Jingle Bell Blessings

As they rolled out of town toward the quarry, the old truck bumped considerably. One especially large bump thrust her against Evan’s shoulder. Feeling as though she had hit heated rock, Chloe drew back, immediately scooting toward the passenger-side door.

“Ouch,” Jimmy squeaked.

“I’m sorry! I was…concentrating too much on the landscape.” At the moment she couldn’t have guessed if they were surrounded by mountains or desert.

“You mean the trees?”

Feeling smaller than the child at her side, she tried to look unaffected. “Pretty aren’t they?”

Actually they were. Leaves had transformed into clusters of color. Standing next to sentinel green pines, this was the beautiful Texas hill country she’d heard so much about. But the squiggle in her stomach didn’t have anything to do with the surroundings—the nonhuman ones, that was. Still feeling the impression of Evan’s shoulder against her arm, she wanted to touch the spot, to see if the fire she’d felt was external. Ridiculous, she knew. A grown woman practically melting by the accidental brush of a man’s arm. A very handsome man’s arm.

“We’re not far,” Evan announced.

Still ruminating on her reaction, again she overreacted, jumping when he spoke. “Well… that’s good then.” At this rate she would reduce her conversational skills to a first grader’s level.

“Look!” Jimmy poked her as his voice threaded with something close to excitement.

Chloe followed his gaze. A beautiful horse trotted in a field, lifting its head in a royal motion.

Evan didn’t take his eyes from the road. “He’s an Arabian. Belongs to the Markhams.”

“That’s a neat trick,” she commented. “How did you know without looking?”

“This is my home,” he explained simply.

“Still….”

“At the curve, there’s an old oak that’s got more notches on it than an outlaw’s gun. One of them’s mine. Most everybody in town’s hit that oak when they were learning to drive. Luckily, the tree’s over far enough that no one’s run into it straight on.”

How could a man who obviously cared about his home and employees have absolutely no compassion for a parentless child? Burdened with the thought, Chloe didn’t ask any more questions as Evan drove farther from town. Jimmy, still intimidated, didn’t speak either. And Evan clearly wasn’t going to initiate a conversation.

In the quiet, Chloe saw much more of the gently rolling hills, the yellowing of wild grass, the last wildflowers struggling to survive despite the bite of late autumn. The hill country really was a beautiful place for the holidays.

Back home, they would have a wintry cold Thanksgiving and a guaranteed white Christmas. She wasn’t missing the weather. Or her job. Just her mother. And Barbara Reed had been insistent that Chloe accept this assignment. Still, she was so used to caring for her mother…visiting her in the long-term recovery facility, spending every spare minute with her. Intensely aware of the thousand-plus miles that separated them, Chloe sighed.

“Something wrong?” Evan asked.

Again, his unexpected speaking startled her. This time her hand flew to her throat to disguise the rapid pulse that must be visible. “No… of course not.”

“Hmm.”

How did the man run a business when he barely spoke? Feeling the opportunity, she cleared her throat. “Actually, I was thinking about my mother. Missing her.”

Evan took his eyes from the road. “Then why’d you come all the way out here?”

Because she needed the money Mr. Wainwright had offered to continue paying for her mother’s care.

Jimmy looked up at her and she smiled for his benefit. “I wouldn’t miss this adventure for anything.”

Evan snorted. “Adventure?”

“Sure, neither of us has ever been to Texas.” Chloe struggled for something benign to say. “Or a quarry.”

This time when he glanced at her, she met his dark eyes, sustaining the gaze. Despite the disbelief lurking in their depths, she felt the same as she had when she’d bumped into his shoulder. Silly but….

Chloe swallowed. She hadn’t experienced that kind of reaction to a man since her ex-fiancé, Derek, had dumped her. Must just be nerves, she told herself. That, and knowing how much was riding on her swaying Evan Mitchell to change his mind.

Still, she straightened up, holding her body rigidly in place. And kept herself in that position until they neared a large sign indicating the quarry. Unexpectedly excited, Chloe leaned forward when Evan turned off the main road. Bumping over the rutted dirt road, dust billowed behind them in a dark cloud. Evan didn’t slow down. Clearly the pitted road was familiar to him, so familiar he knew its ups and downs, its twists and curves.

Not surprisingly, the small office, barely more than a shed, was built of limestone.

“Is the quarry in that building?” Jimmy asked in a disappointed voice.

