The Christmas Rescue

She grasped him tightly around the waist, burying her face against his chest. “Yes,” she said in a muffled voice. “Thanks for coming.”

“You couldn’t have kept me away,” he assured her. Holding her close was sheer heaven. He would have been happy to stay like this all day, but of course, she pulled away when Brianna and Clyde bounded out of the house, followed more slowly by an elegant-looking older woman with silver hair. He recognized her as Kayla’s mother-in-law, Ellen Wilson, whom he’d met earlier that year when he and Alex had insisted on putting Kayla’s security system in place.

“Mr. Rafe!” Brianna heedlessly flung herself at him and he sucked in a quick breath and caught her before she could get hurt. He lifted her into his arms as the dog barked excitedly at his feet. “You forgot to say goodbye,” she accused, looking him directly in the eye.

“I did?” He frowned, distracted by her accusation. He cast his mind backward in time, wondering what she meant.

“The night we had pizza.” Brianna’s green eyes were full of reproach. “You didn’t say goodbye.”

“I’m sorry, mi nina,” he murmured. “You’re right, I guess I forgot.” He glanced at Kayla who watched their interaction with a worried frown.

“Brianna, I explained how Mr. Rafe needed to get back to work,” Kayla said, walking back to the house. Still carrying Brianna, he followed on her heels. “Remember? He works all different times of the day and night.”

He wasn’t used to anyone making excuses for him. In fact, he hadn’t even considered the idea that Brianna would notice he’d left without saying goodbye. He could see by Kayla’s guarded expression that he’d inadvertently hurt her daughter.

It was clear she was worried her daughter might be growing too attached to him. And could he blame her? Brianna was at a vulnerable age. He took a deep breath and tried to collect his thoughts. Brianna was a great kid, but he wasn’t ready to be a father again.

Not when he’d failed so miserably last time.

He hadn’t been able to save his infant son’s life. To have another child dependent on him was inconceivable. The very thought shook him to the core. No, having a family was not an option.

“Next time,” he promised, quickly setting Brianna back on her feet and closing the front door behind him.

“Rafe, you remember my mother-in-law, Ellen, don’t you?” Kayla said, belatedly reintroducing them.

He cleared his throat and nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Nice to see you again.”

“Nice to see you, too,” Ellen said, although her expression was guarded and he wondered if Kayla’s mother-in-law viewed him as some sort of threat. As if he was trying to replace Jeremy in Kayla’s heart. He was tempted to reassure her he’d only come to offer protection, not to start something he had no intention of finishing.

They all walked into the house and Kayla reengaged the security system once they were safely inside.

“Come on, Brianna, we need to finish making Christmas cookies,” Ellen said, as if sensing the two adults needed to talk alone.

“Cool!” Brianna raced toward the kitchen, but then paused to glance back at him. “Don’t leave without saying goodbye,” she reminded him.

“I won’t,” he promised. He turned toward Kayla. “Tell me about the break-in. What happened?”

Kayla walked over to the sofa in front of the great room fireplace. He froze. She’d put up Christmas decorations. The brightly lit tree in the corner of the room reminded him of his early years with Angela. She’d loved Christmas.

Now there was only a black hole in his heart.

He took a seat across from Kayla, trying to shut out the memories.

“I had two couples staying here last night,” Kayla began. “In fact, they were supposed to stay for the weekend. At four in the morning, one of the women screamed, waking everyone up. She claimed a man’s face was pressed up against the patio door in her room. We called the police and the deputy found deep gouges in the wood near the door handle where the burglar must have tried to jimmy the lock in his attempt to get in.”

“Why didn’t you set the alarm on the security system?” Rafe asked.

“Because I don’t want my guests to think the alarm is necessary. Business is slow enough without insinuating this place isn’t perfectly safe. And besides, it would be too easy for one of the guests to trigger the alarm. All they’d have to do is to open a patio door to let some air in. I refuse to impose restrictions on my guests.”

