Tidings of Joy

by Shanna Hatfield

  Then Rhett’s uncle started to decline and he moved back home, to Faraday. Although the two of them kept in touch during the years Rhett was away, Seth was glad to have his friend move back, even if the reason for it pinched his heart. Rhett’s uncle was as loony as they came, but he was fun and big-hearted. Will Bolton was always doing something crazy, like installing a sink in the middle of his living room or adopting an abandoned circus camel.

  Lolly, the camel, had become Faraday’s lone celebrity and the star of the annual Christmas Eve living nativity presentation. People came from all around to watch it, infusing the local economy with much-needed funds while they were in town.

  When Will passed away, he left everything, including Lolly, to Rhett. For the most part, Rhett didn’t mind, but lately Lolly had spent more time out of her pasture than inside the enclosure.

  In fact, Seth had been at Rhett’s place the other night when Rhett’s new neighbor called, clearly upset the camel had been to visit her multiple times that day. Rhett ignored the messages she left on his answering machine, convinced the camel would scare her away in a day or two.

  Seth grinned as he drove down the mountain toward the city. He’d have to ask Seth how things were going with the neighbor when they got together Friday evening. Since Rhett moved back to town, every Friday the two of them got together with the Miller brothers, Drew and Drake, and had dinner. Sometimes they watched a football game, if one of them remembered to record it, or they’d enjoy a movie. Once in a great while, they played cards. Drew and Drake were close to their age and they’d all been friends in school.

  In fact, Seth tried to remember if this week was his turn to host their gathering. If so, he’d better think about a menu and a movie.

  Seth’s musings were cut short when he swerved to avoid hitting a skunk, then narrowly missed getting smacked into by a semi heading up the mountain in the fog.

  Nerves rattled, he clenched the steering wheel and kept an attentive eye on the road. Five minutes later, he slammed on the brakes when a herd of deer ran through the swirling mist in front of him. He drew in a gulp of air so fast, he choked and started coughing. He was still thumping his chest and waiting for his heart to climb back down out of this throat when he glanced back and saw fast-approaching headlights getting frighteningly close to his tailgate.

  “Move it, Bambi!” he yelled at the deer, willing them to hurry out of the way. The second the last fuzzy tail moved from in front of his pickup, he hit the gas. The car behind him slammed on the brakes and only missed his back bumper by a few inches.

  Seth hated driving in the fog and his grandpa knew it. If this was some tough love experiment that Pop thought would help him get over his fear of driving in the fog, it wasn’t working. Seth had no problem with driving in pouring-down rain, a blizzard, or sheets of ice, but put him in the fog and it was as though someone slowly sucked all the air from his lungs.

  Somewhere in the gray bleakness that surrounded him when he was on the road, he could hear the screech of metal along with his mother’s and Maggie’s screams. As long as he stayed home when it was foggy, he was fine. But put him behind the wheel and all his childhood nightmares flooded over him, leaving him on edge and emotionally spent.

  Thankfully, once he pulled onto the freeway, the fog lifted along with his gloomy thoughts. Determined to get the ordeal over with sooner rather than later, he headed downtown. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his grandpa’s financial advisor. The man was honest and fair, and had helped Sam with numerous projects over the years.

  The problem stemmed from the location of his office in a building in the smack-dab center of Portland’s downtown business area. Driving down the busy, ridiculously narrow streets was bad enough for a small-town country boy, but trying to find a parking space for his big pickup was even less likely to happen than finding a parking space near the mall doors on the Saturday before Christmas.

  Seth took an exit and made his way to the street that ran in front of Mr. Taylor’s office. As far as he could see, cars were parked bumper to bumper. He slowed and looked down side streets with nothing available. Intently watching to see if someone was just getting into their car or out of it, he found himself stuck in the lane that took him across a bridge that spanned the Willamette River and out of the downtown area.

  Aggravated, Seth drove around the block and made his way back. After the fourth time he made a mile-wide loop searching for a parking space, he felt as though the heavens had opened and shined a spotlight on a car in a parking space just ahead of him signaling to enter traffic.

