Santa Paws is Coming to Town

  Someone groaned. Someone named Shane.

  He earned a nudge from his fiancée, Chloe, and a sharp look from his grandmother.

  “That means you want the long version, laddie?” Gramma demanded.

  “Shut up, Shane,” Liam mumbled to his brother, making their broad shoulders shake with laugher.

  Pru waved off the interruption. “Then we have the gift exchange, my personal favorite part.”

  “Before Santa comes?” That small voice belonged to Christian, comfortably held high above the others on Liam’s hip. Although he hadn’t been formally adopted yet, Andi Rivers’s six-year-old son was in every way Liam’s boy now, and it had been that way since Andi and Liam had married right here in this house back in September.

  “Oh, don’t worry, Christian,” Andi assured him, shooting a friendly warning look around the group to remind them there was a Santa-believing child in their midst again.

  “This is just the gift exchange with our cousins,” Liam told Christian. “Santa will come after we all go to sleep.”

  Everyone enthusiastically agreed to that, calming Christian’s concerns.

  “During gifts, we get a light snack,” Pru said. “And then we go to Midnight Mass.”

  “Which is why we are all only allowed one drink during the first half,” Shane whispered loudly to Chloe.

  “After that, we get dinner, even though it’s almost two in the morning!” Pru exclaimed, as if that was the most fun any family could possibly have.

  And it had been at one time, Daniel thought as the unwanted grief bubbled up again. When Annie had been—

  The kitchen door smacked open so hard, it felt like the old house shook. Darcy stood in the doorway, breathless, wearing nothing but a T-shirt and jeans, a grooming brush still in one hand.

  “Jack Frost is gone!” she exclaimed.

  “It’s my fault!” Ella ran up behind her, swiping at the tears on her face. “I left the door to the grooming office open, and we turned and…”

  “Shh, El. It’s okay.” Darcy, always the more mature of the two, quieted her cousin. “It’s only been five minutes. He couldn’t have gotten far.”

  Except they all knew that in five minutes, a dog could get lost in the hundred acres of Waterford Farm.

  For one split second, everyone looked at Daniel, all wearing different expressions. Expectant, worried, even a little curious as to what his reaction would be. As if there would be any question, regardless of the date on the calendar or the schedule of events.

  A dog was lost, and that changed everything.

  “Break into groups of two and three,” Daniel ordered, moving on instinct through a somewhat familiar drill. “Fan out over the entire property.”

  “Give that brush to Jag for a scent, Darcy,” Liam added.

  “Darcy, you patrol the kennel and central pen,” Shane said. “He’ll come to you before anyone else.”

  “I’ll get treat bags,” Garrett said, taking Jessie’s hand to head out. “I can take a tractor down to the southern woods. Shane, you give Liam a ride on an ATV and take the northwest section. Mahoneys, circle the lake with Dad.”

  “I’ll get flashlights.” Darcy dragged a not-yet-calm Ella with her. “Come with me and stop fretting.”

  “Can I go?” Christian asked, hopping a bit as if he knew that request would be denied. “Jag’s going!”

  “I need you here with me, lad,” Gramma said, scooting next to him. At his look of disappointment, she gave him a squeeze. “We man the central command center. It’s the most important job of all.”

  “Oh…there’s a central command center?”

  “Right here next to the cookies,” she said.

  He stood a little straighter, appeased. “Okay. I can man that. What about Mommy?”

  “She’ll stay, too,” Liam said.

  Andi looked as stricken as her son at the idea. “I want to come with you.”

  Liam glanced down at his wife’s stomach, still flat, but they all knew the precious cargo inside. “It’s snowy and icy out there.” He glanced to Shane for an assist and got one immediately.

  “You three should stay,” Shane said, putting a hand on Chloe’s shoulder and nodding to Jessie. “You don’t know the property like we do, and—”

  “Are you kidding?” Chloe choked. “Not help find a lost dog?”

  “I designed a house to be built on Liam’s portion of the land,” Andi said. “I’ve been out there a dozen or more times in the last two months.”

