Merry & Bright: A Christmas Anthology (Nocturne Falls Universe) Read online

  “Right,” she said firmly. “I promise we’ll follow all the rules. And I hope one day you’ll come to Alienn and check it out.”

  “You never know.” Based on his expression, Stella figured it would take an extraordinary reason.

  “In the meantime, we are simply tourists from the Midwest.”

  “Well, that’s good to hear. I knew you’d purchased a place. I just didn’t realize you were going to be part-time residents so soon.”

  Stella frowned. “Didn’t you get the invitation to our holiday party and open house in two days?”

  Hank flicked an unreadable look at Draeken. “It’s possible,” he said. “The truth is, Ivy usually handles stuff like that. I’m certain she’ll let me know at the right time and guide me to exactly where I’m supposed to go.”

  “All good wives do,” Draeken said, and then dodged the elbow Stella shot toward his ribs.

  “Well, so that you will know, too, we are throwing a party at our new little vacation house two days before Christmas. I promise there will be people you know,” Stella added. “Anyway, I hope you and your whole family can come at least to have some spiced apple cider or hot chocolate. There may even be some Arkansas moonshine floating around if you’d like to try a shot. Kids are invited, but no moonshine for them.”

  “Good plan.”

  “However, no babysitters are needed unless you want one.”

  “I’m certain we can stop by, at least until the baby needs a nap.”

  Stella clapped her gloved hands, mission accomplished. “Great. We will see you then.”

  “Merry Christmas.”

  “Merry Christmas,” she and Draeken chimed and continued down the street.

  Chapter Two

  Real Christmas trees were still for sale on the open plot of land at the end of Main Street. It looked like business had been good, as only a dozen or so trees remained. Not a huge selection, but it would have to do.

  Draeken, who always saw things from a completely different perspective, said, “Wow. There must be twelve or more trees here. You have lots of choices. See? You were worried for nothing.”

  Stella smiled at him. She hadn’t been on Earth for very long in the grand scheme of things, but she felt so much like she belonged it was easy to take the planet’s lushness for granted. Draeken had much sharper memories of Alpha-Prime’s arid landscape, where even small, sparse trees were a rarity—hence his admiration for what Stella considered a meager selection. Even so, she quickly found one she loved.

  The tree was less than seven feet tall. It wasn’t a stubby little bush or misshapen. Not too wide, not too skinny, it was just right for their first tree. Stella had a special ornament hidden in her bag to put on this perfect tree for their very first Christmas together. She’d ordered it online and brought it along for this special trip.

  She had another, much bigger surprise for Draeken that she couldn’t wait to reveal. It wasn’t easy to take him off guard—his clever mind had a way of winkling out almost any information he desired—but she was determined. She hoped her revelation would make him happy. He’d given up quite a lot to move to Earth and she appreciated it. She wanted him to know how much.

  Stella walked around the lot three more times to ensure the very first tree she saw was the right tree for them. She couldn’t find even a realistic contender.

  “That one,” she pointed to her perfect tree, leaning against the fence with a handful of others.

  Draeken pulled it straight, holding on to the trunk a few inches from the top. “Excellent choice, Stella.”

  She knew he would have said that no matter what tree she selected and a piece of her heart melted just a little more for the man she adored. She loved Draeken’s upbeat attitude and enthusiasm. She hoped he’d be as happy and upbeat by the end of this trip after all the surprises she had in store for him.

  They paid for their tree and the proprietor wrapped it tightly in a net so Draeken could carry it back to their little house. He slung it over one shoulder like the net held nothing more than air. Stella furtively scanned the area for overly curious humans. Hopefully no one noticed Draeken’s better-than-human strength.

  Stella already had a place in mind for the tree. In what was considered the parlor of the old house they’d purchased for an amazing deal, thanks to Pandora, was a floor-to-ceiling bay window. It would showcase their holiday tree purchase as though custom-made for the purpose. Maybe that’s why it had been designed as part of the original house plans.

