AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This is one of my favorites,” Nessa said, eating the muffin while they stopped at the window of Santa’s Workshop, one of the town’s four toy stores.
As usual, the front window was set up with a display of a toy train choo-chooing and chugging its way through a mock-up of the town. Calen had seen it so many times that it was like white noise to him. In fact, the entire town had become holiday white noise, but he stopped because Nessa did. He looked in.
And frowned.
“Is that me?” He pointed to the tiny figure standing outside the sheriff’s office. The hair color matched his, but the figure was skinny enough to be one of those waving blow-up characters outside a car dealer.
“It is,” Emmy verified. “And that’s me.” She pointed to the equally weirdly shaped figure standing by the front of the bookstore. “Herman ordered the figures online and sent the artist photos of us.” She putartistin air quotes. “They used to have a Waylon figure by the post office, but they replaced it with Wheezer’s Dalmatian, which often takes naps there.”
Calen had some vague memories of folks talking about that, but he’d never paid attention to the display. It was sort of, well, touching in a small-town kind of way to be immortalized in, well, a small-town kind of way.
They got more stares and whispers when they went in so Nessa could make use of the bathroom and pick up the mobile she’d ordered. The clerk, Hanna Tarver, who was one of the town’s biggest holiday lovers, beamed a smile at them, and she opened her mouth, no doubt to issue that happy holidays/merry Christmas greeting. But Calen’s hard look stopped her. His mood had significantly improved, but he still wasn’t ready to hear it.
Instead, Hanna focused her efforts on getting the mobile for Nessa, and much to Calen’s surprise, it wasn’t a traditional mobile. This one featured first responder vehicles. A cop car, fire truck, ambulance, and rescue helicopter.
“I figured my daughter would get enough girl stuff,” Nessa said when she saw Calen eyeing the mobile. “But I thought it wouldn’t hurt if she had a reminder of what you did. What you are,” she added, pointing to the little wooden cop behind the wheelof the cruiser.
Again, he was touched, but it also made him feel more than a little lousy. Here, all these years Nessa had wanted to meet him, had wanted him to be part of her life, and he hadn’t known squat about it. About her. Of course, he could thank Waylon for that, but it still felt as if he should have figuredit out sooner.
Neither Hanna nor any of the other clerks questioned who Nessa was or why she was with Emmy and him, but Calen suspected lots of questions would be asked to try to figure out this visitor.
With the mobile in a shopping bag, they went back out onto the sidewalk. “I want to thank both of you for doing this with me. A huge thank-you,” Nessa emphasized. “I need to get back to the bakery, but I want to see you—”
Nessa didn’t get to finish her sentence because they practically ran right into Owen. Time seemed to freeze. So did everything around them, something that happened whenever he had a chance meeting with the man whose Santa suit sex-capade was still the talk of the town.
Owen wasn’t alone today. A film crew from a San Antonio TV station was trailing him. So was Owen’s assistant, Tate Webster. In a small town where there was often only one degree of separation, Calen knew Tate—he was Deputy Mick Webster’s brother, and Tate’s sister-in-law, Terry, worked for Emmy.
“Emmy,” Owen muttered, and Calen saw the guilt in the man’s eyes for a split second before he turned his politician’s smile back to the cameraman. “And here are two of the town’s citizens,” he announced. “Christmas Creek’s top cop, Sheriff Calen Jameson, and Emmy Kendrick, the owner of ’Twas the Night before Christmas bookstore.”
Calen didn’t have to see Emmy’s eyes to know there was no guilt in them, but they’d be narrowed. Three hundred and sixty-six days might be enough to cool some of the anger, but it wasn’t enough to forgive and forget.
Owen swallowed hard, searching for anything that wasn’t Emmy or the town’s top cop. The mayor’s attention landed on Nessa. Owen glanced back at them, and when Calen and Emmy didn’t make introductions, Calen could see the man gearing up to do hishost without a checkered pastspiel.
“I’m sure the sheriff will be at the town’s annual Mistletoe Ball,” Owen said, holding up a handful of flyers that announced the event the following night. He handed one to Nessa, who eyedit, then Owen.
“Oh, I know you,” Nessa said. “You’re the guy who got caught having sex with your friend’s fiancée while you were dressed as Santa. That’s taking the holiday spirit to a whole new level.”
Owen didn’t miss a beat. He raised his voice, talking right over Nessa. “And here’s one of the many holiday visitors to our fine town. Welcome to Christmas Creek,” he muttered and tried to hurry past Nessa.
“This is my sister,” Calen said, cutting off Owen’s escape. “Nessa Bozeman.”
Owen opened his mouth, no doubt to issue one of those plastic platitudes to go along with his plastic smile, but he stopped and obviously rethought what he’d been about to say. “Your sister? I didn’t know youhad a sister—”
“I do,” Calen assured him in a voice loud enough for any bystander to hear. There. Within five minutes, the news would beall over town.
Calen slipped his arm around Nessa and guided her back toward the parking lot where Nessa had left her car.
“Thank you for that,” Nessa whispered to him.
“My pleasure,” Calen assured her.
“And thank you for what you said to Owen,” Emmy added. “It’s fun to watch him try to snake-oil his way out of an embarrassing situation.”
Nessa and she shared a chuckle, and when they reached Nessa’s car, she turned and gave both Emmy and him a hug. “Thank you again,” Nessa said, handing Calen the flyer that Owen had given her. “For this day, for everything.”
She got in her car and lowered the window, obviously wanting to stretch out the goodbye a little longer. Apparently so did Emmy.
“If you don’t have any other plans, why don’t you come to Christmas dinner at my place?” Emmy invited. “It’ll be just Calen and me, and you’re morethan welcome.”
