Clove let her fork clatter to the plate. “I’m missing something important.”
They both chuckled. “They arrested Drake this morning,” Anna said with a little too much glee.
She was on her feet before her mind registered that she’d moved. “What! What for?”
They exchanged a secret look, both of them smirking slightly. Abner answered, “Apparently, for not being married to you.”
Clove covered her mouth. “Grandma’s fib.” She’d forgotten all about Grandma telling Hoffman that she and Drake had run off to get married and the police officer telling Caleb he needed proof. “He was arrested?!” She fell back into her seat and dropped her face in her hands. “Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?”
Anna patted her hands. “You needed sleep.”
“And he needed to rot in jail for a minute.” Abner rubbed his palms together. “Nothing like a jail cell to bring your life into focus.”
“Oh, Abner!” Anna stood up and went to the fridge. “I don’t recall you enjoying jail all that much.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Abner grumbled.
Clove shoved another bite of cinnamon roll into her mouth and kept quiet. A moment later, Anna was back at the table with three glasses and some orange juice. She poured for each of them. “The question is, what do you want to do?”
“Do?” she said around the bite. She chewed quickly and swallowed. “What do you mean?”
Anna tipped her head. “We promised to drive you home today. I just wanted to make sure that was still what you wanted to do.”
“But–. Drake.” She looked back and forth between the two of them. “Shouldn’t you be working on getting him out for Christmas?”
Abner laid his hand over Anna’s, that was on top of hers. The weight of it was comforting and let her know that their focus was solely on her. Their son was in jail and they were focused on her and what she wanted. It was all too surreal.
“Caleb, Jack and Faith are already down there. We’re here with you. Right where we want to be at this moment.”
Clove stared at their hands. His words were so very wrong. “Your son is in jail and you’re going to drive across two states to help a stranger?”
Abner and Anna nodded.
She felt like a complete jerk, taking these two away from their loving family on Christmas Eve to fulfill her selfish desire to be at home. She should suck it up and deal with the uncomfortable feelings until after the holiday. “Why would you do that?”
“We made a promise to you, Clove, and we’ll keep it.” Anna leaned over and gave her a one-armed hug. “You sacrificed so much to come here, to bring Felix. We can’t thank you enough. Besides, those who have flying reindeer are family—officially or unofficially. We love you all the same.”
Clove’s eyes blurred. “You’re serious.”
Abner nodded.
“Thank you, both. So very much. I—I don’t know what to say.”
Pax burst into the room—which seemed very out of character for him. His cheeks were bright red and his eyes were wide. “You’d better come outside. All of you.” He pointed and then ran back out.
“What in the world?” Abner stood, pushing his hat on his head as he strode out.
A blur went past the window. “Flash!” Anna scolded. “How did the fliers get out?” She was right behind Abner, grabbing her coat off the hook.
Clove ran to the doorway, only to be knocked back by a tailwind. “Gah!” She stumbled back, throwing her arms out to catch herself. Her pants fell down, and she tripped, landing on her backside.
Thank goodness the PJ top was as large as the bottoms. Huffing, she sat up and stared at her tangled feet. In the quiet second where she contemplated changing into her clothes, a beautiful reindeer with Liz Taylor's eyes appeared in the doorway. She had a light pelt, almost white, that seemed to—“Sparkle?” Clove asked.
Sparkle’s rack was small enough to fit through the door, and she didn’t hesitate to walk right up to Clove.In the fur.
She carefully, and with so much grace it was incredible to just watch her move, went behind Clove, lowered her head and nudged her to stand:Let’s go.
Clove kicked off the pants, her bare legs hanging out. “Go? I don’t even have pants on.”
