The Nine Lives of Christmas (21 page)

“Hey now, you two, everything’s going to be okay.” It would be. Somewhere down the road, it would be. They could rebuild the house. And while they were at it, maybe they could build a family.

Kendra reached out and took her sister’s gloved hand and squeezed it. “He’s right. We’re alive and we’re together.”

“I know. But Daddy…” Natalie’s voice broke.

“Will be okay,” Zach assured her. “Who knows? They may even let him come home today.”

“I doubt it,” said Kendra, making Natalie’s tears flow again.

Thank you, Kendra
. He frowned at her.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

“Well, he’ll be home soon,” Zach insisted. “So let’s get the biggest kick-ass Christmas tree we can find to give him a good welcome. Okay?”

Both girls nodded and he breathed a little easier. Things were looking up.

Until they got to Grandma’s Christmas Tree Farm and saw the gate across the road with the big
CLOSED
sign on it. Grandma was obviously too busy cooking Christmas dinner to bother with customers on Christmas day. Hardly surprising. People already had their trees.

Kendra cocked a mocking eyebrow at Zach as if it was somehow his fault that Grandma took the day off. “Now what?”

Failure was not acceptable. He couldn’t change what had happened, but by damn he could at least get a tree. “We go get a bargain,” he said and backed up the Land Rover.

They returned to town to the corner housing a now sparsely populated lot of live trees, circled with colored lights. The hand-painted sign at one end read
UNCLE WALLY’S TREES.
It seemed that everyone in the tree business was your long-lost family member.

Uncle Wally was right on hand to greet them as they approached. He looked like the kind of person you invited to your family Christmas dinner because you had to. He had a big belly, barely contained by a plaid flannel shirt and a parka, and was wearing baggy jeans and army boots. On the top of his head he sported a hunter’s cap, on the bottom a couple of extra chins.

“Hello there, folks,” he sang. “Got some great bargains for you today.”

Zach looked around at what was left. Ten-foot giants and spindly messes losing their needles.
Bargains. Right
. “I can see,” he said.

“You caught me just in time,” said Uncle Wally. He nodded in the direction of a small trailer at the end of the lot. “Me and the missus are just about to have our turkey dinner.”

Turkey dinner. Uh-oh
. Zach hadn’t even thought about dinner. Would the girls want turkey? Or would the sight of a holiday feast only make them wish they were back in their own house? It was a moot question. He knew enough about cooking to know there would be no thawing a turkey in time for dinner today. Heck, things weren’t even looking good in the tree department.

“This is nice,” said Kendra, drifting over to a small tree.

Natalie hung back but Zach joined her. He took the tree and gave it a shake. A million needles hit the ground. A nice, dry tree—that was what they needed.

“Hey,” protested Uncle Wally. “Careful of the merchandise.”

“This no longer qualifies as merchandise. It’s kindling,” Zach retorted. “Come on, girls, these trees are a fire hazard.”

“Well, whaddya expect when you wait till the last minute?” Uncle Wally called after them as they trooped out of the lot. “It’s Christmas Day, for crying out loud.”

“Duh,” said Kendra under her breath.

Zach ground his teeth.

She laid a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. We don’t need a tree.”

“Yes, we do,” he insisted.

“I think we’re sort of out of options,” said Kendra.

“No, we’re not.”

“Okaaaay,” she said, humoring him. “So what now?”

“Now we do the manly man thing,” he said. “We’re going into the woods.”

“The woods?” echoed Natalie, sounding anything but thrilled.

He turned and frowned at her. “What?”

She held up a foot shod in a black ballerina slipper. “No boots.”

Oh, yeah. That. The girls didn’t have a winter wardrobe anymore. The girls didn’t have a wardrobe, period. “Well, then, you guys can wait in the car while I get the tree.”

“By ourselves?” squeaked Natalie.

“I vote we go back to Uncle Wally,” said Kendra.

Zach shook his head. “No. No fire hazard trees.”

“Agreed,” said Natalie fervently.

“Maybe Grandma will open up for us if we explain about the fire,” Kendra suggested.

“That’s a good idea,” seconded Natalie.

Zach thought going into the woods was a better idea, but it was best to humor the Steps. “Okay. Back to Grandma’s.”

