Sleigh Bell Dreams (Mistletoe Meadows Sweet Christmas #1)

Chapter 1

“You’re welcome to stay with me,” Marjerie McBride said before a crash sounded in the background. “Hold on a second.”

Terry McBride smiled as her mom must have slid the phone away from her mouth because her voice came from a distance as she said, “Children, I’m on the phone! You need to be quiet! And no running in the house!” She sighed, and her voice came back on the line. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Mom. Things are crazy there right now. With Gilbert and Sally back, and Sally’s cancer, and you watching their kids for them while they go for treatments, it’s just too much.”

“You’re just as welcome here as they are. You’re just as much my child.”

“But I don’t have three kids, and I don’t have a wife with cancer. Gilbert needs you now,” she said. “You and Dad did so much for me while I was in med school, and then in residency, you guys were awesome. I don’t know anyone else who had parents who were as supportive and caring as you. You guys made sure I ate, for goodness’ sake. You brought homemade food to me. I can’t thank you enough.”

“Just because we did stuff for you then does not mean that we’re not ready to do stuff now.”

“I know. But right now, it’s Gilbert’s turn. I can find something.” Although she wasn’t sure whether that was true. Her hometown, Mistletoe Meadows, seemed to be in somewhat of a housing crisis. She hadn’t been able to find a single place for rent.

Maybe she just hadn’t been looking in the right places.

“I don’t know. I’ve heard that it’s kind of hard to find a house right now. Have you even looked?”

“I’ve looked a little bit.” She grimaced as she said that. That wasn’t entirely true. She’d looked an awful lot and hadn’t been able to find a thing, but she already decided that moving in with her mother was not going to happen.

“You need to start at the clinic on Monday. Didn’t you say you had appointments?”

“I do, but I’m sure I’ll find something.” She hadn’t wanted the clinic to stay closed too long. Dr. Vivik had closed it just a month before when he had retired unexpectedly due to his wife having cancer.

This was the opportunity of a lifetime for her. She’d always wanted to move back to her hometown, although she knew that it might not happen. Dr. Vivik was just in his early sixties, and she had at least another five years. Or so she thought.

But after his wife was diagnosed, her mom had gently suggested that perhaps he would like for Terry to come and take over, and Dr. Vivik had jumped at the chance.

She had had to give her current employer, a group of physicians she was with in Richmond, Virginia, notice, and she’d wanted to be fair. So she’d given them an entire month.

It had been a busy month as word of her departure got around and patients requested to see her one last time before she left.

She hadn’t made it to Mistletoe Meadows to do more than meet with Dr. Vivik several times to discuss how he ran his office, and they’d discussed the fact that she would keep the same employees, if they would stay. There was one nurse and one receptionist.

It was a small town and a small, close-knit community, and the type of doctor’s office that Dr. Vivik ran fit right in.

Terry intended it would be the same for her.

In fact, that’s what she had envisioned all those years ago when she started out in med school. She had dreamed of having a small family practice, where she knew everyone’s name and could take the time to see patients as she wanted.

She had no illusions though. She wouldn’t make the kind of money she was making now or could have made if she had gone into a more lucrative specialty.

But money wasn’t the reason she became a doctor. Although, she had years of med school bills to pay.

“Lucas. Do not hit your sister,” her mom called, not bothering to take the phone down from her mouth, which made Terry wince from the volume.

She kept the phone to her ear and threw more clothes in her suitcase. She didn’t have much in her apartment. She hadn’t taken the money to furnish it, since she had been paying down her med school bills as quickly as she could.

The little bit she had bought, she was going to leave. The new tenants could take it or leave it. She was not attached to any of it.

“Let me know how your search goes, okay?” her mom said, sounding harried.

“I will, and you let me know how things go with Sally?” She said a silent prayer for her sister-in-law like she did every time she thought about her.

It didn’t look good. She’d already gone through one round of chemo for breast cancer, but it had been in her lymph nodes when they caught it, and now, from what Terry understood, scans had shown it had gone to her bones.

In her experience, and from what she had learned in med school and residency, it was just a matter of time now.

But Sally was a fighter, and she had three children and a really great husband to live for. Terry knew that sometimes God’s plans were different than man’s plans, and no matter how hard a person fought, and how badly they wanted to stay here on earth, sometimes it was just time.

She swallowed, not liking to think about it and feeling worse than she could imagine for her brother Gilbert. How hard it must be to struggle to figure out what to say to your kids, and still support your wife, and try to earn a living. They’d sold their house and moved in with their mom, who had volunteered to watch the kids and who hadn’t minded having some extra bodies in the big old house, since her husband had recently passed.

Which was another thing Terry didn’t want to think about. Her dad had made it to her college graduation, but he hadn’t seen her become a doctor.

She knew he would have been proud of her, but...

“All right, Mom. I’ll not keep you anymore. I’ll see you tomorrow, probably late, or maybe the next day. Definitely in church on Sunday.”

It was Thursday. She had two days to find housing, Sunday to get prepared, and the doors to her clinic opened on Monday.

It was turnkey, and she was counting on everything running smoothly. Although, she was already expecting that some patients would want to know where Dr. Vivik was and would not like the switcheroo that had happened.

There wasn’t anything she could do about that, and she knew she could lose patients.

“Take care, honey,” her mom said, sounding tired.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetie.” Her mom paused. “And I’m really glad you’re coming home.”

They hung up shortly after, but Terry couldn’t deny the fact that her mom was thrilled to have all six of her children back home in Mistletoe Meadows.

Of course, the fact that she’d only been able to get two of them married, and of those two, one was losing his wife, which couldn’t sit very well. She wasn’t expecting to have kids who went through life single.

Of course, she probably wasn’t expecting to lose her husband so early either. They hadn’t gotten a chance to enjoy their empty nest. Not that it was empty anymore.

Terry put her hands on her hips and looked around her studio apartment. A small bed, a small kitchen, and a sofa. That was pretty much it, along with a closet and a bathroom.

She hadn’t needed much. Hadn’t wanted much. Knew this was just a short stop on the way to what she really wanted. She just hadn’t expected what she really wanted to come so soon.

Turning around, she took the entire apartment in. The best thing about it was the huge windows that looked out over the cornfields and the horse pasture that edged the town of Richmond. Farmland lay all around it, which was nice. It reminded her of home, although she missed the mountains.

She’d be happy to be back in the Blue Ridge. There was just something that felt protective and cozy about the mountains. Classmates had told her they felt claustrophobic in them, and she supposed if she’d been brought up on the Great Plains, she would have too. But to her, they meant home, and she was more than ready to be home. Especially since the holidays were just around the corner.