Blurb
James Thibodeaux
lived under the controlling manipulations of his family until the day he nearly
died in a Colorado blizzard from a foolish mistake. Mail Carrier Maddie Laramie
was made a Christmas widow only a month after her marriage. Struggling to raise
her son alone, she never expected to rescue someone on the anniversary of the
day she had been saved, and she never expected to be able to feel the want to
love again. Christmas is bringing these two together but can James free himself
to return to her.
Excerpt
“Welcome
back, are you hungry or thirsty? Does your leg hurt?”
“Thirsty…
Who are you?” James stared at the honey-haired beauty in an oversized
sweatshirt. He blinked at her then murmured, “I think I know you.”
“I’m
Maddie, I found you on my way back down the mountain. I brought you here
because your car blocked the road.” She helped him to raise up and held a cup
to his lips. “The blizzard trapped us for the night and maybe longer, but the
Sheriff knows you are here and is going to try to bring an ambulance as soon as
the road is clear.”
“Uhm, is
there anyone else awake? Where’s Frank?”
“He went to
sleep.” She looked at him as he squirmed. “Are you okay?”
“I… Uhm… I
need Frank. I need his help,” James insisted as he blinked past the malaise of the
painkillers.
“He’s
asleep, what do you need?”
“Where’s
the other guy?”
“Larry is
also asleep. What do you need?” Maddie demanded, starting to get irritated.
Crying out
in pain as he shifted the walking boot on his leg, he panted for a moment then
shouted, “Frank, Larry!”
“Stop it.”
Maddie put her hand over his mouth and hissed at him, “What is wrong with you?”
“Just get
them,” he demanded. “Hurry.”
“Not until
you tell me what you want,” she used the same tone she did on Jaren Junior when
he was having a fit.
“I have to
go to the bathroom,” he admitted with embarrassment.
“There’s a
urinal bottle…”
“Not that
number. Number two.” His blush crept up his pale cheeks and Maddie couldn’t
stop her giggle.
She slapped
her hand over her mouth, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh… It’s… It’s just
you sounded exactly like my son for a moment… I’ll help you.”
“You can’t
lift me,” James objected.
“I dragged
you halfway down the mountain and loaded you into Bessie. I can get you a dozen
steps to the bathroom and back.” Maddie pulled off the oversized sweatshirt,
and tossed it in her chair, then carefully swung his legs off. “Only put your
weight on your good leg and let me carry the other side.”
He put his
arm over her shoulder. He knew he was about to be more embarrassed than he had
been in his whole life, but he couldn’t wait. Surprisingly, the petite woman
was as strong as she claimed. She helped him into the bathroom and when he turned
around in front of the toilet, she hooked a finger in the elastic of his boxer briefs.
“What are
you doing?” James demanded, stopping her.
“I’m trying
to get into your pants,” Maddie snickered, then added in a calmer voice,
“Seriously, I’m just trying to help you pull them down, so you don’t poop
them.”
“I can do it…
just wait outside,” James insisted as he held to the sink.
“Okay, but
if you fall and wedge yourself between the toilet and the tub, you’re staying
there until Elder Grayhawk wakes up.” Maddie stepped out the door but only
partly closed it as she flipped on the fan and light. “I’ll be right here.”
Sitting
down carefully, James banged his foot in the walking boot and gritted his teeth
not to shout profanities. He pushed the door the rest of the way shut. As he
sat on the cold toilet seat, he tried not to think about the beautiful woman
outside the door. Then he realized that he couldn’t do it and groaned. His mind
raced for a solution as he began to feel nauseous.
“Maddie,
could you go make me some toast? My stomach is upset.”
“Can’t poop
with me by the door, can ya? You are just like my preschooler. Would it help if
I promised to make you a smiley face pancake if you poop?” Maddie teased as she
giggled until her eyes were watering.
“Please go
away,” James answered in such a defeated tone Maddie almost felt sorry for him.
“Fine, I’ll
go make breakfast… Do your business and knock on the wall. I’ll be back to get
you back to bed.” Shaking her head, Maddie headed to the kitchen.
Unable to
decide if fatigue or stress was the thing making her silly, Maddie kept
giggling as she quickly pulled out the ingredients to make pancakes. All the
Sundays spent cleaning for Elder and Mrs. Grayhawk, meant she didn’t need to
search. In less than five minutes, she started pancakes cooking. Looking at the
mason jar of chocolate chips, Maddie decided she had to do it, and she poured a
handful out. Dropping the chips onto the second pancake in the shape of a
smiley face, she wiped her mirth-spawned tears as she laughed. In less than ten
minutes, she had a tray made. Looking at the smiley face on the pancake, she
felt mischievously happy for the first time in years.
“I really
am an evil person.” Maddie snickered to herself as she carried the food down
the hall.
Setting the
tray down, it was only a few minutes before he flushed the toilet twice before the
water ran in the sink, then he knocked tentatively on the wall.
“Are you
done?” Maddie asked from the other side of the door.
