High Country Christmas

by Cynthia Thomason

  “Why, hello, Ava,” EmmaAnn Brubaker said to her. “Haven’t seen you here in a while.”

  “Hello, EmmaAnn. Maybe you’ve heard I’ve come back to Holly River to take over managing the children’s home.”

  EmmaAnn smiled. “I did hear something about that. I’m sure you’ll do a good job out there.”

  “I hope so,” Ava said, following her comment with some general questions about EmmaAnn’s family. That’s just what people did in the High Country. They always asked. “Is my uncle busy? I’d like to see him.”

  “Let me check for you.” EmmaAnn picked up a desk phone and punched a button that would connect her to the inner office. She spoke into the receiver, her voice so low Ava couldn’t hear her. After a moment she hung up the phone.

  “I’m sorry, Ava. That was your uncle’s colleague. He said Rudy’s gone out for a while. He’s meeting with some...prospective pulp buyers.”

  Right. I’ll just bet he is.

  “You can leave a mess...”

  “Thank you, EmmaAnn,” Ava said, passing by the desk. She put her hand on the doorknob. “I’ll just go in and wait for him to return.”

  “But, Ava, you can’t do that. Your uncle wouldn’t like...”

  “It’s okay,” Ava said. “I won’t touch anything, and besides, this office is like a second home to me.”

  She opened the door, gratified to see her uncle’s shocked expression, his eyes wide, his fleshy jaw practically on his chest. He recovered quickly and stood up. “Why, Ava Cahill, my favorite niece. What brings you out here today? Hope you didn’t get your feathers ruffled by that little charade between me and EmmaAnn. I didn’t understand that it was you out there.”

  “Of course you didn’t, Uncle Rudy,” Ava said. “My feathers are fine.” She gave him a once-over. In the nearly two years since Raymond had died, Rudy had not fared well. His waist had expanded, no doubt from too many rich lunches and cocktail hours. His face was drawn and road-mapped with new wrinkles. Only a ring of white hair around his scalp remained of his once-lustrous thick hair. He stood and came around the desk.

  “How can I help you, today, Ava? Everything okay at home? Cora doing all right?”

  “Yes, everyone’s fine.” She recognized his questions as platitudes, spoken without feeling or expectation of answers. She placed her briefcase on the floor and took a seat even though he hadn’t offered one. “I’ll just take a few minutes of your time, Uncle Rudy. The family has entrusted me with Mama’s well-being, financial and otherwise, and I’m trying to do my best by her.”

  Rudy leaned on his desk, peered down at her. “Well, of course you are, Ava. I wouldn’t expect any less from Raymond’s offspring. But you said Cora is doing fine.”

  “I know I did. And she manages quite well considering that her income has shrunk since Daddy died. But we’re all concerned that she doesn’t seem to have the funds to keep the house up. And she canceled her vacation this year.”

  Rudy slowly shook his head. “I didn’t know that, Ava. I’ll be glad to help her if I can with a personal loan. Interest free, of course. But I suspect that much of this problem has to do with that kid Raymond had with one of our former employees.”

  So Rudy did know about Robert and his mother, Gladys.

  “I understand your mama has kept up payments to the boy’s mother even though the kid’s not her responsibility.”

  Ava tamped her anger. “Robert is an innocent in all this. How dare you, Rudy. I have to say that I don’t appreciate your bringing him into it.”

  “I humbly apologize, Ava. But what can I do about it? I’m not responsible for the boy, either, and Cora can make her own decisions.”

  “Yes, but we can all help her out without considering a personal loan from you.” She leaned over, snapped open the briefcase and brought out one of the ledgers she’d been working on at Sawtooth. The ledger was distinctive in its army green color with brown leather binding. She was certain Rudy recognized it. “I managed to get a hold of some of the records Elsie Vandergarten left when she retired.”

