Christmas on Reindeer Road

by Debbie Mason

  Gabe stood behind Mallory and Teddy on the sidewalk outside the station, watching the Santa Claus parade. So much for keeping their distance from each other when his son was around.

  Gabe didn’t blame Mallory. She’d given it her best shot, huddling among a group of people half a block up the road and on the opposite side from the station. Teddy shouldn’t have been able to see her but somehow his son had spotted her in the crowd. Then again, so had Gabe. Maybe Teddy had simply followed his father’s long, lingering glances in Mallory’s direction.

  Teddy hadn’t let up until Gabe had texted her to watch the parade with them, after he’d inappropriately accessed her cell phone number. At that point, it had seemed the lesser of two evils. All Teddy’s talk about Mallory had garnered the curious attention of the people standing within earshot, including several of Gabe’s officers.

  As far as his plan for them to keep their distance, today was a wash anyway. He’d spotted his sons in the kitchen window looking out at them when he was opening the door to Mallory’s car. Teddy had been beaming like his dreams had come true. Whereas Dylan and Cody looked like their dad getting cozy with the new neighbor veered into nightmare territory.

  There was no way the twins would be onboard with their baby brother’s plan to find them a new mom or their dad a new wife. They’d given a big thumbs-down to the idea when Teddy broached the subject in late September. Last night they’d been so focused on their baby brother’s Christmas plans that they’d missed the part where Teddy had said that Gabe didn’t have a lot of time left to find himself a wife.

  He didn’t think it was a good sign that, at the thought, Gabe’s gaze went straight to Mallory. She’d twisted her hair into a messy knot on the top of her head, and the puffy blue ski jacket she wore matched her eyes. He supposed it was a good thing Teddy was too busy oohing and ahhing over the parade with Mallory to notice Gabe once again gazing longingly at the woman his son had chosen as his top choice for new mother.

  Gabe couldn’t seem to help himself. He’d told Mallory the truth earlier. Just put it all out there. It was so unlike him; he couldn’t believe he had. He was a private person. He didn’t trust easily. And the last thing he wanted to talk to anyone about was his feelings.

  But Teddy had put him in an awkward position, and the news that Diane had gone so far as to hire a lawyer had thrown Gabe for a loop. He’d been off balance—still was, if he was being completely honest with himself. But that didn’t explain why he’d spilled his guts to Mallory, a woman he barely knew. And yet while that was true, on a soul-deep level, he felt like he’d known her forever.

  There it was, the heart of the matter. He’d told her he was attracted to her. He’d even gone so far as to admit he was afraid he was making one of the biggest mistakes of his life, which was the God’s honest truth. What he hadn’t told her was that his late wife had been the love of his life. They’d had what he thought of as a once-in-a-lifetime love. And when you were lucky enough to find a love like that once, the odds you’d find another were stacked against you. That was the reason he’d never had the urge to get back in the game.

  Until last summer when he’d first seen Mallory at Highland Brew. Only the price was too high. He wouldn’t risk losing his sons.

  His eyes found their way back to her. Her head was tipped back as she shared a laugh with his son. She looked like she was enjoying the Highland Falls Santa Claus Parade as much as Teddy. The way the two of them were carrying on, you’d think they were watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, not a small-town parade.

  He glanced at Cody and Dylan, who stood off to the right of him kicking a stone back and forth between them. At least they’d stopped complaining and sharing how bored they were while the citizens of Highland Falls listened in. Half of them already had an ax to grind with Gabe. He didn’t need his sons to draw any more negative attention his way.

  At least Mallory’s stepsons were quiet about their disdain for the parade. Other than him, he didn’t think anyone else noticed the eye rolls or head shakes they directed at their stepmother whenever they looked up from their phones. He honestly didn’t know how she’d managed to get them here. If not for Teddy, he would’ve happily given it a pass.

  Mallory glanced at her stepsons over her shoulder. “Oliver and Brooks, look. It’s the high school band and the cheerleaders.”

  Okay, so that answered that question. Still…Gabe stepped forward and leaned into her. “You seriously bribed your stepsons with the promise they’d get to check out a bunch of pretty teenage girls in cheerleading uniforms?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “When you put it like that it sounds pretty bad.”

