CHAPTER 1
Kinsey
“On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…five golden rings!”
My voice cracks as I struggle to keep the car on the road with the huge wind gusts from the storm. It’s been so long since I drove in the middle of a Colorado snowstorm and my hands are throttling the steering wheel like I’ve got a personal ax to grind with it.
My eyes search the mirror to see if my son and daughter are as terrified as I am but honestly? They look like they’re having the time of their lives. My eight-year-old daughter, Katy, is laughing like a wild thing as she belts out the words to our favorite Christmas song. Everybody tells me that her gray eyes are the spitting image of mine, which she hates to hear, of course! Her red curls tangle just as easily in a tiny breeze.
Just like mine. She’s a pistol. A holy terror that loves to bounce on the heels of her tennis shoes because she can barely stand still.
At my age, I’ve figured out that being still sometimes feels pretty damn good.
On the other hand, my son is listlessly singing along with his sister when she smacks him to remind him that he’s supposed to be participating with her. With me as well.
“On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me…nine ladies dancing, eight maids ‘a milking…”
Squinting out the windshield, I can barely make out shapes in the whirling snowfall.
We got held up by the kids’ stops every hour or so to go to the bathroom or begging for food.
At thirteen, my son is a lanky boy with overgrown blond hair just like his surfer father. Unlike his father, he’s got my gray eyes and paler skin. He’s also so serious sometimes that it’s hard to believe that he’s still a kid.
Currently, his nose is stuck in the middle of a book and he’s holding a portable light to read by. Except for when Katy smacks him.
“Hey, stop hitting me, Katy! I don’t want to sing. I’m tired.” His lips twist and he jerks away from her as far as his seatbelt will allow in my little SUV.
“Come on, Will! I can’t wait to see the tree farm where mom grew up.”
“I don’t know why we had to come back here. Dad can’t come to Colorado at the drop of a hat.”
My shoulders slump. Of course he’s upset with me. He loves his dad. Worships him really.
Unfortunately, Jeremy doesn’t act the same way. He’s too wrapped up in his new girlfriend. He seems to find it too easy to forget that he has children since his new girlfriend is basically a child herself.
Twenty years younger than us at twenty years old, he’s endlessly fascinated by his new child bride. To the extent that he doesn’t have any interest in his ex-wife that he dumped for her or his two children.
“I’m sure that your dad will be able to come see you.” It’s not like the man is hurting for money. He’s got a good job at the firm we both worked for. Until I got the short end of the shaft in the divorce. Because it’s his family’s company which meant no matter what I was going to be heading out the door since I’m an inconvenient problem in their little bubble right now.
“Does it always snow like this here, Mom?” Katy’s voice sounds a little strained. A little wobbly and I pull myself up sharply. Maybe I’m not being as upbeat as I think I am.
“Yeah. Winter is a lot different around here than it is in California. We have real seasons in Colorado, kiddo.”
“I know that, Mom,” she huffs. “But this seems really bad.”
“It’s alright.” I squint through the windshield again and then squeak when something dark and big runs in front of my car.
Both kids scream as I whip the steering wheel. The world spins by in a streaming, swirling wall of white and then the car finally comes to rest in the middle of the road.
Shaking, I lean my forehead into the steering wheel and close my eyes, breathing quick and fast, praying under my breath.
“Are we alright, Mom?” Will’s worried voice asks me quietly.
Shivering, I sit up and wipe my streaming eyes. Clearing my throat, I smile and turn to them. Two pairs of worried gray eyes stare back at me in the dim light of the dashboard.
“We are just fine. Probably just a big deer. But it’s gone now. And the car’s fine so we’ll just restart the car and continue on until we get to Christmas Country.”
“Yay!” Both of them cheer and hoot, obviously happy and relieved.
