Secret Santa
Authors: Kathleen Brooks
Tags: #Romance, #Romantic Suspense, #Holiday, #party, #Christmas, #Kentucky, #bluegrass, #keeneston, #asdfasdf
Secret Santa
A Bluegrass Series Novella
Kathleen Brooks
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may
be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. The names,
characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's
imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be
construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead,
actual events, locale or organizations is entirely
coincidental.
An Original work of Kathleen Brooks
Cover art provided by
Calista Taylor.
http://www.calistataylor.com
Editing by Karen
Lawson.
http://www.theproofisinthereading.wordpress.com
Secret Santa, A Bluegrass Series Novella
copyright Smashwords Edition @ 2012 by Kathleen Brooks
Books by Kathleen Brooks
Bluegrass State of Mind
Risky Shot
Dead Heat
Bluegrass Undercover
Rising Storm
Secret Santa, A Bluegrass Series Novella
Happy Holidays to my readers!
Secret Santa is dedicated to you, the most
wonderful readers an author could ever have!
Table of Contents
News About the Bluegrass Brothers
Series
Excerpt from Bluegrass State of
Mind
McKenna Mason Ashton pulled over to the side
of the road and looked at the town that had been her home for
almost two years. She smiled as she remembered the first time she
pulled over at this same spot.
She had been driving her cherry red BMW M6
and thought the tree-lined streets of Keeneston resembled Mayberry.
Her opinion of Keeneston had changed from the time she arrived
though. For one thing her M6 sat in the garage. She closed the door
to the pickup truck her husband had bought her and looked out at
the trees, now bare of leaves, covered in colorful Christmas
lights. Big red bows were tied to the lampposts, which were covered
in a dusting of snow that had fallen during the night.
The small town that had seemed so foreign to
her after living in New York City was now her home. The people and
customs she couldn't understand before were now part of her daily
life. She now knew that going to "the sales" meant going to the
thoroughbred sales and not to Bloomingdale’s. That gossip was
really just a way for the town to stay connected. Plus, she'd made
enough on some of the bets placed at the Blossom Café to buy her
ten-month-old daughter Sienna a new winter wardrobe on her latest
shopping trip to New York City.
After fleeing from New York she never
thought she'd find such pleasure in working as a small-town
district attorney. She didn't miss the 80-hour workweeks she had
put in at her old law firm or the dance clubs she visited on
occasion with some of her co-workers. They couldn't compare to the
joy and love she felt coming home to her husband, Will, and their
daughter, Sienna.
Kenna slid back into her truck and drove up
Main Street toward her office. She passed the cute stores selling
antiques and Christmas decorations. She waved to Daisy Mae Rose as
she swept the snow off the sidewalk in front of the Blossom Café
with a broom. Miss Daisy's slender, elderly form was covered with a
thick knee-length purple down coat. A poof of her white hair was
tied back into a bun this morning and accessorized with purple
earmuffs. Miss Daisy waved back as Kenna made her way toward her
office. She waved at John Wolfe who was making his way to the café
and Martha, the D.A.'s cranky assistant, as she crossed the
courthouse parking lot.
She had found all this waving and honking so
strange before, but now she knew all these people. They were her
friends and colleagues and it was just natural to smile and wave.
Today was December 23rd, the last day at the office before the long
Christmas weekend. She couldn't wait to experience Sienna's first
Christmas. She had never been so excited before, or felt so
blessed.
Kenna took one last look at the short Main
Street with Christmas decorations covering the storefront windows
and Christmas lights twinkling over the doors before she turned
down the alley between the historic buildings. She parked her truck
behind the law office she shared with Henry Rooney, the town's only
defense attorney, and headed to work.
She pushed open the back door and wiped her
red Manolo Blahniks on the tan doormat before taking off her black
wool pea coat and hanging it up beside the door. She walked down
the hall of the once old historic house to her office. She had
decorated it in a cheery yellow and had sheer navy blue drapes
hanging across the oversized window. Pictures of her with Will,
Sienna, and her best friend, Dani, covered one whole wall.
"Morning, Boss."
Kenna dropped her bag next to her large
rectangular desk and turned to see her best friend leaning against
the doorframe. Her Royal Highness, Danielle De Lucca Ali Rahman,
stood clad in jeans, a white boatneck sweater and tan Uggs. The
white sweater popped against the bronze colored skin she inherited
from her Italian father. Her long black hair was pulled back into a
stylish ponytail. Her retro purse, a deal she found at Miss Lily
Rae Rose's yard sale, hung loosely by her side.
"What are you doing here? Isn't Mo's family
in town?" Kenna asked.
Dani's husband, Mohtadi Ali Rahman, was the
prince of a small island country in the Middle East and his parents
were in town for a couple of weeks. The king, queen, and Dani had
differing opinions of what was an acceptable behavior for a
princess. Dani believed in being the same person she had always
been. However, the king believed she should be dressed up and
paraded around the elite circles of royals from around the
world.
"Exactly. Which is why I'm here, avoiding
lectures of duties and endless diatribe on the fact that I'm not
with child yet." Dani rolled her ice blue eyes and walked into the
room to take a seat in one of the leather chairs facing Kenna's
desk. "Plus, it really pisses the king off that I still work." Dani
laughed with a twinkle in her eye. It was the way their
relationship worked for them. They fought and each time she stood
up to the king, he loved her more.
