The Homespun Holiday (3 page)

“That sounds exceptionally
gruesome.  Been giving that some thought for a while, have you?” Mack asked as
he propped his chin on his hand, his eyes drifting back toward where Millicent
sat at the front of the restaurant.  His nurse now appeared to be listening
intently to something her daughter was sharing with her.  If the look on her
face was any indication, Millie wasn’t too thrilled with whatever she was
hearing.

“You have
no
idea.  I’m
ready for a change, Mack.  A real change.  And if I could be closer to my big
brother instead of half a country away from him, I think I should give the
hospital board a listen, don’t you?” Aubrey questioned curiously, unaware that
her brother’s mind was partially occupied with another woman.

Mack’s shoulders sagged as he heard
the stubbornness and determination in his kid sister’s voice.  She’d always
been hard-headed.  It was a family trait passed down from their father. 
“Okay,” he acceded quietly.  “But don’t sign anything until you’ve actually
taken some time to consider the change from all angles.  You might be gaining
your brother, but we’d both be leaving Mom behind.  You okay with that?” he
asked pointedly.

“Mom has told us both on more than
one occasion that she’s a grown woman fully capable of running her own life. 
Besides, I think a change of scenery would do her good, too.  Everywhere she
looks in Seattle, she has to contend with memories of not only Dad, but Aunt
Jo, too.”

Mack closed his eyes for a moment. 
He was soooo going to lose this battle, but he had to make one last stand. 
“You know, sis, taking a job with Paradise General is like joining the Mafia. 
Once in, never out.  They don’t just let you go when the contract is up.  They
find new and inventive ways to keep you here.  I should know since I’ve tried
to escape their clutches three times.”

“Awwww, did you wake up with a
horsy head in your bed?” Bree asked with an amused chuckle.

“Not yet, but I expect it’ll happen
any day now.  The head of Paradise General and I have an ongoing dispute over
just exactly how long the length of my contract is.  And he won’t use a horse’s
head.  It’ll probably be a donkey.  Because believe me, the hospital
administrator you’ve got your heart set on meeting is a braying ass.”

“Whatever,” Bree dismissed him
flippantly.  “At any rate, we’ll be there day after tomorrow.  We’re set to
land in Knoxville on the 15
^th
of December at 2:15 in the afternoon. 
Can you fit us into your busy schedule or will I need to get a cab to
Paradise?  Do they even
have
cabs that run in Paradise?”

“I’ll be there, Bree.  Just…don’t
expect much.  It’s just been me and the dog for a while now.  Hell, I’m not
even sure there are sheets on the beds in my spare bedrooms.  Nobody has ever
stayed with me since I moved.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.  I love
Nugget.  He and I get on famously.  And I can buy you sheets for the beds if
need be,” Bree soothed.

“I could get you and Mom rooms at
the Holiday Inn.  You might be more comfort….”

“We’re staying with
you
!”
Aubrey proclaimed firmly.   “For heaven’s sake, the whole point of coming to
Paradise is to spend some time with you, Mack,” she continued huffily.  “Do us
a favor, okay?  Put on your big boy pants and suck it up.  You’re gonna have to
entertain your family for a few days.”

“Fine,” Mack muttered unhappily,
glaring at the back of Millicent Robbins’ head.  He knew she had to be
responsible for this.  There was no doubt in his mind that his meddling nurse
had taken it upon herself to make sure he had a merry fuckin’ Christmas.  “Call
me when you land.”

“Will do.  See you soon, Mack,”
Aubrey said cheerfully before hanging up the phone.

Shoving his cell back into his coat
pocket, Mack suppressed the urge to growl out loud and stomp his feet like a
two-year-old.   Seething with aggravation, he eyed his nurse as she reached for
her glass on her table.  Oh, Millicent very definitely had some explaining to
do.  Talk about overstepping boundaries.  That interfering woman didn’t just
overstep her boundaries…she fuckin’ leaped over them.

Reaching for his wallet, he quickly
flipped a twenty-dollar bill onto the table.  It was more than enough to cover
his meal and the tip, he thought silently as he quickly stood and reached for
his coat.  Shoving his arms through the sleeves, he adjusted the collar before
marching toward the woman who seemed determined to cram the Christmas holiday
down his very unwilling throat and choke him to death with it. 

