A Texas Soldier's Christmas

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “We can’t just stay here and do nothing.” Nora wrung her hands.

  “And we’re not going to,” Zane reassured her.

  Ten minutes later, Zane and Kyle had worked together to come up with a plan. The sheriff’s department would canvass the far-flung roads and outlying areas, looking for Nora’s minivan. The ex-military volunteers would cover all the businesses in town, going door to door to see if anyone had come in contact with Russell Pierce since he’d left Laramie Gardens.

  Meanwhile, Miss Mim would work with all the residents to come up with any additional clues about what Mr. Pierce might be attempting to do to get ready for the holiday. And Zane and Nora would visit some of the more obvious places. His former bookstore, as well as the home where he used to live with Esther and Lynn.

  “I should have seen this coming,” Nora lamented, as they rushed outside to Zane’s pickup truck.

  He slanted her a glance, not about to baby her. “We can go through a debriefing of all the mistakes that were made later. Right now, let’s just concentrate on finding Mr. Pierce.”

  Unfortunately, he wasn’t at the bookstore he had once owned. The local storage facility hadn’t seen him on the premises, either. And no one seemed to even be at the home Esther and Russell Pierce had once owned.

  Undeterred, Zane peered around the side of the house into the backyard. Pointed. The door to the shed was wide open.

  He and Nora hurried across the yard.

  Inside, everything was neatly arranged except the garden tools area. Several of those looked like they had been picked up and thrown down. Zane said, “What do you want to bet he’s after a Christmas tree he plans to cut himself?”

  “Maybe Miss Mim or the other ladies might know where,” Nora said. While she called Laramie Gardens and got the location of the most popular cut-it-yourself Christmas tree farm years ago, as well as several others, Zane contacted all the military men and Kyle McCabe.

  Frowning, he got off the phone, “My brother Garrett has enlisted everyone over at West Texas Warrior Assistance to continue canvassing the town, so I’m moving all my guys out into the countryside. Because it’s possible Mr. Pierce got turned around if he’s out there, we’re going to cover every road. It’d be easier if we had air power, but the sheriff’s department’s one chopper still isn’t available—it’s on loan to another county sheriff’s department for an ongoing search and rescue. Meantime, Kyle’s trying to get a hold of Wade McCabe to see if they can borrow his.”

  “Of all the times to be shorthanded!” Nora fumed.

  Zane looked like he wanted to say something, then closed his mouth. He guided her quickly back to his pickup truck. “Do you have directions for where you want to check first?”

  “I do.”

  His jaw set. “Then let’s move it.”

  * * *

  IT TOOK THEM eighteen minutes to reach the location of what had once been the most popular Christmas tree farm, fifty years before. A rough-hewn property just east of Lake Laramie that had long ago gone to seed. “Now what?” Nora asked in frustration. “There’s no way my minivan could cut through that much underbrush.”

  Zane drove a little farther down the country road. “Which is maybe why it’s parked there.” He pulled up beside Nora’s vehicle.

  The minivan’s motor was turned off but the driver door had been left oddly ajar, the keys inside. While Zane quickly made the call to let the others know the vehicle had been found, the general area of Mr. Pierce’s whereabouts pinpointed, Nora leaped out of the cab to peer inside the minivan.

  Mr. Pierce’s tablet was on the passenger seat along with his travel mug of tea and the leather-bound A Christmas Carol. Only this time, the buckle was undone.

  “Help is on the way,” Zane reported. He grabbed a pair of binoculars from his glove compartment and climbed on the bed of his pickup truck.

  “Do you see him?” she asked Zane.

  He scanned the wooded terrain. “Not yet. What color shirt was he wearing? Do you remember?”

  “Green and brown plaid shirt, brown pants.”

  Zane groaned.

  Nora knew how he felt. Mr. Pierce might as well have been wearing camouflage gear.

  She grabbed the fleece blanket she always kept in her car, in winter, just in case of emergencies. The tea thermos—which still had a little bit of liquid in it. Then, on impulse, the book.

