A Perfect Christmas Gift Page 2

  They worked in silence for a few minutes, getting bowls from the kitchen and putting out dog food she retrieved from her vehicle.

  When they finished, she sent him a solemn look. “I’m counting on you, Evan Conner, to do the right thing.”

  Evan didn’t hesitate. “Vixen and company will be fine. I’ll protect them with my life.”

  Finally, she smiled again, and he knew she believed him.

  Weird how his stomach started tingling and he felt an airy sensation in his heart. Why did her belief in him matter so much?

  “Okay,” she said. “But if you don’t mind a little friendly business advice, if I were you, I’d find a new boss.”

  Yeah, well, that thought crossed his mind once or twice today. Especially since he’d been “volun-told” to come on this trip, he’d developed uneasy feelings. The more he got to know about his boss, the less he liked him. Peter wasn’t the easygoing, jovial guy he made himself out to be in the office.

  As Evan walked Chloe to her SUV parked in the driveway, something else occurred to him. He’d really enjoyed getting to know Chloe, and he’d like to learn more about her.

  She opened her car door. “Good luck. I’ll come around before work tomorrow to check on Vixen and the babies.”

  “May I ask you something?”

  She looked cautious, but finally said, “All right.”

  “Could I take you to dinner?”

  Her eyes rounded, and her mouth formed a surprised little O. “Tonight?”

  He nodded. “Yes. Please? I’d love to take you to dinner for helping me out with this, and I’m feeling a little lonely in this town with only Peter as company.”

  “I can see how isolating that must feel.”

  “So you’ll go out to dinner with me?”

  “I’m dressed as an elf.” She laughed.

  Now it was his turn to chuckle. “I’m fine with it, although I feel underdressed. Maybe I could find a Santa hat?”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Sure, okay. Why not?”

  “Really?” He’d braced for her to turn him down.

  “But I have to swing by my mom’s house first. In fact, I can change there, and you can meet Mom.” She gave him the address. “But fair warning, if you tell her your connection to Peter, expect a little blowback. Jilting someone at the altar doesn’t tend to endear you to a person who got jilted.”

  “Peter dumped your mother at the altar?” Evan knew that Peter had been engaged to someone in Kringle and broken it off with no explanation, but he didn’t know he’d left the bride standing at the altar. That was a jerk move.

  Evan barely resisted the impulse to apologize to Chloe, even though none of this was his fault. Still, he felt bad that his boss had hurt these people, and he was going to try his best to make sure Peter really made amends.

  “I’d like very much to meet your mother,” he told Chloe.

  She opened her door to her silver SUV. Kringle Animal Clinic was printed on the side, along with pictures of dogs and cats. The vehicle was every bit as cute as its owner.

  “Just so you know, Peter really hurt her, “Chloe said. “He shouldn’t expect her simply to forgive him.”

  “Fair enough. He still needs to apologize. It’s up to her to decide how she feels after that.”

  Chloe gave a quick nod and climbed in the car. “Okay. We’ll see how it goes.”

  Evan forced a smile and then said, “I’m sure it will go great. I have a really good feeling about this.”

  After she pulled out of the driveway and drove off, Evan headed back inside. His assurances to the vet had been a total fib. He wished that he had a good feeling about Peter’s mission in Kringle, but he didn’t.

  Quite the opposite.

  Chapter 2

  Peter Thomas was back in Kringle.

  Bad news all around, Chloe thought as she drove to her mom’s house.

  Well, except that he’d brought Evan Conner with him. Then again, Peter always had known how to surround himself with good people to balance out his wily ways.

  Okay, she was happy to meet Evan. He seemed like a really friendly person, and it didn’t hurt that he was good-looking. Tall, with deep-chestnut hair and light-brown eyes, he was definitely heartthrob material. She was attracted to him, and not just because of his looks.

  Evan Conner struck her as a nice man, and her instincts about people were rarely wrong.

  Still, Evan being an agreeable person didn’t help with her fundamental problem.