As he made his way toward the
troublemaker’s table, he grimly grinned to himself.  Maybe he’d be getting to
know his nurse a bit better after all. 

Because if he was being dragged
into the Christmas catastrophe with his family, he was taking prisoners along
for the ride.

“Tell me again, Paisley Brynn
Robbins,” Millie Robbins’ stern voice ordered her little girl as they sat at a
round table inside the cafe finishing their lunch, “What possessed you to say
those things out loud in school of all places?  Do you realize that the
principal could suspend you for that kind of talk?”

“Because, Momma, Billy Ray was
tellin’ it
wrong
,” Paisley insisted vehemently, stomping her tiny foot
on the floor.  “And when somebody is tellin’ a lie, you don’t just let ‘im get
‘way wit’ it.  You tell it true, dontcha?” she asked reasonably, her wide hazel
eyes staring up unrepentantly at her mother.  “Aren’t you and Granny always
tellin’ me that the truth will always out?  Well, I just helped the truth along
a lil’ bit.”

“Our little Miss Busybody has got
you there, child,” Darby Robbins chuckled softly as she looked at her
grandchild with amusement.  “She only told the truth, Millicent.”

“And the Good Book says we
always
hafta tell the truth,” Paisley decreed with a firm nod, obviously feeling as
though the Bible had offered her the safety net she needed.

“Paisley, you did
not
need
to tell your entire kindergarten class how a baby is born.”

“Momma, Billy Ray said the Virgin
Mary found Jesus under a tobacco leaf.  That just ain’t right,” the young child
whined, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly, her mutinous gaze
unwavering as she focused it on her mother.  “I couldn’t let that slide, so I
telled the truth.  Babies
do
come out a lady’s vagina.  It will stretch just
like a rubber band to let somethin’ the size of a watermelon come outta it. 
And da penis is too what injected the baby in ‘er.  Ain’t no such thing as sprinklin’
fairy dust over a woman so that she can have a baby.   Ev’body knows that the
man keeps the baby juices in his testicles and shoots it into a woman through
his penis.  Anything else is just crazy talk,” the five year old girl huffed
impatiently.

“Oh, Lord have mercy!”  Turning
furious eyes toward her mother, Millie hissed, “This is all
your
fault,
Momma!  I told you that Paisley was too young to hear how babies are made and
how they enter the world.  Now look at the mess we’ve gotten into,” she growled,
waving a hand toward her own precocious offspring.  “I just know they’re gonna
kick her out of school.  Who in the world gets expelled from Kindergarten,
Mother?  I’ll tell you who.  Your grandchild!”

“I’m innocent,” Paisley insisted
around her straw as she sucked up her milkshake.  “I think the teacher is
tryin’ to frame me.”

Millie pursed her lips as she
stared at her daughter.  Honestly, she wasn’t sure she should be impressed by
her kid’s ability to defend her actions or worried she’d finally snap and wring
her little darlin’s neck. “Tell me something, daughter of mine,” she directed
Paisley.  “Did you really stand on your chair in the middle of the room and
tell the class that babies had to fly out of a lady’s vagina ‘cause a man’s
penis put it there?”

“Nope,” Paisley denied quickly, her
brown curls bouncing against her shoulders as she shook her head.  “I said the
babies had to get
pushed
out
. 
Everybody knows that human babies
can’t fly anywhere.”

Millie buried her head in her hands
and groaned as she listened to her own mother laugh out loud.  “I’m glad you
find this funny,” she growled when she lifted her head to glare at her mother. 
“It isn’t you that’s gonna have to face the principal for the second time
inside of a week.  The only thing I can say is that at least she didn’t punch
Billy Ray this time.”

“I woulda ‘gain,” Paisley
muttered.  “He ducked.”

“Paisley!” Millie chastised, her
own green eyes narrowing on her daughter.  Jeez, at this rate, she’d be
homeschooling her kid until she graduated.  There was no way the school was
going to tolerate her daughter’s informative lessons on human anatomy.

“Personally, I don’t see how the
Principal can say anything at all to you, Millicent.  Paisley didn’t say a
single thing that was untrue this morning,” Darby claimed, lifting her chin
stubbornly as she offered her granddaughter a supportive nod.

