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“Vivian! Thank goodness I found you.” Ms. Angie was jumping out of her car, parked haphazardly across the edge of the drive. “It’s an emergency and no one can fix it but you.”
Vi glanced up at the living room window, figuring it would serve Tyler right to be stuck inside for a few more minutes while she helped Ms. Angie with whatever this week’s emergency was.
“Ms. Angie, I thought the town council said no more driving on city streets for you.” She shook her head as she headed toward the elderly lady, knowing no matter what the council told her, it would take an accident or an act of God to keep her from getting behind the wheel.
And it was only a fifty-fifty she’d listen to either.
Stealing her car had been suggested several times before her Speed Racer routine got someone—or something—hurt.
Today she had on a corset with skull and crossbones running down the edging. Her sidekick, Captain Jack Slickpaws, a four-legged troublemaker, wore a matching bandana.
“It’s the sleigh, dear.” Ms. Angie shook her head and Vi was suddenly worried she’d tried to drive the town’s classic sleigh herself.
This was far, far more serious than she’d expected.
As a town that celebrated Christmas for servicemen and women and their families every two to three weeks, if something had happened to Santa’s sleigh, the whole town would be up in arms.
And stealing Ms. Angie’s car would be the least of the suggestions.
Instead of panicking, Vi just pasted a smile on her face and gave her adon’t worrylook. “I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t handle. What happened to the sleigh?”
Vivian ignored the obvious question of what Ms. Angie was doing with the sleigh. But really, a person could only take so much craziness at once.
“Well, it’s really quite remarkable. We were polishing the wood along the edges when Captain Jack jumped into the car and released the emergency brake—quite by accident of course—and before you know it, he—and it—were rolling forward. And I’ll be a smuggler’s peg leg, but I couldn’t jump over the door to get in to stop it—and long story medium, we crashed the sleigh.”
“Oh, my.” Vivian was suddenly not feeling as light and fluffy about this accident.
And really, Captain Jack? How in the world had Ms. Angie’s twelve-pound pup—breed unknown—released the parking brake?
She opened her mouth to ask just that when she realized she was probably better off not knowing. Ms. Angie most likely had a very long, very detailed dramedy to explain it.
“How bad of a crash are we talking?”
“Well…” Ms. Angie glanced away, the guilt level flushing her cheeks leaving Vi to worry that the thing would need to be rebuilt from scratch. “The front end is kind of dinged.”
“Dinged, dented, or smashed in?”
“Maybe closer to the third,” the older lady admitted.
This wasn’t going to be fixed with a quick drive-by and some jumper cables.
“Okay, give me five minutes and I’ll meet you over at the town barn.”
She hated letting Ms. Angie get behind the wheel alone, but as a single mom, there was no way she was getting in there with her.
Plus, she still had to deal with Tyler.
Which was going to be more of a To Be Continued situation than she would have liked.
Heading upstairs, she went through the door to find him in his beanbag chair with a book in his hand and his Thor action figure sitting on his shoulder as if reading along. If he had set himself up to look adorable and like a son who didn’t break rules explicitly laid out for him, he’d done a good job.
But she wasn’t going to be dissuaded that easily.
“Tyler.” She waited until he looked up. Books were the only thing she let him have leeway on. No one wanted to have to stop reading in the middle of a book—er, a sentence. “Ms. Angie was just here and needs my help. I’ll be down at the town barn. You have two options, come with or stay here. Period. No in-between or bartering.”
He glanced toward the window, obviously thinking neither sounded great with the sun shining and summer barely in full swing.
“You lost the outside option and you know why. Also, the two of us have an appointment for a family meeting at dinner, so don’t think you’re off the hook on that either.”