  “Of course we’re coming with you,” Jessie added, giving Garrett a look no man would argue with. “We’re family, or about to be in seven days.”

  Liam, Shane, and Garrett shared silent looks, but Molly stepped in to referee. “Let them come along to each of your search sites,” she said with what seemed like a little more force than necessary. “That’s how my new sisters will learn the property and how to find a lost dog.”

  Daniel couldn’t help noticing another exchange of looks between the three brothers, as if agreeing to something. To know how to pick their battles, Daniel hoped. It had been a bedrock of his happy marriage.

  “All right,” Shane said first.

  “That’s a plan,” Garrett agreed.

  “Let’s go, then.” Liam reached for Andi’s hand, in concert with his brothers.

  That decision made, everyone moved as a team, without a single complaint that Christmas took a backseat when a dog was lost. Ironically, no one would have appreciated or supported that more than Annie Kilcannon, Daniel thought.

  Knowing she was watching down on her clan and her beloved farm, Daniel joined the Mahoney kids and headed into the snowy night to find Jack Frost.

  Chapter Two

  Liam helped Andi off the ATV at the bottom of one of the highest hills on Waterford Farm. With Jag in tow and Liam’s innate knowledge of this land, it was the perfect place for them to do a thorough search.

  “I’ll call when we find him,” Liam said, purposely sounding optimistic as he turned on an industrial-strength flashlight that would provide Jag with a light beam to follow. He’d need it since the moon was barely a sliver.

  Shane revved the engine, anxious to go. “No, I’ll call you when we find him.” Of course his brother would make the dog hunt a competition he had to win.

  “I just hope someone finds him.” Chloe nestled closer to Shane and rubbed her hands together. “Nothing worries me more than a lost dog.”

  “No fear, babe,” Shane assured her as he rumbled away and left Liam and Andi to follow Jag. “We got this.”

  The muscular German shepherd was trained as a Schutzhund, which made him a better protector than tracker, but his nose was powerful, and Liam was certain that he’d find any living thing out here.

  They trudged through the snowfall everyone had been so excited about the day before, but a white Christmas seemed like icy danger now.

  “You shouldn’t even be out here,” Liam said, gripping Andi tighter.

  “I’m fine, really.”

  “You’re barely twelve weeks pregnant.”

  “Which is not a handicap,” she reminded him. “I’m being careful, and I know every inch of this area. I was out here with a surveyor a few days ago before any snow fell. Jag is just about to come to a rise in the ground.”

  Almost immediately, the dog stepped up and then down, exactly as she’d said.

  Still, Liam held her close and scanned the untouched snow of the hill where, come spring, they’d break ground for their own family home that Andi, a skilled architect, had designed.

  “I still think you should have stayed with Gramma Finnie and Christian.”

  She elbowed him on a laugh. “We’ve passed three months, and I’m healthy as a horse.” She grinned up at him. “And as hungry as one. Or maybe I could eat one. Can’t remember the phrase, but in this case, they both work.”

  He unsnapped his parka pocket and pulled out one of the three protein bars he never went anywhere without. For her, not him.
“Figured you’d get starved.”

  “Oh.” She took it and looked up at him like he’d just handed her the crown jewels. “I’d marry you all over again, Liam Kilcannon.”

  “Don’t tempt me. It was the best night of my life.”

  She pressed closer and unwrapped the bar. “I admit I got a little panicked when Pru said ‘light snack.’ Wondered what everyone else was going to eat. Think the dog might smell this bar and come to us?”

  He shook his head, watching Jag move with purpose. “The others will use treats or special whistles to get the dog, but we have Jag, and if there’s a dog out here, he’ll sniff that little pupper out from his hiding place.”

  “Sad we don’t even know his real name, but we could try common ones. Rover! Spot!” She smiled up at him. “What’s another good dog name?”

  “I like Anne.”

  She stopped midstep and blinked at him. “That’s a good dog name?”

