Secret Santa (5 page)

"What the dickens?" Daisy muttered.

"Who is that?" Violet whispered as Santa
wished everyone a Merry Christmas.

"I don't know, but we're about to find out,"
Lily whispered as Santa approached them.

"Merry Christmas to the finest Roses I've
ever seen!" Santa patted his big belly as it bounced up and down
with his laughter.

Daisy eyed him carefully, but his thick
white beard covered the majority of his face and huge bushy
eyebrows concealed his eyes for the most part. His cheeks were
painted with two red circles. For the life of her, she couldn't
figure out who it was.

"Who are you?" Daisy asked, getting right to
the point.

"Daisy! That's not polite. Welcome, we were
wondering, who's hiding under that getup?" Violet asked as with
generations of good Southern breeding behind her sweet voice.

"Why, don't you recognize me? I'm Santa
Claus!" he boomed.

With a bushy wink of his eyebrow, he reached
down into his large red velvet bag and handed a gift to the Rose
sisters. Lily felt the heavy weight in her hands and knew it was a
book of some kind.

"Well, go on, open it up!" He laughed
again.

The sisters looked at each other and with a
shrug, Violet tore open the green wrapping paper. The three of them
stared at the pink leather bound betting ledger. Who was Santa
Claus?

Chapter Eight

Annie was fuming. Her hair was on end and
steam was nearly shooting out from her ears. Cade was next to her
laughing as Santa Claus rubbed her very large round belly waiting
to feel the baby kick. It wouldn't have been so bad if, one – she
knew who this person was, and two – he hadn't been the tenth person
in a row to come over and start rubbing on her belly as if she was
an old dog lying in the sun. Now she was about ready to chop off
Santa's hand.

Santa bent down on his knees and started
talking to her belly. Okay! That was it! She was so upset her
stomach literally hurt and her back was killing her as she tried to
keep her temper between the unsolicited belly rubs, endless advice
on how to raise her baby, and the fact that every single person
here had to tell her their whole birthing story.

"Cade," she growled between clenched teeth.
"Get Santa Claus away from me or there will be no Christmas this
year."

Cade chuckled and came to stand behind her,
wrapping his arms around her and resting them on their child. She
instantly calmed down when she felt his arms around her. His
calmness and patience soothed her as his large hands sprawled
across her belly. This caused Santa Claus to stop talking to
it.

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa just loves babies!" Santa
said in his deep voice. "Now," he reached into his big bag,
"something for Daddy, Mommy, and Baby." Santa handed Cade a
rectangular box, Annie a small bag, and then held onto a square
box. "That one first," he said, pointing to the bag.

Annie pulled out the tissue paper and white
onesie that read, "My Mom Shoots People, But I Kill Them With
Cuteness".

"I don't know who you are, but this is the
best onesie I've gotten," Annie told him.

"You're welcome. Go ahead Cade. It's for the
birth," Santa told him.

Cade ripped open the gift and laughed. He
pulled out a fifth of the most expensive bourbon Cade had ever
seen. His mouth watered at the thought of the amber liquid sliding
down his throat. He lifted it up and showed it to Annie. He had
ever only heard of this brand, he didn't even know where you could
buy it.

"You get drunk during the birth of our
child, I'll shoot you," she joked.

"Don't worry Annie, Santa has something for
you too."

He handed over the heavy box and Annie
gingerly took it. She slowly opened it and gasped. She ran her
fingers over the hard case and then opened the box to show a brand
new Smith & Wesson 1911 PD pistol.

"Her gift is way cooler than mine," Cade
joked.

"Well, she's the one carrying the baby. I
thought she might want to shoot you during labor. Could prove to be
entertaining," Santa joked.

"How did you know this was one of the
pistols I wanted and one of the few Cade didn't have?" Annie asked.
Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make out who was dressed up as
Santa Claus.

"I know what all good girls and boys want,"
he chuckled as he turned to walk off toward Katelyn and Marshall
and her family.

"Okay, I'll let Santa rub my belly anytime
if he brings me gifts like that. Who is Santa Claus?" Annie asked
Cade as they watched Santa stroke his beard and laugh again.

