Home for Christmas (Willow Park #5) Read Online Free PDF

think of anything to say.
    He seemed far away again, staring at the fountain.
    “I hope you’ll—” She broke off the words, suddenly scared to
speak them, scared of what he’d say in return.
    He turned his head, waiting for her to finish.
    “I hope you’ll tell me what you need. I want to be here for
you, but I don’t know what you need from me. I hope you’ll tell me.”
    He nodded, and she took comfort in the fact that maybe it
was a start.
    “I want to…” He trailed off without finishing the thought.
    “You want to what?” she asked breathlessly.
    “I want to…to be me again.”
    Her heart jumped at the stilted declaration. “You still are
you,” she said, reaching over to take his arm, needing to touch him.
    “I don’t think so.”
    “You need some time to heal, but you still are you .”
Her heart was filled with hope and joy—pure and undiluted—for the first time.
She didn’t care if it would take time, but he wanted to get back to the man
he’d been before. He’d been honest about it, and he could do it. She could help
him. She could have her husband back after all. “I know you are. Just give it
some time.”
    He turned toward her suddenly, holding her eyes with a
strange sort of intensity. “I can’t believe you’ve been waiting for me for so
many years.”
    She gasped. “Of course, I’ve been waiting for you! What did
you expect? The only thing I’ve been wanting is to have you back.”
    “I want to be me again,” he muttered, turning away from her
abruptly. “So maybe you won’t have been waiting in vain.”
    “Of course, I haven’t waited in vain. We can do this. We can
do this together. I’ll help you in any way I can. You’ll be back to yourself
before you know it.”
    He nodded, still not meeting her eyes. “I hope so. I’m going
to try.”
    “We’ll try.”
    He didn’t say anything else, but he didn’t really need to.
Sophie felt immensely better at the way he’d shared his heart with her. He’d
always been an open, expressive man. He’d told her he was falling for her on
their third date, without any pretense or hesitation. He’d been open with her
about his feelings all through their dating relationship and marriage. This was
more like him—telling her what he wanted, what he needed, what he was afraid
of. The more he healed, the more he would be back to his old self.
    She hadn’t lost him after all, and she was willing to do
anything she could to help him recover.
    “Do you want to get some dinner?” she asked at last.
    “I’m not hungry.”
    “Okay.” She was starving. She’d been waiting for him. She’d
been hoping they could order some room service and have a nice meal in the
room. “What—what did you want to do?”
    He sighed. “I need a shower. I still feel like I’m dripping
with hospital.”
    She understood the feeling, so she reached out to take his
hand. “Let’s go back to the room, then. You can get a shower there.”
    He nodded and walked with her. The friendly bellboy greeted
her, as did the staff behind the front desk. Sophie called out a thank you, but
Mark didn’t even smile.
    She wasn’t going to expect too much, though. They’d made a
start. It was all she could hope for at this point. She wasn’t going to get
frustrated or impatient with him. She was going to be exactly what he needed.
    She was going to be strong.
    When they got up to the room, Mark went right into the
bathroom. Soon, she heard the shower start to run.
    Forty minutes later, it was still running.
    Once again, Sophie was starting to worry. Mark had always
taken the shortest showers known to man. Sometimes, he’d been in and out in no
more than two minutes. She wasn’t sure how he’d even had time to rinse the soap
off his body.
    What could he possibly be doing in there for so long?
    Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore, and she went and
tapped on the bathroom door. “Mark?”
    The shower went off. “Yeah.”
    “Just checking on you. You were