High Country Christmas

by Joanna Sims

  Everything about London’s body language changed when he brought up her trip. Her shoulders slumped, her mouth thinned and the displeasure in her light blue eyes told a story that her words had yet to say.

  Tyler cared for her, so he cared about the reaction of her entire family. But the one that truly counted was the reaction of her son.

  “What about J.T.?”

  “Really angry.”

  It was understandable that her son was angry. They had made a deal—her degree meant that they could finally move out of her parents’ house and get their own place together. Ever since J.T. was born, they had been like the two musketeers. She had been a young, single mother on her own; they had struggled in the early years and that struggle had bonded them.

  “But,” she continued, “he’s willing to give Montana a shot...for me.”

  “Then I’m going to do everything I can to make sure J.T. loves the ranch,” Tyler assured her. “And if there’s one thing the Brands are good at, it’s making folks feel at home.”

  * * *

  The day after Thanksgiving marked London’s sixth month. She was showing now and didn’t feel the need to try to hide it any longer. The stress of keeping a secret was gone, but the stress of introducing her son to the ranch, and vice versa, was still hard to manage. Whenever they spoke on the phone, her mom was quick to point out all of the financial burdens they were carrying—from house payments to medical bills, her parents had been underwater for a long time. She knew that the child support wasn’t enough to cover all of J.T.’s expenses, and even though she sent half of the money she made working on the ranch to her parents, it still wasn’t enough to feed a growing boy. Her father always had an I told you so tone of voice during their rare phone calls. He had speculated that she would find a way to self-sabotage this degree as well. The only positive conversations she had postconfession were with her stepfather. He was the one parent she could always count on to cheer her on no matter what.

  And now, when she video chatted with her son, she could see on his face the disappointment and resentment. He didn’t want to leave his friends, his basketball team, his life. That’s why he hadn’t wanted to go live with his father in the first place. Montana might as well be on Mars, it seemed so alien and remote to J.T.

  She felt grateful that she had Sophia to lift her spirits. And there was always something that needed to be done on the ranch. Today, the day after Thanksgiving, it was time to begin decorating the ranch for Christmas. Barbara had a steadfast tradition—she put up her Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving and took them down, without fail, the first day of the New Year.

  “Is this box too heavy for you?” Sophia pointed to box near her leg.

  They were in the attic searching for the Christmas boxes.

  “No way.” London picked up the box without any difficulty. She had always been just as strong as most of the boys, and sometimes even stronger.

  “Thanks for helping.” Sophia picked up one of the boxes labeled X-MAS. “Mom already has enough to worry about with Dad’s health. I’d like to just take care of all of this holiday stuff for her.”

  “I’m glad to help. I’ve always loved Christmas...ornaments, carols, lights, wrapping presents. My mom worked nights as a waitress and there was never a lot of money, so our Christmases were always on a shoestring budget. I would look at the houses in the neighborhood that had lights up with so much envy. I’ve never been able to give my son the Christmas I’ve wanted to give him. Of course, he gets really expensive gifts from his father. But I mean the picture-perfect Christmas with a real tree, mistletoe, eggnog, caroling...the whole bit.”

  “Well...” Sophia put her box on the kitchen table. “You’ve come to the right place, then. The Brand family will pull out all the stops, especially since your son is visiting. I know Hank is planning on waiting to find the Christmas tree until after J.T. arrives.”

  London shook her head in amazement, her hands on top of the closed box. “Barb and Hank are too good to be true.”

  “You would think.” Sophia took the first Christmas decoration out of the box and began to carefully unwrap it. “But I’ve known them for years and they’ve never changed. They’re just good people.”

  They unpacked the boxes quietly for a moment. Over the past several weeks, she had become close with Sophia. In fact, she would count Sophia among her friends.

  “Do you mind if I pry a little?” Sophia asked her.

  “Not really...”

  Sophia was quick to add, “If it’s too personal, just say so, and I’ll completely understand.”

