Ghosts of Christmas Past

Chapter Nineteen

On Thursday morning, she was drinking coffee and watching videos with titles like "Save 90% at the Grocery Store" and "50 meals for $25" on YouTube, when her phone rang.

"Hello?" she answered as she refilled her coffee.

The woman's voice was cheerful and professional. Was this a job? "Hi, is this Emily Shepherd?"

"Yes?" Hopefully it was a job. "I'm Emily Shepherd."

"This is Abby Reiten. I'm the Human Resources Manager at Regency department store." A job! It was a job! Thank you, Universe. "Is this a good time to talk?"

"Yes! Yes, it's a good time." Emily put down the coffee cup and gave the phone her complete attention. "Thank you for calling."

"Well thanks for sending us your resume," Miss Reiten continued. "I've reviewed your qualifications and experience and it looks like you might be a good match for a position with Regency. Are you still available?"

"Yes." Emily smoothed her shirt, even though she was speaking on the phone and not in person. "Yes, I'm still available."

"Great," The woman said. "Our Customer Experience Manager left unexpectantly, and we'd like to talk to you about that role. Are you able to interview with us on Wednesday the 21st?"

"The 21st?" Emily wasn't sure why she repeated it. It wasn't like she had anything else on her calendar that week.

"Yes, I'm sorry. That is Christmas week," Miss Reiten said. "Would you like to push that out until the following week?"

"No, that's fine." Emily smiled, excited. "The 21st is fine. What time?"

"How about 10 am?" Miss Reiten said. "The store opens at 9 and that will give our store manager time to get things underway in case she'd like to meet with you, too."

"That sounds great," Emily repeated. "Wednesday the 21st at 10 am. I'll be there."

"Great! Thanks so much," Miss Reiten said brightly. "See you then."

"Thank you!" Emily clicked off the phone and practically squealed. The Youtube video that the call had interrupted began to play immediately, but she clicked it off.

A job. It was a Christmas miracle. She almost laughed. Still, if she interviewed next week, even if they hired her right away, with a background check and drug screen, she likely wouldn't start until after the holiday. That was going to be tough. She opened her pad to a blank page and began calculating how long her savings would last, whether she would make it until then.

She could make this work. At least short term, she could make it work. She would just have to avoid the drive throughs, eat very frugally, maybe turn the thermostat down a bit. She would make it work.

She wanted to call Leo, to share the news with him. But he would be in school, wouldn't he? Instead, she called Madison, who was excited for her—and her future employee discount. But she was dealing with two sick kids and couldn't spend time with Emily today.

The ghosts didn't even show their faces, probably too embarrassed about the stunt they pulled last night. She wouldn't say she was disappointed, but without Leo or Madison or those two, the day went by slowly.

**

Emily was dreaming about walking through Von Houten department store. She was wearing the red dress and carrying the yearbook under one arm. There were pine garlands around the poles and bells and lights decorated every cashwrap station. Christmas music played softly from the live piano player in the center of the store. As she passed through the crowds of shoppers, she smiled and waved. Everyone was happy.

Madison looked up from a rounder of dresses. She held a baby on her hip and a shimmery gold dress up to her body. Emily nodded at her choice of dress as she walked by. And then Emily rounded a corner and came face to face with the piano player. It was Leo.

He looked up and smiled as she met his eyes, and he abruptly changed his tune from "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" to "Vienna Waits for You."

How could she have forgotten the sound of his voice? Such a rich tenor, gliding over the notes with real emotion. He loved to sing. She could see it in his demeanor. She could hear it in his voice. The music gave him true pleasure and it was truly a pleasure to watch him enjoy it.

She stood, in her red dress, at the end of the piano and watched him. Other women were there, too. There were a few of them, humming along, swaying to the music. But he didn't see them. He just kept looking at Emily. And smiling.

She was entranced by the sound of his voice, leaning forward on the piano, as if that would somehow help her hear it better. The notes from the piano vibrated under her palms and the notes from Leo vibrated in her ears. It felt like he was singing only for her. It felt special. It felt intimate.

She was feeling hot, even with the open back of the red dress. The warmth had nothing to do with the temperature of the room, though. It was almost definitely caused by the way Leo's eyes locked onto hers so that she couldn't look away. It was hypnotic. It was erotic. It was—

The crash abruptly woke her. She sat up in bed and looked around. "What was that?"

It took a moment to determine the sound was coming from outside, not in. It was her trash can. Someone had knocked over her trash can. She opened the curtain and peeked out. Sure enough, the can was on the ground and a bushy grey and black tail twitched in the mouth of it.

"Oh my God!" She flopped back on the bed. "I'm never going to sleep a whole night, am I?"

She didn't want to go outside in the middle of the night. She didn't want to face off against a wild animal. And didn't racoons hibernate in the winter, anyway? Why was this one getting a midnight snack from her garbage can?

She didn't want to deal with it, but the raccoon was making so much noise that there would be no sleeping until she did. She threw off the blanket and got up to look for something to use as a defensive weapon, in case it decided to protest her eviction.

Of course, there wasn't anything. She didn't even have a broom. She grabbed one of the kitchen chairs, slipped on her boots, and went to the front door.

That was a bad plan, though. The chair was too heavy and unwieldy to use as any sort of defense. She wouldn't be able to move it around quickly enough to fend off any wild animal attack. And the thought of holding onto the back of a kitchen chair while a raccoon chewed her face was just off-putting.

A better plan was to use the chair to prop open the door, so she didn't get locked outside again. She did that and then approached the racoon.

Fortunately, the noise she made getting out of the house and propping the door open was apparently enough to scare it away. Or maybe it was her threats of, "Okay, racoon. I'm coming out and you'd better be gone when I get there, or I don't know what's going to happen to you."

At any rate, it was gone when she got there. She stood the can up and put as many things back into it as she could before her hands were freezing. Then she headed quickly back to the warmth of the house.

The door closed before she could reach it.

"No! Rose, no!" She ran up onto the porch and grabbed the handle, even though she was too late. "Please! Open the door!"