Her Christmas Family Wish Read online

  By the time the class left, Wyatt was glad to share the coffee and snacks Sophie offered. Clearly much recovered, she was baking Christmas goodies. Tanner stayed to talk to her while Wyatt and Ellie went to the patio for their coffee break.

  “That boy you were working with. Albert? Did you notice the marks on his arms?” Ellie sat, her troubled tone drawing Wyatt’s attention. “When he bent to treat his horse’s hooves, his shirt bagged, and I saw bruises all over his chest. And he winced when one of the other kids slung their arm over his shoulder.”

  Tears filled her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. Her pain clenched his insides.

  “Ellie!” he exclaimed. “What’s wrong?”

  “Those marks—I’ve seen them before. Lots of times in the pediatric wards.” She bit her bottom lip. “Albert avoided answering my questions about how he got those marks. He said he’s fine, his home life is fine. Everything is fine.”

  “You don’t believe him?”

  She shook her head. “I think Albert is being abused.” She looked as though the words had been pulled from her lips, her face heart-wrenchingly sad.

  “Did you tell Tanner?”

  She sniffed, then nodded.

  “And?”

  “He said I should call his social worker and ask her to investigate. So I did.” Ellie burst into fresh tears. “It’s horrible to think about, isn’t it? That sweet, gentle kid being used as someone’s punching bag. I hated these cases when I worked pediatrics.”

  Unable to bear seeing this caring woman so broken up, Wyatt moved to sit beside her and drew her into his arms.

  “It’s okay,” he soothed. “You did the right thing. Now things will get better for him. They’ll investigate, find the truth and move Albert somewhere safe,” he said, trying to comfort her. But Ellie slowly shook her head from side to side. “It won’t get better for him?”

  “It doesn’t always. Adults in these situations can be devious.” She drew away. Funny how empty his arms felt without her in them. “You don’t believe me, but I’ve heard it before. Trust me, the story will be something like this, ‘Albert needed discipline and struggled when we tried to get him to obey, so we had to restrain him.’ It’s always a variation like that.”

  “And you’re worried?” he guessed.

  “Wyatt, I saw the marks at the back of his neck. I’m positive they were bruises from thumb prints.” Her voice lowered. “There is no good explanation for that. What if they hurt him more seriously?”

  “The social worker’s been warned,” he said as he tried to put it all together. “She’ll be on the lookout now.”

  “I may have made it worse by reporting it.” Her face whitened even more.

  “Ellie, you had to. Given your suspicions you couldn’t have done nothing. Could you?” He brushed her silky curls off her face to peer into her eyes. Slowly she shook her head.

  “No. I had to tell.”

  “So now there’s nothing more you can do.” Some tiny glimmer in her eyes made Wyatt add, “Is there?”

  “I don’t know.” She didn’t look at him, stared instead at her hands clenched in her lap. “Maybe.”

  “What do you mean?” Wyatt had a hunch he wasn’t going to like this.

  “Albert’s group is scheduled to return twice more this week, Wednesday and Friday.” Ellie’s shoulders went back. “I’m going to keep a close eye on him, and if I see further signs of abuse, I—”

  “What?” Dread tiptoed up his back. “What are you thinking?”

  “I might visit him at home.” She stared directly into his eyes, her resolve firm.

  “Ellie,” he warned, his admiration for her rivaling his concern. “You can’t just waltz—”

  “Mommy doesn’t know how to waltz, do you, Mommy?” Gracie stood behind them. When they twisted to face her, she frowned. “Did you make my mommy cry?” she demanded of Wyatt, her gaze frosty.

  “No!” Wyatt didn’t get a chance to explain.

  “Of course he didn’t. And you know it’s rude to eavesdrop, Gracie.” Ellie rose, straightened her shirt and brushed a hand across her cheeks. “I was just sad about something, and Wyatt was—er, helping me feel better.”

  “You know, that’s exactly what I was going to tell her.” Sophie stood in the doorway of the house, a big grin spread across her face. She winked at Wyatt, then said, “Gracie, honey, I saw you get off the bus. Beth will be here soon. Do you want to come and taste one of my star cookies while you wait?”

