Stranded With Santa. Janet Tronstad

nonsense he could take. After all, he was Zach “Lightning” Lucas. He had more gold-plated champion belt buckles than most men had ties. He had fans who knew his name—lots of fans since he’d endorsed that Ranger breakfast cereal. People recognized him in grocery stores and in laundromats. He was famous, for Pete’s sake. He was entitled to some dignity.

      Unfortunately, the doctor did not care about Zach’s dignity.

      And it was all because of Christmas. Not that Zach should be surprised. Christmas had been giving him trouble for years. It always depressed him with all that family stuff. Not that Zach had anything against families—it’s just that that family stuff wasn’t for a man like him.

      That’s why, this year, he had made a plan.

      Zach and Thunder were only passing through Montana, heading over to Interstate 15 for the long stretch down to Las Vegas. Once there, Thunder would board at a ranch some miles outside of Vegas while Zach hit the Strip. The neon lights and showgirls—well, if her return message was to be believed, one showgirl in particular—would make him forget the holidays were even here.

      He and Thunder had been making good time, too, Zach thought mournfully, until Thunder got a fever.

      “You’ve got the map.” The older man patted his pockets as though the slip of paper showing all the county roads might still be there instead of taped to the dashboard of the postal truck.

      “Yes, sir.”

      The winter air had a bite to it, but Zach was in no hurry to leave the doctor’s porch and get into that decked-out postal truck. He might as well ride around in a clown’s cart and be done with it.

      “Well then, let me get that apple pie my sister baked for the Collins family.” Dr. Norris ducked inside his house, his muffled voice continuing, “That’ll be the last stop on your list. And the box in back is for them, too. Their car is broken. Radiator. So Delores said she’d pick some things up for them.” The doctor appeared again with a foil-wrapped pie. “Two of the cutest kids you’ll ever meet.”

      Zach nodded. He’d already met every kid on the planet—both the cute and the ugly. The ones he missed at the rodeos he met because they ate Ranger breakfast cereal. Not that he was complaining. He liked kids better than he liked most adults.

      The doctor smiled and looked at Zach slyly. “’Course, one look at their mother and you’ll see why they’re so cute.”

      Zach grunted. Now that was the part of meeting kids he didn’t like—their mothers. Even the women who were married always seemed to have a scheme to get him married off to someone. You’d think there was something wrong with a man choosing to live in hotel rooms and wash his socks in bathroom sinks.

      The doctor shook his head. “The poor woman. Such a pity—”

      The doctor looked at Zach as though he expected some curiosity.

      Zach had none.

      The doctor ploughed ahead, anyway. “Jenny Collins is a widow. Not that she’s old, mind you. No, sir. Moved up here a couple of months ago—surprised us all. She’d been married to Jeb Collins’s nephew.” The doctor nodded at Zach as though Zach had known this Jeb, whoever he was. “Jeb had left the place to his nephew, but we all thought the nephew would have sense enough to sell it before he started dying of that cancer of his. But he didn’t. Don’t know what he was thinking. Surely he didn’t expect his widow to move up here with the two kids. What do you think a city woman’s gonna do with a place like that anyway?”

      Zach shrugged. He didn’t like to get involved in the problems of strangers.

      The doctor had no such hesitation. “Delores says the woman’s been getting magazines on farm management!” He shook his head. “She’s a game one, I’ll give her that. But it’s no place for her and the kids—even old man Collins used to move into town here for the winter months. The house doesn’t even have a decent road leading up to it. Ruts a mile deep, and it drifts closed every time there’s a blizzard.”

      The doc took a breath before he continued. “Delores always drives the mail right up to the house for them. But with the next hard snow they won’t get mail for a week. The county snowplow doesn’t go that far out. Most farmers out that way have plows on their tractors or something. But all the woman’s got is that car of hers—and with the two little ones—Delores worries about their car not working.”

      Delores, Zach had already learned, worried about everything and everybody.

      The doctor stopped suddenly and squinted at Zach. “What Jenny Collins needs is a husband.”

      Zach looked at the doctor in amazement and then pushed his hat farther down on his head. “Don’t look at me. I’m just trying to get my horse fixed up. Besides, from the sounds of it, she needs a tractor worse than she needs a husband.”

      The doctor shrugged. “I doubt you’d stand a chance, anyway. I hear Max Daniel is planning to ask her out—he’s a rancher north of here. ’Course Tom Fox might beat him to the punch. A good-looking woman like Jenny can have her pick of the bachelors around here.”

      Zach grunted. Ever since he started making money at rodeoing, he’d had women who wanted him to settle down. Made him nervous as a rope-tied calf every time a woman talked about it. Anyone with any sense could see that the life he’d led didn’t prepare him for marriage.

      Not that he didn’t like women. He did. He just had sense enough to know his limitations. He didn’t even have a year-round mailing address; he’d be a fool to think he would be any good at marriage.

      “Yeah, well, it was only a thought,” the doctor said as he pointed to the back of the truck. “Now, you remember what I said about the camera back there. Delores promised Jenny pictures of her little boy with Santa, and I’ll never hear the end of it if you don’t remember to take one.”

      “Pictures.” Zach grimaced. “I’m not much good at pictures.”

      “What? You can’t tell me that. Even I’ve seen your picture in the paper. You looked okay to me.”

      “Well, the news photos—and the ads—they’re all right. But they’re not, well, personal.”

      Zach didn’t know how to explain his reluctance to have a picture of him in some family album along with pictures of babies and grandmas. He’d feel a fraud. A family photo album was one place he didn’t belong.

      “There’s nothing to a Santa picture,” the doctor said, pushing ahead anyway. “It’s one of those cameras that prints out a picture while you wait. Jenny will even take the picture for you. And Delores said to leave it, in case Jenny wants to take other Christmas shots.”

      Zach nodded in defeat. What was Delores going for…mail carrier of the year?

      “And don’t forget about old Mrs. Goussley. She has a sweet tooth. Delores always gives her a few extra candy canes.” The doctor winked “Say they’re for her cats. She’ll give them back if you say they’re for her.”

      “Cats,” Zach repeated bleakly. Forget mail carrier of the year, Delores must be going for sainthood.

      “Mrs. Goussley likes her visit from Santa. She gets a kick out of the suit.” The doc eyed Zach. “I know my sister got carried away this year with putting those flashing lights around Santa’s belt, but you can keep them pressed off if you want. Plus the suit’s warm—all that padding. Still it might not be enough. Gets cold out there. Could drop to zero before you get back.”

      “I’ve got a sheepskin coat if it does.” Zach had put his duffel bag and the coat in the postal truck. The sheepskin was imitation, but of good enough quality to be worth a pretty penny. It wasn’t something he’d leave behind. Not that he didn’t trust the doctor, but he’d worked enough rodeos to know never to leave his duffel with strangers.

      “Oh, well then,” the doctor muttered as he walked toward the truck. “I’ll just put this pie inside and let you get