A Cozy Country Christmas Anthology Read Online Free

energy in
cleaning them up.
    But it wasn’t too late! Snatching up my “to
do” list, I tore it into tiny pieces.
    Outside, snow continued to fall. There was
time. Time to continue a tradition.
    Nathan entered the room. “Shall I get dressed
yet? Or is there something I can do to help you get ready?”
    I tossed the pieces of my “to do” list into
the air and laughed as the confetti fluttered down. “You can start
by making hot chocolate. Enough for all of us.”
    My husband blinked. “Hot chocolate? What
about the buffet?”
    “I’ve decided to serve hot dogs. We can roast
them in the fireplace. A fire is so delightful when the weather
outside is frightful.”
    “You’ve been listening to too many Christmas
songs,” a bewildered Nathan decided.
    “But the weather isn’t frightful—it's
perfect!” I tore off my apron and gave my dumbfounded husband a
hearty kiss. “Say, what carols do you think the pigs would enjoy?
Our cattle always preferred ‘Away in the Manger’.”
    Nathan laughed as, with a song in my heart, I
hurried to find my precious children.
    “Boys!” I hollered. “Get your snow pants and
coats on. We’ve got some memories and some snowmen to make!”
     
    THE END
     

 
    One Midnight
Clear
     
    The click startled Tim out of his bleak
thoughts. “Hey!”
    Raising his right hand, he stared at the
woman whose left was lifted in an identical gesture—and belatedly
realized they were handcuffed together.
    Ignoring the jostling of passersby, Tim had
been studying a store window scene of children sledding. The
windblown curls and smile of the littlest mannequin reminded him of
his daughter.
    But Amy was in Georgia this Christmas Eve
with her mother, a faraway place with no snow, no sleds—and no
father. Tonight Tim fancied himself a brooding, Scrooge-like figure
and he’d even muttered a few “Bah, humbugs!” as he walked.
    Standing outside the store, he felt isolated
amid the hurrying people. They all had places to go and loved ones
to buy for while he had no one. Nothing. God, I'm so lonely! his heart cried in silent prayer.
    Wrapped in his sorrowful reflections, Tim had
been only vaguely aware that a woman had joined him until he was
jarred from his apathy by their bizarre linkage.
    The metal lay cold against his skin. Tim's
gaze travelled up the sleeve of his companion to eyes the rich
brown of molasses above a mouth shaped into a startled “o”.
    “Am I under arrest?” Tim asked. He'd never
heard of cops, even the undercover variety, wearing purple stocking
caps sprinkled with snowflakes.
    The woman didn't respond. She might have
stepped out of the store window, abandoning her plastic children on
the hill of fake snow, before freezing again into immobility.
    “What's the charge? Loitering?” Tim raised
his voice. What kind of game was this woman playing?
    “But I didn't. And if I didn't and you
didn't—” Awareness animated his companion's features and she
whirled, yanking Tim around, too. “Charles Martin Hunt! Where did
you get these?”
    Tim realized for the first time that a boy
stood just behind them, a child who held his body rigid in a
defensive posture.
    Her tone and the use of his full name
apparently convinced young Charles that evasion would be imprudent.
“In your bedroom.” A gulp. “I was looking for presents.”
    A gal who kept handcuffs in her bedroom. Tim
arched his brows, his interest captured, along with his wrist.
    A flush dyed the woman's throat scarlet and
she shot an apprehensive glance at the man beside her. “You know
you're forbidden to snoop in my room. And why try them out on this
poor fellow?”
    A defiant shrug, but Tim noted the sparkle of
tears in the boy's eyes. A crowd was gathering, with people staring
more at their strange tableau than at the window display behind
them.
    “Do you have the key?” the woman demanded,
only to be answered with another guilty, but still defiant
shrug.
    She glared at the culprit until the comical
aspects