Christmas in Winter Valley

by Jodi Thomas

  Slowly, they drifted into sleep, both holding the other close, as dreams of yesterday played in his mind.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  December 22

  Franklin Inn

  TYE ALMOST STUMBLED as he made his way down the narrow stairs at the bed-and-breakfast. It was past dawn. He’d overslept. He never missed a sunrise unless he was drunk. Last night he’d been stone sober, but he was exhausted. That, or he was getting old.

  “Morning.” The little round innkeeper popped out of the kitchen like an aging cuckoo clock. “I’m Daisy. We didn’t get properly introduced last night.” She raised and lowered her round shoulders a few times. “You’re a little early for breakfast, but I’ve got coffee on. Come on along to the kitchen and you can help me roll out the cinnamon rolls.”

  Tye wouldn’t have been surprised to see Santa and his reindeer in the kitchen. This had to be ground zero for strange decorations. Stuffed animals with antlers, teapots that looked like tiny Christmas trees, candlesticks in red and green.

  As she poured him a cup of coffee in a Santa-head cup, Daisy gestured with her head to a slightly taller, and wider, woman cooking. “This is my sister, Rose.”

  The bigger woman turned around. “Welcome.” Her smile was more of a twitch. “What’s your name, stranger? You forgot to sign in last night.” She looked at Daisy. “It’s a rule around here. Everyone has to sign in.”

  “I’m Tye Franklin. Thanks for letting me in last...” He stopped. Both women had frozen and they were staring at him.

  Fearing they might start screaming at any moment, Tye rushed on. “I work out at the Maverick Ranch for the Holloways. I’m in town, just looking around on my day off.” There, that should be enough information to take him out of the serial-killer category.

  Rose set down the fork she’d been flipping sausage patties with. “What’s your full name?”

  “Tyson Jefferson Franklin.”

  Daisy grinned. “You’re Adam Franklin’s grandson. He’s our half brother. Don’t you remember us? You came here once with Adam. We had breakfast out in the garden so you could play.”

  A faded memory drifted in his mind. “I do remember. Last night when I stepped inside, I had the feeling I’d been here before. I remembered the smells.”

  Rose cleared her throat. “We’re your great-aunts.”

  “Half great-aunts, I think,” Daisy said. “Adam was married twice, so we’re half aunts to Tyson.”

  Tye almost laughed. Daisy had confirmed what he’d feared for a long time. Being nuts ran way back in his family tree for generations.

  While he watched them, Rose tried to explain to Daisy that just because Adam married twice before he went to jail didn’t make them half great-aunts.

  An hour later they were telling him all about his second and third cousins here in town. Daisy started patting his hand as she said she was so sorry his grandfather had died in jail. If he’d been free, he might have lived to his nineties. He’d written them a letter every year to tell them the food was terrible.

  When Tye tried to pull away, Daisy kept patting and telling all the bad news since he’d been for a visit all those years ago. Kin he’d never heard of had died of cancer and one of a heart attack...and no one had found him for three days. One Daisy mentioned was too dumb to come out of the cold...so he’d frozen to death. Another had died giving birth to her fourteenth child...and the family had thought about shooting the husband at the funeral. A cousin twice removed had disappeared in New York City...and no one had heard from him since. The sisters thought he was probably dead.

  Finally, they had to stop logging dead relatives when the other guests at the inn began coming in for breakfast.

  Tye was relieved. He’d had about all the “catching up” that he could take. He decided he liked the idea of having no one to call kin. He moved into the parlor while the half aunts served their guests. They were sweet ladies, but he needed to disappear so they could log him as one of the missing.

  He was halfway up the stairs when Hayley walked through the front door.

  “Don’t you dare run, Tye. I’ve just spent an hour looking for you.”

  He smiled at the doc. “How’d you find me?”

  “The waitress at Dorothy’s told me you were staying at the inn. I drove down the street and there was your truck. I’m a great detective.”

  He came down the few steps he’d climbed. They moved back into the dining room and sat at the far end, away from the travelers who were keeping the sisters busy with questions about the town.

  “So what do you need, Doc?” He handed her a cup of coffee. “Coffee’s on the house. Turns out I’m a relative.”

  “I had to come to tell you Dani is looking for you. She says she needs to talk to you, and she’s going to find a way to do it, even if she has to join the rodeo circuit.”

  “We don’t have anything to say. I tried, and she almost flattened me with a platter.”

  “I heard about that.” Hayley smiled. “I love staying at the ranch. Something is always happening. The foreman and Cooper’s redheaded cousin haven’t come down from Winter Valley. Some of the men want to go rescue him. But Cooper says Creed can take care of himself.

  “Oh, and in other news, Elliot and the accountant came out of the same bedroom this morning. That was interesting. Tatum asked them if they were having a sleepover. Neither one said a word to the other at breakfast. Oh, and I almost forgot—Cooper likes me.”

  “Of course he does.” Tye grinned.

  “No. I mean he really likes me.” She almost sounded like she was back in high school.

  “How do you feel about that?”

  “I think he’s too wild for me, Tye. What do you think?”