  “It’s a good daughter name.”

  “Oooh.” She let out a sigh. “That’s what’s on your mind?”

  “Always,” he admitted. “I can’t stop thinking about this baby for one minute.”

  “I know, I’m the same way.” She chewed contentedly as they followed Jag’s black silhouette in the light, watching him sniff side to side, but continuing his climb to the top of the hill.

  In the distance, they heard the barely audible calls of his siblings, and the deep, baritone bark of Einstein, who’d gone with Declan and Connor.

  “Do you think they found him?” Andi asked, excitement making her voice rise.

  “No.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “That bark is too steady and calm to be the sound of a hound who found his target,” he told her. “What about the name?”

  She smiled up at the return to the baby subject. “Anne is your mother’s name. I kind of love that idea,” she said. “But I don’t know if there could ever be another Anne Kilcannon.”

  “No, she was one of a kind, for sure.” Liam closed his eyes for a second, letting her memory hit. “No one loved Christmas like my mother. Every tradition is hers.”

  “Even that candle Pru was talking about?”

  “Oh, no. The Christmas candle in the window is all Gramma Finnie, straight from Ireland, like she is. But my mom made sure every annual tradition was kept alive, that we always did the little things that make Christmas the same every year.”

  “I want to keep those traditions in our home, Liam,” she said. “Which will be right…” She broke away and jogged a few steps before tapping her boot on the snow. “Here. This is where our front door will be.”

  “Wow, you do know your way around this hill.” He joined her at the rise and took a moment to do a slow three-sixty scan with his light. The beam highlighted the snow-trimmed trees and winter hills, making them look desolate, but beautiful. It would be a jaw-dropper of a view from their front window.

  “See any tracks?” she asked.

  “There’s no sign that dog was out here,” he said. “Tracks would be fresh.”

  “Want to go down the other side of the hill?” she asked.

  “No, no. Too steep for you.”

  Even in the moonlight, he could see in her expression that she didn’t agree. “Go with Jag and check. I’ll wait here.”

  He considered that for a moment, then shook his head. “We’ll look from up here and watch Jag.”

  “What if the little puppy runs away?”

  “He won’t.” Liam snapped his fingers twice, and Jag instantly stopped and turned, waiting for his master’s instructions. “Down there, boy,” he pointed, emphasizing the command by moving the flashlight. “In the trees and bushes.”

  Jag didn’t hesitate, but loped across the hill, kicking up snow and following the light beam down the hill into a small grouping of trees.

  “Will he stay in sight?”

  “Unless he smells something,” Liam said, taking a few steps, his gaze locked on the dog, ready to give him the next command. But Jag sniffed dutifully, rounding the trees and poking his mighty snout in the bushes, while Liam and Andi scanned the landscape, looking for anything that might move, bark, run, or hide.

  In the meantime, Liam wanted to go back to the subject that interested him most. “What about Anne as a middle name?”

  “Oooh.” Andi nodded. “I like that. Especially since Anne is so close to my name, anyway.”

  “True.”

  “Look, Jag just went into those shrubs.”

  Liam peered at the spot, certain the dog would be in and out in a second. “But it could be a boy,” he said.

  “We’ll know in ten days,” she reminded him. “Unless you want to be surprised.”

  “I think—”

  Jag’s bark cut him off, loud and insistent. “Whoa,” Liam said, putting a hand up to stop Andi as she took a step in that direction. “Let him come out.”

  “But the dog could run away!” she exclaimed.

  “He won’t.”

  Jag’s bark hit high gear, and Liam still couldn’t see him. Was something wrong?

  “Go, Liam.”

  He had to. Without giving it much more thought, Liam took off down the hill, still unable to see the dog, though he could follow his voice.

  “Jag!” He slipped on some snow, but easily caught himself.

  “Be careful, Liam!”

  He held up a hand, which he realized she probably couldn’t see because he’d taken the flashlight, but zipped down in the direction of Jag’s furious barks.

