week, our firm will be able to hash out that contract. That is, if the lawyers get it together in time. Damn legalese.”

Clearing my throat, I stop in front of my husband right before we enter the dining space. “How about we give it a rest on the work talk? Just for tonight.”

Rick glances over my head. “I’m sorry, hon. You know how important this deal is to me. It’s the difference between a ten percent and a thirty percent bonus at the end of the year.”

“I know, I know,” I nullify with a pat to his chest. “Your bonus would help cover the rest of Meghan’s college tuition and fund her law degree with the amount we’ve saved over the years.”

Rick snorts. “That and my much-needed golf trip. You know I found a couple of clubs I want to check out before the end of next week. I think they’ll really help step up my swing.”

His eyes go wide, and I know that look.

“With a better game I can invite Billings out to the club for some one on one. You know how many deals are made on the course, don’t you?”

“Sure do.” Pushing out a sigh, I turn to the ballroom at the same time Meghan blows into the microphone.

Despite my odd mood, a smile crests my lips at the sight of our youngest daughter. She’s glowing in her light pink dress, long, multicolor braids, and a beaming smile.

“Is everyone enjoying themselves?” she asks.

A round of applause sounds around the room.

“How about you, Mom? Are you enjoying your fiftieth celebration?” She looks at me, and even from across the room I see the sincerity shining in her big, brown eyes.

Both of my girls have that in common. They love hard and genuinely.

“I am, baby,” I yell back.

“That’s all that matters. Well,” she continues, “dinner is being served, so everyone please take your seats. We have a little something Shanice, Dad, and I pulled together to watch while we eat.”

A minute later, I’m seated at the table next to Rick on my left with Meghan to my right. Roasted duck, creamy mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetables make up tonight’s dinner.

I eat a couple of bites, savoring the creaminess of the mashed potatoes and the richness of the duck, before I look down the table, past Meghan.

While everyone else is watching the video my family has put together of ‘the story of my life’ as Meghan called it, I search for Shanice. The seat next to Jake is empty.

A beat later, Shanice emerges from the back serving area with a plate in hand. Silently, I watch as she brings the plate over and sits it down in front of Jake. He glances down and nods approvingly.

Only then does she take a seat. However, a moment later Jake says something in her ear and my daughter is back on her feet.

My lips part before I even know what I’m going to say, but Meghan’s voice stops me.

“Lovely, right?” she asks everyone, gesturing to the screen.

A round of applause and cheers sound around the room.

“Shanice and I spent hours going through footage to find enough clips.” Meghan laughs. “Mom, for someone who filmed us so much growing up, it was so hard to find pictures and videos of you,” she points out.

While the rest of the room laughs along with her, I feel my smile tighten. It’s on the tip of my tongue to reply that it’s because I was the only one doing the documenting of our family’s moments.

No one thought to take the camera or phone from me to snap a photo of me. Without thinking, I glance at Rick to see his head in his phone, scrolling through something.

“Isn’t that right, Dad?” Meghan says.

Rick’s head pops up and he gives her his public smile. “That’s right, baby.”

He doesn’t even know what he’s agreeing to before his attention is back on his phone.

“I hope you all enjoyed your meals. We chose to go with the roast duck since it’s Mom’s favorite.”

I blow her a kiss, and Meghan pretends to grab it from the air and paste it to her cheek.

“Speaking of favorites, here’s a story for you all,” Meghan continues. “Now, Shanice, Daddy, and I all spent weeks going over the details for this surprise, right?” She pauses. “Well, truthfully, Shanice and I.”

A few chuckles from the audience.

“We finally got Daddy to come to Sandra’s Bakery with us to test out cakes for tonight.” Meghan pauses for dramatic effect, placing her hand on her hip.

“Do you know the first thing he wanted to try was chocolate cake?” she blurts out, voice incredulous.

“What?” Wanda, Rick’s younger sister and my best friend, calls out, making others laugh.

“That’s right, Aunt Wanda,” Meghan continues. “Everybody knows that Mom’s favorite cake is coconut. And when I reminded him, he looked at me like I was crazy. Tried to argue with Shanice and me that it was chocolate.”

My stomach twists, and I try to laugh along with others in the room.

“Ridiculous,” Wanda calls out.

There’s a playful note in her tone, but the best I can do is manage a smile that feels more like a grimace. I barely notice as the waitstaff begin passing out plates of the coconut cake my daughters chose for my birthday celebration.

My daughters.

Not my husband.

I look over at Rick to see he’s now writing a work email on his phone, completely oblivious to everything happening around him.

The pit in my stomach that, if I’m honest, I’ve been feeling for months, maybe years now, can no longer be ignored.

Not as I look down the table and watch my eldest daughter, pregnant with her first child, on her feet once again, to switch out her husband’s dessert.

“I think chocolate would’ve been better for tonight’s party,” Rick suddenly says after finally placing his phone down. “Don’t you?”

It’s not the question that sends a frightful chill down my spine.

It’s the sincerity with which he asks it. He genuinely doesn’t see any issue.

My husband of over a quarter of a century doesn’t see anything wrong with not knowing my favorite dessert since I was a child.

I can’t push words past the lump in my throat. So, I nod instead of giving a real answer, and then proceed to stuff a forkful of cake in my mouth.

I taste nothing as I swallow.

For the rest of the evening, there’s a buzzing in my ears. A knowing that I’ve fought hard to ignore or convince myself that I’m feeling something other than what it truly is.

With each passing moment, down to waving goodbye to our final guest, seeing Shanice and her husband off, followed by Meghan departing to spend the night with a friend of hers, and finally, Rick and I’s silent thirty-minute drive home.

I don’t say a word.

Nor do I get out of the car once he turns into our driveway.

Rick makes it all the way to our front door before he’s realized I haven’t followed him. I ignore him when he calls from the doorway a couple of times. I don’t open my mouth because I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the next words out of it will alter both of our worlds forever.

“Ellyn, what are you doing?” Rick asks, after returning to the car sometime later.

I look over at my husband leaning into the driver’s side door. I take in the handsome man that I’ve been married to, the lack of emotion, save for impatience, in his eyes.

And I know I can’t go on like this.

Not another twenty-five years.

“I want a divorce.”