Page 33 of Welcome Home for Christmas
Chapter 9
Allison hummed as she breezed through the Veterans’ Center the next morning. The doors jingled behind her as she made her way to her office, and holiday music played over the speakers. Christmas was almost upon them and she was excited.
“You’re in a good mood this morning,” Julie commented, walking up behind her. “What’s going on?”
Allison shrugged, setting her things down on her desk, and spinning to meet her friend’s face. “I love the holidays, I guess. Everything is so bright and merry.”
Julie nodded slowly. “Uh-huh. Okayyy.” She laughed, then turned serious. “Bright and merry until your entire Christmas lot gets stolen. Did you hear about the break-in last night?”
Allison shook her head. “No. What happened?”
“Right down the road from you. The Buckley home got robbed. Half of their Christmas presents were snatched while they were out shopping for more.”
Allison gasped. “That’s awful.” Her good mood went crashing. Thank God Troy had installed an alarm at her place. That made her feel a lot safer as a single woman living alone. Troy had made her feel a lot of things last night.
Heat tore through her as she remembered what he’d done.
“I hope they catch the Grinch and dress him in candy cane stripes, then put him on a float for the Seaside Christmas Parade.”
Allison laughed. “You’ve got it all planned out.”
“It would serve the thief right, ruining people’s holidays like that….So, in other news, Lawson is doing a military training at Camp Leon tonight. I know it’s Tuesday Tip-Backs at Heroes, but I thought, if you weren’t busy, we could go buy those presents for the kids at Mercy’s Place instead.”
Allison smiled. “Sounds great to me.” Her social calendar was usually pretty open. She could have agreed to nearly any day of the week that Julie offered to go shopping together, except last night. Last night she’d been occupied with Troy. Thus the real reason she was humming through the office this morning.
“Okay. Want to pick me up at my place and we’ll head downtown together? My car is still in the shop,” Julie said. “And I don’t like to drive Lawson’s big truck. We could grab a bite to eat as well.”
“Sounds good.” Allison watched Julie head off in her yoga attire, ready to do a day of classes with the local vets and their families. She went around her desk and sat down to handle the business side of things. She had order forms to put together for Mr. Banks. And paychecks to make out. There were also phone calls to return.
And she wasn’t going to get any of that done thinking about her pretend boyfriend.
Her phone rang on her desk and she picked up. “Seaside Veterans’ Center. Allison Carmichael speaking,” she answered.
“Allison!” a woman’s voice greeted her. “This is Margaret at Mercy’s Place. How are you?”
“Good, Margaret! How are you? How are the kids?”
Margaret laughed softly. “Good, good. Everyone is good. Just calling to check on the status of the children’s gifts.”
“I’m shopping for them with a friend tonight, actually.”
“Thank you so much. This is going to mean so much to these kids.”
“I know it will.” And it filled Allison’s heart with joy to help out.
“I have another favor to ask you,” Margaret said.
“Name it.”
“Well, our Santa Claus designee broke his leg last night.”
“Oh, no!” Allison leaned back in her chair. “That’s awful.”
“Yeah. And I don’t think the kids will buy in to a Santa who has to deliver toys to every boy and girl in the world while on crutches.”
“That does complicate things.”
“I know you work with a lot of Marines there at the Veterans’ Center. Do you think you could round one up to play the part? It’s just an hour of wearing a padded suit and smiling for the kids.”
