Sleigh Bell Dreams (Mistletoe Meadows Sweet Christmas #1)

Chapter 21

Judd stared at his phone. He’d taken to following the posts on the Mistletoe Meadows social media site, just because he knew Terry wrote them. Sometimes they were funny, sometimes they confirmed what he already knew, and sometimes she got the details a little bit wrong. Considering that she was mostly depending on secondhand sources, that didn’t surprise him a whole lot.

To his surprise, sometimes the things that he had done were exaggerated. Although, most often the numbers were too low. Which was just fine by him. But they made it more difficult for him to do the things that he wanted to do, since she had pretty much put a bull’s-eye on his back. He had almost gotten busted the previous night. Or early morning, more accurately. He had seen the person in the bushes just in the nick of time. And he had to admit that the spin that Terry had put on it was hilarious.

Regardless, he had hidden in the woods and waited for more than thirty minutes before he’d come in. And he’d passed Terry on the way.

She had been heading out to work early, probably because of a call, although he hadn’t been there, and she didn’t say. Just nodded at him, said good morning, and walked out.

Sometime during the day, she heard the story, and as he checked the timer on the oven and glanced at his phone again, he wondered if she had put two and two together and gotten the correct answer.

He kind of felt like she probably had.

That was why he made her favorite, the poppy seed chicken that he’d made ten days ago. He’d also made it for their family’s Thanksgiving. Tonight, he was hoping that it might take her mind off the idea that if she looked at the facts closely, the Secret Saint could possibly be him.

If she asked him point blank, he wasn’t sure what he was going to say.

It was 6:02. She was hardly ever later than that and often a lot earlier. He knew she hoped to have their office hours changed by March of the next year, and while he had never eaten supper as late as eight o’clock, he figured that he could get used to it, because he had definitely gotten used to having Terry around.

She hadn’t mentioned looking for another place to live, and he hadn’t mentioned it either. He didn’t want to ask, because he didn’t want her to think that he was trying to push her out.

But secretly, he was hoping that she was going to stay.

He heard the familiar rattle of the door and turned the oven off, opening the door and pulling the casserole dish out of the oven.

“Hey there,” he called, when she didn’t say anything.

“Hey,” she said, sounding subdued. Or maybe just preoccupied.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, figuring that he would try to play it cool.

“Yeah. Everything is just great. It’s time for your stitches to come out.” She walked into the kitchen, having already hung up her coat, and set a few things that she had in her hand down on the table.

“I forgot about them.”

“I know. I wasn’t expecting you to remember, but you never did stop into the clinic for your shot, so I took the liberty of bringing home a tetanus shot as well. If you have a thing about vaccinations, it’s fine, just let me know. But I highly recommend one.”

“I’ll take any vaccination that you highly recommend, but I would prefer not to have any more than I have to have.”

“That’s probably a wise decision. This will keep you from dying. Tetanus can be fatal, so this is probably a good decision. Something that has less of a chance of having complications could be more of a discussion.”

“Thanks for understanding,” he said, not expecting her to have that view. “Didn’t med school brainwash you?”

She laughed. “They probably did about a bunch of things, but I guess I just believe in free choice more than I believe in forcing things on people that they don’t really want or understand. Mainly I believe in education, but I still believe in allowing people to choose for themselves. After all, God allows us to choose. He even allows us to choose whether or not we follow Him. Who am I to demand you have a vaccination?”

“I can see how it might help hospitals and other providers to be able to put resources where they’re needed and not throw them at something that is an unnecessary waste.”

“That’s a good point. And I agree with it. Like I said, there’s two sides, and I don’t know that either one is absolutely correct.”

“We don’t have to solve that problem tonight.”

“That’s right. I’ll give you this shot and get your stitches out, and I’ll have accomplished my purpose for the evening.”

“I was hoping you might want to sit by the fire some tonight,” he said, turning back to face the stove, although there was nothing more for him to do there, so his hands felt a little extraneous as he struggled to find something to do with them.

He held his breath.

“I’d love that.”

He smiled, sighed, and then said something he thought would be easier. “If you’d like, we can do it on your side, since my side’s a little messy right now.”

“Okay. Sure.”

“When we’re done, I’ll put the fire out and leave the logs in such a way that it will be easy for you to make a fire if you so choose without me.”

“I probably won’t do it without you, but I was thinking about putting up a Christmas tree.”

“You were?” He hadn’t even thought about that. He’d bought Christmas trees at the local tree farm, just to give them business and to brighten a few families’ days. He had known that there were some people who weren’t buying one because they couldn’t afford it, or because they couldn’t put it up themselves. Wilson had been taking care of that, hiring some teenagers to volunteer to help put up the trees that had appeared and paying them for their time.

