Blue Chow Christmas: The Hart Family (Have A Hart Book 4)

by Rachelle Ayala

  “I am a straight shooter,” Brian practically shouted. “I don’t tell lies. I want flowers to make my wife feel loved.”

  “Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.” The large-boned woman honed in on him like a hound dog picking up a scent. “You’re in luck, because I have just the arrangement for you. Most people think of red roses for love, but that is for later on, to fire up the passion and keep it hot. Right now, you need to awaken her from her loneliness. Ignite a tiny spark of hope. Make her smile and think of you fondly.”

  “I want her to smile. Her sisters always get flowers from their fiancés and she never gets any from me.”

  “Then let’s start small. Going overboard might scare her into thinking you’re guilty of something worse. If you’ve never given her flowers, you don’t shower her with a golden box of long stemmed red roses. Oh, no, no, no.”

  Brian checked his watch and shifted on his feet. He didn’t need a lecture or a strategy. He simply needed flowers. “I’m in a rush. I want to get these to the house before she comes home.”

  “Okay, okay.” Terri slid the glass door of the cooler open and retrieved a pale pink combination. “Moonstone roses, pale pink and white, combined with lavender lilies and peppy snapdragons. I guarantee this will bring a smile to her face. It won’t be what she’s expecting, and it’s a great start to mending your relationship.”

  “I’ll take them,” Brian said, pulling out his wallet.

  “Take our discount card,” Terri said. “Each time you buy a bouquet or arrangement, I’ll stamp it, and you get a free one after ten.”

  “Sure, thanks.” Brian paid by credit card. He checked the time on his phone. It was getting late, and he hadn’t heard from Cait. Not that she ever texted him. But something had changed today. They’d been intimate outside of the schedule, and somehow, taking care of the dogs made them a team.

  “Don’t text her and ruin the surprise,” Terri said, giving him a discount card. She looked over his shoulder as the bells rang over the door and another customer stepped into the shop.

  “Sure, bye,” Brian mumbled as he flipped Terri’s card over to put it away. His eyes widened, and he darted a glance at her before scurrying from the store.

  I’m PinkPriestess. TrickyGlen asks you to leave details at the breadbox in the Temple of Orion.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Brian couldn’t stop grinning as he jogged up the steps to his front door. He couldn’t wait to see Cait’s face when he brought in the flowers. He was itching to check Glen’s message in the game world, but first, he had to make sure Cait felt loved and appreciated.

  Her family was gathered around the dining table, getting ready for Sunday dinner. Ever since her parents’ house burned down, his house had become grand central station, or in this case, Hart central station.

  “Brian, what are you doing back?” Connor clapped a hand on his shoulder.

  “Are those for Melisa?” Jenna eyed the flowers as Brian set the arrangement smack dab on the center of the table.

  “Where’s Cait?” Brian asked when his wife, who was usually in the middle of all family gatherings, didn’t emerge from the kitchen or come down the stairs.

  “She’s not here.” Connor said. “You mean you didn’t find her at the cabin?”

  “I found her there, but we traded cars.” Brian peeled off his raincoat and hung it on a hook. “Must have taken her longer to get the dogs settled.”

  “Dog? What dogs?” Cait’s mother, Kimberly, set a casserole on the table.

  “Cait found two dogs, and we’re going to find their owner. But she’s boarding them with a rescue shelter back at Colson’s Corner.” With all pairs of eyes staring at him as if he were an alien, he couldn’t collect his thoughts fast enough. “She should be back by now.”

  “She’s not. Let me text her,” Connor said, shooting him a glower. “I can’t believe you drove off without her. The weather’s horrible, and there are reports of black ice.”

  “It was raining pretty hard. We traded cars. She has my all-wheel drive.” Brian’s chest tightened, and he felt defensive. It hadn’t occurred to him that he should have waited for her, and this again, meant he was a failure. Not normal. Without human affection.

  “I’m sure she’s fine.” Nadine placed a comforting hand on Brian’s arm. “She probably went back to the cabin to wait out the storm.”