  “Sure.” Gracie dropped her backpack and loped toward Sophie.

  “I’d better get back to work. I need to clean my office,” Ellie said, speaking quickly as if she was embarrassed by Sophie’s teasing.

  “Yeah, that kid who cut his hand on the curry brush made a mess waving all over the place.” Wyatt grinned. “I never knew anyone could cut their hand on a curry brush.”

  “He did seem a little accident-prone, didn’t he?”

  “Maybe that’s what happened to this Albert kid?” he suggested.

  “I have no doubt that someone will suggest that,” she said quietly.

  “Promise me something, Ellie.” If you couldn’t beat the Grant women, you could only join them. Wyatt exhaled. “If you do decide to go to this Albert’s place, will you let me know, so I can go with you?”

  “You? Why?” She looked stunned.

  “Because I don’t want you to walk into a situation where you could get hurt,” he said gruffly.

  “You think his relatives would try to hurt me?” Clearly that hadn’t occurred to her.

  “That’s the thing. You don’t know. Neither do I. If it’s as bad as you think, anything could happen.” He held her gaze. “So you’ll tell me, right? And we’ll go together.”

  She studied him for a long time before she finally nodded. A smile lifted her lips. “Thank you, Wyatt.”

  “You’re welcome. Now I’ve got to get home.” He turned and almost tripped over Gracie who was crunching on a cookie with vivid red icing spread across her face.

  “Can I go with you?” she asked, her mouth full.

  “What? Why?” Gracie’s sudden reappearance left Wyatt feeling slightly off-kilter.

  “To help with the owl, remember?” She licked her lips and rubbed her messy hands on her jeans. “And I want to see that old billy goat with the bad leg. An’…”

  She trailed away on a nonstop sentence that included almost every animal on his ranch.

  “I can’t go there today, Gracie,” Ellie said. “Tanner wants to talk to me.”

  “I want to talk to Wyatt, too.” Tanner stepped up to them and smiled at Gracie. “Beth’s bus is here. Can you play with her while I talk to your mom?”

  “’Kay.” She pinned Wyatt with a warning look. “I want to see the owl,” she said firmly, then left.

  “You know, Tanner, you and Gracie need to stop creeping up on people,” Wyatt complained when she’d left. “It makes me nervous.”

  “Must be your guilty conscience.” Tanner sniggered at the menacing look Wyatt shot him. “I had a phone call today from your favorite organization, Ellie.”

  “Make-A-Wish Arizona? So they did call.” She grinned, then explained to Wyatt. “They’re a group I volunteer with. They’ve been trying to arrange Christmas wishes for some of their terminally sick kids.”

  “Ellie suggested Wranglers Ranch could help with that.” Tanner scratched his chin. “They want to bring four children the day before Christmas Eve.”

  “Why do you need me?” Wyatt asked.

  “Because these specific children probably can’t ride our horses as other kids do. Of course, there’ll be attendants for them, all that kind of thing,” Tanner explained. “But apparently they’ll need modifications and adaptations, and I’d like your input. They also want assurances that someone will be on hand to guarantee the horses are safe and that Ellie’s here to deal with any potential incident.”

  “Understandably, they are very big on safety.” Ellie said.


  Tanner nodded. “I really want to do this. If Wranglers Ranch can bring some Christmas joy to children who are fighting for their lives, then we ought to do it.”

  “So…?” Wyatt glanced from him to Ellie, noting that the shadows were gone, and her gray eyes now sparkled with anticipation.

  “Wyatt, I want to hire you for the next two and a half weeks to work with five specific animals that the children may ride,” Tanner said. “I don’t want even a risk of a problem with my animals, because if this works out, I’d like to do it more often.”

  “We can get their doctors’ suggestions as to what’s needed, because some kids will need adaptations of the saddles.” Ellie’s earnest voice begged Wyatt to agree. “We’ll have to make sure everything complies if we’re going to make this Christmas special for them.”

  “I also want some contacts from you, Wyatt.” Tanner pulled out a notepad and pen. “I loved the way Wranglers Ranch added to Gracie’s birthday party. I’d like to try and re-create it for two other ‘Wish’ kids who may visit.” He paused, then lifted an eyebrow. “So, what do you say? Can you give us the time?”

