Jessica sighs and rolls her eyes. “Never. Freaking. Again.”
“Hey, man.” I head over with the stroller and fist-bump Elliot. “Have you talked to Nancy?”
“Not since you have.” He shields his face from the morning Miami sun, which is burning bright and warm even on December 24th. “Should be all good, though. I’m not worried.”
“Mommy! Let’s go on the beach!” Asher tugs at Jessica.
She lifts a shoulder and glances around at us. “Shall we?”
“Let’s do it.” I put an arm around Frankie as we head for the ocean. “Nothing like some Christmas Eve beach time.”
“Gotta love that Florida lifestyle.” Elliot laughs and shakes his head.
“You talked to Coach, right?” I ask.
“Yep.” Elliot nods. “It’s all squared away. I just told him we have a Christmas present to give him, and he should be here at two p.m. Sent him the address of the exact beach, too.”
“Did he seem suspicious?”
Elliot shakes his head. “Not at all. He’s still in such a funk, I don’t think he’s thinking too hard about anything but his wife and the separation right now.”
“Well…” I rub my hands together. “All that’s about to change. Hopefully.”
“And Melody and Dylan…” Elliot checks his phone quickly. “They’re driving up to Delray to get Coach’s wife down here, right? To meet him here around two?”
“Yeah, man.” I puff out a breath. “I wonder how that’s gonna go. Won’t be an easy task. From what Coach was saying, it sounds like she’s really digging her heels in.”
Elliot chuckles. “I’m sure Melody will figure something out.”
“Come on, little man.” Frankie lifts Sammy out of his stroller, kissing his cheek as she props him on her hip.
There’s a slight chill on the sea breeze, and the air is salty and crisp. I take a deep breath as we step onto the sand, wondering how it can feel so much like Christmas even in sixty-five degrees on the beach.
Asher runs out onto the sand, and Frankie sets Sammy down to play in it.
I wrap my arms around her back and hold her tight, kissing the top of her head. “Merry Christmas Eve.”
She turns around and meets my gaze, those green eyes as captivating as the moment I first saw her. “Hey, you. Merry Christmas Eve.”
Jessica walks up to us, frowning at her phone. “Chase and Whit are evidently in a bind with the whole real pine tree thing.”
I roll my eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Whitney says Chase swears they will have it figured out. She’s coming here to help get everything ready while he’s doing some last-minute…searching.”
Elliot lifts a shoulder. “He’ll pull it out.”
“I’m texting the gang now,” Jessica continues. “Most everyone is on their way here or will be soon!”
“Dylan and Melody?” I ask.
“They’re heading up to Jeanette’s sister’s house now.” Jessica reads through the messages on her phone. “Melody wants us all to take a moment to meditate and relax.”
I jump a little as my phone buzzes in my pocket. “It’s Nancy.” I wave Elliot over. “I think she’s here.”
“All right, so much for meditating.” He turns to Jess and Asher. “We’re going to get the sleigh and reindeer all set up with the animal-refuge people.”
“Okay,” Jessica answers with a thumbs-up.
Frankie grins excitedly. “Good luck,” she sings.
Elliot and I jog down the boardwalk and into the parking lot, where a white truck towing a huge horse trailer is parked.
“Nancy!” I wave.
She steps out of the vehicle, her waist-length gray hair blowing in the wind. “Hi, boys. I have quite a delivery for you.”
“Sleigh, too?” Elliot peeks around the trailer, peering in.
“Sleigh, too,” Nancy assures calmly. “And…the South Florida Animal Refuge would like to sincerely thank you for your incredibly generous donation!” She grins at us, glancing between Elliot and me.
I give an easy smile. “Happy to help.”
Nancy turns to the truck. “Boys!” she shouts, clapping her hands with authority.
I raise my brows and draw back, looking over at Elliot as we both bite back smiles at this tiny yet powerful gray-haired woman.
Three pretty jacked-looking dudes step out of the truck and head around to the back of the trailer, unlocking the latch on the door and swinging it open.