"Well you may as well come to court with me
today. I have a huge stack of cases to get through." Kenna pulled
out file after file from her bag and piled them up on her desk.
"Ooh, full moon and a holiday. Court should
be better than any movie today," she joked as she picked up half of
the stack of files.
Dani and Kenna made their way across the
street and toward the courthouse talking about family and their
Christmas plans. The town Christmas party was tomorrow and everyone
was coming. Kenna held open the door to the courthouse and sighed.
The place was packed.
"Hiya Kenna, Dani." Noodle stood in his
brown uniform collecting random contraband from the people walking
through the metal detector.
"Deputy, this is old Bertha. She goes
everywhere with me," a large lumberjack of a man whined to
Noodle.
"Sorry sir," Noodle said as he held up the
large eight-inch hunting knife. "Not in Judge Cooper's court. I'll
take good care of her and she'll be right here waiting for you as
long as you don't go to jail," Noodle drawled.
Dani hid a laugh behind her hand and Kenna
smiled serenely. Full moon and a holiday- anything could happen!
"Are you bringing that pretty doctor to the Christmas party?" Kenna
asked as she walked through the metal detector with Dani. Noodle,
real name Eugene, had started dating the emergency room doctor who
patched him up this past summer. Noodle was tall and lean. The
doctor was short and curvy with curly hair that bounced as she
talked.
"Sure am. Good luck in court, it's going to
be a doozy."
Kenna smiled and headed for the large oak
courtroom doors. She pulled them open and was hit in the face by
the noise. There was standing-room only as people waited for the
docket. Kenna and Dani pushed their way forward to the prosecutor's
table. Martha, the D.A.'s assistant, sat at the end of the table.
Kenna eyed the tall stack of files ominously sitting before
her.
"Merry Christmas, Martha." Kenna smiled and
laid down her own files on the table.
"Humph. I hate Christmas. All the loonies
come out. Here." Martha shoved the files toward her. "Tom decided
to take an earlier flight to Florida. He wants you to cover his
caseload today. Merry Christmas," Martha managed a fake grin on her
tight face before standing up to go back to her post in the D.A.'s
office.
Kenna straightened her auburn hair currently
in a French twist and worried it may not last the day. She smoothed
her black pantsuit and buttoned her suit coat over her red silk
shirt.
Dinky, Noodle's partner, came out the door
behind the bench and yelled, "Please rise!"
Here goes nothing she thought as Dani handed
her the first case file.
Three hours later Kenna was close to
grabbing Judge Cooper's gavel and banging her head with it. "What
happened next, Mr. Haverton?" she asked instead.
"Well, then my ex-wife kicked me out of her
house. Alls I was trying to do was tell her how much I missed her
and wanted her back." The short man with circular wire-rimmed
glasses, a mistletoe bow tie, and balding head told her. His droopy
eyes made her think of a sad basset hound.
"So why did she call the police?"
"Because I might have sat down on the stoop
and started crying."
"He wasn't crying, he was wailing! I told
you to man up and then I'd take you back, but what do you do? You
sit down and cry like a girl!" An Amazonian woman yelled from the
gallery.
"Enough." Judge Cooper rapped his gavel.
"What happened then, Mr. Haverton?"
"Well, I heard the sirens and got pissed. I
thought since she'd ruined my Christmas, I should ruin hers. She
loves lights and had the tree in her front yard all lit up. It was
so cheery and happy and I was so depressed. Those lights made me so
mad. So I went over and pissed on it. But the damn tree had the
last laugh. My wife may be good at most things, but electrical work
ain't one of them. There was an exposed wire, and well, when I peed
I got quite a shock. I started jumping around and swearing. That's
when the cops arrived to find me yelling and the tree on fire."
"Really?" Judge Cooper asked as he leaned
over the bench. "I thought that was just a myth."
"Well, alls I know is it hurt like the devil
and 'he' was swollen for a while, but I'm right as rain now."
Kenna rolled her eyes. Boys. Next she could
double-dog dare them to go stick their tongues on the flagpole like
in Christmas Story just to see if they'd do it. Pretty good chance
they'd take the challenge.
"So, you've admitted to trespassing after
you were asked to vacate the property and to destruction of
property." When the little man nodded Kenna turned to the judge, "I
ask you to fine him $250 and to pay for replacing the now burnt
tree and destroyed lights," Kenna said while Judge Cooper and Mr.
Haverton talked more in-depth on getting shocked while peeing on
things. "Your Honor?"
"Oh, yes, yes, sorry. Well, Mr. Haverton, I
order you to pay for the replacement of the tree and lights only. I
think you've suffered enough."
Kenna looked back at the gallery and saw
Dani hiding behind a stack of files. Her shoulders were bouncing up
and down as she laughed silently. Mr. Haverton's Amazonian wife was
still standing and shaking her head. Yup, boys will always be boys,
no matter how old or educated they got.
"Please tell me it gets better," Kenna asked
Dani when she reached for the next case.
"Nope," Dani laughed as she handed a thick
file to Kenna.
Kenna opened it and groaned. "You have got
to be kidding me!"