  People in Kringle did not like Peter. He’d hurt many folks, her mother one of them, when he’d left Mom standing at the altar.

  Five years ago, when he’d first come back to his hometown, Chloe had been away at college, so she’d only met him once or twice. She hadn’t directly witnessed the destruction—but she’d seen the aftermath. The man was trouble.

  It didn’t take long to arrive at her mother’s one-story red brick house near the center of town. Like most houses in Kringle, she’d decorated it to the hilt for Christmas. Each tree and bush in the front yard festooned with twinkle lights.

  On the lawn, her mother had placed a lighted display of three reindeer, and up by the front door was a blowup oversized snowman with a black hat and a red bow tie. Mom was a big fan of the holiday, which is why she’d retired here ten years ago after Chloe’s dad passed away.

  Not that Chloe could blame her mom. Kringle was a great town. It was a fun place year-round, but especially so around the holidays. But five years ago, Peter had convinced the principal employer, Kringle Kandy, to move to Dallas.

  That move devastated the local economy, and even now, half a decade later, it hadn’t really recovered.

  Worse was the way Peter had treated her mother. He’d wined and wooed her and proposed after only a few months. But he’d left town shortly after the deal with Kringle Kandy was complete, deserting both the town and her mother.

  This afternoon, he also hadn’t done a thing to impress Chloe that he’d changed. She still couldn’t believe what he’d said about Vixen. What evil man would threaten a sweet dog? He definitely fit the Scrooge image—the before ghosts version. She was unconvinced that he was sincere enough to grow beyond that. She couldn’t help getting the feeling that his contrite act was just that—an act.

  How did she break the news to her mother that Peter was back?

  She parked in her mom’s drive and walked to the front door. The moment her mother saw her in her costume, she burst out laughing.

  “Cute,” Chloe said, moving past her mother and into the house.

  “Yes, sweetie, you are cute. I love the outfit.”

  Chloe twirled like a runway model in the living room, showing off the outfit. “Now I’m going to change.”

  She changed into a pair of jeans and a teal T-shirt she kept stashed in her vehicle. As a vet, she never knew when she might need a fresh change of clothes. She stared at herself in the white bathroom vanity mirror. “Might as well bite the bullet and tell her about Peter now.”

  Squaring her shoulders, Chloe went to break the news, but her mom was on her cell phone. One look at her mother’s expression told her someone had already beatten her to the punch.

  The Kringle grapevine worked overtime.

  Her mother switched off her phone and turned to Chloe. “Peter’s back in Kringle.”

  “I know. I was just about to tell you.”

  “Where did you hear?”

  “I stopped by the Madison place. I got a call from Pete’s assistant, Evan Conner, that a stray dog had gotten into the house and had puppies. It turned out to be Vixen.” For a few minutes, she caught her mom up on Vixen’s progress. “So how do you feel about Peter being back in town?”

  “From what Jolie Stuart said…” Her mother waved at the phone she had set on the coffee table. “He’s back to make amends for all the problems he caused.”

  “What do you think about that?”

  “It’s a good thing. He should apologize to the folks of Kringle.
He caused a lot of heartache.”

  “True.”

  Her mother shrugged and picked up an ornament from the array laid out on the coffee table and crossed the room to hang a large red ball on the front of the tree she was decorating. Canting her head, she considered the ball, and then moved it to the side. Her mother seemed perfectly calm, not at all bothered that Peter had returned.

  But Chloe wasn’t calm. She was worried. From the first time she’d met him, she’d gotten the feeling he was constantly on the lookout for an opportunity, a way to advance himself regardless of the impact to others.

  Ruby pursed her lips and moved the ornament again.

  Chloe would have offered to help with the tree, but her mother had a specific way she liked to decorate. She figured she was better off just watching since she was more of a hang-it-anywhere sort.

  She plunked on the blue-flowered sofa and patted her mother’s yellow cat, Belle. As always, the second Chloe sat, Belle climbed into her lap and demanded attention. Once Chloe had established a patting pace that worked for Belle, she looked at her mom, who was still hanging ornaments with a critical eye.

