When asked about Santa, they simply said he was busy prepping his sleigh for deliveries and had asked them to drop off some extra special packages for him in Prairie Town.
Lydia absolutely loved the reaction they got from that. Big smiles, sparkling eyes, and a few hugs had been given to them already. They were nearly finished with their list, but in a way she hated to see it end. Being involved with Tula’s Christmas project had brought her more joy than any gift ever could.
Piling back into the van like can of sardines, Lydia, Agatha, Laney, Benji, Jeb, and Callum were ready to head to their next house.
“Who’s next on the list?” Callum asked as he started the engine.
“The Spencer family.” Laney announced, not noticing the gaze of longing Benji was giving her. She was far too busy chewing on the tip of her pen and fighting with the buttons on the front of her blouse. “They’re our last stop.”
“Oh, little Jamie!” Lydia said excitedly. She had been waiting for their name to come up. The crib was placed carefully beneath the rest of the boxes in the back and she knew—she just knew it in her heart—Jamie’s family would never forget this Christmas Eve.
I’ll never forget it either. She thought, reaching her hand out to rest against Callum’s. He turned his hand over and curled his fingers around hers, flashing that award-winning smile of his as they drove to the Spencer house located not too far from her parents’ home.
“Are you ready for this?” He asked as they piled out of the van and began gathering gifts.
“I am,” she nodded with a smile. “I’m pretty sure I went to school with her mom, you know.”
“Yeah?” He followed her to the back of the van. “I wish I could say I knew anybody, anywhere, from school. I’ve moved so many times that it’s damn near impossible.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Those moves eventually led me here, Lydia. They led me to you.”
“Hey, they led you to me first.” Jeb snorted as he poked his head out of the back of the van. “Get this crib, you double-crosser.”
Lydia laughed at her brother as he joked with his best friend. She really was grateful that Jeb had such a great person in his life. Everybody deserved a best friend.
“Can’t someone else be Mrs. Claus for a while?” Agatha whined. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep up this cheerful charade. I need a drink.”
“Soon, my little Claus friend.” Benji teased, hoisting a red velvet bag over his shoulder. “But for now you have to come in and make some kids smile.”
“Exactly!” Lydia took off in front of them, clinging to an envelope that possessed a return address to the North Pole. She was eager to give it to Kelly.
“Is this the right place?” Laney asked as they all slowed down, peering up at the boarded up house before them. It looked abandoned, and ancient.
“It is. This is the address on the application.” Jeb flipped through the clipboard and frowned, closing his eyes. “This is Paddy’s house.”
“Paddy?” Callum echoed. “You mean Paddy Spencer?”
“Yeah.”
“Patrick Spencer?” Lydia remembered him from school. He was a decent guy, a great football player, and always smiling. By the tone of her brother’s voice, though, she knew something had happened to him.
“Yeah, Patrick Spencer.” Jeb nodded. “He died in a car crash in May. I thought Kelly moved recently.”
“That doesn’t appear to be the case.” Benji said sadly. “You really think she’s still in there? With her kids?”
“I highly doubt it. I haven’t seen lights on in this place in at least two weeks. I only drive by every couple of days, but I was certain she’d moved.”
“Are you sure?” Lydia pushed her cap down on her head as a strong gust of window blew through and it chilled her to the bone. It was unsettling to think anyone could live in that house, especially given the very visible holes in the roof. The fact that it was a widow and her two very young children caused her nose to burn and her throat to tighten. She prayed no one was in that house.
“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s been dark the last few times I came by. I’m pretty positive she moved.” Her brother replied in a voice of uncertainty.
“Should we knock?” Agatha questioned quietly.
“I think we’ve got the wrong address. Maybe she applied before she moved out.” Laney huffed, tightening her scarf around her neck. “I’m freezing to death out here. Let’s call Tula and see what she wants us to do.”
“Well,” Lydia sighed and turned to follow them back to the van. “I guess we can do that, but—”
“Santa! Santa’s here!”