  Rudy sputtered a surprised chuckle. “Elsie has those books? She must have absconded with them. They’re supposed to be under lock and key, Ava. Despite you being family, you’re not really entitled to look at any of the books. Those are official company records.”

  “Oh.” Ava smiled. “I didn’t know that. Anyway, this is the most recent ledger, the last one Elsie filled in before the company went all digital. I’ve noticed some interesting facts about the numbers.”

  “Well, Ava, honey, you can’t put much stock in that. Elsie is going on seventy. Her mind was probably playing tricks on her for years. We just never had the heart to let her go.”

  “I don’t know if I agree, Uncle Rudy. This last ledger shows that Elsie’s mind was just as sharp as it ever was. The entries are precise, meticulous really.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “Some of the major accounts, ones my father specifically worked on for years are missing.”

  Rudy crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you saying, Ava?”

  “The Mendelson account for instance. That was one of Daddy’s largest customers. They ordered thousands of dollars’ worth of pulp each year. There are no orders after Daddy died. The same is true of Jackson Paper Company and several others.”

  Rudy cleared his throat, gave her a hard stare. “I don’t know what you’re implying, Ava, but things changed after Raymond died. Customers left us because he was no longer around even though I tried my darndest to keep them. Truth is, your daddy played with the numbers a bit, giving out favors like Halloween candy. We couldn’t continue with those shenanigans. A company can’t exist that way.”

  Ava stared back. “I haven’t found evidence of my father’s so-called shenanigans.”

  “Well, your daddy was pretty clever at covering his tracks. His history with Robert proves that.” Rudy smiled as if his point were uncontroversial. “And here’s another thing, Ava. Our corporate hierarchy changed after Raymond. Some of the old account holders didn’t like that. I’m thinking they weren’t getting the discounts your daddy established. Mendelson and some of the others went elsewhere for their paper manufacturing needs.”

  “I know Saul Mendelson, Uncle Rudy. I don’t think he would abandon his ties with Cahill Paper. You are aware that I can call him and ask if he’s buying from another mill.”

  Rudy placed his fists on his hips. “These all sound like accusations of foul play to me, Ava. You’re wading into deep water,” he said. “I hope you know how to swim.”

  “My mother’s future is dependent upon the continued success of this company, Uncle Rudy. She is supposed to share in the profits according to my father’s estate. If there has been a glitch in the bookkeeping, and some of the accounts receivable have been overlooked, I’m sure we can correct it before this goes any further. Restitution can be made...”

  Rudy walked around her chair to the door. He turned the handle. “This conversation is over, Ava. I don’t appreciate your tone or your accusations.” He opened the door wide. “Give your mother my regards.”

  She stood, plastered a smile on her face. “I will. Thank you for your time, Uncle Rudy. As a return favor, I will give you some time as well. Take a few days to go over the books as you see them. Get back to me and decide if there isn’t a way we can make this right.”

  “I don’t need time, Ava,” Rudy said. “I’d suggest that you drop this matter before irreparable damage has been made.”

  “Suit yourself, Uncle Rudy. Still, my offer of a few days stands. Please give my regards to Aunt Rachel.”

  She crossed the threshold, but turned around at the last moment. “I have several ledgers in my possession, Uncle Rudy. This is the first one I’ve examined. I’m wondering if they will all be this revealing.”

  He closed the door behind her witho
ut another word.

  * * *

  AVA WAS SHAKING when she got back in her car. Okay, she’d faced her uncle with her suspicions, and he hadn’t denied them. In fact, he’d shifted the guilt to her father. Now Ava was even more determined to prove that her uncle was hiding some of Cahill Paper’s most important clients and claiming they no longer ordered from the company. Who knew how much money Cora had missed out on according to the profit sharing deal her dad had established. Probably thousands.

  Rudy had his chance today. He could have dealt with Ava, admitted his wrongdoing and avoided a confrontation with the rest of the family. And still he had a few days to reconsider his hard-line approach before it was too late for a peaceful reconciliation. Ava, Carter and Jace were going to demand complete restitution.

