Page 7 of All I Want for Christmas

Nell stood center stage and lifted her hands. She waited until she was sure every student’s eyes were on her, then let it rip.

There was very little that delighted her more than the sound of young voices raised in song.

She let the sound fill her, keeping her ears and eyes sharp as she moved around the stage, directing.

She couldn’t hold back the grin. The kids were into this one.

Doing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s version of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” was a departure from the standard carols and hymns their former choral director had arranged year after year.

She could see their eyes light up as they got into the rhythm. Now punch it, she thought, pulling more from the bass section as they hit the chorus. Have fun with it. Now the soprano section, high and bright … And the altos … Tenors … Bass …

She flashed a smile to signal her approval as the chorus flowered again.

“Good job,” she announced. “Tenors, a little more next time. You guys don’t want the bass section drowning you out. Holly, you’re dropping your chin again. Now we have time for one more run-through of ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas.’ Kim?”

Kim tried to ignore the little flutter around her heart and the elbow nudge from Holly. She stepped down from her position in the second row and stood in front of the solo mike as though she were facing a firing squad.

“It’s okay to smile, you know,” Nell told her gently. “And remember your breathing. Sing to the last row, and don’t forget to feel the words. Tracy.” She held out a finger toward the pianist she’d dragooned from her second-period music class.

The intro started quietly. Using her hands, her face, her eyes, Nell signaled the beginning of the soft, harmonious background humming. Then Kim began to sing. Too tentatively at first. Nell knew they would have to work on those initial nerves.

But the girl had talent, and emotion. Three bars in, Kim was too caught up in the song to be nervous. She was pacing it well, Nell thought, pleased. Kim had learned quite a bit in the past few weeks about style. The sentimental song suited her, her range, her looks.

Nell brought the chorus in, holding them back. They were background now for Kim’s rich, romantic voice. Feeling her own eyes stinging, Nell thought that if they did it this well on the night of the concert, there wouldn’t be a dry eye in the house.

“Lovely,” Nell said when the last notes had died away. “Really lovely. You guys have come a long way in a very short time. I’m awfully proud of you. Now scram, and have a great weekend.”

While Nell moved to the piano to gather up music, the chatter began behind her.

“You sounded really good,” Holly told Kim.

“Honest?”

“Honest. Brad thought so, too.” Holly shifted her eyes cagily to the school heartthrob, who was shrugging into his school jacket.

“He doesn’t even know I’m alive.”

“He does now. He was watching you the whole time. I know, because I was watching him.” Holly sighed. “If I looked like Miss Davis, he’d be watching me .”

Kim laughed, but shot a quick glance toward Brad under her lashes. “She’s really fabulous. Just the way she talks to us and stuff. Mr. Striker always crabbed.”

“Mr. Striker was a crab. See you later, huh?”

“Yeah.” It was all Kim could manage, because it looked, it really looked, as though Brad were coming toward her. And he was looking at her.

“Hi.” He flashed a grin, all white teeth, with a crooked incisor that made her heart flop around in her chest. “You did real good.”

“Thanks.” Her tongue tied itself into knots. This was Brad, she kept thinking. A senior. Captain of the football team. Student council president. All blond hair and green eyes.

“Miss Davis sure is cool, isn’t she?”

“Yeah.” Say something, she ordered herself. “She’s coming to a party at my house tonight. My mom’s having some people over.”

“Adults only, huh?”

“No, Holly’s coming by and a couple other people.” Her heart thundered in her ears as she screwed up her courage. “You could drop by if you wanted.”

“That’d be cool. What time?”

She managed to close her mouth and swallow. “Oh, about eight,” she said, struggling for the casual touch. “I live on—”

“I know where you live.” He grinned at her again, and all but stopped her thundering heart. “Hey, you’re not going with Chuck anymore, are you?”

“Chuck?” Who was Chuck? “Oh, no. We hung out for a while, but we sort of broke up over the summer.”

“Great. See you later.”

He strolled off to join a group of boys who were trooping offstage.

“That’s a very cute guy,” Nell commented from behind Kim.

“Yeah.” The word was a sigh. Kim had stars in her eyes.