  “I feel like everyone already knows all of my business here. How personal could it really be?”

  Sophia laughed. “You’re right. It’s hard to have privacy with this family.”

  “So...what do you want to know?”

  “Well...” Sophia stopped unpacking. “I was just wondering, why don’t you have a ring on your finger? It’s obvious in the way he looks at you that Tyler adores you...and you seem to love him. You’re having a baby together... Don’t you want to get married?”

  When London didn’t respond immediately, Sophia went back to unpacking with a sheepish shake of her head. “Too personal, right? I’m sorry... Luke always tells me I’m too nosy. Just please forgive me and forget I asked, okay?”

  At first, London did think that the question was too personal. But Sophia had a way about her. She was easy to talk to. So she decided to take a chance and trust her—open up to her. She shared her worries about her son and the difficulties ahead. Her son’s father was already lawyered up, and she had never been able to compete with his finances.

  “Yeah...but it’s different now.” Sophia put the empty box to the side. “You have the Brands behind you. Everything’s changed. Trust me. And you’re right—money does make the difference when the person on the other side can afford the fees. But it’s hard to have deeper pockets than Hank and Barb. They don’t flaunt it, but you’d better believe that they’ve got it.”

  London sat down, surveying their work. “I just wish that it was easier. That I could just say yes to Tyler without a second thought.” She ran her hand over the large snowman candle. “But I have J.T. And trust me...he’s a city kind of kid. His dream is to go to college in a big city like Chicago or New York. Montana is the exact opposite of what he wants. Well...you know. You’re moving here from Boston.”

  Sophia sat down at the table as well. “I totally get your son. I prefer skyscrapers to mountain views any day of the week.”

  Everyone had been shocked by Luke’s announcement that he was moving his family back to Montana. But Sophia and Luke hadn’t really given a specific reason for their radical decision.

  “Now it’s my turn to pry,” she said to Sophia. “Why in the world would you leave Boston? Tyler told me that you have a successful practice there...and you obviously love it.”

  Sophia tucked a honey-colored strand of hair behind her ear. “You confided in me, so it’s only fair that I confide in you. Luke was diagnosed with PTSD.”

  “Oh... I’m really sorry to hear that.”

  “I suppose I’ve always known. But it took Luke a while to accept it...to go and get diagnosed officially by a doctor at the VA.”

  London had a friend who had done one too many tours in Iraq. “How many tours did he do?”

  “Four,” Sophia said, a wrinkle forming in her forehead. “He deployed four times to Afghanistan...” She met London’s eyes. “He’s always on guard, always on alert. With all of the noises and people and stimulation... Luke can’t live in a big city.” Sophia shrugged one shoulder. “And I can’t live without him.”

  Sophia and Luke were as bonded as two people could be. Opposites, yes, but devoted nonetheless. London wanted that kind of love...that kind of marriage. And she believed, without reservation,
that she could have it with Tyler.

  Chapter Twelve

  J.T. arrived on a Tuesday, the morning after a heavy snowfall. The landscape resembled a winter wonderland—the white, white snow was sparkling as the light from the warm sun brushed over it. It was cold...really cold. And that worried London. J.T. wasn’t a fan of the cold, and winters in Montana could be brutal. In fact, London knew that a Montana winter would make a Virginia winter seem like child’s play in comparison. London had brought extra outerwear for J.T. to put on at the airport, just in case the clothing he wore on the plane wasn’t warm enough to protect him from the freezing temperatures.

  She had chewed her thumbnail to the quick awaiting her son’s arrival. When she saw him getting off the plane, she had to fight back the tears. At the entrance to the airport, London hugged her son tightly and kissed him on his cold cheek. Tyler hung back, respecting the mother and son reunion.

  London put her arm around J.T.’s shoulders and pulled him closer to her. He resisted a little, which let her know that he was still unhappy about Montana and the baby. But she kept him close to her despite his subtle protest.

