Christmas on Reindeer Road

by Debbie Mason

  She glanced in the rearview mirror, gauging if she could push off her confession a few minutes longer. Taking in Oliver’s dogged expression, she didn’t think so. In the end, it was probably best to have the conversation in the privacy of her car. Abby and the movers were at the house.

  Mallory drove out from under the covered bridge onto a road lit up with a canopy of white lights. Had her hands not been perspiring and her stomach not jittering with nerves, she might’ve taken a moment to marvel at the holiday display. As it was, she pulled to the side of the road.

  Drawing in a steadying breath, she undid her seat belt and turned to face them. “For the last year of your father’s life, he’d spent the majority of it confined to his bed.”

  Oliver’s eyes narrowed. “He didn’t look that sick when we talked to him on Skype.”

  “Only because we took extraordinary measures to ensure that he didn’t. But like I told you at the funeral, I should’ve gone against his wishes and told you the truth. It wasn’t fair.” It wasn’t fair to her either. Because they’d gone to such efforts to keep the progression of the disease private, people were shocked to learn of Harry’s death. And sometimes that shock turned to suspicion.

  But Harry wouldn’t have thought that far ahead. Or maybe he had and he didn’t care. By then, he wasn’t the same man she’d married. In some ways, it was probably best for the boys that they hadn’t seen him. The cancer had gone to his brain. There was no telling what he would’ve said to Oliver and Brooks when he was in one of his rages. Midmorning had been his best time of day, so they’d Skyped with the boys then, and she’d kept their conversations brief.

  “But you could’ve saved him just like you saved Ruby,” Oliver objected. Beside him Brooks sat quiet and pale.

  “Your father was very weak from the cancer and the treatments; so was his heart. A few weeks before he died, he made me promise not to take any extraordinary measures to save him. He wanted to die, and he wanted to die at home.” At that point, it had been too late to have him sign a DNR—do not resuscitate order. Because the cancer had gone to his brain, it could legitimately be claimed he was not of sound mind.

  “When I first suspected he was having a heart attack, I gave him an aspirin just like I gave Ruby. He spat it out, Oliver. He wouldn’t let me near him until I promised I wouldn’t try to save him or call nine-one-one. You have to believe me—the hardest thing I have ever done is stand by and not try to save him.”

  Tears streaked their cheeks, and she worked to contain her own. “He didn’t die alone. He died in my arms,” she said, hoping that would make them feel a little better, praying that they didn’t share her confession with Marsha. “He looked at peace for the first time in more than a year.”

  The boys shared a look as they rubbed the evidence of their tears from their faces. It was a look she hadn’t seen before, so she wasn’t sure what it meant. Did they blame her or forgive her? She was too afraid to ask the question out loud and turned to fasten her seat belt, her gaze meeting Brooks’s in the rearview mirror. He looked like he wanted to say something but instead followed his brother’s lead and put on his headphones.

  * * *

  Gabe drove slowly over the bridge on his way home from the hospital. He’d learned the hard way when he’d gone house hunting last summer that the deer around here considered the red covered bridge their own personal pathway across the rapids. He didn’t kill the doe that morning last July but the bill from the veterinarian had nearly given him a heart attack.

  Huh. He seemed to have heart attacks on his brain. They were lucky Mallory had recognized the signs that Ruby was having one, or Gabe and everyone else in town would’ve been heartbroken. Mallory didn’t realize it yet but her public image no longer needed a ratings boost from Abby’s YouTube channel. Whether she saw it that way or not, Mallory had saved Ruby, one of Highland Falls’ most popular senior citizens. Gabe figured that alone should buy her enough goodwill to overcome her reputation as a bad parent.

  It looked like he was the backup plan in case it didn’t. Though he didn’t have a clue why Eden had volunteered him for the job or how big a help he’d be. Half the time, he felt like he was floundering with his own sons. Single parenting wasn’t easy, as Mallory had no doubt discovered. But as much as he didn’t want the job, he couldn’t very well foist her off on Kayla. He wasn’t sure if Kayla sensed his attraction to Mallory or not, but it was obvious she wasn’t exactly Mallory’s number-one fan. It seemed to go both ways.

