Christmas in Evergreen. Nancy Naigle

he’d returned earlier that day had been urgent, and he had a doctor covering for him for anything that was.

      He heard a quiet sigh from the backseat. She had to be getting bored.

      Maybe he’d have been better off letting Zoe field his calls like she’d offered. She seemed to be eight going on twenty-eight most days. Then again, losing a parent at her age had a way of making a kid grow up faster than they should have to.

      More often than not, Zoe handled his wife’s passing better than him.

      “I gotta go,” Ryan said into the phone. This wasn’t how he’d planned to start this trip. He’d pictured this ride full of laughter and Christmas carols. Time to fix that. “Christmas calls. Bye.” He pressed the button on his Bluetooth to hang up. “Sorry.” He made eye contact with Zoe in the rearview mirror. “Last work call.” He laughed, trying to be playful. “I promise.”

      “You said that after the last one,” Zoe reminded him.

      Busted. He had said that.

      “And the one before that, and the one before that.”

      “Whoa. Okay.” He sighed. She was right. He was terrible at unplugging from work. “Hey, Zoe. Now I’m officially on vacation. Just you and me off to Florida and our big cruise on Christmas Day. Won’t that be fun?”

      “Sure. We can have fun in Florida,” Zoe said, but he could tell she wasn’t completely sold on the idea yet. “I mean, Christmas is supposed to be cold with snow, but…”

      But? “According to who?”

      “Santa!” Zoe looked at him matter-of-factly. “That’s why he wears a suit.”

      A mental picture of Santa in a pair of red-and-white, furry beach britches made him chuckle. “Aaah. You know, I didn’t know that.” Ryan wasn’t too worried about Zoe’s lack of excitement about the trip to Florida. He was sure she’d have fun once they got there.

      It was hard breaking tradition, but there was no way he was going to allow those old family memories to haunt them the way they had last year. That was just too hard. His heart couldn’t bear wallowing in that sad place again this year. But worse than the heartbreak of losing Sarah had been seeing Zoe struggle with that loss. They’d been so close, always working on projects together. They’d even had matching outfits and had gone for mother-daughter spa days.

      Those were voids he’d never be able to fill. Anything he could do to make things better, he’d do, and being as far away from a traditional Christmas as he could possibly get was the plan for this year.

      He regretted being on the phone for part of the ride so far. He hadn’t meant for that to happen. He’d do better. No more calls, and his New Year’s resolution was going to be to find better life balance to score more quality time with Zoe. They needed to start building new, good memories of their own together.

      “But how about this?” Ryan reasoned with her. “Tell you what. When we get there, as soon as we get into our hotel, we will crank up the air conditioning really high, and we’ll fill the pool with ice, and it’ll be just like living in the North Pole.”

      Zoe rolled her eyes, looking at him like he’d flat-out lost his mind, but at least she was laughing. “Oh, Dad.”

      Okay, so it was doubtful the resort would let him turn one of their swimming pools into an artic adventure, but it was the thought that counted. Right?

      On the bright side, they had a few days to enjoy Florida before the cruise left port. They’d do some warm weather shopping and visit a couple of attractions. As much as she loved animals, he was pretty sure she’d flip over seeing dolphins, whales, and sea lions up close. Truth be told, he was pretty excited about it, too. When the ship docked in Grand Cayman, they were booked for the Turtle Farm excursion, where they’d get to handle the turtles and even swim with them in the lagoon.

      If all went according to plan, Zoe would be asking Santa for another sunny Christmas vacation next year.

Chapter Five

      It was moments like this that Allie, for just a nanosecond, wished she hadn’t sold her reliable Ford Excursion when Grandpa had died and left her his truck. It had been his pride and joy; then again, he’d been an ace mechanic. He’d done the full body-off restoration on it over a two-year period. It was factory down to the rivets, as he’d liked to say. He could work on anything from kitchen appliances to tractors, and he’d taught her plenty over the years. She wished now she’d paid even closer attention. On a bright note, she’d gotten pretty good at doctoring up the old truck to get it going again.

      She walked around to the front of the truck, pushed the wreath that hung from the hood ornament to the side, and jimmied the latch on the hood, coaxing it to release.

      It squeaked as she raised it. She reached over the shiny radiator, down inside the engine compartment toward the distributor cap, and got to work. It would’ve been a lot easier if she’d been a couple of inches taller. She lifted one leg off the ground, stretching to give the wires a good jiggle and checking for anything loose. Her road calls took her down rough country lanes sometimes. She assumed that was why sometimes, just a simple wiggle made all the difference.

      “You could’ve walked to DC by now.”

      Allie almost bumped her head on the hood twisting toward Michelle Lansing. She’d recognize her voice anywhere. She extricated herself from the truck and turned to see Michelle marching toward her, carrying a box wrapped in blue Christmas paper that almost matched her coat. It was filled with a half dozen giant, glittery Styrofoam snowflakes.

      “Don’t we have enough real snow?”

      “Oh, this is for the Christmas festival.” Michelle lifted the box to make her point. Her brown curls bounced with each word. Glitter sparkled on the lapel of her coat. “You know, the one you’re going to miss?”

      “Yes, I’m aware I’ll be missing the Christmas festival. Thank you for the reminder.” Allie made one last tweak under the hood.

      “I’ll tell you, whoever decided to take over after you planned this thing is crazy.”

      Allie snickered as she twisted to see her friend. “You’re taking over the planning!” She’d talked Michelle into it when she’d decided to make the big move to DC.

      “Like I said…”

      Allie got a good laugh out of that. She’d loved planning the festival. Yes, it was a lot of work, but everyone in town looked forward to it all throughout the year. It had been a labor of love for her, but she’d been doing it for so long, it really didn’t seem all that complicated anymore. Not so unlike making your first Thanksgiving dinner for a crowd. It was scary as heck, but after a few years, you knew exactly what order to cook things in so everything was done at the same time, and it seemed like a breeze. Michelle would have it down pat soon, too.

      She slammed the hood and turned to Michelle as she brushed her hands together to get the grease from her fingers.

      “Oh, boy. Don’t tell me you’re taking this thing to DC.”

      “Of course I am,” Allie said. “This was my grandpa’s truck.” She gave the rounded curves a loving pat. “I love this truck.”

      “Well, it obviously doesn’t love you.”

      “Why are we friends again?” Allie teased.

      “Because I’m the only one who will tell you that you are never going to get this thing to start.”

      Allie straightened the live wreath that hung from the hood. “Oh, yeah? Watch this.” She gave Michelle a cocky nod, then crossed her fingers it would start. Holding her breath, she dropped into the driver’s seat and turned the key. Without a moment’s hesitation, the truck started right up. “See. It worked!”