Read A Down-Home Country Christmas Online
Authors: Nancy Herkness
A Down-Home Country Christmas (12 page)
Epilogue
Not quite two years later
“That son of yours has quite a set of lungs,” Tim said, bending down to peer at Robert Boone McGraw where he rested in the crook of Holly’s arm. “Reverend Hibbert jumped about a foot when Boone started to wail after the holy water dripped on his forehead.”
“The only voice louder than Boone’s is Noël’s,” Holly agreed, adjusting the white blanket that swaddled her newly baptized son. She glanced around Grady’s barn to see if the donkey was in sight, but couldn’t find her amongst all the party guests.
Tim ran his finger down Boone’s cheek, making the baby reach for his huge hand. “You know, it’s become quite a tradition in this town to have large four-footed animals at family celebrations. I’m glad you and Robbie continued it.”
Holly was happy they had come back to Sanctuary to have their baby son baptized. When she’d asked Grady if they could hold the reception in his barn, the old farmer had been pleased as punch. Julia had supervised the decorating and her artist’s eye showed in every corner. The barn was lit by strands of tiny white lights and dotted with giant pots of fall flowers sitting atop hay bales. “I can’t imagine a nicer place to have a party, and it seemed right to have Noël present. Boone might not be here without her.” She gazed down into her month-old baby’s face, lit by the startlingly blue eyes his father had handed down, and felt such an up-swelling of love she thought she might not be able to breathe.
As if on cue, Robbie walked up to slip his arm around her waist, his eyes also on his new son. “That boy gets better looking every minute.”
“I can’t argue that because he looks just like you.” Holly nestled up against her husband’s side. He looked as handsome in his blue suit as he did in his police uniform. Not that he wore a uniform anymore; he’d made detective in Atlanta in record time.
Claire joined the group, and Tim spread his fingers over the slight bump showing under her green silk tunic. “I can’t wait to meet this one,” he said, his face softening.
“I’m going to get a lot fatter before that happens.” Claire put her own hand over her husband’s.
“Do you have any names picked out?” Robbie asked.
“We’re thinking ‘Venetia’ if it’s a girl.” Tim grinned at his wife.
Claire gave her husband a gentle elbow in the ribs. “He’s only saying that because we think the baby was conceived in Venice.”
“In a gondola on the Grand Canal,” Tim elaborated.
“Too much information,” Holly said.
A flurry of barking and a loud hee-haw interrupted the conversation. Holly peered through the crowd to see Adam Bosch’s black German Shepherd Trace dancing around Noël’s hooves. A slim blonde woman raced up to grab the dog’s collar, saying, “Sit, Trace,” in a stern voice. The glossy black dog instantly put his haunches on the ground and began licking her arm. “I’m sorry, everyone,” Hannah Linden, Tim’s partner at the veterinary hospital said, her fair skin flushed with embarrassment. “Trace forgot his party manners when he saw a real, live donkey.”
A tall, dark man and a teenaged boy joined Hannah. Adam Bosch stroked the dog’s head before his son Matt took a firm grip on his collar and hauled him away. Adam listened attentively as Hannah said something emphatic to her new husband before he threw back his head and laughed.
“I’ve never seen Adam laugh like that before,” Holly said. She’d talked to the famous chef on the phone as they planned the menu for Boone’s christening party, but she hadn’t seen him in a social setting since she and Robbie moved to Atlanta.
“Hannah’s changed him,” Tim said.
“And Matt,” Claire said. “She’s chased away the shadows from both their lives. With Satchmo’s help, of course.”
Robbie let go of Holly and held out his arms for Boone. “Why don’t you get something to eat? I want to show off my son.”
As Holly transferred their child to Robbie’s strong grasp, she met his eyes. What she saw in them squeezed the breath out of her lungs all over again. She decided she owed Noël a special treat for showing her she was ready to take the risk of loving this incredible man and giving him the chance to love her back without any regret for what his life might have been.
Holly inspected the buffet table, finding a platter of cheese and sliced apples and a tray of crudités. She snagged some carrots and apples and wrapped them in a napkin.
Armed with her treats, she made a circuit of the barn. Noël was nowhere in sight. “Who are you looking for?” Julia asked as Holly passed by the artist and her lawyer husband.
“My whisper donkey.” Holly opened up the napkin.
Paul rolled his eyes, but with a grin. “Another one drinks the Kool-Aid. Does Sharon Sydenstricker recognize whisper donkeys in her mythology?”
Holly nodded. “She gave Noël her seal of approval, so my donkey has been admitted to the official Society of Whisper Horses.”
“So there,” Julia said to her husband before turning back to Holly. “Don’t let him bother you. He’s the one who dragged me into Sharon’s stable in my fancy evening clothes so he could propose to me outside Darkside’s stall. He was afraid I wouldn’t marry him if my whisper horse wasn’t in on the deal.”
“I’m pretty sure I carried you in because you didn’t want to ruin your shoes.” Paul mussed his wife’s bright red hair. “I saw Grady lead Noël into her stall after the excitement with Trace. I’m pretty sure Brianna and Kayleigh followed him.”
Holly thanked them and headed for the stall. She heard Grady’s low rumble and the girls’ high voices before she got there. When she unlatched the door and slipped inside, three guilty faces turned to look at her. Noël continued to chew on her hay.
“Mama, we just wanted to make sure Noël was happy.” Brianna jumped up from the bale of straw where she and Kayleigh sat.
Grady levered himself up from his own bale. “Truth is we all needed a rest from the festivities.”
