A Perfect Christmas Surprise: A Clean and Wholesome Christmas Romance (Kringle, Texas Book 3)

by Lori Wilde

  “That’s not true. You’ve been gone for ten years.”

  “But I come home—”

  “Two or three times a year.”

  “Usually for several weeks at a time and I always work at the shelter when I visit.”

  Caleb snorted.

  “What is it, Mr. Snorty Snort-Snort?”

  “You have no idea what’s going on around here,” he said. The minute the words were out of his mouth, he realized he’d said too much.

  “Wait, what?” She came closer, her smile completely gone now. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “You’re taking on too much. You’re only home for a few weeks. You should spend time with your parents instead of throwing an impromptu event that would normally take months to plan—”

  Ava rolled her eyes hard. “You haven’t changed one little whit, Caleb. Always planning, preparing, getting ready. When will your life ever start?”

  That was a dagger right through his heart. His hurt must have shown on his face.

  She slapped a palm over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “You’re entitled to your feelings.”

  “I was irritated. You are who you are. It’s not my place to judge you and it’s really not your place to judge me either.”

  “You’re right. We’re so different. It’s hard for us to see the other person’s perspective.”

  “We’re night and day.”

  “You gallivant.” He offered a small smile to lighten things up.

  “You root.” She anted up a brighter smile than his.

  “You’re a butterfly.”

  “You’re a tree.”

  “Good thing we didn’t get married,” he mumbled.

  “Good thing,” she echoed.

  “Look,” he said. “Something we can finally agree on.”

  “Yay us.”

  Her gaze hit his with the impact of a sledgehammer. “I better get to work.”

  “Me too.”

  “Bye,” she said without moving.

  “So long.” He didn’t move either, and instead watched the pulse at her neck tick.

  “See you around.”

  He had to get out of here before he told her about her father. “Take care, Ava.”

  Her expression shifted from one of pugnacious levity to suspicion. “You’re not acting right, Sutton. What’s up?”

  “Nothing. I’m just afraid your Home for the Holidays event will be a big bust.”

  “So what if it is? At least I’ll take a shot.”

  He notched up his chin and narrowed his eyes. “Meaning?”

  “Sometimes, Cabe, you’ve simply got to act.” And with that, she turned on her heel and walked back into the kennels, setting off a fresh cacophony of barking.

  Chapter 3

  Caleb’s comments got under Ava’s skin. She tried not to think about him as her mother showed her around the kennels the following day, introducing her to the dogs she’d be trying to find homes for during the impromptu holiday event she and Abby Owens had created on the spot.

  While following her spontaneous impulses occasionally landed her in trouble, more often than not, there was a serendipitous quality to action. Taking calculated risks usually set her on the path to adventure that almost always worked out in her favor.

  The journey might not be smooth, but hey, the bumps in the road were where the interesting things lurked, right?

  Caleb had never understood that. He believed you shouldn’t roll over in bed without a plan and that attitude, in her estimation, killed the thrill of discovery.

  “You’ve added more kennels since last year,” Ava observed as they strolled the facility.

  “Yes, we can house sixty dogs in here. The cat kennels next door can take double that. We took out the closet and converted the space into two dozen extra kennels and had the shed out back installed for storage. The shelter has grown a lot since you…um…took a detour with your life.”

  Ava sighed. Her mother was tiptoeing around ancient history. Why? The past was over and done with.

  “Mom, I left,” Ava said. “Just accept it. I was supposed to marry Caleb, and instead, I walked away to travel the world. I was eighteen years old. I wasn’t ready to get married. I loved Caleb with all my heart, but I didn’t know who I was.”

  “Do you know now?” her mother asked softly.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “And what is that?”

  “I understand how I fit into the world. From behind a camera, photographing the far corners of the world, I’ve gained perspective on my life that I would never have gotten if I’d stayed in Kringle.”

  “Can you sum it up for me?”