  “How are you?” she asked him.

  “Cold,” J.T. replied sullenly.

  “Me, too,” she agreed. There was no sense denying the fact that it was ridiculously cold. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  J.T. didn’t respond verbally, but his downturned mouth and tiny shake of his head let her know, in no uncertain terms, that her feeling was not mutual. As they walked toward Tyler, London knew that they had a very steep hill to climb in order for J.T. to feel at home in big sky country.

  Tyler’s first impression of J.T. was that he carried himself in a way that made him seem to be much older than his twelve years. He was a good-looking kid with intelligent brown eyes—and tall. He was nearly as tall as London already, which meant he was almost six feet tall. His face was a little chubby and he appeared to be carrying some extra weight. His vacation on Bent Tree would slim him down if he didn’t overindulge in all of the Christmas cookies, cakes and hot chocolate Barb would be pushing.

  The meeting between her son and the man she wanted to marry was a simple uneventful greeting. They shook hands, said hello and then focused on the tasks of getting J.T.’s suitcase and heading to the truck. J.T. didn’t have much to say on the trip to the ranch. He sat in the backseat with his headphones plugged in to his ears. Tyler didn’t have much to say, either—but she knew that he was tense inside by the way his fingers were gripping the steering wheel and the way he kept on glancing at J.T. in the rearview mirror. Tyler was worried and so was she.

  “Hey...” London caught a glimpse of J.T.’s phone for the first time. “When did you get that?”

  “When I was with Dad.”

  “He got you an iPhone?” London had a constant battle with Jon about how they should raise their son. She didn’t think that J.T. was old enough to have an expensive phone.

  “He’s paying for it.”

  She knew exactly what her son was intimating—Jon was paying for the phone, so why should she care one way or the other? But she did care. It was the principle of the thing. And Jon knew that she didn’t want J.T. to have an iPhone yet, and so did her son, for that matter.

  “That’s not the point.” She turned forward in her seat. “We’ll talk about it later.”

  She didn’t want to start off J.T.’s time in Montana on a bad note, but she couldn’t abandon all of her principles in an attempt to win him over. He was a smart kid. He’d be expecting her to do that. He might even be banking on it.

  “I don’t know what the big deal is,” J.T. answered back. “He just wants to be able to see me when we talk. Like you do.”

  The last time Jon had bought their son an iPhone, J.T. was ten years old and she had sent the phone back to him.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” she repeated. She wanted J.T. to be happy and she wanted him to have the things he wanted. But she didn’t want him to be spoiled or entitled like so many kids of his generation were. She wanted him to know the value of hard work, of saving money and earning his own way. Jon, on the other hand, wanted J.T. to have all the material things that he hadn’t been able to have when he was a boy. Jon didn’t want his son to struggle.

  When they arrived at the ranch, a light snow had started to fall. J.T. climbed out of the truck and looked all around at the ranch with a look of disappointment on his face.

  “Where are your neighbors?” J.T. asked.

  Tyler opened the covered bed of his truck to get J.T.’s suitcase. “We don’t have any.”

  “That’s what I love about the ranch,” London chimed in. “No neighbors.”

  “I like neighbors,” J.T. muttered. “You didn’t tell me we’d be way out in the boonies.”

  London ignored her son’s bitterness. “Come on...let’s drop your bag off in your room and then go to the main house. Tyler’s family is waiting to meet you.”

  Like any normal kid, J.T. could be grouchy and disagreeable, but for the most part, he’d always been a pretty easygoing boy. Today, though, he seemed determined to be dissatisfied with everything and everyone. London reminded him, quietly and firmly, to be polite to Tyler’s family when he met them. She understood that he was ticked off, but being rude to the Brands was unacceptable.

  At the main house, London couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome for her son. Hank, who typically wouldn’t be at the main house at this time of day, was in the kitchen with Barb and Danny. Luke and Sophia had been playing blocks with their toddlers in the family room. But when they came through the front door, bringing a blast of frigid air with them into the foyer, Luke and Sophia each picked up a twin so they could greet them.