Marshall stared at Santa Claus and felt the
familiar nagging sensation that told him he was missing something.
There was just something about Santa's movement that he knew, but
damn, he couldn't place it. When Santa grabbed Katelyn and planted
a kiss on her, all he cared about was giving Santa a big fat
nose.

"So who has been naughty and who has been
nice?" Santa asked as he reached into his bag.

Katelyn put a soothing hand on her fiancé's
arm and felt the tension subside. Marshall wasn't big on surprises
to say the least. Oh, he was great at pulling pranks with his
brothers… as long as the prank wasn't on him. So when a man that he
didn't know kissed his almost wife and began pulling gifts out of
his bag he got a little nervous. He had a feeling that Santa was
completely harmless, but kissing his wife had to stop.

"For the big tough sheriff." Santa smiled
and held out a little bag.

Marshall looked at is as if it would
explode. When nothing happened, he slowly raised his hand and took
the small red bag into his hands. He pulled out the white paper and
almost dropped the small silver whistle.

"A whistle?" Marshall held it up and looked
at it.

"Blow it. Or better yet, have your beautiful
fiancé do the honors," Santa smirked.

Marshall narrowed his eyes at Santa and
Santa's grin just widened. He tentatively placed the whistle on his
lips and blew. There must be something wrong, there was no noise.
He tried again, harder this time. There was a scrape at the front
door and the round knob turned jerkily. A second later a sleek
sable Belgian Malinois with a police vest and a big red bow on his
collar came trotting through the door he had opened and headed
straight to Marshall. He skidded to a stop and sat down, looking up
expectedly at him. Snow melted off his black and brown coat as he
waited for his next command.

"Sheriff, meet your newest deputy. A
multipurpose Malinois named Marko, straight from Holland. He's
trained in drug detection, tracking, search and rescue, and of
course, police tactics," Santa told him.

Marshall stared down at the dog's black
muzzle and thumping brown tail. He couldn't form words. They'd
needed a dog to do search and rescue in all the woods surrounding
the area for years. And one that was also trained for drug
detection! They could canvas the whole school in no time. It was
one of the things he wanted to do, raise the $15,000 to get a dog,
but their small community couldn't afford it.

"How?"

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa has connections with
other good boys all over the world! A trainer will be arriving next
week to stay here for a while and train you to use Marko to the
best of his abilities. Now it’s you're turn Doc." Santa handed her
an envelope. "Think of it as a late wedding gift too."

Katelyn tore open the Christmas card and
pulled out a picture. She looked at it and saw a picture of the
front of her clinic. It had to be taken recently as the snow had
gotten deeper from the time she had last been there just six hours
ago. She flipped to the next picture and saw the back of the
clinic. But, it wasn't the back of her clinic, was it? Where there
had been a wall was now a large covered area with private dog runs
fenced in.

"Is this my clinic? How could you have built
a whole indoor/outdoor run system in six hours?" She couldn't look
away from the picture.

"Santa has his elves. And one little elf
told me you needed more room."

Katelyn threw her arms around Santa and gave
him a hug. She guessed the growl coming from behind her wasn't the
newest deputy so she pulled back and gave Santa a wink.

"Watch it Santa. My to-be-son-in-law looks
like he's about to shoot you."

"Mr. Jacks, I presume. And Mr. & Mrs.
Wyatt! Merry Christmas!

"Merry Christmas young man," Mrs. Wyatt
laughed, her huge red hat wiggling as she bobbed her head. Katelyn
looked down at Marko and laughed as he kept a close eye on the big
red hat.

"Santa has something for you too Mr. &
Mrs. Wyatt." He pulled out a present and handed it to Mrs. Wyatt.
Santa watched as she eagerly tore into it like a schoolgirl. She
pushed aside the wrapping paper and smiled as she looked down at
the shadowbox.

"Young man, thank you. I'll cherish this.
How did you find it?" Mrs. Wyatt lifted up the small sketch of a
huge mansion. An antique silver fork lay in front of it.

"What is it?" Mr. Jacks asked
impatiently.

"It's a sketch of my family home done before
Sherman burned it down. And this," she pointed to the fork, "is
some of my family's old silver they buried in the back yard before
fleeing Georgia."

