Holiday in Stone Creek (15 page)

"She's crazy?"

"She's fried her brain, between the booze and snorting a line of coke whenever she could scrape the money together. So, yeah.
She's crazy.
"

"Oh, God."

"They're adjusting her medication, and she'll eat regularly, anyway. I'm not planning to pay her a visit until sometime after the first, and I'd suggest you wait, too. This is Mac's first Christmas, and I plan to enjoy it."

Becky, the receptionist, beckoned from the side door of the clinic.

"I've got to go," Olivia said, nodding to Becky that she'd be right in. "Will you and Meg be at the tree-lighting and all that?"

"Definitely the tree-lighting. Probably the carnival, too. But maybe not the dance. Mac's getting a tooth, so he's not his usual sunny self."

Olivia laughed, blinked away tears.

This was life, she supposed. Their mother's tragedy on the one hand, a baby having his first Christmas and sprouting teeth on the other.

Falling in love with the wrong man at the wrong time.

What could you do but tough it out?

T
HE
S
OPHIE-OF
-C
HRISTMAS-FUTURE
haunted Tanner--she still came to him almost every night in his dreams, and of course he mulled them over during the days. In one memorable visit he'd found her living alone in an expensive but sparsely furnished apartment, with only a little ceramic tree to mark the presence of a holiday. He'd counted two Christmas cards tacked to her wall. In another, she tried to get through to him by phone, wanting to wish him a Merry Christmas. He'd been unreachable. And in a third installment he'd seen her standing wistfully at the edge of a city playground, watching a flock of young mothers and their children skating on a frozen pond.

Was this really a glimpse of the future, Ebenezer Scrooge-style, or was he just torturing himself with parental guilt?

Either way, he'd come to dread closing his eyes at night.

"Sophie looks happy," Tessa remarked from her seat at the kitchen table. Now that she'd finally arrived safely at Starcross at least, Tanner had one fewer thing to worry about. "And I like Olivia. Something special going on between the two of you?"

"What makes you think that?" he asked, hedging.

Tessa smiled at him over the rim of her coffee cup.
"Oh, maybe the way you sort of held your breath when you asked her to the dance, until she said yes, and the way she blushed--"

"If I remember correctly," Tanner broke in, "she said 'I guess so.'"

"Could it be you're finally thinking of settling down, Big Brother?"

Tanner dragged back a chair and sat. "A week ago, even a
day
ago, I probably would have said no. Emphatically. But I'm getting pretty worried about Sophie."

Tessa arched an eyebrow, waited in silence.

"I've been having these crazy dreams," he confessed, after a few moments spent trying to convince himself that Tessa would think he was nuts if he told her about them.

"What kind of crazy dreams?" Tessa asked gently, pushing her coffee cup aside, folding her arms and resting them on the table's edge.

Tanner shoved a hand through his hair. "It's as if I travel through time," he admitted, every word torn out of him like a strip of hide. "Sophie's in her thirties, and she's a doctor, but she's alone in the world."

"Hmmm," Tessa said. "The doctor is in. Advice, five cents."

Tanner gave a raw chuckle. "Put it on my bill," he said.

"How do you fit into these dreams?"

"I'm off building something, in some other part of the world. At the same time, I'm there somehow, watching Sophie. And who knows where you are. I don't want to scare you or anything, but you haven't been a guest star."

"Go on," Tessa said.

"I love my daughter, Tessa," Tanner said. "I don't want her to end up--well, alone like that."

Tessa's gray eyes widened, and a smile flicked at the corner of her mouth. She was still beautiful, and she still got acting offers, but she always turned them down because it would mean leaving her horses. "Sophie's been miserable at boarding school," she said. "Last fall, when it was time for her to go back, she begged me to let her stay on with me at the farm. I wanted so much to say yes, and damn
your
opinion in the matter, but things were going downhill fast between Paul and me even then. She'd heard us fighting all summer, and I knew it wasn't good for her."

"I thought she was
safe
at school."

"'Thought'? Past tense? What's happened, Tanner?"

