by tj dell
Jingle Bells
By: T.J. Dell
Contents
Chapter One 3
Chapter Two 10
Chapter Three 21
Chapter Four 27
Chapter Five 36
Chapter Six 42
Epilogue 47
Chapter One
“The gym, your local church, the produce aisle in the grocery store…”
“Wait!” Sandy interrupts Lynn reading from a slightly crumpled piece of paper. “The produce aisle has more desirable single men than say… the frozen foods or the deli?”
“If he’s in the frozen food aisle it means he can’t cook.” Allie paused slicing her banana over a tall stack of pancakes long enough to chime in.
“Hey! I’m not a great cook, and I don’t think that makes me less desirable.” Laurie had a habit of whining that her friends had long ago learned deal with.
“Do you guys want to hear the rest of the list or not?” Lynn was the only one not giggling. She was taking her man-hunt a little more seriously the rest of her friends.
Sandy, Lynn, Allie, and Laurie met in grade school. They were all in Mrs. Bell’s second grade class, and they’d been friends ever since. A few weeks before Lynn had begun to obsess about their ten year high school reunion. No matter how many times the other girls pointed out that they had a more than a year left before they needed to worry about the reunion Lynn refused to let it go.
“Under no circumstances am I going to the reunion alone! I have a whole year and I intend to spend it finding someone special.” She’d insisted just last night when they’d met up for drinks.
“I guess we aren’t special?” Sandy tried to sound indignant.
“You know what I mean… someone special. Lynn repeated herself.
“Oh! You mean someone special with a penis!” Laurie teased.
“Either that or someone with a special penis… there is a big difference you know.” Allie succeeded in dissolving the conversation into giggles that were slightly unbecoming for 27 year old women.
The rest of the night had been more or less quiet, but then this morning Lynn showed up to their weekly brunch toting an article she’d ripped from a magazine at her doctor’s office. And the discussion once again revolved around the who’s, what’s, why’s, when’s, and where’s of putting an end to their unwanted single status.
After brunch instead of feeling her usual Sunday contentedness Sandy couldn’t shake her foul irritated mood as she headed towards the animal shelter. Sandy loved working at the animal shelter. Even having to work some unusual night and weekend hours didn’t ever bother her. If she didn’t make sure these poor darlings had clean water and fresh food and a few new chew toys every now and then… who would? So normally on a Sunday when she was on the schedule she felt happy and useful; today she felt… well neither of those.
It didn’t help her mood any when she stepped out of her car into what had to be the very last remaining pile of dirty slushy parking lot snow left over from the last week’s early snow storm. Her left leg was soaked and dirty half way up her shin. There was a washer/dryer in the back, and she did have an emergency pair of tattered lime green yoga pants that would in no way compliment her pink thermal sweater. Sandy reluctantly reviewed her reflection in a mirror next to the washer. Yup, her pants definitely did not go with her sweater. Actually the sweater that had been cute and serviceable with her jeans now looked an awful lot like pajamas—perfect. Other than that she looked okay. Sandy had long ago made peace with her 5 foot—nothing height. Her blond hair was pulled into a short bouncy pony tail. Her sweater may look like a pj top now, but it was still doing nice things for her breasts. They weren’t huge, but with a good bra and neckline she would never be mistaken for a boy. Anyway, it wasn’t like the animals cared what she wore. So Sandy abandoned her self-inspection and pasted on a smile. With a morning this rotten she had nowhere to go but up—right?
To be honest for as much as Sandy loved her friends… including Lynn… she was much more weary of all this ‘someone special’ talk than she was letting on. Okay they were 27, but that was hardly one foot in the grave! She didn’t really feel an urge to fill the other half her bed. Well okay she felt the urge, but it had nothing to do with wanting to show off in front of her old classmates. For cryin’ out loud—Pony Valley is an extremely small town and people rarely left— most of her classmates knew she was single now. What difference would 16 months make?