  Ava tapped her chin. “I discovered people are the same no matter where you go. They all want the same things. To be happy and safe and loved.”

  “Caleb loved you.”

  “I know, but I until I left town, I couldn’t trust my feelings. I’d only loved one man. I had nothing to compare it to.”

  “And now you do?”

  Ava had spent the last ten years on the road. She’d had a handful of romances. She’d had fun. She’d enjoyed herself, but she had found no one who meant as much to her as Caleb once had. Sometimes that kept her awake at night, thinking about what she’d thrown away. Ironic that the only way to know what she’d had was to walk away from it.

  “I appreciate that you’ve grown so much as a person, done so much with your life already, but honey, I’m so worried about your future. Are you going to spend the rest of your life roaming the world alone?”

  Ava had no idea.

  “Don’t worry.” Ava hugged her mom. “I’m okay. I promise. I was young. I was impulsive. I wasn’t ready to settle down in Kringle. I wanted to see the world and I did. Mission accomplished.”

  “Does that mean you’re finally ready to settle down?” her mother asked hopefully.

  Ava shrugged. Truthfully, she was at a crossroads in her life. She’d lost her last job due to the company she worked for going out of business and nothing new had shown up, although she’d applied to three jobs in three different countries and was waiting to hear back.

  “I’m taking some time off from work.”

  “Oh, my!” her mother exclaimed, looking so happy that Ava felt a bit guilty. She knew leaving Kringle had hurt her and Dad as much as it had hurt Caleb. “That’s fabulous. How long will you be staying?”

  “I’m not sure. Definitely through the new year.”

  “I see.” Her mother looked disappointed. “I thought maybe you meant you were going to take six months or a year away from the travel.”

  “I’m playing it by ear, if that’s okay. Don’t worry, I won’t be in your hair. I’ll rent a place in town.”

  “You’ll do no such thing. This is your home. You’ll stay right here.”

  “And help with the shelter.”

  “We’d love that so much.”

  “Me too, Mom. Me too.”

  “I’m so glad you’re home.” Her mother held out her arms.

  Ava hugged her mother amidst the serenade of barking dogs.

  “While we’re in a hugging mood, do you want to hug the animals? It’s time for their daily cuddles.”

  “Absolutely. I thought you’d never ask.” Ava giggled.

  “Let’s start with Moses and Tiny.” Her mother crouched in front of the kennel containing an elderly basset hound and nodded for Ava to free the Great Dane from the oversized pen behind her.

  “C’mon, Tiny,” Ava said, suspecting that her father had named the dog.

  Sometimes the rescues came in as nameless strays, and Ted Miller was famous for giving them ironic monikers. Other times, as with Moses, the pets were owner surrendered. Her mother had already told her that Moses’ owner, a local elderly woman who used to teach art at Kringle High, had developed Alzheimer’s and could no longer care for him.

  Only three kennels remained unoccupied out of the sixty available.
Ava petted the lively Tiny, who wagged his massive tail so hard it slammed into Ava’s mother’s back.

  “Whoa,” her mother said, laughing. “Turn Tiny out into the dog run, would you, sweetheart? He’s only two years old and has boundless energy.”

  “Will do.” Ava reached for one of the many cheap, multi-colored leashes her parents hung on wall pegs around the kennels. The place was as full as Ava had ever seen it, and she hoped the Home for the Holidays event would help place many of the animals in loving homes.

  She led Tiny to the dog run and released him into the enclosure, where he immediately started running around and around the pen as fast as his long legs would carry him.

  Wow, she thought. He looks a lot like me when I first left Kringle, crazed with pent-up energy and so certain I was going somewhere when I just ran in circles.

  Mom brought out Moses, and they let the two dogs romp for a while before returning them to their kennels. Next, they visited Juliet.

  The little dog was curled in a ball on a blanket in the corner of her kennel, but when she saw Ava, her face lit up. She ran to the cage door, wriggling so vigorously it looked as if she’d topple right over.