  As she picked it up, it fell open. From the compartment formed by cutaway pages, a small white plastic bottle tumbled out and rolled across the seat. She bent to pick it up, and gasped at what it was.

  “Problem?” Zane said.

  Nora nodded and swiftly took off the cap, realizing it was empty. “A big one,” she confirmed gravely, her panic turning to dread.

  “Hey,” Zane said, before she had time to explain, “I think I’ve got him in my sights! Yep! That’s him, all right.” He jumped down from the bed of the pickup.

  Nora followed him through the heavy brush, into the woods. One hundred yards later, they encountered Mr. Pierce. The older gentleman was seated next to a gorgeous pine tree, an ax and a small tree saw, on the ground next to him. Seeing them, he pointed to the faint cut marks on the base of the tree trunk. “Had to stop and rest a minute,” he explained, shivering.

  “Understandable,” Zane said.

  Nora nodded. “I’m so glad we found you.” Nora knelt and felt his skin. It was pale and cool to the touch. Hypothermia was definitely setting in. She wrapped the blanket about his shoulders.

  “But I’m going to have to g-g-get going again soon.” Mr. Pierce tried to rise on his own, failed. “Esther and Lynn will be expecting me to b-bring home a Christmas tree for them to decorate.”

  Zane knelt next to Mr. Pierce. He caught Nora’s glance and understood well her concern. “Not to worry, sir. I’ll take care of that. In the meantime, we have to warm you up a bit.”

  “Sounds g-good,” Mr. Pierce said feebly, shivering all the harder. “It appears I forgot my coat...”

  “And to speed things up,” Zane continued, catching Nora’s panicked look, seeming to realize that there was no time to wait for an ambulance to get all the way out there, “I’m going to carry you.” He lifted Mr. Pierce in his strong arms, stood, and made his way deliberately through the brush.

  Mr. Pierce chuckled feebly. “This is a first.”

  “Not for me,” Zane joked right back, all macho alpha male. “It’s how us military guys work out.”

  This time they all laughed.

  Tears of worry and relief blurring her eyes, Nora grabbed the tools and led the way to safety.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Are you angry with me?” Mr. Pierce asked Nora several hours later, when he had been moved out of the emergency room and into a regular hospital room. “You have every right to be.”

  Zane walked in with the belongings she had requested him to get from Laramie Gardens. He stood next to her, reminding her they were a team—and a very good one. “Concerned is more like it,” Nora clarified.

  She removed the stack of leather-bound books from the bag Zane carried. Opened the buckle on each one and removed a plastic over-the-counter pill bottle from each.

  “Clever place to hide things,” Zane observed.

  “And safe, since no one reads the classics anymore,” Mr. Pierce returned facetiously.

  Aiding Zane in the attempt to get Mr. Zane to confide in them, she asked gently, “Do you want to tell us what this is all about?”

  Mr. Pierce sighed. “I’ve been working on improving my memory. So in addition to eating almonds and drinking green tea, I’ve also taken a lot of all-natural supplements like herbs and vitamins.”

  “Every day?”

  “Pretty much, when I can remember. I’ve tried them all, alone or in combination. An
d before you ask, I kept it quiet because I knew not everyone would approve.”

  Especially the medical staff. “Did you keep any record of these trials?” Nora asked as Zane arched a brow in her direction.

  Mr. Pierce pointed to his forehead. “Just up here.”

  “But it’s been pretty regular since—?” she prodded.

  “I moved to New York City to be with Lynn and had troubled getting acclimated. They had a health food store down the block from her apartment, and I went there.”

  Zane inched closer to Nora. “Did your daughter know this?”

  “Lynn would have worried if she knew I needed assistance recalling things. So I didn’t tell her I’d started taking supplements to boost my memory and sharpen my concentration skills.”

  “Or your doctors, either,” Nora guessed.

  He shrugged.

  Nora pushed on. “Was this before or after you switched antihistamines?”

