The Sheriff's Christmas Angels Page 3

  Emma found the sign was indeed correct and there would be no rooms available for a few weeks. Things were looking bleaker by the minute. Driving into the heart of the town, the bright neon sign of The Diner on Main Street lured her toward it. Things might look better with a sandwich and something warm to drink. She needed to formulate her next moves with care. As she drove the last block, a strange clanking noise began somewhere underneath her truck. It wasn’t loud, but her ears picked up on it in a heartbeat. Please, not now. Why can’t you just let me get to Dallas?

  The bright smile of the waitress was too much for Emma to match as she took the menu from her. The sinking feeling inside her was settling in and things looked more than a little hopeless. She needed her pickup to make it another hundred miles. Reality told her that would not be the case. She had heard that clanking sound once before in her mother’s old sedan. They had to let it rust behind their trailer because they never could gather the over three thousand dollars needed to replace the transmission and other parts. What was she going to do?

  “My, my… that sad face doesn’t look like the one I left not too long ago.” The words brought her out of her pity party and up to see Mae Drayton standing next to the booth, a worried look of concern in the soft gray eyes. “You look like you might have lost your last friend.”

  “I’m sorry.” Emma summoned a halfhearted smile. “I guess I was deep in thought.” Shaking her head, she widened her smile. “It’s a nice surprise to see you again.”

  “I dropped Charlie off at her Sunday school’s slumber party and thought I’d take a quick detour by here to pick up one of Darcy’s cobblers to take home.” She stood waiting with a calming smile on her face.

  Emma nodded at the empty space across from her. “If you’d like to sit while you’re waiting?”

  The woman didn’t hesitate but slid into the booth, loosening the scarf from around her neck and removing her gloves. She gave the waitress a broad smile as she approached.

  “I’ll have a coffee, Maggie. And let’s have a couple of the specials for today.” Her gaze swung over to Emma. “You’ve got to try some of that cobbler, but you need something more substantial in your stomach before you have that sugar.” She gave a laugh and ignored Emma’s attempt to wave off the offer of food. “I hate eating alone and there’s no one home tonight so it would be a waste for me to cook for just myself. Looks like I need your help once again this evening.”

  Both Mae and the waitress looked at her then and Emma had a feeling that Mae was a woman who rarely had anyone disagree with any of her plans. She had to admit it would be nice to taste one of those grilled ham sandwiches and bowl of tomato soup that had been coming out of the kitchen to the other patrons. “I suppose I could try—”

  Mae didn’t let her finish before she sent the waitress to the back with their order. “This diner has the best home-cooking of anyplace… with the exception of your own home. I’ve fooled my family with it a time or two when I didn’t feel like cooking at my own stove.” Mae had a delightful soft laugh. “Now, suppose you tell me why you looked like you had the weight of the world on those slender shoulders when I arrived?” She changed the subject so fast; Emma was caught off guard.

  “It’s… just some truck issues and the mechanic is indeed not available for a couple of days. Mr. Davies was correct.”

  “Truck issues as in something major, right? Expensive probably and there goes the budget.” Mae summed it up in a nutshell. “I remember those days too well. Seemed every time we were about to see the light of day, some piece of equipment or a vehicle would break down and there we would be broke again. Can’t say how many times I just wanted to throw in the towel and move back home with my family.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Well, I had my husband and two baby sons who needed me to stay strong for them. I came from tough Oklahoma stock and we didn’t give up at the first sign of trouble… or the second or third.” She finished it with a laugh. “I married a tough Texan, too. So, we kept putting our faith in the good Lord and moving forward as best we could.” Her eyes grew softer as memories shared the moment. “While those were very tough times and I wouldn’t want to live through them again, they were still some of the best. They got us to where we are today. Makes us appreciate what we have all the more.” Her gaze landed on Emma. “Enough about me and mine, what can we do about your problem?”

