A Cowboy's Christmas Carol

by Brenda Harlen

  “Uncle Linc, I’m hungry...”

  “You think maybe you can hold on until we get to the cottage?”

  “I’ll try...” Jayden lasted exactly three minutes. “Uncle Linc, my tummy is growling...”

  They were just passing Hillsboro, so there were still plenty of fast-food places with drive-throughs. Linc pulled into the next one.

  As he rolled down the window to put in Jayden’s order, Maya jolted awake with a startled little whimper. She fussed as they moved on to the pickup window, where Jayden’s snack waited.

  A few minutes later, they rolled out onto the road again. Maya had not stopped fussing. But with any luck, she would be lulled back to sleep by the ride.

  Ten minutes later, Maya’s whines had turned to all-out wails. Linc pulled off at the next opportunity and checked her diaper. It was wet, so he changed it.

  Jayden waited until they were back on the road to mention that he really, really had to pee.

  It went on like that. One thing after another, a classic car-ride-with-the-kids experience. What with stopping to offer comfort to whichever child was upset, change a loaded diaper, get Jayden another snack and then, soon after, yet another potty break, the hour-and-a-half drive took almost twice that long.

  When Linc finally pulled the Range Rover in at the cottage on the wooded bluffs above the ocean in Valentine Bay, it was after three and the shadows had grown longer. It would be dark by five.

  And Maya had started crying again.

  Jayden just kept on talking. “We’re here! I want to see the nice ladies. I want to go get the Christmas tree...”

  “One thing at a time, Jayden.” In the phone holder, Linc’s cell lit up. Again. He let it go to voice mail. Already, he’d ignored several calls from the office, where they damn well ought to be able to get through one day without him.

  He needed to unload the car, get the kids inside; settle them down a little; turn on the water, the power and the heat; and put something together for dinner—and okay, fine. Maybe he should have listened to Jean and considered bringing help.

  At the very least, he could have called the property manager to get the water running, the lights on and the place warmed up.

  But he hadn’t. Because it was tradition, after all. The Strykers might be one of the wealthiest families in Oregon, a fortune built on four generations of running Stryker Marine Transport coupled with smart investment strategies, but when Christmastime came around, having money running out their ears didn’t matter.

  At the cottage, Linc’s family did for themselves. His happiest childhood memories were in Valentine Bay. At the cottage, he and Megan had almost felt like they belonged to a regular family, the kind where the mom and dad actually cared about each other and spent time with their kids.

  And damn it, he could do this.

  He would do this.

  He just needed to take it one step at a time.

  First up: try to settle the wailing Maya down a little.

  Jayden announced, “I’m gonna get out and—”

  “Jayden.”

  “What, Uncle Linc?”

  “I need you to stay in your car seat for a few minutes. Will you do that for me?”

  Jayden wrinkled his nose, like the idea of staying put smelled bad. “There’s french fries under my butt.”

  “We’ll deal with that, I promise. For right now, though, just sit tight.”

  Maya had sailed past crying and straight on to wailing. “Unc Winc!” she screamed, and threw her beloved stuffed pig on the floor.

  “She’s hurting my ears!” whined Jayden. Ever resourceful, he stuck his fingers in them. “There.” He let out a long sigh. “That’s better.”

  Linc flashed the boy a big thumbs-up, after which he climbed from the car, ran around to Maya’s door and extricated the unhappy toddler from her seat. “Here we go, sweetheart.” He hoisted her into his arms.

  She grabbed him around the neck and screamed all the louder, burying her sweaty little face in the crook of his shoulder, smearing him with snot and unhappy tears.

  He stroked her dark, baby-fine curls and soothed, “Shh, now. It’s okay...”

  Pulling open the front passenger door, Linc laid her on the seat and somehow managed, through her layers of winter clothing, to get two fingers down the back of her diaper. It was a bold and dangerous move, but it turned out all right. She hadn’t soiled her diaper, which meant her two-year-old molars were probably acting up again.

