Sleigh Bell Dreams (Mistletoe Meadows Sweet Christmas #1)

Chapter 13

Terry had made a fruit salad to take to her mom’s. And she stopped by the duplex on the way there. Not being in a rush because she knew that Amy, at least, would be late since she was riding with Judd to take the kids home.

Still, she didn’t mess around because she was eager to talk to her mom. That was one of the things she missed the most about being gone for the last dozen years or so, being able to just sit down and have a chat with her mother. Her mom had so much wisdom and always had such great ideas, saw things in a way that Terry often didn’t, probably because of her experience in the world, and Terry loved chatting with her.

As she drove to her mom’s house though, she thought that perhaps God had brought her back not just so that she could partake of her mom’s wisdom again, but perhaps because her mom needed her.

She thought that again as she walked in and saw the kids playing and running around, with Gilbert in the kitchen giving their mom a hand.

It would have been a good scene, except for the knowledge that their wife and mother was in a hospital in Richmond, and Gilbert would be leaving almost as soon as dinner was over to go back to her.

That they were struggling with the idea of whether or not they should tell the children that they had almost given up hope. That their mom might never come home again.

All of those were sobering thoughts and especially hard with Thanksgiving less than a week away.

Maybe she picked a bad time to open her clinic, she thought, not for the first time. But it was the best that she could do, and she would roll with what she had. That was kind of what life was. Taking what you’d been given and making the most out of it.

“Hey! It’s so nice to see you. You don’t know how we’ve missed your presence at our Sunday dinners,” her mom said, drying her hands on her apron as she came to wrap Terry in a hug.

Their dad had died of a stroke, and it had left their mom devastated. She wasn’t sure that their love affair had been huge, but they’d been good friends. And while her dad was imperfect, she knew she had lucked out in the parental department.

It made her wonder what kind of parents Judd had.

She shook her head. Where had that thought come from?

“Same, Mom. You don’t know how happy I am to be back. I’m so glad you’re still doing these. I feel like I missed out on so much family stuff by not being able to come for so many years.”

“And you have, but now you’re here, and you won’t be missing out anymore.”

“Well, we can start out with me pulling my weight. Give me a job,” she said as the door opened and Wilson came in. He must have stopped at his house to change as well. Figuring on the same thing that Amy wasn’t going to be there for a while and they all knew that they wouldn’t start eating until everyone was there.

Roland was a little later. He was probably the sibling that Terry knew the least well. He was the youngest, and there were eight years between them. She had graduated from high school and left while he had still been in elementary school.

She felt like she’d missed so much with her siblings, and while she didn’t regret her career path, she wished there had been a way for her to have known her siblings and have somehow been able to stay.

Like they were an old-fashioned family where everyone just stayed and worked on the farm, and no one went away.

She didn’t really want that, or at least she didn’t think so, although she thought that it might be a little bit better way of life.

Her mom gave her a job setting the food on the table, since Amy had texted and said that she was on her way.

Terry had just finished getting everything ready and calling the kids to wash their hands when Amy and Jones walked in.

Terry smiled and threw up a hand since she was on the opposite end of the table, and the kids were running toward Amy to greet her, when she froze.

Judd walked in behind them.

Oh. Wow. So Amy had invited him to Sunday dinner? That was huge. There must be something really serious going on in their relationship. Maybe they were together and Terry hadn’t even known it.

She couldn’t wait to get Amy alone and ask her. She definitely had not seen this coming. Or she would have completely ignored that little buzz of attraction she felt every time she was around Judd. She probably wouldn’t have had dinner with him last night, and she was grateful that she had turned down his invitation to sit by the fire, as tempting as it was. It wasn’t that she had so much work to do necessarily, although she did, she just didn’t want to spend too much time with him, and she thought she should listen to her instincts.

The entire family had greeted Amy and Jones, and Terry walked over to give her a hug.

Judd was still standing beside Jones and her, although Wilson had come over and shook his hand and they chatted about a few different things.

“Look what I found on the street corner, thinking he was going to eat Sunday dinner by himself?” Amy said as she pointed toward Judd.

“Stop it. You know I found him. You can’t take credit for everything,” Jones said as he slapped Amy’s hand down and stepped in front of her. “I’m the one who invited him to Sunday dinner.”

“This isn’t even your family,” Amy said, wrinkling up her nose.