  “I just have to figure out how to get my truck repaired and get to Dallas. I’ll probably miss my interview opportunity, but I have to hope there’ll be something else I can apply for. If all else fails, I can fall back on one of my other experiences until I get my funds built up again to move on down the road.”

  “Move on down the road…” Mae’s voice trailed off as their food arrived. She didn’t speak again until the waitress had left them and they had each taken a few bites of food. “Sounds like you really would prefer to have a job where your computer and other skills might be put to use instead of standing on your feet all day doing hair or waiting on tables. Am I right?”

  Emma nodded her head. “That’s why I worked hard to get through school and all. To take a few steps up that imaginary ladder. But sometimes you have to do what you need to do and not what you want.”

  Mae leaned back in the booth, her gaze calm and assessing as it encompassed Emma. “I’m a pretty good judge of character and, from what I’ve seen already, I think you’ll land on your feet. And I think I have a business proposition that might just help you out… and my family, too. But I want you to understand that it is strictly business and not in the least related to a handout of any sort. It’s a tough job with a boss that, well, needs to be reminded he’s part of the human race again… but we’ll leave that detail for right now. You open to hearing my offer out?”

  Emma was a little intrigued and she appreciated the forthright manner that Mae had of putting things. What else did she have to do with her time in that moment? “I’m always willing to listen.”

  “Good girl.” Mae leaned forward, moving her plate and coffee cup to the side. She settled in and began to speak in a matter of fact way, laying out the details. “Our family has some land just west of here. Over the years, it’s grown into a bigger business than we could have hoped and we are grateful for that. Three years ago, we shifted some of the business… my husband, Vernon, still maintains the farming side of things. Our son, Cole, branched out and maintains the ranching side of our affairs. He’s Charlie’s father. And he is why I need you.” She paused for a moment, taking a sip from her water glass. “Actually, we all need you… each in our own ways. But it’s paramount that I find someone who can get my son’s office into the first semblance of order it’s ever seen. He’s not only having to maintain the cattle part of the business, but he is also the interim sheriff in this county after our regular sheriff was hurt in a bad traffic accident.

  “The secondary reason we need you… is Charlie. She’s talked of little else since you left us at that station. She’s usually more reserved with people—almost to the point of shyness. I usually take the majority of care of her during the day, and sometimes the evenings, too, since… well, since her mother left us when Charlie was less than a year old. I’m not a spring chicken any longer and, as you saw today, I can’t quite keep up with a precocious five-year old as I once could. To sum up, I want to offer you a job that is two-fold.

  “You’ll be getting my son’s business affairs in order using your computer skills. At the same time, you’ll be helping me out by being the younger person in my granddaughter’s life. She goes to her kinder class during the day so she’s out of your way while you have your office work. Of course, you’ll have a comfortable living arrangement on the ranch, a benefit plan, and your salary will be adequate.”

  The sum she added was indeed adequate and then some. Emma was in mild shock and struggled to get her brain and speech in sync. To make that much salary and then have the major living expenses included too… it was almost too much to b
elieve how her luck could change in the space of a few hours. That would enable her to save faster than she could any other way. Not even a half hour before she was at her wit’s end on how she would overcome the latest setbacks in her life and then Mae arrived like some guardian angel out of the blue. Now she was being handed an unbelievable opportunity. “My only experience with children is the little I was with them in a church daycare setting. And then I mostly took care of the babies in the nursery.”

  “I’ve seen you with Charlie. And you can’t fool a child. She likes you already. I trust my instinct and I think you’re a natural… you just have to be yourself. It certainly wouldn’t hurt you to be able to put aside a good nest egg, maybe have enough to get a more dependable vehicle, and, if you find you want to move on after say, six months or so… then you’ll have a good recommendation in your pocket and the savings to take you where you want to go. What other offer do you have to beat this one?”

