Time kept moving, soon the Christmas was coming. The hospital where Candy worked had many activities including a Christmas party. Candy was thinking to invite Neal to come to the party.

"No Candy, I don't have a date, and I don't feel like to have one."

"I'll accompany you."

"I really appreciate it, but you should enjoy it with Tom," he said. "Besides, someone else is already arranged to go to represent me. "

Now that Neal didn't go, Candy didn't feel like going either. Suddenly she remembered that it's been a while that she didn't have a Christmas party in the Pony's home. She wanted to go there instead of going to her hospital party. Christmas was the most wonderful time to spend with the kids. She asked Neal if he could take her to the Pony's home. He could. He agreed to take her there.

That evening Candy was walking together with Neal discussing Pony's home visit. She told him about her plan, the Christmas shopping she did to buy gifts for the children in Pony's home, and more. After a while, she felt someone was staring at her. She stopped talking and looked at the direction. She saw someone she knew very well. She couldn't believe it.

"Terry!" shouted Candy. They hugged one another with a big smile on their face.

"Here is Neal, you remember him, don't you?" said Candy to Terry. Both men shook hands and exchanged greetings.

"Now you have a company, would you two please excuse me," said Neal. He never be that closed to Terry while he knew how closed Terry was to Candy. He turned to Candy saying, "I'll see you tomorrow. If you needed to change the time, just let me know."

Neal turned around just about to walk away when Candy called him back.

"Neal, wait a second," said Candy, she looked to Terry briefly to excuse herself. "Don't sleep too late, tomorrow you need to get up early," she said warmly.

"Sure," Neal said looking at her eyes with a smile.

"Don't forget to bring warm clothes, tomorrow night might be cold when you come back home," Candy said with a caring look and voice.

"Don't worry about me, you too. Make sure to bring enough warm clothes too. You'll stay there longer than me," Neal answered with a grin. "Bye now." He nodded one more time to Terry and left.

Candy was looking at him who walked among the crowd until he disappeared. Terry's voice surprised her and reminded her of his presence.

"Just relaxed, you'll see him again tomorrow," Terry said as he overhead their conversation. "Where are you going anyway?"

"Pony's home," said Candy. "He'll take me there."

Terry laughed out loud. "How cold could it be? I am sure that spoiled boy will have a driver and servants who'll drive for him and make sure he's very well taken care of."

"Don't talk about him like that," said Candy annoyed with his rudeness. "He's a good man." Candy blushed as soon as she finished the sentence.

Terry laughed again and looked at her face sharply, "I can't believe it, among all the men in the world, you choose to date him."

"I am not dating him, he's my cousin. Our offices are nearby so sometimes we walk together."

"Cousin?" asked Terry surprised. "Since when did you call him that?"

"Well, he is my cousin," said Candy persistently. "Anyway, my boyfriend is coming. Let's go to meet him and tell me why you are here."

Terry told her that his show got rescheduled that's why he stopped by in Chicago. He had been trying to contact her. Tom came and joined them for dinner. Since Tom needed to go back to night shift duty in the hospital, he left first.

"Tom, see you in about two weeks. I'll go to Pony's home tomorrow to celebrate Christmas there," said Candy lightly. They kissed briefly and he left.

"That's your boyfriend?" asked Terry with a voice which showed that he didn't believe her.

"He is," said Candy.

"Well then maybe you and I should get back together. I am not with Susanna anymore."

Candy laughed. "I have a boyfriend. No, thank you."

He leaned closer to her and looked at her sharply as though scrutinizing her and said, "From what I see, it's not your boyfriend who stands in our way, but your cousin is. You won't see Tom for more than a week and you only gave him a half minute look. You gave your cousin that lengthy farewell just to see him again tomorrow morning. Tell me the truth, Candy. We are old friends."

Candy blushed and asked him to shut up. "Stop talking about me, tell me about yourself. What happens to Susanna?"

"We got divorced, she went with someone else. But that's fine. She will be forever important to me, I told her that. We are friends and I go to Hollywood. That's what the trend is these days," said Terry.

Terry then leaned closer to Candy. He said, "I am still available Candy. I might be a playboy to others, but if you want me, you get my vow to be with you and you only for the rest of my life."

She only pushed him with a laugh...

They enjoyed the rest of the evening chatting like old friends.

"Too bad that I will go to Pony's home. I already promised them. Otherwise I'd watch your play," said Candy.

They promised to stay in touch and said good bye.

-0-0-0-0-0-0

The following day Neal came to pick up Candy and took her to Pony's home. While Neal gave instruction to the driver what to do with Candy's luggage and boxes, Candy ran first to Ms. Pony and Sr. Lane. She hugged them happily.

"My cousin took me here," she said while hugging them.

When Neal came, they invited him to stay for the night which he declined politely.

"The office is pretty busy before the long Christmas and New Year break," Neal explained to Ms. Pony and Sr. Lane.

So he just took a brief walk with Candy. When they took a walk, Candy's sharp eyes noticed something unusual with one of the windows. It's covered with a piece of cloth. So she asked Sr. Lane about it.

"Last week there was a big storm. A big branch fell and knocked down the window and some little part of the roof," Sr. Lane explained with a gloomy face. "But all carpenters are on vacation so we can't have it fixed."

The situation was bad since that part of the house couldn't be used. The cold air entered trough the broken window so the room was too cold for the children. The children needed to be moved to the other side of the house which made the room too overcrowded.

Candy became worried especially that this was just the start of a long holiday season, it'd be a long time before carpenters went back to work as normal. They were discussing the matter with concerned faces.

Neal heard the conversation and decided to join in. He said, "Excuse me, but I think I can help. I'll contact the Foundation to have it taken care of."