Jones did not always act like a veterinarian, but when he and Amy were together, it was impossible to tell what in the world they were going to do. It had been that way forever. Terry smiled and rolled her eyes, and gave Jones a hug. He was like family to them. In fact, it wasn’t the slightest bit surprising that he was at Sunday dinner. But Judd? That was a shock.

By the time everyone had their hands washed and they settled down, and Gilbert said grace, Terry would have thought she would have gotten herself calmed down. Except, somehow she ended up seated beside Judd.

She wasn’t entirely sure how that happened, since she had been helping one of the kids and then went to turn to sit in the chair that she had chosen for herself, when she realized it was already full. So she had walked around until she came to an empty chair, and it happened to be beside Judd who just happened to have put his hand on the back of the chair beside it just as she reached for her chair.

She didn’t think either one of them planned it; she knew that she didn’t.

But everything was so crazy, which it often was on Sundays, that no one really had an assigned seat.

Still, she kept her hands clasped tightly in her lap as her brother prayed and tried to focus on saying her own prayer for Sally.

And ignore the man beside her.

What was he doing here?

Somehow he ended up beside her in church, and now he was beside her at Sunday dinner, and Amy seemed to be the one he was after, yet...he kept ending up with her.

After Gilbert said amen, there was some chatter around the table as they passed all the dishes. Her mother had made fried chicken, and there was mashed potatoes and gravy as well as a few different vegetables and of course her fruit salad and coleslaw.

It was a hodgepodge of things, but it made a great meal. She hadn’t planned with anyone, because fruit salad went with pretty much anything, but perhaps her mom had coordinated with Amy who had brought the mashed potatoes in a crockpot.

“Who do you think put the decorations up?” her mom asked, once they had settled down and everyone had started eating.

“That’s a great question,” Roland said. “I’ve heard that some people are going to be setting up some video cameras, trying to catch the person who did it.”

“Can I stay up late and see if I can catch them?” Lucas asked eagerly. He was right at the age, twelve, where this type of thing truly appealed to him. Of course, Terry wasn’t sure what age they outgrew that.

She certainly hadn’t, and she was tempted to call out right away and volunteer to go with him, but Gilbert said, “No. Sorry, son. You’re not going out that late on a school night.”

“But this is Thanksgiving week! I’ll have Thursday and Friday off!”

“If the rest of the decorations are not up by then, we’ll think about it. But it’s a definite no on a school night.”

Terry felt bad for Gilbert. It was the kind of thing where Gilbert might have said to his son, “Sure, let’s do it together.” She could totally see that. But not with his wife in the hospital. Not with him spending every waking second trying to be a dad and a husband and still try to keep his equipment rental business going. He had employees who worked the office, but he was usually the face and salesman.

In fact, thinking about that, Terry wondered how it was going. He’d been so preoccupied with his wife, she wondered if he’d even had time to take care of it.

The thought tugged at her heart and also scared her. Maybe that was why Gilbert had moved in with their mom. Because his business wasn’t making any money, and his wife needed him.

Regardless, it stunk to see Lucas’s downturned face.

“Well, I for one am just going to let them be. Whoever it is obviously doesn’t want a bunch of attention drawn to them, and I’m going to respect that,” Wilson said, although he added with a cheeky grin, “However, if I get up in the middle of the night and feel like taking a drive, and happen to drive down Main Street, well, so be it.”

Everyone around the table laughed.

“It’s actually my job to chronicle that now,” Terry offered, knowing that it was probably going to elicit groans.

She was not wrong. The entire table erupted, even the children getting into it, although she didn’t think they knew what for.

“Mrs. Tucker caught you! I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to run interference.”

“You can’t protect me from everything,” Terry said, smiling at Amy and appreciating the thought. The idea that she would make sure that her big sister was protected, when it used to be the other way around.

But that just seemed to be Amy, always trying to take care of things.

“Yes. But yes, Mrs. Tucker caught me. And now I have all the information to make social media posts for the town.”

“That’s cool. So how much are you going to sell it to me for?” Roland asked with a gleam in his eye.

“I don’t trust that look. I think it’s probably more than you can afford.”

Roland grinned, like he knew that he probably couldn’t afford whatever she was going to ask.

It felt so good to be back with the family.

“Did you hear that Mrs. Rosario has a squirrel in her house?” her mom asked, after the table fell silent.

