Her Mistletoe Protector

After a few minutes, he heard her disengage the lock and open the door. “Did you find anything?” she asked.

“Just a deer bed in back of the cabin,” he said cheerfully. He closed the door and relocked it. “Not only does that prove that deer are close by, but also that they’ve felt safe enough to make a bed here.”

Rachel’s smile was strained as she nodded and glanced over at her son, who was burrowed into a corner of the sofa. “Did you hear that, Joey? There’s a deer bed behind the cabin.”

“What kind of bed?” Joey asked, a puzzled frown furrowing his brow.

“Deer like to sleep in tall grass. Not only is the grass soft, but it also keeps the deer hidden during the day. In the early-evening hours they get up and move through the trees, looking for something to eat.”

“What do they eat?” Joey asked.

“Speaking of eating, how about I heat up our supper?” Rachel suggested, heading over to the kitchen area.

He crossed over to sit beside Joey. “White-tailed deer are vegetarian, meaning they eat grass, leaves and berries. In the winter, when there aren’t as many leaves, they eat the bark off the trees.” He remembered his uncle Wally explaining that culling the herd of deer by hunting them in season was better than letting them starve to death. Logically he agreed, but that didn’t make it any easier to kill the beautiful, graceful animals.

Joey continued to ask questions and he patiently answered them, figuring that the more they talked, the more the child would be able to relax and feel safe.

“Dinner’s ready,” Rachel called a few minutes later. Joey crawled out from his spot on the sofa to cross over to the kitchen table. Nick threw another log on the fire and then joined them.

He clasped his hands together and bowed his head. “Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing us food and shelter tonight, and we ask that You continue to watch over us, keeping us safe from harm. Amen.”

“Amen,” Rachel echoed.

After a brief moment, Joey, too, said, “Amen.”

Nick lifted his head and smiled at them both. “Thanks for praying with me. And this looks great, Rachel, I appreciate you cooking dinner.”

“All I did was heat up the beef stew in a pot on the electric burner,” she protested. “I don’t think that counts as cooking.”

“It does in my book,” he said. The hearty beef stew hit the spot and Rachel and Joey must have been hungry too, because between the three of them, they finished every bite.

“I’ll clean up,” he said, carrying his and Joey’s empty bowls over to the sink.

Rachel looked as if she might protest but then must have decided to take the opportunity to spend time with her son. He heard them exploring the cabin, although since it wasn’t very big, it didn’t take them long. Rachel brought a quilt with her from the back bedroom and covered them with it as they sat on the sofa, staring into the fire.

Seeing Rachel snuggled up next to Joey filled him with bittersweet longing. If he were alone, he’d probably think about Becky, but right now, he found himself captivated by the way the light from the fire flickered over Rachel’s hair.

Washing the dishes didn’t take long, and when he finished he pulled out the computer and tried to find the wireless signal that he’d used the last time he was here. Sure enough, the signal was weak but available, as it still wasn’t password protected.

He searched for information on Dr. Karl Errol since he still thought that Josie Gardner’s suicide wasn’t just a coincidence. He soon discovered that Dr. Karl Errol had attended Johns Hopkins to earn his doctorate and had worked for a large international pharmaceutical company before coming to work for Rachel.

Sitting back in the chair, he tried to figure out why a highly respected research scientist from Johns Hopkins had left a large pharmaceutical corporation to work for Simon Inc.

“Joey’s asleep,” Rachel said, interrupting his thoughts. She came over to the table, pulled up a chair next to him and sat down. “You should let me take a look at your arm.”

Nick grimaced and then nodded reluctantly. He worked his arm out of the sweatshirt sleeve while she jumped up and heated up water on the two-burner stove.

The angle was too awkward for him to see the extent of the injury and he was glad it didn’t throb as much as it had at first. Rachel came over with the first-aid kit they’d brought in from the car, along with a small pan of hot water.

“This might hurt,” she warned as she picked up a soft cloth and began cleaning the wound.