  Should he? Wyatt knew he needed to distance himself from the lovely Ellie, not spend more time with her. But he couldn’t say no to suffering kids. What were a couple of weeks of his time? If it were Cade…

  “I’m in,” he promised.

  “Good. We’ll start preparations tomorrow.” Tanner tapped his pen. “Now, what’s the phone number of that clown you hired for Gracie’s party? He was great.”

  Wyatt answered, but his attention wasn’t on Tanner, it was on Ellie. She worked with young kids in Sunday school. She worked with troubled kids and school groups, and now she’d be there for sick kids who came here to Wranglers Ranch. She was determined to go out of her way for this kid named Albert whom she’d only met once. She’d cared for Cade, and she also had a daughter who needed her. Ellie gave and she gave and she gave.

  For all of those reasons, and a hundred more that he wasn’t going to enumerate right now, Wyatt really liked this woman. And he was determined to keep his promise to be here to help with the Make-A-Wish kids.

  But then you’ll have to back away, because you don’t keep your promises. You haven’t even kept the one you made your dad ten years ago. Do not let this woman or her precocious daughter get under your skin, because you will disappoint her, just as you disappointed Taryn.

  Later, as Wyatt drove home with Gracie singing to Cade about owls, he caught himself anticipating dinner with Ellie, and he wondered if that mental warning hadn’t come just a bit too late.

  Chapter Eight

  “I feel sorry for him.” Two evenings later Ellie felt like she’d lost her Christmas spirit.

  Wyatt sat at his kitchen table beside Gracie who was cutting out Christmas cookies for her gifts. It had been so decent of him to offer her his kitchen with its double ovens to work in. Ellie knew she should be happy that Gracie’s cookie list was getting finished and yet…

  “You feel sorry for who?”

  “Albert. He didn’t look much better today, did he?” Ellie plopped three silver candy beads down the front of a gingerbread boy. “I wonder if it’s my fault.”

  “Did you do something bad, Mommy?” Gracie frowned at the star she’d mashed.

  “I’m not sure yet.” Ellie wished she hadn’t mentioned it with little ears listening. “Can I help you, honey?” When her daughter nodded, Ellie took the cutter from her hand, reformed the last bits of dough and quickly pressed out the star.

  “It will look pretty with this blue sugar on it,” Gracie said.

  “Very nice,” Ellie approved. “Now we’re finished for tonight, so you go wash up. Quietly because, remember, Cade’s sleeping. As soon as these are baked, we need to get you home to bed, too.”

  Gracie did an exaggerated tiptoe to the bathroom, making Wyatt smile.

  “She didn’t argue. She must be tired.” Ellie moved quickly to clean up and then started the dishwasher. “Thank you so much for letting Gracie help you with the animals and for allowing me to use your house as my workshop,” she said over one shoulder as she removed two more cookie sheets from the oven. “This baking is going a lot faster than I ever imagined.”

  “How many more batches do you need?” Wyatt asked, snitching one of the cookies for a taste test.

  “Maybe three more.” She grinned at his surprised face. “Gracie’s list is huge.”

  “But—”

  “I know it’s overkill,” Ellie defended. “But I want to encourage her giving spirit. I like that she’s thought about these kids, thought about how many of them might not receive much for Christmas, especially something homemade. She’s trying, in her way, to make it special for them. I don’t want to crush that.”

  “And Albert?” Wyatt arched one eyebrow when she didn’t immediately respond.

  “I’m wondering if my speaking up made his life worse.” She took a sip of the coffee she’d made earlier. “I’m going to visit his home.”

  “Ellie, I don’t think—” Wyatt stopped speaking when Gracie returned. A muscle in his jaw flickered, but all he said was, “When?”

  “Maybe on the weekend.” She slid the cooled cookies into a big tin she’d brought and snapped on the lid. “Sweetheart, do you think you can put this tin inside the cooler I left on the doorstep?”

  “Sure.” Holding the tin as if it was pure gold, Gracie walked out of the room.

