Last Chance Christmas

by Hope Ramsay

  Lizzy cocked her head. “See, that’s the problem with you. You’re always so rational.”

  “Lizzy, we aren’t going to find a gun out here, you do know that? And finding Michael’s hat doesn’t mean anything.”

  She put her hands on her hips and studied the area for a moment. “Yeah, you’re probably right. We’d need to have diving suits and all that to find the gun. But it was fun to come looking.”

  “Yeah, it was.” He tried to stop grinning at her—it was such a pain having braces. And she probably thought he was dorky looking because of them.

  “Hey, you want to see something?” Lizzy asked.

  “Of course.” Anything to prolong the adventure.

  She stashed the plastic bag in her backpack and took off in the opposite direction, following an old trail that led away from the swamp toward Bluff Road. “Where are we going?”

  “To the Jonquil House,” she said, as if that explained everything.

  They walked for about ten minutes and finally came to a clearing where an abandoned house stood. It looked kind of like one of those movie haunted houses where some scary old person lived. The paint had peeled off, leaving the wooden siding a silvery gray. Most of the windows were broken, the porch sagged, and the railing looked like a skeleton with missing teeth. The yard was littered with beer and pop cans.

  “Why do they call it the Jonquil House? Did the Jonquils live here once?”

  She turned, her emerald eyes dancing with amusement. “No, silly, a jonquil is another name for a daffodil. In the springtime, this field is totally covered with them. When they bloom, they cover up the beer cans.”

  “Oh.” A flower, God, who knew? “Uh, so do they do haunted houses out here at Halloween?”

  “Not the kind the grown-ups organize. I remember some teenagers taking me out here to go snipe hunting once, when I was like twelve.”

  “Snipe?”

  She gave him a wicked smile and skipped over toward the sagging porch steps. She sat down and looked up at him. “David, I’m going to give you a very useful piece of advice. If Michael Bennett or some other bully tries to take you out snipe hunting, you just tell them no, okay?”

  “What’s a snipe?”

  She giggled. “There is no such thing as a snipe. That’s the point.”

  “Oh.”

  He crossed the weedy grass and sat next to her. “You think I’m a dork, don’t you?”

  She turned. “No. I think you’re smart and interesting. You’re just from the city is all, and city folks don’t know about snipe hunting. I’m just helping you out, you know—What’s that?” Lizzy interrupted herself and turned toward the path that led out of the clearing.

  An instant later, a group of boys—most of them seniors—came striding out of the woods. Michael Bennett was in the lead, with Justin Polk, Jon Nelson, and Ben Everett following behind. The boys were carrying a twenty-four-pack of beer. Clearly they intended to add to the litter already scattered everywhere around the derelict house.

  It was time to go.

  David stood up. “C’mon, Lizzy, let’s get out of here.”

  “Well, well, well, look what we found,” Michael said as he strode into the clearing. “Lizzy’s got herself a little Jew boyfriend.”

  Lizzy stood up and put her hands on her hips. “Shut it, Michael. No one wants to hear your stupid opinion. David is my friend and his religion doesn’t matter.”

  “Let’s go,” David said again.

  “What’s the matter, are you scared?” Michael strode up to David and looked down at him in a totally challenging way. The idiot wanted a fight.

  “I’m not scared of you,” David lied. “I’m just not interested in spending time with a bunch of guys who want to drink beer and leave litter lying around.” He kicked at one of the pop cans on the ground at his feet.

  “Are you calling me a litterer?”

  David had the sudden urge to laugh. Michael was kidding, right?

  The next thing David knew, Michael had snatched David’s jacket in his fist and started shaking him back and forth. “Don’t you smirk at me. I’m better than you are, you hear?”

  “Hey, Michael, what are you doing?” one of the other boys said. “Let him go home to his mother.”

  Michael let David go with a jerk, and David fell back into a pile of old cans. “You can go,” he said, “but not with Lizzy.”

  “What?” Lizzy said. “I go where I please.”

