His mom’s face turned bright red. “Colter,” she whisper warned.
“It is. Dad left all his crap in there.”
“We don’t say crap,” she said suddenly, sounding exhausted.
“You won’t let me say any of the other words he used either.”
Clove pressed her lips together and turned to hide her smile. Drake pulled her into his chest and she giggled, feeling his silent laughter as well. Colter’s mom sighed heavily and then cracked a smile of her own. The magic was already working. She stood taller and lifted her chin. “I know where we can go. It’s not far.”
Clove perked up, pulling out of his arms. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Gabriella,” she said over her shoulder. She led them around her house and through the backyard into the woods. Clove trailed behind her on a footpath of sorts. Drake was next. Colter jogged to keep up with them in the shin-deep snow. Felix walked just behind him, bumping branches to make snow fall on the boy’s head. Each time, Colter would laugh and brush it away, too busy telling the reindeer about what he’d asked for for Christmas, listing off a new bike, some electronic game, and a TV to play it on.
“Colter, we talked about this,” Gabriella admonished him as his list continued to grow.
Colter’s lips zipped shut, and he gulped down the hopes that had flowed freely only seconds before.
Gabriella’s eyebrows pinched together, and she ducked her head at dampening his joy.
Clove’s heart went out to her. It sounded like she’d been through quite a bit. And, if Colter’s dad left them, she probably felt very alone raising her son.
“I wish we could help her,” she whispered to Drake.
“We’ll find a way.” He set his jaw, and she had no doubt that Gabriella and Colter would wake up Christmas morning to find all of Colter’s Christmas wishes and more. She didn’t know how, but this wrangler had a touch of magic all his own. She sensed it in his determination to save Felix.
They came through the trees and into Otis’s yard.
Clove exchanged a look with Drake. He pulled to a stop. “We don’t want to bother these people. Otis has already helped repair my trailer.”
Gabriella held up a flat hand. Her mitten had a hole in the thumb.. “My mom and dad are good people.” She glanced at Colter, who stood next to Felix, his glove on Felix’s side. His smile was so big they could fit an ornament inside of it. “They’ll do anything for him.”
Otis came out the back door, wearing his signature overalls and stocking hat. “What’s all this?” He had a welcome pep to his step.
Colter ran forward and Otis bent to lift him into a hug. Before his arms closed around the boy, Colter was talking his ear off. “Felix is a reindeer and he can fly, and he was on the roof and he flew down like this.” He swooped his hand through the air.
“Is that so?” Otis’s furry white eyebrows lifted, moving his stocking hat back on his head in the process.
Gabriella motioned to Drake and Clove. “They need help, Dad. Partick is after them.”
“Who?” Clove asked.
“The Sheriff.” She rolled her eyes. “My ex.”
Drake pointed at her. “You and Hoffman?”
“But I thought your last name was Dixon?” Clove asked.
“It is.” She repositioned her coat, and Drake wondered if the zipper was broken and that’s why she never closed it. “I changed our names after he left.”
Drake barely managed to close his mouth before his true thoughts on a man who not only left his family but didn’t care for his child nor want him to have his last name tumbled out like coal from a stocking. The fact that he could turn his back on his own son made Drake all the more happy that they’d gotten Felix away from him before he’d been able to follow through with whatever dastardly plan had him unhooking the security camera.
Clove touched Gabriella’s arm in sympathy. In that small touch, she managed to give Gabriella support and let her know that she was important in this world and that Clove admired her for her strength.
Drake stared in awe. How did women do that so easily?
Clove faced Otis who was in the middle of a Felix-walk-around-and-admire with Colter. Colter told Felix all about his grandpa and the tools he used. “He can fix anything,” he said proudly. “Grandpa, do you see that freckle on his bum?”
Felix twisted to look:Where?
