A Down-Home Country Christmas (2 page)

“No, no, wait…” But the dispatcher had already put her on hold. Holly felt the flush of embarrassment climb her cheeks and was relieved no one could see it. Would Robbie think she was using the lost donkey story as an excuse to drag him back into her life?

Robbie’s deep voice came through the receiver. “Holly, is everything all right?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for them to bother you,” she tried to explain. “I just called to find out who might be missing a donkey.”

“You found Farmer Grady’s jenny!” She heard amusement and relief in his voice.

“You mean this is the nativity donkey?” Every year, a week before Christmas, Grady Boone, an elderly widower who owned a farm near Sanctuary, set up a nativity scene with a few live farm animals in a field beside the main highway. All the children in town loved to visit the display.

“Her name’s Noël,” Robbie said. “A couple of good old boys got drunk last night and ran their truck into the nativity scene. The animals got loose, but we rounded up all of them except the donkey. Grady will sure be relieved to have her back. I’ll bring him and his truck over to your place to load her up.”

“She’s tied up in the gazebo right now with a bucket of water. The girls fed her all the carrots I had in the house but she’s probably still hungry, poor thing.” Now that the donkey was safely captured, Holly could afford to be sympathetic.

“Sounds to me like she’s pretty well taken care of,” Robbie said. “I’ll be there in twenty.”

Holly hung up and glanced at her watch. She knew the girls wouldn’t want to leave without seeing the donkey off. She went back to the kitchen. “Guess who that donkey belongs to?”

“Farmer Grady’s nativity scene,” Brianna and Kayleigh chorused in unison.

“We heard you when you were talking to the policeman,” Brianna admitted.

“Captain Robbie is coming to pick her up, so if you want to wait and say good-bye, you have to be ready to go to school before he gets here.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kayleigh said, picking up her spoon and scooping up a large dollop of the grits she’d barely touched before. “I’m glad the donkey ended up here, so Captain Robbie has to come see us.”

Heaven help her, but Holly felt the same way.

Chapter 2

The growl of a truck engine followed by the metallic rattle of an empty livestock trailer sent Holly racing out the front door. She watched as the door of the ancient green truck creaked open, and Robbie sprang out onto the driveway like the former athlete he was, landing lightly on thick-soled police boots. A weak sunbeam from the breaking dawn found glints of blond in his light brown hair, and she could see how blue his eyes were, even from twenty feet away.

He strode up the cement sidewalk, and her eyes were drawn to the fluid movement of his long legs in their ink-dark uniform trousers. His badge caught the sun, making her blink at the sudden flash against his winter jacket. On his face was the official “everything will be all right, ma’am” smile. It softened into something a little more personal as he got closer and she smiled back.

The truth was she’d had a crush on him when he was the high school football team’s quarterback, but she was two years younger than he and too shy to do more than worship him from afar. After he graduated he’d traded his green-and-gold Spartan’s uniform for a police officer’s deep blue. When Frank turned violent, Robbie had come back into her life in his professional capacity, taking responsibility for her safety until he had confirmed her ex had left the country to live in Mexico. With all her money.

He still monitored Frank’s whereabouts with the promise to warn her if the bastard ever reappeared in Sanctuary. And her crush had matured into an awareness that unsettled her every time she saw Robbie.

“Morning, pretty lady,” he said. Holly’s heart did a little flip when he called her that. “Grady took a shy spell and sent me with his truck and trailer. He’s gotten reclusive since his wife died.”

“We all miss Bess Boone. She was such a sweet person.” She twisted her hands together in front of her. “I’ve got nineteen minutes before we have to be in the car. The girls won’t leave until Noël does.”

“Then let’s get Noël loaded.” He held out his hand to help her down the slippery steps. She hesitated, looking at the long fingers she’d seen him wrap around a football and the butt of a gun. She’d also seen Robbie’s hand clenched into a fist when Frank threatened her at the 4-H barn dance.

She laid her hand in his, feeling the strength of his grasp for the split second it took to reach the sidewalk. She wanted to hold onto that warm, strong anchor for the whole walk around the house to the gazebo—and beyond—but he released her as soon as she stood on the sidewalk beside him, shifting his grip to her elbow to steady her through the snow.

She reminded herself that it was just his automatic chivalry toward women in general. He had four older sisters and, up until her death two months ago, a frail and ailing mother, so he was well-trained in gallantry. His gesture meant nothing more than basic courtesy, but she was willing to take even that crumb of attention.

“Noël sure walked a long way from her farm,” she said, as delicious flickers of sensation radiated from his hand up her arm through the layers of her wool coat and sweater.