Shooting her mother a frustrated
look, Millicent shook her head.  “Are you insane?  I cannot believe you are
taking the five-year-old’s side here.  Mother, the words vagina, penis, testicles
and episiotomy are NOT appropriate words to speak in the presence of a bunch of
five-year-olds – even if it’s another five-year-old saying them.   She attends
kindergarten, not gross anatomy classes at Paradise Community College.” 
Frowning when she heard someone clear their throat behind her, she turned in
her sat and grimaced when she saw all six-feet-four-inches of the bane of her
existence standing over her. 

“Dr. Mack!” Paisley squealed
excitedly, bolting out of her chair and around the table to hug the man’s lean
legs.  “I am soooo happy to see you.  You tell ‘em!  Tell ‘em that ‘gina and
penis ain’t bad words.”

“Aren’t bad words, Paisley” Millie
corrected absently as she rubbed her aching temple with one hand while she eyed
her boss.  Damn, but the man looked like a tall drink of water on a hot
summer’s day.  Unfortunately, she knew that a single sip of that water would
probably send her headlong into the local ER with a bad case of cholera or
something equally hideous.  Besides, she wasn’t good at relationships.  Her own
failed marriage proved that much.

Shifting his eyes from the agitated
child to her equally irritated mother, Dr. Mackenzie Daniels shook his head. 
“No,” he began carefully, “Vagina and penis are not bad words.  They can both
be said on broadcast networks.”

“See, Momma.  I AM being framed!”
Paisley shouted loudly, jumping up and down.

“Paisley, keep your voice down,”
Millie ordered sharply before turning her attention to the man her kid was
currently trying to climb like a tree.  “And thank you so much for all your
help, Dr. Daniels,” she ground out sarcastically as she skewered her boss with
one look.  

“Oh, no,” Mack denied with a frown
at Millie.  “You don’t get to be mad at me.  Not after the wheels you’ve set in
motion.  Wheels that are going to run right over my back, I might add,” he
accused heatedly.

Millie’s eyebrows lifted in
surprise as she noted the flush climbing over her very handsome employer’s
face.  Shaking her head to clear all thoughts of his attractiveness, Millie
clenched her teeth and reminded herself to concentrate on her kid – the one
that was determined to become an elementary school dropout at the ripe old age
of freakin’ FIVE years old.  “I’m sorry, sir, but I really don’t have time to
address whatever your current crisis happens to be.  I’m a little busy trying
to not drown in my daughter’s drama.  We’re facing a potential expulsion from
Kindergarten at this table.  Unless you can top that, move along, please.”

Mack ignored her scowl and leaned
across Millie’s seat to hold his hand out to the other woman sitting at the
table.  “Dr. Mackenzie Daniels,” he introduced himself to the older lady with a
polite smile.

Darby Robbins took the man’s hand
in hers.  “Darby Robbins,” the elderly woman stated with a sweet smile. 
“Please excuse my Millie’s poor manners,” she apologized, shooting her annoyed
daughter a dark look.  “I’m Millicent’s mother and Paisley’s grandmother, Dr.
Daniels.  You know, I thought you were a woman for the longest time.  When
Paisley kept talking about her friend, Mackenzie, all summer long, I just
assumed it was another girl….”

“No, ma’am,” Mack said with a quick
shake of his head.  “I’m very definitely a man.”

“Yes.  Yes, you are,” Darby
declared, eyeing the man’s body appreciatively.  “You know…I’ve been having a
little problem,” she began, leaning forward in her chair.  “You know,
downstairs,” she went on in a loud whisper, pointing at her lap.

“Mom!” Millie clipped sharply,
unamused by her mother’s antics.  “I hate to cut your visit with the good
doctor who happens to be
my
boss short, but we’ve got a meeting to
keep.  The school, remember?” she prompted when her mother remained motionless
in her seat.

“Oh, that,” the older woman
grumbled, her lips turned down in a frown. 

“I’m afraid that I’ll be late
getting back to the office, Dr. Daniels.  I left a message with Doris at the
front desk earlier when I had to run and pick up Paisley, but since you’re here
now, I thought I’d let you know.  We don’t have another patient until 2:30 so I
should be back in plenty of time.”

