The Snuggle is Real (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Ford

“Sit down, Dottie. I’ll get it.”

Dottie, who was all of five-foot-two, was straining to reach the tin of cocoa on the second shelf of her cupboard.

“I swear I’m shrinking,” she grumbled as she shuffled to the side so I could grab it for her. “It’s too darn early for hot chocolate too, but I’m always so cold. Why did I decide to live in this awful place?”

I chuckled at her grousing. Dottie was a grump, but that was half the reason we got along so well. If I wanted cheery, there were half a dozen holiday-frenzied do-gooders running around.

People like that guy at the treelighting festival who ran some sort of charity and tried to offer me help.

He’d looked at that celeb with stars in his eyes, but he’d taken one look at me and seen a charity case.

That rankled. I’d been taking care of myself since I was sixteen years old. Taking care of my mom and sister too.

Until you lost them both.

You lost everyone. Even your wife. Even Charlie.

My sister’s sudden death had been the domino that set everything in motion, and once the pieces began to fall, I didn’t know how to stop them.

“Get me the sugar too, will you, Ford?”

Dottie poured milk into a saucepan on the stove. I’d once asked her why she didn’t just use the instant microwave packets. Dottie had been so appalled she’d refused to make me any cocoa for weeks.

Now, I knew to keep my trap shut and do as I was told.

I gave her the sugar, then leaned back against the counter while she brought the chocolate to a boil.

“You sure you want to cook for Thanksgiving?” I asked for the third time. “It’s a lot of work. I could just get some premade?—”

“Hush your mouth.” She gave the cocoa a stir. “We’ll have a turkey and mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy. Just like my mama used to make.”

“No pumpkin pie?” I teased.

She waved a hand. “Pecan pie is better.”

I hesitated, knowing I was risking a whooping if I pushed too hard. “I heard Joel over at Ginger’s Breads makes pies.”

Dottie turned off the burner. “Oh?”

“Yep.” I got down the mugs, keeping my tone casual. “Eleanor Calloway ordered one. Mayor Grayson too.”

Dottie hummed as she took a seat at the small round table in the corner of the large eat-in kitchen. “Well, that Joel does know his baked goods.”

“Mm-hmm.” I set a mug of hot chocolate in front of Dottie. “So, shall we make him do the heavy lifting this year?”

She snorted. “Just don’t tell anyone it’s for me. Mrs. Lil will never let me live it down.”

I drew an X over my chest. “Cross my heart.”

Dottie had adopted me as her quasi-son not long after LuAnne left me. For the past few years, we’d tried to take care of each other—as much as either of us would allow. Dottie was cantankerous and generally insisted on doing more than she really should.

I guess I was the same.

I patched up Dottie’s roof and mowed her lawn, shoveled snow from her drive, and salted her porch. Ran errands for her too, so she wouldn’t have to go out in foul weather.

In return, Dottie made me dinner once a week, along with Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.

Neither of us had more than two nickels to rub together most of the time, so we didn’t bother with presents.

“Are you sure you can get all the groceries?” she asked.

“Yeah. You’re doing all the cooking. It’s the least I can do.”

She pursed her lips. “Those turkeys get more expensive every year.”

“I can handle it, Dottie. I got no one else to spend my money on. Hell, you feed me once a week. Surely, I owe you a turkey by now.”

She giggled, sounding about fifty years younger. “Well, all right, if you insist.”

“I do.”

A few hours later, while I pushed a cart through the grocery store, I was regretting that insistence. Dottie hadn’t been kidding about the prices.

I’d have to pick up an odd job next week just to cover the grocery tab. But at least I could find work. Dottie was on a fixed income.

My phone rang, and I pulled it out.

Unknown Number.

I frowned. These damn spam calls were getting out of hand. I pocketed my phone, but it started ringing again.

Persistent little shit, weren’t they?

Annoyed, I yanked my phone out again and snarled, “I’m not buying whatever you’re selling.”

“Good,” a crisp voice with a British accent answered. “I’m not selling anything, Mr. Donnelly. I left you a message last week. I’m Gwen Goetz, of the law firm Goetz, Blake, and Ives.”

I stopped short. “Law firm?”

“Yes, as I said, I left you a message. It’s regarding LuAnne Musk and her daughter, Charlotte Lee.”

My heart dropped. “Are they okay?”

