Sleigh Bell Dreams (Mistletoe Meadows Sweet Christmas #1)

Chapter 14

“That was delicious. Thank you so much everyone who brought something, and if you couldn’t, don’t feel bad. You can see there’s plenty left over,” Mrs. McBride said as she stood from the table. The kids had long since been excused, and they’d all had some fruit salad and chocolate cake for dessert. There were several steaming cups of coffee still sitting on the table, and everyone seemed reluctant to get up and leave. Perhaps it was because everyone felt like taking a nap, or maybe they were like Judd, who just enjoyed the camaraderie. He had been an only child, and his dinnertimes had been nothing like the McBrides’ table.

He had enjoyed every second, even though he was introverted and didn’t really enjoy interacting with people on a regular basis. Still, seeing the way everyone felt at ease with each other, obviously loving each other and wanting the best for them, while still not being afraid to tease and pick on each other, had been priceless.

“I can give you a hand cleaning up, Mom,” Terry said immediately as she stood.

It had made the dinner a little bit awkward since he’d been stuck beside Terry. Not exactly stuck, but...she always made him, not nervous, just aware. Very aware of her. Plus, add that to the fact that he admired her for wanting to return home to her hometown and giving up what probably could have been a very lucrative career in a bigger practice.

She seemed very content and happy to be home with her family, helping.

He hadn’t missed a grateful look that she’d shot him when he offered to have Lucas help him blow leaves.

Sometimes he didn’t understand why other people didn’t think of the things that he did. But he’d just started to understand that it was one of the things that he was good at. He didn’t have a big name anywhere and wasn’t super intelligent or talented about anything, except seeing people and their needs and knowing what needed to be done to meet those needs.

“Terry, would you mind taking Judd home with you? Jones and I were going to stay here for a bit and play with the kids.”

“Of course not,” Terry said, looking up, surprise flashing across her face before she smiled.

“Thanks. Judd, you don’t mind, do you?”

“I appreciate the ride, although she doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to.” He waited until Terry met his gaze. “Although we are going to the same place.”

“Of course. I don’t mind at all as long as you don’t mind waiting a little bit. I want to give my mom a hand cleaning up before I run out.”

“I can help too,” he said easily, starting to clear plates off the table. Lucas must have been watching him from across the room, because as soon as he saw Judd starting to clean off the table, he came over and started to give a hand as well.

“I can see you’re a worker,” Judd said, ruffling the boy’s hair, which made him beam.

“I like to work,” Lucas said, and Judd bit back a smile. He probably liked to work until he got tired of it, like every other kid on the planet, but he didn’t say anything. It took a lot of self-control and maturity before a person could push themselves to do things that they really didn’t want to do. Although, Lucas was at the age where he could start learning those things.

“If you’re sending leftovers, I’ll take a couple of pieces of chocolate cake, or the whole thing or whatever,” Roland said as he carried dishes to the island in the middle of the kitchen for them to be scooped into containers. They always sent the leftovers to whatever home they could.

“You’re welcome to take it all if you want to. I actually made two, because I figured I would want another one for the kids this week. I’ll be busy making pies and getting things ready for the Thanksgiving meal, and I won’t have a lot of time to make goodies.”

“All right. I’m not going to argue with that,” Roland said, dropping a kiss on his mom’s cheek and throwing up a hand that encompassed the rest of the room. “I need to get going. It’s good to see you all. See you on Thursday,”

It was interesting that Mrs. McBride had six kids, and only two of them were married. He supposed modern people were waiting to get married until they were older, and he couldn’t fault anyone for that since he had done the same thing.

“Did you give Roland all the cake again?” Wilson asked as he came out from where he had been playing with the children in the living room.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you wanted some,” Mrs. McBride said, stopping and looking at her son like she had forgotten he existed. She probably had a lot on her mind.

“I can’t believe it. Betrayed by my own mother.”

“If you run, you could probably catch him,” Terry said. “Although, you might have to wrestle him in order to get him to share the cake. He was pretty quick to grab it and take off.”

“I’ll catch him,” Wilson said as he hurried out the door.