  *

  Those words had echoed in her mind more than once since they left the diner and now she pulled her truck into the circular driveway in front of a large, one-story brick home that was long and rambling, set on the sloping rise of a slight hill about fifteen minutes from town. By the number of outlying barns and workshop-type buildings situated a little distance down the slope of the hill, she had a fairly good impression that this was one of those prosperous farms and not just a simple, small, family-run operation as she first pictured in her mind.

  “Well, Angel, it’s a job… for the time being. And they allow dogs at this house which is a good thing.” Especially since these were the people who saddled her with the pup to begin with. And Emma could put up with anything that would get her down the road toward that new life.

  Stepping inside the front door of the house was instantly welcoming. It was warm and there was an aroma of something freshly baked coming from wherever the kitchen might be. The furnishings were tasteful and “country-charming” as her mother labeled the photographs in the magazines she used to collect and stare at over and over until they literally fell apart. Someday… they would have such a house with furniture and pretty things she would say, pointing to the photos and reminding her daughter of how the future would change for them. When her mother died, Emma had taken the box with the clippings and tossed them in the trash barrel. It was ironic that she now found herself in that world… if only for a brief time.

  “Come in and make yourself at home,” Mae called as she hung her coat in the hall closet and then moved into the living room, switching on another lamp as she went. “We have a mud room off the kitchen that we can make little Angel a bed in and get her fed and settled in for the night. The floor is tiled so if she has any accidents not on the paper, it won’t be a problem.”

  Emma followed her down another hall and into a large, brick and wood-beamed kitchen that was another page out of a magazine. The mudroom was a good size and Mae opened a closet and took out a basket. “I have an old blanket in here too,” she said, rummaging around. “Here it is. And I’ll get a couple of bowls for her. The backyard is fenced so if you want to take her out for a couple of minutes, I’ll get things settled in here.”

  Emma took the pup outside and the wind was even more brisk than a few minutes ago. She sat the dog down on the green grass and stuck her hands inside her pants’ pockets for warmth. She needed to find some gloves for herself when she was next in town. “Hurry, Angel. This isn’t time to explore. It’s dark and too cold.” It seemed Angel was of the same mind.

  The pup did what it needed to do and returned to Emma quickly enough. She scooped her up and stepped back into the warmth of the house.

  “I’ve got her food and water dishes ready and her bed, too. She might cry a bit in her new surroundings but being back here, she won’t keep us awake.”

  Emma sat the pup in her bed and stepped to join Mae in the doorway. “Goodnight, little Angel, sweet dreams.”

  Mae closed the door behind them. “If you want to bring in your suitcase, we’ll get you settled next.”

  Emma made a quick trip out to her truck and retrieved her purse and the suitcase. Anything else could wait until the morning when she knew exactly where she might be ending up. Back inside the house, she followed Mae’s voice to find her down another hallway and inside a bedroom that was done in blues and greens and was the nicest room Emma had ever stayed in with its fluffy, quilted covers on the double bed and the matching ruffled curtains at the window. The floor was carpeted in a soft cream and welcomed one to take off their shoes and enjoy.

  “You have a bathroom through that door, and the closet is here,” Mae said, opening the sliding door and revealing the space with plenty of hangars… more than Emma would use. “If you can think of anything else you need, you just let me know. Our room is at the opposite end of the house. Vernon won’t be in for another couple of hours or so. He and my son are at the cattlemen’s meeting tonight so that could go on and on. You’ll meet him tomorrow. My son will be a little harder to pin down, but we’ll get you both together soon enough. Now, you just make yourself at home, and sleep until you wake up tomorrow. Travel always tires me out so I expect you can use some rest before Charlie has to be collected in the afternoon.”