“Yes, everyone is safe,” Gwen said. “But it’s urgent that you meet me at my law practice in Burlington, Illinois.”

That was a three-hour drive.

“We can’t settle this over the phone?”

“Unfortunately not. I’ve got some paperwork for you to sign?—”

“So overnight it.”

“—and Charlotte is waiting for you to pick her up.”

“Whoa, wait a second. I’m missing something.”

“Mr. Donnelly, LuAnne assured me that you’d consented to take temporary custody of Charlotte if she was ordered to rehab.”

“ Rehab? ”

LuAnne had always been a party girl, and she’d kept in only sporadic contact since our divorce. I tried to maintain a relationship with Charlie, but when LuAnne moved from town to town with new boyfriends, it wasn’t easy to know what was going on with them.

“Oh, dear,” Gwen said. “Didn’t LuAnne work this out with you? We hoped to get outpatient treatment, but the judge wasn’t having it. LuAnne caused an accident while under the influence. She was charged with possession as well, and not for the first time.”

“Oh god.” My stomach churned. “Was Charlie in the car with her?”

“No.” The lawyer’s tone softened. “Charlie is perfectly safe. But she does need a home, Mr. Donnelly, and LuAnne assured me that you could take care of her daughter.”

Charlie wasn’t my child, but I loved her like my own. When LuAnne moved away, it had broken my heart. I’d wanted them to stay closer, but as a former stepdad I had no rights.

But now Charlie needed me. It had been nearly six months since I’d seen her, and I’d never had sole custody of her. I had no idea how to take care of a little girl who’d just had her mama go away—and right before the holidays.

But damned if I was gonna do anything else.

I left the cart standing in the middle of the grocery store. “I’ll come right now. Tell Charlie I’m on my way.”

It was dark by the time I got to Burlington, but the law offices were still open. I went to the front desk to sign in. “I’m here about a guardianship case?—”

“Ford!” A weight slammed into my legs from the side. Skinny arms wrapped around my waist. “I was afraid you weren’t coming.”

I looked down into teary brown eyes. Charlie’s hair was a curly, riotous mess around her head.

“I’ll always show up for you, Charlie girl.”

She buried her face against my hip, and I patted her back. A smartly dressed woman with blond hair pulled back into a bun waited a few feet away.

When I made eye contact, she smiled apologetically. “I’m Gwen Goetz, LuAnne’s attorney.”

I extended my hand to shake. “Ford Donnelly.”

“Thank you for coming so quickly, Mr. Donnelly. There’s some paperwork to sign. Then you can take Charlie home.”

I nodded. “Want to wait here, Charlie?”

“No.” She clung tighter. “I’ve been waiting for hours.”

“I know, kiddo. I’m sorry.” I bent and hefted her onto my hip. She was really too big for carrying, but she nestled her head onto my shoulder, and if she wanted to be babied today of all days, I was okay with that.

“This won’t take long,” Gwen promised.

I carried Charlie down the hall to the second office on the right then settled into a chair. Gwen went over the guardianship agreement that she’d drawn up with LuAnne, to be used only in the event that her sentence didn’t go as planned.

Which it had not.

“You live in Christmas Falls, is that correct?”

“Yes.” I glanced over the paperwork. “All this info seems to be up to date.”

“Excellent. Then, this gives you guardianship over Charlie for the next forty-five days.”

Forty-five days. I could do that. It wasn’t even two full months. Times were tight, but I could cut back on the streaming services. I didn’t need Hulu. Never anything good on, anyway.

Maybe I could talk Dottie out of such a big Thanksgiving meal. Then again, Charlie could use a distraction from this mess, and a nice holiday dinner might help with that…

Christmas was right around the corner too, and Christmas Falls was full of holiday magic a kid would love. Some of it was free, but there were always drinks and treats and crafts and oh hell , I’d already maxed out one credit card and was down to a few hundred bucks in cash.

I’d have to find some extra work, only—shit, who would watch Charlie if I did? Dottie could keep her for short stretches, but she wasn’t really up to a full-time babysitting gig, and if I paid someone else, it’d just eat up all the money I earned.

“Mr. Donnelly, are you with me?”

My head spun. I’d had hardly any time to process this huge change. One minute I was shopping and the next I was agreeing to be a real dad, if only for forty-five days.

“Uh, yeah, sorry. Just thinking.”