  As she neared the Sawtooth Home, Ava slowed her car. Just a few yards up a narrow lane stood the small but charming farmhouse that Noah had claimed to be renting. It had been built in the 1930s, and had housed a number of families. She noticed immediately that the For Rent sign was missing from the front yard. Also, a black pickup truck stood in the driveway. Attached was a trailer carrying a motorcycle. Apparently her new neighbor had moved in.

  The knowledge that Noah lived so close didn’t do much to calm Ava after her meeting with Rudy. She was breathing heavily when she pulled into the parking lot of the administration building at the school. The campus was quiet. All the children were either in class or in the day care center. Ava would have time to return messages.

  “What’s the matter with you?” the home’s receptionist, SherryLynn, asked when Ava came in the door. “No offense, but you look like you could spit nails.”

  Ava drew a deep breath. “Is it that obvious? I just had a confrontation with a family member, but it’s fine.”

  “Couldn’t have been one of your brothers,” SherryLynn said. “They are both angels.”

  “Right. You and most of the people in this town are under that impression.” She smiled. “Should I remind you that you never had to live with them?” Ava headed to her office. “But no, my problem wasn’t with Jace or Carter.”

  SherryLynn stopped her from going in. “Oh, just a minute, Ava. There’s a man in your office. A really good-looking guy wearing a black leather jacket...” She fanned herself with her hand.

  Oh great, Ava thought. Just what she needed so soon after the kiss in the barn.

  She entered her office. Noah stood from the sofa against the wall and placed a magazine back on the coffee table. “Hi. Sorry to barge in without an appointment, but...” He stopped, looked her over from head to toe and said, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  She slammed her briefcase on the top of her desk. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. I’m fine.”

  “You don’t look fine. You look mad.” A slow smile crept over his face. “You’re not upset about what happened last night?”

  She tried to stare away the smile. “I’ve hardly thought about it,” she said. “Not everything is about you.”

  “I believe you’ve made that clear. Well, if you are regretting the kiss, you might as well know that I enjoyed every second of it and I don’t regret a thing, except perhaps that it was too short. In fact, seeing you all flushed and rosy today, it takes about all my will power not to do it again.”

  “Now would not be a good time to try it, Noah. You are right about one thing. I have had a bad day.”

  As if he hadn’t heard her, he continued. “Last night I kept thinking about this funny little thing you do with your tongue. Sweet, really.”

  “Would you mind not being quite so descriptive?”

  “Devil’s in the details, Ava. And that was one detail I don’t want to forget.”

  “We can’t relive the past, Noah, whether it was yesterday or many yesterdays ago.”

  “I’m not attempting to do that,” he said. “I’m a man who always plans for the future.”

  A future with Noah? As tempting as it sounded, Ava knew it would never happen. She needed to keep her encounters with Noah on a business level and stop thinking about what happened in the barn.

  She walked around her desk and sat in her chair. “What is it you want, Noah?”

  “I wanted you to know I’m all moved in next door.”

  “Fine. I assumed you were when I passed by there earlier.”

  “I’d like to see Sawyer when she gets out of her last class today. She doesn’t know about my plan to stay here for a while. I want to show her the house. I remember when you said I could take her home for visits once someone from the school has checked out my digs and approved the place.” He grinned again.

  “Maybe you’d like to come over and check it out.”

  She picked up a stack of pink messages and waved it at him. “Now’s not really good for me, Noah.”

  “I can see that. Okay. I left your mother’s place last night and drove to Chapel Hill to collect some things. Also brought some of Sawyer’s belongings from the house. Thought she might like some reminders of home.”

  That was a truly thoughtful gesture. If Sawyer had some favorite possessions, she probably would enjoy having them in her room at the school. “I’m sure she’ll like that,” she said.