  His youngest frowned up at him. “Dad, don’t make Mallory feel bad.” Teddy glanced at her stepsons, who were now watching the parade with rapt attention, and whispered, “She had to get Oliver and Brooks to come. It’s part of her plan.”

  Oh no, not someone else with a plan. “What exactly is this plan? Come on, you can share with me. I promise not to judge.” She raised an eyebrow. “Okay, this time I won’t judge.”

  “Christmas, Dad,” Teddy said like he was surprised Gabe hadn’t figured it out.

  His youngest made no bones about his dad being the best detective alive. So Gabe didn’t want to disappoint him, but he seriously didn’t understand what Christmas had to do with Mallory’s plan to win over her stepsons. “Yeah, I get it. The parade is all about Christmas. I’m just not sure what—”

  “Oliver and Brooks are grinches, Dad. Just like you, Cody, and Dylan are. Not really the same but kinda.”

  Gabe sighed. “I’m not a grinch, and neither are your brothers.”

  “It’s okay, Dad. I understand why you guys don’t like the holidays.”

  As Gabe had told Mallory, Teddy was smart, so there was no sense in denying what his youngest must’ve discerned even though Gabe had done his best to make the holidays special for him. Now that he knew, he’d do a better job of faking it. He’d get Cody and Dylan onboard too.

  A group of pipers played “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and he waited for them to pass before asking, “I’m still not sure what any of this has to do with Oliver and Brooks.”

  “Dad, remember how the Grinch’s heart grew three times its size in the story?”

  “Yeah, so…”

  Teddy made a disgusted sound and bowed his head. Probably feeling sorry for his son, Mallory explained, “Christmas is a time for family and forgiveness. If Christmas can touch the boys’ hearts like it did the Grinch’s, maybe they’d have some room for me.” Her cheeks flushed. “I know it sounds silly, but I’m desperate.”

  It did, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to give her a hug and then pulling her stepsons aside and giving them a piece of his mind.

  “It doesn’t sound silly at all, does it, Dad?” Teddy said, sounding like a stern little old man, which meant Gabe hadn’t done a good job hiding his skepticism.

  “Teddy’s right. It’s a great idea. Maybe we should try it out on Grandma.” He realized his mistake when his son and Mallory shared a look. “I was joking.”

  It didn’t matter what he said—he could practically hear the wheels turning in their heads. Luckily, the local bakery’s float rolled by, providing a distraction. The gingerbread house decorated for the holidays won cheers from the crowd, but it was Bliss, the bakery’s owner, dressed as a gingerbread woman, who got the loudest applause. Probably because she was handing out gingerbread men and women to the kids lining either side of the street.

  Teddy jumped up and down trying to get Bliss’s attention. Instead of standing with the other kids on the edge of the sidewalk, he’d chosen to stick with Mallory.

  “Go stand up front or you’ll miss out on all the candy, Teddy. The clowns are handing out candy canes,” Mallory said.

  “It’s okay.” Teddy took her hand and smiled up at her. “I don’t really like candy canes.”

  Gabe shook his head; the kid was addicted to candy. “Your nose is
going to grow, you know?” he said to his son.

  “Yeah, if I was made of wood,” Teddy quipped, and then shot Mallory another adoring smile that tugged on Gabe’s heartstrings.

  He hadn’t realized until that moment how much his son had been craving a woman’s attention. And he couldn’t help but wonder if his mother-in-law was right after all. Maybe his sons really did need a woman in their lives.

  He glanced at the twins, who’d pushed their way to the edge of the sidewalk. The two of them grinned as they pocketed handfuls of candy canes. Just what Gabe needed. They were hyper enough without the added sugar.

  Shouts of “Granny MacLeod! Over here, Granny MacLeod!” drew his attention from the boys. Granny MacLeod, who bore a striking resemblance to the actress Betty White, albeit with a Scottish accent, was riding down the street on a white horse sporting a sparkly gold unicorn horn. Granny MacLeod owned I Believe in Unicorns on Main Street, a gift shop that sold anything and everything unicorn.

