Sleigh Bell Dreams (Mistletoe Meadows Sweet Christmas #1)

Chapter 25

“Oh my goodness, I can’t believe this. There’s more?”

Charity Amime stood in front of her house, her hand at her throat, her hair a mess, her face looking haggard and wan, but her eyes shone.

Judd nodded. “I have several more loads. I want to get them in before the kids see them, unless you’re putting the gifts out before Christmas?”

“No. No, I’m not, but wow. When you said you wanted to bring some gifts over, I thought you meant like one for each child. Not five. With five kids, that’s...a lot!”

Judd nodded. “Now remember, you’re not allowed to tell anyone who brought them. I’m not going to come back in here and take them away, but you’re going to put me out of a job. Because the person who has me doing this doesn’t want anyone to know who I am, so there’s less chance that they can trace him through me.” That was the line he used with everyone that he absolutely had to talk to. And he hadn’t had a choice with Charity.

He had twenty-five gifts for her children, and she didn’t know it, but there were five gifts in there for her.

He hadn’t been able to just drop them off, because her children were young and home all the time. It was likely that they would see the gifts before their mom could do anything about it.

“I won’t tell a soul,” Charity promised, and he was pretty sure she meant it. “How? Who? What?” she asked, like she couldn’t figure out what question she wanted to start with. “Who told you about me?”

“The dude who is behind this has some pretty good contacts.” That was typically what Judd said. “The dude who is behind this.” It was him, but he wasn’t lying whenever he spoke for himself.

Wilson helped as well, but Judd contributed all the money. Wilson was better at getting contacts, although Judd had a thing going with the pastor’s wife, Bekah, and the owner of the coffee shop in town, Vivi. They were both in a position to give him all the information that he needed, and if they weren’t able to get it by regular means, they could figure out how, like figuring out what gifts each one of Charity’s children wanted, plus figuring out gifts that would be good for her.

“This town is awesome. You guys have been so good to me since my husband...disappeared. Didn’t come back. Whatever,” she said, waving her hand, like she was over it, although he doubted she was. It had only been a half a year ago that he had gone on a business trip to Japan and never come home. It had taken Charity months to track him down, through his employer, and find out that he was living with someone in Australia.

He thought he would circumvent the American system of child support, which would be huge with five children, by moving to a different country. He’d been planning it for a while. Clear back before she had her last child.

That was common knowledge throughout the town, although people didn’t throw it up to Charity. She was a sweet girl who hadn’t deserved what her husband had done, but Judd wasn’t sure what she was going to do. Childcare was more expensive than any job that she could make any money at, and she’d been trying to work from home, to no avail.

“I want to offer to pay you, but I know I can’t afford it. I have twenty bucks in my account right now.”

“Well, hang on, because I have all the fixings for Christmas dinner. The turkey’s frozen, but everything else should keep until then.”

He turned away and walked back to the car to get another load, unable to handle watching her eyes fill with tears. His heart just broke for her, but he didn’t know what else to do.

He grabbed the last of the gifts. He’d actually gotten pretty good at gift wrapping, and he carried them up the steps and into the house. She had been taking them upstairs and, he assumed, hiding them.

She hadn’t said anything, and neither had he, but he also had enough cash for the next three months of rent. She might be thinking to herself right now that it was fine for her to be hiding the gifts, but if she didn’t come up with the money, she was going to be out of the house before Christmas, and then it wouldn’t matter where the gifts were.

The cash that he had would cover the back months of rent as well.

He went back to the car and got the grocery bags full of food. There was a brownie mix and a cake mix in there as well as eggs, which wasn’t as good as a pumpkin pie, but a pumpkin pie wouldn’t last until Christmas, unless it was frozen, in which case the frozen ones were usually too small for a family of that size.

It was funny the things a single man might learn when he went around town acting as a Secret Saint.

There was a little note in the bag as well, explaining everything, and that’s where the cash was.

“All right, here are the grocery bags. I do want to mention that there is a note in this one, because there’s something with the note and I want to make sure you get it.” He didn’t want people accidentally throwing money away. So, if he met people, he always told them that. Of course, most of the time he was trying as hard as he could not to meet anyone. In fact, he had waited until dusk had fallen so that he could carry these things in without anyone noticing, and if someone did, hopefully they wouldn’t recognize him with his big, bulky jacket and beanie.

“Can I tell that Dr. Terry so she can put it on the town’s social media? I know that no one’s going to appreciate this more than me, but it might make some people feel good.”

“You can tell whoever you want to about what happened, just don’t mention my name, okay?” He lifted his brows and got a promise out of her. It was important to him that they promised. If they broke their promise, that was on them, but he would do what he could to be able to continue. He could do it even though people knew his name, but it made it more fun, and it made it easier for him, if he could do it and no one knew. Plus, there were bound to be people who didn’t think he was fair and who would complain that someone didn’t get something that they deserved, like deserving could be a thing as well.

Regardless, it was important to him to keep his identity secret from as many people as possible. There were just three who knew.

“Thank you so much. I can’t do it now, but maybe someday I’ll be able to pass it on.”

He nodded and smiled. “I’m sure you will. Merry Christmas,” he said and nodded his head again before he turned around and walked swiftly off the porch. When he waited until after dusk to do deliveries, he always worried that he wouldn’t have supper ready on time. He wanted to keep his word to Terry. That was important to him. Not just keeping his word, but also because it was Terry.

