Page 15 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

December 23, Christmas Eve Eve

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

Shelley Hart slammed down the trunk lid on her old Dodge Stratus and grimaced as the gas cap flew off and tumbled over the parking lot.

Darn thing. She stared as it rocked back and forth on the asphalt. The little door was sprung, and the cap never worked right after her tank got siphoned. The siphoning incident happened the first night she moved into her new apartment here in Dalton Springs, which occurred three months after the bank notified her they were taking the house, which took place six months after her husband had died.

Nine months. Long enough to have a baby.

No, thank you very much. One of hers was screaming from the backseat, already.

“Be there in a minute, sweet pea.”

She glanced back at the apartment and frowned. She’d had high hopes she could make it on her own. Without Cliff. But no. Didn’t seem to matter how far she tried to stretch the dollars, there were never enough. Her gaze lifted to the sky behind the complex. It was overcast and gray, tinged with a pink early evening sunset. A winter sky painted with cotton candy. The weatherman promised a white Christmas and the air smelled like snow.

The mountains rose in the distance, strong, sturdy and secure.

“Harbor Falls is over there,”

she whispered.

“Home…is over there.”

Strong, sturdy and secure. She supposed she needed that. She’d not had a strong shoulder to lean on since Cliff died—maybe it was time she leaned on family.

Her gaze played over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Only forty-two miles separated Dalton Springs from Harbor Falls—but a chasm of hurt and past indiscretions stood solidly in her way.

She swallowed hard and swiped at a tear with a gloved finger. Soon she’d have to swallow a whole lot more than spit. Pride. Yes, that was it. It had been nearly three years since she’d been home. The last thing her sister, Suzie, expected to see this Christmas was Shelley on her doorstep, homeless and penniless, with two little kids in tow—the ones she’d had with Suzie’s fiance, er, ex-fiance. Whatever….

Yes, she’d caused quite the small-town scandal. That disgrace even beat Polly Gruber running off with the preacher. Didn’t seem to matter to anyone that she and Cliff were happy and loved each other. Oh, she knew the repercussions, running off with her sister’s man. The whole town thought she was pond scum. Lower than pond scum, even.

But Suzie and Cliff were taking a break, unofficially, and Suzie had moved to Asheville for a while. And he was lonely.

Wasn’t entirely her fault, was it?

One thing led to another and then—

Then they’d ran off and gotten married. Suzie found out later and all hell broke loose—in the family and in Harbor Falls. And then Cliff had to go and die and leave her in this mess. No insurance. No savings account. No family.

No matter. Home was where she was heading. Home to Harbor Falls, and for the holidays, no less. With no plans ever to return to Dalton Springs—Dalton Springs and Cliff were all in the past.

Sniffling, she wiped another tear before it froze to her lashes.

Home. Harbor Falls.

She was about to suck it up and head home to family, like it or not.

Taking three brisk steps forward, she bent, snatched the gas cap off the blacktop and twisted it back into place on the car. She rounded the vehicle and got in, not looking back.

Just forward.

“Come on, girls,”

she said.

“Let’s see if we can fix this mess.”

****

A brisk gust of wind rocked the vehicle. Harbor Falls Police Officer, Matt Branson, turned up the heater and lowered the volume on the country music station on the radio.

“Damn. Must be a helluva storm coming.”

He pushed a few buttons to scan the stations, hoping to find something with a local weather report. Would be nice to know what he was in for tonight, sitting here on the side of the road waiting for unsuspecting speeders to dart by. Lucky for him, he was assigned the newest police cruiser the city of Harbor Falls, North Carolina owned. Nice vehicle, too. He did enjoy a perk now and then with his job. He liked to think it was because he was the only officer with a degree in law enforcement, but probably not. The other officers were homegrown and locally trained, but they were good ol’ boys and did one helluva job.