  Maya confirmed the problem, pressing small fingers to her jaw. “Hurt, Unc Winc.” She needed a cold washcloth to chew on, but he couldn’t give her one until they were inside the cottage and he’d turned on the water. Jean had taught him to stick his fingers in her mouth and massage the area. But he hated to do that without washing his hands first.

  “I’ll help,” announced Jayden, and snapped himself out of his car seat before Linc could order him to stay put.

  Which was okay, come to think of it. “You’re the best, Jayden. Get that blue chew thing out of the front of her diaper bag...” It was soft silicone and shaped to fit in the back of her mouth.

  Jayden crouched in the footwell to dig around in the bag. “Got it!” Beaming proudly, he handed the teething toy over the seat to Linc.

  “Great job—now, stay close,” Linc warned. When left to his own devices, Jayden sometimes went off “adventuring.”

  “I will, Uncle Linc...”

  “Thanks.” Linc gave the screaming little one her chew toy. She knew what to do, sticking it into her mouth with a sad little moan, holding the soft handle while chewing the business end into the spot she needed it, all the way in back. The silence that followed was golden. “Better?” he asked.

  Her expression relaxed and she made a soft, contented sound as she worked the toy inside her mouth.

  He glanced over the seat at Jayden again. “Can you hand me Maya’s baby sling?”

  “Yep.” The little boy dug out the sling and passed it to Linc.

  Linc thanked him enthusiastically and then got down to the business of putting Maya into the sling, all nice and cozy against his chest. She was still small enough to carry that way—though she wouldn’t be for long. He spoke to her softly as she chewed on the blue toy and stared up at him with so much trust in those big brown eyes.

  Megan’s eyes...

  The sadness dragged at him again. He refused to surrender to it. Megan and Kevin were gone. But they lived on through Maya and Jayden—and Linc would do whatever it took to give his niece and nephew a happy childhood and a decent start in life.

  Maya, attached to the front of him now, chewed away on her teething toy and reached up her free hand to gently pat his cheek.

  His heart suddenly too big for his chest, he smiled down at her. “Okay, then, sweetheart. Let’s go on into the...”

  Was it suddenly much too quiet?

  He glanced into the back seat, where Jayden’s door gaped wide-open. The boy was no longer crouched in the footwell and, except for a few smashed fries, his car seat sat empty. “Jayden?”

  No answer.

  “Jayden!”

  Silence.

  Maya stared up at him, eyes wide as saucers. She made a tiny, anxious sound. “It’s okay,” he soothed her, rubbing her back as he turned in a circle, his gaze probing the shadows between the giant Douglas firs that loomed all around. “Jayden!”

  Again, no answer. Linc’s heart pounded the walls of his chest and his pulse roared in his ears.

  He’d only taken his attention off the kid for a minute or two, tops. And yet somehow, in that those minutes, he’d vanished.

  “Jayden?”

  Still no answer. Linc tamped down a hard spurt of adrenaline-boosted terror. No reason to lose it yet. Jayden couldn’t have gone far.

  * * *

  In the rambling family-o
wned cottage she used to share with her sister, Harper Bravo stared into the wide-open fridge and tried to decide what to have for dinner. Nothing looked good. She was just about to check the freezer when the doorbell rang.

  Company. Her mood brightened. Harper had yet to become accustomed to living alone. She would love a little company, even old Angus McTerly, who lived two cottages south and had no doubt lost track of his wandering dog, Mitsy.

  But it wasn’t Angus. She pulled the door wide and found little Jayden Hollister, whom she hadn’t seen since last Christmas, waiting on the step.

  “Hi, Harper.” He threw his arms wide and beamed up at her from under the blue hood of his down jacket. “It’s me!”

  “Jayden. What a surprise.”

  “Is Hailey here, too?”

  “Um, not right now.” The boy, who’d grown a good three inches since the last time she’d seen him, appeared to be on his own. Whoever was supposed to be watching him probably wondered where he’d gotten off to. “Jayden, are you all by yourself?”