  Mr. Pierce thought a moment. “A couple of weeks after, I guess.”

  His elbow bumping up against hers, Zane asked, “Were you having trouble staying focused before the switch in allergy medication?”

  Mr. Pierce shook his head. “No. It was after that, I started forgetting things. And then, after that I added the natural remedies to counter the effects of aging.” He began to look almost as upset as Nora and Zane felt. Glancing from one to another, he said, “Was that a mistake?”

  And then some, Nora thought. Basking in the support Zane offered, she went on kindly, “Here’s the thing, Mr. Pierce. These herbal supplements are all anticholinergic. Which means they inhibit activity of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which plays an essential role in memory and cognitive function. When you combine them with the medications you already take to control your blood pressure and lower cholesterol, they can produce mild cognitive impairment. Or dementia and Alzheimer-like symptoms.”

  Mr. Pierce turned pale. “So you think this may have been the problem all along?” he asked, aghast. “The combination of my new antihistamine and the natural supplements I added?”

  Nora, who had already talked to his geriatric specialist on the phone, nodded. “Dr. Wheeler and I are betting on it.”

  Mr. Pierce smiled. “So to get better, all I have to do is...?”

  “Switch back to your old allergy medication and stop taking any and all unauthorized supplements. Herbal or otherwise.”

  Nora and Zane talked to Mr. Pierce a few more minutes. Reassured him he would be getting out of the hospital the following day in plenty of time to enjoy Christmas Eve with his daughter, Lynn.

  Together, they headed out into the hall. Taking advantage of the momentary quiet, Nora took Zane’s hand in hers. “Have I told you how much I appreciate everything you did for us today?” she murmured. She rose up on tiptoe and brushed her lips across his. “You were quite the hero.”

  He laced an arm about her waist and pulled her closer. “Haven’t you heard?” he quipped, kissing her back. “Being a hero is my full-time job.”

  “How well I know that,” she replied, dancing him back into the hidden alcove opposite the elevators and kissing him again.

  In fact, she was beginning to see the two were intrinsically interlinked.

  The doors slid open.

  One of the nurses who’d taken care of Mr. Pierce in the ER stepped out.

  “And here I thought there wasn’t enough mistletoe to go around,” she teased.

  Zane and Nora exchanged baffled glances. “Ah, we don’t have any mistletoe,” he said.

  Although that, too, could be remedied, Nora thought happily.

  The nurse winked. “And you don’t appear to need it, either!”

  * * *

  THAT EVENING, THE RESIDENTS of Laramie Gardens threw a party to thank everyone who had aided in the search for Mr. Pierce. While Zane made the rounds, with Liam in a BabyBjörn strapped to his wide chest, Nora helped the women put out the holiday spread for the guests.

  But even as they worked, no one could keep from looking at the soldier in the center of the room. Zane was just so handsome and charismatic, Nora thought on a wistful sigh. So big and manly he made her feel like a woman every time she saw him.

  Miss Sadie followed Nora’s surreptitious glance. “You have to nail that hunk of burnin’ love down and get a ring on your finger before he leaves again!” she murmured, as she put out the cranberry molds.

  “I second that!” Betty chimed in, adding a fresh tray of brisket sliders to the buffet.

  Miss Patricia handed Nora a sprig of mistletoe and a CD of an old but cherished copy of Andy Williams Christmas Favorites. “Just in case you need something to set the mood.” She winked.

  Nora didn’t think she and Zane needed any help setting their mood. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

  Miss Isabelle patted her arm. “Times like this, dear, a woman needs to use every tool in her arsenal.”

  Nora put the last of the side dishes and salads out. “I’ll remember that,” she opined drily, already thinking how much fun it would be to recount this conversation to Zane later.

  “In fact...” She picked up a tray of cookies and headed for Zane, who was now surrounded by a group of ex-military and sheriff’s deputies. She turned and winked at her group of cheerleaders. “I’ll get started right now.”