Over the river and through the woods to Grandma’s place they went. And then it was over the fence for Zach and past the
CLOSED
sign and up the gravel road snugged in by rows and rows of cheery Christmas trees. He rounded a bend in the road and came on a clearing. There, in all its glory, sat a decrepit mobile home with an equally decrepit, rusted truck parked in front of it. An angry bark drew his attention to a pit bull chained to a scraggly fir tree.

This was Grandma’s house?

FIFTEEN

A moment later, a thin sixty-something man in jeans and a sweatshirt appeared on the front porch. His hair was gray and thinning, and his chin was covered with gray stubble. A cigarette dangled from his mouth and he held a shotgun by his side. Grandpa.

“Can I help you?” he called in a tone of voice that added,
Off my property
.

Zach wasn’t sure which looked more helpful, the pit bull or the shotgun. “I need a tree.”

The man’s lips turned down. “Are you blind? Didn’t you see the sign? We’re closed.”

“I know, but I’m desperate,” Zach called back. “This is for my family. Their house burned down last night and they’re staying with me. And I don’t have a tree,” he added. Not having a tree hadn’t bothered him before. Now he found himself embarrassed to have to confess it, even to old Father Christmas here.

The man shook his head in disgust and waved Zach away. “Well, then. Get one.”

“How much?” Zach called.

“Just take one and get out of here,” the guy said and then turned his back on Zach.

You didn’t have to tell Zach twice. He trotted off down the road, the dog wishing him a Merry Christmas and good riddance.

“Can we get one?” asked Natalie when he returned.

“Absolutely.”

“They were closed. How’d you do that?” Kendra asked, impressed.

“I’ve got connections,” Zach joked. He went around to the back of the Land Rover and grabbed his ax. “Let’s go.”

“Uh, Zach, we’re not exactly dressed for this, remember?” Kendra informed him.

“The ground’s pretty much frozen.” Zach stamped the gravel drive with his boot to prove it. “You should be okay for a few minutes. Come on. Help me pick one.”

Kendra nodded and got out. Natalie remained in the backseat.

Kendra opened the door. “Come on, Nat.”

Natalie shrugged. “You guys go on. I’ll wait.”

She looked like she was going to cry again.

“Come on, sis,” Zach urged. “You’re the one with the creative eye. Help us out here.”

Natalie didn’t smile but she did get out of the car. That was something. He gave her a hug and then led the way through the rows of manicured trees.

Natalie roused herself enough to help with the process but, once inside the car, her lips retreated from smile territory and she clammed up. Kendra and Zach exchanged glances. “It’ll be okay,” Zach repeated, both to himself and Kendra.

*   *   *

Back home they set up the tree and Zach hauled his ornaments out of the attic. Tom sat on the back of the couch, supervising, his tail switching back and forth as they worked. However, when Queenie made her appearance, the little guy lost all interest in the tree and hopped off the couch to sniff noses and give her sooty fur a lick.

Kendra stepped back to admire their handiwork. “Not bad,” she said with an approving smile.

Natalie managed a nod. “How do you think Daddy’s doing?” she asked in a small voice.

Probably better than she is,
thought Zach. “Let’s find out,” he said. He opened the coat closet and tossed coats to the girls. “Come on. We’ll go sing him some Christmas carols.”

Christmas in the hospital wasn’t what anyone had planned, but it sure beat sitting around looking at his half-decked tree. And right now the best present he could give Natalie would be to take her to see her dad.

Correction. Their dad.

*   *   *

“I win again,” crowed Liz.

Christmas dinner was done, and Merilee and her sisters had been entertaining the younger generation with an old card game the family had been playing for years. Later in the evening would come the more adult games, such as Trivial Pursuit.

Gloria pointed a finger at Liz. “Either you cheated or you’re a witch,” she accused, making their little nieces giggle. “Nobody wins that much at Black Peter.”

“That’s for sure,” said Merilee, grabbing for the makeup remover to take off the collection of black smudges she had on her nose that represented all the rounds she’d lost.

“She’s just good,” said Lance, Liz’s adoring fiancé.

Gloria rolled her eyes. “Love is blind.”

“Let’s play Sorry next,” said Annabelle, the oldest niece.

“Let’s take a break first,” said Gloria, taking the makeup remover from Merilee.