  Petite with the same red hair as Chloe, her mother looked much younger than her fifty-nine years. She had a bright smile and a big laugh, and Chloe thought she was the most amazing mom in the world.

  “Okay, Mom, now tell me the truth. How do you really feel about Peter being here? He let you down more than anyone.”

  Her mother had been fiddling with a snowflake ornament, but now she looked at her daughter. “It’s fine,” she said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I know I should be heartbroken, but I’m not. That tells you that it’s for the best we didn’t get married. What we had wasn’t genuine love. He didn’t break my heart. If it had been genuine love, I would feel something now that he’s come back, but I honestly don’t.”

  “Really?”

  “Life has turned out exactly the way it should have.” She gave Chloe a calm smile.

  Although Chloe was glad to hear her mother felt this way, in some ways, it made her sad. If her mother was right, how did you know when you’d found genuine love, the type that would break your heart if it didn’t work out?

  If genuine love meant that your heart could get broken, was love worth the risk?

  Personally, she’d never gotten even close to true love. She’d dated over the years and even had a few serious relationships, but they’d ended rather unspectacularly. She hadn’t been heartbroken, and neither had the guy.

  Almost as if she had sensed her daughter’s thoughts, Ruby said, “You’ll understand one day when you truly fall in love. I was truly in love with your father. Losing him broke my heart. Losing Peter didn’t.”

  The doorbell rang. For the holidays, her mother had set the ringtone to “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Kringle really was the perfect place for Ruby to live. The town was custom made for a Christmas fanatic like her.

  Since she was closest, Chloe answered the door.

  Both Evan Conner and Peter Thomas stood on the porch.

  She gave Evan a questioning look.

  “When I told Peter we were meeting at your mother’s house, and we were going out to dinner, he asked to come along. I hope you don’t mind.”

  Chloe minded him being here. She wasn’t sure her mother was ready to see him, even if he hadn’t broken her heart. Good manners forced her to open the door widely and say, “Welcome.”

  Peter walked into the house first, followed by Evan.

  Chloe watched as surprise crossed her mother’s face, but then she was relieved when her mother seemed unconcerned that her ex-fiancé had just walked in.

  “Hello, Peter.” Her mother gave him a warm smile, walked over, and gave him a quick hug. “It’s nice to see you.”

  Peter looked at her mother with so much regret it almost made Chloe feel sorry for him.

  Maybe she’d misjudged him. It looked like he had sincerely missed her mother.

  “It’s wonderful to see you,” Peter said.

  “You too.” Mom quickly stepped from his embrace.

  No missing it, Peter looked disappointed.

  Chloe introduced Evan to her mother.

  Belle rubbed against his legs, leaving an impressive band of yellow fur on his dark-blue pants. If the fur transfer bothered him, Evan didn’t show it. Other than a quick glance down at Belle, his focus remained on her mother.

  He shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Ruby. Chloe has your beautiful smile.”

  “Thank you, Evan. That’s sweet of you to say.” Ruby smiled and sent Chloe a knowing look that said, handsome.

  Uh-oh, Chloe knew that look. Mom was cooking up matchmaking scenarios. Chloe needed to nip that in the bud.

  “So, Peter, what brings you back to Kringle?” Her mother’s smile was warm, but her tone held just a hint of a chill.

  “I had a heart attack two months ago,” Peter said. “It made me rethink a few things.”

  “Things?” Her mother slanted her head and studied him with a flinty glint in her eyes.

  Peter shifted his weight and cleared his throat. ‘Mistakes I’ve made. Things I regret.”

  “Things like single-handedly destroying Kringle’s economy?” Chloe prompted. She didn’t mean to be pushy, but this man owed the town a lot more than convenient apologies.

  If he noticed her tone, he didn’t react. Instead, he looked at her mother and said, “I decided two things after my heart attack. One, I needed to apologize to the folks of Kringle. And two, I want to have a perfect Christmas, the kind of perfect Christmas you can only have in Kringle.”

