The Long-Awaited Christmas Wish by Melissa Senate

Author:Melissa Senate
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mills & Boon Heart
Published: 2020-09-24T00:06:32+00:00

Chapter Nine

The next morning, Noah and Axel stood on ladders on either side of the Dawson Family Guest Ranch Christmas Fair banner, waiting for Rex to determine if it was hanging straight. The fifteen-foot silver poles the banner hung from had been flanking the start of the path to the ranch, just past the gates, for fifty years, and though their dad had crashed into one pole drunk in a buggy one night, it was so sturdy it stayed put. Rex knew Noah had always thought that was a good omen for the ranch itself.

“Noah, up about an eighth of an inch and we’re golden,” Rex called.

The ranch was now all set for the festivities, a one-day extravaganza for the guests to stop at tables set up along the paths and in the lodge with holiday crafts to make and Christmas cookies to eat and eggnog and spiced cider to drink. Noah and Sara and their crew had decked out the ranch just enough so that it positively twinkled but still felt rustic. There would be stations set up in the Kid Zone to make ornaments and small gifts, free-flowing eggnog and spiced sugar cookies, and candy canes galore. And Rex would be playing Santa for the day in the red-and-green “hut” that he, Noah and Axel had built by the Christmas tree in the hallway of the lodge. He had no idea what that would be like, a lot of kids whispering in his ear about what they wanted for Christmas. What if they didn’t get what they asked for? He’d feel terrible. Not that he’d know.

He still felt stung on Maisey’s behalf, though. She hadn’t gotten her Christmas wish and then had stopped making wishes altogether.

Noah and Axel climbed down, shaking him from his thoughts, and headed to the barn to put away the ladders. A silver pickup came up the asphalt path, which was weird since it was barely seven in the morning and cars weren’t allowed on the drives past the gate. Rex squinted to see who it was in the bright morning sunshine.

The driver gave a short honk and stuck his head out the window. “Hey, stranger.”

Rex grinned. His brother Ford. And was that Zeke in the passenger seat?

Ford parked by Daisy’s house and he hopped out, followed by, yup, Zeke, just as Noah and Axel were coming back from the barn.

“I was talking to Zeke a couple nights ago and we both realized our Christmas vacations were starting this morning,” Ford said when they approached, “so we decided to drive up together. We have way too many presents for everyone, especially the kids.”

Rex hadn’t seen these two brothers in a few months, but not a thing had changed—both still looked exactly like who they were. Ford, a cop, wore aviator sunglasses, had short dark hair and always seemed ready to help in any situation. Zeke, a businessman in mergers and acquisitions, might as well have been wearing a suit for how pristine his button-down shirt and dark jeans were, not a mark on his leather boots.

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