  Sitting on top of the horse wearing a long, white fur-trimmed cape with the name of her business on the back, Granny MacLeod gave the parade watchers a royal wave. The older woman considered herself the town’s matriarch. Her family was said to have settled Highland Falls in the mid-eighteen hundreds. The Clearances in Scotland had sent many highland families to the Americas, and several, including the MacLeods, had chosen to settle in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina.

  “Mal! Teddy!” a familiar voice called out. It was Abby.

  Dressed in a red jacket and a Santa’s hat, she drove a tractor pulling a float with a log cabin, fake trees, a beehive, and a couple dressed in highland garb with a beautiful white wolf at their side. The white wolf was actually half-dog, half-wolf and belonged to Abby’s fiancé, Hunter Mackenzie. No doubt Hunter was responsible for building the float, because it could have held its own in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Gabe had a feeling that Hunter would be roped into building all of the floats for the town’s parades from now on.

  Hunter’s cousin and a pregnant Sadie Gray, Granny MacLeod’s granddaughter, were posing as popular literary couple Jamie and Claire Fraser. The couple of Outlander fame were rumored to have settled on the ridge outside of town in the eighteen hundreds.

  The rumor had been started by none other than the town’s famous YouTuber. Abby had exploited the myth to relaunch her career and Highland Falls’ flagging tourism industry. It had been a success on both counts, but not without some drama. Gabe had learned the hard way last summer that things got out of hand quickly when Abby was involved.

  Mallory and Teddy waved at Abby, laughing when she held up her dog, Bella, an eight-pound gold-and-black Yorkshire terrier that was dressed as one of Santa’s reindeers. Bella and Wolf were almost as popular on Abby’s YouTube channel as she was.

  Then, as though Mallory had just recognized the woman on the float, she called out, “Sadie! I didn’t know you were coming to town.”

  “Someone didn’t give me a choice,” Sadie yelled back, hitching her thumb at Abby. “See you at the community center after the parade?”

  Mallory nodded enthusiastically, which was fine. What wasn’t fine was Teddy was doing the same. Between the special breakfast with Santa and the parade, Gabe had thought his holiday duties were done for the day.

  “Hey, buddy,” Gabe began, thinking he’d lay the groundwork as to why going home would be way more fun than going to the community center. He was interrupted by a Ho, ho, ho coming through a bullhorn. Santa had lots of practice with the bullhorn because Santa was being played by none other than Owen Campbell. Whoever had taken on the task of turning the slender older man into a rotund Santa had done a masterful job.

  Gabe had been avoiding Owen and his phone calls since he’d left the hospital last night. It had been harder to avoid him at the pancake breakfast this morning, but he’d managed. His predecessor and nemesis had offered to fill in for Ruby while she was off.

  Santa rode in a gorgeous red antique sleigh on the back of a flatbed with the town’s mayor, Winter Johnson, sitting beside him. Santa’s helpers, a couple of teenage girls, including his sons’ babysitter, sat on oversized, brightly wrapped Christmas presents tossing out candy to the kids. The mayor and Owen had asked Gabe to join them, but he’d politely declined. Now he wondered if he’d made a mistake. Owen now had plenty of time to convince the mayor to let him fill in for Ruby.

  “Okay, guys. Show’s over. Who’s up for pizza and a game of foosball? Teddy, you can be on my team,” Gabe said.

  “We have to go to the community center, Dad. I have to tell Santa what I want for Christmas,” Teddy said.

  “I thought you gave him your letter at the breakfast.”

  “Santa was telling us about the North Pole and his reindeer, and I didn’t want to interrupt him.” Teddy glanced at Mallory, who was trying to convince her stepsons that the festivities at the community center wouldn’t be as lame as they claimed they’d be. No doubt Cody and Dylan, who thought anything to do with Santa was lame, unless it involved candy, would agree with them. But the twins were busy searching the sidewalk for overlooked candy as the crowd began to disperse.

  “I just think it would be a good opportunity for you to meet some kids around your own ages before you start school on Monday.”

  Teddy, who’d clearly taken a page from Mallory’s playbook, said, “I can introduce you to Ainsley. She’s our babysitter and one of Santa’s helpers. She’s really pretty, and she’s sixteen too.”

