Sunny's Christmas: A Colorado Billionaires story

by Regina Duke

  “Speaking of high school drama,” said Sunny, her tone cooling considerably, “I never really forgave you for prom night.”

  “Not even after I explained? I don’t get it.”

  “You never explained anything,” said Sunny. “One moment you were there, and the next you were gone. What kind of explanation could there be for dumping me in the middle of the dance and making me a laughing stock?” She stuffed another chocolate in her mouth.

  Brady sounded confused. “I, uhm, I don’t know what to say. Who humiliated you? I didn’t abandon you.” Something in the back of the bus caught his eye. “Uh-oh, hold that thought.” He rushed down the aisle.

  Sunny felt her frustration and irritation growing. Once again, he’d run away from the topic. Okay, she would just have to write him off. How could he possible deny that he’d abandoned her that night? Men!

  Even so, she craned her neck to see what had pulled him away. The sight of his broad shoulders and the back of his gorgeous head softened her a bit. Did this mean he really had a reason for his abysmal behavior? Well, maybe she’d give him one more chance to explain before she caught a connection to Denver.

  Then she began to wonder about connections. Did Eagle’s Toe have a bus station? Maybe she should ask to be dropped off in Pueblo. She took out her phone and did a quick search for Pueblo options. She found Pueblo Transit, but was alarmed by the line, “Hours subject to change. Please call before making travel arrangements.” Small towns could be quirky sometimes, she thought, but this was too much! And besides, she realized that normal buses did not allow dogs on board. Her heart sank. No matter what, it looked like she was going to Eagle’s Toe.

  Brady reappeared. “We’ve got a real case of the fidgets back there. Any ideas?”

  “The kids?”

  “Yep. Six kids under the age of ten is quite a challenge, and we’ve got a ways to go yet.”

  Before Brady could sit down, Mr. Washburn approached. He moved carefully, using seat backs for balance and planting his feet firmly with each step.

  “Excuse me, my wife has been in the little room for quite a while. Is there a way to unlock the door and check on her?”

  Brady gave Sunny an apologetic look. “Sure, Mr. Washburn.”

  “Call me Ed. My Dora isn’t used to traveling. Our son-in-law usually collects us, but his hotel is having quite a busy season this year.”

  Sunny listened, faintly curious, as the elderly man volunteered information about his wife until the engine hum drowned him out. A minute later, she heard a woman’s voice laughing with relief. And another couple of minutes after that, Brady returned.

  “Mrs. Washburn couldn’t figure out how to unlock the door,” he said, shaking his head with amusement. “I never considered this bus high tech before.”

  “They seem very nice. What hotel was Ed talking about?”

  “Hmm? Oh, their daughter, Alice Kate, is married to Reese McAvoy. He owns The Cattleman’s Inn. With this weather, you may find yourself staying there tonight.”

  This time the interruption was Dora Washburn. “Excuse me, Mr. Felton, but Ed says you’re having trouble entertaining the little ones. I used to teach school. Would you like me to give it a try?”

  Brady looked relieved. “I’d love that, Mrs. Washburn. Thanks.” He took one last look up and down the bus, then slipped into the seat across the aisle.

  Sunny said, “That’s the first time I’ve seen you actually sit down since I got on the bus.”

  Brady wagged his brows at her. “I like to keep my passengers happy, especially on the Christmas Express.”

  Sunny tilted her head to one side. “You work for this bus company?”

  Brady chuckled. “You might say that.”

  Tony turned his head long enough to explain, “Mr. Felton owns this bus.”

  Sunny’s eyes widened. “You mean there are two of us who didn’t follow in our parents’ footsteps?”

  Brady pulled back a couple of inches and looked at her with renewed interest. “You didn’t get a degree in physics? I figured you’d be ensconced in a university by now, or maybe working at Los Alamos.”

  Sunny rolled her eyes. “My mother and I didn’t quite see eye to eye on my future.”

  Brady made a face. “As I recall, there were other things your mother disagreed with you about.”

