Read Online 1022 Evergreen Place by Debbie Macomber - Free Book Online Page A

chances.
    â€œYou look tired,” James said. He met her halfway down the stairs and slipped his arm around her waist. Walking beside her, he guided her up the rest of the steps.
    â€œYou would, too, if you’d held a fussy infant for the past three hours.”
    â€œJimmy?”
    â€œNo, Christopher.” Her sister had named the three little boys after Bobby, James and Christie. Naturally, Christie couldn’t help being partial to Christopher, the smallest of the three and—of course—the one who demanded the most attention.
    â€œWhat did you do to your hair?” James asked as he kissed the top of her head.
    Christie had recently had the front bleached blond and then added streaks of auburn. She never could wear her hair just plain. That was far too boring. Good thing Teri was a hairdresser by trade, or had been until her difficult pregnancy, which had put a temporary end to her career. Her friend Rachel Peyton had done a terrific job with this new style.
    â€œDo you like it?”
    â€œI like you, ” he said, drawing her inside his small apartment. He led her to the sofa and urged her to sitdown. Christie didn’t object as he went into the kitchen and put water on for tea.
    â€œI like you, too,” she told him.
    James brought her a cup of tea, sweetened with honey and with a fresh slice of lemon on the side. No other man had ever waited on her. None had loved her in quite the way James did, either. It would be easy to let down her guard yet again, but she couldn’t. She needed time to feel confident in his love. Everything she knew about James said she could trust him; however, she’d believed that before, and he’d abandoned her. No, for her own peace of mind, her own emotional well-being, she had to play it safe.
    â€œHow’s school?” he asked.
    Christie had signed up for photography and accounting classes, and another business course, intent on starting a company that specialized in documenting personal property for insurance purposes.
    â€œOkay.” Having a reliable vehicle was a huge benefit. Getting to school by bus could be a daunting task, especially since she still worked at Wal-Mart. James had been instrumental in getting her that car, although she hadn’t known it at the time. She would never have accepted his assistance had she been aware that Bobby and Teri had involved him.
    â€œI’m helping one of the girls in my accounting class.” Christie was proud of that. “I’m actually pretty good with numbers.”
    â€œMe, too.”
    â€œI guess that means we’ll have smart babies one day,” she said, laughing. She couldn’t resist teasing him a little.
    James’s face flushed at the mention of children. He was worlds behind her when it came to sex and relationships. Christie knew he’d had some brief and not verysuccessful liaisons, but had never been in a serious relationship before now. He’d been a chess prodigy—like Bobby—until he’d suffered a nervous collapse. Bobby was a good friend to James, and had eventually hired him as his driver. To the best of Christie’s knowledge, James hadn’t played chess since he was a teenager.
    James sat close to her and slid one arm around her shoulders. Christie relaxed against him, shutting her eyes and sighing contentedly.
    â€œI want us to get married soon,” he said.
    She savored his words, wanting to believe they’d spend the rest of their lives blissfully together. But her experience shouted otherwise.
    Several of the men in her past had offered to marry her; the marriage proposal typically came just before certain awkward matters arose.
    Yeah, right. Awkward didn’t begin to describe them.
    With Jason, they’d had to wait until his divorce was final—and then she’d learned he hadn’t even bothered to file.
    With the next guy, it was problems with the IRS. Big problems…. He’d expected