A Weldon Family Christmas: A Southern Steam Novella (Weldon Brothers) by Jennifer Saints Read Free Book Online Page A

whether she was ready to face them or not.  Craig had grown more handsome over the years.  Broad shouldered, tall, and trim, with soft brown hair and green eyes, he carried himself with confidence that had easily won him the class presidency every year.  “Craig!  What are you doing here?”
    “I work for Senator Brand.  President Nixon sent us here for an important meeting on the situation with the Paris Peace Talks.”
    “I hear those did not go well.”
    “It was expected.”
    “How so?”
    Craig shook his head.  “Some things I can’t talk about.  But in general, peace requires reason in order to make it work, and I haven’t met a reasonable communist yet.”  He chuckled at his joke.  “Any way, I’m only here tonight.  We fly to Paris tomorrow.”
    “Sounds exciting.”
    “Never a dull moment.  Listen, I’m sorry I never called you back in high school.  I—”
    “You don’t have to explain or apologize,” Emma told him.
    He smiled.  “I do, because I want you to have dinner with me tonight.  We can catch up. and you can tell me how things are back home.”
    Emma shook her head.  “I’m sorry.  We’re not allowed to go out alone with-”
    “Ah.  By all means, bring a chaperone.  Surely, that is permitted?”
    “Yes, but—”
    “Then I’ll have a car pick up you and a guest in one hour.  Dress up.  The Senator is dining at the same restaurant tonight.  He’s grooming me for a top position.  I think it’s a position on his future presidential campaign, if you can believe it.  Every impression counts when the world is looking.”  He brushed his finger down her cheek and she pulled back in surprise and irritation.  He acted as if she’d given him the right to touch her.  “You’re more beautiful than ever.  You should be in Washington helping with the morale there by attending officer events.  Not out here in this foreign sty.  You should come to Paris with me and the Senator.”
    “I don’t think you understand.  I have a job and a mission here.  You act as if I’m on a vacation.”
    Craig shook his head.  “Knowing you, you’re here trying to save the un-savable.  I’ll see you in an hour.”  He swung around and swaggered out the door.
    Emma was speechless.  While she’d found John Weldon’s demand for her to go home for her safety irritating, it wasn’t as offensive as Craig Mason’s dismissal and belittling of the men in Nam or her commitment to them.  She marched up stairs, wavering between refusing to dine with the man and planning exactly how to give him a piece of her mind.
    “Who put a bee in your bonnet?” Maggie asked the moment Emma walked into the room.
    Emma explained and Maggie shook her head.  “It’s how the world goes around, Em.  First off, most men don’t think women have real jobs.    The man is a product of his environment.  The boys in Washington make the decision to go to war.  Do you think they can do that if they considered every soldier to be of utmost importance?  There’s a hierarchy of worth, grunts are more expendable than officers.  Your guy thought he was paying you a compliment.”
    “It’s wrong.  Every man is important.  And he’s not my guy.  I shudder at the memory that he ever kissed me.  It wasn’t much of a kiss, not compared to J—”  Emma snapped her mouth shut, but it was too late.
    Maggie’s eyes grew to saucers.  “I knew it,” she whispered.  Rushing to the door, Maggie peered into the hallway then shut the door.  She came back with a determined glare, but still whispering.  “Spill the beans, right now.  When did this wondrous moment occur?”
    “After the Dragon Lady fired us and before we got our jobs back.”  Emma explained what happened and John’s unabashed reasoning.
    “A man after my own heart,” Maggie said, clutching her breast and pretending to swoon onto the bed.  “So, his kiss was amazing?”
    Emma sighed and sat on the bed.  “It was more than