Page 37 of The Sound of Sleighbells

He glanced at his watch. Skip would be taking the school bus home with Trevor today. They should be arriving here soon. At least, with the two boys working together, he wouldn’t be alone with his son. There’d be less chance of him saying too much.

Outwardly, nothing could be allowed to change. He would just have get used to that, Judd told himself as he walked out onto the porch. There was no other good choice.

Now he could see the boys coming up the lane—Skip the taller of the pair, and Trevor a year behind him in growth. But now there was a third figure—a gangly little girl with fiery curls, striding along beside them. Judd recognized her at once. Everyone in Branding Iron knew Maggie Delaney, the mayor’s eight-year-old daughter.

Judd sighed. He hadn’t planned on babysitting—especially a meddlesome youngster like Maggie. With her poking into things and asking constant questions, not much work was going to get done. But he could hardly send her away.

As they neared the porch, Judd forced his gaze away from Skip. But stolen glances revealed details he’d never noticed before—the slope of his shoulders, the curve of a smile, the peaked hairline, and more. In so many ways, Skip was the mirror image of Judd as a teenager. Invisible strings seemed to tighten around Judd’s heart. How could he not have guessed? How could he have denied the connection he’d felt to the boy?

Maggie had moved ahead. Right hand extended, she marched up the steps.

“Hello, Mr. Rankin,” she said. “I’m Maggie. You might remember me. The boys said I could help with the harness.”

Judd shook the small hand. “How do you do, Maggie? I hope the boys gave you a job, because there’s a lot of work to be done.”

“They did.” She grinned, showing slightly crooked front teeth. “I’m going to be in charge of the bells. I’ll clean them and make them all shiny. When the holes are punched in the new leather strips, I’ll fasten the bells in place. Does that sound all right to you?”

“It sounds excellent.” Maybe he’d been wrong, Judd thought. This precocious little girl might be just the distraction he needed today. “Welcome to the team, Maggie,” he said. “Let’s get to work.”

* * *

On Wednesday of that week, Ruth took two phone calls in the school office. The first one was from the real estate agent she’d engaged to sell the farmland where her home had stood. “Good news, Ruth,” the agent had said. “We’ve got a solid offer on that property of yours—from a qualified buyer, at full price. The paperwork might be a little slow with the holidays coming, but with luck, we should be able to close before Christmas.”

“Oh . . . that’s unbelievable.” As her legs gave way, she’d sunk into a nearby chair. Thank goodness her divorce lawyer had been able to get her clear title to the land she’d inherited from her parents. With Ed’s name still on the deed, the sale could have dragged on for months. Now, as soon as the sale closed, she could start looking for a house to buy.

The second call was from Silas at the garage. “Hey, Ruth, we’ve got the replacement for your broken window. If you don’t mind dropping off your wagon after school today, we’ll start on it as soon as we get time. Meanwhile, I’ll have a loaner car for you to drive.”

“Wonderful, Silas. I’ll be there.” Silas’s loaner cars, cobbled from parts of wrecked vehicles, were a joke, but they ran fine. At least she’d have transportation.

Her step was light as she walked back down the hall to the tiny custodian’s office. Two pieces of good news in the same day. What had she done to deserve that kind of luck? Ruth had never been superstitious, but she found the thought almost frightening.

After school she loaded her girls and drove to Silas’s garage, where she traded the station wagon for an ancient Chevy Nova with unmatched doors and a missing back bumper.

“That’s an ugly car, Mommy,” Tammy complained. “I don’t want people to see us in it.”

“We’re not going to keep it, silly,” Janeen said. “We’re just borrowing it until our car is fixed.”

Ruth gave Silas the keys to the station wagon. “Thanks,” she said. “How soon do you expect it be done?”

“With luck, it’ll be tomorrow,” Silas said. “Give me a call after school.”

Ruth transferred the booster seats and drove home in the Nova, with the girls giggling as they ducked down in the back to avoid being seen. Grace Delaney had offered to bring Skip home when she went to pick up Maggie. That made one less errand to worry about.

She wouldn’t tell her children about the land sale yet. She would wait until the papers were signed. But tonight, just to celebrate, she would order an extralarge super-deluxe pizza delivered from Buckaroo’s. They could enjoy that without knowing the special reason.

Right now, it felt good just to sit with her stocking feet on the footstool, the lights twinkling on the beautifully decorated tree, and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” playing on the radio. Finally, for the first time this year, Ruth was beginning to feel the Christmas spirit.

“Mom, we forgot to check for mail,” Janeen said. “Do you want me to run outside and look in the box?”

“Yes, thank you, dear.” Ruth leaned back and closed her eyes.

“Here, Mom.” Janeen was back with a single plain, white envelope. The postmark was local. Ruth’s name and address were written on the outside, but there was no return address.

Running a finger under the flap, she opened the envelope. Inside she found two checks, the ones she’d written to Judd for the groceries and for the tree. He had voided them with a black marker. There was no message.

The checks fluttered to the floor as another thought struck her. There was no need to wonder who’d made the offer on her land. It must have been Judd.

Pride shrilled that she didn’t want any favors from him, that she should turn down the offer and find another buyer, no matter how long it took. But no, she owed it to her children to accept. Judd wasn’t doing this for her. He was doing it for his son.

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