  “She’s not answering the phone,” Connor said. “Not surprising if she’s at the cabin.”

  “Maybe she texted you,” Nadine said to Brian. “To let you know she went back.”

  Brian nodded mutely, not wanting to admit Cait never texted him. Cait’s family knew, but Nadine, being newly married into the family, was out of the loop. She was also Cait’s best friend.

  “I thought she’d get here before me,” Brian said, pulling out his phone and making a show of looking at the text messages. There were none from Cait.

  Meanwhile, all the Harts and their significant others erupted into speculation about what had happened to Cait. They spoke at the same time, a cacophony of voices that made Brian’s head ache and spin at the same time.

  What if something had happened to Cait? What if Linx couldn’t accommodate the dogs? What if Cait got lost on the way to town? Or she decided to go back to the cabin?

  He should never have let her go alone. He should have brought the dogs back here, and they could have stayed in the garage. If Cait was up at the cabin, she would be without gas, since he’d shut off the propane tank, and she didn’t know how to turn it back on.

  “I better go back to the cabin and look for her.” Brian grabbed his coat and stumbled toward the door. He had to get away from the accusing looks and fingers pointed at him. If he were a better husband, he would have made sure Cait was safe.

  The house phone rang on his way out, and Brian grabbed the extension near.

  “This is the Sheriff Todd Colson,” a male voice said. “Are you Brian Wonder?”

  “Yes, speaking.” Brian’s heart froze. Nothing good ever happened when a peace officer called on a Sunday evening.

  “Your wife was in a single car accident and is in stable condition at the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital.”

  “Is she okay? Can I speak to her?” Brian’s voice choked in his throat as his chest tightened. “What happened?”

  “She’s under observation, but should be released tomorrow morning. I, however, have questions for you. I need you to come to the station and give a statement.”

  “What about the dogs, are they okay?”

  “There were no dogs in the car as far as we could tell,” Sheriff Colson said. “I can’t give you any more information until you come to the station for questioning.”

  Brian’s heart dropped to his gut, and chills pinched his scalp. Cait was hurt because he’d left her with the dogs. Maybe they distracted her, or she wasn’t used to driving his car—didn’t know where the controls were for the wipers or the defroster. He should never have left her alone.

  “I’ll be right over,” he told the sheriff. “Directions?”

  “I’ll text it to your phone.” Sheriff Colson hung up, and Brian turned to face Cait’s family who had gathered around him.

  “What happened to Cait?”

  “Is she hurt? Where is she?”

  “She was in a car accident,” Brian said. “She’s in stable condition at the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. I don’t know more. I’m heading over there.”

  “We’re coming with you,” Cait’s parents said, and her entire entourage agreed. They ran around gathering coats, jackets and purses like frantic Black Friday shoppers and herded themselves toward the front door.

  “We’ll go together in the van,” Larry announced. Since he got engaged to Jenna, he went and bought himself a twelve-passenger van. “Brian, drive me home so I can get the van.”

  “Actually, I have to go now. Can’t wait.” Brian exited the house, leaving the Hart gang behind. They were already glaring at him, and all of t
hem would blame him for Cait’s accident. The last thing he wanted to do was sit inside a van with them while they peppered him with questions and accusations.

  “Brian.” Connor came out after him. “You’re in no condition to drive. Wait for Larry and the van.”

  “I can’t. The sheriff wants to talk to me.” Brian spoke in a low voice. “He says he has questions.”

  “Questions?” Connor’s brows turned down. “Is there something wrong?”

  Brian shrugged. He didn’t want to speculate. Usually, when authority figures had questions, it meant he was in some sort of trouble. Maybe they already caught onto his messages to Glen. Cait had warned him to delete his Twitter account, and he hadn’t done it yet. Or the dogs had run away and news had gotten around to Senator Thornton that he and Cait had kept them instead of turning them in.