  What his son conveniently left out was that Ainsley was dating the high school football team’s star quarterback. Teddy didn’t completely win over Mallory’s stepsons, but they reluctantly agreed to go for twenty minutes. They conceded to thirty if Mallory agreed to order in pizza and download a game on their phones.

  Cody and Dylan didn’t complain as loudly about going as Gabe had expected them to, in part due to his boys’ angling for a way to hang out with Mallory’s stepsons. They thought their edgy attitudes and accents were cool but the real draw, Gabe knew, was their expensive tech toys.

  On the short walk from the station to the community center, Gabe’s sons regaled Oliver and Brooks with stories Ainsley had told them about high school life in Highland Falls.

  “Not exactly what they’re used to, is it?” Gabe said to Mallory, who walked beside him.

  “No, but given the crowd they were running with in Atlanta, I consider that a positive. I just hope they’ll give the school and the kids here a chance.”

  “It took Cody and Dylan a couple weeks to adjust, but now it’s like they’ve been going there for years. They’ve got good friends, and they’re doing well in class.”

  He’d been surprised at how easily they’d adjusted. Back home, they’d gone to the same school since kindergarten. He’d said as much to his parents on a call home in the early days. His mother hadn’t been as surprised as he was. Other than not having them close by, she’d believed the move would be good for them. She’d felt they’d needed a fresh start.

  “If Oliver and Brooks were given a choice, they wouldn’t go back to the school in Atlanta. They’d go back to boarding school in England. They were happy there.”

  “I take it Marsha won’t pay for them to go.”

  “No. As far as she’s concerned, it’s a complete waste of money. And I can’t say I disagree with her. The yearly costs are exorbitant.”

  “If you had the money, would you send them?”

  “On the one hand, I guess I’d want to. They lived there for years and think of the school as home. But on the other hand, I can’t believe they’re not better off having more of a normal childhood.”

  “Like attending small-town holiday parades and paying a visit to Santa?”

  The way she smiled up at him, her cheeks pink from the cold and her eyes sparkling with humor, he was glad Teddy had insisted she join them.

  “I doubt I’ll get them to sit on Santa’s knee, but I appreciate Teddy getting them to come at all. If they could
meet a few kids before school, I’m sure they’d be less anxious.”

  So would she, he thought, so he didn’t lecture her on letting the boys blackmail her. He had a feeling it was a ploy they used often with her. Probably because it worked. But now wasn’t the time or the place. The boys walked inside the community center, and Gabe held the door for Mallory.

  “I see you’re taking your job seriously, Chief Buchanan,” a feminine voice said from behind him. It was a voice he recognized. Kayla McPherson. Something else he recognized was the underlying sarcasm. Kayla wasn’t happy to see him with Mallory.

  Mallory cast him a nervous glance. He gave her a reassuring one in return. No matter how much he’d like to avoid another coffee date with Kayla, he had to take one for the team. The thought brought him up short. Since when did he think of himself and Mallory as a team?

  He forced a smile, thinking it’d be safer to ignore her comment. “Hey, Kayla. Nice day for the parade. Did you enjoy yourself?”

  “I did, and you and Ms. Carlisle seemed to be enjoying yourselves as well,” Kayla said, referring to Mallory by her maiden name. No doubt in an attempt to put Mallory in her place.

  By the way her shoulders inched up, Mallory was probably regretting accepting his invitation to stand with them and watch the parade. She wasn’t the only one.

  “Mallory and her boys—” Gabe began, about to give a perfectly reasonable explanation for them being at the parade together, only to be cut off by Abby and her smartphone.

  “For all of you who’ve been asking whatever happened to Mallory Maitland and Gabriel Buchanan, have I got an update for you!” Abby said into her smartphone, then turned the screen to face them.

  “Abby, why don’t we do this another time? I could really go for some hot chocolate right now.” Mallory blocked the camera with her hand.

  Gabe gave Mallory credit for trying, but Abby was as persistent as her purse-sized Yorkshire terrier. As Gabe had learned over the past months, nothing stopped Abby from getting the story for her YouTube followers. Except her husband. Gabe had a feeling this was one story he and Mallory didn’t want out there and desperately searched the crowd for Hunter Mackenzie.