Marie Ferrarella – Daddy's Christmas Miracle: Santa in a Stetson (страница 2)

With those words, Kathryn understood her siblings were her best friends and allies. Between them, they took care of the move and got her settled on top of the McFarland Tower. Every window looked out on a superb view of the Salt Lake Valley and the mountains encircling it.

From the kitchen, she had an eastern exposure and could see Mount Olympus, covered in snow. This morning while she’d been working with Cord, he’d told her there was fresh powder up Little Cottonwood Canyon in Alta, where he and Kit lived.

They’d made plans to ski tomorrow. Their first outing of the season. She couldn’t wait. Cord was a fabulous skier and had given her lessons every winter. Kathryn was getting pretty good at it, if she said so herself.

Cord was the true mountain man of the family. In that regard, they were soul mates—like the first McFarland who’d claimed a lot of land in the Albion Basin for his own before the turn of the last century.

She’d seen it for the first time in summer, when the meadows were a riot of wildflowers. A euphoric Kathryn had thought she loved that season best until fall arrived and the trees turned to gold and flame everywhere she hiked.

Then came the majesty of winter, so white and gorgeous. She hated to see it go, but when spring followed and the primroses poked their pink heads out of the melting snow, the signs of new life filled her with indescribable yearnings for the changes yet to come. After living in a flat part of the country so many years, she couldn’t get enough of the Rockies and was a constant visitor to Cord’s mountain home.

When she heard her iPhone ring, she’d just taken a bite of peach yogurt. It was probably her brother making final arrangements for tomorrow. She clicked on and said hello.

“Hi, Kathryn. It’s Bonnie Frank.” The woman worked at North Avenues Hospital in the patient advocacy department funded by the McFarland Foundation.

“Hey, Bonnie. How are you?”

“Ask me tomorrow morning when I haven’t been on my feet all day.”

Kathryn chuckled. “I hear you.” She took some more bites. “What’s going on?”

“The E.R. just contacted me. A teenage runaway was admitted a few minutes ago after collapsing on a downtown street. Nancy Isom was the head nurse on duty and she couldn’t get any information from the girl, so she called my office asking for you. I know it’s dinnertime, but do you think you could drop by the hospital sometime this evening and interview this one? I’ve gotten absolutely nowhere with her.”

“I’ll come now.” The sooner she dealt with the problem, the sooner she could get to bed. A day of skiing gave her a real workout and needed to be fortified with a good night’s sleep.

“You’re an angel. I’ll let them know you’re on your way.”

Kathryn rang off before freshening up in the bathroom. After making sure she had a McFarland Foundation brochure in her purse, she put on her parka and left the condo.

The private elevator took her to the underground car park where the security guard waved to her. She got in her Jeep and took off for the hospital, located a mile away. She phoned her parents en route to see how their day had gone.

After all those years, when she’d wondered if she had a mother and father who were even alive, it seemed miraculous that Kathryn could call them up whenever she felt like it. She adored them.

THERE WAS ONE SLICE of pizza left in the pan. Colt glanced at Matt. “Do you want to wrestle for the last piece?”

He screwed up his face. “That’s all right, Dad. I want to live to see another day. You can have it.”

Colt laughed. “I liked that reversal you came up with before the ref blew the whistle. Good job.”

“Thanks.” Matt reached for the pizza, as Colt knew he would, and made short work of it.

The waitress came to refill their glasses, but Colt shook his head. After she walked away, he pulled out his wallet and left a couple of bills on the table. “Shall we?”

They both got to their feet at the same time and shrugged into their parkas before heading for the entrance to the pizza parlor. “Hey, Dad, want to see a movie?”

“Sure. With your sister gone, we’ll make it an official guys’ night out.” They walked into the frigid air. “What’s playing?”

“The latest vampire film.”

“I thought that was a chick flick,” he teased.

“It is, but Marcus was talking about it at the match. He said it was pretty good.”

“I guess I can stand it if you can. Allie can’t seem to get enough of the Twilight series.”

Two hours later Colt said, “Believe it or not, I liked it.”

