Chapter 11
When Leyton, Frank, and Florence arrived at her house, they walked in through the garage door and saw the Christmas tree down, the ornaments smashed.
“Not again,” Frank said, taking hold of Florence’s hand and squeezing it to comfort her.
Her heart and his were pounding with anger.
Leyton was on his phone with Dan right away. He put it on speakerphone and told him what had happened.
“Don’t search the house. Some of us will be there right away,” Dan said.
“Timothy or his brother has been here. Or both of them,” Leyton said.
Frank wanted to check the rest of the house to make sure no one was still inside. But after being put in the clinic the last time, he did what Dan told him to do.
Frank took pictures of the mess, but then he and Florence began cleaning up the broken ornaments.
Leyton ended the call and began helping them. “I guess we’re going to have to put someone on the house even when you’re not here.”
“We’ve got the new security videos up,” Florence suddenly said.
Frank had forgotten all about them.
They checked the videos and saw two men there, both with blond, curly hair and beards, stocky builds, and brown eyes, who looked like carbon copies of each other.
“Timothy and Manning,” Frank said. “So now we have confirmed that both are here.”
Dan arrived with Chase and Stryker. “Hell, what’s wrong with these bastards?” Dan asked.
“Timothy hates Christmas. Maybe his brother does too,” Frank said.
“Or maybe they’re just mad that they can’t reach Lacy, and they’re showing their frustration since I’d taken her in at first.” Florence put another broken ornament in the trash bag.
Shannon and Dan’s wife, Addison, showed up with ornaments to replace the ones on the tree as the guys righted it.
Only this time, they were beautiful, gold-embroidered balls with Styrofoam centers, gold acorns, wooden rocking horses with yarn tails and manes, and Victorian papered and shellacked balls with little gold ribbon ties. All were non-breakable.
Florence smiled. “What do I owe you?”
“Nothing. We’ve been gathering non-breakable ornaments since your last catastrophe,” Shannon said, “just in case it happened again.”
“Well, they’re beautiful.” Florence began hanging the new ornaments.
The ladies and Frank pitched in while the other guys searched the house and cleared it. Then they all watched the video of the two men.
“How did they get in this time?” Dan asked.
“I don’t know.” But then, as Florence was looking at the video again, she frowned. “They went through the front door. They must have used a lockpick.”
“You don’t have a key hidden out front?” Dan examined the door lock.
“No. I’ve never done that. You and a couple of others have keys to my house in the event of an emergency.”
“Whenever you’re both gone, we’ll need to put someone on the house then,” Dan said.
“Are we going to track them down?” Frank asked.
“Yeah.”
“I’m going too,” Florence said.
Shannon looked at Chase, her expression saying she didn’t think Florence should go.
Frank didn’t want Florence to go either. He wanted to, but he wanted to keep her safe even more. “I’m fine with staying here and protecting the tree.”
Florence smiled. “All right. I’ll stay here with you.”
“And me,” Addie said.
“I’ll be going home.” Shannon grabbed her purse to go.
“Thanks again for the beautiful ornaments. They’ll be perfect for when Lacy and Rory have kids,” Florence said.
Frank agreed.
Then Shannon hugged them and left.
The men all started their search outside while Frank and Florence started dinner. “Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches?” she asked.
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
“I can’t believe they were able to break into the house using a lockpick,” Florence said.
“I agree. Especially since they broke a second-story floor window the last time.” Frank brought out the bread.
Florence pulled the butter, cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, and ham out of the fridge. “Would you like one too, Addie?”
“No thanks. I’m going to have dinner with Dan once he returns.”
“Okay.” Florence buttered the bread slices, then put shredded cheese on one side of each, then coated the other slice with mayonnaise and mustard, and covered it with ham. Then she started cooking them.
Once the cheese started to melt, she flipped the ham side onto the cheese side to form the sandwich, then grilled it until both sides were browned.
She served them up while Frank poured mulled wine and added pickles and potato chips to each plate.
“Hmm, those look good,” Addie said.
“Are you sure you don’t want one?”
“No, really, I’m eating with the family when I leave here.”
They ate their meal and then cleaned up. Then they checked outside to see if they could spot any of the guys. There were all kinds of footprints in the snow. They couldn’t distinguish between Timothy and Manning’s boot prints and Dan and the others who came in after them.
They went back inside, had hot cocoa, and watched a movie with Addie until the men returned.