He could have gotten a tree for Terry if he had known. Goodness, he could even have put it up for her.

“I know you don’t get out and around very much during the week, so if you’d like for me to grab a tree and bring it here for you so that you can put it up this weekend, I’d be happy to.”

“Do you have a tree?” she asked.

“No. With it just being just me, it seems silly to put a tree up.” He paused. “But I’d be happy to help you decorate yours.”

He couldn’t really put a tree up in his living room because he had all the things that he was using to deliver the Secret Saint gifts spread out on the floor. Wrapping paper, tape and scissors, and various gifts that he had gotten but hadn’t gotten delivered yet and other things like that. He also had his notebook in there where he kept his ideas, the things he’d overheard, and a list of people that he wanted to try to figure out how he could help them.

Sometimes that was the hardest thing; knowing that someone needed help and knowing what to do to help them were often two very different things.

Regardless, if she had insisted that they go to his living room, he could have cleaned everything up, but he usually just let everything lay around because the only thing he did in there currently was work on his Secret Saint stuff. So there was no point in gathering it all up and putting it away only to get it back out again when he needed it.

“I like that,” she said, and it took another moment to remember that she was talking about the Christmas tree.

“There was a big pause there. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He wanted her to want to be with him. Not to be with him because she didn’t have a choice.

“Oh, I want to, I just wondered why you didn’t have a tree, and it sounds like you’re not planning on getting one either.”

“I guess I like Christmas, but I like to sit and contemplate what it means. I don’t really care for all the trappings that surround it all the time.”

“You’re a grinch!” she said, smiling, but there was something else in her eyes. Something a little calculating, and he remembered that she had seen him in the hallway. Had known that something had been happening overnight, and the description sounded an awful lot like him.

She set the table while they had been talking, and he put the poppy seed casserole down. She got the glasses, and he put a couple of ice cubes in each one while she filled them up with water.

“Poppy seed casserole again. I guess you must know that’s my favorite.”

“I knew you liked it, and I don’t want you to get tired of it, but I really love it as well.”

There were other things he liked better, but it was fun to eat something that the person sitting across from him enjoyed, watching how much she appreciated it and thinking about how nice it felt to do something kind for her after her hard day of work.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll give you the tetanus shot before we eat. Not to ruin your appetite or anything, just because it’s supposed to be refrigerated.”

“That’s fine.” He didn’t care when she gave it to him. As long as he didn’t have to see blood. Which, he wasn’t even going to say, because he figured she at least knew how to give a shot, although come to think of it, that was typically the nurse’s job.

“Would you mind taking your sweatshirt off? I would prefer to give it in your upper arm if possible.”

“Oh yeah. Of course.”

He pulled his shirt off and held his arm out, not the one with the bandage. It was kind of hidden underneath his sweatshirt. It probably had healed slower because he had popped some of his stitches, which she had generously re-stitched.

But she was right that the stitches were ready to come out.

Turning his head to see what she was doing, he saw that she was staring at his arm.

As he turned his head, she lifted her eyes, and he couldn’t read what was in them, but she seemed almost...a little dazed. A little...was that attraction?

Whatever it was, it made his mouth go dry as he stared at her, not even knowing what he was waiting for, waiting for something.

He didn’t know how many seconds passed, it felt like an eternity, and he was just about ready to lift his hand and smooth it over her hair, or preferably wrap it around her shoulders and bring her closer, but she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, I got sidetracked there for a second. Here, give me your arm.” Her voice sounded a little shaky, but there was also some humor in it, like she was amused at herself for being so...what? He wasn’t sure. He definitely didn’t want to stop staring at her though.

She had given him the shot and said, “All right. That’s it,” and turned, before he moved again.

He watched her put the cap back on the needle and grab a bandage.

“I’ll just stick this over it, not because I expect it to bleed or anything, but just so you don’t get any bacteria in there while it’s clotting.”

“Alright,” he said, not having moved at all.

Her fingers were cool on his arm, and he found himself unable to swallow. She had her head bent and was watching what she was doing, but he noticed that she fumbled with the bandage, which seemed odd.

Were her hands trembling?

He was pretty sure if she lifted her hands up, he would find out they were.

What was going on?

If it were any other woman, he would have a pretty good idea of what was happening, but this was Dr. Terry McBride. And she couldn’t possibly be the slightest bit interested in a man like him. And he could not hope to catch the attention of a woman like her, so why would he even try? Except, it seemed very interesting how God had turned the events and how right it felt between the two of them. Was that because he wanted it? Or because God did?