Mistletoe and Magic (4 page)

“Where have you been?” his aunt asked.

“I helped a friend out and now I’m here. How are you this evening?”

“I’m okay. I baked your favorite pie, Arden.”

“You did?” he said, pretending he hadn’t figured it out. “I wondered what that glorious smell was when I walked into the house. Thank you. When can I dig in?”

“Now, you know I won’t allow you to have dessert before dinner.”

“I remember, Auntie. Did you have your dinner yet?”

“Nope. I waited for you.”

“What are we having?”

She ambled around the kitchen and pulled two plates from the cupboard.

AJ lifted the lid off the pot on the stove and took a whiff. “Mmm, you made beef stew. Perfect for a cold night. Do we have biscuits too?”

“In the oven. I left them in there to keep warm.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Get out of those wet clothes and pour us a glass of wine.”

“I’m going to take a shower first. Is that okay?”

“Absolutely. It’ll warm you up.”

~~~

Exiting the shower, he toweled off feeling much better than he had the last hour. The warm water had managed to get his blood circulating again. He dressed and walked back out into the kitchen whistling.

“My, my. Someone’s happy. That must mean you met a woman.”

“Now, there you go again.”

“So who is she?”

He grinned. “You always could read me quite well, couldn’t you?”

“Well, I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, you know. I know infatuation when I see it. Now, who is she?”

“I doubt you’d know her.”

“Do you now?” She snickered. “As the municipal clerk, I know everyone. They may not know me, but I know them.”

“All right,” he said with a huff. “Her name is Mallory Gardner.”

“Ah, see. I do know her. She owns the Christmas shop in town.” She raised her hands. “And?”

“No
ands
. I’m just trying to get her to have coffee with me but she refuses.”

“You know she lost her husband in a motorcycle accident, don’t you?” she said in a hushed voice as though afraid someone could hear her.

“No. At this point, she’s avoiding me, my questions, and having coffee with me.”

“There was always something fishy about the way he died,” she continued. “In the mountains with young drug addicts.” She gave a disgusted shake of her head. “A wife and two kids; the man had no business trying to act like a teenager.”

“That must have been really hard for her. Maybe that’s why she’s so reluctant to get involved.”

“Ask her to help decorate that tree you just brought into the garage,” she said with a grin.

“Geez! Can’t I get anything by you?”

“I’m afraid not,” she said, filling the bowls. “Here,” she said gruffly, “grab this basket of biscuits and bring them to the table.”

“I wanted to surprise you,” he said in a huff. “You stole my thunder.”

“I’m sorry, but if you want to give me the perfect gift, find a woman and settle down.”

“By Christmas?”

“Why? You think that’s too soon?”

CHAPTER SIX

AJ meandered down the stairs in the old house, praying his slow pace wouldn’t make the old floorboards creak too loudly and wake his aunt. When his foot hit the floor, he was glad he’d kept the noise to a minimum. He scrubbed a hand over his face and released a yawn, exhausted from a sleepless night. Not that he was complaining. He’d been dreaming of Mallory decorating the Christmas tree. He entered the kitchen when his aunt’s voice startled him.

“You too?” she grumbled, and filled a cup with coffee. “Those snowplows can be pretty noisy.”

“Yeah.” He stood by the window and watched the neighbors scraping their car windshields. The snow was up to the top step of the house. “Holly cow, that snow is probably about three feet high.”

“It’s actually three feet, five inches.”

“Semantics.” He turned to watch her walk toward him with the cup. “You’re not planning to go into work today, are you?” he asked.

“As soon as those roads are plowed, I’ll be heading out.”

“How are you planning to get there? A horse-drawn sleigh?”

“No. I’ll be driving.”

He strained to see the driveway from where he stood and released a groan. “Damn, they’ve boxed us in.”

“Not for long. Willy will be here in a little while to plow the driveway and shovel the walk out in the front of the house.”

“I can do that for you. Let him do the driveway, and I’ll shovel the walk.” He watched a few teenagers walk by carrying snow shovels over their shoulders. “It looks brutal out there.” He leaned over checking further down the road. “I’ll take you to work.”

“That won’t be necessary,” she said, handing him the coffee. “Here, drink this.”

“That’s for me?”

“Of course, it’s for you. I already had half a pot. I’ll be jittery for the rest of the day with the amount of caffeine I’ve consumed.”

He reached out for the mug. “Thank you.”

She began to walk down the hallway toward the bathroom. “I made some flapjacks for you. They’re in the oven,” she said over her shoulder. “Think you can handle making your own dish so I can shower?”

“You’re spoiling me too much.”

“And I wouldn’t be if you didn’t deserve it.” She continued down the hall. “When is my tree going to get decorated?”

“As soon as I can convince that little lady to do the job.”

“That’s my boy.”

“Thanks,” he said, blowing her a kiss.

“Ooh,” she said, waving his gesture off, her face a rosy color from embarrassment, “save that mushy stuff for Mallory.”

He grinned and walked back to the window. At least it had stopped snowing. He reminisced about his childhood snowball fights. Naturally, he always won. That was one thing he was better at than his sisters.

A neighbor across the street flicked on the Christmas lights that glittered through the snow clinging to the garland-clad railings. He watched a gust of wind remove the snow from the tops of the automated Christmas lawn ornaments. Lingering for a few minutes more, he watched the three reindeer heads move up and down until his stomach growled and he decided it was time to eat. Tuning in a Christmas station on the radio, he hummed to
White Christmas
while he pulled the rack out of the oven and lifted out the hot pan.