"Can you do that?" asked Candy with a glimpse of hope.

"Sure, the Foundation is part of the enterprise. They report to me," said Neal with a grin. "I will call them tonight as soon as I get back home."

"We are very grateful. But we don't want to cause you too much trouble. I am sure you are quite busy. We can wait until the carpenters are back," said Sr. Lane.

"No, no, it won't cause me a trouble at all. In fact it's very easy. Don't worry, we'll get it done before Christmas," he assured them.

They were very excited with the possibility. He bit goodbye politely to Ms. Pony and Sr. Lane before walking to his car with Candy.

"This time, I won't see you for more than a week," he said gently to her. Then they hugged. "Call me if you need anything, I'll come right away," he said looking at her softly in her eyes briefly.

Candy waved and stood until his car disappeared and even longer. Sr. Lane and Ms. Pony observed her behavior. They could see a trace of empty sorrow in her eyes when she's back in the house. The sparkle in her eyes was gone, the look changed from merry summer to lonely winter as soon as her cousin departed. What a face for being separated to a cousin for only a bit more than a week. They wondered who this cousin really was to her and where he fitted between her and Tom. They had been watching his behavior closely and certainly saw nothing but a perfect cousin behavior, but the empty look in her eyes showed untold deeper story.

Back at home, Neal asked his private secretary to call the Foundation president. Since it was already late at night, she called him at his house. As soon as the call went trough, she gave the phone to Neal who talked to him directly. Neal told him about the emergency situation that happened in the Pony's home. He acknowledged and promised to take care of the problem promptly.

During the bubble era, the Ardlay enterprise had invested a large amount of money on new emerging non-traditional business. During this financial crisis, those areas did much better than the traditional business which helped to prevent the company from a disastrous collapse. But still, the enterprise needed to cut some funding to the Foundation. The Foundation needed to cut expenses and reduce supports to many of their charity programs. Pony's home and Anthony Brown hospitals were among the few that still got full support from them.

The following day early in the morning, a clear cut man in suite came knocking at the door in Pony's home.

"Hi, I am John. My supervisor told me about the emergency situation that Mr. Leagan wants to get it fixed before Christmas," he said. He's one of the managers from the Ardlay foundation who handled charity organizations. Pony's home was under his supervision. Since most of the staffs was already on break, he'd be the one who handled the problem personally.

Sr. Lane and Candy were surprised on how quick he came. They took him there and he organized carpenters to fix the problem. They worked around the clock and had it done by the following day to everyone relieved.

The Christmas holiday was a lot of fun. Candy enjoyed her holiday time very much. Days moved fast, before long the time had come for Candy to go back home. On the last night before she went back home, after all the children went to bed, she went outside to take a walk. It was cold, but winter always brought a different kind feeling. Somehow the sky looked brighter and more peaceful. It's her favorite time to enjoy the quietness to do some reflection and sorting her confused mind.

Ms. Pony saw her sitting outside staring at the sky. She felt for her. She could feel her troubled heart and mind. Unlike in the past, the girl had grown up. She didn't share much of what in her mind was. Like what she always did the night before the girl went back home, she tried to spend some time to be with her. From all the children that she took care of since they were little, Candy was the only one who still routinely came to visit. Ms. Pony really appreciated her attention and never hoped anything but the best for her. The last few weeks, she observed unusual interaction between Candy to her cousin and to the boyfriend. Although she wouldn't want to interfere, she'd like to share her opinion with her girl, just like any mother would do.

"Who are you thinking right now, Candy?" Ms. Pony said softly as she came to approach her. "Is it your cousin or your boyfriend?" She gave her a motherly smile.

Candy laughed slightly blushing. "Ms. Pony, why did you ask me such a question suddenly?" she asked her back with a shy smile avoiding to answer her question.

"What makes you take Tom as your boyfriend?"

"Because he asked me to."

"Did it ever occur to you that probably you should ask 'him'?" she said.

Mixed with too many thoughts at the same time, Candy only gave a sigh and asked shortly, "Who?"

"He who proposed to you in the past. Probably now it's your turn to make the move?" continued Ms. Pony. She knew the story in great details about this cousin ever since they were young. Candy told her about Beth too.

"Why? Don't you like Tom?"

"Dear, do you realize that this is the first time you mention his name while you're here? All stories you've been telling us are all about your cousin," Ms Pony said with a twinkle in her eye. "Listen, we love anyone you choose as your man. We will love him so much and treat him like our own son. But be sure not to let the one you really love slip away from your hand just because you don't want to tell him about it." She hugged her and bid her a good night, leaving Candy alone with her thoughts.

The following day she could hear Neal coming as the children outside shouted, "Uncle cousin is here. Uncle cousin is here."

Hurriedly, she went outside. Yes, she saw his car and the driver opened the door for him. He went outside the car to greet the children. She tried so hard to approach him in a slow pace in order not to make a scene and to make it too obvious that she's been anticipating him. But at the end she couldn't suppress herself anymore. Ignoring what others might think about her, she ran to him and hugged him as though she hadn't seen him for years. The scene didn't escape Ms. Pony and Sr. Lane's attention. Silently they wished the best for Candy in her pursuit for the man of her life.

Neal greeted Ms. Pony and Sr. Lane. He asked about the roof which Ms. Pony and Sr. Lane said was fine and thanked him for the help. All the time, they observed how Candy never stopped looking at her cousin with a beaming smile. Neal assured them to never hesitate contacting him or Candy if they needed anything. They were grateful to his kind gesture. He and Candy took a walk briefly before saying good bye to Ms. Pony, Sr. Lane, and the children.

-TO BE CONTINUED-

Thanks for reading!