  Mallory wasn’t exactly his number-one fan either. He couldn’t say he blamed her. In her mind he’d now become the enemy. The guy who got to decide whether she kept the kids. She wanted them, that much was obvious. But the boys, especially the older one, didn’t appear to feel the same way about her.

  Typically, Gabe was a good judge of character but he had to face the facts even if he didn’t want to. He didn’t really know Mallory so it was possible she wasn’t the warm, genuine, caring woman he perceived her to be. The one thing he did know: she was hiding something. And while he couldn’t be sure, if he was a betting man he’d wager ten grand that something had to do with her husband’s death.

  Blair Maitland had hinted as much to Gabe last summer, and, as with all the other lies she’d told him, he’d been obligated to follow up. So he’d quietly nosed around and pulled some strings. The last thing he’d wanted was to raise the alarm and create more problems for Mallory. But despite Blair’s attempts to lay the blame at Mallory’s feet, the coroner had ruled Harry had died of natural causes. His cancer treatments had weakened his heart, and he’d had a heart attack.

  In light of what took place today and how Oliver had reacted, Gabe figured he had his answer. Mallory, a medical doctor who was trained to save lives, hadn’t saved their father’s. Maybe she couldn’t or maybe Harry had signed a DNR. Gabe hoped that was the case. Otherwise, Mallory’s problems could get a whole lot worse if word got out she’d stood by while her husband died. Which meant so would his. Either way he looked at it, it seemed his boring job wasn’t going to be quite so boring anymore thanks to Mallory and her stepsons.

  He could almost hear Lauren’s voice in his head: Careful what you wish for, honey, followed by her laugh. She’d had a great laugh. But, like her voice, her laughter was harder to hear these days.

  In the months right after they’d lost her, it was like she was walking beside him, whispering words of encouragement, wisdom, and love in his ear. She’d visit him in his dreams. Sometimes they were so vivid and real he didn’t want to wake up. Sometimes he didn’t want to get out of bed. She got him through that first year. Her and the boys.

  “If you’ve got any advice, I’m all ears, babe,” he said as he drove out from under the bridge and onto Holly Road. The leafless trees on either side of the road that met to form a verdant canopy overhead in summer and fall were now decorated with white lights courtesy of the town council. There was a lot Gabe didn’t like about Highland Falls, but he loved the natural beauty of the place. It was like living in the woods only with the amenities of town close by.

  “So I guess I’m on my own,” he murmured when his wife’s voice remained silent in his head. He ignored the ache in his chest. It was heartburn. He wasn’t lonely. He was content with his life just the way it was. If he couldn’t have Lauren, he didn’t want anyone else but his boys. A voice in his head called him a liar and it wasn’t his late wife’s. It was his own.

  His headlights bounced off a car at the side of the road. His heart pumped an uneasy beat, and he leaned forward to get a better look. Sure enough, it was a black Jag. “If this is your advice, I’m not taking it,” he muttered as he pulled up beside Mallory’s idling car.

  He powered down the passenger-side window. “You lost?” he asked when she lowered hers. She had a phone in her hand.

  “My GPS isn’t working, and Abby isn’t picking up her cell phone.”

  He frowned. She looked like she’d been crying. “Have you been driving around all th
is time?” He’d left the station for the hospital almost an hour ago. As far as he knew, she’d left at the same time.

  “No, I, ah, we stopped at the grocery store.”

  He glanced at the boys in the backseat. They had a couple grocery bags in their laps, iPads in their hands, and earphones on their heads. The expensive kind.

  “Where are you headed?” He hoped to the other side of town.

  She looked at her phone. “Twenty-five Reindeer Road.” She searched his face. “Is everything all right? Is it a bad part of town? Abby said—”

  “Abby found you the house?” So that was the reason for her I’ve got you grin earlier at the station.

  She nodded. “Why?”

  “Nothing. You can follow me.”

  “Thank you, but I don’t want to put you out. I’ll just wait to hear back from Abby.”

  Now that he was effectively serving as what Mallory no doubt considered her parole officer, she most likely didn’t want anything to do with him other than her mandated weekly meetings.