Briefly Tanner explained what Sophie had told him about the easy availability of meth and ice at Briarwood. "It's not like Stone Creek is Brigadoon or anything." He sighed. "A kid can probably score any kind of drug right here in rural America. But I really thought I had all the bases covered."

"Give Sophie a little credit," Tessa said, and though her tone was firm, she reached across the table to touch Tanner's hand. "She's way too smart to do drugs."

"I know," Tanner answered. "But I've always thought she'd be happy when she grew up--that she'd come to understand that I had her best interests at heart, sending her away to school...."

"And the dreams made you question that?"

Tanner nodded. "They're so--so
real,
Tess. I can't shake the feeling that Sophie's going to have no life outside her work--all because she doesn't know how to be part of a family."

"Heavy stuff," Tessa said. "Are you in love with Olivia?"

"I don't know what I feel," Tanner answered, after a long silence. "And I don't necessarily have to get married to give Sophie a home, do I? I could sell off the overseas part of the business, or just close it down. I'd still have to do some traveling, but if you were here--"

"Hold it," Tessa broke in. "I can't promise I'm going to stay, Tanner. And one way or the other, I don't intend to live off your generosity like some poor relation."

"You won't have to," Tanner said. "There's money, Tess. Kat and I set it aside for you a long time ago."

Tessa's cheeks colored up. Her pride was kicking in, just as Tanner had known it would.
"What?"

"You put me through college on what you earned when you were acting, Tessa," he reminded her. "You took care of Gram while I was in the service and then getting the business started. You're
entitled
to all the help I can give you."

Tessa went from pink to pale. Her eyes narrowed. "I can provide for myself," she said.

"Can you?" Tanner countered. "Good for you. Because that's more than I could do when I was in college and for a long time after that, and it's more than Gram could have managed, too, with just her Social Security and the take from that roadside vegetable stand of hers."

"How
much
money, Tanner?"

"Enough," Tanner said. He got up, walked to the small desk in the corner of the kitchen and jerked a bound folder out of the drawer. Returning to the table, he tossed it down in front of her.

Tessa opened the portfolio and stared at the figures, her eyes rounding at all those zeroes.

"The magic of compound interest," Tanner said.

"This money should be Sophie's," Tessa whispered, her voice thin and very soft. "My God, Tanner, this is a
fortune.
"

"Sophie has a trust fund. I started it with Kat's life insurance check, and the last time I looked, it was around twice that much."

Tessa swallowed, looked up at him in shock, momentarily speechless.

"You can draw on it, or let it grow. My accountant has the tax angle all figured out, and it's in my name until the divorce is final, so Paul can't touch it." Still standing, Tanner folded his arms. "It's up to you, Tess. You're real good at giving. How are you at
receiving?
"

Tessa huffed out a stunned breath. "I could buy out Paul's half of the horse farm--"

"
Or
you could start over, right here, with a place of your own. No bad memories attached. Times are hard, and there are a lot of good people looking to sell all or part of their land."

"I can't think. Tanner, this is--this is unbelievable! I knew you were doing well, but I had no idea..."

"I'm late," he said.

On his way out, he checked on the puppies, found them sleeping in their box by the stove, curled up together as if they were still in the womb. They were so small, so helpless, so wholly trusting.

His throat tightened as he took his coat off the peg on the wall by the back door. He couldn't help drawing a parallel between the pups and Sophie.

"I'll be at the job site in town," he said. "You have my cell number if you need anything."

Tessa was still hunched over the portfolio. Her shoul
ders were shaking a little, so Tanner figured she was crying, though he couldn't be sure, with her back to him and all.

"Will you be okay here alone?" he asked gruffly.

She nodded vigorously, but didn't turn around to meet his gaze.

That damnable pride again.

Grabbing up his truck keys from the counter, he left the house. It was snowing so hard by then, he figured he'd probably let the construction crew off an hour or two early.

And Olivia had agreed to go to the dance with him that night.

It wasn't quite the date he'd had in mind, but she was planning to wear a dress, and Tessa would be on hand to keep an eye on Sophie after the tree-lighting and the carnival.

This was shaping up to be a half-decent Christmas.