It had taken a lot for Sandy to get where she was— satisfied with her life. Todd had taught her a hard lesson when he left. If she ever did settle down the man in question would be making a pretty big sacrifice. Sandy wasn’t comfortable asking anyone to do that for her, so she had been concentrating on being happy and single. And she could be happy and single at a class reunion.
The only old classmate she would even remotely be interested in showing off for wouldn’t even be at their reunion. Cole Pennington had been a year ahead of them in school. Cole Pennington. Now there was a name she hadn’t thought of in a long while. That was by design though; thinking of Cole was never a precursor to anything good. He had been at the heart of every fantasy Sandy had in high school and even a few in her college years. If he knew that he sure hadn’t cared. Why would he? Cole had every girl (and if rumors were to be believed even some women) throwing themselves at him day and night. Little mousy Sandy Masters couldn’t compete.
Even now when she thought of him she was picturing an 18 year old kid. Tall and lean with dark brown curls that he always had flopping over his forehead and bright piercing blue eyes. And wearing a leather jacket. As an adult Sandy saw the absurdity in wearing a leather jacket every day of the year despite the weather, but like every other girl back then she’d thought it was sexy and wild and crazy cool. It was insane that she hadn’t seen him in ten years and his memory could still make her go all jello-ish in her midsection.
He was never even nice to her. There had been guys at Franklin High just like at any other high school that were mean spirited and picked on other kids for the entertainment value. Cole wasn’t one of those guys. He was a little distant and certainly not a joiner, but he wasn’t cruel—except to Sandy. If she passed him in the hallways he would tease her about her respectable clothes or steal her books and hold them high over his head where she couldn’t reach. Once when she’d done well at the Physics Olympics she’d come to school the next day to find her locker door wall papered with Xerox copies of a picture of Albert Einstein. And okay it seems dumb now, but at the time it had been the most embarrassing moment of her life. That was a big goal in Cole’s daily activities—embarrassing Sandy Masters.
He left town practically the day he graduated. His mom still lived here, but Sandy never asked about him. Why would she? It had only been stupid crush anyhow. He probably wouldn’t know her name if he heard it now and certainly they wouldn’t know each other were they to pass in the streets. Not that they would. Nothing could get Cole Pennington back to Pony Valley—nothing. So why was she thinking so hard about him?
Sandy decided it was nothing more than her brain’s way of filling the silence as she went about her routine. After five years her arms and legs didn’t need much help from her brain to fill the water and food bowls. Of course with Christmas being so close she also had to plug in the outdoor lights and the Christmas tree by the front door, but that was exactly mentally absorbing either and it just meant half a minute longer of Cole Pennington musings. Sandy spent that half a minute trying to imagine what his Christmas would be like. She came up blank. Christmas at the Pennington family home on Court Street in Pony Valley would mean a big Christmas Eve open house party followed by caroling led by Cole’s enthusiastic, if tone deaf, mother. Mr.
Pennington would be dressed as Santa Claus handing out candy canes to anyone under 5 feet tall. Cole wouldn’t be there. He would be celebrating at his own home in Los Angeles, which is where Sandy had heard he’d moved to all those years ago.
Enough already!!! Sandy thought to herself. And she put away all thoughts of the two-leggeds as she opened a door out to the ‘play pen’ area and let their current four-legged residents out for a romp. Today there were four dogs rushing into the yard. Four was a lot for their small town, and Sandy was working hard on finding them all homes.
“No! Don’t hurt him!” Sandy jerked her gaze to the right and found a little girl standing on the sidewalk clinging to the outside of the chain link fence.
The two strays that had come in last month, Sandy called them Bert and Ernie, were playfully wrestling over a favorite Christmas tree shaped chew toy a few feet away from her.
The pretty little girl had tiny tears twinkling on each cheek and her curly blond pigtails reminded Sandy of the littlest girl from Brady Bunch reruns. She couldn’t be more than five or six years old, where were her parents?
