Page 29 of The Twelve Months of Christmas
Okay, enough already. “There’s a cash machine at the bank across the street. We’re open till five. I’ll be happy to help you if you come back with cash,” Molly said.
He lifted his chin, gathering his tattered pride around him with a sniff and said, “I won’t be coming back here.” He turned and walked past the line of customers, calling Mrs. Bigman a name under his breath that made her blink in surprise.
“Well, I never,” she huffed as she stepped up to the window.
No package in her hands, only a receipt. Molly knew what was coming.
Sure enough. “Something is very wrong with your system,” she informed Molly. “My son has not gotten his cookies. And I overnighted them. Remember? Do you know how expensive that is?”
It was all Molly could do not to say, “No, I have no idea. Do tell me.” She held out her hand for the receipt. “Let me check.”
Of course, checking only confirmed what she knew she’d find. The package had been delivered. “And you had delivery confirmation,” she told Mrs. Bigman, showing her the receipt.
“I know that, but it lied. My son didn’t get his cookies!”
“Does your son, by any chance, have some sort of video surveillance? Someone might be stealing his packages off his porch.”
“Who would do such a thing?” Mrs. Bigman demanded.
“It happens,” Molly said.
“Well, I’m going to talk to my son tonight and get to the bottom of this.”
“I hope you can,” Molly said, and she meant it. She’d had enough of dealing with Mrs. Bigman’s cookie crisis.
In fact she’d had enough. Period. She’d loaded almost every PO box with card-shaped envelopes. Valentines for all! Why it had left her feeling grumpy, she wasn’t sure. She’d hadn’t received a valentine card in years so there was no reason to expect one this year.
Except...
She turned her mind away from except. Just because a nice man had been coming into the post office the last few months, smiling at her and chatting with her, it didn’t mean a valentine card would come floating through her post office window.
But suddenly there was the nice man, wearing a red-checked shirt under his well-worn jacket, carrying a single chocolate rose. “Thought you might like a treat,” Reggie said, handing it over.
Her heart fluttered and she suddenly felt twenty again. “How did you guess?”
He shrugged. “All women like roses, and they all like chocolate. Don’t they?”
“I don’t know about all women, but I do. Thanks, Reggie. That was really sweet of you. You made my day.”
“Then my job here is done,” he said with a smile. “I suppose you got a date tonight.”
Was he just making conversation, or did he really want to know? “With my granddaughter. She and I are going to make bonbons while my daughter goes on a date.”
“Bonbons, huh?”
Interested. At least in candy. “I might have some to give out tomorrow if you’re in the neighborhood,” she said, bringing out a flirty smile she hadn’t used in years.
“Then I might be in the neighborhood,” he said.
She watched him walk away. He was a big lumbering man, the kind of man who probably loved puttering around the house. Would he like to putter around hers?
Arianna’s work at the hospital was about more than physical healing. Emotional health was the rule of the day, with patients receiving valentine cards, flowers and visitors to cheer them up. She was happy to see so many of her patients in good spirits as she made her rounds to check blood pressure, give sponge baths and carry out the other varied duties of a nurse. Laurel Peterson, one of her favorites, was recovering from a hysterectomy after having been diagnosed with uterine cancer. Dr. Dimatrova was delighted that the cancer had not spread, and Laurel would be going home that day. But first she had to have a lesson in giving herself a blood-thinning injection. It would be part of her regimen for the next month. She’d been up and walking earlier in the morning but then didn’t feel so good. Arianna suspected it had a lot to do with worrying about the upcoming shot lesson.
Now she was feeling better and it was time.
“I hate shots,” Laurel fretted. “I can’t do this.”
“Trust me, you can,” Arianna said. “You’re stronger than you think.”
