Moonlight Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

way, Grandma Margaret! I don’t care what you did to Jeanie. You’re not doing the same thing to me. Not until I find a man I know is absolutely right. And Marc Duval is absolutely, completely, and terribly wrong.”
    “What’s that, dear?” Freda asked behind her, coming in fully dressed and ready for the day. “Did you say something was wrong?” Shoving up her sleeves, Freda added, “Never mind. What could be wrong on such a perfect Christmas morning? You start the bacon, dear. I’ll take care of toast and eggs.”
    The Christmas dinner table was set on white lace over red linen. Silverware gleamed. China shone. Crystal twinkled merrily with the reflected lights of the tree in the living room beyond. The wonderful aroma of roasting turkey filled the house. Sharon added the finishing touches to the table and joined her new family in the living room.
    The children sat on the floor, laughing, talking, playing with their new toys. Harry and Freda were doing a jigsaw puzzle, while Zinnie and Rolph rested on a big sofa, enjoying each other’s company. In the background, a record of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir played, permeating the room with the spirit of Christmas.
    Did hearing me play make you feel lonely and sad? Marc Duval’s voice resounded in her ears as if he had stepped into the room and spoken those words from the previous night. Sharon sighed and sat down in a chair between Harry and Freda, picked up a puzzle piece, tried it, found it didn’t fit, and leaned back, lost in thought. What was he doing right now? Was he sitting in his camper, feeling lonely and blue? What must it be like to spend Christmas Day all alone? He had said he might be moving into the house today. What a way to spend Christmas, and how long would that take, anyway? The Hardings had always rented the house fully furnished; she supposed he had bought it that way. What would he have to move but a few personal belongings? A banjo. A guitar. A flute. And a harmonica.
    Christmas Day. Moving day. She frowned. She had never been completely alone at this time of year, but she had known the deepest kind of loneliness nevertheless. She swallowed the lump that rose into her throat.
    How Jeanie would laugh if she knew she was sitting there mooning about the man next door! After all the trouble Jeanie’d gone to, dreaming up a man for her sister, going to the crazy extent of advertising for one, then she had ended up falling in love with that dream man herself. She’d find it vastly amusing that Sharon had been doing far too much dreaming of her own since Marc Duval had come on the scene.
    But, until the night before, she’d refused to let him get close; while she might want a man in her life, she did not want one who would demand too much of her either emotionally or sexually, and for that reason Marc Duval’s very open attraction to her had to be quelled. Just as her most inappropriate responses to him had to be.
    Besides, a handsome, sexy, interesting, and disturbing man did not necessarily make good husband material, and she still wanted to marry again. So, for her own sake, she would have to quit thinking about him, forget what they’d shared, forget that he was alone on Christmas Day.
    Marc Duval was not her problem. Maybe he’d gone out for the day. She knew he’d made friends since coming to town. Surely someone had invited him for dinner. As if to drive her crazy, the Mormon Choir began to sing “Silent Night.” Again she felt the deep melancholy that had no place in a home at Christmas. No, she told herself finally, it was better if she kept miles away from the man. But what if nobody had asked him to dinner?
    “What’s the matter, Mom?”
    She looked up, startled. Her son was standing right beside her. “Nothing, Jason. Why?”
    “You sighed. You looked so sad for a minute.” He frowned and continued, his voice low so no one else would hear, “You weren’t thinking about him , were you?”
    She put an arm around the boy and