“We’ll get the sleigh out there first,” Nancy asserts. “And then guide sweet Dasher out once it’s in position.”
“You’re the experts.” Elliot smiles and looks out at the beach. “However you guys want to do it is fine with us.”
“Definitely,” I add. “We’re just happy as hell this was even possible.”
“Yo, NFL dudes.” One of the animal-refuge guys juts his chin at us. “Some help?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Elliot and I jog over to the trailer opening. “Of course.”
I move in front of the back hatch to see a fairly small but pretty legit-looking sleigh, with two seats and a shiny red coat of paint.
One of the guys nods toward it. “It’s hooked up to some dollies so we can roll it out there and get it onto the sand. This size can be pulled by one reindeer, so you’re in luck.”
“Awesome, man.” Elliot lunges forward and takes one side, and I grab the other.
We roll it off the ramp and guide it through the parking lot and onto the boardwalk.
“I gotta say,” another one of the guys says. “We sure as shit have never been on an assignment like this before.”
I laugh a little as we hoist the clumsy sleigh onto the wooden walkway. “Never chilled with pro athletes, huh? Don’t worry, we’re some of the cooler ones.”
He shoots me a look and glares. “No, asshole, I mean dragging a sleigh and a reindeer onto a sandy beach.”
Elliot bites back a laugh.
“I don’t follow football,” the guy adds.
“Fair enough.”
We push the sleigh out onto the powdery sand, and I actually feel a prickle of sweat on the back of my neck.
A Florida beach sleigh ride. God, I hope this works.
“All right.” Nancy jogs over, holding two thumbs up. “Keep on that softer part of the sand so Dasher can pull nice and easy.”
I glance over at Frankie and Jessica down by the water, playing with the boys.
“Let’s get Dasher hooked up now.” Nancy waves us back toward the parking lot. “Don’t worry, he can just hang out for as long as you need. We’ve got treats and water for him, and my guys and I will be waiting in the truck until your strange little activity is done. Sound good?”
“Sounds perfect.” Elliot shrugs and looks at me. “Let’s get our reindeer.”
When we get back to the trailer, Dasher is lounging on a plush reindeer bed, munching on a red apple. Dasher is pretty chill for a reindeer. Not that I would know about normal reindeer-relaxation habits, but he seems nice and calm.
“Hey, buddy.” I push myself up onto the back of the trailer, leaning in to get a closer look at the beautiful animal. “Ready to save a marriage?”
The animal-refuge guys climb into the back of the trailer and gently guide Dasher up onto his feet.
He starts to mosey out of the trailer, curiously looking around.
Elliot gives him a pat on the head. “You ever been to the beach, Dasher?”
Nancy chuckles and crosses her arms as the guys gently pull him onto the parking lot. “Can’t say he ever has. But he’s very experienced with travel and being around people.”
We all walk with him toward the boardwalk, and I’m marveling at the hilarious oxymoron of a reindeer at the beach.
“This is wild,” I say to Elliot.
He shakes his head. “Unreal, man. I can’t believe we pulled it off.”
“Hey!” an unfamiliar voice shouts at us from across the parking lot.
/> We all look to see a guy in a tan uniform with badges and a big-ass hat angrily walking toward us.
“What on God’s green earth do you fellas think you’re doing?”
I scan his patches. A park ranger. And I guess the beaches are technically parks.
“Hey, nice to meet you.” I hold out my hand. “Leo Sterling.”
He denies my handshake. “I know who you are. And I’m a football man myself, but what the hell are you doing with that zoo animal?”
I glance back at Dasher.
Elliot steps in, thankfully. “We’re just trying to set up a little sleigh ride type of thing on the beach. It’s for our—”
“On the beach?” Park Ranger wipes his gray moustache and draws back in shock. “You can’t take that thing on the beach. It’s against the law!”
Silence falls around us, and I resist the urge to curse.