Evan chuckled, startling Chloe and Jimmy. “Nope. It’s the big pit we’re driving to when we switch vehicles.”

Transfixed by the difference in Evan when he smiled, Chloe didn’t pay attention to the quarry until Jimmy poked her arm, pointing out the large slabs of stone literally everywhere.

Chloe tried to think of something intelligent to say; she reverted to the familiar. “Do you sell stone from this office?”

“Small jobs like home remodels. All the commercial orders come through the main office.” He pulled the truck up close to the small building.

“Is the quarry nearby?” Chloe asked, as curious as Jimmy.

“We’ll grab a buggy to get over there.” Evan got out of the truck and disappeared.

Chloe wriggled her eyebrows at Jimmy. “Sounds cool.”

He loosened up slightly. “Evan doesn’t even sound mad at me.”

Chloe’s heart pinged and she impulsively wrapped her arms around him. “He isn’t mad at you, honey. If anything, he’s mad at himself.”

“How come?”

Yes. Why? “Because he’s the sort of man who’s used to being in control, in charge, like at his company. And, when Evan’s in unfamiliar territory…he’s confused. And that makes him mad. Let’s get out of the truck and be ready when he brings the buggy around, okay?”

Evan appeared shortly in what resembled a golf cart. “Hop in.”

When Jimmy hesitated, Chloe climbed in, taking a spot in the back so Jimmy could ride up front next to Evan.

When Jimmy continued to hesitate, Evan’s impatient expression relented a fraction; he shrugged his head to one side. “Come on. You ride shotgun.”

Once Jimmy was onboard, Evan didn’t speed off as Chloe imagined he wanted to. Instead, he drove slowly, pointing out various formations.

“This quarry is limestone.” Evan pointed to a newly excavated vein. “See the different colors? The clay and the iron oxide cause that.” He drove past the open pit to a second pit.

“Now, this limestone’s been weathered a long time, about a hundred and forty years. That’s why the color’s different than the new vein. Subtle change, though. Takes stone thousands of years to form, sometimes more to change.”

Jimmy’s big brown eyes grew even larger. “How do you grow more, then?”

Evan’s mouth curved as though about to smile. As quickly, he pulled his eyebrows together in a serious expression. “We can’t. Have you heard about taking care of the environment?”

Solemnly, Jimmy nodded. “Daddy and Mommy said we have to take care of the earth. That it’s our job, so that’s why we have to use green things.” He looked up at Evan. “That doesn’t mean the color green.”

“So I’ve heard. Which is why we use every part of the stone we dig up. After the big slabs are cut, we use the small pieces for all kinds of things—cement, mortar, it even goes in toothpaste.”

“We brush our teeth with rocks?” Jimmy asked, forgetting his fear, completely intrigued.

Evan’s lips definitely twitched. “Helps that they flavor it with mint. Oh, and bubble gum for kids.”

Bubble-gum flavored toothpaste? Funny thing for a single man to know about. Mr. Wainwright had told her that Evan was an only child. So no nieces or nephews. Of course he could have seen the product in a commercial.

Chloe had wondered if Evan’s stubborn refusal to even consider taking Jimmy in was because of being an only child. Never having to share. Maybe he hadn’t left the trait behind with his childhood. Maybe he didn’t want to share his life, either.

She found that terribly sad. Even though Chloe had felt the impact of financial problems for years, she wouldn’t trade caring for her mother. Not for a zillion dollars. But the money Holden Wainwright had promised her if she succeeded in placing Jimmy with the Mitchells would change their lives. There would be no more angst-ridden moments of worrying whether she would be able to pay the rising costs of the care facility.

“Are most of the rocks for toothpaste?” Jimmy was asking Evan.

“Nope. Most of it’s used in architecture. Have you heard of the Great Pyramids? They’re in Egypt where your grandparents are. Anyway, they’re made of limestone.”

“I didn’t know that,” Chloe blurted out, belatedly realizing she had verbalized her thought.

“Castles in medieval times were made from it, too.” Evan replied, unperturbed by her question.

“With dragons?” Jimmy asked with the first note of genuine, full-out excitement she had heard in his voice.

Evan scratched his head. “Hard to say. We don’t carry dragons at our quarries.”

Chloe nearly giggled aloud, not something she would have ever anticipated doing with Evan.

