Mistake in Christmas River

by Meg Muldoon

“It’s about—”

  “Him,” he said, cutting me off. “Your dad. I know.”

  I felt my jaw open slightly and my eyes grow wide.

  “But how..?”

  Warren let out a short sigh.

  “Don’t hold it against him, but Daniel told me about it last month. He wanted me to know in case I could help you in some way. That husband of yours loves you a heck of a lot Cinny Bee. He’s been really worried about you and this whole situation.”

  I stared down at my drink, still in shock.

  Warren had known this whole time. And here I’d been feeling guilty about not telling him.

  “How come you didn’t tell me that you knew?” I asked.

  Warren came around the side of the bar, taking a seat on the stool next to mine. He let out a staggered breath.

  “I figured you’d talk to me about it in your own good time. And I figured you’re a bright young woman who can make her own decisions in life. It wasn’t my place to meddle.”

  Warren ran a hand over his balding head.

  “You see, I’ve done that before, and it didn’t sit well with me. Back when you graduated high school? That bastard sent a congratulations card. You remember that?”

  I nodded.

  When I closed my eyes, I could still see the four words he’d written on it.

  Congrats, kiddo. Your Dad.

  Cold, unfeeling words that did more harm than good.

  “Well, I was so angry at that Cinny Bee. Him abandoning you and your mother – never even coming home for her funeral or taking up his responsibility. We hear nothing from him for years, and then that stupid card arrives. I half thought about driving all the way across the country and giving him a piece of my mind in person. I thought about telling that woman he married what a rotten person he was. But instead, I ended up writing a letter.”

  Warren gazed blankly at the bar mirror in front of us.

  “At the time, I thought it was the right thing to do. I wrote and told him to leave you alone and to never show his face here again. I told him that he poisoned everything he touched.”

  Warren rubbed his face.

  “I still believe he deserved every word. But in the years since, I’ve wondered if it was the right thing to do – if I didn’t meddle in something I shouldn’t have. You were 18 by then – old enough to make your own choices. And maybe if I hadn’t written that letter, he would have—”

  I shook my head.

  “No. I was just as angry. You didn’t do anything I wouldn’t have done.”

  “But maybe it wasn’t my place, Cinny Bee. Maybe—”

  I shook my head again.

  “You didn’t do anything wrong, Grandpa.”

  I let out a slow breath.

  “He’s the one who did something wrong,” I added.

  Warren nodded, falling silent for a long moment.

  “So what’s he got exactly?” he finally asked.

  I bit my lip, looking down at the bar.

  “Lymphoma,” I said. “He found out about it in October. It seems like it’s progressing fast and he… he said he wanted to put things right with me. You know, before... if…”

  I trailed off, feeling numb all over.

  Warren shook his head.

  “Hell of a thing to put on your shoulders,” he muttered.

  I closed my eyes and let out a long breath.

  “Well, whatever you decide to do, Cinny Bee, it’s good,” Warren said. “Remember that. You don’t owe him anything. And whatever the outcome of all of this is, you’ve done good.”

  I nodded silently.

  “A person can only be expected to put up with so much. And you’ve dealt with all of this admirably throughout your life.”

  “Well, that’s because I was lucky,” I said.

  Warren raised those bushy eyebrows of his in puzzlement.

  “Lucky?”

  I turned to look at him.

  “Yeah. I had you the whole time, old man,” I said.

  I reached forward, hugging him.

  “Thanks for always being there. I don’t know what would have happened to me if you hadn’t been.”

  I pulled away. Warren’s eyes had turned glassy and he didn’t say anything.

  I knew it was because his voice would come out thick with emotion.

  I smiled.

  Sometimes things that seemed like catastrophes in life turned out to be blessings in disguise – only they didn’t reveal themselves to be that until later on.

  Warren brushed at his face and looked away. He sniveled some.

  “So, uh, so what’d you think of that beer there?” he asked, his voice a little shaky.

  I smiled big.

  “Where do I put in my order for a keg?”

  Chapter 75

  “All right, everyone,” she said in a tired, scratchy voice. “Here we are.”

  Kara threw the Volvo into park in front of the airline terminal. I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the car door. A whoosh of cold air hit me as I stepped out into the twilight.

  The sun hadn’t come up yet, and though I was used to being awake at this hour, I knew that Kara was not by her uncharacteristically haphazard outfit of tennis shoes, sweats, and bedhead hair. It made the fact that she had gotten up so early to drop us off at the airport all the more meaningful to me.

