A Soldier’s Christmas Wish: Holidays in Heart Falls: Book 2

by Vivian Arend

  “Bye.” Brooke watched him go, lazy satisfaction dripping through her veins as she admired his slow-paced stroll out the door.

  “He is one fine man,” Sonora said softly.

  “He is at that,” Brooke agreed.

  Not even a minute later, the front door of the shop reopened, and another blast of cold air rolled in along with another fine gentleman, Ashton Stewart.

  Brooke had enjoyed his sharp wit and kind gestures for many years, her father’s friend a frequent visitor in their home. He was as good as family, in a way, which was why she’d found it equal parts amusing and horrifying to discover her girlfriends considered Ashton a very sexy, albeit older, specimen of the male cowboy species.

  The girls’ night out crew considered him a shining example of a man who’d aged well. Tansy had called him a juicy prime rib eye until Rose had pointed out that wasn’t very PC.

  Prime Angus beef hadn’t made the cut, either.

  But that morning, his square jawline and steel-grey eyes weren’t showing his usual down-to-earth good humour. Now he was more along the lines of a bear that had been poked out of his den and was none too pleased with the poking.

  He stomped across the floor to stop beside their table, glancing at Brooke and offering a quick chin nod before glaring at Sonora. “Are you out of your mind, woman?”

  Sonora returned his stony stare before she deliberately glanced away and sipped her coffee. “Last time I checked, no.”

  Ashton dropped into the chair Mack had vacated. “When I offer to drive you to town, I expect you to stay put and let me drive you to all your destinations.”

  “I’m not a dog that you can order to sit and stay, Ashton. If you feel the need to practice your canine training, drop by the animal shelter.” Her bright eyes narrowed. “Or maybe not. You’d just get them all riled up and then leave.”

  Ashton stiffened further.

  Brooke enjoyed the final bit of her coffee and chocolate, watching the conversation with great amusement. She’d always suspected something brewed between these two, but it appeared the relationship had hit a stormy point.

  Wind gusted hard enough against the front window to rattle the double-paned glass, snow slamming into the building seemingly out of nowhere.

  In the short time she’d been in the coffee shop, the cold but clear day had vanished. The weather had turned. Another storm, this one unpredictable and violent.

  “Wow. That’s not looking very friendly.” Brooke pushed back from the table to check outside. Whiteness blurred the buildings across the street.

  “That’s why I didn’t want you wandering off.” Ashton growled the words, but then he spoke more softly, his gaze on Sonora less of a laser beam as more concern showed through. “You know in this territory the storms sneak up quick. What if you’d still been walking when that hit?”

  “I would have walked faster.” But Sonora glanced past Ashton and out the window, and her flushed cheeks paled.

  Ashton inhaled sharply and held it for a moment, as if fighting for control. He found it fast enough, turning to Brooke and mostly hiding the shake of his head and the slight eye roll of frustration. “I assume you’re the one asking about the star?”

  “Mack and I, yes. Do you know where it is?”

  Ashton rubbed his jaw. “Maybe. I need to make a couple calls, but if I find it, I’ll give you shout.”

  “Don’t mention this to Dad,” she asked. “We’re trying to make it a surprise.”

  Ashton nodded then glanced between them. “You ladies go ahead and take your time. I’ll drive you both where you’re going when you’re done.”

  Sonora pressed her lips together, but she didn’t complain.

  Brooke didn’t either—the snowy weather wasn’t going to be fun to walk through, and the sooner she got to the shop, the sooner she could throw a bag together to be ready for when Mack showed up.

  Work dragged. There were only a few call-outs to distract him, even though Mack rode with the EMTs to their most common small-town emergency—home health calls.

  The third time he helped pick up an elderly member of the community off their snowy driveway, Mack moved from cursing the weather to wondering what made men challenge nature in stupid ways.