  “Not with him, you don’t.” Michael took a step toward Lizzy, and that was all it took for David to find his courage.

  Or maybe to lose his good sense.

  He sprang up from the ground and tackled Michael around the ankles. The big kid went down with a crash. That was great, but what happened next was not.

  Michael regained his footing and landed a withering, right-handed, closed-fisted punch to David’s nose. David fell backward and ended up staring up at the sky with his ears ringing and blood gushing.

  He braced for another assault, but it didn’t come. He lay there breathing through his mouth because his nose didn’t work anymore.

  He sat up, trying to stanch the flow of blood from his nose. A couple of the other boys were holding Michael back. The homecoming king was ranting and cursing and spouting a lot of hate.

  Justin Polk turned toward Michael. “Shut your trap.”

  Michael stopped yelling.

  “You know, you’re a moron, Bennett,” Justin said. “You have to be crazy to dis Chief Rhodes’s daughter. And, to be honest, what just came out of your mouth disgusts me.”

  Justin turned away and came over to David. “We’re not all like him,” he said, offering a hand. David didn’t take Justin’s hand. He climbed to his feet on his own.

  Lizzy came over and put her arm around David. His nose was hurting, but somehow it felt a lot better with Lizzy’s arm around his shoulder.

  Then Lizzy burst his bubble when she said, “Oh, my God, I think he broke your nose. You’re going to have black eyes. We need to get you some ice.”

  Justin handed her a cold beer. “Put this on the bridge of his nose. It’ll stop the bleeding.”

  “Thank you, Justin,” Lizzy said. “You’ve just restored my faith in the Davis High football team.” She turned toward David. “C’mon, we need to get back to town.”

  They got halfway to the path before Lizzy stopped and turned. “Hey, Michael,” she said. “We found your hat. We know where you’ve been and what you’ve done. So you watch your step.”

  She turned and took David’s hand and led him from the woods.

  “Why’d you taunt Michael like that? I mean, we won the fight.”

  “We?”

  He shrugged. “So, okay, Justin stopped the fight.”

  “I just decided I should use my leverage. Those boys are terrified that I’m going to snitch on them. Daddy doesn’t tolerate underage drinking.”

  “Oh. But you aren’t going to tell on them, are you?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t made up my mind. I mean, what if Michael’s hat is an important clue? And besides, Michael is a bigot. I really wish I were bigger. If I were, I would have tried to tackle Michael like you did. That was pretty brave of you.”

  David didn’t feel very brave. Mostly he felt stupid.

  Stone wrapped his hands around his mug of coffee and gazed through the Kountry Kitchen’s tinsel-draped windows. He could just see the Cut ’n Curl across the street. He’d patrolled through the center of town five times this morning hoping that he might catch just a glimpse of Lark. But she must be sleeping in this morning. Her car was still in the parking lot out back. He’d checked.

  Five times.

  He stared into his coffee as his mind turned back to the feel of Lark’s lips against his. He got that feeling in the pit of his stomach—like he was free-falling.

  He wanted to take Lark up on her offer, even if she was planning to leave town in a few days. He didn’t want to be sitting here a year from now wonderi
ng about a chance not taken.

  He flattened his hand on the Formica and studied the faded skin on his ring finger. He suddenly wished he’d taken his wedding band off last summer. The white line was an unwanted reminder that he’d been with only one woman his entire life.

  How the hell was he supposed to get what he wanted when he was so inexperienced at this kind of thing? He’d never had any casual relationships with women before.

  He felt like a complete and utter fool. He wasn’t used to feeling so humbled and so unsure and so incompetent.

  “Hey.” Someone gave him a quick pat on the shoulder.

  He looked up to find his sister-in-law Jane sliding into the seat next to him. “Ruby sent me over here to get something to eat. I was feeling sick.”

  She gave him one of her goofy-sweet smiles and then hailed Ricki, the waitress. Jane ordered a bowl of oatmeal, even though it was almost lunchtime.

