Merry Christmas, Cowboy

by Janet Dailey

  A neighbor in a flowered housecoat and pin curls was at her open door with a female friend. Both women stared at them openmouthed.

  “Good morning, ladies,” Zach said politely.

  The women said nothing. The neighbor gave Paula a hard look, then pulled her friend inside, slamming her door.

  Zach shrugged his shoulders. “Now they have something to talk about.” But he put the Santa jacket on and zipped it.

  Paula glared at him. “I’m in uniform, Zach.”

  “So what? You’re not on the job.”

  She locked the door with a jingle of keys. “Let’s go.”

  “Can I get a real kiss?”

  He just didn’t quit. She put a hand between his fur-clad shoulder blades and moved him along like a perp. It took all her self-control to keep from laughing.

  “Not now,” she said.

  Chapter 12

  Out of uniform, Paula entered the Christmas House. It seemed relatively quiet. There were always fewer visitors in the time period around dinner. But the lull wouldn’t last long.

  Norville mumbled a hello from his customary post. For a change, he had nothing to do. He was deep in a paperback novel of Western adventure.

  She ran a hand over her hair, which she’d unbraided and brushed. It crackled with static from the dry winter weather and indoor heat. One of these evenings, she would take a few hours to treat it with a moisturizing mousse and sit around with her head in a towel. She could even order up a romantic movie on pay-per-view, something she hadn’t had a chance to do since signing on here.

  Edith bustled toward her, humming. “You’re early, honey.”

  “The sergeant is changing the shifts.”

  “Lucky for us.” Edith glanced at Norville, who didn’t look up from his book, and nodded discreetly toward the storage room. “Could I talk to you for a bit?”

  “Of course.” She walked with Edith toward the back of the front hall.

  The folding table had been returned to storage after the toy drive meeting but hadn’t been flattened. Paula eased into a seat on the side, leaving the one that was easier to get into for Edith.

  Edith sat and turned to close the door.

  “What’s up?” Paula asked.

  “It’s Brandon. I’m just a little worried about him. It’s probably nothing.”

  “Seemed to me he was doing fine.” Paula stopped, not wanting to give away that she’d met Brandon in downtown Denver to shop for Edith’s Christmas present.

  “Oh, he’s keeping up with his schoolwork,” Edith assured her. “And he has a new girlfriend. Nothing terribly serious. I think they’re just pals. He met her here. She was baby-sitting two rambunctious little boys. Her name is Grace. Lovely girl.”

  Paula nodded. It seemed safest not to say too much. “So you’ve met her.”

  “Yes. She came over to do homework with him a couple of times. How could I not approve?”

  “That’s nice.”

  “After that incident with the other one—Tabby—it’s a relief to see him with a girl who’s genuinely sweet. And responsible.”

  Paula listened. Edith had too much to do at the House to ramble on.

  “But that’s not why I wanted to talk to you. He’s been staying up till all hours for the last few days, talking on the phone.”

  “Yours?”

  “You mean my good old-fashioned landline?” Edith shook her head. “He bought himself one of those prepaid cell phones with his own money. He gets part-time jobs after school now and then.”

  Paula remembered the folded twenties the boy had used to pay for the gift. His grandmother had inadvertently confirmed that he’d come by them honestly.

  “Teenagers are addicted to their phones. Nothing much you can do about it.”

  “Oh, goodness, I’m the same way,” Edith said resignedly. “I can’t really nag him about it when I have both a cell phone and a landline.”

  Paula’s reply was noncommittal. “Getting back to the late-night calls—did you overhear something that worried you?”

  “No. I mean, I can’t make out the words. He goes into his room after he says good night to me and closes the door. I suppose he thinks I’m asleep when he starts talking. It’s always late at night.”

  “I don’t know what to say, Edith. So long as he’s not cutting classes or causing trouble, I don’t think it’s worth arguing about.”

  Edith sighed.

  “What’s on your mind? Come on. Just tell me,” Paula coaxed.

