A Very Merry Christmas Gift (Winter Kisses Book 1)

by Kathryn Kelly

Claire shrugged and tucked her umbrella behind the door. “I don’t know. To me it was like leaving the back door of your house open. We can watch the front door, but anyone could come in this door,” she nodded toward the back stairs, “and walk right into your house.”

  Tabitha nodded. “You’re right. I wish you had said something.”

  “I did. I told Aunt Allie, but she didn’t seem concerned.”

  As Claire settled in behind the counter, Tabitha unlocked the front door. Main Street was deserted except for a few passing cars. Nonetheless, she started a pot of coffee for any customers who might brave the weather.

  She had hardly gotten the coffee going when a van pulled up in front of the door and a delivery boy holding an umbrella stepped around to the passenger side of the van. As Tabitha watched, he pulled out a vase of flowers covered in blue plastic and dashed to their door. The tinkling of the front door echoed in the empty shop.

  “Good morning,” the young man who couldn’t be a day over seventeen said as he thrust the bouquet into Tabitha’s hands.

  “Who are they for?”

  “For the shop.”

  “What do you mean? We didn’t order anything.”

  He shrugged and glanced at his clipboard. “That’s what it says.”

  “Who are they from?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Who paid for them?’

  Claire came to stand next to her and taking the flowers from Tabitha, set them on the counter.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. I really don’t know. You can call the flower shop.”

  “I will,” Tabitha said.

  “Thank you,” Claire said, as the boy dashed out.

  Tabitha glanced at Claire.

  “What? It wasn’t his fault,” Claire said.

  “You’re right. What does the card say?”

  Claire took the blue plastic off the flowers as Tabitha moved to stand next to her at the counter.

  Tabitha grasped the counter as a wave of dizziness swept over her at the sight of the yellow roses.

  “It says, To the beautiful women of The Book Nook. Bobby. Aw. He likes you.”

  “He doesn’t like me,” Tabitha said, putting a hand over her head in an attempt to quiet the ringing that shot through her ears. “He doesn’t like me. He likes you.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted saying them.

  Claire had a quick intake of breath. “Really? Me? Do you think so?”

  Tabitha shot her a glance. What was wrong with her? Tabitha watched her lean over the counter and, closing her eyes, inhaled deeply.

  Claire was young and impressionable. She’d always been professional, but, again, she was young, and... pretty. Tabitha had definitely noticed it before, but Claire with that dreamy expression on her face, was indeed angelic. She’d be interested in Bobby. He was an older man. She wouldn’t know any better. Just as Tabitha had been duped.

  And Bobby would be interested in her. He’d shown up to harass her, and he’d gotten the unexpected side benefit of a new love interest - a new victim.

  She had to warn her. She shook her head. Claire would never believe her. She’d just think she was jealous. No one ever believed that Bobby would harm a flea.

  Even the cop who had responded to the call to her home hadn’t believed her.

  The afternoon came with more rain. No customers had come into the shop all morning. Claire spent her first two hours studying, then left after lunch for an early afternoon class.

  Tabitha put on the Weather Channel and watched as they predicted even colder weather.

  She then settled in behind the counter with a mystery novel. With the Christmas season, they should really think about hiring someone else. With her there, Aunt Allie hadn’t bothered to hire extra help - of course, that was before she felt down the stairs.

  Tabitha found herself glancing toward the front door. She had her cell phone in her pocket and the store phone next to her on the counter. She told herself she shouldn’t be afraid.

  But she was.

  Bobby had come into the store yesterday and invaded her space. She had a bruise today - on her arm, and a bruise on her heart. She’d had the opportunity last night to spend time with a nice guy and had ended up retreating to her bedroom.

  She glanced at the roses and suppressed a shudder. And now Bobby had found a way to make sure he was there in their minds.

  She’d thought about throwing them out. It would have been so easy to just take them out back and toss them in the dumpster. But then she’d have to explain it to Claire. She hadn’t quite figured out how to do that yet.

  After talking to the counselor, she known that she needed to get away. She’d made the first preliminary phone call. She’d called Aunt Allie to see if she could spend some time with her in Estes Park. Aunt Allie had been thrilled with the idea.

  She’d felt better after talking to her aunt. She decided that she would go there for a weekend just to catch up with her aunt. It was something she should have already taken the time to do since moving to Colorado.

  She’d come home from work that night with a smile on her face for the first time in what seemed like weeks. She remembered the conversation with Bobby well.

  “What’s wrong with you?” He’d asked.

  “What? Nothing,” Tabitha said, turning her smile on him.

  He took a step closer. “What are you up to Tabitha?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” she’d said, her smile gone and her heart in her throat. Bobby no longer had his eyes down. Instead, his eyes were peering straight at her. She lowered her own gaze, unable to keep from cringing. The last time he’d looked at her so intently, he’d smacked her in the ribs.

  “What’s his name, Tabby?” Bobby asked.

  “Tabitha,” she said under her breath. She turned away. Needed to get away from him.