  Emma didn’t waste much time taking a hot bath and getting rid of the travel dust and letting her worries temporarily evaporate with the steam forming from the heated water. For the way the day had started and had gone downhill, things had certainly turned around in a surprising way. Toweling dry, she slipped into a pair of sleep shorts and a tank top. She actually found herself relaxing for the first time in a long while as she cuddled down under the quilted covers, turned onto her side, and allowed a long sigh to escape her. Once the lamp was turned off, the room was in total darkness and she snuggled under the warmth of quilts. Whatever tomorrow would bring, it could wait for the moment. In no time at all, her eyes grew heavier and soon closed and bad dreams stayed away as she fell into a deeper sleep than she had experienced in a very long time.

  *

  “You know where your room is,” Vernon Drayton said over his shoulder to his son as they entered the house. “You need something more to eat, like a sandwich, you know where the refrigerator is. Just clean up so your mom won’t have either of our heads. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Thanks, Dad. I’m beat. I just need that pillow. See you at breakfast.”

  Cole moved down the hall on autopilot. He didn’t need to bother with lights. He had been born and raised inside the walls of this house and knew it like the back of his hand. He stepped into the bedroom, careful to not make noise out of habit. When he came in late from work, it was second nature to try not to disturb his sleeping daughter. He stripped his clothes in nothing flat, mindful to at least make sure they hit the bench at the end of the bed and not the floor. He moved around the edge and then pulled back the cover, sliding his long body onto the cool sheets.

  As usual habit, he turned on his side and his arm reached to bunch the pillow next to him. Only the pillow wasn’t there… something else that took a second to recognize was. And, when it registered in his brain he wasn’t alone in bed and he was cupping the curves of a female, that was also the same time there was a swift movement in the bed next to him and all hell broke loose. He tried to break his fall as his body received a blow that sent him reaching out in the dark to try and lessen the impact with the floor.

  His loud curses mingled with a shriek from the person jumping from the bed on the opposite side. The bright light illuminated the room just as Cole rose from the floor and faced the other shocked occupant.

  “What the hell are you doing in here!”

  “Who are you?”

  *

  They spoke in unison and then both fell silent… in shock. Emma realized two things in no particular order… one was the fact she was standing in front of a strange man dressed in her scanty attire. The second was the fact the man, whoever he was, was standing facing her with nothing on but a pair of
white briefs that left very little to one’s imagination given the way they molded to his lower body. In a different circumstance, she might have stood in gaping awe of how hard muscled and perfectly proportioned he was… in more ways than one. The thought brought crimson heat to her face… and a heat to other parts of her body that should be ignored as fast as possible.

  His gaze was taking its own inventory of her too, and the only thing that brought them both out of their shocked stances was the sound of Mae’s voice coming down the hall. In a lightning move, the man grabbed the top throw off the foot of the bed and wrapped it around his middle just as Mae arrived in the doorway, followed by a tall, older man in striped pajamas. Emma grabbed the shirt from the bench beside her and held it up in front of her undressed state. It was the best she could do in the amount of time she had.

  “Whatever happened in here?” Mae looked from Emma to the man and back again. She looked to be not shocked but almost pleased in some way. “I see you two have met.”

  “I have no idea who this woman is.” He lost no time in setting his mother straight.

  “Well, I certainly don’t know who you are or why you attacked me in my bed.” Emma had no problem setting him straight either.

  “Attacked you? Are you crazy? And that is not your bed. It used to be mine… and still is, I thought.”

  “I think we should begin by meeting each other.” Mae took control. “Emma, may I present my son and Charlie’s father, Cole Drayton.” She smiled at her son. “Cole, this is Emma Cramer, the woman I hired today to get your life in order. It’s late and we all need our sleep. Let’s get back to bed and leave the rest for the morning. Cole, you can sleep in the bedroom across the hall. I can see you two are going to get along just fine… just fine, indeed.”

  Chapter Three

  Once the door clicked shut behind his parents, Cole spoke first.

  “I obviously will discuss this whole idea of a job offer with my mother in the morning.” The man’s tone matched the scowl on his face… a face that might be termed handsome if his attitude didn’t belie that fact. Emma didn’t care for the attitude or for his suggestion of speaking to anyone about her without her involved.