  “I think I’m the last person in the world you should ask for advice on dating or love. No, come to think about it, my two half great-aunts are. Have you met Rose and Daisy Franklin?”

  “Of course I have. The whole town loves them.” She jumped up. “I forgot why I came here. I talked to Pops last night and he gave me an idea of where to find a brand that looks like a cutout of a horse on his hind legs. You up for a road trip?”

  “Sure. I’m not ready to face the Garretts again, and when I see Dani I’ll probably make a fool of myself. That can wait. I’m ready to go.”

  He said goodbye to Daisy and kissed her chubby cheek, promising to be back by supper. She told him there would be no charge for the room because he was family, but he’d have to clean his own room when he left.

  When Tye climbed into Elliot’s Land Rover, he asked if the boss ever got to drive his own car.

  Hayley shook her head. “He never goes anywhere, anyway, and I still had the keys. Oh, I forgot to tell you. We have to make a couple of stops on the way to your treasure hunt.”

  “That’s fine.” He relaxed. Hayley was a good vet, and he had a feeling if he stayed around, they’d always be friends. Over the past few years, he’d given up on making friends. He’d either let them down or they’d drifted in another direction.

  It had been over a week since he’d had a drink. The world seemed clearer somehow, even if he still had no direction. If he could live a week without alcohol, maybe he’d try for two.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  December 22

  Maverick Ranch

  BY THE TIME Cooper was up, Hayley had already left on an emergency call.

  He ate breakfast with Tatum and they talked about the storm last night. Finally, Cooper asked the kid how he liked living on the ranch.

  “I love it. I can go wherever I want to and no one yells at me. I like going over to the barn and checking on the horses and eating lunch with the men in the bunkhouse and talking to Dani. Elliot had one of the men put a TV in my bedroom, but I haven’t had time to watch it. There’s too much to do around here.”

  Cooper kept his words easy. “
I talked to the sheriff, and he’s talked to case workers in both Lubbock and in Oklahoma. It took some doing, but they all agreed that you could stay with us until after Christmas.”

  The boy’s smile almost touched his ears. “I’d like that.” Then he went silent.

  “What’s the matter, Tatum?”

  “Where will I go after Christmas?”

  Cooper didn’t want to talk about it, but he had to. “I don’t know. They are looking for your kin. The sheriff said your grandmother’s will mentioned having another daughter. They are searching for her. You might have an aunt somewhere.”

  Tatum shook his head. “Grandma said she had one dead daughter and another who was dead to her. When I asked about it, she told me I didn’t need to know.”

  “If she’s alive, the law will find her.”

  “You’re my kin, Cooper. We’re wolf people, remember? We howl at the wind. I don’t want to go to some aunt whose own mother wishes she was dead.”

  Cooper was glad when Dani interrupted them. He had no answer for the kid.

  She took the little boy’s hand and said, “We got new chicks back in the henhouse. You want to come with me and help me count them?”

  “Sure,” Tatum answered.

  When Tatum left, Cooper sat alone, thinking how empty the house would feel without the kid. He looked toward the kitchen door. Tatum had already headed out, but Dani was just closing the door behind her. For a moment, he saw her sad stare, and knew she didn’t want the kid to go away, either.

  She’d saved him from having to answer a hard question, but Cooper knew it would come around again. Maybe some family would adopt him, but chances were they’d live in town. Tatum belonged in a place where he could roam. Where he could howl at the north wind and people wouldn’t think it was strange.

  He belonged here.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  December 22

  Maverick Ranch

  ELLIOT SAT AT the bar in the kitchen, watching Cooper pace with his crutches. He looked like some kind of broken windup toy, limping to the great room, through the dining room to the kitchen and then around again. Finally, he tossed one crutch away and started limping along on what seemed like a journey to wear out the tile.

  “The doc is out working. She said Mary May called her before dawn,” Elliot said for the tenth time. “She’s just doing her job.”

  “Don’t you see, Elliot, there is no telling what kind of emergency she’s walking into? She could be trying to doctor a wild horse or a rabid dog and no one would be there to help her. Hell, that guy who loves snakes could have lost his pet last night and she could be out looking for a runaway snake. Or maybe someone called in an injured bear. I know her. She’d try to save the fellow. Probably march right up to him and start bossing him around.”

  “She’s fine, Coop. She managed to stay alive as a vet without you around.”

  “I know, but she should have woken me this morning. I could have dressed by the time the car warmed up and gone out with her.”

  “Right, Coop, you’re such a joy to be around. And your broken leg wouldn’t slow her down. You know, just because she saved your life doesn’t make you her bodyguard.”

  Elliot faced him. “Have you taken any of those pain pills the doctor in the emergency room gave you?”

  “No. They make my brain fussy.”

  “You’re not too clear on a normal day, little brother. Remember when you decided to swim in the horse trough on the east pasture? When you reached for your clothes, two rattlers had taken up residence on top. You rode home naked.”

  “No one I knew saw me.”

  Elliot laughed. “Maybe. But every car that went down the county road honked at you.”

  Cooper stopped and rested against the back of the leather couch. “I’ve matured since then. My wild days are over. I’m going to settle down and date one woman. She may not believe it yet, but she’s the one.”