  He tipped his head to the side and looked up at her through a fringe of thick, dark eyelashes. “Not ezackly...” And he launched into a chatty little monologue about his uncle and his sister and how they were all in the car for “a reeeely long time.” From there, he segued into how he hoped it would snow and there could be a snowman like last year. “And we will be here all the way to New Year’s Day, Harper, so can I be in the Christmas show again and you can make me an elf suit like you did before?” Harper and her sister Hailey put on several community events a year at the Valentine Bay Theatre downtown—and Jayden had quite the memory for a five-year-old.

  “Did you say your uncle is here with you?”

  “Yes!”

  “Let me check with him about the Christmas show, okay?”

  “Okay!”

  She stuck her phone in her pocket and grabbed her old wool Pendleton from the hook by the door. When she wiggled her fingers at him, Jayden took her hand. “Tell you what. Let’s go on back to your cottage, shall we? Your uncle is probably wondering where you are.”

  “All right, let’s go!” Jayden skipped along beside her as they took the narrow, tree-lined path that led to the next cottage north of hers.

  Halfway there, a handsome and harried-looking man appeared from around the next bend. He had a second child strapped to his chest in a baby sling—undoubtedly Maya, who was about two years old now. And the hot guy? The uncle in question, the one who took guardianship of the children when their parents had died so tragically last January.

  Like most people in town, Harper had read about the plane crash in the news. Such a heartbreaking story, and it must be so hard for the family—the two innocent kids, especially. But for the uncle, as well. He’d lost his sister and his brother-in-law. Harper understood that kind of loss from firsthand experience.

  “Jayden!” The uncle sounded as frantic as he looked. “There you are. You scared me to death.” The little girl in the baby sling started fussing, and Jayden, alarmed at the uncle’s wild-eyed expression, stopped stock-still on the path.

  “Hi, I’m Harper.” She spoke in a cheerful, nonthreatening tone and plastered a big smile on her face, hoping the uncle would take the hint, lower his voice and stop scaring the kids. “Jayden and I are friends,” she said brightly. “We know each other from last Christmas. Are you staying at the Stryker cottage?”

  The uncle turned his angry glare on her. “Where else would we be?”

  Still in her child-soothing voice, she suggested softly, “You need to smile. Because a smile would be so much less scary than your face right now.”

  * * *

  Linc finally got what the woman with Jayden was trying to tell him. “Uh, right.” Bouncing Maya gently to calm her down, he drew a deep breath and rearranged his expression to something he hoped came off as not quite so freaked. “I apologize for the scariness. I was worried...”

  “I completely understand.” The woman—Harper?—softened her smile. Linc found himself thinking how pretty she was, with long, thick blond hair and enormous pale blue eyes in a heart-shaped face.

  He introduced himself. “I’m Linc Stryker, the kids’ uncle and guardian.”

  “Great to meet you, Linc.” She cast a downward glance at the wide-eyed Jayden and then arched an eyebrow at Linc.

  He took her meaning and spoke gently to the little boy. “Jayden, I’m sorry for using such a loud voice. But remember, no adventuring without an adult.”

  Jayden gave him a slow and very serious nod. “I’m sorry, too, Uncle Linc. I shouldn’t have left like that, and I won’t do it again—and I wasn’t adventuring, not really. I just wanted to say hi to Harper and Hailey.”

  “I get it. But leaving without telling me where you’re going is not okay.”

  “I know, Uncle Linc. I promise I won’t do that again.”

  “Excellent.”

  Right then, Maya whined, “Unc Winc, I hungwy!”

  He dropped a kiss on the top of her curly head. “Okay. Let’s see what we can do about that.” He held out his hand for Jayden, who let go of Harper to take it. “Thank you,” he said to the blonde.

  “Anytime.” Her soft mouth bloomed in a radiant smile as he turned to take the kids back the way they’d come.

  * * *

  Harper felt weirdly stunned.

  The uncle was way too attractive, tall and broad shouldered with caramel-brown eyes and full lips and a sculpted jaw dusted with just the right amount of scruff—and where were her manners?

