Just like Scrooge in the Christmas play the high school drama class put on every year, Hip saw Christmas Future and didn't like it one damn bit.
Old Coots was a hermit, a lifelong bachelor with no family and a tendency to be mean.
Hip worried he'd get mean, too, living alone for the rest of his life. And who could blame him? He didn't feel mean yet, but it was only a matter of time. One morning he'd wake up, look at himself in the mirror and snarl.
After delivering the box of food supplies, along with a fleece sweater and new gloves, to a silent and suspicious old man, "I Did It My Way" blasting at ear-splitting levels, Hip trudged through the snow where the beautiful Sarah sat waiting for him.
Waiting for him.
That had a nice ring to it.
Even if it was only for the afternoon.
Back inside the warm truck, he looked over the list. "Five to go, all of them with kids."
"Do the presents match the children?"
"What?" He backed down the long road, unwilling to risk getting stuck at Coots' house for any length of time.
"Boy, girl? Age?"
"Meg and Lucia would have thought of that," he assured Sarah.
"Meg is the one who has a café and Lucia bakes cookies. Who else donated food?"
"There's a bake sale every December to help the food bank. And there's a toy drive. A woman named Aurora collects toys at the bar."
"I think I saw her on TV. Does she have red hair? And she sings karaoke?"
"No, that was someone else. Aurora owns the only bar in town. And she plays the violin. She wouldn't have wanted to be on the show." An understatement of epic proportions.
"So, why weren't you?"
"Why wasn't I what?"
"On the show."
He shrugged. I struggled with PTSD. I missed the Army. I drank too much. I wasn't fit to love anyone. Or for anyone to love me.
How could he share that with a stranger, even one that made him long to take her in his arms and protect her from icy roads, northern winds and an ex-husband who broke her heart?
"I'm sorry, it's none of my business," Sarah said after his long silence.
He blew out the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.
YOU ARE READING
The Santa Man
RomansaHip Porterman always expected he'd have the wife, the kids and the white picket fence. But that was before the Army and the PTSD, before falling in love skipped him over and left him a recovering drunk and Willing, Montana's go-to guy when somebody...
