Bring Me Home for Christmas

and Noah Kincaid came to help; Jo and Nick Fitch arrived. Next, she found Paul Haggerty in the bar, cheeks and nose pink and a big smile on his face, brushing snow off his hands and shoulders. “You’re plowed through to 36,” he announced. “Gimme some hot coffee and I’ll clear the rest of this street for you.”
    A while later, she stuck her head into the bar to see a few men she didn’t know laughing and warming up with coffee before getting back out into the weather. Then Jack and Preacher were there, carrying care boxes out to the truck. At almost noon, Denny arrived. He came right in the kitchen, all grins, and swept her up in his cold arms, burying his icy nose in her neck, causing her to eeek! loudly while he laughed.
    He set her free. “I’m going to start digging out the car and put chains on the tires. We’re going to have to try to get out of here, get south today. There’s more weather due tonight and if we don’t go now—”
    “I can’t,” she said instantly. “I’m busy. If I don’t cook for these people, who knows if they’ll have time to get a meal together!”
    “They’ll be fine, honey. Wrap it up and I’ll get you down to the apartment to pack up.”
    The phone rang and she automatically reached for it. “I think I have to take a chance on the weather,” she said. Then into the phone, she said, “Jack’s.”
    “Hey, Becca, it’s Jack. Get Mel to the phone, will you, sweetheart?”
    “Sure, hang on.” She crutched over to the swinging door. “Mel? Jack’s on the phone. He needs you.”
    She gave her attention back to Denny. “We might not get on the road exactly when we planned, but it doesn’t matter as long as we get on the road eventually. Right? What if there’s another heavy snowfall and Jillian needs you?”
    “I’ve got her squared away. She’s called in her troops to stand by if she needs them. Think about this, Becca, because you said you wanted to be home before Christmas. Christmas Eve is Friday.”
    “I bought a couple of presents before Thanksgiving, but other than those, I don’t have a thing,” she said, thinking aloud. “I don’t have anything for you and I’d like it to be a special Christmas.”
    He grinned. “You think it won’t be? You don’t need to put a bow on it, baby.”
    And then she heard Mel say, “Oh, for Pete’s sake, they should know better than to worry about money when something like this happens! I’ll get right out there.” There was a pause. “No, I’m not waiting for you to come and get me. Cameron and I will come together in the Hummer. Paige will mind the kids. Tell them to get the heat turned up, get the worst one in the steam and I’ll be right there.”
    Mel hung up and looked at Denny and Becca. “I’m on my way out to the Thicksons’. They have sick kids with coughs, sore throats and fevers. I hope they didn’t let it go too long.”
    “I’m going with you,” Becca said. “That’s little Megan’s house.”
    “You can’t, Becca,” Denny said. “You’re on crutches. If there’s a problem, like if Mel got stuck in the snow or something, you’d be a liability.”
    “He’s probably right, Becca,” Mel said while she dialed. She spoke quickly to Cameron Michaels, instructing him to pull the Hummer up to the bar so they could go to the Thicksons’ together.
    “Then you take me,” she said to Denny. “I need to go. I can’t leave without telling Megan goodbye, anyway. Please?”
    “We should get on the road…” he said again.
    Becca went to the pantry and pulled out cans of chicken soup. The supply must be something that Preacher kept on hand for the kids. She put six cans on the work island, then transferred them into a bag. She pushed the bag toward Denny. “We’ll get on the road in plenty of time. First things first. We have things to do.”
    Becca turned off the stove and preheating oven, slipped her bowl of shredded potatoes into the refrigerator and crutched her way out of the kitchen.
    “Denny,” she said over her shoulder. “Come on!”
    He followed, pulling his stocking cap back on his head. “Yes, sir!”

    Jack hung up the phone and looked at Lorraine. “Where’s Frank? We’ll go help him out.”
    “He went out to the shed quite a while back. He said he’d have to get the snow off the roof and bring in firewood.”
    “Let’s do it,” Jack said to Preacher. They pulled their hoods up and tromped out of the house, following footsteps through the deep snow