6 Mountain Brothers for Christmas

“Well, welcome to town,” she said with a bright smile. “We hope to see you guys in here again sometime.”

“We’ll be back,” Sarah said with confidence. “We love pizza, and my daddy can’t really cook. And since he’s single—”

“That’s enough, Sarah,” I said, shooting her a warning look.

She shrugged and took another bite of her pizza. “Well, you can’t.”

The waitress just laughed again and hurried away from the table. I watched her go, knowing she would share our entire exchange with anyone who would listen.

When the kids finished their food, I paid and we left. As we pulled back into our driveway, our next-door neighbor walked into our yard. She smiled and waved, hurrying toward the car.

“Good evening!” she said when I stepped out. “I was hoping I would get to meet you tonight!”

“Hi,” I said, not bothering to return the smile.

She smiled even brighter. “I live right next door. I’m Nina Johnston.”

I just stood and stared at her.

“I’m Sarah, and this is my brother, Tommy,” Sarah said. “That’s my dad. His name is Sean,” she hooked her thumb toward me.

I was going to have to have a talk with her about talking to strangers and telling everyone our business.

Mrs. Johnston turned to look at the kids and her smile widened. She leaned down to shake each of their hands and whispered to them that she always had cake at her house. They giggled when she winked and told them not to tell me even though I was standing right there.

I observed her easy interaction with them. She was older, probably in her sixties and looked to be starved for company. She didn’t mention her husband, but she wore a ring on her left ring finger, so I assumed she was widowed. That surprisingly softened me a bit toward her. Though I was not in the mood to make friends, I could at least relate to the loneliness that came with our ill-fated states.

“She seems nice,” Tommy said as we climbed the front steps a few minutes later.

“I like her!” Sarah said with an enthusiastic nod.

I nodded and closed the front door behind us.

So far. So good.

CHAPTER TWO - EMILY

“Why does it have to be so damn hard to get a loan in this town?” I’d spent the first half hour of dinner venting to my best friend. It wasn’t like me to whine and I hated being a dark cloud, but I couldn’t help it today.

“It could have something to do with the fact that we’ve got less people here than I can count with my right hand.” Janie said as she wiggled the fingers in her right hand. “Options are limited, Em’. You’ll have to find some creative ways to get that daycare up and running. I believe in you, babe. You’ll make it work.”

Since graduating with my degree in child development, I’d been working my tail off to qualify for a loan to start the child care facility of my dreams. I grew up caring for children and loved it, but I grew tired of the mundane learning programs which hardly met the minimum requirements to keep a facility licensed, and most importantly, lacked the curriculum to keep children challenged or even engaged. While other facilities in the country were kicking ass, my town did a horrible job of encouraging centers to follow the same lead.

I personally experienced a crap load of difficulty in school due to my own battle with dyslexia. It was the worst. I remember the shame I felt over the years, not to mention the huge blow to my confidence. I only learned later in life that the disorder had no connection to one’s intellect. While learning disorders are all unique, there are proven ways to help children gain the skills they need to deal with a disorder early on.

“The bank’s loan officer told me that I didn’t have any business credit, but he said that if I could get a cosigner that could work. The only problem is I have no damn clue who that could be. Besides, I’m so deep in college bills, the only thing I can really focus on is finding a stable job until I can come back up for air. Anyway, enough about my boring life, tell me more about your date from hell.”

“Well his favorite thing to talk about was his car,” Janie said, rolling her eyes. “His car, Emily. I couldn’t even pretend to be interested. After he exhausted his job, his car, his high school football record, and the fact that he won the third-grade spelling bee, he finally asked about me.”

“What did he ask?” I took a sip of my drink.

“I don’t even remember,” Janie said. “We were already pulling into my driveway by that point.”

“You’re kidding?”

“God, I wish I was.” Janie rolled her eyes again and grabbed her beer off the table. She took a long swig and then set it back down with a shake of her head. “This was the worst date ever, Em. I’m telling you. It was just awful.”

“God,” I said, sitting back and taking a sip of my drink. “Do you think all the good guys are taken?”