  He’d grabbed her arm and jerked her back. When he slapped her across the cheek, she’d fallen to the floor, her arm over her face.

  “Get up,” he’d said, turning away. “You’re pitiful.”

  The phone rang and Tabitha jumped, nearly falling off the stool.

  It was a woman calling to inquire about their store hours.

  She set the phone down next to her closed novel and attempted to calm her nerves. She found her gaze fixed on the front door and gave up on trying to read. Gave up on anything except trying to figure out what to do about Bobby.

  She would definitely have to tell Aunt Allie so she could be on the watch in case he showed up. Tabitha didn’t really know how dangerous he was. Maybe she should go to the police. Take out a restraining order. No more had the thought occurred to her than she dismissed it. She’d tried that before in Boulder. It had gotten her nowhere. Nowhere but to be given a hard time by the police.

  No, she wouldn’t do that. Not without something more than a bruise on her arm and a creepy feeling about her ex-husband.

  As I’ll be Dreaming of a White Christmas blared through the speakers, she thought about going to the back and turning off that damn Christmas music. It seemed just wrong having on holiday music when all she could do was worry about when Bobby would show up again.

  But if a customer came in, the music needed to be on.

  She sighed and, with her elbow on the counter, rested her head against her palm.

  If only she knew what to do. She glanced at her watch. Claire would be back in under two hours. It would be time to go up and check on Aunt Allie.

  And now she had Claire to deal with.

  The bells on the front door tinkled and she jumped, jerking her gaze back to the door.

  It was Adam - his expression one of concern.

  He came in, glanced around at the empty shop, and with a little hop, took a seat on the counter.

  “Raining,” he said.

  “I never knew it to stop people before,” she said, her heart pounding in her throat. She didn’t know if it was from being worried that Bobby had been coming in the door or if she was ju
st glad to see Adam.

  “They’ll venture out later. Might as well enjoy it in the meantime.”

  She nodded.

  “How’s Aunt Allie?” he asked.

  “I’m taking her in for a check-up tomorrow. And hopefully, she’ll be back on her feet.”

  “You’ve done a great job with her. And taking care of the shop, too.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No, really. Do you have retail in your background?”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head, but glancing toward the front door.”

  “You seem a little on edge.”

  “Do I?” she asked, looking into his eyes.

  “Yeah,” he said, reaching out to touch her arm.

  She jerked back.

  “I won’t hurt you.”

  Lowering her gaze, she nodded, and rubbed her arm. “I know that. I’m sorry.”

  He studied her. Seemed to contemplate. “You know,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about that whole web site idea we were talking about,” he glanced at the computer on the counter behind them. “Want me to show you how to set it up?”

  “Sure,” she said.

  He came around back with her and pulled up a stool. “The first thing you have to do is reserve a domain name.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That’s the space you’re going to rent on the Internet. What do you want to call it?”

  Glancing out at Main Street before she twisted around to face the computer, she said, “blue Christmas.”

  “Ok,” he said, without a blink. “Let’s try it out.” He typed in bluechristmas.com and it came back available. “Ok. You’re going to need a credit card.”

  “I don’t have a credit card on me,” she said, turning to meet his gaze. “Want me to run upstairs and get one?”

  “It’s okay,” he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. “We’ll use mine.”

  “No,” she said, putting her hand over his. “I’ll get one from Aunt Allie. She’ll want to pay for it since it’s her web site.”

  “You’re right. And she can use it as a tax deduction.”

  “I can go get it.”

  “We can do that part later. Let me show you how to set it up,” he clicked around on the Internet. “I like this one,” he said. “Squarespace dot com.”

  “You make it look easy.”

  “It is, really, and kind of fun. You can start with one of these templates and keep it simple.”

  He showed her a couple of options before his cell phone rang. He glanced at the caller id. “I need to take this,” he said. “It’s a vendor I’ve been trying to get in touch with.”

  “No problem,” she said, waving him away. “Take it.”

  He answered the phone and stepped out the front door. As she clicked around a bit, she couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she could hear his voice outside the front door.

  Knowing he was there was just the thing that managed to calm her nerves.

  She clicked around, chose a background color, a font, and a page layout.

  Adam stuck his head in the door. “I’ll be right back,” he said, “I’ve got a customer.”

  “Okay,” she said, not bothering to turn around.

  While she worked, she forgot to look toward the front door. She forgot to be anxious.

  When the front door bell jingled again, she looked around. It was Claire. “You’re back early,” she said.

  “Actually, I’m over an hour late.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was well into mid-afternoon, before Adam’s customer walked out the door. The guy had been fascinated by tying fishing lures. Since that was Adam’s favorite pastime, he hadn’t minded showing off some of the lures he’d created and the basics of how it worked. His new customer had plans to spend a week fishing in Montana and as they talked, he’d gone from wanting to buy some of Adam’s lures to wanting to try his hand at tying some of his own.

  Adam had given lessons before and it had become a nice little side-line. They negotiated the cost of lessons and Adam had demonstrated some of the basics. He always enjoyed an attentive pupil.