“The crash probably scared her.” Robbie shortened his stride to match hers. “Those two drunken idiots deserve more than a few nights in jail and a fine. Grady was pretty torn up over the destruction, since he and Bess built the nativity scene together.”

“Maybe we could help him fix it up again,” Holly said, sympathy tugging at her.

Robbie shook his head. “It’s pretty smashed up. And he says he’s done with it.”

“That’s a shame.” Holly felt a flare of anger at the drunk driver. He’d destroyed more than just some wooden shapes. He’d destroyed a Sanctuary holiday tradition.

Alcohol had ruined many holidays for her too. She flashed back to the times Frank would bang open the door, smelling of liquor and calling out loudly for his girls to come kiss him. On those evenings, she would run interference to keep him away from Brianna and Kayleigh, which made him angry and mean. Once he even deliberately knocked over the Christmas tree, stomping on the ornaments not broken by the fall. She could hear the sound of his shoes crunching the thin, fragile glass on the wood floor; it still sent tendrils of despair winding through her chest.

“Captain Robbie! Look who came to visit.” Kayleigh waved from the gazebo where she stood beside the donkey.

Her daughter’s innocent friendliness pulled Holly out of the dark memories.

Brianna was stroking Noël’s head and neck, but she looked up with a shy smile as they approached. “She likes being petted.”

When Robbie released Holly’s elbow to climb the steps of the gazebo, she felt the loss. Yet she knew she shouldn’t lean on him, either physically or emotionally.

“You girls are the best donkey-sitters I’ve ever seen,” Robbie said, untying the rope from the gazebo’s railing, “but now we’ve got to get Noël back home.” He led the donkey down the steps, the two girls following close behind.

“Can we visit her after school?” Brianna’s gaze shifted between her mother and Robbie.

Holly looked at Robbie. “It depends on Mr. Boone.” Her guilty hope was that the old farmer would say no. She had been looking forward to the donkey’s departure, taking those big teeth and sharp hooves far away.

Not to mention the fact that Christmas was fast approaching and she still had cookies to bake for the annual church swap, donations to collect and drop off for the hospital toy drive, and her own family gift-wrapping and cooking to do. Donkey visits hadn’t been factored into her schedule.

“I’ll ask him,” Robbie said, tramping through the snow.

As the donkey walked placidly along beside Robbie, Holly called herself every kind of coward. However, her pulse skittered when they got to the trailer and he turned to her with the rope. “Can you hold Noël while I flip the ramp down?”

“S-sure.” She gripped the nylon line as though her life depended on it, even as she took a step away from the donkey. She reminded herself to project confidence, both for her daughters and for Robbie. “No problem,” she said in a firmer voice.

Robbie gave her a little smile of encouragement before he began unhooking various latches. Holly’s attention was split between making sure the donkey wasn’t going to bite her and watching the flex of Robbie’s thigh muscles outlined by his trousers as he bent and straightened while lowering the ramp.

“Mama, Noël’s eating my pom-pom!” Kayleigh clutched her pink knit cap to her head as the donkey nibbled on it.

With a guilty start, Holly pulled Noël’s head away from her daughter. “Sorry, sweetie.” She’d let her attention stray to Robbie’s body for too long. “I didn’t know donkeys liked yarn.”

Robbie disappeared into the trailer, removing that distraction. While the girls cooed and hugged the donkey, he jogged back down the ramp.

“Say good-bye to Noël, girls.” Holly gave the donkey’s neck another brief, tentative pat before Robbie took the rope from her.

He turned to the children. “Grady will sure be grateful to all of you for taking such good care of Noël.”

“Will you ask him about visiting her?” Brianna repeated, her brown eyes filled with pleading.

“I’ll text your mom as soon as I get his answer,” Robbie said. “Now you all skedaddle off to school or you’ll be late.”

Holly was as reluctant to leave as the girls, although for a different reason, but his reminder sent her scurrying for the garage with her daughters in tow. A quick glance at the mini-van’s clock told her they’d be about two minutes late.

Sometimes she hated that darn clock.

* * *

Robbie watched Holly and her girls disappear into the garage. He’d gotten attached to the quiet, serious Brianna and her sassy little sister Kayleigh. They seemed miraculously unscarred by the ugliness their father had put the family through with his abuse and desertion. Holly was one heck of a good mother.

Holly’s mini-van rolled backward down the short driveway and onto the street, the two girls waving madly. He lifted a hand in response. Through the windshield, he saw Holly smile and bob her head to him as she steered past Grady’s rig. That sunshine smile of hers always gave him a little kick in the chest.