They all whirled around in surprise, watching as a little boy jumped off the front porch, his little legs disappearing into the snow as he struggled to get to them. His smile was a mile-wide as he waved.
“I knew you’d come! I knew it!” He cried. “I told my mommy you would make it.”
“Justin.” Lydia whispered, feeling her chest ache. The little boy was so excited when he finally made it to her, tilting his head back and giving her the cutest grin on earth. His brown hair, in desperate need of a haircut, was disheveled in every direction and his cheeks were covered in freckles. He was the spitting image of his father.
Justin wrapped his arms around her legs as tightly as he could.
“Thank you for coming to my house. Mommy said you’d have to skip us this year, but I just knew it wasn’t true.”
Oh, God. Chills ran down her spine and her stomach began to churn as she thought about the reality of the situation. How many parents on their list had to tell their children that Santa would skip their house this year?
“Of course we came, little guy.” Callum swooped in to save the day, easing the crib box onto the ground before he crouched in front of him, tousling his hair. “Santa wouldn’t forget you. You’ve been so good this year, haven’t you?”
“Yes!” Justin shouted, laughing. He peered back and forth between them and his eyes lit up when they landed on the box containing the crib. “Is that for my sissy?”
“It sure is.” Callum removed his coat and placed it around his shoulders to keep him warm, and in turn it warmed Lydia’s heart once more. He was such a good man. “You didn’t think we’d forget your baby sister, did you?”
“No.” Justin shook his head. “But Mommy said we couldn’t afford one and Sissy’s been sleeping in bed with us. We stay warmer that way.”
Oh, God! Lydia’s eyes lifted to the house and she felt emotions burning in her throat. Didn’t they have heat?
“Well, we’ll take care of that now.” Callum promised, tapping the tip of his nose lightly. “Is your mommy inside?”
“Yep! Come this way.” He said, turning and heading back to the house, but not before he grabbed Lydia’s hand and pulled her with him.
Giving Callum a look of uncertainty, he winked at her and smiled reassuringly.
What did he have up his sleeve this time?
“Mommy! Mommy! Santa’s elves have brought presents!” Justin shouted as he pushed open the door and pulled Lydia inside. “They brought Mrs. Claus, too!”
They stepped inside the house and the temperature didn’t feel very different from outside. It was all Lydia could do to keep her emotions in check as they ventured down a hallway, the walls empty, void of pictures, and entered the kitchen area.
There was a kerosene heater in the corner of the room and the heat radiating from it was welcoming, but it did little to thaw the cold dread in Lydia’s body when she saw the woman sitting at the table with a pink bundle in her arms.
She lifted her eyes to gaze at Lydia and the fear in them was evident. Not only was she frightened, but also ashamed.
“Oh, Justin.” She said quietly, standing from the table quickly. “Sweetie, you shouldn’t have gone outside. I told you to potty and come back. I...” Her voice began to crack. She looked like a deer caught in headlights as she looked back and forth, seemingly searchi
ng for an escape. “Please excuse the mess. I wasn’t expecting anyone to show up.”
“It was meant to be a surprise.” Lydia said softly, feeling so terribly sorry for making the woman feel ashamed. It was the last thing she wanted to make anyone feel—Heaven knew she’d felt that way one too many times in her life. “We received an application for you to receive gifts through Giftapalooza. I’m sorry if we should have called beforehand.”
“Giftapalooza?” The woman whispered, shaking her head slowly. “I...I never signed up for anything. It never does me any good.” She sniffed and glanced at the baby in her arms. “This year hasn’t been kind to us.”
It became so quiet and still that Lydia began to wonder if anyone could hear her heart cracking all over again. Maybe she was just too empathetic, but surely no one in the room with her could have a stone heart when it came to the situation they had stumbled upon.
