3 Christmas Crazy (5 page)

I woke up on the morning of December 13 with a huge smile on my face. Although I do tend to be a bit superstitious, not even the lore surrounding the curse of Friday falling on the thirteenth day of the month could put a damper on my optimism. I was more than halfway through the Christmas crazy events and everything was right on schedule.

The weekend after the tree lighting, I’d dug into the final preparations for Hometown Christmas. The vendors
had been contacted, the contracts signed, the carolers lined up, the decorations hung, and the sleigh team readied. And not only had I totally nailed the planning and preparation phase of the important fund-raiser, but along the way, I’d managed to bake ten dozen cookies for the cookie exchange.

The icing on the cake was the fact that Santa’s Village had opened the day before, to long lines of happy kids and harried parents. Earl Fielder was a killer Santa, as usual, and I was sorry he was going to miss the final week of the season. Still, Pappy had grudgingly agreed to fill in when he was unsuccessful in his campaign to find a substitute, and I suspected that a little forced Christmas jolly was exactly what he needed to once again embrace the holiday my grandmother had loved so much.

I climbed out of bed and slipped into heavy jeans and a sweatshirt. It had snowed for the past three days, and the dogs and I were anxious to get out of the house. After feeding everyone and checking on the pups, Charlie, Maggie, and I headed out to the beach for a sunrise snowshoe.

It’s always really beautiful the morning after a snow. The trees hung heavy with their burden, while the squirrels and coyotes made tracks in the unmarred snow. For anyone who has never experienced the silence of a winter morning high atop an isolated mountain, it’s an awesome event that’s hard to describe. I stood on the edge of the waterline and looked out over the lake, then closed my eyes and listened; the only sound was that of my own breath.

As the sun peeked over the distant summit, the dogs and I headed down the beach. We’d received almost four feet of snow during the past week, making trudging through the fresh powder a bit of a workout, which, I’ll admit, was sorely needed. I knew that the likelihood of running into one of our larger forest animals was slim, but still I watched for what can only be described as a magical sight. The mule deer that frequent the area regularly move to the valley floor, where there is less snow during the winter months, and our resident bears are normally deep in slumber this late in the year. But every now and then, when the moment is just right, I’ve come across a straggler on my morning walks.

After returning to the boathouse, I poured myself a cup of coffee, then headed into my cozy bathroom for a long, hot shower. I knew the following week would be a busy one, and I used this quiet time to
prepare mentally. I finished my shower, dressed warmly, dried my hair, and was just about to make a light breakfast—pancakes and bacon—when there was a knock on the door. It was Zak, with Lambda at his side.

“Sorry to drop by so early,” he apologized. “I tried calling, but your cell phone was off.”

Of course it was.

“I’m afraid there’s a problem with the software I’ve been hired to develop and we need to head to the national office right away. Can Lambda stay with you?”

“Of course,” I said
. We?
I thought. “You know Lambda is always welcome. I hope the problem is nothing serious.”

I looked around Zak’s chiseled chest toward his truck, where I spied the woman—who, I’d discovered, was none other than his much-too-beautiful business partner—waiting in the passenger seat. She glared at me as she pointed to her watch. Apparently, my witty banter was making them late.

“Nothing I can’t fix,” Zak assured me.

I turned my attention to him and smiled. I reached up to hug him, knowing that the witch in the truck would be watching.

“I’ll miss you,” I cooed.

Zak looked surprised but smiled. “I’ll miss you, too. I was going to bring this up later, but now that I’m leaving . . .”

“Bring what up?” I asked, sweet as pie.

The demon in the truck honked the horn. I kept smiling and brushed an imaginary hair from Zak’s chest. Zak must have caught on to what I was doing, because he glanced at the woman behind him and grinned. This is going to sound utterly ridiculous, but I can’t tell you how happy it made me that Zak realized I was jealous and liked it.

“I wanted to ask if you wanted to go to the Holly Ball with me.”

“Like a date?” I asked.

“If you’d like.”

“I’d love to.” I smiled.

Zak pulled me into his arms and kissed me. The kiss was . . .  the kiss was wonderful. No, wonderful is too tame a word. The kiss was life changing. I couldn’t help but glance at the woman in the truck as Zak turned to leave.

“Don’t worry,” Zak assured me. “Belinda is an associate, nothing more. I’ll call you every night.”

I felt marginally better.

