A Mountain Man for Christmas by Deja Voss

Author:Deja Voss [Voss, Deja]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Colton:

“Call her, Dad,” Kimber says as she pours the milk over her cereal. I haven’t even got a cup of coffee in me yet, and I’m dragging. It’s 5 a.m. and Kimber is all riled up, ready to decorate the house, while I’m still trying to figure out why I’m awake right now.

“No,” I tell her. Usually I am an early riser, you have to be in my line of work, but I was kind of looking forward to a couple extra hours of sleep today. Taking it easy. For the first time in my life, I’m actually wishing she was a teenager just because I know how much they like to sleep in. “At least wait for the sun to come up. She’s probably still sleeping.”

I know Willa says she wants in on this, on us, but no sane person is going to want to drag themselves out of bed to chop down a tree in the pitch-dark and freezing cold.

“How about we untangle these Christmas lights while Dad watches the news and drinks his coffee,” I suggest, pushing the cardboard box towards her.

“Fine, but we have to put our sweaters on.”

Billy takes off running at the mention of sweater. He’s a smart dog, and last night he was less than thrilled when she tried to play dress up with him. I don’t blame the guy.

“Kimber, I love everything about your enthusiasm,” I tell her, “but those sweaters are itchy as heck, and if I’m gonna be up on the icy roof putting lights up, I don’t need to be scratching unless you want to take me to the hospital later when I fall and break my neck.”

She laughs. “The snow is soft. You’ll be ok.”

I ruffle her hair and sit next to her at the island, grabbing a string of lights. I don’t know why I don’t take the time to roll them up neatly, but taking decorations down is depressing to me. It means I won’t see Kimber again until Easter. I’d rather just get it over with and shove them away in the attic.

By the time the sun has come up, we have all the decorations laid out and ready to go.

Billy runs to the window, his tail wagging furiously. I look out, and here comes Willa. She’s on her skis, a backpack on her back and a giant tote bag hanging from her arm. She’s wearing that ugly green sweater, with her hair up in a ponytail.

I slip on my boots and run outside to help her. Kimber stands in the doorway in her pajamas.

“You’re up early,” I say to her, grabbing the bag from her arm.

“I got your text. Sorry, I slept in a little bit.”

“Kimber!” I scold her.

“You told me not to call her, Dad. I figured a text wouldn’t wake her up if she was still asleep.”

“I should’ve guessed you wouldn’t be using Santa Claus and smiley heart emojis,” she laughs. “It’s too early for my brain to function. Are we

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.