  Sunny laughed, a sharp-edged sound. “Let’s be frank. She hated your guts. And I never figured out why. She never wanted me to have anything to do with you.” She spread her hands. “How could any mother be upset that her daughter was in love with an A student who just happened to be captain of every sports team in the school?”

  Brady blinked at her. “You were in love with me?”

  Sunny turned away. She hadn’t meant to admit that. It had just slipped out under cover of complaining about her mother. She cleared her throat. “Oh, you know,” she said, glancing his way again. “School girl crush. That kind of love.”

  Brady nodded. “I understand. So, why didn’t you major in physics?”

  Sunny narrowed her eyes at him. “Because mother wanted me to. The bigger mystery is why you didn’t major in physics.”

  “I did,” said Brady simply.

  “And?”

  “I hated every minute of it.”

  They laughed together. Sunny enjoyed the sound a lot. “So you went into the bus business?”

  “I sort of fell into it, actually. You’re looking at the proprietor of the Eagle’s Toe New and Used Cars and Agricultural Equipment-slash-Garage.”

  “Gee, catchy name.”

  “My uncle was great at fixing things but not so great at marketing,” said Brady. “With my folks working at—” He bit the sentence off and began again. “Well, I ended up staying with my uncle when I wasn’t in college. By the time I graduated, his health was failing, and since I’d worked the business four summers in a row, he invited me to come stay for a while until I found a rocket job. That’s what he called my folks. Rocket scientists. Anyway, I loved the guy a lot, and I wanted to help out. Been there ever since. He passed away two years ago and left the whole thing to me.”

  “You’re saying you were never more than four hours away from Los Alamos all these years? And you never bothered to look me up and explain why you ruined my life on prom night?” Sunny tried to keep her tone light, but the last part sounded strained even to her.

  Brady’s reaction was a shock to her. He looked hurt and said coldly, “You told me you never wanted to see me again. I was just doing what you asked. Excuse me.” He got up and moved deliberately to the back of the bus.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SUNNY FELT LIKE SOMEONE HAD punched her in the gut. How could he say that? She’d never heard from him at all after that night! She couldn’t let him labor under the misapprehension that she was the villain in all this. He was the one who’d left in the middle of a slow dance, while she stood there under the twinkling ball and waited for him to return. But he never did. The other girls were staring and whispering behind their hands. She’d retreated to the chairs at the side of the gym and sat there, waiting for Brady to return. After half an hour, she went looking for him. But there was no sign of him, and no sign of the car they’d come in either.

  At the end of the dance, her math teacher, Mr. Bronte, had offered to drive her home, but she was too upset. She’d called her father and he came at once. In fact, he took her out for burgers and a milkshake and let her tell him all about it. It was one of the nicest things he’d ever done for her. It was good to know he was there for her when the chips were down.

  When they got home, he ran interference for her, letting her sneak upstairs without facing her mother. She couldn’t bear the idea of hearing her mother say, “I told you so.” It was bad enough that her heart was broken.

  She was so upset, she stayed in all weekend, and when she went back to school, she focused on getting ready for final exams. She shut everyone out. She didn’t want to think about Brady, and she couldn’t even bear
to look at the other kids after being so humiliated.

  But now she was confused, and she needed some answers. She got up and moved toward the back of the bus, where Brady was leaning against the seat opposite the blond woman, Vicky, and her elderly companion. Brady was conversing with the man, who smiled and nodded often.

  “Excuse me,” said Sunny, “when you have a moment, there’s something I need to ask you.”

  Brady seemed distant. “Sure. Be there in a minute.”

  Sunny felt the old hurt returning. He seemed to have time for everyone but her. She moved carefully back to her seat. Would this bus ride never end? She sat down dismally and opened Peanut’s crate. Holding her little friend always cheered her up.

  From the back of the bus, she heard singing. Cradling Peanut in her arms, she stood up to look, leaning for balance against her seat.