  Everyone was in the foyer now, including Ilsa, the German shepherd, and Ranger, the family’s sociable black cat. The main house felt hot inside with their heavy outerwear holding the heat to their bodies. The three of them started to shed their jackets and gloves and hats while the introductions were made. J.T. didn’t really have time to be negative because Tyler’s mom invited him into the kitchen for some hot chocolate with marshmallows.

  “Are you hungry?” Barb asked J.T.

  He was always hungry.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Barbara brought a cookie jar over to the table. “I heard these are your favorite.”

  J.T. looked inside the cookie jar to find freshly baked oatmeal-raisin cookies. London saw her son’s eyes light up.

  “Take as many as you want,” Barb told him. “They’re homemade just for you.”

  J.T. looked at his mom. London nodded her head. “Special occasion.”

  Her son said thank you to Barb after he created a fortress of cookies in front of him. This was the perfect way for J.T. to meet Tyler’s family.

  “Thank you for this.” London reached over her son’s shoulders and stole the top cookie from the pile. “Mmm. These are really good. Family recipe?”

  “Grandma Brand. Maggie was an amazing cook.”

  “I’m going to get some work done.” Tyler stood next to her. He had been very reluctant to touch her in front of her son. “Is that okay with you?”

  “Sure. We’ll see you for dinner?”

  “Dinner,” Tyler confirmed.

  London knew that Tyler always had work to do, but he was escaping. He was uncomfortable with her son and he was retreating.

  Hank sat down at the table with J.T., his hand, as always, petting Ilsa’s graying head. “You ever cut down a Christmas tree?”

  J.T., mouth full of cookie, shook his head. He chewed quickly so he could swallow and answer. “My dad had a real Christmas tree one year, but Shelly didn’t like cleaning up after it, so he never had one again. We always have a fake tree.”

  “We need to find our tree—we’ve been waiting on you,�
�� Hank told him. “I need you to help Danny and me pick out the tree, cut it down and haul it back here so we can decorate it.”

  J.T. had a really close bond with all of his grandparents. London had always thought that he was an old soul because he liked to hang out with his grandmother and play Scrabble for hours. Even though he hadn’t connected with Tyler, it was clear that he was immediately drawn to no-nonsense Hank.

  “No heavy lifting,” Barb reminded her husband. “Doctor’s orders.”

  Hank reached out for his wife’s hand, caught it and kissed it. “J.T. and Luke can do the hard work. I’ll supervise.”

  Danny climbed up into Hank’s lap. “Let’s get the twee...”

  Sophia put down her wiggling daughter with a little laugh. “I think Danny’s ready for the Christmas tree.”

  “Me, too,” London said.

  For the past several weeks they had been decorating the inside of the house. All of the Brand family decorations were unpacked and put in their designated places. Barbara had collected glass gingerbread houses and miniature Christmas trees with twinkling lights, Santa Clauses of different sizes, fancy holiday candles, candy dishes full of holiday candy, and mistletoe. Stockings were hung. The house had been transformed from a farmhouse to a holiday house. The men had put up the lights on the outside of the house as well as some of the trees nearby. But for all the holiday spirit that had been infused into the house, there was a glaring hole where the tree would sit in the family room near the fireplace. They needed the tree to have a place to put all of the wrapped presents. And there were a ton. It was going to be a very merry Christmas this year.

  J.T. took his cup and plate over to Barbara. He stood quietly until she looked up at him. “Oh...just put them on the counter there. I’ll take care of them.”

  Hank stood up as well. He studied J.T.’s red Air Jordan basketball shoes for a minute. “You got boots?”

  “No, sir.”

  Hank made eye contact with Barbara. “We’re going to have to get this young man some boots.”

  “Tyler and I were going to take him to town...get him a hat and some boots,” London assured him.