A Love of Her Own (10 page)

Ava gestured for him to go into the living room.

He looked around expectantly. “You don’t have a Christmas tree!” It came out as an accusation.

“No, I don’t.”

“Well, don’t you have kids?”

“No.”

“You married?”

“No.”

“Wow. You live in this big house all by yourself?”

It’s a two-bedroom cottage, Marcus, not a mansion.”

“It looks big to me.”

She smiled. “Would you like a soda?”

*****

Ava turned on the TV, and Marcus seemed content to watch a comedy on HBO. She could still hear him laughing when she got to the top of the stairs.

After she changed from her church clothes to black tights and a striped thigh-length sweater she went in the kitchen. She was hungry. Maybe Marcus was, too.

Within minutes she had two grilled cheese sandwiches on a griddle. She looked up when she heard a rapping sound on the wood cabinet and saw him standing there. “Hi. Want some lunch?”

“Yeah
. It smells good.” He walked over and stood beside her. “You gonna stay here by yourself all day?”

“Let’s see. In the first place I’m not by myself; you’re here. And no, I’ll be going out in a few hours. I’m going to have dinner at my brother’s house.”

“Will they have a Christmas tree?”

“Yes.” She used a spatula to lift the sandwiches onto plates. “Marcus, isn’t there a Christmas tree at your house?”

He looked away for a moment, then shook his head. “It’s kind of crowded. There’s really nowhere to put one.”

Ava kept her expression impassive
, knowing that asking too many questions would make him clam up. She reached on top of the refrigerator and grabbed a large bag of rippled potato chips. “Let’s have some of these.” She sprinkled chips alongside the sandwiches, then held out one of the plates to him.

They were sitting at the dining table when she casually said, “Marcus, maybe your parents would let you come with me this afternoon. There’ll be other kids about your age there. I think you’ll have fun.”

It was plain from the way his eyes widened that he wanted to go. “You mean it, Ava?”

“Sure I do.”

“I know you said there’ll be other kids there, but I like being with you, too.” He grinned at her impishly.

She wanted to hug him. Instead she stifled the urge and said, “You can call and ask when you’re finished eating.”

“We don’t have a phone. I’ll go home and ask.”

“I can drive you if you want.” Even as she spoke Ava knew what his answer would be.

“Nah, that’s all right. I’ll walk. It won’t take long.”

*****

She stood at the window of the sun porch as he took off in a sprint down the street. It was a far cry from the sad little steps he’d been taking when she first saw him. It made her so glad she’d thought of him yesterday when she was shopping.

She went to the coat closet and added the
wrapped package she’d bought for him to the shopping bag containing the gifts for her nieces and nephews. Marcus wasn’t talking much, but from what she could pick up it sounded like he wasn’t having a very merry Christmas. There had been no tree in what he’d described as cramped living quarters. She wondered if he had received any gifts at all.

Ava’s own heartache traditionally increased Christmas Day,
but that was only as an adult. When she was Marcus’s age it had been her favorite time of year. She felt every child had a right to a happy holiday, but now she knew that wasn’t how it worked. Once upon a time she’d felt it was her right to be able to have children. In the years since she had learned that in life nothing could be taken for granted.

Chapter
7

E
veryone at Larry and Joy Maxwell’s home was visibly surprised when Ava appeared with a boy they’d never seen before, but only Doris made a negative comment. “What eight-year-old boy would spend Christmas with people other than his family?” she mused.

“
He’s a little boy from Palmdale, Mom. It’s not like his family belongs to the Social Register.”

“
Still, you have to admit it’s highly irregular.”

Ava felt a tightness develop in her jaw
. It was so like her mother to criticize. “Maybe so, but it’s not illegal. You act like I've broken the law or something by bringing him here.”

“
Of course not, dear. You exaggerate.”

Ava looked over at her nieces and nephews
. Marcus played well with the other children, and now he looked like one of them as well. When he returned to her house after receiving permission to go with her his plaid shirt and jeans had been replaced by a neatly pressed white shirt, a navy pullover, navy slacks and dress shoes. Ava was certain the change in clothing had come at the urging of an adult, perhaps the grandmother he had spoken of. She wondered about his home situation, for her mother did have a point. She couldn’t imagine allowing any eight-year-old of hers going off to have Christmas dinner with a perfect stranger. Marcus was probably too much for his grandmother to handle, as evidenced by his constantly being out on the street. She was probably happy to have him with a group of strangers who sounded harmless in a family atmosphere rather than out on the streets.

Her nephew Isaiah Frazier came running toward her.
“Aunt Ava, did you bring us presents?”