“It’s alright.” Sandy said in her most soothing spooked-critter voice. “They are only playing. That is how puppies play.”
“Are you sure?” The little girl stuck out her chin demanding to know the truth.
Sandy smiled and crouched down to be at her eye level. “Very sure. Are you lost?”
“No.” Suddenly the little girl’s blue eyes went as wide as saucers. “Are you a stranger? I am not allowed to talk to strangers.”
Crap, thought Sandy. She was a stranger. She shouldn’t contradict the girl’s lesson, but she couldn’t let a baby wander around main street all alone either. “Well I suppose I am a stranger. But if we introduce ourselves we won’t be strangers anymore, will we? My name is Sandy.”
The little girl seemed to be considering the idea. That was fine as long as she stayed put. Sandy scanned the sidewalk for any frantic looking adults, but unfortunately the play area was behind the store front and you could only just barely see a small section of main street from where she was.
“I’m Hannah.” The little girl must have decided in favor of Sandy’s logic and she was smiling happily at Sandy through the fence. “Hannah Holly Pennington. Nice to meet you.”
Pennington. It couldn’t be. That would be too much of a coincidence.
“Hannah! Oh my goodness, Hannah! You scared the bejesus out of Daddy!” A whirl of tall broad man with shiny brown hair swept down the sidewalk, dropped to one knee, and tugged Hannah into a tight hug.
“What is bejesus?” Hannah wanted to know.
“The nicest word I could think of under the circumstances.” Cole replied absently as he swept his eyes up and down the little girl as though he were inspecting for damage. “What were you doing, sweetheart?”
“Watching the puppies.” She informed him simply and turned back to the fence. “Can’t we stay, Daddy?”
“Sorry Pumpkin, we have a couple more stops to make before we go home. And I promised your Grandma we’d be back in time for lunch.” He checked his watch and then grimaced.
Sandy stared throughout the entire exchange. Fate has a cruel sense of humor this year, she couldn’t help thinking, to bring her face to face with Cole Pennington and his adorable little girl. Maybe she should have stayed in bed this morning. Now that the little girl was safe and most certainly not lost Sandy thought she would just turn around and go back to work. Unfortunately her feet (which were clearly encased in concrete) had other ideas.
“Maybe she can watch me! We aren’t strangers anymore.” Hannah’s big shining eyes turned towards Sandy, and Sandy wanted to crawl under a rock.
Sandy raised one hand in a brief hello. “I’m…”
“Sandy Masters.” Cole filled in for her as he straightened up and met her gaze. Wow, he was tall. Was he this tall back in high school? “It is still Masters?” Cole eyed her questioningly and offered her his beautiful lopsided grin. The very same grin that kept all his teachers from giving him too many detentions ten years ago.
“You know my name?” Sandy couldn’t believe she’d said that out loud. What happened to only dealing for the four-leggeds today? That had been a very good plan—one that she should get back to ASAP.
Cole looked confused and his grin faltered. “Umm, yeah. I guess it has been awhile. It’s me, Cole Pennington. We went to school together.”
“I know that. I just didn’t think you knew that.”
“Okay.” His grin returned and those impossibly blue eyes twinkled with laughter.
Great. Ten years later and she was still the butt of his jokes. She should say something. Something fabulously witty and then maybe bat her eyelashes—would that be too much? Probably, but she could do a hair flip—darn she’d worn a pony tail today.
“Well, thank you for keeping an eye on her for me.” Cole was now staring at her like she was mentally challenged. Clearly she had missed her chance for dazzling wit and flirty body language.
“It was no problem. She can stay… if you want.” What? Why had she said that? She didn’t want to do any favors for him! And she really didn’t want to spend the rest of the morning with his cute as a button daughter.
“Thanks, but that would be asking too much. Come on Hannah.” Sandy breathed a deep sigh of relief when Cole tugged the little girl back towards the road, and then she made the mistake of looking down at Hannah’s face.