  “I have to go.” Brian turned toward Cait’s Toyota. “My wife is hurt, and I need to take care of her.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “You’re one popular lady.” The night nurse peeked into Cait’s hospital room. The hospital she was staying at had a twenty-four hour visitor policy, and she could hear her family outside. Fortunately, she was still awake.

  She’d passed out after she crashed and had only come around in the last hour. She was wearing a neck brace, and her chest ached every time she took a breath.

  “Cait, are you all right?” Her mother said, being the first to enter. Her dad, two sisters, two almost brother-in-laws, three brothers, one sister-in-law, and the two female elves her two single brothers picked up at the Lighting Festival crowded into the room.

  She craned her stiff neck to see if Brian was hanging at the back in his usual position, but there was no thatch of carrot red hair visible.

  Did he not know? Wouldn’t the police have contacted him because, like it or not, he was her next-of-kin?

  Her family settled around her with expressions of concern and love while questions volleyed and lobbed across the room like popcorn over an open fire.

  “What happened?”

  “Why were you driving Brian’s car?”

  “He said something about two dogs, where are they?”

  “Are you in pain?”

  “What does the doctor say?”

  Melisa made her way to the front of the horde, holding a bouquet of flowers. “Here, these are for you.”

  She set the flowers on the tray table in front of Cait—a combination of pale pink roses and lavender lilies with pretty pink and purple snapdragons, the exact type of flowers that matched her baby sister, who was a kindergarten teacher.

  “Thanks,” Cait said as tears snuck around the corners of her eyes. “You don’t have to share your flowers with me. I’ll be okay. It’s nothing serious. The doctor says I have a concussion, a strained neck, and a few bruised ribs.”

  She was also rolling in self-pity because, boohoo, Brian wasn’t there to hold her hand—not that he ever was.

  Nothing had changed, despite the heart-to-heart they’d had earlier in the cabin. For him, it was an exchange of information, and nothing she’d said had touched his heart. If what Mrs. Thornton suspected about Brian were true, it wasn’t his fault.

  Were people with Asperger’s syndrome capable of being in love? If not, it would be terribly unfair of her to ask him to try. It would be as if he’d asked her to climb into burning buildings.

  She should be grateful her family loved her and had dropped everything to be with her. Her neck was held stiff with the cervical collar, so it was hard for her to look everyone in the eye. “Thanks for coming to see me. It means a lot to me. Thanks for the flowers, too.”

  “Don’t thank us,” Jenna said, arranging the flowers on the tray table. She was the fashion designer, and before she met Larry, she had a trail of hotshot men sending her flowers and gifts. Jenna plucked the card from the plastic prongs. “Open it. You’ll be surprised.”

  “They’re so not your style,” Cait said, wincing as she tried to roll her eyes. She must really have been knocked up good, what with the airbags punching her, and the final jolting thud when the car landed on the bottom of a ravine—not that she remembered a thing. Brian’s Outback was totaled, and the nurses had told her it was a miracle she’d survived.

  “They’re not exactly your style either, but Brian picked them for you. Sorry, we read the card,” Nadine cut in. She sat in a chair next to the bed and patted Cait’s hand. “He wanted to surprise you. You should have seen how his face fell when we told him you weren’t home.”

  “Brian? For me?” Cait reached for the card. “Why isn’t he here? Did something happen to him?”

  Connor stepped forward. “He had to speak to the sheriff at Colson’s Corner.”

  “Why? Is he in some kind of trouble?” Cait jerked her neck his direction, causing a jolt of pain. “The police wanted to see me, but the doctors said I wasn’t up to being questioned.”

  “Tell us what happened,” her brother, Grady, said. “Did someone try to run you off the road? How did you lose control of the car?”

  “I don’t remember,” Cait said. “They said I was going too fast.”

  “But you never go too fast,” Jenna said. “You’re the slowest driver in California. People pass you all the time, giving you dirty looks.”

  “Maybe someone was tailgating her,” Grady said. “Forcing her to go faster.”

  Cait’s head ached at the glimpses of the horrible scene. “I’m trying to remember.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut as the insides of her head burned, scattering her thoughts every which way.