  “I think his father has been in contact with him.”

  Paula raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t sure if Edith knew that Brandon had noticed the bit of news about his dad on Facebook.

  “What makes you say that?” she asked.

  “I tore a page from one of Brandon’s notebooks to make a grocery list. And there was his dad’s name, written plain as day. Lyle Clayborne. Several times.”

  “Why would he want to speak to his son after all this time?”

  Edith pressed her lips together and swallowed hard. “I wish I knew. Lyle went his own way a long time ago. He wanted nothing to do with me.”

  Paula stayed quiet and let the older woman talk.

  “Brandon is more my kid than my own son ever was.”

  “How so?”

  “My ex got full custody when Lyle was ten. Just to save on child support. But by then Lyle was so wild I couldn’t handle him. I couldn’t afford an attorney to fight my ex, and to be quite honest, I didn’t want Lyle.”

  She fell silent.

  “That’s a dreadful thing to say, but it’s true. I was afraid of him. And I was so surprised when he came back as a young man. Not to apologize or make amends, of course.”

  Paula looked sympathetically at Edith. “To leave Brandon with you. How old was Brandon then?”

  “Still in diapers. Lyle’s wife didn’t care.”

  “Now that’s a part of the story I don’t know,” Paula said.

  “Well, I’ll just give you the short version.” Edith gave herself a moment to collect her thoughts. “Her name is Iris. She didn’t have family that I ever knew about. Came from nowhere, stuck to Lyle like a burr.”

  Paula asked the tough question. “Is she still alive?”

  “That would be my guess,” Edith replied. “I never heard anything to the contrary. Lyle has a half brother from my ex’s first marriage, Brandon’s uncle. He knows how to get in touch with me.”

  Paula let that go for now. “Was domestic violence ever an issue?”

  “I’m not sure. Lyle had a temper. Maybe she thought of him as the strong one. I know Iris struggled with substance abuse. She honestly wasn’t fit to be a mother, any more than Lyle knew what it meant to be a dad. The day came when they relinquished their parental rights.”

  “Does Brandon know that?”

  “No,” Edith admitted. “I could never bring myself to show him the official document or even hint at it. It would be such a blow.”

  “Someday you’ll have to.”

  “The older he gets, the less it seems to matter,” she said sadly.

  “I don’t follow you.”

  “Paula, at first I was afraid that they’d change their minds and take him away from me for some crazy reason. But they never tried. And now . . . my grandson is writing his father’s name in his notebook. Over and over.”

  “Could be a passing thing.” Paula’s instincts told her it wasn’t.

  “I doubt he ever let go of the idea that he had a family—a dad and a mom—just like everyone else. I tried to be both to him.”

  She said the words with simple dignity. But Paula could see how much it took for the older woman not to break down and cry.

  “He’s a good boy, Paula.”

  “I know he is.”

  “I did my best,” Edith said. “But when a kid turns into a teenager, it’s like you don’t know them anymore. They’re on a seesaw. Up and down. Good and bad. They can’t balance.”

  The sound of footste
ps made her stop. Edith turned to the door and swung it open. “Who’s there?”

  Not Brandon, Paula prayed.

  It was Norville. He held up printouts of accounting software. “Chuck Barbera may have gotten to the bottom of this, Paula.”

  “What are you talking about?” Edith asked.

  “We came up short,” the older man told her.

  “By how much?” Paula suddenly dreaded the reply.

  “Forty-six dollars and thirty-one cents.”

  She could breathe again. “Not a biggie,” Paula said, relieved. “Two twenty-dollar bills and change is probably an error in arithmetic.”

  Not proof that someone had been stealing, not by a long shot.

  “I would say that’s very good, considering we’re taking in several thousand a week,” Edith said with pardonable pride.

  “I try to do things right,” Norville said. “Now if you ladies have finished chattin’, there’s some kiddies out here who need that table to make paper-plate snowmen.” He walked back to his post by the door.

  Paula got up and Edith did too. The older woman peeked around the door. “There they are. Hello, children. We’ll bring the table right out.”