  “Finally,” he muttered as he stopped and motioned for the car to pull out. The driver waved and zoomed into traffic.

  The space was going to be tight, but Seth could fit in it if he parallel parked. He pulled his truck ahead and looked in the rear-view mirror to back up and park only to see a hideous mint-green subcompact car whip into the space.

  “Hey! That’s mine,” he shouted out the window he quickly rolled down.

  A flame-haired woman jumped out of the car and gave him a friendly smile and wave before she rushed down the sidewalk and disappeared inside a building.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Seth slapped the steering wheel, although he felt more like strangling the woman with the wild, curly locks who’d stolen his parking space.

  Cars honked behind him so Seth put the truck in gear and returned to his fruitless efforts of finding a place to park. Ten minutes later, he finally snagged a spot that was a dozen blocks from the financial advisor’s office.

  As he walked to the office in the cold, drizzly rain that began to fall, he called his grandpa.

  “Hey, Seth. How’s it going?”

  “I’ll tell you how it’s going, old man,” Seth snapped. “It’s taken me forty-five minutes to find a parking space so I can take these papers to Mr. Taylor. The next time you need to send him something, email it!”

  Sam chuckled. “Oh, it’s good for you to experience big city life once in a while. Don’t forget to bring home barbecue for dinner.”

  Seth glared at the phone when his grandfather disconnected the call. “You conniving old coot. I ought to bring you prune juice and pistachio pudding, since you hate both those things. That’d teach you to send me on your stupid errands.”

  He hadn’t realized he spoke the words aloud until two people dressed in business suits gave him an odd look.

  At that moment, Seth didn’t know if he should be more put out with his grandpa for sending him downtown or the idiot woman who stole his parking space. What was wrong with people, anyway?

  The tight clench of his jaw kept him from speaking any more thoughts aloud as he turned up the collar of his coat and ate up the distance to Mr. Taylor’s office with his long-legged stride. Several people stared at him, as if seeing a cowboy in the midst of their urban life made him as foreign as if he’d dropped down from an alternate universe.

  Since he’d left his gloves in the pickup, Seth’s fingers felt half frozen by the time he pushed open the door to Mr. Taylor’s office. He shared the elevator with two businessmen who looked at him as though he’d dragged every foul thing from the barnyard along on his boots. A woman who had to be at least twice his age, and appeared to operate under the mistaken assumption she passed for far younger, batted her fake eyelashes at him and sidled inappropriately close, engulfing him in a cloud of cloying perfume. Before she got off the elevator, she tucked a business card in his pocket and purred, “give me a call, cowboy. I’ll make it worth your time.”

  Seth waited until the elevator door closed to take out the card and crumple it in a wad. He dropped it in the trash can when he stepped off on Mr. Taylor’s floor.

  Irritation simmered just below the surface as he stepped into the office and discovered from the receptionist that Mr. Taylor didn’t know he was coming and was on an important phone call that couldn’t be interrupted.

  “I’ll just leave the papers for him, Mrs. Kern. If he has questions, he can cal
l my grandpa.” Seth tried to hand the envelope to Mr. Taylor’s secretary, but she shook her head.

  “Mr. Taylor will want to see you, Mr. Stafford. His meeting shouldn’t go too much longer.” She glanced at the clock as though to confirm her assurance. “Please, have a seat. Would you like something to drink? A bottle of water? Coffee?”

  Although Seth wouldn’t mind a jolt of caffeine, he declined. “I’m fine, but thank you.”

  Twenty minutes later, Mr. Taylor rushed out of his office with a smile and extended hand. “Thanks for waiting, Seth. How’s that cantankerous, opinionated grandpa of yours?”

  Seth grinned. “You know him well, Mr. Taylor. He’s the same as always.”

  Mr. Taylor laughed and ushered Seth into his office. Once they both were seated, Mr. Taylor took the papers from the envelope Seth handed him and reviewed them. “Thank you for bringing this in, Seth. I don’t foresee any problem with the investments your grandfather wants to make. I’ll send copies when everything is finalized.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Seth stood and offered the man his hand.