  “I’m not keen on kids who’ve been in trouble with the law spending time at Wranglers,” Wyatt muttered. “Seems like they get off too easily.”

  “Tanner’s programs are for troubled kids, not necessarily those mandated to attend by the courts.” Ellie frowned. “You’re thinking of the boy who was involved in Taryn’s accident, aren’t you?” She could see from his expression that she’d guessed right. “What do you know about him?”

  “Not much.” His tone was sour. “I never heard any details in the press, but then again, he was a juvenile.”

  “You were burying Taryn and busy with Cade. I doubt you had much time to watch the news for details,” she soothed.

  “At the time I didn’t think much about it.” He crunched hard on the rest of his cookie. “A police officer said there was a group of kids who’d been driving illegally and mentioned the driver’s name once. Ted. That’s all I know about him.”

  “Ah, that’s who Ted is,” she murmured.

  “You know him?” Wyatt asked in surprise.

  “No.” Ellie wondered if she should have said anything. But Wyatt’s stare had to be answered. “You spoke of him when you were sick. I think you must have been dreaming.”

  “About the night Taryn died.” He stared at his hands. “It happens sometimes.” Then his voice dropped. “Probably because I can’t get rid of my guilt. Or the anger toward this Ted for what he did.”

  “If you’re still dreaming about him, the anger is eating at you.” She sensed the anger had festered since the accident. “I’m sorry for you, Wyatt. But I also feel sorry for him. It must be horrible to carry such a burden. Can’t you free yourself by forgiving him?”

  “No,” he refused in a hard tone.

  “It’s not my business, and maybe you think I should be quiet, but I have to say this. Christians are commanded to forgive. I think it’s mostly so we don’t harbor ill will that eats at us.” She studied him with a troubled look. “Besides, God has forgiven us for so much. How can we not forgive others? Sooner or later you have to let it go, Wyatt.”

  “He has to pay,” Wyatt insisted in an irritated voice. “We all do.”

  “Maybe. But when will Ted, or you,” she added, “have paid enough?”

  Wyatt got suddenly quiet, so she forced a smile at Gracie who had returned. “Gather up your coloring things and put them in your backpack. These are the last pans. We just have to wait for them to cool a bit, then we’ll head home.”

  Ellie noticed Gracie covertly studying Wyatt as she packed her things. After a time
her daughter asked, “What are you getting Cade for Christmas?”

  “Gracie, that’s—”

  “I don’t know.” Wyatt looked at her warily. “Why?”

  “’Cause I know the perfect thing.” Gracie grinned. “Cade would love a puppy.”

  “I see. Why do you think that, Gracie?” Wyatt lifted her onto his knee. “Is that what you want for Christmas?”

  His tender voice brought a lump to Ellie’s throat, which grew when Gracie cupped a hand on his cheek and shook her head.

  “You don’t like puppies?” Wyatt asked.

  “I love ’em.” Gracie’s fervor was hard to miss.

  “But a puppy isn’t what you want for Christmas?” Wyatt pressed.

  Gracie shook her head. After a sideways look at Ellie, she leaned close to Wyatt and whispered in his ear. Ellie didn’t have to hear a word to know what she said. Her guess was confirmed by Wyatt’s heartfelt sigh of resignation.

  Ellie sighed, too, but silently. She packaged the rest of the cookies in a box. Clearly it was time, past time, to leave.

  “Thank you very much for lending us your kitchen, Wyatt.” She held the box under one arm and stretched her other hand out to Gracie. “Time to go, sweetie.”

  Gracie flung her arms around Wyatt’s neck and squeezed hard. Ellie could hardly breathe when her daughter tilted her head and flickered her eyelashes against his cheek.

  “That’s a butterfly kiss,” she said with a giggle, then she slid off his knee.

  “Thank you, Gracie.” He walked them to the door and said, “Good night,” in a soft voice. His thoughtful gaze slid from her to Ellie. “Sweet dreams,” he murmured.

  Ellie fluttered a hand, unable to say anything in the intimacy of the moonlight. She was too aware of Wyatt standing on the step, watching as she drove away.