  She stepped out of the car and walked around to the trunk. Daniel met her there, pulling out our suitcases and bringing them over to the curb.

  I stopped by the backseat to say goodbye to little Laila. She was asleep in the car seat, her soft features taking on an angelic quality in the dim light.

  I smiled, then reached through the unrolled window, lightly brushing the side of her cheek.

  “See you soon, Laila girl.”

  She kept right on sleeping – which was exactly what I wanted.

  I went over to the curb, meeting Daniel and my best friend.

  “Thanks for driving us, Kara,” Daniel said.

  “It means a lot,” I added, giving her a hug.

  “Are you kidding?” she said, her voice still scratchy. “It was no big deal. I’m always up at this hour with Laila.”

  I pulled away.

  “Liar,” I said, smiling.

  She put her hands up.

  “All right – you got me. John’s always the one up with Laila in the morning. You know me, Cin – early mornings were never my thing.”

  I grabbed the handle of my suitcase and looked at her for a long moment.

  “So lay it on us before we go – how many copies did you sell yesterday?”

  She waved a hand at me, looking slightly embarrassed suddenly.

  “C’mon,” I said. “We want to know.”

  She cleared her throat, staring down at the asphalt.

  “Okay, fine,” she mumbled in a barely audible voice. “It was… it was 30.”

  I felt my eyes widen.

  “Thirty books! You sold thirty books yesterday?”

  “Kara – that’s incredible,” Daniel said, looking impressed.

  She bit her lip, trying to suppress a grin. But in the end, that beautiful smile of hers came beaming through.

  “Beginner’s luck I guess,” she said.

  “Or maybe just a really great book,” I said.

  “Hopefully by the time you guys get back, I’ll have the first draft of the follow-up written.”

  Kara was trying hard to play it cool, but I could see just how excited she was about her new side career.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be a side career for all that long.

  “Well, you guys better get going so you don’t miss your flight,” she said. “Be careful out there, okay? I’ll check in on the pie shop every now and then to make sure those three hell-raisers you hired aren’t burning the place down.”

  I laughed at the image of Tiana, Ian, and Tobias being hell-raisers or anything but the wonderful, kind people that they were.

  Then I gripped the handle of my suitcase and gazed
at her one last moment before leaving.

  “You’re such a good friend, Kara.”

  “Takes one to know one,” she said, winking.

  I looked over at Daniel and nodded.

  A moment later, we were wheeling our luggage through the revolving glass doors of the Redmond Airport.

  Chapter 76

  I sat in a row of chairs facing a large window that framed the runway. I watched as a plane in the distance began to descend, growing bigger and bigger in the skies overhead. A few moments later, it came into full view as it touched down. It rushed past the window, eventually slowing and then circling the sprawling concrete pad.

  The sun had just risen into a brilliant, blue Central Oregon sky. The juniper trees that dotted the arid desert land around the airport remained motionless in the still morning, reaching up to that infinite blue with their limbs.

  I’d heard on the radio in Kara’s car that Central Oregon was in for an unseasonably warm week ahead, with the mercury set to hit the low 80s for several days in a row.

  Though it seemed strange to have such weather this time of year, it wasn’t unusual to see a warm snap like this at the tail end of February in Christmas River. The blissful warmth would last for a few days, then temperatures would once again plummet to their usual icy reaches until May. But the few days of warm weather always had a way of giving us Central Oregonians hope for the spring.

  “They didn’t have hazelnut coffee, Cin, but I got you the dark roast and some hazelnut creamer instead.”

  Daniel handed me a hot paper cup.

  “That’s just as good. Thanks, hon.”

  “Can I get you anything else?”

  “Just you,” I said with a smile.

  He sat in the seat next to me and reached for my hand, squeezing it.

  “I think I just saw our plane come in.”

  “Glad to see that it’s on schedule,” he said. “You know last time I was on a plane, I was flying down to Fresno and the flight got delayed by five hours. Only, nobody told us at the time that it was going to be that long. They kept pushing it back by twenty minute increments. It got so that I wasn’t sure if we were ever taking off and…”

  Daniel had already told me this story, but I knew he was telling it to me again to ease my nerves.

  I always got a little anxious before take-off.

  “This other time, when I was still with Fresno P.D., I had to go to Boston for a special training my boss wanted my partner and I to go to,” Daniel continued. “The return leg got cancelled because of bad weather. But one thing the airlines don’t tell you when you’re booking the flight is that they don’t comp hotel rooms if the delay is related to Mother Nature.”