Besides, it was Harbor Falls, right? The village force was small but reliable enough to handle anything that Harbor Falls threw at them. A domestic or two, a kid gone awry and of course, the speeders. Biggest trouble was the occasional tobacco smuggling, a few pot plants growing in the foothills, and once a homemade Meth lab run amok, but the county Sherriff’s department and the regional ATF guys took over those, mostly. Harbor Falls was little more than a 21st century Mayberry, R.F.D.

He hoped he was a lot more than a modern-day Barney Fife.

He’d left town a year or so after high school—had pretty much fled with his head hanging and his heart on his sleeve, if he remembered it accurately—and in a few years had himself that degree from Eastern Kentucky University.

Damn proud of that, too. So was his Mama. Because of that degree, and the fact that he brought all that new-fangled knowledge back to his hometown of Harbor Falls, he was pretty much top dog cop in these parts. Well, not counting the Chief.

So here he was. Waiting.

Of course, it wasn’t like he had a horde of family members at home. He probably wouldn’t even see his Mama until tomorrow evening at the Methodist Church candlelight service, and his sisters were all due to arrive very late Christmas Eve night with a passel of his nieces and nephews. They wanted to be home in Harbor Falls on Christmas morning, much to the chagrin of their husbands.

Other than that, there was no one.

Frowning, he shifted in his seat, pushed that thought out of his head, and glanced out the window. Lucky for him, the east end wasn’t the busy end of town. At least he wasn’t walking the downtown beat sniffing out shoplifters. Lit up like a roman candle for about three weeks, the town of Harbor Falls eagerly welcomed the shoppers and they came in droves. All that marketing about Harbor Falls had paid off the past year or so. He had to admit it brought some mighty strange folk out of the hollers.

So, in a way, he was grateful not to be downtown. On the other hand, not a single car had ventured by in the last fifty-two minutes. The town council thought sitting out here was a wonderful idea. They needed revenue for the force, so they had passed a new ordinance lowering the speed limit in both directions. The guys on the west side were pulling them over right and left. He could hear that on his radio. The action on the east, however, was, well, non-existent.

Bored, he watched as small ice crystals formed in little pellets on his windshield. He let them pile up on his wipers and then swished them away. That kept him busy for about three minutes. He breathed on the window next to him and drew funny pictures on the glass, then smeared them off with a leftover fast food napkin, leaving behind ghostly images. He upped the temperature and turned on the defroster to keep the fog down.

Should a speeder happen to venture by, it might be good if he could see out his window.

Finally, he reached under the seat, pulled out a piece of wood, and dug deep into his pocket for his whittling knife. Not eager to get shavings and wood chips all over his new cruiser, he laid the napkin out on the seat beside him and started to whittle.

There. Perhaps this wasn’t so bad after all. He could sit here until the snow piled up and whittle, if he had to. Putting knife to wood was the one thing that kept him company for hours on end when he was at home—in his cave, as his sisters called it. He loved that cabin he’d built up on the mountains, though. Cave or not, it was his, and he had learned to be okay with how his life was turning out up there.

So okay, his social life sucked. He refused to call himself a hermit, although when not at work, he spent most of his time at home. Living a solitary life had both its advantages and disadvantages. Carving wood helped him keep his sanity.

Just didn’t do a damn thing for keeping his bed warm at night.

His knife hand stilled on the wood and his head jerked up. A vehicle raced in from the south, popping over the hill. He reached to swipe away the fog from the driver’s side window that failed to dissipate. The dark blue sedan whizzed by, and he quickly stashed his knife and wood under the seat.

“Hot damn.”

Tucked back in the lane of the old Casey place, he pulled out from his hidey-hole, and turned on his lights and siren.

****

It wasn’t like Harbor Falls was that far away from Dalton Springs, but in North Carolina, country roads aren’t laid down in straight lines like they say a crow flies. Winding and narrow, the two-laner twisted through the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. For the most part, Shelley took her time while the kids napped.

It was when she pulled into Village Grove that she made her mistake.

Even though the girls’ tummies were full, she had not eaten herself since morning. Up early packing boxes, she’d scrambled a couple of eggs and then washed and packed her skillet. After that, eating hadn’t been a priority. Figuring out what to do with the rest of her furniture filled her agenda for the rest of the day. Most had been sold earlier, but there were a few odds and end pieces she gave away. The cash would come in handy the next couple of weeks.

