Christmas Country (Days of Christmas: Season 2)
Chapter 1
Kinsey
“On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…five golden rings!”
My voice cracks as I struggle to keep the car on the road with the huge wind gusts from the storm. It’s been so long since I drove in the middle of a Colorado snowstorm and my hands are throttling the steering wheel like I’ve got a personal ax to grind with it.
My eyes search the mirror to see if my son and daughter are as terrified as I am but honestly?
They look like they’re having the time of their lives.
My eight-year-old daughter, Katy, is laughing like a wild thing as she belts out the words to our favorite Christmas song.
Everybody tells me that her gray eyes are the spitting image of mine, which she hates to hear, of course!
Her red curls tangle just as easily in a tiny breeze.
Just like mine. She’s a pistol. A holy terror that loves to bounce on the heels of her tennis shoes because she can barely stand still.
At my age, I’ve figured out that being still sometimes feels pretty damn good.
On the other hand, my son is listlessly singing along with his sister when she smacks him to remind him that he’s supposed to be participating with her. With me as well.
“On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me…nine ladies dancing, eight maids ‘a milking…”
Squinting out the windshield, I can barely make out shapes in the whirling snowfall.
We got held up by the kids’ stops every hour or so to go to the bathroom or begging for food.
At thirteen, my son is a lanky boy with overgrown blond hair just like his surfer father. Unlike his father, he’s got my gray eyes and paler skin. He’s also so serious sometimes that it’s hard to believe that he’s still a kid.
Currently, his nose is stuck in the middle of a book and he’s holding a portable light to read by. Except for when Katy smacks him.
“Hey, stop hitting me, Katy! I don’t want to sing. I’m tired.” His lips twist and he jerks away from her as far as his seatbelt will allow in my little SUV.
“Come on, Will! I can’t wait to see the tree farm where mom grew up.”
“I don’t know why we had to come back here. Dad can’t come to Colorado at the drop of a hat.”
My shoulders slump. Of course he’s upset with me. He loves his dad. Worships him really.
Unfortunately, Jeremy doesn’t act the same way. He’s too wrapped up in his new girlfriend. He seems to find it too easy to forget that he has children since his new girlfriend is basically a child herself.
Twenty years younger than us at twenty years old, he’s endlessly fascinated by his new child bride. To the extent that he doesn’t have any interest in his ex-wife that he dumped for her or his two children.
“I’m sure that your dad will be able to come see you.
” It’s not like the man is hurting for money.
He’s got a good job at the firm we both worked for.
Until I got the short end of the shaft in the divorce.
Because it’s his family’s company which meant no matter what I was going to be heading out the door since I’m an inconvenient problem in their little bubble right now.
“Does it always snow like this here, Mom?” Katy’s voice sounds a little strained. A little wobbly and I pull myself up sharply. Maybe I’m not being as upbeat as I think I am.
“Yeah. Winter is a lot different around here than it is in California. We have real seasons in Colorado, kiddo.”
“I know that, Mom,” she huffs. “But this seems really bad.”
“It’s alright.” I squint through the windshield again and then squeak when something dark and big runs in front of my car.
Both kids scream as I whip the steering wheel. The world spins by in a streaming, swirling wall of white and then the car finally comes to rest in the middle of the road.
Shaking, I lean my forehead into the steering wheel and close my eyes, breathing quick and fast, praying under my breath.
“Are we alright, Mom?” Will’s worried voice asks me quietly.
Shivering, I sit up and wipe my streaming eyes. Clearing my throat, I smile and turn to them. Two pairs of worried gray eyes stare back at me in the dim light of the dashboard.
“We are just fine. Probably just a big deer. But it’s gone now. And the car’s fine so we’ll just restart the car and continue on until we get to Christmas Country.”
“Yay!” Both of them cheer and hoot, obviously happy and relieved.
The exact opposite of me right now.
My shaking hand reaches out and I pull the gear shift back into drive, inching forward.
But that’s not what happens. The car sputters and dies almost immediately and terror spikes through me. I turn the key again and again but this time there’s nothing. Just a clicking noise that has tears welling in my eyes again.
Finally, I stop turning the key and sit back, already feeling the cold seeping into my bones and filling the car.
“What’s going on, Mom?” A soft voice from the back seat makes me sit up and straighten my spine.
I can’t fall apart. I’ve got two other people depending on me. Two special little people that don’t need to see their mother losing her mind and weeping like a damsel in distress.
“Right,” I mutter under my breath, pulling out my phone and checking it, heart sinking even lower when I see that I have no bars. This far up the mountain, it’s not that big a shock but still…I had hope.
That hope is sinking like a stone in a lake.
“It’s alright, guys. We just need to wait a little bit. I’m sure help will be by soon.”
“Do a lot of people come this way?” My son always has to ask the practical questions, dammit.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I know some of the people that live up here and they’re always around. We shouldn’t be out here too long.”
I’m lying through my teeth. But what else am I supposed to do?
I can’t tell them that the car won’t start, we’re stuck in the middle of a blizzard on the mountain where I grew up and we’re not going to get help anytime soon.
Unfortunately, I know the truth and we are royally screwed. Merry Christmas to me.