Aimee Thurlo - Homespun Christmas

“You sound like Grandma Medeiros,” Joshua said. Daniel’s grandmother.

“Her words exactly.” He reached for his jacket and fished out the keys to his truck. “I’d better get going. I’ve got to help her close up the store.”

Joshua set his beer on the side table. “Your grandma’s still working? She’s got to be...what? Close to eighty, if I figure it right.”

“Seventy-seven, and she still works a forty-hour week to supplement her social security. I can’t get her to slow down. I swear she’s got more energy than I do.”

Joshua walked Daniel to his truck, which was parked behind the rental in the driveway. “Feel free to come by anytime, Dan. It was good to shoot the bull with you again.”

After his old friend drove off, Joshua wandered to the woodworking shed he and his dad had built—a concession to the workshop/garage that remained a faded drawing in his dad’s file cabinet.

Memories crowded in around him as he looked up at his own first project, a small sign that hung over the doorway. He’d used a woodburning set to carve out the words Adam and Joshua Nez in a piece of scrap pine.

He stepped inside and turned on the shop light. As a cloud of dust settled, his gaze fell on the yellowed designs tacked to the wall. The one in the corner was his own scale drawing for a treadle spinning wheel he’d worked at in secret for nearly six months. He’d wanted to give it to Myka for graduation, but he’d run out of materials and it had remained unfinished by the time he’d left for college.

He glanced around for the wheel, wondering if his dad had kept it. Adam almost never threw things like that out, so chances were it was still here someplace, maybe taken apart and stored in a box. Perhaps now, with everything in the world just a mouse click away, he could get the flyer assembly and bearings he needed on the internet.

Out of curiosity, he decided to look inside the big storage cabinets first, but to open them, he’d need to find the keys to the padlocks. All he’d found so far was the key to the shed itself.

He was rummaging through the workbench drawers when he heard a soft knock behind him.

Myka stood there, holding something. “I don’t mean to intrude, Josh. I know you’re busy.”

“Come in. It’s been a long time since I’ve set foot inside this workshop, and I’m trying to remember where everything is.”

“Your dad said you spent the night here once.”

“Yeah, I fell asleep waiting for some varnish to dry,” he said, chuckling. He’d been working on her spinning wheel.

She looked up at the spinning wheel design tacked to the wall. “Cool. Was that one of your dad’s projects?”

“Something like that,” he said but didn’t elaborate. She was standing in the place where he’d first fantasized about kissing her.

“Life was so much simpler when we were kids, wasn’t it?” she mused. “I sometimes wish we could turn back time.”

“I can’t say I do. I don’t care much for the kid I used to be,” he said, admiring the way she looked in the glow of the overhead light.

“Any sign of Bear yet?” she asked.

“The only animals I’ve spotted are lizards and a bunch of daddy longlegs spiders on Dad’s shelves,” he said. “I kept Bear’s dog bed and dishes, though. You’ll need those if he shows up again.”

“Thanks. I just wish he’d come back.”

“He found his way here once before,” he said.

“That sounds like something your dad would say.”

He nodded. “Navajo teach that everything is connected and forms a pattern. We all have a place within that, the dog included.”

She avoided his gaze, stepping outside. “He can jump the fence or dig under, so if it’s okay, I’ll be walking around the back of your property from time to time looking for Bear.”

“You don’t need permission, Myka. You’re always welcome.”

“Thanks.” She reached into her pocket. “There’s something I should return to you. Your dad gave me his extra set of house and truck keys when you went off to college.” She tossed them to him through the open door.

He caught them with one hand. As he did, he saw the inscribed cedar stick attached to the key ring. “I made this for Dad in eighth grade shop. I didn’t realize he still had it.”

“You were his son. He was proud of you. You could have chosen a career as a sheepherder and he would have bragged about you to his friends.”

“I just wish—” He stopped and turned away, staring at the drawings on the wall. She was too easy to talk to.

“I know it’s hard for you to be here, Joshua. I think what you really need is a distraction. I’ve got the perfect idea.”

CHAPTER THREE

MYKA HAD JUST finished getting dressed for the meeting when she heard a knock on the door. Thinking it would be Joshua, she finished dabbing on some lipstick and answered it.

Tanner’s sister, Betty, stood at the threshold with her daughter, six-year-old Evelyn, beside her.

“Aunt Myka! You look so pretty,” Evie said, reaching up to give her a hug.

Myka bent down to hold her close. “Thanks, sweetie.” Evie was such a terrific kid. With golden locks and the face of an angel, she could charm her way into anyone’s heart.

“I hope you don’t mind my dropping by unannounced, Myka. I know about the meeting tonight, but I was out running errands and I needed to ask you a favor.”

Betty, her sister-in-law, was a stunning blonde with vibrant blue eyes. “Need me to babysit this week?” Myka asked, guessing at the request.

“No, but I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help. You’ve been a real lifesaver. Shameless that I am, I need to ask you a different favor.”

“Come in and have a seat.”

“Aunt Myka, do you have any cookies?”

“Evie!” Betty said.

Myka laughed. “They’re in the cookie jar in the kitchen. Take as many as you like.”

“No, just two, do you hear me Evelyn?” Betty said.

“Three! Mom, please?”

“They’re small,” Myka said softly. “And I bake a supply of chocolate chip cookies mostly for her. Come on, let me spoil her.”

Betty smiled. “Okay, three,” she told Evie.

As Evie hurried off, Betty focused on Myka once again. “I have a question for you about the inn.”

“You don’t have to clear anything with me, Betty. I may own a third of it, but it’s your baby.”

“I know that restoring the place sounds nuts, Myka, but all the inn needs is some TLC to start attracting paying guests again. Come hunting season, we’ll have lots of people looking for lodging or a base camp. I want to be ready, but I’ve run into a snag.” She lowered her voice and in a barely audible whisper, added, “Tony’s out of prison.”

Betty’s husband had almost destroyed her, physically and mentally. He’d been convicted of assault and battery against a former employer. “Is he still refusing to give you a divorce?”

“Yeah, and I don’t want him to find out about the inn.”

Myka’s face hardened. “You inherited a stake in the inn, not him. He has no legal claim whatsoever.”

“Legalities won’t matter to him, and the fear of prison obviously hasn’t stopped him in the past. If he decides I’m trying to cheat him, he’ll make trouble, and he can do a lot of damage when he’s angry.”

“Did you know he was trouble back in high school?”

“I guess, but whenever I was with Tony, I felt...invincible. Being Tony’s girl meant no one ever gave me a hard time.”

“It’s hard to believe how wrong things went,” Myka said.

“After Evie was born everything fell apart. He lost his job and started drinking when he couldn’t find another. His rages...” She shuddered.