Read A Cozy Country Christmas Anthology for Free Online Page B

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betrayed his feelings regarding her sincerity but his grandfather
threw his arms around Dorothy and gave her a whole-hearted squeeze.
Tears stung her eyes. Loving human contact after months of
isolation. Her lip quivered and she bit it hard to maintain her
composure.
    Ham peered up at her. “I can tell by looking
at her that she’s a winner, grandson. As pretty as dogwood blossoms
in the spring! We’ll get along just fine.”
    Although Rob stood beside her, Dorothy sensed
his subtle withdrawal, the shifting of his stance so their
shoulders no longer touched. Ham continued to beam as he regarded
his visitors.
    “What are you working on, Ham?” Rob bent over
a saddle draped across a board, poked at the piece of wood
supported by four legs. “What’s this called, Ham?”
    “That’s a saw horse, Mr. Town fellow.” Ham
picked up what looked like a can of shoe polish and a ragged piece
of cloth from the seat of a lawn chair. “I’m doing my daily
polishing.” He stroked the saddle’s dark, moist looking leather.
“Takes a heap of elbow grease to keep leather as soft as butter.
You have to keep at it each day or it dries out, could crack.”
    A saddle as an image for her marriage?
Dorothy rubbed at the tension banding her forehead. Too simplistic.
Stop grasping at quick solutions, real life isn’t black and white,
she told herself.
    “Still known as Handy Ham?” Rob punched his
grandfather’s shoulder with a playful light touch. “I’ll bet you
keep busy.”
    “Do most of my work for free now, Robbie.
Someone’s gotta keep the widder women in fuses and mown grass.”
    A swarm of gnats suddenly appeared beside
Dorothy, tracing invisible, cosmic patterns in the air, trapped in
an endless cycle of futility. She choked back a laugh; on this trip
she was seeing literary symbolism everywhere.
    Ham noticed her grimace and jerked his head
toward the house. “Come inside, children. It’s hotter than a
branding blaze out here!”
    Fanning herself with one hand, Dorothy
followed Rob inside. Her vision of staggering into the guest room
and collapsing on a bed covered with a cool white spread while lacy
curtains fluttered in the breeze faded at first glance.
    An open door to the right revealed a
miniscule bathroom. Turning, she glimpsed a galley style kitchen
through a doorway. The presence of a lumpy couch and a card table
indicated that the room in which they stood served Ham as both
living and dining space. The air smelled of dust and heat. Tears
gritted like sand underneath her eyelids. No room here for three
adults to spend the night—it barely looked big enough for one.
    Rob had been right, she wasn’t welcome.
Sibley Corners lacked a hotel or even a motel, he’d warned her,
adding that Ham didn’t have space available for guests. But she’d
been so desperate, grasping at this last chance to catch and focus
Rob’s attention. . .
    “Thanks for putting us up, Ham.” Dorothy
could tell by Rob’s sidelong glances that the house was even
smaller than he remembered it. “Are you sure we won’t crowd you? Is
there a motel within a few miles? We could call for a reservation,
take you out to supper—“
    “Nonsense! I’m pleasured, Robbie. Don’t get
much company. All the local widder women bring over casseroles and
hand knitted scarves at the drop of a snow flake. Those gals don’t
count as company, act more like a pack of wolves circling a downed
calf.” He arched bushy white eyebrows and smirked. “But I’m still
able to dodge and jump—so far I’ve managed to keep a ring out of my
nose!”
    Rob grinned and Ham flapped his hand. “Now,
boy, and tell me about yourself.” He turned to Dorothy and waved at
the couch. “And you, Missie, just set and rest your feet. You must
be so tired after travelin’ from the Cities.”
    Rob and his grandfather seated themselves at
the card table, leaving Dorothy marooned near the front door. She
hesitated before crossing the dingy carpet to the couch