Confused, Mack’s gaze went from
Darby to Millicent to Paisley and back again.  “Wait.  What happened?” he
asked, momentarily forgetting his own irritation with his nurse and focusing
his attention on his nurse’s child.  “What did Paisley do at school that was so
bad that she could be expelled?”

“She told the truth; that’s what
she did,” Darby answered bluntly, glaring at her daughter.

“Mom,” Millie began tiredly, “Some
truths have no business being told by a five year old to a classroom full of
other five year olds.  We’ve already been over this.  Paisley is going to
apologize and that’s all there is to it.”

“No, I’m not!” Paisley staunchly
refused.

“No, she’s not!” Darby retorted
harshly.

Looking from her kid to her mother,
Millie gave in to the urge to thunk her head against the table.  “Why me,
Lord?  Why me?  I already work for the world’s biggest grump.  Why must I also
be forced to have both a daughter and a mother that are determined to be activists
that would make Planned Parenthood proud?”

“I think Momma’s lost it, Dr.
Mack,” Paisley remarked with a shrug.  “Can we go get ice cream after I get ‘spelled
from school?”

“The word is expelled,” Mack
corrected with a wink down at the cute kid hanging off his arm, “And that’s not
going to happen.”

“Oh, it is gonna happen.  Y’all
didn’t hear the phone call I got earlier from the school.  This is bad,” Millie
argued without lifting her head from the table.  “They warned me the last time
they had to call me into a meeting about Paisley’s conduct that she’d be
suspended from school if her behavior wasn’t modified appropriately.”

“Oh, bullfoot!” Darby growled.  “There’s
nothing wrong with her behavior.  They can’t throw a kid out for tellin’ the
truth.  It’s in the constitution. Even five-year-old girls have certain
inalienable rights.”

“Okay, Norma Rae, settle down,”
Millie begged, finally lifting her head from the table.  “I’ll take care of
this.  Somehow,” she muttered.

Taking Paisley’s hand in his, Mack
asked Millie, “Did you drive here?”

“No, I rode with Mom,” she replied,
jerking her head toward where her fuming mother sat fiddling with her phone. 
“She came in and grabbed us a table while I interrogated my daughter in the
parking lot.”

“Good.”  He nodded, reaching for
his wallet and throwing down a couple of twenties on the table to cover their
meals.  “Your mom can go home.  I’ll take you and Paisley to school and then
you can ride to the office with me.”

“And what exactly will we do with
Paisley this afternoon?  She’ll be with us…probably for at least three days,”
Millie asked, hoping that it was
only
three days that her kid would be
banned from school.  “Why do you wanna go with us, anyway?  This isn’t your
problem, Dr. Daniels.”

“If my head nurse has a problem,
then I have a problem.  If you’re worried about what’s going on at home, you
won’t be focused on what’s happening at work.  So, I’m going to fix it for you
with these numbskulls at the school.  Just because they aren’t comfortable
hearing a word, that doesn’t make it a
bad
word.  Paisley shouldn’t be
expelled for using the appropriate terms when describing the human body, male
or
female,” he defended Paisley as he dragged both mother and daughter out of
the café by their hands.

“But this isn’t your problem,”
Millie contended resolutely, trying to pull her slender hand from his
inflexible grip. 

“I already described to you how it
very much is my problem, Millicent,” Mack returned evenly, opening the door to
his SUV and holding it so that Paisley could climb into the back seat and strap
her seat belt.  “Up you go, Millie,” he ordered in a tone that brooked no
argument.  “The quicker we get this done, the faster you can explain to me how
you thought it was a good idea to invite my sister for Christmas.”

~**~

Half an hour later found all three
of them lined up in front of Principal Carter’s massive oak desk.  Shifting
nervously from foot to foot, Millie ordered herself to be calm.  Like her
daughter, she thought as she looked down at the seemingly serene little girl
that was currently plastered against Dr. Mackenzie Daniels’ legs.  She might be
less anxious herself it she could borrow some of the giant man’s strength. 
Unfortunately, grown women couldn’t go around leaning on strong men without
being in some kind of intimate relationship with them.  And there was no way
she could ever see Dr. Daniels going down that road with her, no matter how
many smoldering looks he tossed her way during the day.

“So, I think we can all agree that
we have a rather… sensitive issue to deal with this afternoon, can’t we?” the
principal asked, pulling Millie’s attention back to the matter at hand.