  “So, are you spying on Lizzy?” Jane asked.

  “What?”

  “She’s sitting in the back booth with that boyfriend of hers. She’s hiding behind a menu, and he’s trying to look nonchalant. Which is kind of difficult because he’s holding a bag of ice on his nose. My theory is that the kid decided to ride his bike on an icy road and paid the price.”

  Stone blinked and refocused his gaze toward the back of the room. Sure enough, his teenaged daughter was back there not very successfully hiding.

  “Aaaah, teenaged love,” Jane said dramatically.

  Stone returned his gaze to his coffee as the wild and errant thought crossed his mind that David Raab was having more luck with Lizzy than he was having with Lark. Then he remembered that he didn’t want David to get too lucky with his daughter.

  “Hey, it’s okay,” Jane said when he balled up his fist. “I’ve already given Lizzy the girl talk, you know?”

  He straightened and glared. “You did not.”

  She nodded. “Yes, I did. It was easier for me to do it. Less embarrassing for everyone involved, since I’m just her aunt by marriage. You can thank me later. Lizzy has a good head on her shoulders. You’ve done a good job with her. She’s not going to make any stupid mistakes like I did.”

  Jane’s oatmeal arrived, and she turned her attention to it.

  “That’s comforting.”

  “She’ll be fine.” Jane paused for a long moment. “I’m not so sure about you, though.”

  He grunted. “I thought you were always optimistic.”

  “I try to be. But I’m starting to wonder about you.”

  “How so?”

  “Because you’re sitting here sipping coffee instead of knocking on the door of the apartment above the Cut ’n Curl.”

  He almost spewed his coffee.

  She giggled. “You’re as obvious as a three-dollar bill. If you’re interested in Lark, then you need to go talk to her.”

  “Thanks for the advice.”

  “I realize that talking is not your strong suit. But you’re going to have to try.”

  “Did you come over here for the purpose of embarrassing me? Because, to be honest, you don’t look very morning sick.”

  She leaned in and whispered, “I faked it. I saw you come in here, and I figured someone needed to rescue Lizzy before you made her cry again. And also, you’ve run the circuit of town five times this morning, which is three times more than you normally do. And you never cruise through the parking lot at the Cut ’n Curl.”

  “How did you know that?”

  “I was taking out the trash, and I noticed. As for the rest, well, Thelma saw you on her way in, and Millie saw you on her way out, and then Louisa saw you when she stopped at the dry cleaners, and Annie saw you when she stopped to pick up some doughnuts for the book club holiday get-together. Ruby’s cell phone has been ringing up a storm today.”

  “Great.” He propped his chin on his fist.

  “Just go on up those stairs and ask her out on a date. The world will not come to an end if you do that.”

  “I’ve never been on a date.”

  “I’m sure you and Sharon went out,” Jane said gently.

  “Yeah, but it wasn’t a date. Not like that. I knew Sharon when I was in the third grade.” His whole face heated up. This was pitifully embarrassing.

  “Well, she’s over there waiting for you.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because she keeps watching you cruise through town. We’ve heard it now from Millie, Thelma, Louise, and Annie. Not to mention Lessie Anderson.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut. “You know, I think I know why Andy Griffith never remarried, if the folks in Mayberry were anything like they are in Last Chance.”

  “Look, Stone, I can just imagine what’s going through Lark’s mind. She’s up there, alone, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life now that her father has passed. She’s watching you, and she’s trying to figure out if she should wander over here and pretend to be hungry. But she’s holding back.”

  “Uh-huh, and why’s that?”

  “Because of Sharon.”

  Stone glared at his sister-in-law. It was truly annoying the way Jane could put her finger right on the heart of the matter. “You’ve been taking lessons from the church ladies.”

  His glare bounced right off her. “I have tricks I could teach them. I saw the way you watched her the other night when we were looking at the photo albums. You’re interested in her, and that’s like the most amazing thing that’s happened in this town in a long time.”