  Linc Stryker could clearly use a hand.

  “Wait.” When he paused and glanced back at her, she offered, “Let me help. What can I do?”

  Linc turned fully around again and grinned at her, a slow grin that caused the muscles in her belly to tighten and warmth to flare across her skin. “I’ve been trying really hard to pretend that I’ve got this.”

  “Pretend? No way. It’s obvious to me that you know what you’re doing.”

  He scoffed. “If you say so.”

  “I do. Now and then, though, you need to let a neighbor give you a hand.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Honestly, I’m happy to help.”

  “Hungwy, hungwy, hungwy,” chanted the little one in the baby sling, reaching up to capture Linc’s face between her hands.

  He caught the teething toy she’d dropped and bent to whisper something to her. When he glanced up, he aimed that sexy smile at Harper again. “Help would be wonderful.”

  “So, what can I do?”

  “I hate to ask...”

  “Just tell me.”

  “Well, if you would maybe come on back to the cottage with us? I would owe you big-time if you could keep an eye on the kids until I can unpack the car and get the power and the heat turned on...”

  * * *

  The Strykers’ charming, gray-shingled two-story vacation house was a cottage in name only. Harper guesstimated the size at around four thousand square feet, with a beautiful, modern kitchen and lots of windows offering forest and ocean views.

  “It’s been updated since last year, hasn’t it?” she asked, when they stood in the kitchen—still wearing their coats because the heat wasn’t on yet. “I remember seeing workmen here, in July and August...”

  Linc gave Maya back her teething toy. “I hired a contractor last summer to upgrade the kitchen and bathrooms. Then in September, I arranged for a decorator to come in. She had all the rooms painted and changed out the furniture.” His warm brown eyes looked shadowed suddenly. Harper had a sense he was thinking of the sister he’d lost. “I wanted to bring the kids here for the holidays and the place needed an upgrade or two.”

  “It’s beautiful,” she said.

  “I like it!” declared Jayden.

  Linc seemed pleased. He ruffled the boy’s hair. “I’m glad to hear it
meets with your approval.” He glanced down at the little girl attached to his chest and then up at Harper. “If you’ll take Maya, I’ll get busy unloading the car.”

  Harper helped him unhook the sling. When he handed the little one over, Maya didn’t protest, just reached out her arms and let Harper gather her in, taking the blue teething toy out of her mouth long enough to remark, “I hungwy. Now.”

  “We’ll fill up that tummy. Promise.” Harper brushed a kiss on her plump cheek.

  * * *

  Linc brought in the food first—what there was of it. “It’s not much,” he confessed sheepishly. “I had this idea I would just take the kids out with me to get everything we needed right here in town.” He set the two bags of groceries on the white marble countertop.

  Harper shifted Maya onto one arm and took a quick peek inside the bags. “No worries,” she reassured him. “I see bread, eggs, milk and sandwich fixings. Fruit. Perfect. Nobody will starve.”

  “Hungwy,” whined Maya hopefully around her blue teething toy.

  Harper stroked her soft hair. “We’ll fix you a nice snack.” She sent a quick smile Linc’s way. “Turn the heat on. We’re fine.”

  “Great.” He was already turning away.

  There was a booster seat at the table. She put Maya in it, peeled a banana and gave the little girl half. Next, Harper found crayons and a tablet in a kitchen drawer. She handed them to Jayden and asked him to draw some pictures.

  He had questions. “Pictures of what, Harper? How many pictures? What colors do you like? Should they be Christmas pictures?”

  She tipped Maya’s chin up. “What do you think your brother should draw for us?”

  Maya swallowed a bite of banana and exclaimed, “Cwissmuss!”

  Harper winked at Jayden. “You heard your sister. We want some Christmas pictures—in Christmas colors, like green and red and yellow.” But why limit a guy’s creativity? “Blue and purple and pink are perfectly acceptable, as well. In fact, Jayden, you should use any color in the box. I kind of love them all.”