“What? A squirrel?” Gilbert said, his head popping up. It was probably nice to try to get his mind off thinking about his wife, with something as benign and crazy as that.

“Yeah. Apparently she’s not sure how it got in, but she’s tried to leave the door open and chase it out, and it just runs right by the open door. Doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

“She should leave a trail of nuts for it,” Roland said.

“She’s done that too. Apparently, it would rather eat the granola on her kitchen counter than the nuts she leaves as a trail to go out the door.”

“You better watch that she doesn’t accidentally allow a bunch of other things in that she doesn’t want while she’s trying to get the squirrel out,” Amy said, and Terry had to agree.

“I think she even has a trap for it,” their mom said, hurrying to add, “The kind that doesn’t kill them, but just traps them inside? Like you might catch a feral cat to take it to the vet to get it fixed and shots.”

“I’ve seen those kinds of traps lots of times. In fact, if she needs any, I have a few in the storage shed outside my practice,” Jones offered, sounding much more like a veterinarian there than he had when he was talking with Amy.

She thought that they had been slapping each other under the table earlier, but she couldn’t be sure. Probably because Amy thought that Jones was like one centimeter on her side or something.

Terry didn’t roll her eyes, but she felt like it.

“What is she going to do?” Terry asked, glad that it wasn’t her, although her landlord should take care of those kinds of things for her. Her landlord, who had been conspicuously quiet during the entire meal so far.

She tried to glance over at him, but she was afraid that he would see her looking at him and glance over at her, and then she’d be caught awkwardly looking at him for no reason. So she just kept her eyes on her plate after she asked her question.

“She’s not sure. She doesn’t want to call an exterminator, because she’s afraid that they’ll kill the squirrel. Plus, she doesn’t have a whole lot of money.”

Their mom’s voice dropped on that last note, and the table was quiet for just a moment. Mrs. Rosario was well loved in the community, and she’d been a teacher for a number of years. She had a good pension and Social Security, but a lot of that was going to help keep her husband in a memory care facility. He’d had Alzheimer’s for years, and she had no longer been able to care for him. She visited him on a daily basis, most of the time going and staying all day.

“This gives her something to do. Something to take her mind off everything else that’s going on,” Gilbert said.

Terry figured she knew where that came from, and she couldn’t disagree.

“I can go help with the squirrel!” Lucas said, and Terry couldn’t help but think how sweet and adorable he was. He was probably just dying for something to do, for someone to spend time with him.

“I heard some people at church giving her some advice, and maybe she’ll get it taken care of. It can’t stay in her house forever.”

“Well, it’s getting food, and I assume it can probably drink out of the toilet. Do squirrels drink?” Roland asked the table at large, but no one knew the answer to that.

“Aren’t you the animal expert?” Roland asked, looking at Jones.

“Well, I do small animals and occasionally large animals, but I have to admit, I’ve never had a squirrel. And I don’t think I had a single class about squirrels in my entire academic career. So, yes, but no,” he said. “But,” he elbowed Amy, “Amy takes all kinds, so maybe you should ask her, since she seems to be the local animal expert far above and beyond me.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “Stop it, already. You’re the one with doctor in front of your name.”

“You’re the one with the whole compound full of animals.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I didn’t say there was, unless you happen to be your best friend, who gets roped into helping you every time you need help with them.”

Jones didn’t add “and you can’t afford to pay them,” but Terry kind of did that in her head. She wanted to talk to her about it more but hadn’t had a chance. The Sunday dinner table hardly seemed like the place.

“Regardless, I’ve heard that squirrels, while not aggressive, can really give a terrible bite.”

“I’ve heard that too,” Terry said.

“I treated a dog that was attacked by a rabid squirrel once, and it looked worse than a lot of those I’ve seen that have been in a dogfight,” Jones volunteered.

They talked about it for a bit more, and then their mom said, “Are we going to eat here for Thanksgiving? I guess I should have planned things earlier, but everything has been a little unstable, with Gilbert moving in and Terry moving back and all of the crazy things that have been happening.”

It was probably about having a whole bunch of people in her house, and trying to figure out what to do for Gilbert and his wife, and that type of thing.

“I’m happy to cook or help whoever else is doing it. I can be here all day. The clinic was already planning on being closed on Thursday, although we open back up on Friday.” Terry spoke up, eager to jump into the holiday preparations.