“They took off through the woods behind your home, Florence,” Dan said, hugging Addie, then kissing her on the cheek. “They finally reached a road and must have driven off. Which makes us believe they had two cars. We confiscated the one, but they’re still able to move about in another vehicle.”
“Unless they stole someone’s car,” Florence said.
Dan shook his head. “If they had, I’m sure it would have been reported.”
“True,” Florence agreed.
“I’ll stay the night,” Chase said.
“Nina will go with Mrs. Fitz to the shop tomorrow for protection. I’ll relieve her halfway through the day,” Addie said.
“Call me if you have any more trouble,” Dan said, and he and Addie left in the same car she’d arrived in.
Stryker told them goodnight and left.
Florence offered Chase a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and he ate it while she and Frank served up slices of pecan pie. Once Chase had eaten his sandwich, she cut him a slice of the pie as well.
“This is great,” Chase said. “I’m so sorry you’re having all these problems with the two men, and we can’t stop them.”
“We will.” Florence sounded sure of it.
“Is your coffee shop open tomorrow for Christmas Eve?” Frank asked.
Florence served them all some milk. “It is. We’ll close at five. Then we’ll drive to Hal’s ranch to spend Christmas Eve with Lacy and Rory.”
“I could pick you up from the shop,” Frank said.
“Sure, that would be great.”
“We’ll see who will be available to escort you to Hal’s ranch,” Chase said. “We’ll also have someone stay at the house for when you return.”
“That would be great.” Florence carried the empty plates into the kitchen.
Frank soon followed with their milk glasses.
They cleaned up the kitchen and then helped make Chase’s bed on the couch, though Florence told him he could stay in one of the guest rooms.
“I think I can be of more help if I’m downstairs, listening for anyone breaking in.”
“Okay,” Florence said, then she and Frank retired to the bedroom.
Frank wanted to go out and look for these men, figuring they were still nearby, but when Florence began removing his clothes, he smiled, and he had thoughts only of her.
Florence loved that Frank came with her to the coffee shop for breakfast in the morning and even helped in the kitchen.
He spilled flour and sugar on the floor, though he quickly cleaned it up, and burned a cheesecake while trying to figure out how to make a loaf of sourdough bread. But she loved that he was trying.
Sipping a peppermint mocha latte, Nina was sitting at one of the tables, watching for trouble while customers came in to purchase treats to go for their Christmas Eve dinners. A few came in for lattes and pastries for breakfast and were sitting at the tables nearby.
Finally, Frank left the kitchen, latte in hand, and joined Nina.
“Were you released from kitchen duty?” Nina asked.
In the kitchen, Florence smiled, overhearing the conversation with her cougar’s hearing.
Frank chuckled. “When Florence made me a latte and said I could take a break, I figured she and Ava didn’t need my help.”
Nina smiled.
Frank cleaned up after patrons left the coffee shop. He planned to stay for the day.
Florence asked, “Which dessert should we bring with us to the bunkhouse?”
“If it doesn’t sell, the chocolate cake with the Christmas tree and cougars on it? It’s big enough to share with the rest of the ranch hands.”
“Yeah, that will work.” She put it in a box and set it aside.
“You don’t want to see if you can sell it first?” Frank sounded surprised.
“Nope. It’s ours. Did you pick out which dessert you want to take home with you, Ava?”
“The cupcakes with the reindeer on them,” Ava said. “We’re having Nina and her family over for Christmas Eve, and that should be enough to satisfy everyone.”
“All right. I was going to ask Nina what she wanted to take home with her.”
“This will be enough. We don’t want the kids or our husbands getting a sugar high,” Ava said.
Florence laughed.
After they took turns eating lunch, they worked, Nina switching off with Addie for protection detail until closing.
Florence and Frank were already dressed in holiday sweaters and were ready to drive out to the ranch.
She locked the door. Deputy Sheriff Ricky was waiting for them, while Ava and Addie headed to their own homes for Christmas Eve dinner.
Ricky, Florence, and Frank drove to the ranch in two vehicles.
When they arrived at the ranch, Ricky returned home for his own dinner.
The ranch hands went to Stella and Ted’s home for their dinner, but they would have dessert with Rory, Lacy, Frank, and Florence.
The fire was going in the fireplace, and the Christmas lights were all on.
The aroma of rib-eye roast made Florence’s mouth water.
She didn’t know what Wyatt and Blaze were going to eat at Ted and Stella’s home, but they sure looked like they wanted to share some rib-eye before they left the bunkhouse.
“Everything smells delicious,” Frank said.