The woman, who she did recognize to be Kelly Jones from her school days, stood stiffly before them, cradling her daughter to her chest as her son smiled at them, standing near the heater. He was huddled beneath Callum’s coat, which swallowed him, but the horrible circumstances he had been thrown in didn’t seem to faze him in the least bit.
“They brought Sissy a crib!” He cheered, hopping up and down. “Santa sent it for her.”
“Wh-what?” Kelly blinked in disbelief and stared at them. “How...I mean...Oh, forgive me. I’m just so confused. I never signed up for anything, I swear. I stopped trying after they cut off the food stamps and then the resource center turned us away when I tried to get Justin some winter clothes. I...Who are you?” She questioned, her watery eyes moving from one person to the next.
Lydia opened her mouth to say something, but she was stunned into silence by the obvious pain Kelly had been going through since the loss of her husband. Before her stood a woman who had been broken, yet managed to keep herself intact for the sake of her children. She was strong. She was heroic. And she didn’t deserve to be afraid of them.
“We’re Santa’s elves.” Benji finally said, stepping forward to present a brightly colored red box. “And we’ve brought Christmas to you.”
“See, Mommy?” Justin said excitedly, reaching for the box. “Is this one mine? It’s pretty.”
“It sure is.” Benji grinned, allowing him to take the present from his grasp. “But you have to promise me you’ve been really, really, super good this year. Have you?”
“I have!” Justin promised. “I’ve been so good! I even help Mommy change Sissy’s diapers and that stinks.”
Lydia laughed weakly at the little boy’s comment, but her eyes remained on Kelly. The woman avoided her gaze, staring at the floor in silence as they began unloading gifts and putting them on the table. Callum retrieved the crib from the front yard and carried it in, setting it down on the floor without even breaking a sweat.
“This is too much.” Kelly said as she rocked her daughter back and forth. “We honestly didn’t ask for this. I...I’m so embarrassed.”
“You don’t need to be embarrassed.” Laney reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Someone obviously wanted you to have a wonderful Christmas, so ta-da; we’re here.”
Kelly seemed to relax a little after that and she let Lydia hold Jamie as she prepared a kettle of tea on the stove. She explained everything that had happened after her husband’s death.
“After I lost Patrick everything changed.” She said, pouring each cup with steaming tea. “I’ve been fighting depression something awful. Jamie was only a few months old when he died and it was so hard to take care of her, Justin, and myself. I put my children first,”—she said with conviction—“you must understand that. I go without so they won’t have to, but then things just started getting harder and I lost my job.”
Lydia gazed down at the sleeping baby in her arms and felt her bottom lip begin to quiver. She couldn’t imagine the pain Kelly had gone through—at least not on the same level.
“I applied for food stamps because we needed help. I was even trying to get welfare because I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to find a new job. It’s hard to find good work around here and I don’t have the money to move. Patrick didn’t have life insurance. I emptied out most of our savings to bury him and I was going to use the rest of it to move us away. I can’t stand being here. It’s too painful.”
“I understand.” Lydia managed to say without crying. She nestled her cheek against Jamie’s forehead and eyed her mother, waiting for her to continue her story.
“But that didn’t work out. I don’t have any family here. My parents died when I was in the 9th grade and Patrick’s family moved to Connecticut not long after Justin was born. Everything has just been an awful mess and I am not proud of it. I have to buy things for the baby and pay the bills and put gas in the car to take Justin to school. The new uniforms they require for him don’t help either.” She sniffled and wiped at her eyes. “It just got so overwhelming and...now we don’t even have electricity. It got turned off a few weeks ago and...”
She broke down, sobbing and whimpering as she buried her face into her hands. Lydia immediately handed the baby to Laney and wrapped her arms around Kelly, trying to comfort her.
“It’s okay.” She whispered, rubbing her back gently. “You’re not alone, okay? We’ll help you figure something out.”
“You shouldn’t have to!” Kelly wailed in despair, keeping her arms tight around Lydia. “I should have done better for my babies. I sold everything I could and we barely have anything left. Now look at us. I told Justin Santa would have to skip us this year because I couldn’t afford to get him anything, not even a cheap toy from the store.”
