Small Town Christmas Read online

  He turned away and looked out the window that opened on to the back yard. The window had lacy curtains, and outside the rain was pouring down.

  “My dog died three weeks ago,” he said in a voice that he could barely control. “They shipped me home, and because the dog died, they let me out a little early. I had already told them I wasn’t going to re-up. Now I just want…” He shook his head and pressed his lips together.

  “Oh, Matt, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

  Then he turned back toward Annie. “Losing the dog was hard. He wasn’t killed in action. He just got sick and had to be put down. He was getting old anyway, and I had planned for the two of us to retire together. But now I’m alone. And being a soldier is the only thing I know how to be.”

  “Matt, every returning soldier has an adjustment period.”

  “I know. But I came here looking for Ruth. I thought maybe she would have some wisdom for me, or at least maybe a slice of her apple pie. God, Nick used to talk about that pie all the time, especially when we were stuck eating MREs. And then I found her house all boarded up, and I was lost. I went to the church because I knew she was a member there. To be honest, I heard the cat yowling, and Holly kind of led me right there.”

  “Really?”

  He gave her a short nod. “And then I heard you singing, and it was like, for an instant I felt like I’d… well, hell… I don’t… like I’d come home. And that’s ridiculous because I don’t belong in Last Chance. I’m a street kid from Chicago.”

  She blinked down at him but didn’t say a word.

  “I’ve scared you again, haven’t I?”

  “No, it’s more like I’m a little surprised. What was your dog’s name?”

  “Murphy. He had liver failure. He’d been a pretty hard worker for six years. He saved a whole lot of lives over there, sniffing out IEDs. He was a good, hard-working, war dog.” Matt swallowed before the emotion ate him up.

  “I’m sure he was. You know, you should take Holly. She’d be a comfort to you.”

  He nodded and took a calming sip of his coffee. Annie really didn’t want that cat, did she?

  “So, uh,” Annie said, “I have an early appointment at the Cut ’n’ Curl. I won’t be more than an hour at most.” She turned on her heel and strode out of the room like she was trying to escape his toxic emotions.

  Matt watched her go. He really needed to get a grip. He probably needed to put that stupid gift under Annie’s tree and go see about taking a bus to someplace warm and sunny.

  Annie’s appointment at the Cut ’n’ Curl was for nine in the morning, and even at that early hour several members of the Christ Church Ladies Auxiliary were already present and accounted for. It being both Saturday and Christmas Eve, Ruby Rhodes, Last Chance’s main hairdresser, had opened up an hour early.

  Thelma Hanks was having her roots touched up. Lessie Anderson was in Ruby’s chair getting a wash and set, and Jane Rhodes, Ruby’s new daughter-in-law, was giving Miriam Randall a manicure.

  “Hey, Annie,” Thelma Hanks said after Annie had hung her coat in the closet. Thelma had just looked up from one of those romance books Ruby kept on a shelf at the back of the shop. This particular book had a cover featuring a naked male torso.

  “How are you doing, honey? Everything okay?” Thelma’s voice was laden with concern. All the women in the shop stopped what they were doing and watched Annie as she sat down in one of the dryer chairs. “What?” she asked, flicking her gaze from one woman to another.

  “We’re just concerned, sugar,” Ruby said.

  Ruby and her customers had been Mother’s friends. Mother had been an active member of the Auxiliary. She had a standing Wednesday appointment at the Cut ’n’ Curl, so it was just natural that they would be worried about Annie this Christmastime.

  It was her first Christmas alone. And everyone seemed to be working hard to make sure she didn’t have a minute to be sad about it. She’d received invitations to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner from Ruby, Lessie, Thelma, Miriam, and several of Mother’s other friends. She had declined them all and had invited some of the members of the book club to dinner instead.

  Mother had not fully approved of the book club. She was living in the last century and looked down her nose at Nita and Kaylee, because of their race. But Annie had always counted them as friends, even in the face of Mother’s disapproval. And now Annie could invite whomever she wanted to dinner, without hearing Mother’s ugly complaints.

  “I’m fine,” she said to the ladies in the beauty parlor. “I’ve got my tree all trimmed, and I’m going up to the Target in Orangeburg for some shopping this afternoon, and then Nita and Jenny and a few other friends from the book club are coming over for dinner before midnight services.”

  “I’m so glad to hear that,” Ruby said, “what with Nita’s daughter being off in Atlanta this year. It’s nice the two of you are spending time together.”

  “So, honey, have you taken my advice yet?” Miriam asked from her place at the manicure station.

  Everyone turned to stare at Miriam. Today the little old lady was dressed in a pair of red plaid slacks and a red sweatshirt with a big graphic of Rudolf on its front. She had a pair of dangly Christmas tree earrings in her ears. Her eyes twinkled behind her 1950s-style trifocals.

  Miriam was about eighty-five years old and widely regarded as Allenberg County’s premier matchmaker. Not that Miriam considered herself a matchmaker. She always told folks she was a match finder. She said God made the matches, but sometimes He would clue her in.

  Her matchmaking advice sometimes resembled the messages you might find inside a fortune cookie. But the weird thing about Miriam’s marital forecasts was that they almost always came true.

  “I declare,” Ruby said to Miriam, “when did you give Annie any advice?”

  “Oh, I think it was last week after church.”

  “And what advice did you give Annie?” Thelma leaned forward, her romance book forgotten.

  “I told her to get a cat.”

  “What?” Lessie turned her head, and the roller Ruby was trying to secure came undone.

  “And I told her that I wasn’t so lonely that I needed a cat.” Annie folded her arms across her chest. “I need to get out and have a social life now that Mother’s gone. I don’t need a cat.”

  “Miriam,” Ruby said, “you didn’t really tell Annie she needed a cat, did you?”

  “What’s wrong with suggesting that she get a cat?” Miriam looked honestly surprised.

  “Because you don’t tell a single lady of a certain age that she needs a cat. It’s, well…” Ruby’s voice trailed off.

  “It’s pitiful,” Annie said into the silence. “It’s bad enough that I’m sleeping under a quilt my grandmother made and living in a house with old-fashioned mohair furniture. Getting a cat would be like sealing my fate.”

  “Yes, exactly,” Miriam said.

  Ruby, Lessie, and Thelma stared at Miriam as if she’d lost her mind. Miriam was a little quirky, but she’d never been mean.

  Jane pulled Miriam’s hand out of the soaking solution and said, “Clay said something about a big soldier finding a cat in the manger down at the church last night. This guy came strolling into the sanctuary with a little kitten, interrupting choir practice, and Dale almost had a stroke.”

  “Really?” Miriam asked. Somehow Miriam didn’t sound very surprised.

  Everyone turned toward Annie. Her face flamed. “His name is Matt Jasper, and he did find a cat in the manger. He came in on the bus from Charlotte last night, and he was looking for Ruth Clausen.”

  “Oh dear,” Ruby said. “Is he one of Nick’s army friends?”

  “Yes, he is. He’s come here to deliver Nick’s last Christmas gift.”

  “What?” the women asked in unison.

  “Evidently, Nick bought Ruth’s present before he died last year. Matt has been carrying it around Afghanistan for a long time.”

  “Oh my,” Thelma said.