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Chapter 1
Slade
"Slade,dear, stop pacing. You're making my heart race. You don't want my death on your hands, do you, you old worrywart?"
I stopped and rolled my eyes at the frail old woman rocking back and forth in her chair covered in a pale pink afghan that matched her pink fluffy house slippers.
"You're ten times the worrywart I am, Nan. You just can't pace, 'cause the doctor said you need to rest and stay off your feet."
"Pshaw," she scoffed, stopping the chair in its tracks and leaning forward to give me the look. "You stop your fretting right now, Slade David, before I give you something to fret about."
It was a threat she used at least three times a day. "I'm not a scrawny twelve-year-old boy anymore, Nan. It's been a long time since you gave me something to fret about," I reminded her. The truth was I loved this old woman more than life, and her look still had its intended effect, even after all these years. But I was thirty-two now, and I couldn't let on to that fact.
"Hmph." Nan crossed her wrinkled arms over her chest and pouted. "She'll call this time, Slade. It's been five years. Whatever happened that made her run is in the past. Merry loves me. She'll come, because I asked her to."
It was easy for Nan to say. She didn't know why Merry had left. I did. It was my biggest regret. If Merry didn't come, and Nan was disappointed, that would be a close second.
"I hope you're right," I muttered, unable to look at her and see the hope in her eyes. I did want her to be right, for my own sake, as well as hers. I wanted us to have a chance to right the mistakes we had made back then.
"Of course, I'm right. I'm always right. Now get out of my face, and start making the preparations! It's time for my soaps, and you are seriously killing my vibe."
Shaking my head, I chuckled and strode towards the dining room. I knew better than to keep arguing, especially when her soaps were on. Nan might not be able to take me out to the woodshed any longer, but she still had the power to make me feel two inches tall.
She was a force to be reckoned with, and she had saved us all. Christmas at Second Chance Ranch was a long-standing tradition that every single person she had ever taken in still looked forward to each year. Every person, that is, except Merry. This year, Nan had put her foot down. Merry came to Christmas, or Christmas was cancelled.
Grimacing, I glanced at my phone. It was still silent. I glared at the pile of invitations still waiting to be addressed. Forty-one to go. Nan had helped forty-five teenagers in her lifetime. One had since passed on, one was Merry, and Blake and I still lived here, running the ranch, now that Nan no longer could. Everyone else looked forward to these invitations and most came every year, often bringing their families to meet the woman who taught the unlovable how to love and be loved in return.
I couldn't let them all down. There was a very good chance this would be Nan's last Christmas. Eyeing the piece of paper with Merry's phone number and address on it, I shook my head. Nan would have told me to have faith, but I was a man of action. Let her throw away the invite, I decided. She was coming for Christmas, if I had to drive to Arizona and bring her back, myself.
Christmas at Second Chance Ranch was happening. Reaching into Nan's box of stationery, I pulled out a pink envelope, opened her address book, and began writing out the rest of the invitations, one by one.
I was ten deep when the back kitchen door creaked open, and Blake entered, stomping snow off his boots, before making his way through the kitchen and over to me. I turned and met his gaze. "Why did you come through the back door?"
"Are you kidding me? It's two in the afternoon. I know better than to risk coming between Nan and her soaps!"
I nodded and returned to my work without further comment.
He stood silently and watched, waiting, I knew, for the same news we all were. Finally, he asked, "Did you hear from Merry?"
"Nope."
He nodded, continuing to watch in silence as I stuffed an invitation into the envelope I had just finished filling out and licked it closed, adding it to my pile and grabbing a new one.
"What's this, then? Nan tell you to have some faith?"
"Something like that," I muttered as he pulled out the chair across from me and grabbed an envelope from the pile. I handed him a pen.
"You think she'll come?" he asked anxiously. He had just as much reason to hope as I did, and just as much regret to swallow if she didn't.
"Hell, no. I don't even think she will open the envelope. She's stubborn as all hell; you know that."
"Then why are we doing this? Nan said no Christmas without Merry, and she's even more stubborn than Merry is."
"I can be pretty stubborn, myself. If she doesn't call by Friday, I'll drive to Arizona and drag her ass back here."
Blake raised his eyebrows but said nothing else. He didn't need to. We were as close as brothers, and I knew what he was thinking—that she might take it better coming from him. He was probably right, but I didn't care.
I had been her Daddy, and I was going to get back my little girl. I never should have let her leave. This time, I wouldn't.
