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"You’ve already got plans?"

"Sort of," she said after a brief hesitation

Oliver straightened "Either you have plans or you don’t Which is it?"

Emma set her napkin on the table, stood up and carried their plates to the sink "I know you have a hard ti this, but I don’t ‘do’ Christotten her Point taken

"It isn’t anything religious," she explained "Christmas just hasn’t been the same since my mother died I tried to continue all the traditions we’d done together It was too sad So I stopped"

She returned frolass plates "My…father and I are estranged He invites o to him and his neife I just can’t"

She sat down at the table again "Friends invited me over a couple of years in a row, but it made me feel like a charity case" She lowered her head "People tend to feel sorry for me and I don’t want that The last two years I’ve spent the day alone and, really, it isn’t so bad I’ve coed off her rejection as if it didn’t matter His invitation had been issued in an offhand manner, which he now decided was adeal of it

Because it was a big deal Christmas was important to him and to his family, and he wanted Emma to be part of that He wanted Eure out how to convince her

Chapter Eighteen

Emma knew she’d disappointed Oliver and she felt bad about that She was quite fond of his She was crazy about him

"I think I bleith Oliver," she told Phoebe on the phone later that evening

"What happened?"

Emma sat down and put her feet up as she mentally reviewed their dinnertime conversation "He invited me to meet hisyou know that you’reyou to e step in a relationship"

"It was all very casual," she oing to tell me you refused, are you?"

"He invited me to Christmas dinner"

The line went silent for a moment "You mean to tell me that Oliver invited you to meet his parents on Christmas Day and you turned him down?"

"Yes" The as barely audible, even to Eets with a guy--his parents and Christ"

"Well, no"

Phoebe groaned "I was afraid of that I thought you liked Oliver"

"I do," she said in a small voice Emma was afraid to admit how much She kne that he wasn’t like her father Oliver was caring, generous and had a great relationship with his family He was kind to animals He had a sense of humor If she were to make a list of what she wanted in a man, those traits would be at the very top

"How can you be so smart and so stupid at the saift," Emma said sarcastically

"What did Oliver say after you told hiainst her forehead "Hardly anything I’d made dinner, he offered to help with the dishes, but there weren’t that ht there," Phoebe commanded "Oliver offered to help with the dishes and you refused that, too?"

"That rong?"

"Never, I repeat--never--turn down a man’s offer to do the dishes Men are like puppies that have to be trained This training takes place during the courtship period Men will take their cues fro all the housework, they’ll simply accept it Who wouldn’t? That, my friend, was mistake nu much He said he had an errand to run and he left"

"Did he thank you for dinner?"

"Oh, yes He really seeratified her This was a special recipe--a specialhiht afterward?"

"Yes" E worse by the ht, you blew it"

Eestions on what I should do now?"

"Call and tell hie of heart and would love to spend Christent breath "And do it soon"

This wasn’t what Eed uy or not?" Phoebe demanded

Love? Love Love! She didn’t know Okay, maybe she did She loved him And deep down she knew that if she didn’t act quickly, she ht lose him

"But I don’t do--"

"Don’t say it," Phoebe interrupted "Do you honestly think this is how your mother wants you to spend Christmas? You told s you used to do together"