A break. That was code for the sisters slipping away to the sunroom with cups of cocoa and talking about their love lives. Her sisters would expect Merilee to have something to share. They’d been trying to worm details out of her ever since the night before, in between singing carols and attending Christmas Eve service. She’d managed to stall them so far but there’d be no more stalling once they settled in with their cocoa.

“I should probably go,” she decided. The minute the words were out of her mouth she knew she’d made a tactical error.

Sure enough. Gloria’s eyes narrowed. “You never leave this early.”

“Got somewhere to go?” asked Liz, waggling her eyebrows.

Gloria grabbed Merilee’s arm and hauled her away from the dining room table. “Not until she talks to us, she doesn’t.”

Five minutes later they had their mugs of cocoa and were in the sunroom with the door closed, cuddled under hand-crocheted afghans on comfy, overstuffed chairs while a winter sun pushed away the clouds and smiled in through the windows.

“Sooo, how’s the man shopping going?” Liz asked. “We’re all ears,” she added, giving the new pink pearl earrings Lance had given her a flick.

Merilee couldn’t look either of her sisters in the face. All that money they’d spent on her big makeover had been a complete waste. She gazed into her mug.

“Okay, I’m guessing not good,” said Gloria.

Merilee sighed and looked up. “I’m not sure this is going to work for me.”

“You have to give it a chance,” said Liz. “You just signed up. And you know what they say. You’ve got to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince.”

What did “they” say to do when you found your prince but he was a relationship-phobe who came complete with cold feet? Correction, make that frozen feet. “I already met my first frog,” she said.

“I think there’s a story here,” Liz said, grinning and leaning forward. “Spill.”

Merilee told them about Chuck and, empathetic sisters that they were, they laughed till they cried.

“You’ll find someone,” said Gloria, wiping her eyes. “Meanwhile just have fun. I am.”

Fun. Was that what you called it? Bah, humbug.

*   *   *

Natalie actually smiled as they all stepped into the hospital elevator. “He’s going to be all right.” It was half statement, half question.

Mom hugged her. “Of course, he is. He’ll be home tomorrow in time for dinner. We’ll go out in the morning and get a ham and all the trimmings to go with it.”

“And let’s make another red velvet cake,” suggested Kendra.

“Good idea. That’s my favorite,” said Zach.

Kendra grinned at him. “I know. That’s why I suggested it.”

He found himself smiling, too.

Kendra heaved a tired sigh as they made their way across the lobby. “I can hardly wait to hit the mall and get some new clothes. The jacket is great,” she told Zach, “but not my size.” She held up a floppy arm in which her hand was completely lost.

Both girls were swimming in his jackets. Mom had refused the offer of a coat and was shivering in her sweater.

Natalie’s blue eyes suddenly got saucer big. “How are we going to pay for anything?”

Of course, no purses, no credit cards. No nothing. “You can use my MasterCard,” said Zach.

“I’m sure Mr. Gorton at the bank will be able to help us,” said Mom. “I think you’ve already done enough.”

“You’re family,” he said. “Since when is there a limit to how much a guy is supposed to do for his family?” Where had that come from? Someplace new, for sure.

“Thanks, sweetie,” she murmured. “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

He could feel his throat tightening, but he managed to say, “No problem.”

“We’ve got a surprise for you,” Natalie said to Mom once they were on their way home.

“I think I’ve had enough surprises,” she said.

“No, you’ll like this one,” Natalie assured her.

Back at Zach’s they ushered her into the house and Natalie ran over to turn on his crook-necked desk lamp, which they’d set up on the mantle and aimed at the tree. It was the best they could do given that he didn’t own a string of lights.

The makeshift spotlight illuminated a rather pitiful tree, consisting of a couple of strings of gold beads and the ornaments from his early childhood. But Mom managed to feign awe and wonder. “It’s lovely,” she said. She smiled at Zach. “I knew a tree would look perfect in your bay window.”

“I want a picture of this one for my Facebook page,” teased Kendra. The words were barely out of her mouth when her smile collapsed.

“My pictures, all gone,” Mom said, and tears began to leak from her eyes.

That got both the girls crying again, too, and suddenly they were all in a female huddle, sobbing, while Zach stood frozen next to his tacky tree, feeling awkward and useless. WWMD? What would Merilee do? He wished he knew because he suspected whatever she’d do it would be the right thing.