  Daniel had already told me this story, too.

  “All the hotels were booked up in Boston that weekend,” he continued. “So Adam and I ended up having to drive all the way to—”

  I gripped Daniel’s hand and turned in my seat to look at him.

  He stopped speaking, seeing the seriousness in my expression.

  “I want to tell you something,” I said.

  I gazed deep into his eyes.

  “I love you. Somehow every day I love you more than the one before. And today… today I love you most of all.”

  I glanced out the window, watching as the plane that had just landed come to a stop at our gate.

  “You’ve been so good to me,” I said. “You’re everything I ever hoped for in my life, Daniel. My whole world. And I don’t know how I ever found you. Or how I got so lucky.”

  He gazed at me with a loving expression.

  Then he reached forward, brushing my cheek.

  “I know that feeling, too, darlin,’” he said softly. “And just so you know, Cin: I’m always going to be here to face the storms with you. Today’s storms and tomorrow’s. No matter what it looks like ahead, no matter how dark things get, I’ll be standing right here.

  “Always.”

  In that moment, I thought about what my mom had said to me all those years ago. About always doing things for yourself and never relying on a man for anything.

  She wasn’t wrong, and I’d taken her advice, making my own way in the world.

  But I’d been lucky with Daniel.

  I’d been lucky to find someone who would stick by my side.

  Someone to rely on, in thick and thin.

  A man who stood by his word.

  With him holding my hand, I knew I could get through anything.

  A voice broke over the speaker.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, in just a few minutes, we’ll start boarding for Flight 879, service to Philadelphia starting with our rewards members, families with young children, and…”

  I gazed into Daniel’s calm, placid green eyes and gave him a small smile.

  It hadn’t been the easy choice to push off our Ireland vacation until the spring.

  But as I sat there waiting to board, watching the sun rise higher into the brilliant Central Oregon sky, I knew without a doubt that it was the right one.

  The End

  Did you enjoy this book? Please take the time to write a review on Amazon. Reviews are greatly appreciated by the author and help let other readers know about the series! Thank you so much in advance, dear reader!

  For more cozy fun, join Meg on Patreon, her website, or sign up for her mailing list for recipes and extra stories!

  Also, check out Meg’s Etsy shop! Full of cozy ornaments, jewelry, and home décor all lovingly made by Meg, there’s a little cozy magic for everyone down at Meg Muldoon Studios!

  Look for Malarkey in Christmas River: Book 13 in 2019!!

  The Meg Muldoon Collection

  The Christmas River Cozy Mystery Series

  Murder in Christmas River: Book 1

  Mayhem in Christmas River: Book 2

  Madness in Christmas River: Book 3

  Malice in Christmas River: Book 4

  Mischief in Christmas River: Book 5

  Manic in Christmas River: Book 6

  Magic in Christmas River: Book 7

  Menace in Christmas River: Book 8

  Missing in Christmas River: Book 9

  Meltdown in Christmas River: Book 10

  Midnight in Christmas River: Book 11

  Mistake in Christmas River: Book 12

  The Christmas River Cozy Mystery Box Set: Books 1-3

  The Christmas River Cozy Mystery Box Set Books 4-6

  The Christmas River Cozy Mystery Novellas

  Roasted in Christmas River

  Caught in Christmas River

  Crushed in Christmas River

  The Holly Hopewell Cozy Mystery Series

  The Silence of the Elves: Book 1

  The Cozy Matchmaker Mystery Series

  Burned in Broken Hearts Junction: Book 1

  Busted in Broken Hearts Junction: Book 2

  The Dog Town USA Cozy Mystery Series

  Mutts & Murder: Book 1

  Bulldogs & Bullets: Book 2

  The Broomfield Bay Mystery Series (with Jools Sinclair)

  Ginger of the West: Book 1

  About the Author

  Amazon Bestselling Author Meg Muldoon loves writing cozy mysteries. A former small town news reporter, Meg has always had a special place in her heart for lost dogs, homeless cats, and feisty old locals. She enjoys bourbon bread pudding, red cowboy boots and craft glue guns.

  Originally from Central Oregon, Meg lives in Arizona with two Great Pyrenees and a cattle dog named Huckleberry.

  For more about Meg and her upcoming books, join her on Facebook or visit her Blog.

  To sign up for the Meg Muldoon new book alert mailing list, and to get Meg’s Cozy Corner newsletters, click here.

 

 

 
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