  “You’re not putting me out. I live on Reindeer Road.” He waited a minute for that to sink in. “Twenty-three Reindeer Road.” And in case she thought he lived across the street, he added, “Right beside you.”

  She swallowed. “Oh, that’s nice.”

  He snorted a laugh. “Look on the bright side. You won’t have to go far for our weekly check-ins, and surprise home inspections will be easy enough for me to do.” He’d been joking, trying to lighten the mood, but as she’d just lost what little color she had left in her face, it was obvious that she appreciated his attempt at humor as much as Kayla had earlier.

  He had to straighten this out, and he had to straighten it out now. Whether they liked it or not, they were going to be neighbors. He glanced at the boys, who seemed oblivious to his presence. Either that or they were ignoring him. “I’m not the bad guy, okay? I’m not out to get you or to take the boys. I’ll do whatever I can to support you.”

  “Thank you. That’s very kind, considering how I acted earlier. You didn’t deserve to be treated like the bad guy in all of this. I thought, once the boys told the truth, that would be the end of it. I didn’t expect to be treated like a criminal.”

  “You’re not, so stop looking at it that way. Sounds to me like you’ve been dealing with this on your own, and now you won’t be. You have a support system here to lean on so take advantage of it, of us. Anyway, you’ve had a rough day. Take the weekend to get settled, and we’ll figure out a game plan that works for the both of us on Monday.”

  “I start work at the center Monday morning.”

  “Station’s only a couple blocks away. We’ll grab a cup of coffee.”

  “Okay. Thank you.” She glanced in her rearview mirror. “We better go. You’re blocking traffic.”

  A Lincoln Aviator pulled up beside him, and a tinted window lowered to reveal his mother-in-law. She wore an air of disapproval like a second skin. “Gabriel, is there a problem?”

  “No, just helping out a new neighbor who got lost.” The back passenger-side window went down and his boys leaned over to wave at him. “Hey, Dad!” The three of them yelled at almost the same time.

  “Hey, guys. Welcome home.”

  “We brought you—” his youngest began before Diane cut him off.

  “Get your head out of the window, Theodore. It’s dangerous. We’ll see you at the house, Gabriel.” Diane’s window went up but not before Gabe heard her say, “Karl, how many times have I told you to use the child safety locks on both the windows and the doors?”

  Gabe felt sorry for his father-in-law. Diane had never been a particularly easy woman, but up until Lauren’s death, Gabe hadn’t minded having her around. Not anymore. He made nice for the sake of his boys and his late wife. Karl too. His father-in-law was a great guy.

  He glanced at Mallory to make sure she was ready to follow him, but at the look on her face, he said, “What’s wrong?”

  “Was that Diane and Karl Rollins?”

  “Yeah. You know them?” Of course she knew them. She wouldn’t ask if she didn’t. But it wasn’t something he’d even considered. He supposed he should have. Diane and Karl were rich and well connected. They probably hung out in the same social circle as Mallory’s late husband. After all, they were around the same age.

  “We were members of the same country club.” She glanced at him. “You were married to their daughter, Lauren?”

  “I was.”

  “I remember hearing that they lost her. They were devastated. I’m sure you all were. I’m so sorry.”

  “Thanks,” he said, instead of asking how well she knew Diane and Karl.

  His in-laws had only started socializing again in the past eighteen months. Whereas Harry Maitland had been rumored to have been housebound the last few years of his life. Which meant there was a fifty-fifty chance Diane wouldn’t have run into the Maitlands for years. And that meant there was a fifty-fifty chance she wouldn’t say anything derogatory about his new neighbor in front of the boys.

  The only problem with basing his conclusion on the premise that Diane hadn’t seen Mallory at the country club in more than three years was that Mallory didn’t have a forgettable face. And her face had graced the Atlanta papers quite a bit this past year.

  He was debating warning Mallory to avoid interacting with his mother-in-law—who would no doubt have been firmly in Marsha Maitland’s corner—when lights from an oncoming vehicle filled his SUV. “We should probably get going. Just follow me.” If he drove slowly enough, maybe he’d get lucky and his in-laws and the boys would be inside.