  “You wait until the storm stops,” Mack warned the older man who’d been trying to keep up with the snowfall and pushed himself to exhaustion. Thank goodness he hadn’t had a heart attack. “If it’s too deep for you to move, you’ve got neighbours with teenagers. Good chance to get them to build some muscle.”

  “Trying to build my muscle,” the man complained good-naturedly, but he promised.

  The storm howled like a wild creature. Only the people who hadn’t heard the weather warnings were foolish enough to have headed to work. Most gave up by noon. By the middle of the afternoon, the people venturing out were stragglers closing up their empty shops, because four shopping days before Christmas or not, Heart Falls had turned into a ghost town.

  The snow was now four feet deep in spots, the wind dropping to allow the piles to accumulate in peace. Mack didn’t dare think about the hotel getaway he’d planned with Brooke. Thinking about it might jinx it, and he couldn’t bear the thought of having to wait any longer.

  He was going to propose before Christmas, no matter what. It had to happen. He needed to know she was his.

  Five o’clock finally arrived. Mack already had his bag packed, and he made his way through the kitchen toward his truck and a night of freedom that could change his life forever.

  “You look too happy,” Alex teased. “I don’t suppose you want to exchange shifts. I’ve got a back-to-back. You’re welcome to replace me at six a.m.”

  “You need the beauty sleep more than me,” Mack deadpanned.

  Alex went serious. “God, let’s hope it’s a quiet night. This snow is going to make it hell to deal with any emergencies.”

  “Hopefully it started early enough most people stayed home.” Mack said his farewells then hit the stairs. Bag in the truck, he checked to be sure he had an emergency kit just in case, then headed for Brooke’s.

  The snowplow rattled by, the man behind the wheel waving distractedly at Mack as he passed. Keeping a route between Main Street, the highway, and the hospital clear was vital. Mack didn’t envy the endless task it was going to be under these conditions.

  It did, however, make getting to the auto shop possible. Mack was probably not thinking straight—okay, he totally wasn’t thinking straight—because what he should do was call and cancel, but damn if he could bring himself to do that.

  He had winter tires, a high clearance vehicle, and he knew the roads around the area like the back of his hand. Over a year of driving to every corner meant he was comfortable going anywhere.

  As he pulled into the space in front of the shop, the tires groaned, crunching on the heavy snowpack. He left the vehicle running, stepping into the shop and finding absolute quiet.

  Gary and Brooke ran the shop by themselves with just a few hired hands during the busy season, so it wasn’t unexpected. It was eerie, though. The absolute stillness meant each of Mack’s footsteps echoed loudly as he walked toward the interior door leading upstairs.

  Brooke burst out of the door, a duffle bag in her hand. Her cheeks were rosy, her brown hair covered with a bright red toque. “I’m ready.”

  He caught her as she threw herself forward enthusiastically. “You look ready.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “It’s not nice out. I don’t want to cancel, but you have to decide if you’re comfortable driving.”

  “We’ll be okay. We’re not going far.” And truthfully, that was the only reason he was proceeding. No matter how important this was, he wouldn’t risk Brooke’s safety.

  Her smile doubled in size. “Then let’s go.”

  Mack threw her duffle in the back of the crew cab, then helped her into the passenger seat. “Buckle up on this side, just to be safe.”

  “Yes, cap.”

  By the tim
e he’d rushed around and seated himself, Brooke’s seatbelt was tight and she had music playing. He backed out slowly, the accumulation still coming down but the snowfall lighter.

  “The storm might be passing,” Brooke said as he aimed the nose of the truck toward the main road. “Maybe the weathermen were wrong and it’s not going to be anything huge. I mean, that was a lot of precipitation in a short time, but less than twelve hours of snow isn’t the storm of the decade.”

  “Could be they were wrong.” Mack eased the wheel to the right in preparation for pulling out of the parking lot. “Who knows with the—”

  A sharp flash went off in the distance. White, then red and yellow, with a billowing cloud of black roiling upward from where they’d been headed. A loud bang hit the truck a moment later as the sound of the explosion caught up, and horror shot through him.