  Mrs. Washburn had all the little ones in a semicircle in the back, and she was holding her hands like a musical director as the little ones began to sing. The strains of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” filled the bus. The four oldest children had remarkably fine voices, and soon the other passengers were singing along. When they finished “Rudolph,” they began singing “Silver and Gold.” It occurred to Sunny that they were singing the Christmas songs they’d learned while watching TV specials. She found herself smiling as they launched into “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”

  Peanut wriggled in her arms and, as the smallest children strained to reach the high notes, Peanut threw his head back and howled. The children were delighted. Peanut howled along until they sang the last words of the song. The other passengers laughed and applauded. Mrs. Washburn told the kids they’d done a beautiful job, then had them settle down to draw their favorite Christmas moments with the paper and crayons that one of them had received from Brady’s stash of travel gifts.

  Brady caught her eye. He was smiling, too. A few moments later, he headed in her direction. Sunny wasn’t sure what to make of the determination in his features. She returned Peanut to his crate and settled into her seat again. Brady took his seat across the aisle and leaned over the armrest toward her.

  “I have a feeling that our short-lived prom night is being remembered in two very different ways,” he said. “We both seem to have had our feelings hurt big-time. Maybe we should compare notes and figure out what really happened.”

  Sunny looked away and chewed her bottom lip. Was she ready to revisit that terrible night? Could she bear to hear his excuses? Would they be enough to change her mind and her heart about him?

  Brady made the decision for her. “I am totally confused about all this. I called your house the next day to explain what happened, but you wouldn’t talk to me.”

  Sunny whipped her head around. “You never called. I never got a call.”

  “Your mother answered the phone. I told her I needed to talk to you, and she told me to hang on, she’d go see if you felt like talking to me. When she came back, she said you never wanted to see me again and never wanted to hear from me again. I was pretty upset by that, so I hung up.”

  Sunny’s brow furrowed and she shook her head slowly. “I swear to you, my mother never came to tell me you were on the phone. Believe me, I would have taken that call because I was ready to scream a few things at you.”

  “Why wouldn’t she tell you?”

  Sunny shook her head. “Who knows? She told me I was better off without you. She never wanted me to go out with you, and I never understood that. But after you disappeared that night, she was furious. I’d never seen her that upset before. I was kind of touched. It was always my dad who took my side and stood up for me.”

  “She was furious after that night?” A lightbulb went on behind Brady’s eyes. “Oh, boy. What about my letters? Did you ever get my letters?”

  “What letters?” Sunny felt like reality was slipping away from her.

  Brady looked grim. “My parents suggested I write you a letter to explain what happened. They said it wasn’t unusual for a girl to refuse a phone call if she was upset. They said I could lay it all out in a letter. And I did. I wrote a whole page in my best handwriting. Our English teacher would have fainted dead away.”

  Sunny couldn’t help it. She had to laugh at the image. “Getting us to write a single paragraph was her biggest challenge. A classroom full of science geeks and kids of science geeks. I felt sorry for her.”

  Brady smiled. “Me, too. You never got my letters? I wrote you for months.”

  Sunny began working through those long-ago events. “Mother never told me about your phone call, and I never got your letters, but I wasn’t the one who received the mail. My folks insisted they get the mail because they were worried I might misplace a bill or something.” She frowned. “They didn’t trust me very much. Mother must have thrown out your letters.” Her brows knit together. “Why would she do that?”

  Brady nodded glumly. “I think you’re right and I think I know why. Your mother wasn’t just upset on your behalf. She was furious with my whole family.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Here’s what happened. After my dad dropped us off at the Prom—”

  Tony’s voice came over the bus speakers. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re in Pueblo now. Remember, there’s a passenger restroom in the back of the bus. We don’t plan to stop in Pueblo. Only a little while longer to Eagle’s Toe!”

  The snow was coming down even thicker now, but because it was three o’clock, the warmest part of the day, the flakes were wet and the road showed wet pavement here and there where the packed snow had begun to give way to the balmy thirty-five degree temperature. Sunny knew it would only get colder as the day waned, and she was glad they weren’t going to stop. She feared they might not get going again.

  She looked up hopefully to ask Brady, “You think this hotel in Eagle’s Toe will have room for us?”

  “I’m certain of it,” he said. “Now where was I?”