“Look, Officer…” I eye his name tag. “Knowles. Is there any way you can make an exception? These are very weird circumstances, we know, but Dasher here is well trained, and the staff of the South Florida Animal Refuge are—”
“Absolutely not!” He folds his arms and furrows his thick brows, glaring at me. “Get the animal back in the trailer and not one single step closer to the state-protected beach. Is that clear, Mr. Sterling?”
Elliot and I exchange a look, and I’m fresh out of ideas.
“You folks have ten minutes.” Knowles taps his watch. “I’m counting.”
He turns to walk back to his car, and my stomach physically sinks. “What the fuck are we gonna do?” I ask under my breath.
Elliot blows out a sigh. “No reindeer, no sleigh ride.”
Disappointment swirls through me as I pinch the bridge of my nose and squeeze my eyes shut.
“I wanted so bad for this to happen for Coach Watson,” I say.
“I know, bro. We all did.” Elliot runs a hand through his hair. “Maybe there’s another way? Something else we can do?”
“Dude.” I gesture at the reindeer. “We got this far. We have to get this effing reindeer onto that beach.”
“There’s no way, Sterling. You heard that guy. He wasn’t messing around.”
“What’s he gonna do? Arrest us?”
Elliot raises his brows. “Uh, yeah, actually. That’s probably exactly what he’ll do.”
“Shit,” I mumble.
“Shit is right.” I take a deep breath of the salty air. “Don’t tell Melody, not yet. Let me talk to Frankie and see if we can figure something out.”
“Not giving up, huh?”
I narrow my eyes at Elliot. “Hell no.”
Twelve
Dylan
“But what is your plan?” I plead with my gorgeous, brilliant, and occasionally delusional wife as we speed up the highway toward Delray.
“For the nine thousandth time, I don’t need a plan!” Melody sticks her head out the window, letting the wind blow back her hair like she’s a Pomeranian. “The universe will tell me what to do when we get to Jeanette’s sister’s house.”
“Mel,” I say sternly. “I love you. And I believe in you, completely. But we can’t just go in there with absolutely no idea of what we’re going to say.”
“The energy…” She pulls her head back in and wipes wild strands of pink hair out of her face. “The moment…I’ll know what to do. It’ll hit me like a ton of bricks as soon as we get to the place.”
I nod at the GPS on the phone sitting on the dash. “See that?”
“Yeah?”
“The directions. We’re using directions to get to the house, because we need to know where we’re going and what we’re doing before it actually happens.”
Melody giggles softly and reaches over to me, running her fingers through my hair. “Oh, Dylan. My sweet, rational, obnoxiously logical husband.”
“Just normal.” I shake my head and keep my gaze fixed on the road. “Just a normal way of thinking like a normal, reasonable person.”
“Normal…” She taps my nose. “Doesn’t make Christmas miracles, now does it?”
“Well…no…”
“See? So hush.” She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “Love and romance at Christmastime, that’s energy even a Grinch like you can’t deny.” She pokes my arm.
I can’t help but laugh. “I am not a Grinch. I just think we should know what we’re gonna say. I mean, ‘Hey, come down to Miami Beach with two people you barely know so we can set you up on a date with the guy you left’ probably isn’t going to fly.”
“That’s why I’m not going to say that, silly. Duh.”
“What about, like…” I chew my lip and think for a second. “Someone’s in the hospital.”
Mel gasps. “Too dark.”
“Okay…someone needs your help.”
“Too mysterious.”
“Your house has been robbed!”
“Way, way, way too upsetting!” Melody shakes out her hair. “You gotta trust me, babe. I’m gonna know when we get there.”
I glance at the GPS. “Which is in approximately seven minutes.”
She squeals a little and grabs my hand, giving it a tight squeeze. “I have butterflies. Don’t you?”
Actually, yes. The nervous kind. The kind you get when you’re about to show up at a stranger’s house to try to convince someone to go with you and see the last person on earth they want to see right now.
“Sort of,” I answer.
Turning in to a pretty, upscale-looking housing development, I look around and follow the directions on my phone.
Melody bounces her knees up and down in the passenger’s seat. “Almost there,” she sings.