~~~

Mallory groaned as she watched Willie plow the driveway. A few minutes later, Jenny called out from her bedroom door.

“Can I come out of my room, Mom?”

Mallory grinned. That was a new one. Usually, Jenny was rushing out as though nothing ever happened.

“Yes. You guys aren’t going to have any school today.”

“Yay,” Jenny said before putting her arms around her mother’s waist. “I’m sorry, Mom. I wasn’t very nice last night.”

“No, you weren’t. And I’d like you to apologize to your sister too.”

“What? The little puke girl?”

“Jenny, stop that before I send you back into your room. No name calling in this house.”

“Sorry.” Her arms gripped her mother’s midriff tighter. “Can I go wake Lacey up?”

“Only if you’re nice about it. I don’t want you yelling at her and scaring her half to death out of a sound sleep. Just a little nudge.” She gave her a warning look. “Are we clear?”

“Yes, Mom,” she said with a sigh and took off for the bedroom.

Mallory held her head in her hands when she heard Jenny’s loud voice.

“Get out of bed, soldier!” she screamed.

“Get out of here, barf face,” Lacey yelled back.

With a frustrated sigh, Mallory rushed into the room and grabbed Jenny by the arm, pulled her out into the living room and forced her to sit in the chair.

“Jenny, do I have to keep you in your room day and night? I warned you not to yell.”

“You said if she was sleeping. But she wasn’t sleeping, Mom, she was staring out the window.”

Mallory looked skyward and closed her eyes. She was at her wits’ end with Jenny and didn’t know what it was going to take to get her to start obeying. She’d been grounded from seeing her friends, wasn’t allowed phone calls, and the television had been taken away. What more could she do?

“Lacey, come out here, please.”

The girl walked out and punched her sister’s arm.

“That’s enough,” Mallory said. “Sit down next to your sister. This nonsense is going to stop now. I will be calling Dr. Bean and scheduling an appointment for us.”

“A shrink?” Jenny’s snarky tone ripped through the air.

“She’s a family counselor, and I think it would do us a lot of good.”

“Well, I’m not going,” she said, crossing her arms against her chest.

“We’ll see about that.” Hands shaking, Mallory headed for the kitchen and poured another cup of coffee. “Eat your breakfast, girls. You’ll be coming into work with me today.”

“I don’t want to,” Jenny’s sarcastic voice bounced off the walls.

“And that’s too bad. In case you didn’t notice, I’m the mother in this house, and what I say goes.” Mallory took her cup and walked to her bedroom and shut the door. Sitting down on the bed, she set her cup down on the nightstand and cried the tears she’d been holding onto while she punched the pillow, swearing at her dead husband as though he was there.