  But another interruption came from the passengers they’d picked up in Trinidad. Vicky tapped Brady on the shoulder. She looked worried.

  “Excuse me, Mr. Felton. I think Mr. Lopes is ill!”

  CHAPTER SIX

  BRADY TURNED ABRUPTLY TO FOLLOW Vicky back to Mr. Lopes’ seat.

  Sunny stood up and stepped into the aisle of the little bus to see what was going on. She bent over Peanut’s crate to make sure he was doing all right, then moved carefully toward Brady, grabbing the rail overhead as Tony maneuvered the bus around a turn.

  Mr. Lopes had to be eighty if he was a day. His face reminded Sunny of a walnut shell and gave ample evidence of a life lived outdoors. At the moment, he looked a little gray.

  Brady squatted next to his seat. “Mr. Lopes? Can you hear me?”

  Mr. Lopes moaned. His head moved slightly from side to side. His eyes were slits.

  Vicky brushed a strand of blond hair behind one ear. “He’s our gardener’s father. I promised this would be the best way to bring him to Eagle’s Toe for Christmas. Please don’t make me a liar.” She bit her bottom lip. “His son Frank told us he has epilepsy, but as long as he takes his medication, he’s fine.”

  Brady frowned. “He doesn’t look fine to me.”

  Sunny was right behind Brady now. She could smell the fresh scent of his shampoo. “He needs a service dog,” she blurted.

  Vicky and Brady turned to look at her.

  “I’m sorry,” said Sunny. “I think of everything in terms of dogs. Peanut and I have done some volunteering with kids who have seizures. I’ve trained some of their service dogs. They tell the kids when to lie down because a seizure is coming.”

  “Would your dog be able to tell us if Mr. Lopes was about to have a seizure?” asked Brady.

  “Of course. He can recognize the metabolic change a person experiences prior to a seizure. I’ll go get him.” Sunny moved back to her seat as quickly as she could and returned with Peanut tucked under one arm. “When the kids were about to have a seizure, he would whimper and turn in
circles to tell them to lie down.” She set Peanut on the seat next to Mr. Lopes.

  Peanut looked up at her as if asking a question.

  “Good hello,” said Sunny, letting him know he was among friends.

  Then Peanut sniffed at Mr. Lopes. But instead of whimpering or turning in circles, he stood up on his hind legs and planted puppy kisses on the man’s face.

  “Well, Peanut says it’s not a seizure,” said Sunny.

  Mr. Lopes opened his eyes and he laughed softly. “Good dog, good dog.”

  Vicky said, “Thank God! Mr. Lopes, I thought you were ill. Did you take your medication?”

  “Oh, yes. Don’t worry. I’m just a little car sick. Too much riding.”

  Brady exhaled noisily with relief. “Let me get you a fresh bottle of water.”

  Sunny asked, “Do you have any medicine for nausea?”

  Mr. Lopes was softly scratching Peanut’s chin. “What? Oh, yeah. Stupid of me. I do.” He dug into his jacket pocket. “Sometimes after a seizure I get sick to my stomach. Good thinking.”

  Brady returned with the water and Mr. Lopes washed down a pill.

  “I’ll be fine now,” he said. “Cute little dog. Can he really warn people about seizures?”

  “Yes. Have you ever thought of getting a service dog?”

  Mr. Lopes gave a moue of disgust. “Oh, those big agencies. They say it takes two years on the waiting list. I may not be here in two years.”

  Vicky turned to Sunny. “Are you staying in Eagle’s Toe for Christmas? I’d love to talk to you about this service dog idea. You say you trained Peanut yourself?”

  Sunny nodded. “If this snow keeps up, I may not have a choice about where I’m staying. And yes, I’m a dog trainer and a petsitter, licensed and bonded.” She held out her arms. “Peanut, hup!”

  Peanut jumped into her arms.

  Vicky dug in her purse for a moment. “Here,” she said, handing Sunny a card. “My husband and I would like to talk to you after Christmas about training a dog for Mr. Lopes. He’s already fallen a few times on days when he forgot his medication.”