The thought had barely formed when he turned around. “I have to get back to the office soon. Where did you leave your car?”

“The house,” she admitted, belatedly realizing that hadn’t been a well-thought-out plan.

Evan glanced at his watch, then scowled. “Have to head back now, then.”

By the time they returned the cart and switched back to the truck, Evan was impatient to get to his meeting. He pulled into the driveway at the house, leaving the engine running. Jimmy hopped out immediately. Chloe started to follow, but Evan caught her arm.

“We have to talk. Soon.” He met her eyes, his own making her shiver unexpectedly. “When we’re alone.”

Chapter Four

Alone. Evan waited through dinner, then coffee and cake in the parlor. Chloe had managed to keep someone within a foot of her the entire time. He wouldn’t be surprised if she super-glued Jimmy to one of her hands.

And his head was throbbing. The meeting with the bank president had gone so poorly he didn’t expect a follow-up visit would change a thing. Evan, like the rest of his family before him, had kept his business with the local bank. No connections to any of the large multinational banks. He couldn’t blame his local banker. Loans, especially big commercial loans, still weren’t the flavor of the day. And Mitchell Stone had been operating in the red for the last three years.

It hadn’t helped that during the meeting, he couldn’t forget his other immediate problem. Sending Chloe and Jimmy back to Milwaukee. The boy resembled Spencer too much, making him remember too much…about too many things.

A sudden image of Sean seared his thoughts. His son would be seven now, too. Sean should have been the one sitting in the cart beside him as they toured the quarry, learning as Evan had, from a young age to appreciate both the family business and the blessings of the earth, what it gave up to us.

Sean had wanted to learn—every waking moment of every day. What kind of bird nested in the tall oak out front? Why did Grandpa’s hair turn gray? How did the dew form on the grass? A million questions, he had thought at the time, hoping he wouldn’t run out of answers. He had never dreamed it would be Sean who would run out of time.

And his beautiful Robin… The Lord had never made a sweeter woman. She had lived her life for her family, and ultimately died trying to save Sean. If only…. If only he hadn’t chosen Hawaii to vacation. But Robin had always wanted to visit there and he had delighted at the surprise on her face when he had given her a dream vacation for her birthday. She and Sean had counted the days until they flew to the beautiful islands.

Evan would give anything to turn back the calendar, to change that one dreadful decision. He swallowed, knowing life didn’t work that way.

“Son?” Gordon repeated.

Evan shook his head, then lifted his gaze. “Sorry, Dad.”

Gordon’s eyes filled with empathy and understanding. “I’m going to teach Jimmy how to tie some flies. Thought we’d go fishing Saturday. How does that sound?”

Like another painful reminder. “Whatever you want.”

Concern lingered in Gordon’s eyes.

And Evan didn’t want to worry his father. “Be good to go before winter sets in.” Thanksgiving was right around the corner; Christmas would descend in seeming days.

“That’s what I was thinking. Chloe says her father used to go ice fishing up in Wisconsin. Makes my bones shiver to think about it.”

Evan glanced in her direction. “Doesn’t your father ice fish anymore?”

“My dad died when I was in junior high school,” she explained. Although Chloe’s voice was steady, he glimpsed a flash of pain in her eyes.

“Sorry.” Evan knew the words were inadequate. He had heard the phrase often enough in the past two years.

“It’s been a long time.”

But never long enough. Time heals all wounds. He had heard that one so much it made him sick. That and the Lord never gives us more than we can bear. But there had been no reason to take Robin and Sean. Again his throat swelled and Evan couldn’t speak around the lump it caused.

Chloe glanced down, then patted Jimmy’s knee. Clearly, she knew that the discussion could upset him, might have already done so.

Evan wondered how Wainwright had found this woman. Someone as pugnacious as a bulldog, yet obviously sensitive to a child’s needs.

Gordon stood and clapped one hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “Let’s go in the den. Those flies aren’t going to tie themselves.”

They had barely begun walking from the room when Chloe rose. When she passed his chair, Evan snagged her arm.

Startled, Chloe pulled back, her hand immediately brushing the spot where he had touched her.

Funny, he felt a strange tingle at the touch himself. Ignoring it, Evan waited until Gordon and Jimmy were out of hearing. “We need to talk.”

“In here?” she asked weakly.