James
didn’t want her to come back in but the momentary foolishness of putting weight
on his broken leg as he pulled up his underwear almost made him faint, and he
did not want to do it again. “Yes, thank you.” This was worse than boarding
school.
She opened
the door and came in, helping him back to bed and carefully lifting his foot. She
placed pillows behind him, and he noticed the sparkle of a simple wedding band
on a chain around her neck. She set a tray across his lap. He frowned in confusion
as he noticed a pattern on the top of the pancake.
“Oops, let
me turn that frown upside down.” Grinning, she turned the plate and he realized
it was a smiley face.
“Wow,
really?”
“Aww, don’t
you like smiley pancakes? I promised you I’d make them if you pooped like a big
boy,” Maddie reminded in her best patronizing mom-voice, “Mommy’s so proud of
you.”
He began
cutting the pancakes and trying to ignore her as she sat down.
“So, why
the whole…” She waved her hand at the closed bathroom door.
“Don’t you
have boundaries?” James asked in annoyance.
“Evidently
not. Probably because I spend too much time alone delivering the mail with no
one to talk to but Bessie.” Maddie shrugged putting her chin in her palm, with
her elbow on the arm of the chair she sat in. “Well, what makes a grown man act
like my four-and-a-half-year-old?”
James poked
another bite of the fluffiest homemade pancakes he’d ever eaten in his mouth
and refused to answer her amused blue eyes. After he swallowed, he gulped some
black coffee, then asked, “Does your husband mind you not wearing your wedding
ring because you’re so funny?”
Maddie’s
spine went rigid as her mirth drowned in a deluge of ice water grief. “Five
years and two days ago, I became a Christmas widow.” She stood up and walked
out as the cold feeling the kept her company since Jaren’s death returned,
chilling her like the blizzard outside.
It took a moment for James to process what she
said, then he groaned and rubbed his forehead, muttering, “Way to charm the
ladies, James the jock.”
Finishing
the delicious pancakes, he managed to put the tray in the chair, then he took
the additional pain pill Mr. Grayhawk put on the bedside table. He wanted to
cry after he twisted his broken leg slightly trying to scoot into a more
reclined position. Finally settled, he laid there and watched the snow coming
down in diagonal lines as the malaise of the medication leeched his
consciousness away.
*~*~*
Maddie came
in quietly and picked up his lunch tray. James was asleep facing the window. The
blizzard had stalled over the mountains and was still trying to bury the world,
but the wind was starting to slack. Balancing the tray on one arm, she reached
up to tug the curtains closed on the glaring white as the sun tried to push
through the waning storm.
“Boarding
school.”
“Excuse
me?” Maddie turned.
“Don’t
close the curtains. I like the view.” James pushed himself up on one elbow. “Grandmére
Charliese sent me away to boarding school. I kept running away and going back
to Ybor, then I ended up in Tennessee. The other boys grew up in rich families…
They weren’t very nice to me, despite my mother’s family name and money,
because I wasn’t one of them. They liked to haze me when they caught me in the
bathroom.”
“I’ve never
heard of Ybor… Why didn’t your family stop her?” Maddie asked as she pushed the
curtains wider so he could see the view when the storm finally cleared.
“Ybor is
the Cuban district in Tampa… After my parents died, only Grandpapa cared about
me before his death, then my Cuban grandmother passed... My cousins all hated
me. I wasn’t… I wasn’t one of them.”
“I’m so
sorry.” Her sympathy was real, he could feel it and see it in her eyes. “Is
that why you said there was no one to call, that they didn’t care?”
“Yes.
Boarding School sucked but it got me away from them.” Suddenly, a patch of blue
appeared beyond her shoulder, and he realized the winter sky was the same color
as her eyes.
“James?
Hello, James?” Maddie called his name.
“Uhh, what?”
He realized he had been staring at her, the patch of blue sky was gone.
“You zoned
out completely. I asked where you went to college.”
“Tulane, I
got a Master’s in Business with a minor in Real Estate Development. You?”
“I dropped
out of Western State after Jaren Junior was born.” She touched the ring on the
chain around her neck then sighed. “Do you need anything else?”
He shook
his head, watching her start to leave, he didn’t want her to go. She was the
most genuine person he’d met in a long time. “Who’s Bessie?” He blurted out,
trying to get her to stay for a moment more.
Maddie
grinned. “She’s my trusty old Jeep. I ran her out of gas trying to get you back
here, I owe her a full tank and a bottle of fuel additive.” Maddie winked at
his dismayed look, “I think she loves you; she usually stalls and refuses to
move whenever she drops below an eighth of a tank, but she kept going to the
last drop for you. I never suspected she had a thing for foolhardy city
slickers. I might have to do an intervention.”
He blinked.
“I’m so high on whatever Mr. Grayhawk gave me that I can’t tell if you’re
serious or crazy?”
“I prefer
crazy over serious, serious is no fun.” Maddie laughed at his confused look as
she walked out.