  As she neared him, she heard Deputy Kyle McCabe say, “...appreciate how quickly you were able to jump into the action today...organize others...a real asset... The sheriff’s department could really use you.”

  That’s what Nora had been hearing, too.

  Although sadly Zane had told her in no uncertain terms he wasn’t interested in doing a job that included handing out traffic tickets...

  She stopped to offer refreshment to Buck Franklin and Kurtis Kelley. As the residents helped themselves to cookies, another military guy said, “I heard via the grapevine they’ve been doing everything possible to get you to reenlist.”

  Zane shrugged, his back still to her, so she could not read the expression on his face. “That’s always the case,” he said mildly.

  Darrell Enlow walked up to join the group, adding, “Despite what Nora said, she will support you.”

  Nora’s heart stuttered in her chest, listening raptly to every word. Kyle McCabe, who had known her since childhood, agreed. “She’ll wait for you,” he promised.

  Except in the past, she thought guiltily, she hadn’t really done that. She and Zane had always eventually gotten back together, but there had been an awful lot of heartache and loneliness in between their hookups.

  And that remained one of her biggest life regrets.

  They had wasted so much time.

  So many opportunities to be together emotionally, if not physically.

  As she ventured even closer, Zane’s older brother, Garrett, elbowed Zane lightly in the ribs. “And speaking of the gal who’s got your heart...”

  But did she? Nora wondered, thinking of all Zane had been up to recently that he hadn’t actually confided in her.

  On the other hand, there were things she hadn’t gotten around to telling him, either. Things she still needed to say.

  As if sensing her presence behind him, Zane swung around to face Nora. He gave her a slow, affectionate once-over, seeming to see how completely exhausted she was, while as usual he still had tons of energy left. He looked down at the yawning baby strapped to his chest. “I think this little guy’s about had it.” He reached over to take her hand, his expression radiating the tender devotion she so adored. “Ready to go home?”

  She knew it was selfish, but she wanted her alone time with him. Especially now that their days together were dwindling. “Yes,” she said, smiling back and gearing up for all that yet had to be said. “I am.”

  Half an hour lat
er, Liam was in bed, fast asleep, and Zane and Nora were finally settled before the fire.

  She had been waiting for this moment for weeks now, even thinking she might dare to propose to him. Yet suddenly she was a bundle of nerves. Worried it all might go awry.

  He clasped her shoulders lightly and drew her into the curve of his big strong body. “You okay?” he asked, pressing a kiss on the top of her head.

  Nora inhaled deeply and tried to calm down.

  Why was he looking at her like that? As if he half expected her to do what she always did when their time together approached an end, and break up with him tonight?

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” she countered.

  He chuckled and stroked a thumb down her cheek. “Maybe because you looked like you were getting some vigorous advice on how to handle your man from the Laramie Gardens ladies tonight.”

  Perceptive, as always. “You were getting the same kind of life coaching, from what I heard.”

  Zane inclined his head to the side, unperturbed. “Everyone means well.”

  Even as they push us together. “They do.” Nora nodded.

  “But...?” he prodded.

  Knowing it was now or never, Nora sighed. Moving out of the cozy curve of his body, she perched on the edge of the sofa and pivoted to face him. Hands clasped together on her lap, she announced firmly, “We also need to talk. And we need to do it tonight.”

  * * *

  ZANE WANTED TO tell Nora everything. She had no idea how badly. But only once it was all set. He lifted a staying hand. “I need a few more days, Nora.” That was all he was asking.

  They stared at each other.

  She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. “Until after Christmas,” she deduced unhappily.

  Or sooner.

  He wasn’t quite sure.

  So erring on the side of caution, he just said, “Yes.”

  Nora squared her slender shoulders deliberately and huffed out a breath. “No, Zane. You don’t need more time before we talk about what’s next for us.”

  “I don’t?” he echoed in confusion.

  Her slender body quivering with emotion, Nora drew a deep breath. “It’s okay if you want to go back to your unit. I understand.”