Merry Without Malice

by P. Creeden

  “You didn’t ask me if that was okay first.” Bethany concentrated on her breathing. The last thing she needed right now was this fight. She really would have appreciated it if her sister could have given her just one night of peace and happiness instead of constant rebellious teenager.

  “I’m eighteen. You don’t get to dictate my life.”

  “Then act your age. Be mature enough to know that you should talk to your elder when you’re in a situation like this, it’s possible that they might know what’s best for you.

  “You’re not my mother; you’re my sister. You’re supposed to be happy for me, not try to tell me what I can and can’t do.”

  That stung. “I know I’m your sister, but how can I be happy for you when you’re always doing such stupid things?”

  The shock and tears that flooded Holly’s eyes instantly made Bethany regret that comment. For a long moment, they just stared at each other, the constant ticking of the kitchen clock was the only noise in the room drowning out the sound of Bethany’s racing heart. Finally, Holly grabbed her phone from the top of the table and ran to her room.

  “Wait,” Bethany called out to her sister’s retreating back, but the only answer she received was the slamming of the bedroom door.

  Bethany sat back down in the metal chair and ran her hands over her face. The knot in her stomach only tightened further. How could she say that to her sister? She knew it was one of Holly’s sore spots. All her life in school she was treated as the dumb blonde. She didn’t test well, so she often ended up in remedial classes. Was her sister actually dumb? No. Bethany knew she wasn’t. But once their parents had died, they did everything they could just to get her through finishing high school. College wasn’t even a consideration.

  Now Bethany had carelessly said exactly the thing she should have held back in saying. Normally she would have, but she’d just gotten back from work and it was especially busy while they were short-staffed a waitress. She shook her head. No. These were just excuses. She shouldn’t have hurt her sister like that. No matter what.

  She should apologize to her sister. That would be the right thing to do, but she couldn’t raise herself from the kitchen chair. If she apologized to her sister, Holly might twist Bethany’s words, or manipulate the situation so that Bethany felt obligated to give in to her sister’s demands.

  They didn’t need a strange man staying with them, coming tomorrow. Lord help us. What if he really was one of those violent people that she’d watched on those unsolved mystery shows on television. Her hands clenched. Okay, maybe her imagination was over-exaggerating things, but the reality was, that they didn’t know him. Bethany half-wished she’d never even gotten her sister a smartphone. How could she even stop the man from coming right now?

  She looked up to heaven. “Lord… I don’t know what to do and I could really use some help right now.”

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  Chapter 1 Preview of Murder on Valentine’s Day

  Emma sat on a bench just off of the walking path and released a deep sigh. Her tenuous breath vapors disappeared just before clouding her vision. She’d almost worn a mini-skirt but because Molly, her foster puppy, joined her on this trip she decided to go with leggings. Last year, wearing a mini-skirt wouldn’t have been an option, since the temperature at Ridgeway’s New Year’s Eve festival had been in the teens.

  This night, it was only forty degrees. Emma had forgone the mini-skirt but still wanted to impress Colby with her ugly sweater. The brunette twentysomething kept her long hair visible through the pink ponytail beanie, which perfectly complimented her colorful and flamboyant sweater with the picture of Santa at the beach which graced the front.

  “Hi there, Emma! Who’s this with you today?” Mr. Green, the florist on Main Street, stopped by and patted Molly on the head. The Saint Bernard was quite the mischievous handful for Emma. The pup found joy in trashcans and random debris. Just a week prior, Molly gained a few hundred views on social media after a neighbor filmed the puppy romping in the snow. But apparently, Mr. Green hadn’t seen the video.

  “This is Molly,” she said with a smile, standing up from the bench. “We rescued her from a puppy mill in Edinburg. She was too big for their shelter, so we took her in to foster.”

  “That’s great. Keep up the good work,” Mr. Green said with a smile and continued toward the main part of the park.

  The festival would be Molly’s first exposure to many of the other dogs of the town, except for Colby’s dog, Gabby. Ridgeway was quite the dog town, where most of the residents kept dogs as part of their families. At the event, a few hundred dogs were expected in addition to the town’s small population of a few thousand people. In the center of the large park, through the darkness, was a sign that would eventually illuminate in celebration of the New Year.

  She peered in the direction of the parking area and spotted Colby hopping out of the SUV and going toward the back of the vehicle to get Gabby, the K9 officer. Gabby was a highly trained asset of the sleepy Ridgeway Police Department with her partner Colby. Five years prior, the Virginia state governor thought it would be beneficial for every police department to have at least one trained K9 unit, and the vote passed. Colby was the first to sign up to the program.

  In the small town, drug busts and bomb threats were never an issue, so the program was utilized more for missing persons cases than it was for anything else. In the years that Gabby was on the force, she helped find several missing hikers on the Appalachian Trail nearby by pointing Colby in the right direction. During the festival though, the German Shepherd would be too preoccupied with smelling the sweet caramel apples, roasted almonds, hot chocolate, and popcorn to be of any help to Colby in her usual capacity.