Those adorable silver blue eyes were trained on the puppies even as she was shuffling along behind her dad. Damn. “Cole!” He stopped. Sandy hurried to the gate and let herself out onto the sidewalk so they wouldn’t have that ridiculous fence between them. “I don’t mind, really. She can help me exercise the dogs. That is… I know you don’t know me very well, I understand if…” She stopped talking when he started laughing.
“I know you, Sandy. There aren’t a whole lot of people I would trust her with, but you would definitely be one of them.”
“Oh.” Sandy was determined not to be nervous around him. What was there to be nervous about?
“It would only be maybe an hour. We’ve only just gotten back, and I’d forgotten how much longer errands take when you know everybody in town.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be here until three.”
“Hannah, Miss Sandy here is an old friend of Daddy’s. I need you to be your very most helpful and on your very best behavior while you stay with her.”
“I will! I will!” The little girl looked so happy that Sandy was almost able to forget that she belonged to Cole.
“Thank you, Sandy.” Cole’s reached out and gripped Sandy’s hand. Electricity zinged from his finger tips to hers and Sandy froze in place. Was it really possible that he could still stir these reactions in her. No. It had to be left over nostalgia from when he’d crossed her mind earlier that day. He didn’t shake or squeeze her hand, but the pad of his thumb scraped across the top of her knuckles. When he reached her third knuckle he paused and felt along the length of that finger. “Still Masters, then?”
It took about two heart beats (or a millennia) for Sandy to drag enough air into her lungs to make responding possible. “Still Masters.” Well at least now he could stop wondering if she was mentally challenged. Surely she had just confirmed it.
His grin got a little bigger when she answered him. “Still Masters.” He nodded his head once and the released her hand. “You remember what I said, okay Hannah? I’ll be back soon.”
“I know Daddy! Geez!” He tugged on one of her bouncy little pigtails and winked at Sandy before walking away. “Can we size the puppies now?”
Hannah’s voice forced Sandy back to reality. “I’m sorry—what do you want to do to them?”
“You said I could help size them. Daddy and I like to be helpful.”
Eventually Sandy realized what the little girl was talking about. “I said exercise them, and yes we can do that now.”
Chapter Two
Sandy s
howed Hannah how to throw the toys for the dogs to fetch, and taught her to give belly rubs when the toy was returned promptly. There was a pretty big stack of paperwork waiting for her inside, but she could take it home tonight if she had to. It wasn’t as though she’d be able to get much work done today even if she did find something Hannah could help with inside. Hannah was too much of a distraction.
Cole Pennington has a daughter. Well that sure shook the picture of Cole at 18 right out of Sandy’s head. She preferred the 28 year old version anyway. He was still plenty tall, but where he’d been thin and toned as a teenager he now appeared to have sprouted thick, adult, male, never-misses-a-day-at-the-gym muscles. Wow—Cole Pennington has a daughter. Normally she would assume this meant he had a wife as well, but what was all that ‘still Masters’ nonsense if he was married. Divorced then. And back in town. Was he just home for the holidays? It sounded like he’d been running errands all morning and Sandy couldn’t think of any vacations she’d ever spent running all day errands. Unless he was just doing his parents a favor.
“Do you live here?” Sandy hadn’t even noticed that Hannah had abandoned her game of fetch and was now happily sitting on the concrete slab with a dog on either side of her and a squirming puppy in her lap.
“No, Hannah. I have a house somewhere else. This is where I work.”
“Do you take them home with you?”
“No sweetheart, I don’t. They are staying here for now, but I am doing my best to find them new families.”
“Daddy says Christmas will be here soon. Will they have families by Christmas?”
The serious tone in her voice tugged at place inside of Sandy she’d long since sealed off. “I hope so.”
“I am going to ask Santa for a puppy this year. We couldn’t have one in California because the ‘partment had rules, but Daddy says we are going to have a house here. Do you think Santa would bring me one of these puppies?”
