Lee McClain - The Secret Christmas Child

“That’s where the kid I’m picking up—” he gestured toward the tracks “—that’s where he’s coming from, too.”

A whistle, high and mournful, blew their way on a gust of cold wind, and then a light appeared way down the track. A moment later the train’s engine was audible. Both Reese and Gabby stood.

Dawn was just lightening the edge of the sky when two boys disembarked from the train, the only passengers to do so. As they put down their duffels, stretched and looked around, the train pulled away again.

“Hey, Mr. Markowski!” The blond boy stuck out a hand in polite greeting.

“Connor. Hope you had a good trip. This is Gabby Hanks.”

“Hi,” Gabby said with a quick smile for the boy, but she was distracted with staring at her brother. He’d shot up several inches since she’d last seen him, and young as he was, it looked like he needed a shave. Dark circles beneath his eyes and a pallor to his skin made him look less than healthy.

Maybe it was just that it was early. Teens didn’t do well with early.

She opened her arms and pulled him into a hug. “It’s good to see you, Jacob.”

He didn’t hug her back, but he submitted to her affection, probably the best you could expect from a fifteen-year-old boy.

They all turned and walked toward the parking lot. Each of the boys carried a small duffel bag, and they wore khakis and heavy wool jackets, identical. Must have been some kind of civilian uniform from the military academy.

“So you two know each other?” Reese asked, clearly trying to make conversation.

“Yeah. Some. He’s a year ahead of me.” Connor looked more than a year younger than Jacob, but then, kids developed at such different rates.

As Gabby walked along, half beside and half behind her silent brother, the reality of what the next few weeks would be like started to settle in.

Nana was sick. She was insistent that she could take care of Izzy, but even if that turned out to be the case, she wouldn’t have much energy left to entertain Jacob. Gabby herself would be busy working full-time. And anyway, a fifteen-year-old boy didn’t want to hang out with his grandmother and his older half sister whom he barely knew.

The wireless connection in Nana’s house was spotty at best, so the internet as entertainment couldn’t be counted on.

Watching Reese talk easily with the other boy, Gabby got a brainstorm, the obvious solution. “Go ahead and get in the car,” she said to Jacob, tossing him the keys. “I’m going to talk to Reese for a minute.”

She caught Reese’s eye and beckoned him over. “What’s the age range for boys in your kids’ program?” she asked.

“We don’t have an official limit, but I think our youngest is eleven and our oldest, let’s see, he’s fifteen.” He clicked open his car for Connor. “Why do you ask?”

“How do kids get into the program? Could Jacob participate?”

“There’s paperwork to be done,” he said, frowning. “It’s based on financial need.”

“Pretty sure he has that. He’s on scholarship at school, I know.”

Reese’s brow wrinkled, and he started to shake his head. He was going to say no.

“Please, Reese? It’s just for the Christmas break.” She lowered her voice. “He’ll go nuts with boredom at Nana’s, and that wouldn’t be good for a kid with his history.”

Reese looked thoughtfully toward Gabby’s car, where Jacob was fiddling with the radio. His face softened. “I know what that’s like. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you.” She shot Reese a grateful smile and then hurried over to the passenger side of her car and opened the door. “Jacob, come out and talk to Reese a minute. He’s involved with a program that might be really good for you over this break.”

Jacob didn’t look particularly thrilled, but he dutifully came out of the car, walked around to where Reese was standing, wiped his hand on his jeans and held it out to shake.

Gabby did the introductions. “Reese Markowski, I’d like to present Jacob Hanks, my brother.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Reese said.

But Jacob’s lip curled and he pulled back his hand. “Markowski? As in, the Markowskis who live on Elder Lane?”

Reese nodded. “That’s my aunt and uncle. Do you know them?”

“Oh, I know them,” Jacob said. “I know them well enough to know that I don’t want anything to do with them, or any program they’re connected with.”

“Jacob! Be polite!” Gabby knew the Markowskis could be hard to deal with, but she didn’t want Jacob to ruin his chances to do something constructive with his break. “I didn’t know you’d ever spent enough time here to meet Reese’s aunt and uncle.”

“Last summer,” he growled, and then Gabby remembered. She’d been so overwhelmed over on the other side of the state, what with working and caring for Izzy, that she’d barely registered the fact that Jacob had visited Nana last summer. Now that she thought about it, Nana had told her the visit was going on a bit longer than scheduled.

Reese’s eyes narrowed. “What happened?”

“I don’t want to go into it.” Jacob dug his hands deeper into his pockets and stared at the ground.

Reese watched him, and compassion crossed his face. “My aunt and uncle can be difficult,” he said. “If it makes you feel any better, I was the outcast kid in that family. The poor cousin who came to live with them after my parents died. So I’m not exactly one of them.”

Jacob’s eyes flashed toward Reese’s face for a second of raw connection. Gabby guessed he hadn’t met many people who had lost their parents young. She knew herself that it made her feel different from others her age. How much more that must be the case for a teenager.

Reese had always seemed a little sad, a little haunted. It had given him strength and understanding beyond the other high school boys; that had been a part of his appeal. She could see that he still had that going for him, just from the kind way he spoke to her half brother.

“It would be something for you to do over the break,” Gabby said. “Why don’t you give it a chance?”

“I’d like to have you join us,” Reese said. “I could use another older boy. Role models for the younger ones.”

“Are you kidding me? You think I might be a role model?” Jacob rolled his eyes at Gabby. “Talk to your aunt and uncle, is all I can say.”

“I will. But a lot of the kids in the program have issues. The past is the past.”

Gratitude washed over Gabby. Reese was really trying to make this work, just on the strength of her and Jacob’s and Nana’s needs.

“I don’t want to do it.” Jacob shrugged and blew out a breath, making his long bangs puff up, and suddenly, despite the beard stubble, he looked like a little kid. “All I want to do is take a nap. Do we have to decide about this right now?”

Reese chuckled. “That’s about the smartest thing anyone has said all day,” he said. “Gabby, I’ll see you Monday morning. You can bring Jacob if he decides he wants to come, as long as his official guardian agrees. We can do the paperwork then.”

“Thanks,” Gabby said faintly. She couldn’t believe that Reese had so readily agreed to take in the teenager. But she shouldn’t have been surprised. That was who he was.

The problem was, seeing him be a compassionate man was making her fall for him again, even harder than she had when she was in high school. And because of what had happened, he was the last man she should get involved with.

Two days later, right after Sunday services, Reese wiped his brow in the overly heated meeting room just off the fellowship hall. The presentation to the church board and a small audience from the congregation wasn’t going especially well, but it wasn’t going badly.