  “Watch out, there’s a sharp drop off a ledge—”

  He didn’t hear the rest. He went flying through the air and felt the protein bars and his phone pop out of his pocket. His first thought? How in the name of all that was holy could he be that stupid?

  His second one was how did Andi know their property better than he did?

  And his third one, as he landed with a thud and felt his foot twist, was that he’d sprained his damn ankle. Which took him back to his first thought. Stupid.

  Chapter Three

  “Did you hear that?” Jessie asked Garrett as they reached the edge of the woods that covered a good ten acres of the southern section of Waterford Farm.

  “No, but that’s why we have to be very, very quiet.” Garrett put his finger to his lips and whispered, “The quieter we are, the better chance we have of hearing the dog.”

  “But did you hear that noise?” she asked, matching his breathy volume.

  “You think it was a dog?”

  “I think it was…” She peered into the darkness, her jaw tight and a lip trapped under her teeth. “Something.”

  Garrett put his arm around his fiancée and tugged her closer. “Don’t worry, Little Red Riding Hood. There are no wolves in these woods.”

  “But there are foxes and possums and…” She shivered. “Ghosts?”

  He chuckled softly. “Like Christmas Past and Future?”

  “Like…” She slowed her step as they neared the first bit of cleared brush that led to a path few people on earth knew as well as Garrett Kilcannon. “Ghosts.”

  He kissed her head and took a second to inhale the smell of winter and woods that clung to her reddish-gold hair. “I’ve been in these woods a zillion times. It was one of my favorite Manhunt hiding places because my sisters didn’t have the nerve to come in here.”

  “Exactly. Because it’s creepy.”

  “Not with me. And do you remember the best game of Manhunt ever?” He pulled her closer and mouthed the rest into her ear. “I won the game and the woman I love.”

  Her smile returned, normally bright at the mention of the night they’d gotten engaged while hiding in a tree, looked shaky. “That was near the lake within plain sight of the house,” Jessie said. “Why didn’t we take that section to find Jack Frost?”

  “Because it’s easy and familiar, so it made sense for my dad to lead my cousins there. But I know every white oak and longleaf pine in here, and es
pecially where the poison ivy lurks. This is, as we say in North Carolina, mah neck of mah woods.” He layered on his Southern accent, knowing it always made her smile.

  But she sighed instead, leaning into him as if she were still battling some fears. “Is there an actual path we can follow?”

  “Yup.” He pointed his flashlight at the thin dusting of snow and ice, and what, to an untrained eye, would look like, well, snow and ice. “See the path?”

  “No, I don’t.”

  He scraped some snow with his boot. “This is a path, I promise. Hold my hand and come with me.” He pulled her closer for a kiss. “Could be fun.”

  “We’re supposed to be hunting for a dog.”

  “We are. We just have to be very quiet and listen for any sounds.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “So kiss quietly.”

  She gave him a warning look, but relented and kissed him back. “I can’t believe we’ll be married in one week,” she whispered against his lips.

  He let out a little groan of pure pleasure. “Believe it.”

  They held each other’s gaze for a moment. “I love you so much, Jessica Jane,” Garrett whispered.

  “I know, and I love you, but we need to find a dog.”

  “We will. The dog will come to us. Dogs come to me. And you,” he reminded her. “Remember the first time you met Lola?” He inhaled noisily, poking his nose in Jessie’s hair and knit scarf. “Love at first sniff. For both of us.”

  She angled her head and practically purred at his touch, then that turned into a moan. “Oh, Lola. That just reminds me the book isn’t finished yet, and I wanted to get it done before the wedding.”

  He curled an arm around her and moved them forward in slow, silent unison, knowing that talking—well, whispering—about the book she was writing would get her mind off being scared and cold.

  “For the Love of Lola is going to be a masterpiece,” he said softly. “When you changed the perspective to Lola’s voice? Sheer genius.”

  She snuggled closer in gratitude. “I just want to tell her story and combine it with the history of Waterford Farm in a way that will make readers fall in love with Lola and this amazing place.”