“And now you don’t have to worry about that.” Callum said as he re-appeared in the doorway, tucking his cellphone into his pocket. Lydia was so consumed with Kelly’s story that she hadn’t even noticed he’d disappeared. “Lydia, can I talk to you for a second?”
“Yeah. Of course.” She rubbed Kelly’s arm and smiled. “I’ll be right back, okay? Why don’t you let Justin open one of his gifts early while we’re outside.”
“Really? Can I?” Justin asked, his eyes widening. “Can I, Mommy? Please?”
“I...okay.” Kelly nodded, still unsure of everything that was happening. “Thank you very much, um...I didn’t catch your name. What is it?”
“Lydia. My name is Lydia.”
“Lydia.” She murmured, squinting her eyes a little. “You look so familiar to me. Did we go to school together?”
“Erm, not exactly.” Lydia cleared her throat and forced a nervous smile. “I’ll be back in just a few minutes.” Following Callum outside as fast as she could, she released a sigh of relief and bowed her head. “That was close.”
“Don’t even worry about it.” He backed her up against the side of the house and cupped her face between his hands, grinning. “You’re doing perfectly, babe. She and her kids are about to have the best Christmas ever.”
“It’s a nice thought, Callum, but they don’t even have power right now. How can they have such a good Christmas if they’re in the dark?” She lowered her gaze and closed her eyes, shaking her head slowly. “I feel so bad for her. She lost the love of her life and now she’s struggling to take care of her babies. How the hell can anybody have a good Christmas knowing what’s been done to her? How do the people who turned her away sleep at night?”
“Because they only care about the almighty dollar, baby.” He kissed her forehead and let his lips linger there. “But thankfully not everybody’s like that, huh?”
“Thankfully.”
“I need you to do me a favor.”
“What’s that?”
“I need you to take Kelly and the kids out for a drive.”
“Why?” Her eyebrows pinched together as she stared at him suspiciously. What was he up to?
“Just trust me on this, okay?” He planted his hands on her shoulders and squeezed gently. “Just take them out, maybe get them a bite to
eat somewhere that’s still open, and then come back when I call for you.”
“Uh huh. You do realize it’s Christmas Eve and there aren’t very many places open today?”
“I do realize that, but I need you to trust me and just do it. Please?” He gave her his best puppy dog eyes—which she couldn’t refuse—and went as far as sticking his bottom lip out.
“Oh, God. Stop it.” She swatted his side. “I’ll do it even though I’m fairly sure you’re about to do something incredibly wonderful and sneaky. Are you sure I can’t stay and help?”
“No. I just need you to get them out of here for a little while. I’ll call you when I’m ready for you to come back.” Leaning in to steal a kiss, he stole her breath with a light nip to her bottom lip before pulling away. “I love you, my little elf. Now hop to it.”
He smacked her ass and sent her on her way.
—————
Jeb
It took a lot of persuasion to get Kelly to leave the house, but once Lydia had left with her and the children, Jeb knew there was a miracle in the making.
“Okay, guys.” Callum said, standing in the center of the near naked living room. There were boxes stacked upon boxes of packed belongings—assumingly from the move Kelly had intended on making, but never got to, piled in each corner. The sofa was the only piece of furniture that remained. “So here’s the plan. Lydia is taking Kelly and the kids to grab a bite to eat from the truck stop. It wasn’t my ideal location for a decent meal, but they’re the only place open on Christmas Eve.”
“Better than nothing, I suppose.” Laney commented, wrinkling her nose. “Can’t we fix the dinner we brought with us? I mean, there has to be something we can do.”
“And we will,” Callum promised with a smile. “But first we have to do some other stuff. Will you guys help me?”
“Of course we will, sugar.” Agatha nodded, tugging the white wig off her head and running her fingers through her hair. “Just tell us what to do.”
180 Days Page 21