“
Isaiah!” Maria scolded. “You should know better than that.”

“
Oh, that’s all right,” Ava said, hugging the child.

“
It is
not
all right. Did I tell you what he did on his birthday?”

“
No. What happened?”

“
I thought I would die of embarrassment. Mom had given him a card with five dollars in it, and so had you and so had Joy and Larry. Well, our next door neighbor, Mrs. Carson, was nice enough to get him a card when she found out it was his birthday. She came over and gave it to him, and when he opened it he wanted to know how come there wasn’t any money in it.”

Ava laughed
. “Oh, you bad boy, you!” she said, giving the seven-year-old an affectionate squeeze. “Well, I do have a few presents here…”

“
Can we open them now?”

“
Oh, I don't know. Maybe we’ll have dinner first,” she replied with an air of nonchalance.

“
Please, Aunt Ava?”

“
All right. I’ll go get them.”

When she returned with the shopping bag, all the children were lined up expectantly except Marcus, who hung back from the others and whose vision seemed to be focused on something on the floor
. Ava’s heart went out to him. Even though he was obviously enjoying himself, he was conscious of the fact that he didn’t belong. She experienced that same feeling herself more times than she cared to think about…like at every family reunion, at which she had the unhappy distinction of being the only adult female in the entire group of over one hundred people who did not have a child.

“
Okay, everybody, Santa Claus left these at my house for you guys.”

“
Santa Claus! Come on, Aunt Ava.”

“
Yes, Santa Claus. Marcus, come stand with the others.” She watched his eyes widen as he stepped forward, then reached into the bag before he could notice her watching him. “All right, here we go.” She recited each child’s name and handed them their gift, concluding with “…and Marcus.” She held out the package.

He looked up in surprise.
“For me?”

“
Yes, for you. Santa left it at my house. Weren’t you listening?”

He made a face
that expressed his disbelief in Santa Claus, then grinned and eagerly tore off the red-and-green holiday wrap. “Wow, a basketball! Gee, thanks…Aunt Ava.”

She felt a warmth course through her at hearing him address her that way
, the same as the offspring of her sister and brother. To her that showed his desire to fit in with the other children, maybe that he even felt like less of an outsider. She kissed his cheek. “You’re welcome, sweetie.”

The others were equally pleased with Ava
’s choices, and she received hugs and kisses from each one. After that the boys went outside to the driveway to test out Marcus’s new ball on the net over the garage. Ava cautioned them to merely take turns shooting hoops instead of playing an actual game because they weren’t dressed for rough-and-tumble movements associated with basketball, and they promised they would.

“
You really light up when you’re around kids,” Maria told Ava. “That Marcus is a real cutie. Where did you meet him?”

“
Oh, he was hanging around the shop last week after school had let out for the holidays.” Ava thought it unwise to give the full story of Marcus’s unsuccessful mugging attempt. It would get back to her mother, who would probably insist that they immediately hide all the valuables. In Ava’s opinion Marcus was not a thief, he was just a typical boy—and a very sweet one at that—who had taken a wrong turn. Now she was more determined than ever to see that he got back on the right path.

*****

“Thanks for bringing me with you, Aunt Ava. I had a really nice time,” Marcus said once they were in the car. He paused, then asked, “Is it okay if I call you that? I know you’re not really my aunt, but I felt kinda funny calling you just plain Ava around the other kids, since all of them call you Aunt.”

“
Of course I don’t mind.”

“
And thanks for the basketball. I’m gonna play tomorrow.”

She tried not to let the relief she felt show. Playing basketball was a much better activity for him than stealing.
“I’m glad you liked it. Did you have enough to eat?”

“
Oh, yeah!” He patted his stomach. “It was good, too. All my favorites. Turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, string beans, rolls…mmm! And all those desserts!”

Ava smiled
. He had sampled them all—the apple pie, the peach cobbler, the pound cake and even that sickeningly sweet pecan pie that Joy always insisted on making, even though no one liked it. It was all Larry's fault for not being truthful with her. To spare his wife’s feelings he insisted his children have small pieces and cut a large slice for himself, which he took a few bites of, raved about and then disposed of when she wasn’t looking.

“
Maybe you’ll come by the shop Saturday and help me eat some of the leftovers I brought home with me.”

“
What’s wrong with tomorrow?”

“I’m not working tomorrow. The shop will be open, but I won’t be there.”

“Will the food be any good by Saturday?”

“
Of course. A couple of minutes in the microwave I keep in the shop, and it’ll be good as new.”

“
Sure, I’ll be there. Saturday at lunchtime.”

“
All right, Marcus; you’ll have to show me where you live so I can bring you home.”