  Mr. Taylor walked him back out to the waiting area. “Do you and Sam have big plans for Thanksgiving next week?”

  “Some friends invited us to eat with them, so we’re looking forward to that. Otherwise we’d either be eating steak, or frozen turkey dinners.”

  Mr. Taylor laughed. “Personally, I’d go for the steak.”

  Seth nodded in agreement. “Come out sometime and we’ll slap one on the grill for you.”

  “I might just do that, but not until after the winter weather has passed. If I recall correctly, getting down the road to your ranch is a bit of challenge until the spring mud dries.”

  “That it is. Maybe you can talk Pops into finally paving the road.”

  “I think we both know that’s not going to happen.” Mr. Taylor grinned and shook Seth’s hand again. “Be safe driving home. I heard it was foggy up on the mountain today.”

  “It was pretty bad coming down. I hope it’s cleared up by the time I head back.” Seth tipped his head to Mr. Taylor’s secretary. “You both have a great holiday season.”

  “We will, Seth. Tell your grandpa I’ll be in touch soon.”

  Seth nodded then left the office. The meeting with Mr. Taylor had taken all of five minutes. He’d wasted almost an hour and a half between finding somewhere to park, hiking to the office, and then waiting because Pops failed to let Mr. Taylor know Seth was heading his way. If he had, Mr. Taylor wouldn’t have kept him waiting.

  Seth settled his hat back on his head and stepped outside into the drizzle that felt even colder than it had earlier as he made his way to his pickup. Nearly there, he decided to duck into a little coffee shop for something warm to drink. He had another hour before he planned to get lunch and a hot coffee would go far in taking off the chill while he ran errands.

  He’d just reached for the door when it swung open. A woman, playing with her cell phone, breezed right into him. Her latte spilled all down the front of him.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry!” The woman looked up at him with big gray eyes and freckles dotting her nose. Red curls spiraled around her face and over her shoulders like thick ribbons of coiled silk. High cheekbones and lips that seemed to naturally rest in a smile made her look both fun-loving and approachable, especially in the dark blue coat she wore with a sparkly pink scarf looped around her neck.

  Lovely, she really was lovely.

  Then recognition set in and Seth glowered at her. This woman was the reason he was walking in the rain in the first place. She was the ninny who’d nabbed his parking spot. “Do you pay any attention to what’s going on around you?” he snapped, aware he sounded like a jerk.

  “Normally, yes. I’m so sorry,” the woman said, appearing apologetic.

  Uncertain whether it was caused by the woman’s alluring voice or the moisture soaking through his clothes, Seth shivered.

  “Can I pay to have your coat dry-cleaned? You might want to drop it off before the milk dries.” The woman brushed at his chest with a napkin that quickly disintegrated, leaving little fibers of white clinging to the mess soaking into his coat.

  “Never mind. It’s fine. Just watch where you’re going.” He tempered his tone as he stepped aside so she could walk past him. She opened an umbrella and knocked his hat off into a puddle.

  Seth fought back the urge to shout in frustration, especially when she didn’t even notice. The woman’s attention appeared glued to the screen of her phone as she tapped a message with one finger.

  Angry beyond words, Seth picked up his hat and went inside the coffee shop. He washed the latte off his coat as best he could in the restroom sink then gave his hat a shake before leaving the shop without even bothering to get a coffee to drink. He jogged the rest of the way back to his pickup and barely kept his teeth from chattering as he turned the heat on high and waited for it to dry his wet shirt that now clung to his back since his coat was not only wet, but smelly.

  He’d just pulled into traffic and started down the street when a little mint-green car driven by a woman with a head full of red curls whipped in front of him, making him slam the brakes as the car cut around a corner.

  “That woman is a menace!” Seth muttered hostilely. “If I never see her again it will be far too soon.”

  Available on Amazon!

  Hardman Holidays Series

  Heartwarming holiday stories set in the 1890s in Hardman, Oregon.