  “Oh my God, is that the Exxon on the highway?” Brooke leaned forward in her seat.

  Mack was about to answer when his phone went off. Simultaneously, the alarms in his truck sounded, the ones linked to the fire hall switchboard.

  He glanced at Brooke, whose face was white with alarm. “I have to answer.”

  Mack jammed the stick into park and opened his phone. He listened to the report from 911 with horror.

  It was bad. “Someone missed a turn and went through the front window at the gas station a few minutes ago. It must have triggered a chain reaction. The car didn’t explode, but they suspect a gas line ruptured.”

  “I hope there weren’t a lot of people in the place.” Brooke’s eyes were wide. “The restaurant…”

  The familiar adrenaline rush Mack felt in these circumstances was building. While he might have the evening off, this wasn’t the time to run out on his teammates. “I’m sorry, I have to go.”

  He wanted to reassure Brooke, but she had already undone her seat belt and leaned in close so she could kiss him fiercely. She was out of the truck an instant later.

  “Stay safe.” It was an order, her gaze direct and intense as she held the truck door open. “I know they need you.”

  He waited until she was safely inside before shoving the truck into gear and hitting the gas. Hurrying toward the fire hall where he could make the biggest difference. Help the most people.

  His heart, though, was back at the shop, climbing the stairs and probably already googling to see what had happened. Her thoughts would be on him and his safety.

  Mack focused. It wasn’t what he’d been hoping for, but if he wanted to get back so the next time he saw Brooke he could follow through on his plans, he had to get his head in the game.

  Even as he drove steadily toward the danger, he wanted to be sure to come home. Getting hurt now was the last thing he wanted.

  Brooke, forever, was worth being careful for.

  10

  The morning dawned very differently than Brooke had hoped. Instead of being curled up in bed with Mack after a soul-satisfying evening, she was at home listening to her dad bang around in the kitchen.

  She stared at the ceiling and attempted to recalibrate her day by counting her blessings.

  First, Mack had sent an email at five a.m. to let her know he was safe and back at the fire hall and to warn her he’d probably spend a lot of the day sleeping but he’d be in touch as soon as he was vertical. As a big-picture thing, that was pretty much at the top of her list.

  She didn’t blame him for their evening being cancelled. Being available in an emergency was part of his job, and from what she had discovered in her searching, the fire had been a bad one. Thankfully, with the storm there hadn’t been a lot of people in the building, but there had been injuries.

  What a horrifying twist to pre-Christmas preparations. Yet there’d been no fatalities reported and being alive was a good alternative.

  Also on the good side—the storm had stopped. The rough weather had fooled them all by being intense but brief, and while there were huge piles of snow everywhere, the sun shone with an almost violent intensity and the temperature was nearly above freezing instead of the chilling cold they’d had a few days ago.

  She slipped into the kitchen and snuck up on her father. “Hey, Pops. You make enough coffee for me?”

  “Never,” he teased. “Besides, it’s from the coffeemaker, not that fancy stuff your friend Tansy makes. I don’t think you should even try a cup.”

  She poked him in the ribs. He snorted, moving out of her way so she could reach the cups.

  Having her dad so visibly content made something in her happy as well. “You’re perky this morning,” she drawled. “How many cups of this terrible brew have you already consumed?”

  “Only two.” He refilled his cup then held up the milk box that was source of his glee. “I love eggnog season.”

  “Enjoy it while you can,” she said, settling at the table and considering what she could do to pass the time. Sunday meant she had the day off, but there was no guarantee Mack would be ready to do anything with her.

  Her dad flipped through the pages of his appointment calendar. “I might have spoken too soon when I said work was slowing down. We’ve scheduled time off for the holidays, but tomorrow we’re booked solid.”

  “That’s good,” Brooke said. “Means I can afford to go back to the store and buy a box of Peek Freans to leave with Santa’s milk.”

  Dad chuckled. “Get the ones with the strawberry middles. I hear he likes those.”