  Excited about the extra income he’d be making over the next three weeks, he went over to enter the appointments in his log book. Lessons didn’t come cheap and he would also get to charge his new customer for supplies.

  Checking his notes, he carefully entered the dates and times they’d agreed on.

  It seemed he’d be seeing a lot of Bobby Miller.

  Checking his watch, he locked up his desk and pushed back his chair. He’d told Tabitha he would be right back. He wondered how far she’d gotten on that web site she was working on.

  He still hadn’t found out what was bothering her, but he’d get around to that. She’d seemed like she needed a little distraction. He’d finish up the web site they’d started or make a new one. He’d worked on designing his own for a least a week before he’d been ready to release it.

  He grabbed a soda from the downstairs refrigerator, opened it, and drank thirstily. He took a second bottle, and taking it with him, waved to the two girls sitting behind his counter on his way out.

  Stepping inside the warm, welcoming Book Nook shop, the differences always astounded him. Tabitha had the fireplace going again, and Christmas music playing. He really should look into adding a speaker system - or maybe he could convince Aunt Allie to let him tap into hers.

  The place smelled like Christmas with the live tree. Maybe it was time for his artificial one to go.

  But the biggest contrast, was that the shop was crowded with customers. Ok, maybe the second biggest contrast. The first was that Tabitha was here. He’d gotten good at spotting her in the first few seconds after he stepped inside.

  The only problem with that at the moment was, she wasn’t in his sight. He walked through, greeted a couple of townspeople he recognized, and still didn’t see her.

  “Where’s Tabitha?” he asked Claire who was perched on a stool behind the counter.

  “She went upstairs,” Claire said with a shrug.

  He headed toward the back and dashed up the stairs.

  “Tabitha? Aunt Allie?” he called at the top of the stairs. He was always a little reluctant to just barge in. But there was no door to knock on.

  “Adam? Is that you?” Aunt Allie called from her bedroom. “Come on in.”

  Adam went in and kissed her on the cheek. “How much longer are you going to lounge around in the bed?”

  She laughed. “I suppose I’ll find out tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, I see how you are. You’ll get out of bed for the doctor.”

  “You’re onto me.”

  Tabitha came into the room with a tray that had cereal and milk.

  Adam’s heart did a little skip at the sight of her. “I’m glad I’m not the one laid up in the bed.”

  “You don’t like cereal?’ Tabitha asked as she set the tray on the bed.

  “Not particularly.”

  “Tabitha tells me you’re helping her set up a web site,” Aunt Allie said.

  “We’re looking into it,” Tabitha said.

  “I gave her my credit card so she can take care of the charges when you’re ready to set things up,” Aunt Min said, pouring milk on her cereal.

  “I’m ready now,” he said, locking his gaze with Tabitha’s.

  “How about we do it in the morning? I want to make a few changes to what I’m working on.”

  “Sure thing. I’ve got a client coming in at ten to get some basics on fly fishing, so I can be over just after eleven. But there’s no need to rush. It took me a couple of weeks to get my site like I wanted it.

  “Weeks?” Tabitha perched on the chair next to Aunt Allie’s bed.

  “You have to figure out the program.”

  “It’s not so hard.” She picked up her computer and began typing.

  “Online classes?” he asked.

  She nodded without looking up. That explained it, of course. Why she was so profic
ient at setting up the website. She used the Internet in her everyday work life.

  “I’m sorry,” he said to Tabitha, “that I didn’t come right back. I got tied up with a new customer who wanted a lesson on tying flies. He’s going to need a few lessons.”

  Tabitha looked up at him then, piercing him with those green eyes, her smile strained. “You don’t have to apologize. I know you have a business to run.”

  What then? He needed to get her alone. He wanted to spend time with her – just her. “Well, since Aunt Allie seems to prefer cereal, you want to get something to eat?”

  “I already ate,” she said, her eyes focused back on her computer.

  Well hell. She was going to make this difficult.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The day after Bobby had hit her, Tabitha had made two stops. The first was to the police station. She’d taken out a retraining order on Bobby. The second was to her department chair’s office. She didn’t know what to do, but she did know that she didn’t need to stand in front of her class looking like this – her face red from the slap.

  She slid into the chair across from his desk and pulled off her shades.

  “Tabitha,” Dr. Barker said. “What happened?”

  She had shrugged. “Bobby.”

  He had come around from behind his desk and sat in the chair next to her. “You’re going to press charges?” he asked.

  She’d looked up at him, shook her head. “I filed a restraining order.

  “Is there someplace you can go?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I can go to my aunt’s in Estes Park. He doesn’t know about her.”

  “Good,” he said, nodding. “Go pack some clothes while he’s at work. And go.”

  “What about my classes?”

  “Don’t worry about your classes. I’ll go in and tell them you had to go home for a family emergency. They’ll think you’re in Houston. We’ll move your classes to online. You can set it up from your aunt’s place.”

  Before she left his office, he added. “Change your cell phone number. If I need anything, I’ll email you.”

  And just like that, she’d ended up in Estes Park, hidden away from Bobby. Only, just not hidden well enough.