  The Christmas Bargain (Book 1) — As owner and manager of the Hardman bank, Luke Granger is a man of responsibility and integrity in the small 1890s Eastern Oregon town. When he calls in a long overdue loan, Luke finds himself reluctantly accepting a bargain in lieu of payment from the shiftless farmer who barters his daughter to settle his debt.

  The Christmas Token (Book 2) — Determined to escape an unwelcome suitor, Ginny Granger flees to her brother’s home in Eastern Oregon for the holiday season. Returning to the community where she spent her childhood years, she plans to relax and enjoy a peaceful visit. Not expecting to encounter the boy she once loved, her exile proves to be anything but restful.

  The Christmas Calamity (Book 3) — Arlan Guthry's uncluttered world tilts off kilter when the beautiful and enigmatic prestidigitator Alexandra Janowski arrives in town, spinning magic and trouble in her wake as the holiday season approaches.

  The Christmas Vow (Book 4) — Sailor Adam Guthry returns home to bury his best friend and his past, only to fall once more for the girl who broke his heart.

  The Christmas Quandary (Book 5) — Tom Grove just needs to survive a month at home while he recovers from a work injury. He arrives to discover his middle-aged parents acting like newlyweds, the school in need of a teacher, and the girl of his dreams already engaged.

  The Christmas Confection (Book 6) — Will Hardman’s sweet baker be able to soften Fred Decker’s hardened heart?

  Books by Shanna Hatfield

  FICTION

  HISTORICAL

  Baker City Brides

  Tad’s Treasure

  Crumpets and Cowpies

  Thimbles and Thistles

  Corsets and Cuffs

  Bobbins and Boots

  Lightning and Lawmen

  Pendleton Petticoats

  Dacey

  Aundy

  Caterina

  Ilsa

  Marnie

  Lacy

  Bertie

  Millie

  Dally

  Quinn

  Hearts of the War

  Garden of Her Heart

  Home of Her Heart

  Dream of Her Heart

  Hardman Holidays

  The Christmas Bargain

  The Christmas Token

  The Christmas Calamity

  The Christmas Vow

  The Christmas Quandary

  The Christmas Confection

  CONTEMPORARY

  Learnin’ The Ropes

  Love at the 20-Yard Line

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  Rose

  Saving Mistletoe

  Taste of Tara

  Friendly Beasts of Faraday

  Scent of Cedar

  Tidings of Joy

  Boughs of Holly

  Wings of an Angel

  Grass Valley Cowboys

  The Cowboy’s Christmas Plan

  The Cowboy’s Spring Romance

  The Cowboy’s Summer Love

  The Cowboy’s Autumn Fall

  The Cowboy’s New Heart

  The Cowboy’s Last Goodbye

  Holiday Brides

  Valentine Bride

  Summer Bride

  Rodeo Romance

  The Christmas Cowboy

  Wrestlin’ Christmas

  Capturing Christmas

  Barreling Through Christmas

  Chasing Christmas

  Racing Christmas

  Silverton Sweethearts

  The Coffee Girl

  The Christmas Crusade

  Untangling Christmas

  Welcome to Romance

  Blown Into Romance

  Sleigh Bells Ring in Romance

  The Women of Tenacity

  A Prelude (Short Story)

  Heart of Clay

  Country Boy vs. City Girl

  Not His Type

  CHILDREN’S BOOKS

  Steve the Mule

  NONFICTION

  Farm Girl

  Fifty Dates with Captain Cavedweller

  Recipes of Love

  Savvy Entertaining

  Savvy Autumn Entertaining

  Savvy Holiday Entertaining

  Savvy Spring Entertaining

  Savvy Summer Entertaining

  About the Author

  Hopeless romantic Shanna Hatfield spent ten years as a newspaper journalist before moving into the field of marketing and public relations. Sharing the romantic stories she dreams up in her head is a perfect outlet for her love of writing, reading, and creativity. She and her husband, lovingly referred to as Captain Cavedweller, reside in the Northwest.