  Chloe wanted to jump in and say a few things to Peter, but the forgiving look on her mother’s face told her to let it go. Her mother was the most loving person Chloe knew, and if she was willing to let things go, then Chloe needed to let them go too.

  “I’m very sorry if I hurt you,” Peter told her mother.

  Ruby rewarded him with a tender smile. “Thank you for the apology. I appreciate it.”

  Chloe knew her mother well enough to know his apology was all her mother needed to forgive him. Heck, she’d already forgiven him years ago, even without an apology. Chloe felt as if him saying he was sorry was for his benefit rather than her mother’s, and it did nothing to make Chloe believe his sincerity.

  Her mother turned to Evan. “Are you here for a perfect Kringle Christmas as well?”

  Evan chuckled and Chloe felt a strange little tingle in her stomach at the sound.

  “Yes and no,” he said. “Sure, I’d love a great Christmas, but I work for Peter. He had me come along to make sure everything runs smoothly. It hasn’t been that long since his heart attack.”

  “Well, Chloe and I will do everything we can to ensure both of you have a perfect Christmas. Kringle is almost magical this time of year. I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time.” Her mother shot her a meaningful look. “Chloe can help make sure you have a terrific Christmas, Evan. You should spend time with her. Kringle has so many outstanding events for the holiday.”

  Chloe frowned at her mother’s matchmaking attempts, but if he noticed it, Evan didn’t comment.

  “Have you seen the town?” her mother asked.

  “Not really. We drove straight to the house when we got here yesterday evening. I noticed that Main Street is festive with decorations, but I haven’t seen the rest of the town.”

  “Main Street is the town,” Peter said. “The one street. It’s a handful of businesses and then, at the end of the street, the town hall. You’ve had the complete tour.”

  Peter’s tone made it clear he didn’t think Kringle was much to see, but Evan simply said, “I’m looking forward to exploring, and I’m glad I’m on the trip.”

  Chloe imagined there was more to the story than Evan was sharing, but she didn’t pry. As far as she could tell, Peter should be thankful Evan had come along. Evan helped even out Peter’s tarnished image.

  “Evan will also ar
range the party,” Peter said. “It’s one of the chief things I want to happen while I’m here.”

  Chloe looked at Evan, who shrugged. “Peter wants to have a big Christmas Eve bash at the house.”

  “The Madison place is large enough to hold most of the town,” Ruby pointed out. “Have you spoken to Kitty and Dwayne Madison recently? I heard they were thinking about moving back to Kringle after they retire.”

  “I talked to them when I rented their house for two weeks. They seemed fine,” Peter said, but something in his voice made Chloe suspicious. Kitty and Dwayne had been the owners of Kringle Kandy.

  “The party will amaze,” Peter said. “I’ll invite everyone in town.”

  It didn’t surprise Chloe that her mother nodded. Ruby loved parties, and a Christmas Eve party would be too wonderful for her to resist.

  It was getting late. Chloe headed toward the front door. “Evan and I planned to go to dinner. Peter, I guess you’re coming as well, right? Mom, why don’t you join us?”

  She’d assumed her mother would agree, but Ruby said, “No, I think I’ll stay here. I want to work on the tree.”

  “I’ll stay and help,” Peter said immediately. “I’m not hungry.”

  He sat next to her mother, his expression a little too self-satisfied for Chloe’s comfort. Chloe looked at her mother to see if Peter staying was okay with her, but she seemed unconcerned. In fact, she’d already handed Peter a string of tangled lights to straighten.

  Chloe considered also staying behind.

  “Okay. Well, be sure and let us know if you want us to bring anything back,” Evan said, opening the front door.

  Torn, she hesitated. Wanting to go with Evan but thinking she should stay to make sure her mother would be okay.

  Ruby sent her a pointed look. “Go.”

  “You’re sure?”

  Belle was still eeling between Evan’s legs.

  Chloe picked up Belle and held her up so Evan could see her face. “I think someone will be brokenhearted to see you leave.”