  Paula tipped it over and Edith helped her snap the legs flat.

  “Don’t tell anyone what we were talking about,” she said to Paula in a whisper. “I’m not sure myself. I just wanted to talk to you about it.”

  “I understand. And I would never mention it. Trust me.”

  “I do, Paula. And so does Brandon. You’ve helped us so much.”

  Paula slid the folded table toward the door of the storage room. “Count on that. And keep me posted on this, Edith.”

  “I will.” She took the table from Paula. “Oh. I almost forgot to ask. How is Zach? I heard he came in this morning and left again.”

  “He’s doing okay,” Paula told her. “I know he had to meet with the insurance adjuster and go rent a car. He should be back soon.”

  She thought about him staying at her place again. He hadn’t had a chance to ask. At least he wouldn’t be wearing the red fur suit. But Paula had a feeling the neighbor in the flowered housecoat would remember him for the rest of her days.

  “I understand that he persuaded Norville to play Santa,” Edith said.

  “That should be interesting.”

  “Oh, he’s not such a curmudgeon as all that. Norville can be very sweet.”

  “If you say so.”

  He was now in charge of the Christmas House budget, and Paula had a favor to ask him. It would cost money. Not a fortune, but the expenditure was enough to make Norville start squeezing nickels.

  Paula borrowed a laptop from one of the volunteers. The morning with Zach hadn’t done wonders for her brain—she’d left her own in the apartment when she went back to change. She spent an hour looking up refurbished, relatively cheap machines that were suitable for an improvised security system. Her idea in the first place, and she’d dropped the ball on it. After what Edith had said, it was time to keep tabs on who came and went at the Christmas House.

  She browsed and comparison-shopped, her face pensive in the faint blue glow of the screen. Paula settled on an electronics store in downtown Denver that had a good selection of different models and webcams and external hard drives to store video footage.

  She sent the store’s location and hours to her smartphone and shut down the laptop. It was getting late. Tomorrow would be a better time to go.

  A heavy tread coming her way got her attention. Paula looked up. Zach was walking toward her, wearing sneakers but still not exactly light on his feet.

  “Hello,” he said.

  He looked like himself again. He wore jeans, that denim jacket, and the fine winter Stetson pushed back on his dark head.

  “Hey, Zach. How’d you make out?” Paula set the laptop aside. She stood up.

  “I rented an SUV for now. Looks like I’m going to get a new truck. The other driver’s insurance company wanted to make a quick settlement. They made a good offer.”

  “That’s great.”

  He set down the duffel bag he was carrying. “I guess so. I liked the old one. We’d been through a lot together.”

  She couldn’t imagine being attached to anything with wheels. To Paula, a car was something that got you somewhere or got replaced.

  “I’ll get over it,” he added.

  Paula glanced down at the duffel. “Go ahead and ask,” she said teasingly.

  “Beg pardon?”

  “Ask me if you can stay at my place,” she clarified.

  “Oh. That’s not necessary. But thanks.”

  She felt a bit put out. He was turning her down when she hadn’t even decided one way or another whether she wanted him to spend another night on her sofa.

  “Did Jake’s girlfriend reconsider?”

  “Nope.” He grinned at Paula. “She made sure I didn’t forget anything.”

  “Oh.” She slipped her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and rocked a little from toe to heel. “Well, where are you staying?”

  “Here. Edith thought it would be a good idea. She just called me.”

  Paula looked Zach up and down. He did seem to have recovered his strength, except for the way he walked. He would do for a one-man security system, if that’s what Edith had in mind.

  “Does she still feel sorry for you?”

  “I got that impression. Unlike a certain cop I know. So how was your day on the mean streets of Denver?”

  “Tame. People seem to be behaving themselves this Christmas.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Want to walk upstairs with me? I assume you’re staying in the attic room.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  She picked up the laptop. “This isn’t mine. I have to return it. I was just trying to figure out a way to put in low-cost security around here.”