Judd somehow found himself standing at the sink, rinsing dishes off and stacking them in the dishwasher. He listened to the chatter that was going on behind him between Terry and her mom and Marissa, Gilbert’s middle child, and the one who seemed to be the most lost. The boys were acting like boys, while Marissa was quiet and subdued, maybe missing their mom.

Regardless, she’d come out and sat down at the counter, eating a cookie even though they just had a meal, with the dog who had been playing with the kids coming out and lying at her feet. Judd didn’t understand how she could eat another thing, except maybe she hadn’t eaten as much as he had. He hadn’t noticed. He felt like someone should be watching her specially, but the ladies probably had it covered.

As he finished rinsing the dishes and put the last one in the dishwasher, Terry came over to the sink, shaking the rag out and rinsing it, the way she had when they had cooked dinner the night before.

He looked over at her. Maybe she was having the same memories, because their eyes met and it was like something passed between them.

“I appreciate you two sticking around and helping me with the cleanup,” Mrs. McBride said, and he jerked his gaze away from Terry’s. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on there, but he just wanted to keep looking at her.

“No problem, ma’am,” he said.

“Any time, Mom. I feel like I have a lot of making up to do for the times I wasn’t here.”

“Don’t worry about it. Sally was always a lot of help, and I know Gilbert is preoccupied, or Amy would be out here helping us rather than playing with the kids.”

“I think we’re going to head out,” Terry said, looking at Judd with questions in her eyes.

He nodded. It was her family; he didn’t need to stay any longer.

“I think I’m going to get going too,” Gilbert said, coming into the kitchen with a bag thrown over his shoulder. “I’m not sure how soon I’ll be home,” he said, sighing. “I hate to throw all of this on you, Mom.”

“Don’t you worry about a thing. I’ve raised kids before, and I certainly know what to do with them. Three is easy. It’s when you have six that it gets hard.”

They all chuckled a little, but having Gilbert in the room felt like getting splashed in the face with cold water. And he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

“Thanks, Mom,” Terry said, hugging her mom and following Judd out the door.

It had barely closed behind them when she sighed and said, “I wish there was more that we can do for Gilbert, but I really, really appreciate what you did with Lucas. You made his day, and I thought Gilbert was going to cry right there at the table.”

He figured being away from her family had been hard, and coming back, seeing all the problems, that life wasn’t just peachy, had made it even worse for her. Like she’d missed out, and maybe she could have helped more, maybe in Gilbert’s situation, and seeing that her mom had a heavy burden. And then those children. How could her heart not bleed for the children?

“I’m happy to do it. The leaves need to be blown anyway. I noticed that as I was walking in, and I kinda figured I would offer to do it, but with Lucas wanting to help so much, it was perfect.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how much help he’ll be, but I know he’ll appreciate the attention.”

“I’ll try to make sure he enjoys it. Work doesn’t have to be drudgery all the time.”

“Sometimes you just have to suck it up and do it, but sometimes if you have the right attitude, it makes everything a lot easier.”

He looked at her, agreeing. But surprised. Most people thought of their job as something that they had to get through in order to be able to play on the weekends or in the evening or whatever, but he’d always figured that it was a smarter idea to just enjoy what he did, since he spent so much time on it.

It almost sounded like Terry had the exact same idea, and he wanted to talk to her about it, but he figured that he better hold his peace. He’d already met her eyes several times, and each time, he felt that tug inside and had trouble pulling his eyes away. He didn’t want her to notice.

They walked to her car, and he debated with himself for about three seconds before he walked to the driver side and opened the door for her.

She seemed extremely surprised. “Thank you. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“I’m sorry. I debated about whether or not to do it, but it just seemed like the right thing to do.” He wasn’t sure that he would have opened it for anyone else, and he hadn’t opened it for Amy when she offered to give him a ride home from the animal sanctuary where they’d dropped off the horses. Of course, Jones was talking to her, and he couldn’t even remember where she was when he got in the car. But he couldn’t forget where Terry was, which was new. He didn’t typically have that kind of bead on people, a woman, especially. He didn’t like it but didn’t know how to get himself to stop.