Climbing behind the wheel of the truck, Tanner started the engine, whistling "Jingle Bells" under his breath, and headed for town.

A
SHLEY
,
WITH THE HELP
of a few very tall elves in college sweatshirts, was on a high ladder decorating her annual mongo Christmas tree when Olivia and Ginger showed up at noon.

"I need to borrow a dress for the dance," Olivia said.

"Hello to you, too," Ashley replied. She still looked a little feeble, but she was obviously into the holiday spirit, or she wouldn't have been decking the halls. And if she had a clue that Delia was in Flagstaff, luxuriously hospitalized, it didn't show. "I'm taller than you
are. Anything I loaned you would have to be hemmed. I don't have time for that, and you can't sew."

"I sew all the time. It's called surgery. Ashley, this is an emergency. Can I raid your closet? Please? The hardware store doesn't sell dresses, and I don't have time to drive up to Flagstaff and shop."

Ashley waved her toward the stairs. "Anything but the blue velvet number with the little beads. I'm wearing that myself."

Olivia wiggled her eyebrows. Ginger snugged herself up on the hooked rug in front of the crackling blaze in the fireplace and relaxed into a power nap. That dog was at home anywhere. And everywhere.

"You have a date?" Olivia asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Ashley replied, carefully draping a single strand of tinsel over a branch. She'd do that two jillion times, to make the tree look perfect. "It's a blind date, if you must know. A friend of Tanner Quinn's--he's going to be staying here. The friend, not Tanner."

Olivia paused at the base of the stairway. "I hope it goes well," she said. "It could be awkward living under the same roof with a bad date until next spring."

"Thanks a heap, Liv. Now I'm
twice
as nervous."

Olivia hurried up the stairs. She still had to broach the subject of Ashley whipping up something spectacular for her to give Tanner, Sophie and Tessa for Christmas. An ice castle, made of sugar, she thought. Failing that, fancy cookies would work--the kind with colored frosting and sugar sparkles.

But the outfit had to come first.

Ashley's room was almost painfully tidy--the bed made, all the furniture matching, the prints tastefully ar
ranged on the pale pink walls. Everywhere she looked, there was lace, or ruffles, or both.

It was almost impossible to imagine a man in that room.

Olivia sighed, thinking of her own jumbled bed, liberally sprinkled with dog hair. Her clothes were all over the floor, and she hadn't seen the surface of the dresser in weeks.

Yikes. If the date with Tanner went the way she hoped it would, she'd wish she'd spruced the place up a little--but at least he wouldn't have to contend with lace and ruffles.

She would cut out of the clinic an hour early that afternoon, assuming there were no disasters in the interim. Run the vacuum cleaner, dust a little, change the sheets.

She turned her mind back to the task at hand. Ashley's closet was jammed, but organized. Even color coded, for heaven's sake. Olivia swiped a pair of black velvet palazzo pants--probably gaucho pants on Ashley--and tried them on. If she rolled them up at the waist and wore her high-heeled boots, she probably wouldn't catch a toe in a hem and fall on her face.

A red silk tank top and a glittering silver shawl completed the ensemble.

Piece of cake, Olivia thought smugly, heading out of the room and back down the stairs with the garments draped over one arm.

At the bottom of the steps, just opening her mouth to pitch the sugar-ice-castle idea to Ashley, she stopped in her tracks.

A guy stood just inside the front door, and what a guy he was. Military haircut, hard body, straight back
and shoulders. Wearing black from head to foot. Only the twinkle in his hazel eyes as he looked up at Ashley saved him from looking like a CIA agent trying to infiltrate a terrorist cell.

Ashley, staring back at him, seemed in imminent danger of toppling right off the ladder.

The air sizzled.

"Jack McCall," Ashley marveled. "You son of a bitch!"

J
ACK
M
C
C
ALL GRINNED
and saluted. "Good to see you again, Ash," he said, admiring her with a sweep of his eyes. "Are we still going to the dance together tonight?"

Ashley shinnied down the ladder, which was no mean trick in a floor-length Laura Ashley jumper. "I wouldn't go
anywhere
with you, you jerk," she cried. "Get out of my house!"

