A Down-Home Country Christmas Read Free Page A

shapes. He’d destroyed a Sanctuary holiday tradition.
    Alcohol had ruined many holidays for her too. She flashed back to the times Frank would bang open the door, smelling of liquor and calling out loudly for his girls to come kiss him. On those evenings, she would run interference to keep him away from Brianna and Kayleigh, which made him angry and mean. Once he even deliberately knocked over the Christmas tree, stomping on the ornaments not broken by the fall. She could hear the sound of his shoes crunching the thin, fragile glass on the wood floor; it still sent tendrils of despair winding through her chest.
    “Captain Robbie! Look who came to visit.” Kayleigh waved from the gazebo where she stood beside the donkey.
    Her daughter’s innocent friendliness pulled Holly out of the dark memories.
    Brianna was stroking Noël’s head and neck, but she looked up with a shy smile as they approached. “She likes being petted.”
    When Robbie released Holly’s elbow to climb the steps of the gazebo, she felt the loss. Yet she knew she shouldn’t lean on him, either physically or emotionally.
    “You girls are the best donkey-sitters I’ve ever seen,” Robbie said, untying the rope from the gazebo’s railing, “but now we’ve got to get Noël back home.” He led the donkey down the steps, the two girls following close behind.
    “Can we visit her after school?” Brianna’s gaze shifted between her mother and Robbie.
    Holly looked at Robbie. “It depends on Mr. Boone.” Her guilty hope was that the old farmer would say no. She had been looking forward to the donkey’s departure, taking those big teeth and sharp hooves far away.
    Not to mention the fact that Christmas was fast approaching and she still had cookies to bake for the annual church swap, donations to collect and drop off for the hospital toy drive, and her own family gift-wrapping and cooking to do. Donkey visits hadn’t been factored into her schedule.
    “I’ll ask him,” Robbie said, tramping through the snow.
    As the donkey walked placidly along beside Robbie, Holly called herself every kind of coward. However, her pulse skittered when they got to the trailer and he turned to her with the rope. “Can you hold Noël while I flip the ramp down?”
    “S-sure.” She gripped the nylon line as though her life depended on it, even as she took a step away from the donkey. She reminded herself to project confidence, both for her daughters and for Robbie. “No problem,” she said in a firmer voice.
    Robbie gave her a little smile of encouragement before he began unhooking various latches. Holly’s attention was split between making sure the donkey wasn’t going to bite her and watching the flex of Robbie’s thigh muscles outlined by his trousers as he bent and straightened while lowering the ramp.
    “Mama, Noël’s eating my pom-pom!” Kayleigh clutched her pink knit cap to her head as the donkey nibbled on it.
    With a guilty start, Holly pulled Noël’s head away from her daughter. “Sorry, sweetie.” She’d let her attention stray to Robbie’s body for too long. “I didn’t know donkeys liked yarn.”
    Robbie disappeared into the trailer, removing that distraction. While the girls cooed and hugged the donkey, he jogged back down the ramp.
    “Say good-bye to Noël, girls.” Holly gave the donkey’s neck another brief, tentative pat before Robbie took the rope from her.
    He turned to the children. “Grady will sure be grateful to all of you for taking such good care of Noël.”
    “Will you ask him about visiting her?” Brianna repeated, her brown eyes filled with pleading.
    “I’ll text your mom as soon as I get his answer,” Robbie said. “Now you all skedaddle off to school or you’ll be late.”
    Holly was as reluctant to leave as the girls, although for a different reason, but his reminder sent her scurrying for the garage with her daughters in tow. A quick glance at the mini-van’s clock told her they’d be about two