A Cold Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page A

Mat hadn’t put in an appearance yet. Bonnie was making him a Christmas card, Adam was watching cartoons, and Zach was working complicated math puzzles on the computer. Mat still hadn’t shown up when she had to leave for the second service.
    He’d better get here.
    *   *   *
    As soon as she played the last note of Handel in the postlude, she raced home.
    The house was empty.
    With a huge sigh, she lay on the bed and buried herself in blankets. She dozed, she dreamed, she heard gunshots, she thought of Adam watching television. She slept. She roused to silence, then remembered the kids were with Mat and sank back into oblivion.

4
    Roy Dandermadden walked just short of a trot. The cold air bit into his lungs, and he breathed like a steam engine, partly from moving so fast, partly from anticipation. With this weather nobody would wonder why his collar was turned up and his hat pulled down over his face, or why he was practically jogging. They’d think he was just trying to get out of the damn cold like any reasonable man. He’d parked four blocks away and now he was sorry. Not only was he freezing his nuts off, but nobody comes to a motel without a car, for God’s sake. Not if they’re traveling and want a place to stay overnight. Walking just called attention to himself and shouted out loud what was going on. He should have thought this through a little more before calling Cindy. That was his problem these days; he didn’t think.
    He never did think good on his feet. If he’d had time, he’d have worked it out better, but Lillian sprung it on him right after church. She was taking Jo and Mandy and they were going to Kansas City for Christmas shopping. They took off without even inviting him, not that he would have gone, but it would be nice to be asked once in a while.
    He had plenty to do at home. Get a head start on grading term projects and get them out of the way. But the thing was, he’d wanted to spend some time with Jo today. Maybe take her to a movie or something. She was eleven and growing up so fast it took his breath away. Mandy, already seventeen, was into her own things.
    Lillian hadn’t said squat as they got in the car, and when he’d mumbled something about grading papers she’d looked at him like he was sprouting corn on his head and closed her lips in a thin line. He barely had time to say drive carefully before they were gone.
    And there it was, a God-given opportunity. When they had backed out the driveway, he waited a few minutes to be sure they weren’t coming back for forgotten purses or lost gloves and then called Cindy, doing some figuring as he waited for the phone to be answered. An hour there, an hour for return, plus at least three hours for shopping—and with Mandy along, probably longer—that gave him a minimum of five hours.
    â€œHi,” he said when Cindy answered. “Okay to talk?”
    â€œYes.” Her husband, assistant manager of a supermarket, was working today.
    With the clock ticking, the only place he could come up with was Oskaloosa. Small enough that any unknown car coming into town would have a cop checking the license number. How stupid could he be? They should have met in Topeka.
    Seeing each other at the high school had been agony, her teaching English and him teaching geography, and pretending nothing was going on, but after school let out for Christmas break, it was even worse. Now he didn’t see her at all unless he ran into her at the drugstore or somewhere, and they didn’t dare say more than hello.
    One disastrous time he’d gone to her house. He felt like a louse after, but it just happened. By chance they were both at the library. Her husband was working and she was supposed to be at her sister’s in Baldwin City. At the last minute, her sister was called in to work.
    Roy worked hard all the time. Didn’t he deserve some happiness in his life? All he ever