Olivia's mouth fell open. Ashley was the consummate bed-and-breakfast owner. She
never
screamed at guests--and Mr. McCall was clearly a guest, since he had a suitcase--much less called them sons of bitches.

"Sorry," McCall said, crossing his eyes a little at the finger Ashley was about to shake under his nose. "The deal's made, the lease is signed and I'm here until spring. On and off."

The college-student elves had long since fled, but Olivia and Ginger remained, both of them fascinated.

"She's crazy about him,"
Ginger said.

"Look, Ash," McCall went on smoothly, "I know we had that little misunderstanding over the cocktail waitress, but don't you think we ought to let bygones be bygones?"

This man worked for Tanner? Olivia thought, trying to catch up with the conversation. He didn't look like
the type to work for anyone but himself--or maybe the president.

Where had Ashley met him?

And what was the story with the cocktail waitress?

"I was young and stupid," Ashley spouted, putting her hands on her hips.

"But very beautiful." Jack McCall sighed. "And you still are, Ash. It's good to see you again."

"I bet you said the same thing to the cocktail waitress!" Ashley cried.

Jack looked, Olivia thought, like a young, modern version of Cary Grant. Impishly chagrined and way too handsome. And where had she heard his name before?

"She meant nothing to me," Jack said.

Olivia rolled her eyes. What a charmer he was. But he and Ashley looked perfect together, even if Ashley
was
trembling with fury.

It was time to step in, before things escalated.

Olivia hurried over and took her sister by the arm, tugging her toward the kitchen and, at the same time, chiming rapid-fire at McCall, over one shoulder, "Hi. I'm Olivia O'Ballivan, Ashley's sister. Glad to meet you. Make yourself at home while I talk her into building an ice castle out of sugar, will you? Thanks."

"An
ice castle?
" Ashley demanded once they were in the kitchen.

"With turrets, and lights inside. I'll pay you big bucks. Who
is
that guy, Ash?"

Ashley's shoulders sagged. She blew out a breath, and her bangs fluttered in midair. "He's nobody," she said.

"Get real. I know passion when I see it."

"I knew him in college," Ashley admitted.

"You never mentioned dating the reincarnation of Cary Grant."

"He dropped me for a cocktail waitress. Why would I want to mention that? I felt like an idiot."

"That was a while ago, Ash."

"Don't you have to get back to work or something?"

Ginger meandered in.
"There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight,"
she said.

"Hush," Olivia said.

"I will
not
hush," Ashley said. "And what's this about a sugar ice castle with lights inside?"

"I need something special to give the Quinns for Christmas, and you're the only one I know with that kind of--"

"Time on her hands?" Ashley finished ominously.

"Talent," Olivia said sweetly. "The only one with that kind of
talent.
"

"You are
so
full of it."

Olivia batted her eyelashes. "But I'm your big sister, and you love me. I'm always there for you, and if you ever had a pet, I'd give it free veterinary care. For life."

"No sugar castle," Ashley said. "I have a million things to do, with all these guests checking in." She paused. "If I murdered Jack McCall, would you testify that I was with you and give me an alibi?"

"Only if you made me a few batches of your stupendous Christmas cookies so I could give them to Sophie and Tanner."

Ashley smiled in spite of her earlier ire, but pain lingered in her eyes, old and deep. Jack McCall
had
hurt her, and suddenly he seemed a whole lot less charming than before. "I'll bake the cookies," she said. "God knows where I'll find the time, but I'll do it."

Olivia kissed her sister's cheek. "I'm beyond grateful. Are you really going to refuse to rent McCall a room?"

"It's Christmas," Ashley said musingly. "And anyway, if he's here, under my roof, I can find lots of ways to get back at him. By New Year's, he'll be
begging
to break the lease."

Olivia laughed, held up the armload of clothes. "Thanks, Ash," she said. "In this getup, I'll be a regular Cinderella."

"Shall I stay here and spy, or go back to the clinic with you?"
Ginger inquired, looking from Ashley to Olivia.