Mr. Jacks eyed him and Santa just smiled in
return. "Sorry Mr. Jacks, you'll just have to be nicer next year to
get a present." With a wink he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to
Mrs. Wyatt's cheek.

Santa made his way through the crowd,
greeting people and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. He saw Jake
and Marcy Davies over in the corner talking to their neighbors.

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Tell Santa what you want for
Christmas little girl."

Marcy looked at him and smiled softly,
"Santa already brought me what I wanted." Her eyes twinkled as she
looked at her husband and back to Santa. "But, there's someone over
there that would love to see you."

Santa looked across the room and found who
Marcy was pointing at. He grinned and then leaned down for a kiss
before heading across the room.

Chapter Nine

Tammy excused herself from the always-peppy
Pam Gilbert and went to the little half bath downstairs. She
slumped against the wall and looked up to see her reflection in the
mirror. She was exhausted and it showed. She had studied her ass
off this semester and found out that it earned her an A in the
class.

Of course, she was so broke now that she
couldn't even buy a Christmas tree and the man of her dreams was
out there enjoying the attention of every single woman in town.

She ran her hand over her short pixie-cut
hair. Her blonde hair shined and her makeup was flawless, but she
couldn't compete with the Belles, or Kandi. Kandi had her older
paws on Pierce while her husband got plastered on the Roses' apple
cider. Tammy reached down and pushed up her small breasts. It was
no use. She'd never have the attributes Pierce was so drawn to. No
wonder he never paid her any attention.

Tammy pulled down her tight red sweater to
make the most of her cleavage and then smoothed her hand over her
short black skirt. Maybe Santa had a man for her in that bag of
his. Well, it was no use moping in the bathroom. She plastered on a
fake smile and opened the door, smacking right into Pierce as she
walked out. She reached out to steady herself and grasped his
arm... his big, strong, muscular arm. Her other hand came to a rest
on his stomach. She felt the ripple of a six-pack underneath his
shirt and couldn't help but take a moment to enjoy the feel. He
smelled like the outdoors, especially hay. She took a deep breath
and wanted to curl up into him.

"Oh! Sorry. I didn't see you," his deep
voice said, interrupting her daydream.

"It's okay. Merry Christmas, Pierce."

"Merry Christmas to you too, Tammy. Excuse
me for a second."

Tammy sighed as she watched Pierce walk past
her to see Jasmine, the head of the Belles, who was standing right
behind her. She felt tears begin to sting her eyes. She'd been
pining over him for two years now and maybe she just needed to
admit to herself it wasn't meant to be.

"Ho! Ho! Ho!" Tammy tried to smile as the
jovial Santa came over to her. "This can't be little Tammy
Fields!"

Tammy thought for sure she'd cry now. She
felt Pierce turn and look at her and she just knew Jasmine was
laughing. She'd always be 'little Tammy.’ It was the curse of being
so short. It didn't matter that she was a runner and had a trim
body. Nope. Because she was just over five feet and had the good
fortune to have smooth skin, people always thought she was so much
younger than her twenty-four years.

"Little Tammy has turned into one hot woman
now!" Santa boomed, followed with a loud laugh.

Tammy looked around and noticed that most of
the people around her, including Pierce, were now looking at her.
She felt her face turn red with embarrassment at Santa's bad joke.
No one saw her as hot. They saw her as a little kid they liked to
pat on the head.

"Do you mind if Santa can get a gift of his
own? After all, I've been a very good boy this year."

"Um, okay?" She had no idea what he was
talking about and was just petrified he'd do something else to
embarrass her even further in front of Pierce.

Santa grabbed her around the waist so
suddenly that she had to throw her arms around his shoulders. Santa
was hiding some seriously ripped muscles under his red coat. She
felt him chuckle and then his lips were on hers. His tongue asked
for entry and when she opened to him she forgot that anyone else
was in the room. She felt one of his hands across her back as the
other wandered down her side and gave a quick caress to her rear
end. Fire shot through her and she suddenly didn't feel like a
little girl anymore. She felt like a woman on fire. Would it be bad
to have sex with Santa in the closet?