They didn’t talk much on the way home. Maybe Terry felt the same way he did—like he needed a nap. Whatever it was, she parked, and they got out, walking silently up the sidewalk of the duplex to the front door.

“What are your plans for this afternoon?” Terry asked, almost as though she belatedly realized that maybe she should have been making conversation.

“Probably take a nap,” he said. Although it was what he wanted to do, it wasn’t what he was most likely going to do. “You?”

“I thought the same. Although, I also thought I might take a walk to the clinic. I am eager for tomorrow, but also nervous.”

“I don’t know why you’re nervous. Dr. Vivik had a fabulous practice, and the people in town love you. You’re going to be great.”

He didn’t know why he felt like he needed to encourage her, but he did.

“Thanks,” she said as he opened the door for her and she walked in. She started toward the stairs, while he stood at the bottom. Wanting to wait until she got upstairs before he started what he was planning on doing.

She realized he wasn’t following her and turned. “I guess I’ll see you later, maybe.”

“Yeah. Have a nice nap,” he said, unsure if that was what she was going to do. He turned, walking into his living room.

It was sparse, with just a recliner which he loved and a sofa which he slept on at times. It was comfortable, well-worn and serviceable, but not aesthetically pleasing. He hadn’t picked out any of the things in his house for their looks. That was...the job of the wife, he supposed, although he hadn’t thought a lot about having one.

He pulled out his phone, sat down on his recliner, and dialed his parents’ number for his weekly requisite call to them.

“Hello.” It was his dad who answered. He’d called his mom.

“Hey, Dad. How are you?”

“Doing good. Business is up, stocks are up, and the NASDAQ is soaring. I couldn’t ask for better times, unless I had a son who was interested in taking over the reins of the business.”

“Sounds good. I’m glad everything’s going so well for you.” He never knew what to say to his dad. He was a businessman and had wanted Judd to follow in his footsteps. Judd hadn’t been the slightest bit interested, although when his great-uncle had died and left his fortune to Judd, Judd had tried to invest it wisely and had made some good decisions with his dad’s help. He didn’t hate his dad. They just didn’t always see things eye to eye, which he figured was probably common. It made him sad, because he would like to have had a better relationship with him, but they just didn’t.

“Your mom’s here. Want to talk to her?”

“Sure,” he said. Knowing that he didn’t have a whole lot more to say to his mom. She lived in the high-society life, which she loved. Although, she also loved spending time on the farm that was about halfway up Mistletoe Mountain. They raised high-dollar horses, and occasionally she rescued some, although she didn’t take care of them herself. They hired people to do that, of course.

He’d grown up there, running wild through the fields, playing in the creek, and back when his dad had run a few beef cattle, he had helped with that and the horses.

The beef cattle were long gone, and the horses almost exclusively taken care of by hired help now.

“Hello, Judson,” his mom said, and he smiled, because she always used his full name. Most people didn’t even know he had a name other than Judd. Leave it to his mom to always remember. Of course, she named him, and she must be partial to it.

“Hey, Mom. What’s up?”

“Well, I have a son who hasn’t been home in more than a month. And I don’t know whether he’s coming home for Thanksgiving or not. I don’t know how I would find out about that.”

He wanted to say, “maybe you could call him and ask,” but he didn’t. If he wanted to talk to his parents, he called them.

“Where are you having Thanksgiving?” he asked, wishing that he would be able to make it to the McBride Thanksgiving, although while he believed that they didn’t mind him going, it was a family holiday, and he wasn’t family.

“We’re going to have it on the farm. I will have a few extra people there. The state transportation secretary and a close friend of his and their wives will be with us. It will be formal, so be sure to wear a tie.”

“Got it,” he said, groaning in his soul. He had one suit and tie that he kept for that very reason—any time he was called to go to dinner at his parents’ house.

It was the only time he wore it. He didn’t even wear it to church. He hadn’t even worn it to the last funeral that he’d gone to. And he’d noticed that he wasn’t the only one who didn’t wear them.