“Kimmy has a boyfriend,” Zeke sang, in the high-pitched, annoying voice that was reserved for addressing younger siblings—or female cousins.

“Shut up, brat.”

He only giggled and began to dance around the stage, singsonging the refrain. Nell saw murder shoot into Kim’s eyes and created a diversion.

“Well, I guess you guys don’t want to practice ‘Jingle Bells’ today.”

“Yes, we do.” Zack stopped twirling around the stage with his brother and dashed to the piano. “I know which one it is,” he said, attacking Nell’s neat pile of sheet music. “I can find it.”

“I’ll find it,” Zeke said, but his brother was already holding the music up triumphantly.

“Good going.” Nell settled on the bench with a boy on either side of her. She played a dramatic opening chord that made them both giggle. “Please, music is a serious business. And one, and two, and …”

They actually sang it now, instead of screaming it, as they had the first time she invited them to try. What they lacked in style, they made up for in enthusiasm. In spades.

Even Kim was grinning by the time they’d finished.

“Now you do one, Miss Davis.” Zack gave her his soulful look. “Please.”

“Your dad’s probably waiting.”

“Just one.”

“Just one,” Zeke echoed.

In a few short weeks, it had become impossible for her to resist them. “Just one,” Nell agreed, and reached into the now-messy pile of music. “I picked up something you might like at the mall. I bet you’ve seen The Little Mermaid .”

“Lots of times,” Zeke boasted. “We’ve got the tape and everything.”

“Then you’ll recognize this.” She played the opening of “Part of Your World.”

Mac hunched his shoulders against the wind as he headed into the school. He was damn sick and tired of waiting out in the parking lot. He’d seen the other kids filing out more than ten minutes before.

He had things to do, damn it. Especially since he was stuck going over to Mira’s for a party.

He hated parties.

He stomped down the hall. And he heard her. Not the words. He couldn’t make out the words, because they were muffled by the auditorium doors. But the sound of her voice, rich and deep. A Scotch-and-soda voice, he’d thought more than once. Sensual, seductive. Sexy.

He opened the door. He had to. And the lush flow of it rolled over him.

A kid’s song. He recognized it now from the mermaid movie the boys were still crazy about. He told himself no sane man would get tied up in knots when a woman sang a kid’s song.

But he wasn’t feeling very sane. Hadn’t been since he made the enormous mistake of kissing her.

And he knew that if she’d been alone he would have marched right over to the piano and kissed her again.

But she wasn’t alone. Kim was standing behind her, and his children flanked her. Now and again she glanced down at them as she sang, and smiled. Zack was leaning toward her, his head tilting in the way it did just before he climbed into your lap.

Something shifted inside him as he watched. Something painful and frightening. And very, very sweet.

Shaken, Mac stuffed his hands into his pockets, curled those hands into fists. It had to stop. Whatever was happening to him had to stop.

He took a long breath when the music ended. He thought—foolishly, he was sure—that there was something magical humming in the instant of silence that followed.

“We’re running late,” he called out, determined to break the spell.

Four heads turned his way. The twins began to bounce on the bench.

“Dad! Hey, Dad! We can sing ‘Jingle Bells’ really good! Want to hear us?”

“I can’t.” He tried to smile, softening the blow, when Zack’s lip poked out. “I’m really running late, kids.”

“Sorry, Uncle Mac.” Kim scooped up her coat. “We kind of lost track.”

While Mac shifted uncomfortably, Nell leaned over and murmured something to his sons. Something, Mac noted, that put a smile back on Zack’s face and took the mutinous look off Zeke’s. Then both of them threw arms around her and kissed her before they raced offstage for their coats.

“Bye, Miss Davis! Bye!”

“Thanks, Miss Davis,” Kim added. “See you later.”

Nell made a humming sound and rose to straighten her music.

Mac felt the punch of her cold shoulder all the way in the back of the auditorium. “Ah, thanks for entertaining them,” he called out.

Nell lifted her head. He could see her clearly in the stage lights. Clearly enough that he caught the lift of her brow, the coolness of her unsmiling mouth, before she lowered her head again.

Fine, he told himself as he caught both boys on the fly. He didn’t want to talk to her anyway.