  “You have an admirer,” her mother murmured.

  Ava opened the kennel and picked up Juliet. She had to admit, the little dog had wiggled her way into her heart.

  “I think she and I have a special bond.” She looked at her mom.

  “Too bad your nomadic lifestyle prevents you from adopting her.”

  “No, but if you adopted her, I could see her every time I came home.”

  “Sweetheart, do I need to remind you we’ve already adopted five dogs?”

  “No.” Ava chuckled. “They all came in bouncing on my bed this morning.”

  “My fault. I shouldn’t allow them on the furniture, but I can’t resist.” Laughing, her mother brushed dog hair off her sleeve. “I have too much love to give and it’s hard for me to get down on the floor and romp with them the way I used to romp with you.”

  It had been fun growing up at the shelter. Because she’d always had so many animals around, she’d never felt the lack of siblings. She’d had an idyllic childhood, and her travels had only underscored how lucky she’d been to have such loving parents who’d always put her needs ahead of their own.

  Ava gave Juliet a kiss on the top of her head. “I’ll be back soon.”

  Juliet looked at Ava with solemn eyes and blinked twice, almost as if she understood the plan.

  After they finished spending time with every animal, Ava and her mother headed to the office where her father was working on the computer.

  He looked up and smiled as they entered the room. “So what’s the verdict? Do you think we can pull off this Home for the Holidays thing by next Friday?”

  “Sure!” Ava said. “What’s the worst that can happen? No one shows up and we’re no worse off than we were before, minus the money I spent on advertising.”

  Her parents looked at each other in that way that long-married couples did but they didn’t say a word.

  “Here are the posters you asked me to print up.” Her father took a stack of papers off the full color printer and handed them to Ava.

  She studied the poster she’d stayed up late to create.

  They looked good if she did say so herself. She’d used Juliet’s picture popping from the Christmas stocking for the advertising. No way around it—Juliet looked cute as the dickens. Later, she would photograph all the pets at the shelter and make a similar poster for each one of them.

  “She’s so darling,” her mother said. “Juliet looks amazing in this photograph! You’ve done a superb job with this, Ava.”

  Ava had written a brief story to go along with the picture, explaining that Juliet was a cheerful, friendly dog who loved to help—hence her job as Santa’s elf. Juliet would fit in well in any home because she got along with children and pets alike.

  The bottom part of the poster explained the goal of Home for the Holidays. They scheduled the big adoption event the day after the town’s parade, so that meant there would be plenty of people in town for the Christmas tree lighting festival. They encouraged folks to come sooner and qualify to adopt a new family member. Ava hoped the big push would help empty the shelter before Christmas. What a lofty goal.

  “Let me see if I can place these posters around town.”

  “Want me to help?” her mother asked.

  Ava started to say yes, but she knew her mother well enough to spot a shift in tone. Her mother was sincerely offering to help, but she really didn’t want to.

  “I’ve got this.”

  “If you’re sure…” Her mother and father exchanged another cryptic look, and she couldn’t help wondering what they were thinking. Worried about their flighty daughter no doubt.

  For the first time since she’d left home, Ava wondered if maybe their concerns about her future were valid.

  The UPS truck disappeared out of sight just as Caleb realized one of the packages the driver had delivered was dog food destined for Kringle Kritters. It had gotten mixed in with his order of horse and cattle feed.

  He could have one of his hands drive it over, but they were out mending fences and would be at it all day. No bother to hop into his truck and take it over to the Millers’. He wasn’t doing it in the hope of seeing Ava again. He was simply being neighborly.

  Your nose will grow, Sutton, if you keep that up.

  Not true. He would take the feed over whether Ava was there or not.

  Yes, but you wouldn’t jump to it immediately.

  Fine. Seeing Ava again had stirred old feelings, both good and bad. He’d spent a restless night thinking about her and wishing for things better not wished for. She was who she was. A free bird. And darn if he didn’t love that about her.