She was right. He didn’t like it, but she was right. He remembered she’d argued this point fiercely when Alex insisted on putting the system in.

“I just don’t understand. Why would anyone try to rob me? Everyone knows I don’t have a lot of money or jewelry or anything else of value.”

“I agree, it doesn’t make sense,” Rafe admitted.

Kayla worried her lower lip between her teeth and he wished there was some way to reassure her he’d keep her safe. “I keep coming back to that strange guest I had, Greg Landrum. He rented a room from me last weekend.”

He raised a brow curiously. She hadn’t mentioned the guy when they spoke the other day. “Why was he strange?”

She lifted her shoulder. “Little things about him were odd. Like he claimed he had come to hike, but his hiking boots were brand-new and gave him blisters. He didn’t have warm winter outdoor gear, either. I heard him making noise in his room in the middle of the night, and when I asked him about it the next morning, he claimed he had trouble sleeping.”

“What did he look like?” Rafe asked.

“I don’t know, in his mid-thirties maybe, with dishwater-blond hair. He had weasly eyes.”

Weasly eyes? “Was that what bothered you? His eyes?”

She frowned. “Maybe. Clyde didn’t like him, either. He barked and growled at him all the time. I guess the strangest thing of all was that I saw him down at the lakefront the day Brianna and I found the body.” She looked troubled as she gazed at him. “Rafe, do you think it’s possible he’s targeted me for some reason?”

Greg Landrum. Would be worth putting his name through their database to see what popped. “Maybe, but again, it doesn’t make sense that he would come back after he’d already been a guest here. He would know there weren’t a lot of valuables here, wouldn’t he?”

Unless he was looking for something that only had value to him. But what?

“Yes, you’re right.” She gave a dejected sigh. “Maybe the deputy was right, that this was nothing more than a random attempt. I don’t live in town, but it’s possible someone saw the article in the paper and figured I had something here worth stealing.”

“Article?” he echoed sharply. “What article?”

She grimaced. “I did an interview for the Green Bay Gazette about two weeks ago. The editor is a friend of Ellen’s and did the interview as a favor.”

He hadn’t seen the article and her theory was plausible. He wanted to link everything back to Schroeder, but he could be overreacting. It was possible her break-in had been a random attack. “Do you have a copy?”

“I have several,” she responded dryly. “Everyone in town saved one for me. I’ll be right back.”

He watched her disappear into the kitchen, returning a few moments later with the folded newspaper in hand. Must have been some favor, or a really slow news day, because her picture was plastered on the front page of the lifestyle section. Kayla looked beautiful, her smile a little sad, as she stood in the kitchen. He noticed there was another glossy picture on the wall behind her in the photo. This one showed Kayla and her husband standing down at the marina in front of a charter fishing boat. He scanned the article. It briefly mentioned Kayla’s husband, Jeremy, had finished building the B and B in the months before he died. But otherwise, the article was all about Kayla and her renowned breakfast pastries.

“Nice article,” he murmured. Broaching the subject of her dead husband for the first time, he raised his gaze to meet hers. “I’m sorry for your loss, Kayla.”

“Thank you.”

He knew it wasn’t really any of his business, but he couldn’t help adding, “I know what it’s like to lose someone you love. I don’t think I would have been able to cope if not for my faith. God’s strength and love helped me through the grief.”

“Your faith?” Her gaze darted to the cross he always wore around his neck, a gift from his mother after his wife and unborn child had died. “Now you sound like Alex and Shelby. Alex has changed a lot since meeting Shelby. And he seems very happy.”

“Does that surprise you?”

She flushed again and glanced away. “A little. But in a good way. He’s a better person now that he’s met Shelby. They’ve invited me to attend church with them, but weekends tend to be my busiest time. At least, when I actually have guests,” she amended.

“I understand. When I’m out on the water and attending service isn’t an option, I just find a few minutes of quiet time to pray or maybe read my Bible.”