"You're going with me," Olivia said on the way back to the living room. She'd have gone out the back way, as the fleeing elves probably had, but she wanted one more look at Jack McCall.

"I'm not going anywhere," Ashley argued, following. "I've still got to tie at least a hundred bows on the branches of the Christmas tree."

"I was talking to Ginger," Olivia explained breezily.

"And I suppose she talked back?" Ashley asked.

"Skeptic," Olivia said.

Jack McCall had taken off his coat, and his bag sat at the base of the stairs. Evidently he was planning to stay on. The poor guy probably had no idea how many passive-aggressive ways there were for a crafty bed-and-breakfast owner to make an unwanted guest hit the road.

Too much starch in the sheets.

Too much salt in the stew.

The possibilities were endless.

Olivia was smiling broadly as she and Ginger descended Ashley's front steps, headed for the Suburban.

F
AT FLAKES OF SNOW
drifted down from a heavy sky as the entire population of Stone Creek and half of Indian Rock gathered in the town's tiny park for the annual tree-lighting ceremony.

Sophie stood at Olivia's left side, Tanner at her right.

Brad had been roped into being the MC, but it was an informal gig, and he didn't have to sing. He announced that the high school gym was all decked out for the carnival and the dance afterward, and reminded the crowd that all the proceeds would go to worthy causes.

An enormous live spruce awaited splendor, its branches dark and fragrant, strings of extension cord running from beneath it. Roots enclosed in burlap, it would be planted when the ground thawed, like all the other Stone Creek Christmas trees before it.

"Are we ready?" Brad asked, holding the switch.

"YES!" roared the townspeople in one happy voice.

Brad flipped the plastic lever, and what seemed like millions of tiny colored lights shimmered in the cold winter night, like stars trapped in the branches.

The applause sounded like a herd of cattle stampeding.

The din had barely subsided when sleigh bells jingled, right on cue.

Tanner grinned down at Olivia and took her hand. She felt a little trill, though she was a bit nervous because she'd already had to surreptitiously roll up her borrowed palazzo pants a couple of times.

"Could it be?" Brad said into the mic. "Could
Santa Claus
be right here in Stone Creek?"

The smaller children in the crowd waited in breathless silence, their eyes huge with wonder and anticipation.

It happened every year. Santa arrived on a tractor from the heavy-equipment rental place, bells jingling an accompaniment through a scratchy PA system, the man in the red suit waving and tossing candy and shouting, "Ho! Ho!
Ho!
"

This year was a little different, it turned out.

Kris Kringle himself drove the fancy tree-lot sleigh, the one with the brass runners, into the center of the park--pulled by seven real live reindeer and a donkey. He wore hands-down the best Santa suit Olivia had ever seen, and instead of candy, he had a huge, bulky green velvet bag in the back of the sleigh.

"Very authentic," Tanner told Olivia, his eyes sparkling.

There were actual wrapped presents in the bag, they soon saw, and Kris Kringle distributed them, making sure every child received one.

Even Sophie, too old at twelve to believe in Santa, got a small red-and-white striped package.

Brad must have been behind the gifts, Olivia thought. Times were hard, and a lot of Stone Creek families had been out of work since late summer. It would be just like her brother to see that they got something for Christmas in a pride-sparing way like this.

"Wow," Sophie said, staring at the package, then casting a sidelong glance at Tanner. "Can I open it?"

"Why not?" Tanner asked, looking mystified. Olivia knew he was throwing a turkey-and-trimmings feast for the whole community on Christmas Day, down at the senior citizens' center--Sophie had spilled the beans about that--but he didn't seem to be in on the presents-for-every-kid-in-town thing.

Sophie ripped into the package, drew in a breath when
she saw what it was--an exquisite miniature snow globe with horses inside, one like Shiloh, the other the spitting image of Butterpie.

"Is this from you, Dad?" she asked after swallowing hard.

Tanner was staring curiously at Kris Kringle, who glanced his way and smiled before turning his attention back to the children clamoring to pet the lone donkey and the seven reindeer.