“Me, too!” Matt blurted, eager to talk about it as they left the theater.

Halfway to the truck, parked around the corner, they heard, “Hi, Matt! Hi, Mr. Brenner! Where’s Allie?”

He glanced around, surprised to see Carrie and Michelle, two of Allie’s good friends. Colt would have thought they’d be at the sleepover, but evidently they hadn’t been invited. Allie had given him the impression it would be a big group. It appeared somebody must have hurt somebody else’s feelings. Diplomacy was called for.

“She made other plans. Did you two like the film?”

Michelle smiled. “We loved it.”

“Did you?” Carrie asked Matt.

“It was okay,” he answered in a quiet voice, hiding his enthusiasm.

Colt got a kick out of his son, who acted like a typical male around girls. At that age, shyness hadn’t been one of Colt’s problems. His ease around girls had probably facilitated his early marriage. Would that Matt took a little longer to grow up before he made a commitment that would change his life.

They reached the corner. “See you girls later. Don’t let any vampires bite you tonight.”

The girls broke into laughter. “Bye, Mr. Brenner.”

“Bye, Matt.” Carrie again.

His son said something indistinct before they parted company and headed for the truck.

On the way home he turned to Matt. “This morning on the bus, did your sister say anything about a quarrel with her friends?”

“No.” He darted him a curious glance. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I thought all Allie’s friends were going to be over at Jen’s tonight.”

Matt shrugged. “I don’t know, but she was kind of quiet on the bus.”

Her cold could account for that, but Colt still wasn’t reassured. An uneasiness had crept over him he couldn’t explain, but she’d hate it if he phoned her at Jen’s. No teenager liked to be checked up on at a party.

He rubbed his jaw where he could feel the beginnings of a beard. “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow after she gets home.”

“Dad?”

Did Matt know something after all? “Yes?”

“I think something’s wrong with Blackie’s hind leg.”

“He needs reshoeing,” Colt murmured, his mind still on his daughter. “In the morning we’ll get it taken care of before we load up more hay to take to the west pasture.” He drove up to the side of the ranch house and turned off the motor.

“After that, is it okay if I go skiing with Rich? We’ll buy a half-day pass.”

“Sounds fun.”

They both got out and walked around to the back. “You want to come with us?”

“I’d like to, but Noreen says the kitchen disposal is having problems. Since Ed’s arm is still in a cast, I promised I’d take a look at it. If it needs to be replaced, that could take some time.” For a variety of reasons, Colt wanted to be on hand when Allie got dropped off. “Let’s go skiing next Saturday. Maybe Rich’s dad will want to come, too.”

“I’ll ask him.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Colt followed him to the back porch. They stomped the snow off their cowboy boots before entering the house. Ten minutes later they both said good-night.

Colt checked with Noreen, who lived in the older house on the property with her husband, Ed, Colt’s ranch manager. Noreen hadn’t heard from Allie. Not that he expected her to call, but when he entered his study, he knew he wouldn’t sleep until he’d talked to his daughter.

Without hesitation, he called her cell phone. Her voice mail came on. He asked her to call him back when she could, then rang off.

Frustrated when another twenty minutes passed with no response, he looked up the Wagners’ number in the phone directory. Even though it was ten-thirty, he called them, but their voice mail came on, too. He left the message that he’d like Allie to call her father, then he hung up.

Maybe the Wagners had taken the girls to a movie or ice skating. The thought that they were all out together should have relieved him. Colt was probably obsessing for nothing, and yet …

His thoughts flew back ten years to the time when he’d gotten a strange foreboding about his grandmother. It had been early morning. Though he’d just arrived in the upper pasture with some of the hands, he turned right around and galloped home to discover his grandfather weeping over her body. “Her heart stopped beating a half hour ago, Colton. She’s gone.”

Unnerved by the memory, he decided he couldn’t sit around waiting for the phone to ring. He hurried down the hall and took the stairs two at a time to Matt’s room. His son was listening to his iPod.

When he saw him, he sat up in bed with a jerk. “Dad?”

“Get dressed and come with me to Jen’s house.”