His Holiday Prayer by Tina Radcliffe

Author:Tina Radcliffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-09-11T19:44:49+00:00

* * *

Tucker sipped his coffee and glanced out the window. He couldn’t believe it. Snow. He’d been up late last night, unable to sleep after their busy and emotional Thanksgiving. At no time had the sky given any clue that it was about to deceive him.

Ginger padded into the kitchen, her red hair standing on end. She yawned and pointed to the back door. “Pugsie wants out, Daddy.”

She was right. Pugsley scratched and whined, his gaze moving from Tucker to the door. When he opened the door to let the dog out, a shower of snow flurries danced into the kitchen.

“Snow!” Ginger cried. Hazel was beside her in a moment. They snuck under his arm to stare at the winter wonderland their yard had become.

“I want snow,” Ginger said.

Tucker barely grabbed the back of her pajamas only a second before she was able to get out the door. “We can go outside in a little while. When we do, you have to put on a coat and hat and mittens and boots.”

He’d promised to shovel Jena’s walk if it snowed. That was a flash of genius on his part. Mrs. Stewart was off for the holiday weekend, so Hazel and Ginger would be his shoveling assistants. This was going to be challenging.

“Is Pugsie cold?” Hazel asked.

“Pugsley has a fur coat. He’ll come to the door when he’s cold and we’ll let him back in the house.” True to his word, one minute later the chubby pug scratched at the door, his little corkscrew tail shivering. He wanted no part of the snow.

“Girls, we’re going to visit Aunty Jena this morning.”

“Yay. Aunty Jena,” Hazel cried.

“I want breakfast,” Ginger said.

“Can we see the Jingle doggie?” Hazel asked.

Tucker had prominently displayed the poster of himself and Ernie on the refrigerator and the girls were excited to meet her.

“Yes. Jingle doggie,” Ginger added. “Pancakes first.”

He could only laugh. Food motivated, Ginger always had her priorities straight.

Two hours later, he glanced with dismay at the pile of dishes and the pancake batter spread across the counter. Cooking with four-year-olds, while rewarding, was very messy. How did it take so long to get from pancake mix to wiping syrup off their mouths? And why did the kitchen look like an F2 tornado had blown through the place?

“Can’t find boots,” Ginger called from the hallway.

“Be right there, sweetie.”

A moment later she was sobbing. “Can’t find boots, Daddee.”

Tucker grabbed her rubber boots from under the kitchen table where she’d left them and scooped the crying child up under his arm like a football. He headed to their bedroom.

“Hazel, where are you?”

“In the bafroom, Daddy.”

“Do you need help?”

“No, Daddy. Hazel is a big girl.”

An hour later, they were bundled into their snowsuits and in the cab of the truck in their car seats. The snow had begun to fall again, a gentle sprinkle of flakes as they drove past the main ranch house and out the gates of Rebel Ranch toward town.

He parked at the curb outside Jena’s house so they’d have full access to shoveling her driveway.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.