“No. Too many interruptions.” He stood, grabbing her hand. Again the feeling shot clear through his body. Again he ignored it. He led her through the kitchen, out the back door. The wide, wrap-around porch was lit by soft gas lights.

“The days are shorter,” Chloe commented, sounding nervous. “Gets dark so early.” She pointed toward the sky. “Good there’s moonlight.”

“Are you a stargazer, Miss Reed?”

“Chloe,” she insisted. “Yes, I suppose I am. Not that I’ve had time to—”

“How do you spend your time? Convincing people to make bad decisions?”

Anger flashed in her sea-green eyes. She was right. The light from the moon aided the gas lights enough to read her expression. Chloe’s mouth opened, then she firmed her lips into a resolute line as she pulled her shoulders back. “I work, if you must know.”

“That’s what you call it?”

The anger in her face intensified. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

So, she had a temper. “Surely it’s clear, even to you, that Wainwright’s plan isn’t going to work.”

“Why are you so negative? You act as though Jimmy has some sort of disease. He’s a wonderful child!”

“I didn’t say he isn’t.” The boy seemed like a good kid. On the quiet side, but Evan didn’t expect anything different after what Jimmy had been through.

“Then what is it?” Exasperation spilled into her voice.

“I told you my answer is no.”

Chloe paused, tilting her face so that the moonlight enhanced the beguiling heart shape of her face. “Your father seems to have a different opinion.”

Evan tried to ignore the unwanted feeling her proximity caused. “It’s not going to work, regardless of what my father says. There’s no room in my life for a child. I’m fighting to keep the business alive. I have twenty-seven employees who depend on me for their livelihood. Do you expect me to forget about them?”

“Of course not.” The exasperation had left her voice. Concern replaced it. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t do both. You have help—your father, Thelma and Ned.”

“What is it about no that you don’t understand? This isn’t like a pet rescue. I can’t turn Jimmy out in the yard with Bailey if I don’t want him close to me. He needs parents, not a guardian.”

“But with time—”

“There isn’t going to be any time.” Evan’s constant anguish flared so fiercely it felt like a physical blow. The back door opened and Jimmy ran outside, followed more slowly by Gordon.

“Guess what?” Jimmy asked Chloe with a glimmer of excitement. “Tomorrow we’re going to see the school.”

All four adults looked at one another. Chloe seemed uncertain. Gordon was determined. And Evan knew he had to stop this from happening. At all costs.

Chloe and Jimmy had disappeared upstairs. Evan made certain of it before he confronted his father. “What were you thinking? Telling the boy you’ll show him our school?”

Gordon knocked the ashes from his pipe into an ashtray. “Why shouldn’t he see it?”

“You know exactly why. Jimmy will think that means he’ll be staying on for a while.”

“Son, he needs us.”

Evan snorted. “There are thousands of orphaned children who need homes. Are we going to take them in as well?”

Gordon packed cherry tobacco into the bowl of his worn pipe. “He’s family.”

Evan felt his chest heave with pain. Family would never again mean the same thing for him. “Are you planning to take care of him?”

“We had that talk when Wainwright first called.”

Slumping into a deep leather chair, Evan sighed. “Why are you doing this to me, Dad?”

Gordon stopped tamping down the tobacco, which didn’t really matter since he never lit the pipe. “It’s not to you, son. It’s for you. When we first lost Robin and Sean, I knew it would take you a long time to accept that you still have a life. It’s natural.”

“Accept it? I’ll never accept it. There was no reason for them to die.”

“You did everything you could to—”

“But the Lord didn’t!” Furious, he rose.

“We don’t always understand—”

“I’ve heard it all before. And I don’t want to hear it again.”

Gordon sighed. “This boy is another chance for you, son. The Lord knows of the hole in your heart.”

“A replacement?” Evan laughed bitterly. “A cosmic reparation? No. I lost the only son I’ll ever have.”

“Evan, you—”

“If you persist in having them stay here, he’s your responsibility.”

“Son, it doesn’t do you any good to be angry at the Lord.”

Sadness and pain settled in Evan’s heart. “I’m not angry at Him. I’m disappointed. And that won’t ever change.”

“All the grades go together?” Jimmy asked in a hushed voice, tightening his grip on Chloe’s hand as they stood in the main hall of Rosewood Community Church’s school.

“Not in the same room,” Chloe explained, although she wasn’t certain just how the school was organized.