  Emma adjusted her pink beany and tugged gently on the leash to lead the Saint Bernard toward the parking area. She planned to meet him halfway. The sweet candied smells of the carnival foods were making Emma hungry for a snack since she’d spent most of the day tending to the needs of the 35-pound, three-month-old puppy. Molly sniffed along the ground, bounding in all directions randomly when any smell attracted her. As Colby neared their location, Molly caught wind of her pal Gabby and began wagging her tail violently. The pair were complete opposites when it came to discipline. Gabby would sit tall and proud, while Molly was hyper and just wanted to play. The smell that meant, for Molly, another opportunity to playfully pester the adult Shepherd. She started barking and circling frantically at the end of her leash, nearly coming out of it by walking backwards.

  Emma knelt down to attend to the excitable pup. Shortening the leash until she reached Molly, Emma pretended not to know why Molly was acting up, putting on a brief show so Colby would be forced to speak first. She loved the way he said her name, and as she thought about it, he finally spoke up and greeted her when he was close enough. “Hi, Emma. Hope you haven’t been waiting long?”

  She smiled at the sound of his deep baritone and glanced up. “Not too long at all.”

  At the same time, Molly rushed Gabby who remained still as a statue while the Saint Bernard excitedly sniffed and yelped for attention from the K9. Until Colby gave his version of the all clear command, Gabby was working and had been trained not to engage other, playful dogs. Her stoic behavior confused the poor pup, as the two had been allowed to play on several occasions before, but the lack of reciprocation didn’t stop any of her attempts.

  After a few moments, Molly’s attempts to woo Gabby slowed and Emma drew up to her full height again. For a moment she felt awkward, much like Molly, she wasn’t sure how to behave around Colby while he was working.

  “Have you seen where your father is?” Colby asked. Emma’s dad was the Sheriff of the town, and likely Colby needed to check in with him since he’d just arrived.

  “Not since early this morning. I don’t know for sure if he’s here or at the office.” The last day of 2017 was quite a busy day for the Sheriff. Arranging the schedule
and zones for the assigned officers who would work the festival was a time-consuming task, but Emma had asked him to allow enough freedom for she and Colby to be able to enjoy their time together. This wasn’t quite a date, since Colby was there for work, and she had wanted to keep him company, but for a few moments, she liked pretending that it might be their first.

  Her father might have thought that he was being sly, giving into her demands when she’d asked him if it was okay if she’d hung out with Colby, and he’d given her a frown, saying, “Just don’t distract him too much.” His approval of their friendship was obvious, although he was doing his best not to influence it directly.

  Overhead, the clear sky barely revealed any of her stars in the bright lights cast by the festival. A distinct halo had formed around the moon, and Emma wondered if the temperature would be dropping much more. They started to walk along the path, so Colby could patrol the grounds. The constant chatter from the crowd soothed her in what would otherwise be an awkward silence. Colby wasn’t much of a talker and she was always shy around him, worried she’d say something stupid. Her stomach growled and she wrapped her arms around it, hoping he hadn’t noticed.

  “Did you have a good Christmas?” Colby asked her, staying focused on the walkway in front of him, surveying the crowd.

  It took her a moment to realize they hadn’t seen each other since Christmas Eve, when they’d had a party at the Sheriff’s office, because she’d been at her mother’s for the holiday in Luray. She nodded. “It was okay. My mom was determined to make two different kinds of gelatin molds, even though no one likes gelatin that much. Even when we were full, she made us shovel a bit of each kind on to our plates and then proceeded to tell us that we needed to compliment her on how great they tasted and how much we liked them. She threatened to cry if we didn’t.”

  He smiled at her passively.

  She knew she was talking too much, but somehow, once the flood gates were open she couldn’t stop. “My stepfather kept talking about how it was a great ‘Thanksgiving Dinner.’ No matter how many times we corrected him, he continued to call it Thanksgiving. I think he was doing it to annoy my stepbrother, Caleb. Caleb’s always getting embarrassed by the way his dad acts so silly.”

  “You grew up here with your dad in Ridgeway, right?” Colby had pulled up to a stop at one of the stands and nodded toward the vendor, raising a hand to signal he wanted two of what they were serving.

  Emma waited until Colby turned to her, holding a chili-dog in each hand. Heat rose to her cheeks. He’d definitely heard her stomach before she’d started rambling on about the holiday. The chili-dog smelled heavenly. She accepted his offer, turning away and adjusting her beanie in the hopes he at least wouldn’t notice her blushing. She cleared her throat. “Pretty much. They divorced when I was eleven and the judge said I was old enough to choose which parent I wanted to live with. I thought my dad wouldn’t be able to take care of himself if I left him. I was probably right.”

  The lights illuminating the park were evenly spread out, though just far enough away from the central attraction that it would be obvious for all present to know when the countdown began. Molly kept her eye on Emma’s chili-dog, so she couldn’t help but allow the pup a small portion of the treat. After she and Colby had finished the hotdogs, they were led around the park by Molly.

  Vendors had lined up their stands all around the perimeter of the field. Food stands were peppered in between the 2018 merchandise. Each new seller offered a confection that appealed to the patron’s senses. The strongest of them, for Emma, were the chocolate and coffee tents. For an hour, they made the rounds and chit-chatted about what they’d done over Christmas. Or at least, Colby asked questions and Emma answered. Typical cop behavior, she noted after some time. She wasn’t quite being interrogated, but she couldn’t help but feel the conversation might have been too one-sided.