  “Are you okay?” Melisa patted Cait’s hand. “Maybe she’s getting tired. We should let her rest.”

  “Something’s not adding up.” Grady rubbed his chin. “Why is Brian at the police station instead of here with us? What’s so important?”

  “I totaled his car,” Cait said. “He’s probably dealing with the insurance company.”

  “On a Sunday night?” Cait’s mother exclaimed. “There’s nothing more important than you.”

  “If the police are questioning him,” Grady said. “It means they suspect foul play. Were there any witnesses?”

  “I don’t know.” Cait slapped the bed. “I can’t remember what happened. I was trying to stop, but the brakes weren’t working.”

  “Like someone tampered with them.” Grady’s steely gaze parked momentarily on each family member before moving to the next one. “The police might suspect Brian.”

  “Wait, hold it right there,” Connor said, stepping forward. “That’s an awfully big jump. Why would Brian mess up his own brakes?”

  “Maybe he wants to get Cait out of the way.” Grady, always the conspiracy theorist, crossed his arms.

  “Brian wouldn’t hurt anyone,” Larry said. “Least of all Cait. He loves her.”

  “He does not,” Grady retorted. “You guys are all blind because he’s your buddy, but not me. Brian’s plain weird. You never see him join in any of the games we play, and he never goes out with Cait. He’s always hiding in the corner on his computer.”

  “Grady, stop making accusations.” Their father blew through his beard. “Brian’s family, and just because he’s different doesn’t make him guilty. He’s a good firefighter, reliable, and goes above his duty to help the team.”

  “That’s all an act,” Grady said. “Just like the flowers he bought. He’s never bought Cait flowers before, has he?”

  “Well, no,” Cait admitted.

  “Right, so the flowers were a cover-up. He wanted to use them to act surprised when you weren’t home. I thought it was strange how he brought the flowers in with a sneaky grin on his face.”

  “Grady, stop.” Father shot Grady a stern look. “Your sister needs to rest. Don’t make her feel worse.”

  “It’s okay, Dad,” Cait said. “Grady’s right. Brian’s never brought me flowers before. He may be feeling guilty for leaving me in the rain.”

  “Exactly.” Grady jutted his jaw as if h
e’d scored a point. “Don’t you find it strange that Cait was driving his car and he took her Toyota?”

  “Enough,” Father said. “We’re not getting anywhere with this speculation. The important thing is Cait’s okay. The rest doesn’t matter.”

  “She should know how nuts her husband is.” Grady hooked an arm around a pretty woman with red-brown hair. “Jumping to conclusions and pushing my date around.”

  “You punched him already,” Connor said. “No foul, no harm.”

  “Wait, what did Brian do?” Cait’s pulse throbbed behind her ears. “Why was he pushing your date around?”

  “He thought she was you,” Nadine explained. “And that you were kissing another man, which turned out to be Grady.”

  Cait glared at her dark-haired brother Grady. “And you punched him? Why do you hate him?”

  “Because he’s not good enough for you.” Grady’s face darkened. He looked around the room. “I don’t know why the rest of you can’t see it, but Brian doesn’t want to be in this family. He’s always off by himself.”

  “He’s an introvert,” Cait said. “We’re too noisy and loud for him. We probably drive him crazy, and now that Mom and Dad are living with us, he has no place to hide other than the cabin.”

  “You made my point,” Grady said. “He’s not really part of the family. He’s weird. That’s all I can say, and he doesn’t treat you the way we Hart men treat our women. I mean, where is he right now? Why isn’t he the first person to rush to your bedside?”

  Grady’s words hit a sore spot in Cait’s heart. She blinked and looked away from him. From the sympathetic expressions pasted on the rest of her family’s faces, it was obvious they all felt sorry for her—being in a loveless marriage with a man who was absent more often than not.

  “What do you want me to do about it now?” Cait wiped her eyes. “I’ve just had a scare. I totaled Brian’s car, and I’m all bruised and banged up.”