“After I’m done with the animals in the morning, I can come give you a hand as well.”

“We don’t have school, and I can help!” Lucas said.

Gilbert was conspicuously silent, and Terry figured that meant that he had no idea what he’d be doing on Thursday. Or what his wife would be like.

“I have some leaf blowing to do in the morning, and... I was looking for some help with that,” Judd began.

“I can! I can help. I’m good at that. I helped Dad do it last year, although we haven’t done it this year yet,” Lucas said, his voice trailing off a bit.

“Wow, would you really help? I was hoping for someone with your kind of enthusiasm and experience,” Judd said, and Terry wanted to reach over and hug him. It was so obvious that Lucas was dying for attention, and scared, and wanted to do something, have a job, a purpose. And she just wanted to hug him too. But Judd had seen that and thought of something that he could do to help.

“Actually, maybe we could even blow the leaves around your grandma’s house, just for practice, before we go to the job that I have to do.”

“You think so?” Lucas asked, looking first at Judd and then at his gram. “Could I?”

“Well, if your dad says it’s okay, and Judd’s sure he wants you, I’d love to have my leaves blown. I just haven’t gotten around to that this year yet.”

He looked at his dad, who didn’t say anything. Terry thought that she would probably be a terrible mother, because all he had to do was look at her with those big eyes and she would have let him do anything.

Gilbert finally nodded. And he gave a grateful look at Judd before he looked again at his son. “But I want to hear that you’re good help and not that you were messing around, okay?”

“I’m a good worker, Dad. And I’ll do a really great job.”

“I might be able to pay you a little bit of something, but we’ll have to see how the job goes, okay?” Judd said, and Terry wanted to slip him money under the table immediately. He just did odd jobs around the town and didn’t earn much at all, and yet there he was, offering to pay her nephew and making his eyes light up so bright. What a kind thing to do for a kid who was losing his mom and maybe didn’t even understand what was happening. Although, at Lucas’s age, he probably did. Maybe he just didn’t want to face it.

But the tone of the table had changed somewhat, and Terry was pretty sure her entire family appreciated what Judd had just done. Gilbert most of all. In fact, if she didn’t know him better, she’d almost say that Gilbert was tearing up.

He must feel pulled in so many different directions, like he couldn’t be a good husband if he wasn’t with his wife, but he couldn’t be a good father if he wasn’t with his kids, and then he had to try to make a living and support everyone because that was his job as a Christian dad, to provide, and...she’d always seen it from the other end. From the person in the hospital, treating them, in residency, where she’d look at them, and she hadn’t realized all the things that had been going on behind the scenes. Because while not everyone had children, things were always complicated by medical conditions.

She tucked that thought away, hoping to be more compassionate to the patients she served in this town. She didn’t intend to have anything to do with hospitals, but everyone had trials that they were facing, and kindness and empathy, and giving a helping hand like Judd had just showed, went a long way.

“While I’m thinking about it, Judd,” her mother started. “You were included in that invitation to Thanksgiving, although we didn’t say specifically.”

“With the McBrides, you just got to show up, and they feed you. You don’t even have to really know them,” Jones said, and everyone around the table laughed, because Jones had been doing that for years. Although of course, Amy was his best friend, and he was almost a part of the family.

Terry looked at them elbowing each other, like kids or...like people who liked each other for more than friends.

The idea was new, since she hadn’t really thought about it, but maybe as she came back, looking at everything with new eyes, she was seeing something that she hadn’t seen before. Her sister, and the idea that she and Jones might be perfect for each other.

In fact, as she was watching, Jones gave Amy a look when she wasn’t looking that made Terry think that she was exactly right, even if the two of them didn’t know it.

“Well, thanks, but I’ll probably be with my parents,” Judd said.

“We usually have our meal early, so if you’re able, you’re welcome.”

“We’ll see. Usually they have theirs later, so maybe. Thanks so much, I appreciate it.”

Terry looked at Judd fully for the first time since they’d sat down. She found him already staring at her.

She wasn’t quite sure what was in his gaze, but she gave him a smile, mostly because she appreciated what he was doing with Lucas, but also just because she wanted to, and she couldn’t quite understand why.

The thought of Amy came into her head, and she looked away quickly. Not wanting to get between the two of them. Just in case she was wrong about Jones and Amy, which she very well could be. She was hardly a romantic.