  “Does she know anything about your plan? There will be at least a few weeks between the first date and the honeymoon, I hope.”

  “I’ve told her, but I don’t think she believes it.”

  Elliot knew the woman Coop talked about was the doc. Coop had been nuts about her since she’d helped him at Winter Valley. Like everything he did, he wanted to rush in when it might serve him well to go slow.

  Coop looked at his brother. “Did we have a good year this year? The ranch made money, didn’t it?”

  “We did. Best one ever. Sunlan wants to go ahead and start the other two wings of the house. Maybe put in a pool out back.”

  “Well...” Coop pushed himself away from the back of the couch and limped over to the bar. “I’ve been thinking. You know how Griffin won Sunlan over by giving her the white barn? Well, I decided we could build a vet clinic on that square of land near the road. It’s too rocky for grazing, and the clinic the doc’s got is falling apart. I don’t think her grandfather has done a repair since the sixties.”

  Elliot laughed. “You think she’d marry you for a clinic? I don’t think it works that way.”

  “I was afraid you’d say that. I guess I’ll have to do it the hard way. Ask her out, send her flowers, take her out somewhere expensive to eat a few dozen times. We’ll go away places for the weekends, anywhere she wants. Then I’ll buy a ring and we’ll set the date. The wedding will cost a fortune. I’m telling you, Elliot, it would be cheaper to just build a clinic.”

  “That’s right. In your case, tossing in a clinic might improve your odds.”

  Dani passed through the kitchen. “Have either of you seen Tatum?”

  Both brothers headed out. Elliot to the barns and Cooper to the chickens. The kid was fascinated by anything newborn.

  Coop found Tatum sitting on a bucket trying to get all the baby chicks in his lap. He was laughing as he talked to them.

  When he saw Cooper leaning against the chicken-wire door, he said, “Look, Coop, they think I’m their daddy. I got to figure out names for them. How is the chicken going to nurse all of them?”

  “Momma chickens don’t feed like mares do.”

  The kid looked confused. “Why not? Chickens got breasts.”

  Cooper felt his heart turn over. “Tatum, promise me you’ll never leave the headquarters area without letting me know. I was afraid you’d headed up to Winter Valley. If you left me, who would be around to ask the important questions?”

  “I can’t leave, Coop. I got too much to take care of around here. First, I got to watch you ’cause you might fall over again any minute. Then I had to watch Tye to make sure the Garrett brothers didn’t kill him. The baby colt always needs brushing, and now the chickens.”

  He took a breath. “I haven’t even got to the cows and the barn cats. Elliot said one is about to drop kittens. I probably should be following her around.”

  “That’s right. We couldn’t get along without you.” As Cooper said the words, he realized how much he meant them.

  He wondered if Hayley would mind if he picked out their first son before they married.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  December 22

  HAYLEY LOVED TYE FRANKLIN making calls with her. It was like having a big brother. He knew horses and was more help than ten Mary Mays would be. They mostly talked about the calls she’d made. One had been an emergency: a colt had gotten caught in a roll of barbed wire, and he’d tried to fight his way out. The cuts were deep and plenty, but he’d pull through.

  After a few routine calls, they turned south toward the back of the Holloways’ ranch. Pops had told her there used to be a little ranch not far from the back gate and he thought he remembered a marking over the entrance had been the outline of a horse.

  Tye got out his grandfather’s notebook and watched for a clue as she drove.

  Hayley told him that her pops had said an old guy who raised a few horses li
ved out on a dead-end road. He believed the world was about to end, so the only safe place was out that far from anyone. Pops commented that the old man was as crazy as the horse on his brand. He’d figured out how to survive, but once in a while his horses needed a doctor’s care.

  Three roads forked not far from the Maverick Ranch’s back gate. Tye offered to drive while Hayley marked off their route. In this backcountry, most of the roads were not well marked. A few only had a sign on a post or a rock naming the pasture or the name of an owner from years ago. Ranches often changed hands without changing the names of the pastures, or even the ranch itself.

  The third road they tried was so twisting, Tye had to slow down. The winding roads were dirt and had a few holes they had to go up against the wire fence to get around.

  “I got a feeling about this one,” Tye said. “Let’s follow it until it ends.”

  Hayley felt like she was on a treasure hunt. She had no idea what would be at the end of the journey, but just finding the next clue would be exciting.

  It was almost noon when they reached the last gate and the road ran out. Any mailboxes had vanished miles ago.

  The ranch gate was leaning, but still standing above the entrance. And there, swinging in the wind, was a tin square with the outline of a horse on his back two legs. It fit somehow in this land—wild, untamed, alone.

  “Should we go in?” Hayley asked. The dirt road turned into a path past the cattle guard.

  “Might as well. I don’t see any doorbell.”

  They made it half a mile driving on mostly grass. When they saw the barn and the house, both thought it looked abandoned.

  But Hayley explained, “Pops said the old guy living here puts a letter in his neighbor’s mailbox when he needs a vet. He doesn’t even put a stamp on it, but the mailman drops it off at the clinic, anyway.”