Some of the older folk had them on, but the trend was toward a more casual way of dressing. He welcomed that trend.

“Is there anything I can bring?” he asked, which he did every time, and of course his mother would decline.

“No, Patty has it all under control. If she needs anything, she goes to the grocery store and gets it. Although, for goodness’ sake, I don’t want her buying any more of those cheap olives. They were so disgusting last time.”

Judd remembered his mom complaining about the olives, but he hadn’t noticed a difference in taste himself. Most likely, she hadn’t either but had seen an off-brand jar in her kitchen, which was guaranteed to set her off.

“I can bring some fancy olives if you want me to,” he offered, knowing she would decline.

“Judd, just get yourself a wife or, at the very least, a girlfriend. You are interested in girls, correct?”

He closed his eyes. This was a conversation that they had a good bit. He had never brought a girl home, and it bothered his mother to no end. He just hadn’t met anyone who he was interested in. He had a tendency to see the world through the lens of people he could help and not people he could hook up with.

Terry’s face came into his mind, and he bit back a sigh. She was someone he could see himself taking to his parents’ house, although she would hate it. But he could see himself with her. Not hooking up, unless the hookup lasted a lifetime. That was the only kind he was interested in.

He never knew how to answer his mom, though. So he just stayed silent.

“Sometimes you scare me, Judd,” his mother said. Then she sighed again. “If you bring a man home, at least don’t make it one of those scruffy, feminist, you can’t tell whether it’s a boy or girl kind of thing,” his mother said, and he could just see her putting her hand on her forehead and acting put out.

“You don’t need to worry about that, Mom,” he said. They didn’t know him at all if they thought he would do that, and that was kind of the story between him and his parents. They didn’t know him at all.

He could lay the blame at their feet, but it was his fault as well. He just wasn’t interested in their lifestyle. Not even a little. But this phone call was his attempt to be a dutiful son. If he didn’t make it, he would go months without hearing from them. Once, he hadn’t heard from them for an entire year, until the next holiday season had rolled around and his mother had called angrily demanding why he hadn’t gone to Thanksgiving dinner.

He hadn’t gone because he hadn’t been invited.

And she informed him that he hadn’t been invited because he hadn’t called her for her to be able to invite him. It was like she didn’t know how to use her telephone.

“You know, I’m not getting any younger, and you could make me very happy. I don’t know why you refuse to do that. It’s like making me happy hurts you in some kind of weird way,” his mother said in the tone that made him feel like he was about half an inch tall.

“Someday, Mom.”

“Have you done anything constructive with your life?”

He knew that by constructive she meant had he gone to college yet. That was the only thing that she deemed constructive. And the fact that he hadn’t gone irritated her to no end. He had no desire to go, no need. He didn’t want to have a job that needed a college education, and he wasn’t going to waste his money just so he could get a diploma and say he went. That was ridiculous.

Plus, he had things that were going on here, and he wasn’t going to leave them.

“Well, it’s been nice talking to you. I’ll talk to you again next Sunday,” he said, feeling a sinking feeling in his soul, a bit of emptiness there that he knew could be better, but he didn’t know how. When one’s parents didn’t really seem to like one, there just wasn’t anything a person could do about it.

Lord, I’ve always tried to show them You, but they never seem to see it.

He always thought about that verse, it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven. He could kind of understand it. His parents didn’t need or want for anything, they had no need for God, and they didn’t understand why he did.

Maybe that was why he had eschewed the wealth and had chosen a simple lifestyle, one that was humble and sought to serve others. He just wanted to live what he read in the Bible.

That was all.

They hung up, and he sat there for a little bit, holding his phone in his hand and wondering if, by some miracle, he ever did get married, whether he would know how to actually raise a good family or not. He had no experience in that. Other than what he’d seen in other people’s families, like the McBrides today.

He waited until he thought that Terry was probably asleep. Then, he shoved his phone in his pocket, grabbed his coat from where he had laid it on the chair, shoved his hands in, and quietly walked out of the living room and out of his house. He had a squirrel to catch.