Daddy's Christmas Miracle: Santa in a Stetson

Allie stared at her out of pained brown eyes. “We’ve never met her.”

An unseen hand squeezed Kathryn’s heart. Never?

“Dad met her in Las Vegas when he was a big rodeo champion on the circuit, but they broke up after Matt and I were born. Dad thought she might have gone back to her aunt and uncle’s in Salt Lake where she was raised, but he never saw or heard from her again.”

“Allie …” Kathryn reached out and rocked her in her arms.

“At least when your family found you, you knew your mother loved you,” Allie sobbed.

At least I knew that …

“All my friends have moms except me. Dad can’t talk about it and Matt won’t talk about it.”

“So you decided to find your mother’s aunt and uncle and talk to them.” It made too much sense.

“Yes. Dad said they managed the Beehive Motel near the airport. I was going to take a taxi there, but then I got sick and that guy stole my purse with my money. I was hoping you’d stay through Thanksgiving and help me. Maybe phone them and talk to them for me since you do things like that all the time. Even if they don’t know where she is, maybe they’ll tell you something that would help and we could find my mom together. I just need to ask her why she didn’t want me and Matt.”

Good heavens. Kathryn slowly let go of her. From here on out, she had to be careful what she said to this fragile girl.

“The thing is,” Allie added, “I don’t want Dad to know.”

“What don’t you want me to know?” Colt’s deep voice said.

Kathryn felt his commanding presence before she saw him walk around the other side of the bed. Allie flashed her a silent message of pleading not to give her away.

“About the present I’m getting you for your birthday next week.”

Allie’s explanation sounded convincing enough, but Kathryn knew her father didn’t believe it for an instant.

“My lips are sealed,” Kathryn said to Colt with a playful smile.

“That makes two against one,” he teased back without challenging Allie, but his light tone didn’t reach his eyes. “I guess I’m going to have to settle for being surprised.”

The tension emanating from him made it impossible to stay in the room. “If you two will excuse me, I’m going downstairs to work on that puzzle.” Father and daughter needed to be alone. She eyed Allie. “I’ll be up in an hour to take your vitals before you go to sleep.”

“Okay.”

COLT HATED SECRETS. He was glad Katy had chosen to leave the room because he had a few things to say to his daughter in private. After sitting down on the bed next to her, he grasped the hand closest to him. “Your hair looks pretty.”

“She brushed it for me.”

“Ms. McFarland appears to be an excellent nurse who no doubt will be in high demand for the coming holiday.”

“You’re wrong about that, Dad.”

It looked as if they were going to talk about their guest whether he wanted to or not. “In what way?”

“She doesn’t have another patient to take care of on Thanksgiving.”

“In other words, she’s willing to make herself at home here and at your aunt’s, even though she thinks you’ll be well enough to be up and around by tomorrow?”

His daughter studied him with a speculative expression. “You don’t trust her, do you?” She removed her hand.

Her question jolted him. “We both owe her a debt of gratitude. Why can’t you let it go at that?”

Allie didn’t look away. “You act like she’s taking advantage of us or something.”

He breathed in deeply. “Let’s put it this way. Even if the patient advocacy program provides this service, she’s done something unprecedented by bringing you home. It’s possible that now she’s had a good look around, Ms. McFarland is a shrewd enough woman to play on your emotions hoping to extend her stay and see where it all leads.”

Her eyes never left his. “I knew that was why you didn’t like her, but Katy’s not looking for a rich husband,” she assured him.

He eyed her with incredulity. “Why would you say something like that?”

“I happened to overhear Michelle’s mom on the phone to one of her friends. She said that with your looks and money, you would always be a woman magnet and that’s probably why you haven’t remarried yet.”

Somehow when Colt wasn’t watching, Allie had become an adult. His precocious fifteen-year-old daughter had thrown the gloves away. He didn’t know her like this. “Allie—”

“I’ll prove that you’re wrong about Katy.”

To his surprise she slid out the other side of the bed and walked to her closet. He saw her pull something out of her parka pocket. She scuttled back under the covers and handed him a brochure, of all things. “Here, Dad. Read this.”

Colt had no idea what he thought he was going to see when he looked down at it. The picture staring back at him resembled the woman downstairs. He read the words beneath it.

Kathryn McFarland, lost for twenty-six years, has been FOUND!

McFarland … Suddenly it all came rushing back to him. The famous Utah kidnapping case involving the Copper King’s family, whose wealth rivaled that of the Vanderbilts and the Carnegies.

He jumped to his feet.

Four years earlier there’d been breaking news on every television and radio station in America about the baby daughter stolen from four-time U.S. Senator Reed McFarland and his wife. After twenty-six years, she’d been found and was now back with her family.

Some newscasters had said the case was bigger, yet gruesomely similar to the Lindbergh kidnapping back in 1932 when the baby was stolen out of their home, but the McFarlands’ story had a happy ending.

Katy was that Kathryn?

He stared at the picture again.

“That’s the photo the FBI first released to the press. It was taken while she was still living at Skwars Farm.”

Colt thought she looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Four years had wrought changes. She had a longer hairstyle now and a polish lacking in the photograph, but the facial features and beautiful bone structure couldn’t be denied. When he tore his eyes from her picture, he read the information from front to back.

“That brochure only tells you about the foundation, Dad. Besides running it, you ought to hear all the other things she and her family do to help people.”

For the next few minutes, he listened while Allie proceeded to enlighten him on the extraordinary way she’d carried on with her life since being reunited with her family. Each new revelation made him more shameful of his cynicism.

The McFarlands had lived through the horror of waking up to find their baby missing from her crib. Colt’s panic when he’d first learned Allie had gone off and no one knew where she was had given him a small taste of their terror.

He reflected on Ms. McFarland’s phone call to him and could only praise her for the calm way she’d let Colt know Allie was all right. That was because she knew how to talk to frantic parents.