Page 11 of The Christmas Ring
“Oh...” The tension in her voice eased. “Looking for your ring?”
“Exactly.” Vanessa focused on the road. “They were having a Christmas-in-July sale.”
“Got it.” She hesitated. “Nothing?”
“Nope.”
“Well, at least it was a fun stop.”
“Yes. Yes, it was.” Vanessa couldn’t keep from smiling. “I saw a few nice things. It’s a great store.” She was careful to guard her words. Something she never normally did around Sadie. “I didn’t buy anything. Just looked.”
“We’ll have to go when I’m on a break.” Sadie sounded distracted now. The conversation about the antique store was behind them. Vanessa breathed deep, thankful. She wasn’t even sure what had happened.
There was no way she could explain the situation to Sadie.
They talked a while longer about Sadie’s classes and how she and the girls were going to walk the campus to see where they needed to be Monday morning when school started.
After the call ended Vanessa thought about exactly how fun the stop had been, how meeting Ben Miller had become the highlight of her day. When she parked her car in front of her house later that day, she felt her heart jump.
On the screen of her phone was another text from Ben. Before reading it, Vanessa lifted her eyes to the blue summer sky overhead. College wouldn’t change anything between her and Sadie. They would still talk about everything. And in time, if she ever saw Ben Miller again, she would of course tell her daughter. Because the truth was, Vanessa had, in fact, found something at Millers’ Antiques.
She’d found a new friend.
Chapter 5
Instead of feeling lost and alone with Sadie gone, Vanessa’s friendship with Ben had become a life-giving source of joy. A gift she had never expected.
And now after five months of talking and texting and the occasional FaceTime call, along with two trips to Marietta for lunch and antiquing, Vanessa was hours away from meeting up with Ben Miller here.
In her hometown of Columbus.
But first Vanessa needed to wrap up the volunteer brunch at her house. The breakfast happened every year a week before the Columbus Cares Annual Christmas Military Dance. Like always, the dance was slated for two days before Christmas. It was a formal affair that included the community coming together to sponsor local military families who needed a little assistance at Christmastime.
Columbus Cares was Vanessa’s heart project. It was a full-time job and involved a spring auction to support families and year-round availability for military families—meals for families when a soldier was welcomed home, and meals when a soldier was lost. Vanessa had developeda strong connection with local government offices, which allowed Columbus Cares to help connect widows and widowers with the benefits due them.
At a grief group for Gold Star Widows, Vanessa had met Maria Lopez and Leigh Collins—two Columbus women who had also lost their husbands in fighting overseas. The two of them had grown children in the area, but they also were financially able to spend much of their time volunteering with Columbus Cares.
The three of them came up with the annual dance. But it was Vanessa who took the organization personally. She remembered a long-ago conversation she’d had with Alan. “Military families should never want for anything,” he had told her. At the time he had only been in the army a few years. He shook his head, clearly troubled. “Some of our people can barely put food on the table. I’d like to do something about that.”
But Alan ran out of time.
Vanessa wasn’t about to let his death be in vain, not when he had dreamed to do something so big. Alan wasn’t only a medic and a hero, he was smart. He had left her and Sadie a significant life insurance policy. Between that and the money Vanessa received from her grandmother’s estate and the army, she was set for life.
Financially, anyway.
Which meant Vanessa had all the time in the world to turn Alan’s dream into a reality.
Columbus was one of the biggest military cities in the nation, and the need to help families of those serving had never been greater. This would be the fourth annual military dance. Like so often since Alan had left them, Vanessa hoped he had a front-row seat to every good thing Columbus Cares was doing in his memory.
Especially the dance.
This year their goal was to see a hundred families sponsored at a hundred dollars each. Not only that, but merchants across Columbus were donating goods and gift cards for baskets that would go along with the cash given to each family.
The task was quite an undertaking.
Twenty-some military wives had gathered this morning at Vanessa’s house. Now the women were leaving, taking with them a list of what they still needed to do. The dance was in just one week, and the last several days would be spent decorating the Veterans’ Hall. Vanessa and Leigh and Maria stood at the door and bid each volunteer goodbye.
When Vanessa finally closed the door, she glanced at the time. She was meeting Ben in one hour.