Gwen Goetz patted my arm. “You’ll be just fine. I can see that Charlie trusts you. That’s the most important thing.”

The lawyer was right. Charlie trusted me enough she was falling asleep in my arms. She’d had a long day, and we still had a three-hour drive to get back.

I needed to get her home, and then we could tackle everything else.

I picked up the pen and scribbled my name. “Anything else?”

“Nope. Charlie’s got a bag in the corner there. Otherwise, you should be good to go.”

“Just one bag?”

“That’s all LuAnne brought. Like I said, we really were hoping it wouldn’t come to this. She should have prepared better in this event, but…” She spread her hands. “I’m sorry. They’ve already taken her to rehab, and I don’t have a key to her place. It’s only because of this agreement that we were able to avoid social services coming to take Charlie the minute LuAnne was sentenced.”

My arms tightened around Charlie. “Well, that can’t happen.” I’d heard too many horror stories about what happened to kids in the system. “I’ll figure it out. It’s only six weeks.”

Famous last words, right? Only six weeks during the most expensive time of year.

Charlie had already lost her mom for the holidays. I didn’t want her to miss out on anything else. She deserved more than I could give her.

But sadly, I was all she had.

I woke her enough to walk to the car so I could carry her little pink suitcase—maybe her clothes were small, and it held more than I thought?—and Gwen provided me with a booster seat.

I buckled her in and got on the road, checking on her from time to time in the rear-view mirror. Charlie looked pale and drawn, the shadow of her usually bubbly little self.

“You okay back there? You hungry?”

“What’s Christmas Falls like?” she asked.

“You don’t remember?”

Charlie had lived there until she was four. After the divorce, she’d been back a couple of times, but never over the holidays. LuAnne had always detested the over-the-top festival and all the tourism that swept into town.

The festival kept the town alive, I’d told her time and again, but LuAnne had simply rolled her eyes and said, “The festival is a pain in the ass.”

She wasn’t totally wrong. Turning your town into a Hallmark-worthy event came with a cost. Christmas Falls could never be just my town. I had to share it.

And if I wasn’t in the mood for Christmas? Well, too bad. It would be in my face 24/7. But on the flip side, our town hadn’t died when the old Christmas decor factory shut down in the late eighties. We weren’t reliant on industrial jobs or big corporate chains to employ us.

“I remember a parade.” Charlie’s face squished up in thought. “I think?”

“That’s right, there is a parade. It’s called the Parade of Lights. It takes place at night.”

She straightened a little in her seat, a spark coming into her eye. “Really? Mama said there’s all sorts of fun stuff there. She said Santa lives there, so I’ll have an amazing Christmas.”

Oh, boy.

“I have seen Santa here and there,” I said, because what else could I do? We did have a few events where Santa showed up. Didn’t mean Santa would hand me a bagful of amazing presents for Charlie though.

“You have to be nice or Santa won’t bring you anything,” she told me matter-of-factly.

“That’s true.”

“Does that mean Mama’s not getting any presents?”

I focused on the road as I took the on-ramp back onto the highway. “I don’t know. Do you think your Mama is naughty or nice?”

“They sent her away for being naughty,” Charlie said. “But she said she’s gonna try real hard to be nice and come back soon.”

“Then I reckon Santa will take that into account, don’t you?”

Charlie thought about it for a moment, then nodded her head. Then, she exclaimed, “Ford, I have to pee!”

“I just got on the highway?—”

“I gotta go! Now!”

I flipped the blinker and got into the exit lane. “Okay, hold on, Charlie girl. We’ll find a place to stop.”

She wiggled. “Hurry!”

“You want to stop and go behind a tree?”

Her eyes widened in horror. “ What?” she screeched. “I can’t do that!”

“Okay, okay,” I said, trying to calm her down while I navigated my way off the highway and followed the signs for a gas station. “It was just a suggestion.”

“Girls don’t pee on the side of the road, Ford.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe you don’t know that.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of things I don’t know,” I said as I made the turn into a well-lit gas station. “Be patient with me, okay? I’m trying my best.”

She leaned forward to pat my shoulder. “It’s okay. I’ll teach you how to be a good dad.”

My heart skipped a beat at her using that word. She wasn’t calling me her dad, but she was casting me in the role.

And suddenly all I wanted for Christmas—all I wanted most in the world—was to never let this little girl down.