  “How about you, Colby, what did you do for Christmas?” she asked finally as they stopped near the signs that would light up starting at eleven. She glanced at her watch, it was nearly time for the first one to light.

  Colby scratched his head and shrugged. “Same as you pretty much. Family dinner, spent time with my mom. Only I don’t have the stepfather or brother. It’s just me and my mom.”

  She nodded. She remembered that Colby’s dad had died in a drunk driving accident back when she was in high-school and he had just returned from the police academy. At twenty-six, Colby had already been through a lot more than she had at twenty. “Did Santa bring you anything good?”

  He chuckled a little, but shook his head. “Nothing worth noting. Pajamas and socks. You know, the typical stuff.”

  The heat returned to her cheeks as she imagined Colby in his new pajamas. It was a vision she’d not seen before, but the thought of it made her woozy.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, bending down to peer into her face.

  She nearly squealed at his nearness. Instead she blinked and flinched away from him. “I’m fine. Just a little thirsty.”

  Colby backed up and looked around, his gaze fixing suddenly to her right. She followed his gaze to a crowded stand. He held her by the elbow suddenly and guided her over to a nearby park bench. Her face heated up again. Why did he have this affect on her anyway? Her hormones were raging like a thirteen-year-old girl’s. Swallowing them down, she followed his lead.

  “Take a seat here and I’ll get something for us to drink,” he said, and then turned to the German Shepherd. “Sit, Gabby. Stay.”

  The dog obliged.

  “Wait. Where are you going?” Suddenly, Emma felt like she didn’t want Colby to leave, wishing she hadn’t told him she was thirsty. What if he missed watching the illumination with her. “The first word will be lit any second.”

  “I’ll grab us a couple of hot chocolates. I’ll be right back.” Without giving her a chance to tell him how she felt, he turned on his heel and headed over to the crowded hot chocolate vender.

  Emma sighed and sat down on the bench next to the two dogs. The tradition of illuminating the phrase “Happy New Year,” one word at a time, was a spectacle for everyone gathered at the festival. Each word would be lit up for a short period before the finale where the next year’s number would spark the ultimate celebration at the stroke of midnight. Every 20 minutes, starting at 11pm, a new word would ignite and the participants would cheer. The festival was a time and place for the town to gather, exchange stories of the previous year, and make plans with their neighbors for the upcoming year. It was a celebration of promises kept and of promises made.

  The first lighting was the second largest celebration of the evening, as it signaled the final hour of the year. A cheer went up from the crowd as the bright sign ignited, sending all the dogs in the park into a barking frenzy at the brief chaos of the moment. Flashes from cameras and cell phones alike competed with the sign. Emma’s heart sank. He’d missed it.

  Her gaze flickered over to where Colby stood, and he returned her eye contact. A smile flashed across his face revealing his deep dimples. Her heart fluttered in her chest like a bird. He’d seen it, and although they weren’t standing right next to each other at the time, it was still a moment she could treasure.

  No problem. They could catch the rest of the lighting ceremony together. And then at the end of the night, maybe they’d ring in the New Year with the old-fashioned kiss. Her face heated up again at the thought. She shook her head. It wasn’t a date and Colby was on-duty. A kiss couldn’t possibly be in the cards for them. She needed to get the thought out of her head immediately so she wouldn’t be disappointed later.

  Molly noticed her anxious behavior and mimicked her actions. Periodically, the pup focused her attention on the K9 sitting patiently next to them. Gabby remained seated and focused on Colby as he meandered through the line for beverages. Emma found herself watching after Colby too. He would glance over his shoulder several times with his focus on Gabby, making sure she was being a good dog. His glance would then slide u
p toward Emma and they’d share another secret smile. In some ways, this moment was more romantic than the stroll had been for Emma.

  Finally, Colby stood at the front counter. Emma watched as he got the drinks and began exiting the line with two hot chocolates. Then her view was blocked by a tall, older gentleman in a down coat. Emma frowned. She didn’t recognize him from town and assumed he must have been one of the tourists at the festival for the lighting ceremony. The New Year Celebration always brought new faces to the town as extended family and friends often would join in the festivities. But the down coat was overkill. It was not nearly cold enough at the festival for that kind of jacket. She frowned as the stranger continued to talk to Colby and block her view.

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  About the Author

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  Also by P. Creeden

  Download the first in the series for FREE

  Ridgeway Rescue Mysteries can be read in 1-2 hours. Perfect for when you're waiting for an appointment or just want a fast read. Don't miss out on this quick, clean, cozy mystery that will keep you guessing until the end!

  It's New Year’s Eve and 20-year-old Emma Wright has a date with her crush—well, not a real date, but she can dream! Colby Davidson, the K9 search and rescue deputy, is allowing her to accompany him while he’s on patrol at the Ridgeway Illumination Festival. Though they are just friends, she’s still hoping for a possible kiss at the end of the festivities.