From that point on, the day went downhill. I arrived at the Zoo with Charlie and Lambda on my heels only to find Jeremy up in arms over whatever it was he was reading.

“I have news.”

“Good or bad?” I asked.

“Bad. They’ve put a hold on our permit.”

“What?”

“It seems someone from the county has challenged our right to compete with their program.”

“Compete? Are they insane?” I spat. “The Bryton Lake facility is bursting at the seams and someone is afraid we might lighten that load?”

“I don’t think the complaint came from the people at the shelter. My bet is that a number cruncher who has never even visited the shelter or been exposed to the animals noticed that between the reduction in expense after our shelter closed and the increase in revenue due to Todd the Toad’s aggressive leash control, the numbers are looking pretty good.” Jeremy handed me the letter he’d been reading.

I was tempted to call Zak but knew he had his own problems. Besides, after the kiss this morning, I didn’t want to be seen as incompetent or needy.

“It says there’s a hearing scheduled after the first of the year. Our permit has been delayed until after that meeting. This really is bad news.”

“There’s more,” Jeremy hedged.

“More good or more bad?”

“It depends. One of the dogs rescued in the puppy-mill scheme six weeks ago was reunited with its family.”

“They gave the dog back to the mill owner?”

“No, its real family. It turns out that some of the dogs were stolen from loving families and brought to the mill to reproduce. One of the families never stopped looking. They wandered into the Bryton Lake shelter and saw a photo of their missing pet. The dog had been chipped, so ownership was confirmed, and dog and family were reunited.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“Yeah, well . . .”

I began to get a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach when Jeremy wouldn’t look me in the eye.

“After the county found out that dog was stolen, they decided to check all the dogs for previous owners. They’re coming by to check Maggie later this morning. They think she fits the description of a dog that went missing back in August.”

My heart sank. I’m a huge advocate for reuniting dogs with their families, but during the time Maggie had lived with me, she had become part of my family. I knew it was procedure to check missing-dog reports when taking in a stray, but since the dogs in question had come from an abusive owner and not from the streets, this very important step had been overlooked.

“What time will they be here?”

“In an hour or so. If you want to bring Maggie down, I can oversee the meeting.”

“No. Send whoever shows up to the house. I’ll take Charlie with me but leave Lambda with you. I’ll come by for him after I meet with the shelter people.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

Suddenly my perfect day was turning into an endless nightmare.

During the next hour, as I waited for the county to arrive, I sat on the floor of my bedroom with Maggie and her four pups. I tried to reconcile myself to the fact that Maggie might have a family who loved and missed her. I reminded myself how devastated I’d be if Charlie should turn up missing, and how much I’d hope that whoever found him returned him to me.

While my mind accepted the situation, my heart was breaking. I thought about how Maggie jumped into my arms as I returned home every night, and how she licked my face every morning as I struggled to wake up and face the day. I tried to suppress the tears that were streaming down my face as I held the little dog on my lap for what I knew could very well be the last time.

As my tears turned into a sob, Charlie began to whine. He sat down next to me and put his paw on my knee. Charlie always has been sensitive to my moods, and I’m sure my obvious despair while holding Maggie was confusing him. “It’s okay. I’m okay,” I assured him.

He licked the tears from my face, then laid down and put his head in my lap. Maggie settled on the other side, and I leaned against the wall behind me. I embraced the few minutes I had left with my family, longing for the moment to never end.

I took a deep breath and prayed for strength when I heard the knock on the boathouse door. I ordered Maggie and Charlie to stay upstairs in the loft as I wiped the tears from my face and made my way slowly downstairs. I opened the door to find not only one of the employees of the Bryton Lake shelter but a well-dressed woman and a young girl of about ten as well. The girl was tall and thin, with long black hair that brushed her waist and a hopeful expression in her deep green eyes.

“This is Jackie Lawson and her daughter Hilary,” the woman from the shelter introduced. “They’re the ones who reported a missing dog back in August.”

“Is Sasha here?” the little girl asked.

“Let’s find out.” I tried to put on a brave face as I forced a smile. “Maggie,” I called.

Maggie came running down the stairs, with Charlie close behind. When she saw Hilary, she increased her speed and jumped straight into the girl’s arms. In all the time I’d had her, I’d never seen her quite so happy. Hilary cried as Maggie, or I guess it was Sasha, licked her face.

“We’re prepared to run the chip to prove ownership,” the woman from Bryton Lake stated.