  Noah looked at his watch. “Your assistant outside said the last class was over at two thirty. It’s two thirty now. If we can schedule the official visitation by a school staffer later, I’d like to take her over to my house for an hour or so now. Not long I promise. Just long enough to have a soda and unpack her things.”

  “It’s not the customary way of doing things,” Ava said.

  “Come on, Ava. She’s not a child. She can make up her own mind about an hour with me, can’t she? And if she’s unhappy she can always slip away and come back here. It’s a short walk, and she’s pretty good at escaping.”

  Ava smiled. “You do have a point. All right. I’ll have her cottage mother send her over.” Ava tapped a pencil on the desk blotter. “But it’s her decision, Noah. If Sawyer doesn’t want to go, that’s it. No arguments.”

  But Sawyer did want to go. Perhaps she was enticed by a box of her cherished belongings. Perhaps she felt bad about the scene from the day before. Maybe she’d decided to give her father a break. At any rate, out her office window, Ava watched them cross the grass and disappear into a line of trees on their way to Noah’s new house.

  * * *

  THIRTY MINUTES LATER, Sawyer had picked out a small bedroom that would be hers if she ever decided to stay with her father. She picked through the box of belongings Noah had brought and decorated the built-in bookcases. A favorite rag doll, jewelry box, snow globe from New York City, and a music box brought all the way from Germany when he was in Munich on R & R from battle zones in Afghanistan. A few other mementos succeeded in turning the otherwise-plain room into a girl’s-only spot.

  “So what do you think of the house?” Noah asked her when they were having sodas in the kitchen.

  “There’s one thing I especially like about it.”

  Thinking she might say that its proximity to the school would be the positive attribute, Noah said, “Please, tell me.”

  “It doesn’t have room for a housekeeper suite.”

  Noah smiled in spite of his disappointment. “I’d like you to feel like you can come over any time.”

  “I can’t do that,” she said. “Whenever I leave the campus, I have to inform my cottage parents. So far this, and the dinner at Ava’s mom’s house are the only times I’ve left. I don’t know if I’ll get permission to leave so soon.”

  Noah took a swig from his ginger ale can. “Like that’s ever stopped you.”

  She grinned. “Point taken.”

  At this moment, Noah felt closer to his daughter than he had since she was a little girl and demanded he push her on the swing set he built in the backyard. He was pleased with his decision to move in next
to the school. If he couldn’t see his daughter whenever he wanted to, at least he knew she was close, and that was a start. And these new living arrangements made him feel comfortable for the first time in years.

  It didn’t appear that Sawyer was going to be so turned off by his presence that she would run away again. Noah enjoyed the long-absent familial warmth spreading through him. He and Sawyer had a long way to go. Ava was right about that, but even the longest journey has to start somewhere. And apparently his and Sawyer’s was starting in a little town he’d never have imagined himself visiting.

  He twirled the can in his hand. “You know, in ten or fifteen years maybe you won’t need a housekeeper and you can stay here by yourself when I’m away for work.”

  “Ten or fifteen years?” she said. “I’ll be old by then. I really will need someone to take care of me.”

  He laughed. “By then I’ll be so old we’ll both need a caretaker.” He wanted to talk to her about her fears concerning his job and his hobbies. A quick look at his watch convinced him that now probably wasn’t such a good time for an in-depth conversation. But next time, when she came over, he would address those anxieties. Maybe then she would listen.

  “We’d better start back,” he said. “Mama Ava probably set a timer for exactly one hour when we left her office.”

  “Mama Ava? That’s funny,” Sawyer said. “Considering she’s actually not a real mama to anyone. But in a way she feels more like a parent to me than my own mother ever did.” Sawyer suddenly frowned.

  “What’s wrong, kid?” Noah asked her.

  “I don’t want to get too comfortable with this situation,” she said. “Ava is nice and everything. And I’m getting to know some kids my age at the home. But who knows what’s waiting around the corner? I could get kicked out. Or I could flunk out. I’m better off keeping my guard up.”