  “Should’ve known better than to think my luck would change,” he said as he turned onto Reindeer Road. Karl, Diane, and his boys stood at the front of the moving van backed into the brick bungalow’s driveway, talking to an animated Abby and her dog.

  Gabe pulled alongside the curb in front of the sage-green Craftsman he now called home. He’d barely set his foot on the road when Dylan and Cody bounded up to him. The twins might have Lauren’s chestnut-brown hair and hazel eyes, but, according to Gabe’s mother, they were carbon copies of him growing up. The middle son in a family of five boys, Gabe had made his brothers look good. If he didn’t find trouble, it found him.

  The first thing his parents wanted to know on their weekly FaceTime calls was what Dylan and Cody had gotten up to. Gabe made sure to relay the news of his sons’ latest exploits before the boys were around because his parents never failed to have a good laugh at his expense.

  He pulled Dylan and Cody in for a hug, kissing the tops of their heads.

  “Dad,” they grumbled, shooting embarrassed glances around the neighborhood.

  “You’re never too old for your dad to hug. Pop Pop still hugs me, doesn’t he?”

  “Pop Pop hugs everyone, Dad,” Dylan, the oldest by fifteen minutes, said.

  Gabe laughed. It was true. “You guys have fun at Grandma and Grandpa’s?” he asked as he shut the driver’s-side door.

  “Yeah, it was okay. Grandma got kinda sad at Thanksgiving dinner.” Cody tried to shrug it off, but Gabe knew it bothered him. As rough and tumble and mischievous as the twins could be, they were also empathetic and kindhearted. And while Gabe knew better than anyone how difficult the holidays could be, he wished Diane would hold it together when his sons were around.

  “Grandma wanted us to stay the weekend, but Teddy didn’t want to miss the parade. He wants to give Santa his letter in person,” Dylan said and rolled his eyes.

  “Okay, we had a talk about this, remember? No teasing your brother, and—”

  “No telling him Santa is dead,” Cody said as they rounded the back of the SUV. “We know, we know.”

  “Hey, look, Cody. The new neighbor has kids,” Dylan said.

  Gabe did his best not to grimace. He didn’t know Mallory’s stepsons well, but from what he’d seen so far, he had some reservations about them hanging around his boys. “They’re quite a bit older than you two. So
you might—”

  “Whoa, is that their sister? She’s really pretty,” Cody said when Mallory got out of the car.

  “Yeah and so is that car. What kind is it, Dad?”

  They were his sons, all right. “A Jag, and it’s a great-looking car.” So was the woman but he’d keep that to himself. “Mallory isn’t the boys’ sister. She’s their stepmother.”

  “Their dad must be even older than you,” Cody said, and Gabe caught the twinkle in his eyes.

  “Har har, you’re as funny as your old man.” They went to cross the yard, and he grabbed a fistful of their jackets to reel them back in. “Here’s the deal. You say hello, welcome them to the neighborhood, and then we’ll leave them alone to get settled.”

  “Aw, Dad,” they both said at almost the same time.

  “Come on, guys. It’s movie night. We’re going to binge the second season of Lost in Space, remember?”

  “Yeah, right. Teddy says it’s his turn to pick, and he’ll want to watch a stupid Christmas movie.”

  “Cody,” Gabe said as they closed the distance to his youngest and in-laws gathered at the front of the moving van. When Mallory and her stepsons reluctantly joined the group from the other side, Diane angled her head as if trying to place her.

  Gabe needed a distraction, and he knew the perfect person to provide it. Teddy. Gabe smiled as he made his way to his youngest, who was holding court with Abby. He scooped him into his arms, angling his body to block Diane’s view of Mallory. Teddy wrapped his arms around Gabe’s neck and kissed him. Unlike his brothers, his youngest wasn’t afraid of PDA.

  In the end, Mallory didn’t need his help. “Ma’am, where do you want the beds to go?” one of the movers called out.

  “Just tell me, and I’ll direct them. That way you can get better acquainted with your new neighbors.” Abby shot Gabe a grin.

  He gave her an I-know-what-you’re-up-to-and-it’s-not-going-to-happen stare. Her grin only widened. He shouldn’t be surprised. Her fiancé was ex–Delta Force and left people quaking in their boots with just one look, but not Abby.