Read Online Christmas in the Air by Irene Brand - Free Book Online

eyes met, and the sudden warmth in his gaze caused Livia to look away in confusion.

Chapter Six
    Q uinn closed the door and paused with his hand still holding the doorknob. An unfamiliar shiver of awareness seized his body. He knew a tense magnetism was kindling between him and Livia.
    Stamping his feet to keep the circulation going, Quinn picked up a big stick that leaned against the church to use as a cane as he broke ground to his truck. When he’d been shopping two days ago for his family’s gifts, he’d seen a music box with a twirling angel on top. As he’d listened to the song, “Angels We Have Heard on High,” Quinn felt compelled to buy the gift, although he had no idea who he’d give it to. Now that he’d drawn Livia’s name, it seemed the perfect gift for her. He’d had the music box gift-wrapped in the store, so all he had to do was put her name on it.
    Quinn returned to the church in time to help Allen shape the three branches of cedar into the semblanceof a tree. They used chunks of coal and wood to secure the branches in a discarded bucket they’d found in the woodshed. They wrapped the bucket in a red silk scarf that Livia provided.
    Humming a Christmas tune, Marie strung the cranberries and popcorn into a garland. Les had found a box of old ornaments and some tinsel in the supply room, which Livia draped over their tree. She arranged one candle on each windowsill among some pieces of shrubbery not needed for the tree.
    Laughing at their feeble efforts at making decorations, Marie said, “This just proves the old saying, ‘poor people have poor ways, and lots of ’em.’”
    Livia stood back to survey their handiwork. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “Our decorations are festive.”
    â€œTo say the least,” Marie said, with another laugh, and joined Sean and Roxanne, who were still practicing at the piano.
    While the others had decorated, Eric wrapped up in a blanket and sat on a pew beneath the stained-glass window. He studied his Bible and took notes on his message for the evening service.
    Food, such as it was, was set out on one of the pews, and throughout the day, people ate when they wanted to. No one seemed to have much of an appetite, but they were keeping busy, either making gifts or wrapping what they’d found in their belongings.
    Eric and Quinn made another trip to the vehicles before dark to get a shopping bag of things Roxanne had bought in Detroit. She took out a package of wrappingpaper and some tape. “You can all use this. I’ll put it on a table in the supply room, and you can sneak in there to do your wrapping if you want to keep your presents secret.”
    Little by little, wrapped gifts appeared under the makeshift tree.
    When the sun shone through the dirty windows of the church, Livia felt almost happy as she hurried to finish the scarf she was making for Sean. But as darkness approached, she accepted the fact that she would not be home for Christmas Day.
    Her mother, Hilda, had always been the strong one of the family, the lodestar that kept her children close to home. But Hilda had also given her children freedom to be independent and make their own decisions. Livia could almost believe that she heard her mother’s voice telling her to make the best of the situation.
    Considering the ages of her companions, Livia realized that she was the youngest of the group, just as she always was at home. She’d rather liked being the baby of the Kessler family, but when Quinn had hinted that he hadn’t pursued a relationship with her because he was older than she was, Livia would have welcomed adding a few years to her age.
    When Allen brought in the bag of sunflower seeds that Livia asked him to bring, Quinn found an old can in the woodshed and filled it with the seeds. He took a shovel and went with Livia to the backyard. He scooped the snow from the ground under the evergreens, and