  She joined his laughter, but a trickle of sadness slid in with her amusement. Stocking up on store-bought cookies was on her “give up already, we’re desperate” list, and she was rapidly closing in on that date. She still hadn’t successfully managed a batch of cookies from Gram’s recipe that tasted anything like the original.

  Scratch that. She hadn’t yet baked a cookie from the recipe that was edible, forget matching the perfect old-fashioned flavor. Their holiday baking was going to be reduced to fruit cremes and shortcake out of a box.

  She forced a smile to her lips and made them breakfast.

  When Mack didn’t return her message—he was probably still sleeping—Brooke made the decision to get a few things off her to-do list.

  “You think the roads are safe enough to go for a drive?” she asked after cleaning up her plate.

  Dad nodded. “Guess the storm didn’t want to be one for the record books. Snowplow already cleared everything in town, and Ashton phoned to say they weren’t buried too badly at Silver Stone.”

  “Good, because I’m thinking about heading out there, as well as a couple other places.” Happiness swelled. “I need to drop off presents for my girlfriends, because I didn’t have them ready for our last get-together.”

  “You’ll be fine.” Her dad paused. “You hear from that guy of yours, yet?”

  “Other than his message early this morning saying he was safe, nothing.” She didn’t have the bandwidth to tease about her father avoiding Mack’s name.

  Dad grunted, then paced away, muttering to himself. “Floor’s cold. Got to get thicker socks on. See you later.”

  She was already turning to get ready herself when he caught her off guard and spoke again.

  “Maybe you should drop by to check on him.”

  “Him, who?”

  “Your guy.” Her dad had paused in the doorway to his side of the apartment, his expression thoughtful as he met her gaze. “Must have been a rough night. He’d probably like to see you.”

  Wow. Brooke was speechless.

  Good thing her father didn’t seem to be waiting for a response. He’d said his piece then turned and walked away, leaving her dumbfounded.

  Well, that was…

  Wow.

  Something warm and hopeful rested behind her breast bone. Like an oven turned on low to heat up, a glow started inside.

  The happy sensation only grew as she made her way around town, dropping off presents for Tansy and Rose, then heading to Silver Stone because she could leave four presents there and know they’d get to their ta
rgets.

  She’d known Kelli Stone back when she was Kelli James, and it would have made the most sense to head over to her home on the far side of Big Sky Lake, but the collection of vehicles outside the main Silver Stone ranch house told a story all in themselves.

  Brooke laughed, identifying the fleet of trucks from the many times she’d worked on them. She parked in an open space and pulled out her phone to message her friend.

  Brooke: You guys having your family gathering a few days early?

  * * *

  Kelli: Are you one of Santa’s elves who knows all and sees all?

  * * *

  Brooke: no, I am not one of those creepy Elf-on-a-Shelf things. I am outside and about to suggest you guys invest in shares of asphalt. Your parking lot is going to rival a Walmart if you’re not careful.

  * * *

  Kelli: lol. Come in. We’re not doing anything officially family-like right now other than herding kids. Bonus, there’s leftover bacon from breakfast.

  * * *

  Brooke: just for a minute. I bring gifts.

  * * *

  Kelli: you definitely deserve bacon.

  Brooke grabbed her oversized bag from the passenger seat and headed up the cleared sidewalk to the back door.

  Silver Stone was set in a beautiful part of the foothills, and with the thick blanket of snow that had fallen, everything was pristine and Christmas-card beautiful.

  Inside the house was warm chaos. Children’s laughter rang and the scent of maple syrup and bacon hung heavy on the air. Brooke glanced toward the living room and spotted most of the Stone family lounging on the couches and easy chairs in front of the fire. Other than a couple of Christmas cards on the mantle, there was no sign of a Christmas tree or any other decorations.

  “Hey.” Her friend Kelli enveloped her in a huge hug before pulling back and turning serious. “Mack okay? We heard about the fire.”