  He had no reply to give her. And there was no point trying to intimidate Jane, he had tried and failed on numerous occasions. Seeing how happy Jane had made his younger brother, Stone had finally given up and decided to love Jane just like everyone else in town did.

  She reached over and touched his left hand, turning it over so that she could see his naked finger. “Stone, everyone in town knows you took off your wedding band. You don’t do a thing like that without people noticing. It’s been the single biggest topic of discussion at the beauty shop for days now. It’s even outpacing speculation about Jimmy’s mysterious death, which is saying something.”

  “But I don’t even know how to ask a woman out on a date. And where would I take her?” he asked, his voice sounding suddenly panicky in his own ears. “I used to take Sharon to the picture show at The Kismet. But The Kismet is closed now.”

  “Why don’t you take her up to old man Nelson’s cornfield and stroll through the Christmas lights.”

  “But people go up there to…”

  “Right. That’s what they do.” A slow, naughty smile lit Jane’s face.

  She patted his hand. “It’s about time. Ask her out. And when you get to one of the dark places, don’t be shy.”

  Jane got up and put a five down on the counter. She leaned down and whispered in his ear. “Please don’t let Lizzy know that you know she’s back there with David. Let her have her date. The whole town is watching them, too. And no one is going to let Lizzy or David get into trouble.”

  She straightened up. “On the other hand, I think the Christ Church choir might break into a rousing rendition of the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ if you managed to get into trouble with Lark Chaikin.”

  Jane squeezed his shoulder again and swept out of the café.

  Stone sat there for thirty seconds, screwing up his courage, then he pushed up from the table and strolled across the street, aware that every woman in the Cut ’n Curl was watching him.

  He paused for a moment at the stairs to the apartment, then he took a bracing breath, reminding himself that he was a warrior who had coolly faced down the enemy.

  He climbed the steps two at a time.

  CHAPTER

  16

  Daddy was taking an incredibly long time in the shower. Lizzy heard the water running as she sat on her bed staring down at Michael Bennett’s soggy hat.

  The events of the morning had been rattling around in her head all day. She knew she shouldn’t tattle
on the boys who hung out at the Jonquil House. But what if they knew something about Jimmy Marshall’s death?

  The sound of water stopped. Lizzy gave Daddy ten minutes to get dressed, then she knocked on his bedroom door.

  He opened it directly. “What’s up?”

  “Uh, Daddy, before you go, I need to speak with you about something important.”

  Daddy gave her his serious look. “Is this about David, and how you weren’t exactly at Mr. Randall’s stables this noontime?”

  Heat crawled up Lizzy’s face. “So you did see me at the Kountry Kitchen.”

  “Not until Aunt Jane pointed you out. How did David get the bloody nose?”

  “He got into a fight with Michael Bennett.”

  “Great. Where did this happen?”

  “We went out to the swamp this morning.”

  “Why?”

  She shrugged. “I thought we could look for the missing gun, you know?”

  Daddy leaned against the door frame. He looked totally badass when he did that, even dressed in jeans and a plaid flannel shirt. “I’m pretty sure you’d need a wet suit and some dive gear to find that weapon.”

  “Yeah, I know. But I tried anyway. And while I was messing around in the water, I came up with this.” She held up the plastic bag.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s Michael Bennett’s porkpie hat.”

  “And this is why David got into a fight with Michael?”

  She shook her head, then explained what had happened that morning.

  “Well, I have to say I’m impressed with Justin Polk,” Daddy said when she’d finished her explanations.

  “About the hat, Daddy?”

  “Yeah? What about it?” He glanced at his watch. He was preoccupied. Daddy hadn’t even given her grief for going into the swamp without telling anyone.

  Lizzy took a deep breath. “Michael always wears his hat. But he didn’t have it yesterday at school. So he must have lost it before yesterday. That means he was in the swamp, maybe even at the same time as Mr. Marshall died. He might have seen something. Or maybe he’s even involved in some way.”