  She was fearless. And even though her bravery scared him, he respected it. Respected her. How many other eighteen-year-old girls raised in a small rural town took off for adventure with only a talent for photography and an optimistic attitude that everything would work out as it should?

  So many things could have gone wrong. He’d even made a list and given it to her before she took off. But she was fairy dusted and everything had worked out in her favor. Secretly, a part of himself that he wasn’t particularly proud of, had hoped she’d fall on her face and come running back home with her tail between her legs.

  It had taken him a good year to shake off that wishful thinking and accept that she wasn’t coming back.

  When he pulled up in front of the shelter, all three Millers were running around behind their main house. The gate to their backyard stood open.

  A feeling of dread settled over Caleb. He knew trouble when he saw it. Once or twice in the past, the Millers’ pets had gotten out of the gate, usually because one of the volunteers had forgotten to shut the gate between the house and the shelter. If the dogs had taken off, they could end up anywhere on his ranch and he owned a couple of donkeys who were used to battling coyotes and were aggressive to canines.

  Or worse, they could end up on the road.

  Caleb parked and jumped from his truck. “What’s up?”

  Ted rushed over to him. “I’d let the dogs out in the backyard when I came over to the shelter, and I guess my mind, my mind. I forgot to lock the gate behind me. I’m a feeble old sot.”

  Caleb didn’t comment. He knew what it looked like when a guy was raking himself over the coals. Ted Miller wasn’t the least bit feeble, and Caleb suspected Ted’s lapse had nothing to do with memory loss and everything to do with his recent cancer diagnosis. Even if it was a very curable cancer, your own mortality was a scary thing to face.

  “These things happen,” Caleb soothed. “It’ll be all right. How many dogs got out?”

  Rubbing a hand over his thinning pate, Ted’s voice filled with panic. “All five of them.”

  Face flushed, the older man leaned over and braced his palms against his knees to catch his breath.

 
; “Dad?” Ava rushed over. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine.” Ted panted and waved away his daughter’s concern. “Just got a little winded.”

  Caleb shifted his gaze to Marjorie. She was almost as breathless as her husband and despite the cold air, perspiration dewed her brow.

  “Let me.” Caleb reached for the five leashes Ted clutched in one hand.

  Ted relinquished them without argument.

  Caleb raised his head and his gaze landed on Ava.

  She nodded.

  He didn’t bother to run his idea by her. The look she’d given him told Caleb they agreed. “Ava and I will round up the dogs. This shouldn’t take us long.”

  “C’mon, you old coot,” Marjorie teased and took her husband’s hand. “Let the young’uns do their thing.”

  “I’m not that old,” Ted grumbled, but he followed his wife into the shelter’s office.

  “I’m guessing that none of your parents’ pets respond to a whistle?” Caleb asked Ava.

  “Probably not.” Ava offered a wry smile. “They raised their dogs the way they raise their daughter, with a gentle hand.”

  “That’s nice,” he said. “The world could use more gentle hands.”

  “I probably could have used more discipline and structure,” she mused, holding his gaze for a second too long.

  Was there some significance in her statement? Was she confessing something to him? Was there an apology in there somewhere? Caleb held his breath, but she didn’t continue that thread of conversation.

  Instead, Ava stuck the fingers of both hands into her mouth and let loose with a long, loud, ear-splitting whistle.

  Caleb jumped. “Where did you learn to do that?”

  Ava grinned. “A chocolatier in the Swiss Alps. I was photographing h—”

  He held up a palm. “Wait, wait. I don’t need to hear about your sexual adventures with another man.”

  “Her…” Ava said pointedly.

  “You had sexual adventures with a woman?” he asked, surprised but intrigued.

  “Don’t be such a guy. My sexual adventures have all been pretty tame. Anyway, the chocolatier’s name is Astrid Aubry and I was filming her for a Sprüngli shoot.”