Holly laughed and put her arm around Brianna’s shoulders. “Noël deserves your company. In fact, I came to give her a special treat to say thank you.”
At the sound of her voice, the donkey’s head came around. The girls had created a necklace of autumn leaves and dried flowers which they’d hung around Noël’s neck. They’d also tied an orange-and-brown plaid ribbon around her tail so the donkey looked quite festive.
Holly walked up and gave Noël a scratch behind her ears before she arranged a couple of apple slices on her palm. The donkey scarfed up the apple and snuffled at the napkin for the carrots . Holly handed one to Brianna and one to Kayleigh so they could treat the donkey too. “What are you thanking Noël for?” Brianna asked.
“For her strength and her wisdom.”
Grady nodded. “Noël’s special that way.”
Holly remembered a piece of good news she’d just heard. “I hear congratulations are in order. I’m so happy for you and Bernie.” She gave Grady a hug.
The old farmer actually blushed. “When she wrote that article about the nativity scene, Bernie pestered me with so many questions, she found out about my knitting. She helped me pick out colors for another baby blanket and one thing led to another.”
“What about Bernie?” Kayleigh asked.
“Mr. Boone and Mrs. Weikle are getting married,” Holly said.
Brianna and Kayleigh looked surprised. “But Mrs. Weikle is old,” Kayleigh said.
At that, Grady started to chuckle, a deep rusty rasp. “So’m I.”
Kayleigh nodded. “I know, but it’s not polite to say so.”
That made Grady laugh so hard, he had to get out his handkerchief to wipe his eyes. “I sure do miss you girls since you moved down to Atlanta.”
Brianna turned to Holly. “Can we tell him our news?”
“Not without me.” Robbie opened the stall door and walked in with Boone. “Someone told me my whole family was hiding out in Noël’s stall.”
“We’re not hiding, Daddy,” Kayleigh explained. “We’re keeping Noël company.”
“It seems kind of appropriate to have a baby and a donkey in a stable.” Holly moved to kiss Boone’s fat little cheek. The baby blinked sleepily at her.
“Now can we tell him?” Brianna asked.
Holly nodded.
Brianna turned to Grady. “We’re moving back to Sanctuary. Daddy’s going to be a police chief and fly helicopters to rescue sick people, just like when you fell in the field. It’s called Medevac.”
“That’s right good news.” Grady directed a questioning gaze at Holly and Robbie. “I thought you folks were well settled down there.”
“We love Atlanta.” Holly meant it sincerely. The four of them had explored the city and its surroundings with excited delight. Holly had even begun to take flying lessons. But when she’d told Robbie she was pregnant, he’d kissed her and said, “Let’s go home.”
“Living in the city was a great adventure,” she said to Grady, “but our family and friends are here.”
Robbie nodded, one arm cradling his son and the other around his wife’s shoulders. “Sanctuary is where our hearts live.”
Author’s Note
For those wonderful folks who have already read the three full-length Whisper Horse novels that were published prior to this novella, I thought you might be interested in where Holly and Robbie’s story fits in chronologically. The events in
A Down-home Country Christmas
take place approximately a year and a half after Claire Parker and Tim Arbuckle fall in love in
Take Me Home,
the first book in the Whisper Horse series.
Here’s a quick summary of where all the main characters from
Take Me Home, Country Roads,
and
The Place I Belong
stand when
A Down-home Country Christmas
begins:
Claire and Tim have been married for about six months, although they feel as though they are still on their honeymoon. Tim has hired an associate at his veterinary practice so he can travel with Claire for her international art dealings. However, the associate doesn’t like the isolated location of Sanctuary, West Virginia, so he will resign in the next few months. Then Tim will hire Hannah Linden, the heroine of
The Place I Belong,
who chooses the job precisely because of its isolation.
Claire’s whisper horse Willow has recovered fully from her emergency operation and is about to become a mother.
Julia Castillo and Paul Taggart, the protagonists of
Country Roads
, met during the summer just past and are madly in love. Paul has not yet popped the question, but everyone in Sanctuary knows it’s only a matter of time before the two of them make it official. Paul’s
Pro Bono
project is going like gangbusters, and Julia’s new style of painting has taken the art world by storm.
Julia’s whisper horse Darkside still pretends to be a cranky, dangerous stallion, but the stable hands at Healing Springs Stables know it’s just an act these days. Darkside has learned to trust humans again, thanks to Julia.
In this story, Adam Bosch of
The Place I Belong
does not know he has a thirteen-year-old son named Matt nor has he met Hannah Linden since she has not yet fled from Chicago to Sanctuary (see Claire and Tim’s paragraph above). Adam is still burying himself in working at his brilliantly successful restaurant The Aerie rather than facing the demons of his past.
Matt’s whisper pony Satchmo is living with his stall buddy Jazzman at the racing stable in Florida.
A Down-home Country Christmas
is my holiday gift to you, my fabulous readers. You close the circle for my books, so I wanted to say thank you by giving you the story you requested. Happy holidays!
Also by Nancy Herkness
The Whisper Horse Novels
Contemporary Romance
Romantic Suspense
About the Author
Nancy Herkness is a Romance Writers of America RITA
®
award nominee for contemporary romance. She is the author of the award-winning Whisper Horse series, as well as several other romance novels. A member of Romance Writers of America, New Jersey Romance Writers, and Novelists, Inc., Nancy has received many honors for her work, including the Golden Leaf Award, the Golden Quill Award, and the National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award. She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in English literature and creative writing.
A native of West Virginia, Nancy now lives in New Jersey with her husband and two mismatched dogs.
For more information about Nancy and her books, visit
www.NancyHerkness.com
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