Gordon nodded. “That’s how it was when I was a boy.”

Jimmy looked at him in awe, as though the older man had said he had attended school with the dinosaurs. “You went to school here?”

Chloe and Gordon both chuckled.

“Yep. We’d invented fire by then.” Gordon clapped one hand on Jimmy’s shoulder, giving him a small hug while he exchanged an amused glance with Chloe.

Just then a pretty woman walked out of the office.

“Well, hello, Grace.”

“Gordon!” She smiled, a generous smile that lit up her blue-gray eyes. “I heard the hunting went very well.”

He turned to Chloe. “Ah, the bane of small towns. Can’t get by with much that everybody doesn’t know about.”

“Afraid that’s true,” Grace agreed.

“I’m forgetting my manners. Grace, this is Chloe Reed and Jimmy Mitchell.”

“So good to meet you,” she said to Chloe, then extended her hand to Jimmy. “Always glad to meet another Mitchell man.”

Pleased, but shy, Jimmy grinned.

“I don’t have a class this hour,” Grace continued. “Can I help you find anything?”

“Thought it’d be nice to show them around. You know, a little tour, before they meet the principal,” Gordon explained.

“I’d be glad to help. I teach part-time in the upper grades, but I know all the buildings.” She leaned down slightly toward Jimmy and confided, “The kids call me old lady Brady.”

Chloe couldn’t restrain her laughter. “We’re probably close in age. Didn’t realize I was in that category yet.”

Grace laughed with her. “Came as quite a shock to me, too. Teaching is my second and best career. Didn’t realize it would age me so!”

Gordon groaned. “You kids are killing me.”

“You are a sweetheart,” Grace declared as she turned to Chloe. “See why I love the Mitchell men?”

Chloe had seen plenty of reasons, even in Evan. Because for all his protests, she suspected he was covering a deep and grievous hurt.

Grace led them down the main hall. “We’re in the administration building. Besides the office, the cafeteria, library and auditorium are in this building. There are separate buildings for elementary, junior high and senior high. Since it’s a church school, we’re not funded by the government but we have private donors. I imagine you’d like to see the elementary building.”

The cheerful building was filled with colorful banners and posters. “Kindergarten through fifth-grade classes,” Grace explained as they passed individual classrooms. “There’s also a smaller, all-purpose room for the youngest grades. The plays and larger performances are held in the auditorium. More room for all the doting parents and grandparents.” Grace paused in front of one classroom. “This is a first-grade class.”

“Is there more than one?” Chloe asked, liking the positive energy in the school.

“That depends on enrollment. Our elementary teachers are certified to teach two or three grades. That way we can adjust to make sure class sizes aren’t too large.”

“Sounds like you’ve thought of everything.”

“Are you a teacher, too?” Grace questioned.

“No. I’m a sec… I work for a legal firm out of Milwaukee.”

Gordon looked at her strangely, and Chloe fiddled with her purse handles, worrying about her near slip.

“A fellow big-city native! I’m from Houston.”

Chloe was immediately curious. “How do you like living here?”

“It’s perfect,” she replied in a soft voice. “I love it.”

“Met her husband here,” Gordon added.

Grace blushed, a gentle pink. “Yes. You’ll meet him at church. He’s the choir director.”

“A musician?”

She smiled widely. “Actually, Noah’s a plastic surgeon who happens to love music. Works out well because I do, too.”

“Do you teach music?”

“Actually, I teach English.” Grace laughed again. “You probably think you’ve wandered into the land of Oz where nothing is as it seems. A choir director who’s a doctor and a musician who teaches English.”

Chloe liked Grace’s infectious smile and laughter. “I’m enjoying Oz just fine.”

“Are we in Oz?” Jimmy asked in a confused tone.

Chloe met Grace’s glance and broke into another round of laughter. Then she knelt down next to Jimmy. “Oz is a pretend place. It’s very colorful and full of surprises.”

With a child’s understanding, Jimmy nodded. “But the school’s real?”

“Very,” Gordon replied. “Do you like what you’ve seen?”

Jimmy nodded. “I don’t like big schools.”

“Me, either,” Grace confided. “I was kind of scared when I started teaching, but at this school, all the people are nice and welcoming. In no time, I felt right at home.”

Grace might teach upper grades, but she had the perfect touch for young children. Chloe was glad they had run into her. She mouthed thank you above Jimmy’s head.