Then she had this other smile he’d catch sometimes when she looked at him, a kind of secret, sideways slant of eyes and lips that made him want to sink one hand into her dark, silky-looking hair and use the other one to pull her curvy body up against him while he tasted her soft mouth. That was the smile he waited for, and knew he shouldn’t.

“Come on, Noël, let’s get you home.” He gave the rope a tug as he started toward the ramp.

One step and he was jerked to a stop by the taut line in his hands. Glancing back, he saw Noël had her front feet planted wide apart, her neck stretched out full-length. He knew the proper way to load livestock into a trailer from summers of working on his uncle’s farm, but his focus had been on fantasies he shouldn’t be contemplating. “Sorry, girl. Let’s try it again.”

He positioned himself beside the little beast’s head, grasped the cheek strap of her halter, and turned her away from the trailer ramp in a tight circle, getting her walking before he pointed them both back at the trailer.

One foot from the ramp, Noël planted her hooves and stopped again, fighting the forward pressure he put on her halter.

“What’s bothering you about the trailer?” he asked, leading the donkey to one side of the ramp and tying her to a ring so she could see into the vehicle.

Maybe Noël didn’t like the sense of walking into an enclosed space. He looked up at the mountains crowding the horizon. He knew about feeling trapped. After graduating from West Virginia University, he’d landed a job with the Chicago police department where he was on the fast track to becoming a detective. A year later, his father had died, and his ailing mother asked him to come home. He didn’t regret helping his mother out during the last years of her life but now that she was gone, he’d soon be busting out of the confines of Sanctuary.

That’s why he had to keep his hands off Holly. She wasn’t the kind of woman you loved and left.

And there was no chance she was leaving Sanctuary. She’d often told him how important it was to her and her children to have the support of her sister, her friends, and the whole community.

He brought his gaze back to the donkey. “Okay, watch me.” He walked up the ramp and stepped into the trailer, fluffing the fresh straw bedding Grady had pitchforked into the trailer at the farm. “Think of it as a nice, comfortable temporary stall.”

He wished he had some of those carrots the girls had been feeding her, but she’d come along so agreeably until now that he didn’t think he’d need treats to entice her. And Grady had said she was an easy loader.

He walked back down the ramp and untied Noël, steering her into the same circular maneuver. “Come on, girl!” He put all his weight and momentum forward.

This time he got Noël’s front hooves onto the ramp before he was yanked backwards, nearly falling as he lost his balance on the sloped surface. He flailed a moment before his arm found the donkey’s sturdy back, and he used her to right himself.

Putting his hands on his hips, he surveyed Noël. She couldn’t weigh more than three hundred pounds but she had a heck of a lot of leverage with those four legs. He pulled out his cellphone with a huff of frustration. “Hey, Pete, can you come over to Holly Snedegar’s house on Cornsilk Lane and give me a hand with a donkey?”

As soon as Pete stopped laughing, he agreed to head over, arriving fifteen minutes later.

“You can’t get that little critter up a ramp?” Pete said, as he climbed out of the police car, his ruddy face alight with amusement at Robbie’s predicament. He rubbed a hand over his crew-cut blond hair and chortled. “Wait until I tell the rest of the guys about this.”

This was one of the problems with having your best friend and former teammate as a partner. No respect, even though Robbie outranked him. “Tell you what. I’ll let
you
handle this.” Robbie handed the rope to Pete before he stood back and crossed his arms over his chest.

After Pete’s three attempts to get Noël on the trailer, Robbie was doubled over with laughter. “At least I got her hooves on the ramp.” His amusement died when he realized his new job in Atlanta would mean not seeing Pete anymore.

“I’ve met mules less stubborn than this critter,” Pete said, wiping away sweat from his forehead.

“Looks like a two-man job,” Robbie said. “I’ll take the head. You get behind and push.”

“How about you take the rear and I’ll stay up here?”

Robbie shook his head. “What kind of a captain would I be if I didn’t lead the charge?” He held out his hand for the rope, and Pete grudgingly passed it over.

“If I get kicked, I’m sending you the doctor bills.” Pete put his hand on Noël’s back and sidled up to her hind end with caution.

“Grady says she doesn’t kick or bite.” Robbie grinned. “But Grady also said she was easy to load.” He wrapped his fingers around Noël’s halter. “On three. One…two…three.”

Robbie threw his weight forward as he heard a grunt of effort from Pete. Noël’s body rocked and her hooves skidded a few inches forward. “Again,” Robbie commanded, giving it his all. Noël threw her head up and let out a long, honking bray that made his eardrums feel like someone was pounding on them with a hammer.