How Nick and Holly Wrecked...Saved Christmas by Carla Rossi

Author:Carla Rossi [Rossi, Carla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: christian Fiction
ISBN: 9781611163438
Publisher: Pelican Book Group
Published: 2013-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

Day Four—Further Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Nick pulls the truck off the highway and heads along the narrow dirt road toward the animal shelter. The building comes into view across a cold, snow-dotted field. He drives up to the low metal farm gate. It’s closed and locked with a heavy chain.

“I don’t think they’re open.”

“What?” I lean forward and stare at the gate as if something will change. “It’s only three o’clock. The website says they’re open ‘til four-thirty today.”

“I don’t know, Holly, but I don’t see any cars. It looks locked up tight.”

“How can that be?”

“We can come back tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. They’re not here on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.”

“There’s a sign on the post,” Nick says. “I’ll check it out.”

He kills the engine and hops out. I do, too.

A plastic pouch hangs from the edge of the gate, whipping in the bitter wind.

Nick holds it steady and reads. “Due to circumstances beyond our control, the shelter has closed early for the holidays. Please call the number below in case of an emergency. We are sorry for any inconvenience blah, blah, blah... Sorry, Holly.”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” I shout and stomp down the fence line. Frozen ground crunches under my feet and the wind whistles at my back as it carries the scent of snow to my nose. “I should have trusted my own instincts and hitched a ride down here days ago. Me and Granny could have spent this time getting her kitten settled, but no. Noooooooo... Now we’re kittenless at Christmas.”

Nick pulls his gloves out of his pocket and pops his collar up around his neck. “This wind is brutal. There’s snow coming.”

“I know. I smelled it a second ago. Oh, wait! I smelled it! That means my nose is almost totally well. I smelled the snow coming without even trying.”

“Congratulations. Can we get back in the truck now before our noses freeze and fall off?”

I lean on the gate. Christmas is just over there. I can’t reach it.

“C’mon, Holly. Let’s go get the food and the litter and the other things you wanted. Maybe you can wrap it all up and give it to her and then the two of you can come back after Christmas and get the cat.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Nick comes around to help me with the stubborn door.

“Wait,” he says and stops. “Did you hear that?”

“What? I hear wind, a dog barking, maybe a big truck on the main road—”

“That.” He jogs back to the fence and walks farther down until he’s directly across the field from the front door of the shelter. “Listen.”

I stumble to his side and pull my scarf from around my ears. “I don’t hear anything—”

“Shhhh!”

“Don’t shush me!”

“Sorry. That!”

I hear the faint cry of a cat’s meow, carried on the wind.

“Look,” Nick says and kneels at the fence. “There’s a box under that bench by the front door. I bet there’s a cat in there.” He pulls out his phone and takes a picture. “Someone has dumped a cat at the shelter door.

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