“No need.” I wiped away the tears that were streaming down my face. “It looks like Maggie has found her family. Both of you,” I gestured toward Hilary and her mother, “please come in and have a seat. We need to discuss the puppies.”

I explained to the woman, who turned out to be very nice and extremely understanding and sympathetic to my plight, that I’d already promised the puppies to members of the community when they were old enough to be weaned. Jackie assured me that she’d honor my commitments and contact the prospective puppy owners in the next week or so. Somehow I managed to keep the bulk of my emotions at bay until Hilary and her mother left with Maggie and her pups. Tears streamed down my face as I watched the dogs drive away. Maggie had only been with me for six weeks, but during that time I’d grown to love her so, so much. I knew that returning her to the little girl who loved her was the right thing to do, but the truth of the matter is that often times, doing the right thing can hurt so darn much.

By the time I arrived at the community center for Santa’s Village, I figured the day couldn’t get any worse. Zak was God knew where with his beautiful and manipulative assistant. (I actually didn’t know if she was manipulative, but she looked like she would be.) The highly anticipated opening of Zoe’s Zoo would be delayed at least a month, maybe more. Maggie was gone from my life forever, even though a small part of me realized this was actually a good thing. And the snow that had seemed so beautiful just that morning had turned into a strategic nightmare as hundreds of tourists arrived for the weekend.

“Don’t you love all this snow?” Ellie, who was seasonally dressed in a Santa hat and red sweater, asked as she joined me near the Santa house.

I turned and growled. At least I felt like growling. The reality is, I most likely groaned.

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” Ellie teased.

“I woke up on the right side. It’s everything that’s happened since that’s the problem.”

I took Ellie step-by-step through the nightmare that had been my day.

I felt like crying when Ellie gave me one of her long, hard Ellie hugs. “I’m so sorry about Maggie,” she said, squeezing me tightly. “I know you loved her.”

“You should have seen how happy she was when she first caught sight of Hilary.”

Ellie handed me a tissue. “You saved Maggie’s life,” she reminded me. “Without you, Hilary and Maggie would never have found each other. You should feel good about that.”

“I do.” I dried my eyes and smiled. “I guess moments like this are why I do what I do.”

“And you do it better than anyone else. It’s a drag about the permit.”

“It’ll set us back at least a month. I can’t believe the county is doing this. I just hope Zak can get this fixed when he gets back into town. If he comes back, after spending the week with his beautiful partner,” I said, sulking.

Ellie laughed. “I see why you’re so upset about the permit, but you’re an idiot to worry about Zak. He’s rich and handsome. He could have any girl he wanted.”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”

“My point is that Zak has beautiful women throwing themselves at him all the time.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re really bad at this cheering up thing?”

Ellie laughed again. “On numerous occasions. What I’m trying to get to is the fact that Zak isn’t going to be swayed by a pretty package or a flirty, come-hither look. He likes you. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. The way he’s
always
looked at you, even when you were too busy hating him to notice. Zoe Donovan, if there’s one thing you don’t have to worry about, it’s Zak’s devotion to you.”

I wanted to believe Ellie. I really did, but I was having a hard time bringing jealous Zoe to heel.

“I made the test batch of soup.” Ellie changed the subject. “It’s in the kitchen, if you want to try it.”

“You brought it with you?”

“Sure, why not? I figured you’d be here, and the kitchen has both a refrigerator and a microwave.”

“Great. Let’s see how it turned out.”

“I have to warn you,” Ellie began as we walked into the kitchen, “it’s a place to start, but it isn’t your grandma’s recipe. At least not yet. We’ll taste it, see if we can figure out what might be missing, and take it from there.”

“Okay.”

Ellie took the bowl out of the refrigerator and heated the soup in the microwave. She gave me a spoon and I took a sip. The soup was good, but not as
good as Grandma’s.

“I think Grandma’s was cheesier.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too,” Ellie agreed. “I’m going to add in some Parmesan and maybe some jack with the cheddar for the next batch. Anything else?”

I tasted it again. “I’m not sure. Grandma’s soup had a distinct taste, but I’m not sure
exactly what it was. Maybe once you add the additional cheese . . .”

“Okay. I’ll make another batch and we’ll taste it again.”

“It’s nice of you to go to all this trouble.”

“No trouble at all. I love developing recipes. It’s like a treasure hunt, trying to find just the right ingredients to make a good dish into a spectacular one.”