“
I can walk from your house.”

“
No, you can’t. It’s late, Marcus, and you’re a little boy. I’m not going to let you walk these streets alone in the dark.”

“
I’m not a little kid. Besides, it’s only eight-thirty.”

“
No, Marcus,” she said firmly.

“
And I told my grandmother that if we got back too late I was going to spend the night.”

She sighed
. She hated all this secrecy, and her concern about the fitness of Marcus’s grandmother as a guardian to allow him to stay the night with someone she didn’t even know mounted, but she decided to let him stay. At least at her house he’d be safe. He wasn’t going to tell her where he lived, and she wasn’t about to turn him loose on the streets at this hour. If he stayed with her he could safely walk home in the morning.

Upstairs in the spare room, she pulled the seldom-used twin sleeper mattress from its folded position inside an oversized chair and made it up with sheets and a plaid quilt.

Marcus showed up as she was finishing. “Is this where I sleep?”

“
That’s right.”

He wandered over to the pine armoire in the corner
. “What’s this?”

“
Go ahead and open the doors. Try the top ones first.”

He grasped the knobs and pulled open the doors, exposing a television
. “Wow! You got a TV in here!”

“
Yes. I’m going to set the timer for an hour, and when it goes off, it’s off for the night. I don’t want you staying up ‘til all hours watching stuff that’s not meant for kids anyway.”

“
But there’s no school tomorrow, Aunt Ava.”

“
All right; I’ll give you an hour-and-a-half, but no more. I’m going to leave you a washcloth and towel on the sink, plus a T shirt you can sleep in. And if you wake up before I do there’s some cereal in the pantry and milk in the refrigerator, so help yourself. If you need anything else knock on my door. My room is right across the hall. And don’t go anywhere until I’m up, okay?”

“
Okay. You know, I was real surprised when you gave me that basketball.” He impulsively hugged her. “I didn’t think—well, I didn’t think you’d have anything for me.”

His words made a direct connection to her heart
. She swallowed hard and hugged him back, then kissed his cheek. You get a good night’s sleep, okay?”

“
Okay.”

Ava was downstairs turning off lights when the phone rang
. She blew out her breath. A sixth sense told her it was her mother with one last negative comment for the road. “Hello,” she said brusquely.

“
Merry Christmas, Ava.”

She couldn
’t place the male voice. “Merry Christmas. Who’s this?”

He laughed
. “I’m sorry. It’s Hilton, calling from Augusta. I guess that was a sneaky way of trying to identify whether or not I have competition.”

The thought that he was jealous of anyone else she might be seeing brought a smile to her lips, but she forced herself to sound stern and said,
“Well, I’ve got to tell you that it can be a little unsettling when a strange man calls my home at night and calls me by name.”

“
You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“
I forgive you. Hey, wait a minute! You don’t have my phone number. You don’t even know my last name! How is it you’re calling me?”

“
Easy. I just called Catherine and got your number from her.”

“
Oh.” Ava made a mental note to call her friend tomorrow. Catherine had already singled out Hilton for herself, and surely his interest in someone else had to be bruising to her pride. Some women had turned on friends because of things like that, and Ava hoped Catherine wouldn’t feel she had encouraged Hilton in any way. Best to make an attempt to smooth things over between them if she could.

“
How was your Christmas?” he asked.

“
Actually…it was pretty good.” The pitch of her voice rose on the last four words, ending on a high note, and she smiled as she realized she was speaking the truth.

“
You sound surprised. You were expecting a dud?”

“
Not exactly, but it usually isn’t my favorite time of year.” She realized that remark begged for an explanation, so she rushed on. “You know, people rushing to buy gifts they often can’t afford and all of that. The real meaning of the holiday gets lost in the shuffle.”

“
I know what you mean.”

“
How was your day? Is your family well?”

“
Oh, yeah. Everyone’s doing fine.”

“
Do you have a large family, Hilton?”

“
Sort of. My mother and father were both only children. My mother died over thirty years ago, and my father’s been remarried for maybe a dozen years. I just have one brother, but my stepmother has six kids, and we’re just one big happy family. The third generation is plentiful. My brother and his wife have twin boys and just adopted a little girl. Maxwell’s got plenty of cousins and step-cousins.”

“
Maxwell?”

“
My son. I told you about him, didn’t I?”

“
You mentioned you had a six-year-old son, but you didn’t mention his name. Maxwell is my last name.”

“
Well, that’s certainly a coincidence. Is that your married name?”

“
No. I took my maiden name back after my divorce.”

“
Oh. Well, we usually call my son Max.”