“Crescent Drive,” I say, squinting at street signs and slowing down. “This should be it. It’s house number 123.”
We pull up to a light blue, two-story Floridian-looking house with Christmas lights wrapped around the palm trees in the front yard.
“This is it!” Melody exclaims.
We get out of the car, and I try to push away the uneasiness in my gut. This is the most important component of this entire ordeal. If Jeanette doesn’t go with us, there was no point in any of it.
I swallow my nerves and turn to my wife. “Okay, so should we just, like, knock, or…”
“Hang on.” Melody jogs through the yard, slowing her speed as she reaches the side of the house. “Come here!” she whispers loudly, waving me over. “I hear a voice.”
“You are such a little creep,” I say, stifling a laugh.
She ignores me, craning her neck to better listen to the conversation happening on the back patio of the house.
“It doesn’t sound like Jeanette,” Mel whispers. “It must be her sister. On the phone.”
She grabs my hand and pulls me through the grass, slowly tiptoeing closer to the back of the house.
“Why don’t we just use the front door—”
“Shhh!” She holds her finger to her lips, whipping her head around and shooting me a look. “Help me listen. It’ll give me a vibe.”
Knowing that arguing with Melody about things like vibes is a complete and total waste of time, I lean over and listen to the woman’s voice on the back patio.
“I know, I know,” she says. “It’s completely heartbreaking. She’s so insanely sad about the separation, and I don’t even know what to tell her.”
Melody shakes my arm aggressively. “She’s talking about Coach’s wife!”
I resent how into this whole spying thing I am all of a sudden, but I give in and keep listening.
“Of course I think she’s making a mistake! I mean, John Watson, are you kidding? He’s always completely and totally adored her. Worships the ground she walks on.”
Melody and I hold our breaths during the pause while whoever is on the other end of the call is talking.
“I know,” the woman continues. “And the whole separation thing was her idea, and yet she’s just wallowing in sadness all day long. Missing him.”
Melo
dy gives me a blindingly excited grin. “This is perfect,” she says through gritted teeth.
“At this point, I think she’s just digging her heels in. I don’t know. She felt all neglected and whatever else, and I understand that. He was really preoccupied for a long time. But it’s his job! Of course she should forgive him. God knows I would.”
Mel leans close to my ear, holding my hand tight. “You can relax now. I’ve got my plan.”
We stand quietly as Jeanette’s sister finishes up her phone call.
“All right,” she says. “I’ll tell her. Okay. Talk to you soon.”
The second the call ends, Melody jumps up, bursting with excitement. “I’m going in!”
“You’re what?” I grab her hand, stopping her. “You can’t just walk into the backyard, Mel, that’s trespassing.”
She waves a hand dismissively and rolls her eyes. “I’ll stay behind the screen.”
“But you’re—”
Before I can say another word, she’s running over to the side of the patio, heading toward the screened-in porch.
As her husband, I have to follow her. As a sane human being, I really don’t want to.
“Hi!” Melody says in a hushed voice, waving a hand.
I stay a few feet back, knowing I should probably just let her do her thing and hang here for backup.
The woman looks startled, but not scared. There’s nothing scary about a five-foot-two yoga teacher with pink hair, even when she is borderline breaking and entering.
“Um…can I help you?” Jeanette’s sister walks up to Melody, noticing me standing behind her. “What’s going on? Who are you guys?”
“Hi, I’m Melody Rivera. It’s so nice to meet you. Listen, we’re here because—”
“Wait a second. Rivera…” The woman narrows her eyes and points at me, her face relaxing and her tension easing as she realizes who I am. “Aren’t you the Riders kicker?”
“Yeah…” I take a few steps forward and give an awkward wave. “Hi there. I’m Dylan.”
“I’m Lizzie. Your coach is my brother-in-law. Er, for now.” She glances inside the house, and her eyes flash a little.
“Right, exactly.” Melody smiles widely. “Listen, we know this is about to sound absolutely nuts. But I’m no stranger to people thinking I’m crazy.”
Sleigh Ride: A Holiday Novella Page 7