“You’re a lot like my grandma,” I commented. “She loved to mess around in the kitchen, trying to come up with new and unusual recipes. I only wish she had written things down. Even when people asked her what was in a dish, she’d usually respond with ‘a little of this and a little of that.’”

“I promise you, I’m writing everything down as I work on this,” Ellie assured me.

“Zoe,” Hazel Hampton interrupted us, “have you heard from Earl?”

“Isn’t he supposed to be here?”

Santa’s Village was due to open in less than twenty minutes. Earl normally arrived a good hour early.

“He hasn’t shown up, and he isn’t answering either his cell or his home phone. There are a good thirty kids in line. They’ll be so disappointed if Santa doesn’t come.”

“I’ll call Pappy.” My grandfather would be covering for Earl beginning next Thursday, and he’d already rented a costume to fit his tall, thin frame, which in no way resembled Earl’s short and stout one.

Pappy answered on the first ring. He promised to come straight over, but after twenty minutes he still hadn’t arrived. I was beginning to worry about him, but the more urgent matter at hand seemed to be the revolting kids and angry parents. Many had been waiting in line for over an hour.

“Pappy left his Santa suit in the storage room. We just need a warm body that will fit into it,” I told Ellie.

I looked around the room. Tanner Brown was about the right weight, although he was shorter than Pappy. He’d make a grumpy Santa, but beggars can’t be choosers. I put on my most persuasive persona and charmed—okay, bribed—Tanner into filling in until Pappy arrived.
Luckily, Penelope was on-site and agreed to make a few quick alterations so the suit wouldn’t drag on the floor when Tanner walked.

Four hours later, the crowds had left, the community center was deserted, and neither Earl nor Pappy had ever called in or shown up.

“You can leave the costume in the back room where you changed,” I instructed Tanner as I handed him the Franklin I’d promised.

“I’m starting to think I should ask for more,” Tanner grumbled as he stared at the hundred-dollar bill. “You said I’d only have to do it until your grandpa showed up.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened to him. How about I bring you some of my famous snowball cookies?”

“Well . . .” Tanner hesitated. “Okay.”

I sighed in relief.

“By the way, you better have that suit cleaned,” Tanner warned me. “Some snot-nosed kid peed on me.”

“Thanks for letting me know.”

“Guess I’ll head back and change. Don’t forget the cookies.”

“I’ll bring them to book club.” I had frozen part of each of the three types I’d baked for the cookie exchange, so I was in good shape there.

Hazel, Ellie, and a few other members of the events committee helped clean up while I continued to call Pappy. I was just about to call out the National Guard when he arrived, looking more harried than I’d ever seen him.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Accident outside of town. The road was totally blocked and the tow trucks were backed up with all the snow. Took hours for one to arrive.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” I scolded. “I was worried something horrible had happened to you.”

“Phone was dead.”

So that’s where I get it.

“I’m just glad you’re okay. I still haven’t heard from Earl.”

“I’m afraid he was the victim of the accident.”

“Is he okay?”

“Hard to tell. An ambulance came by just as I got there. I know they rushed him to the hospital.”

I hugged my pappy, glad that he hadn’t been injured, as I’d been imagining. “You’re soaking wet. Go home and get warmed up.”

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Count on it.”

I watched Pappy walk away. He was slowing down in his old age, and I worried about him. He’d been one of the constants in my life and I wasn’t sure what I’d do if anything happened to him.

“Everything is locked up,” Hazel informed me. “Guess I’ll head on home.”

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Want to get a bite to eat?” Ellie asked. “I’m starving.” Ellie was tall and thin, with a quick metabolism and a voracious appetite that never seemed satisfied. “I had a big lunch, but all this Christmas jolly really works up an appetite.”

“Sounds good. I just need to get the Santa suit so I can drop if off at the cleaner’s.”

“I got a ride over with Mom, so I’ll just go with you, if you can drop me at home after.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Hell of a day,” Ellie commented as we walked toward the back room.

“Tell me about it. It started off so good and went downhill from there.”

“At least it can only get better,” Ellie encouraged.

“Don’t say that,” I warned. “Every time someone says that, things get worse.”

“Sorry.” Ellie laughed.

“Tanner,” I called, knocking on the closed door. I figured he’d be long gone by now, but I thought it wise to check. When no one answered, I opened the door.

“Tanner!” I ran forward. “Call nine-one-one,” I told Ellie. “It’s Tanner. I think he’s dead.”