She’d sucked down caffeine in various forms all day. Hot, cold, it didn’t matter. But no food.

As she cruised into Village Grove, a town larger than Dalton Springs, her stomach growled, and she was getting tired.

The golden arches loomed a couple of blocks ahead. Did she dare?

A quick glance to the back seat and she knew her girls were still asleep. Katie, the oldest at nearly three, sat with her head cock-eyed and her neck crooked, her mouth agape and drooling. A thin shaft of fine baby-blonde hair was stuck to her face in her slobber. Fourteen-month-old Karly’s right cheek was pressed hard up against the sidewall of her car seat, her one shock of blonde sticking straight up like a Mohawk. She clutched a beat up Tickled-Pretty-Pink stuffed bear in her chubby little fingers.

Shelley looked back to the road, slowed, and pulled into the drive-through lane.

“Please let them sleep,”

she whispered, wanting a few minutes more of peace and quiet. Pulling slowly to the speaker, she rolled down her window.

A screech and a crackle met her.

“Take your order?”

the young man bellowed.

“Shit,”

she breathed and glanced back. Katie stirred.

“A cheeseburger value meal,”

she said quietly.

“large iced tea, please.”

A scream went up from the back seat. Karly.

“Don! Don! Don!”

“Three-ninety-six, Ma’am. Please pull to the first window.”

“Dammit,”

she hissed then smiled into the speaker.

“Make that three of everything, please.”

“Don! Don! Don!”

“Except the tea. Give me two juices instead.”

“Yes, ma’am. Nine-seventy-two.”

“Okay.”

“Mom-meeee!”

Katie shouted.

“Karly woke me up! Oh! We’re at ‘Donald’s! Can we play?”

“Slide! Slide!”

Karly bounced in her seat.

“No, girls, we are not getting out.”

Wails rose from the backseat.

“Don! Don!”

Shelley sighed.

“I have your food coming up. Hold on, girls.”

She moved to the window and waited, pinching her nose while the girls chattered and bounced and squealed in the back seat. Karly still wanted to slide, and now Katie was yelling for her fries. In the end, she retrieved her meals from the window, pulled over and took the girls inside to eat. They did, barely, and then ran off to play in the huge play place while Shelley rubbed her temple and watched from a small table next to the multi-colored ball pit.

Luckily, the play place was nearly deserted. A quick glance outside told her why. Snow pelted down at a nice clip now. People must be staying in. Or they were out shopping.

She was getting a damn headache. Should get on the road soon, she kept thinking. Then she remembered she had to stop and get diapers before she got to Harbor Falls. Ralph’s was at the end of town. She’d stop there.

One more stop. One more time getting the girls out, and back in, the car. Buckling, securing, tucking, finding bears, having snacks within reach, making sure straps weren’t too tight. Another shopping trip trying to avoid th.

“mommy I wants”

and th.

“gimmee gimmees”

while searching for diapers, and oh, yes, she also needed wipes.

Can’t forget the wipes.

All in all, she calculated that stopping at Ralph’s, coupled with the hour they would probably spend here at ‘Dons,’ her arrival back in Harbor Falls would be later than anticipated. Of course, no one was expecting her, so what difference did it make, anyway?

She rubbed her head more. Too damn tired. She really, really needed to get going.

And going she did. She rounded up the little boogers, made her trek through Ralph’s and was headed into Harbor Falls from the east side of town when she popped over the hill near the old Casey farm. The snow was coming in sideways now, and she was glad to almost be at Suzie’s, even though her stomach was in a knot. She had no clue how her sister would react at her arrival.

She sighed. It had already been a long day and now…

Lights flashed in her rearview mirror and a siren chirped behind her. The girls started crying again. She glanced up.

“Dammit! Dammit all to hell.”

Tears immediately sprung into her eyes. This, she did not need. What next?