An hour later, she walked back out into the living room. The girls stared out the window with their arms wrapped around each other, their coats on the chair beside them and ready to leave. She gave a frustrated shake of her head and decided not to mention anything about their embrace.

“I’m going to heat the car, girls. Please get your coats on. It’s pretty cold out there.”

She raised the garage door and looked outside, wondering how AJ was handling all this snow. Sliding behind the steering wheel, she shook her head. Why was she even thinking about him? Didn’t she have enough problems?

CHAPTER SEVEN

The ride into work was slow as the tires crunched through the crusted, slush-covered roads. The bright sunlight was melting the snow, making the trip easier, and the girls were reading books instead of fighting.

The snowplows ahead continued to scrape the roads in front of the long line of cars, trying to remove the melted snow before nightfall when it would freeze. Mallory made a right turn into the parking lot and drove to the back of the store where a crew of workers shoveled the area.

“Do you have work for us to do today, Mom?” Jenny asked.

“I always have plenty of work you can do,” she said, looking at her in the rearview mirror. “The train hasn’t been set up yet. Want to do that?”

“Sure,” both girls said in unison.

Surprised by their reaction, she decided to keep her mouth shut as they shuffled out of the car and into the shop. The phone was ringing when she entered. Jenny ran to pick it up.

“
Every Day is Christmas
,” she said. “Yep, we just got here.” She was nodding her head. “All day…I think.” She turned to her mother. “How long are we going to be here?”

“As long as we have customers, we’ll be open.”

“Okay,” Jenny said and hung up.

“Who was that?” Mallory asked.

“Some guy. He said he’s coming over. He wants to talk to you.”

AJ came to mind and had her wondering if he was the man on the phone. With the girls at the shop with her, she hoped he wouldn’t bug her about having coffee with him.

“Hey, maybe it was that guy from last night,” Lacey said.

“What guy?”

“The guy who delivered our tree.”

“Yeah, maybe.” She gave a dismissive shrug and listened to her messages. The thought of him made her feel jittery inside. What would the girls think if he asked her out in front of them? She shuddered to think of Jenny’s reaction. When common sense took over, she admitted she was being ridiculous. He had more class than that. At least she thought he did.

The front door chimes jingled, and Mallory’s heart raced until she saw Dina sashaying across the floor. The girls ran toward her.

Dina opened her arms, and they entered, snuggling close, and kissed her. “What an awesome welcome,” she said, pinching their cheeks. “I’m so glad you guys are here today.” She nodded a hello to Mallory and continued to chat with the girls. “I was hoping you wouldn’t have any school today and I’m sure glad to see you. We need to get that train set up.”

“Yeah, Mom told us that’s what she wants us to do. Do you have anything else we can do, Aunt Dina?” Jenny asked.

“We need to make some bows. Think you can handle that?”

“We can if you’ll show us how.”

Dina looked to her sister. “You okay, Mal?”

“Yes. I’m fine. Why?”

“Didn’t you get any sleep last night? You look like death warmed over.”

Mallory blinked her eyes and gave a mournful groan. “No, I guess I didn’t get much despite my eyes being closed.”

“It’s my fault, Aunt Dina,” Lacey said. “I’m a restless sleeper.”

Dina gave her a quizzical look. “And why were you sleeping in your mother’s bed at your age, young lady?”

“Because…” She looked to her mother for guidance.

Jenny rolled her eyes and blurted it out. “Because we were fighting, and Mom separated us.” Mallory gave a helpless toss of her hands and walked away when the door chimes jingled again. Looking over her shoulder, Mallory saw that it was AJ. An unintentional smile separated her lips and made her heart thud against her rib cage. When Dina noticed him, she instinctively steered the girls toward the backroom.

Mallory greeted him as though he was the bright light in her day, and the fear of him asking her out in front of the girls was no longer a concern. In fact, she hoped he would. There was something about this guy who had managed to snake his way into her mind.

“How long did it take you to warm up last night?” she asked.

He laughed. “Not terribly long. I took a hot shower as soon as I got home; it worked its magic and got my blood flowing again.” They shared a laugh.

“I’d like to thank you for delivering my Christmas tree…and,” she said reaching for her purse, “I owe you money. I didn’t pay Jess for that tree. So how much did it come to?”