"Gently, now," Kringle called, a right jolly old elf. "They have a long trip to make on Christmas Eve and they're not used to crowds."

"Can they fly?" one child asked. Olivia spotted the questioner, a little boy in outgrown clothes, clutching an unopened package in both hands. She'd gone to high school with his parents, both of whom had been drawing unemployment since the sawmill closed down for the winter. It was rumored that the husband had just been hired as a laborer at Tanner's construction site, but of course that didn't mean their Christmas would be plush. The family would have bills to catch up on.

"Why, of course they can fly, Billy Johnson," Kringle replied jovially.

"Oh, brother," Tanner sighed.

Mr. Kringle had gotten to know everybody in town, Olivia thought, just since the day after Thanksgiving. Otherwise he wouldn't have known Billy's name.

"What about the donkey?" a little girl inquired. Like Billy's, her clothes showed some wear, and she had a package, too, also unopened. Olivia didn't recognize her, figuring she and her family must be new in town. "There wasn't any
donkey
in the St. Nicholas story."

"I've had to improvise, Sandra," Kringle explained
kindly. "One of my reindeer--" here he paused, sought and unerringly found Olivia's face in the gathering, and winked "--has been on vacation."

"Oh," said the little girl.

Brad, having left the stage after lighting up the tree, had made his way through the crowd, carrying a snow-suited, gurgling Mac on one hip. Like every other kid, Mac had a present, and he was bonking Brad on the head with it as they approached.

"The packages were a nice touch," Olivia said, drawing her brother aside.

"I was expecting Fred Stevens, stuffed into the chamber of commerce's ratty old corduroy suit and driving a tractor," Brad said, looking puzzled. Even when
they
were kids, Mr. Stevens, a retired high school principal and the grand poo-bah at the lodge, had done the honors. "And I don't know anything about the presents."

No one else in Stone Creek, besides Tanner, had the financial resources to buy and wrap so many gifts. Olivia narrowed her eyes. "You can level with me," she whispered. "I know you and Meg arranged for this, just like when you made a lot of toys and food baskets magically appear on certain people's porches last Christmas Eve. You put one over on poor Fred somehow and paid Kringle to fill in."

Brad frowned. Took the present from Mac's hand, putting an end to the conking. "No, I didn't," he said. "Fred loves this job. I wouldn't have talked him out of it."

"Okay, but you must have bought the presents. I
know
the town council, the chamber of commerce, both churches
and
the lodge couldn't have pulled this off."

"I haven't got a clue where these packages came
from," Brad insisted, and his gaze strayed to Kris Kringle, who was preparing to drive away in his sleigh. "Unless..."

"Don't be silly," Olivia said. "The man runs a Christmas-tree lot and makes personal appearances at birthday parties. Wyatt ran a background check on him, and there's no way he could afford a giveaway on this scale. Nor, my dear brother, is he Santa Claus."

Brad shoved a hand through his hair, scanning the crowd, probably looking for his wife. "Look, I admit Meg and I are planning to scatter a few presents around town this year," he told her earnestly. "But if I was in on this one, believe me, I'd tell you."

Sophie stood nearby, shaking her snow globe for Mac's benefit. The baby strained over Brad's shoulder, trying to grab it.

Olivia turned to Tanner. "Then you must have done it."

"I wish I had," Tanner said thoughtfully. "The turkey dinner on Christmas Day seemed more practical to me." He grinned, putting one arm around Sophie and one around Olivia. "Let's go check out that carnival."

A look passed between Brad and Tanner.

"Have fun," Brad said, with a note of irony and perhaps warning in his voice.

"We will," Tanner replied lightly, slugging Brad in the Mac-free arm.

Brad gave him an answering slug.

Men,
Olivia thought.

T
HE CARNIVAL
,
LIKE THE
tree-lighting ceremony, was crowded. The gym had been decorated with red and green streamers and giant gold Christmas balls, and
there were booths set up on all four walls--fudge for sale in this one, baked goods in that one. Adults settled in for a rousing evening of bingo, the prizes all donated by local merchants, and there were games for the children--the "fishing hole" being the most popular.