He hurried home and was able to prepare the hamburger casserole that he had planned earlier in the week when he bought groceries. He’d settled into the routine of buying things on Monday to make the four meals that he was responsible for, and Terry had started going to the grocery store Friday evening and getting things to provide for the weekend. She was the one who made a meal for them to take to her mom’s house, although several different times, she’d asked him to help her with the meal that she made.

He was always more than happy to oblige, not just because it was flattering to have someone ask for his recipe, which meant that she liked his food well enough to want to share it, but also because it was time spent with Terry.

He’d hit the porch just as the first snowflakes started to fall. There had been a storm in the forecast, and it was starting slightly earlier than they had expected. He hoped that Terry made it home okay from the clinic, although since she was walking, he wasn’t nearly as concerned about her. Still, people died every winter because someone skidded off the road and ended up on the sidewalk striking someone with their vehicle.

He wasn’t usually a worrywart, at least he didn’t used to be, but he found himself listening hard until he finally heard the door rattling that signaled Terry’s return.

On a whim, he had gotten the ingredients out for hot chocolate. He didn’t know about her, but he hoped she would enjoy it while the snow fell, and they had planned to decorate the tree this evening as well. Although, the last few nights that they had planned to do it, something had come up either for her, a patient sick, a call to her sister, or for him, Wilson needing him for something or Amy needing them to finish more fencing so that she could book someone who had called and asked out of the blue.

He absolutely wanted to do anything that would help Amy get money, since she was struggling as well.

“Hello,” Terry called as the door closed behind her.

There was a little bit of time while she took her coat off, and he could hear her shaking it over the rug to get the snow off before she hung it up.

When she finally walked in the kitchen, he was just taking his hamburger casserole out of the oven and turning off the broccoli that he had steamed on the stove.

“Is it still snowing?” he asked, looking at her white hair and assuming that it was, although it could have turned to rain. The forecast had been up and down over that.

“It is, and it’s such a beautiful night,” she said, smiling. “I don’t know who the Secret Saint is, but I am so glad they were able to get the lights up on the side streets, because it made my walk home absolutely stunning.”

When he’d been younger, on the farm, he’d always thought the prettiest times were times where the snow was falling in the woods and when it would stick to trees and over the fields. He supposed it was pretty where it fell, anywhere, even in town.

“Well, that’s good. I don’t know if you want some, but I made enough hot chocolate for two, and I assumed we’re still on for the Christmas tree?”

“I hope so. As long as I don’t have to talk to my sister again. I’m sorry about that.”

“Not a problem. I’m glad you were able to stop and talk to her. I hope she’s okay.” She had talked a little the next night about what her sister wanted, so he knew basically that her husband had left her, cheated on her, and treated her pretty badly. He felt bad for her and knew that Terry was happy that she was coming home so she would be able to visit her and spend more time with her especially since her sister had decided to move in with her mom, possibly coming before Christmas.

“As good as can be expected, I guess. I feel so bad for her. If it were me, I think I would have trouble getting out of bed. She has two small children to take care of.”

He nodded as she got the plates out the way she usually did, and he set the food on the table. Then she got water in the cups while he put ice in them, and they sat down together.

“This smells amazing. You don’t know how much I appreciate opening the door and smelling supper as I step in.”

“I’m glad you like it,” he said, feeling somehow warm and happy inside.

He said grace as he usually did, and they started eating.

“I had a patient, Francis Kleinschmidt, who told me about a house that is for rent. I honestly stared at her for about five full seconds before I realized that she was telling me that because I’m supposed to be house hunting. I completely forgot.” She rolled her eyes a little. “You probably are wondering when in the world I’m going to move out and let you have your house back, and here I haven’t even been looking. You need to remind me.”

He had frozen as soon as she had started talking about looking for another house.

He liked having her here. He didn’t want her to leave. He...enjoyed eating with her, talking with her in the evening, spending time with her, and while he hadn’t touched her since she took his bandage off and his stitches out, he’d been thinking about it. A lot.

But if she wanted to go, he didn’t want to be the one standing in her way.

A few more minutes went by before she looked up and said, “You’re quiet tonight.” She narrowed her eyes.

“Just thinking,” he said, which was true. How was he supposed to tell her that he was thinking about how he didn’t want her to go? Especially if she wanted to leave.

“So do you want to talk about it?” she asked,

Judd’s mouth shut, knowing that he wasn’t going to be able to do anything but blurt out the truth. He couldn’t approach it sensibly. “How did your day go?”

“It was great. My last patient of the day told me that Charity Amime, you know, the lady at the edge of town who has five children and her husband disappeared over the summer?”

Judd tried to look innocent and interested and surprised all at once as he nodded. It wasn’t easy.

“Well, apparently the Secret Saint has visited her house and dropped off gifts for everyone in the family, including her. Plus a turkey dinner for Christmas, and gave her enough cash to pay her back rent and three more months’ rent.”

“Wow. That’s generous.”

“That’s exactly what I thought,” she said, looking at him with her finger on her chin.

“I guess I’d be careful giving someone like that cash. Although, Charity’s a good girl. She’s not going to spend it on drugs or booze.”

“No. She’s not, is she?” she said, looking back at her plate and spearing a piece of broccoli with her fork. “So how was your day?” she asked with a smile that he couldn’t quite read.

“It was good. Cold. I rushed to get done before the snow. And I did.”

“What were you doing?”

“I painted the new addition to the country market. They’re hoping to get everything open by March. They have some more jobs for me later this winter.”

“Interesting,” she said, putting the broccoli in her mouth.

He looked back down at his plate and tried to figure out whether he would rather talk about him not wanting Terry to leave or him being the Secret Saint.

He looked up and said, “I don’t want you to go.”