He huffed out a breath that hovered in their air around the two of them like a fog:Everyone’s all worked up.
“You need to go with them and be a good reindeer. We’ll get this sorted out.” She pinned the mayor with the hotshot in his hand with a look. “You’d better put that away, son. It’s not going to do anything but make all of us mad and you don’t want a mad reindeer on your hands, let alone an angry grandma.”
He nodded as if he’d been given a lashing and moved to put the cattle prod away in the trailer. He came back empty-handed.
Clove grabbed the panel, the cold metal biting into her palms. “They can’t take him. I won’t let them.” She fought tears because it was the only thing she could fight at the moment. Everything else came at her like a tidal wave that she was helpless to stop.
Grandma patted her hand. “Everything will be alright, dear.” Her eyes shone with sadness. This was hard on her, too. Clove’s stomach roiled and her muscles felt weak. She might just fall into the snow and lay there until the world righted itself.
“Come out of there, dear. Come on.” Grandma nodded to Drake at the same time she rolled her hand, urging Clove to move.
He unwrapped the chains that secured the panel in place and pulled it open for her to walk through. His skin was bright red from the cold. It hadn’t taken long to move past the goose flesh. If he stayed out here much longer, he’d get frostbite. Felix, Grandma, Drake, how could she take care of all of them? It was impossible.
Grandma stepped in and took her hand. Clove stared down at the flimsy slippers. If she didn’t get Grandma inside soon, her feet would freeze. Why did everything feel so urgent? “I can’t leave him.” An ugly sob built inside of her. She swallowed, trying to keep it at bay. It came out anyway, choking and drowning her in the loss.
A clang grabbed her attention, and she turned to see Felix walking into the trailer without the Sheriff or the mayor making it happen. Each foot that landed on the metal floor rang out like a final gong that shook her heart.
He turned around and winked.Don’t worry about me.
“No. Felix,” her cry for him sounded more like a whisper. Her whole body started to shake. Drake pulled her against his bare chest and she curled into him, feeling like that eight-year-old yelling on Grandma’s front porch for her daddy to come back.
Drake rubbed her back in slow, soothing circles. She cried into him, letting her fears and pain from all those years ago splash to his wonderful chest in a smattering of hot, salty tears. The trailer door slammed, and she shuddered. Drake lifted an arm and drew Grandma into their circle. She put one arm around Clove.
“I’ll make this right. I promise you, we’ll get Felix back.” Drake’s voice had an edge to it that made Clove feel bad for the men who drove the truck out of the yard and into the street.
Felix didn’t make a sound. It would have been better for Clove if he’d protested at least a little. “He’s too noble for his own good.” She sniffed and swiped her nose with the pajama sleeve.
Drake’s hand moved down her arm, and he grabbed her fingers. “I know you’re going through something right now, sugar; but I need you.”
Her eyes jumped to his hard as steel gaze. He was a man ready to do battle for her, for her reindeer, and for her grandma. She fell a bit in love with him at that moment.
She used the PJ sleeve to wipe her face clean. There wasn’t time for tears. She cleared her throat. First thing first, she needed to make sure Grandma was toasty and tucked inside—then she’d unleash her mamma bear's instinct and take care of Felix. “Let’s get Grandma inside.” She put her arm around Grandma and started walking.
Drake held her other hand, and she squeezed his in appreciation. He tempered himself—holding back the parts that wanted to break loose and probably break things because of what happened this morning. She had memories of her father tearing through their tiny apartment, upending chairs and one time on the whole kitchen table. The same level of anger pulsed inside Drake. She glanced at him, wondering what it would take to break his control.
His jaw ticked, but there was nothing about him that made her feel afraid. She trusted him, even in this time of high emotions.
She made a note of those thoughts so she could revisit them at a better time and decide how she felt about all this.
Grandma was more than ready to be in the warm bed-and-breakfast. They went back in through the kitchen to find Judy standing by the sink, wringing her hands. “What happened?” The tea kettle whistled, and she poured hot water into waiting mugs.
Drake accepted his on his way to the stairs. “I’m going to put on a shirt.” He winked at Clove over the top of the mug before taking the stairs at a quick march.
Grandma filled in Judy on the morning’s excitement while Clove checked her clothes in the dryer and gulped cocoa to warm up. She hadn’t realized how cold she was out there, and her hands and feet burned, pricked, and tingled as they thawed out.
Judy squawked and gasped in all the right places. Clove said a silent prayer of gratitude for her ability to know just what to do to make her guests feel comfortable. “That Mayor Winston is a piece of work. I’ll tell you that. He’s too big for his britches, if you ask me. Always has been.”
Clove’s eyes strayed to the stairs. Should she follow Drake to make sure he was okay? But someone had to look after Grandma. She kneeled down and pulled off Grandma’s frigid slippers. She hurried to the front room and came back with a fuzzy blanket, which she wrapped around Grandma’s legs and feet.
Judy poured the rest of the hot water from the kettle into a water bag and tucked it inside the blanket. “Better?” she asked.
Grandma nodded. “I’m so angry I hardly felt cold at all.”
“You’re not the only one.” Clove rubbed her arms and stared up the stairs once again. What was taking Drake so long?
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Drake tore through his bedroom, ripping shirts out of the drawer and throwing them on the bed. Nothing seemed right, and it had nothing to do with what he wanted to wear and everything to do with the phone call he had to make.