  Zach looked around. The usual line of restless kids snaked by the front table. Norville took cash and ran credit cards through an electronic gizmo as Chuck Barbera stamped hands. “Did something happen?”

  “Not yet. But I want some kind of system in place. That way, we’re prepared.”

  Paula went with him up to the room where the volunteer was working. She explained the security setup she had in mind as Zach listened intently.

  “Should work,” he said. “And you’re right, we need something. Remember those two punks from the parking lot?”

  “I do.”

  “I thought I saw them when I drove in tonight. On foot, a couple of blocks from here.”

  Paula stopped, holding the borrowed laptop to her chest. “Really? Were they heading toward the Christmas House or away from it?”

  “Away.”

  “I guess that’s good. If I wasn’t off-duty, I’d go talk to them, ask them why they were in the neighborhood.”

  “You’d just get some smart answer. Brandon never did say what they were doing here that day.”

  She chose her words carefully. “He can be, uh, evasive sometimes.”

  Zach shook his head. “For what it’s worth, he’s been straight with me. I wasn’t that friendly to him at first.”

  “You had your reasons.”

  They stopped near the end of the hall, looking into a room filled with softly lit trees. The gentle melody of a Christmas carol floated out to them—until the wails of a small child broke the peaceful mood.

  Paula and Zach moved closer to make sure everything was okay. There was a meltdown or two every day. Nothing new. Kids got tired and overwhelmed.

  They saw a little girl of about three being held by her father. He stroked her hair to soothe her and she pushed his hand away.

  “Put me down,” she demanded.

  “No. You’re not allowed to take the ornaments off the trees. If you can’t behave, we’re going home.”

  Brandon came over. “Hey,” he said. “Don’t cry. I’ll show you a magic trick.”

  She looked at him with wide eyes, but she swallowe
d her sobs. Her weary father hoisted her a little higher in his arms.

  Brandon held out his top hat. “Watch.” He turned it upside down and made a few passes over the brim. “Keep watching.”

  The little girl focused on the top hat and then on Brandon’s smiling face.

  Zach looked at Paula. “He does magic?” he whispered.

  “News to me,” she whispered back.

  Brandon’s hand flashed down and up. A striped scarf slowly rose out of the hat, twisting and turning in a lively dance. Then Brandon made the scarf disappear.

  “Where did it go?” he asked the little girl.

  “In there!” She pointed to the dark interior of the hat.

  A few more passes of Brandon’s hand and the scarf came back for a repeat performance.

  The little girl giggled as she watched, until Brandon put the top hat down on the floor. The dad followed his lead and set his daughter down next to it. She looked into the hat and up at him. “It’s gone!”

  Brandon pulled the scarf out of his sleeve and waved it in the air. The little girl was delighted. Gleefully, she jumped over the red-and-white swirls and swoops he made with it near the floor.

  “Thanks,” her father said to Brandon. “Maybe she needed to work off some steam. It’s close to her bedtime.”

  Brandon made the scarf disappear for the last time. He put the top hat on his head while she looked up at him with puzzled wonderment.

  “Come on,” the dad coaxed his little daughter. “Let’s go look at the trees now.”

  She took his hand and went with him, looking a little wistfully back at Brandon. “Can I have a hat like that for Christmas?” she asked her dad.

  Brandon tipped it gallantly to her as he exited the room, almost bumping into Zach and Paula. “Whoa. What are you two doing here?”

  “Watching you,” Paula said. She didn’t add any explanation, and her answer seemed to rub him the wrong way.

  “I know I’m supposed to be at the door,” he said. The teenager’s buoyant mood vanished in a flash. Brandon pushed past them.

  “What was that all about?” Zach asked Paula.

  “I really don’t know.”

  Chapter 13

  Children were scampering out of the theme rooms in a last burst of energy, shepherded by their parents. Several young couples stayed toward the back, each pair in their own private world as they moved slowly to the stairs. Paula had noticed that the Christmas House was more popular than ever as a place to bring a date.