  Thankfully, she’d brought a stand for a real tree and a few basic decorations from Alienn. Nothing extravagant, just a string of colorful lights to wrap around the tree, some tinsel to add some shine and, of course, the bright green—a special available at The Big Bang Truck Stop only for Christmastime—Maxwell the Martian tree topper she’d purchased right before leaving home.

  No tree should be without a little green alien at the top. Maxwell held onto—actually, dangled from was more accurate—the edge of the star with his three digits. The tree topper was pure fun. She spread a white felt tree skirt edged with three tiny rows of green bric-a-brac beneath the tree.

  “Perfect,” she said.

  “I like it,” Draeken declared. “My favorite part was slinging all the tinsel on it.”

  “I knew you’d like that best.”

  “What are we doing tomorrow?”

  “I have a few errands to run. And I want to make Christmas cookies in the afternoon. There’s also a parade in town later in the morning.”

  “I can’t imagine what a Christmas parade in a Halloween-themed town might look like. Should be interesting, though, and afterward we should go indulge ourselves at Mummy’s Diner.”

  “Are you going to want to eat blueberry pancakes for every meal while we’re here?” They’d eaten there this morning.

  “Maybe. What’s wrong with that?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all. You can eat as many blueberry pancakes as you can hold.” Variety might be the spice of life, but according to Draeken, not when it came to Mummy’s blueberry pancakes.

  “I’d also like to go into Delaney’s Delectables and stock up.”

  “Maybe we should call ahead so she can be prepared. On our honeymoon, I believe she had to close up for the day after you finished your extensive shopping spree.”

  “Very funny, Mrs. Phoenix.”

  “I am simply truthful, Mr. Phoenix. Between you and Bubba Thorne, it’s a wonder that poor woman ever gets a day off when the two of you are in town.”

  “Are Bubba and Astrid in Nocturne Falls?” Draeken asked.

  Stella nodded. “I don’t know if they are here yet, but they are coming for the holidays, just like us.”

  “Really?”

  Stella tilted her head to one side. “Well, it was supposed to be a surprise, but I don’t want you to get into Delaney’s shop after Bubba has ransacked the place and be disappointed.”

  He tugged her into his arms and gave her a deliberately smacking kiss on the cheek. “You’re such a good wife. Maybe we should go there before we go to the parade. Beat the rush.”

  “Probably a good idea, but let’s see how our morning goes. We have a bunch to do before our party.”

  Draeken lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles, this time with a much more serious glint in his eye, and was a whisper from touching his lips to hers when the ancient door buzzer sent an off-toned half-buzz, half-chime echoing through the house.

  “Who could that be?” Draeken asked, releasing her. “You don’t suppose the kids here trick or treat every night, do you? If so, we aren’t prepared. And I don’t care what traditions they have in this town, I’m not giving up any of my chocolate treats from Delaney’s.”

  “Relax. You don’t have to give up any treats.” Stella walked to the door and opened it.

  Her jaw dropped. It was not anyone she expected. Not at all.

  Draeken was about to come out of his skin. He’d planned a huge surprise for Stella. Huge. He worri
ed for days it wouldn’t work out. Hank Merrow had pointed him where he needed to go to make it happen, so he was the only one who was in on it. Draeken was glad the sheriff had managed not to give anything away when they’d met on Main Street. Even so, he was almost convinced something would happen to stop his surprise. Something would keep it away.

  But all that worry was for naught. It looked like his surprise had even come a couple of days early, and that was certainly better than not at all.

  He followed Stella to the door to watch her candid expression, the word “surprise” poised on his lips.

  The look on her face was not as happy as he expected. She appeared, instead, to be shocked speechless. Maybe even a little dismayed. He looked down to see what could have gone wrong. What? No! Now he was shocked.

  “Mew, mew, mew,” said the tiny, adorable black kitten sitting in the basket on the porch. The little feline was cute, no doubt about it, but he hadn’t gotten a cat for Stella. That wasn’t the surprise he wanted to deliver.

  “Sorry!” Both he and Stella looked up at the shouted apology to see a short, squat deliveryman racing toward them from the street. The man, obviously agile despite his overall shape, leapt over the front yard’s knee-high white picket fence like an earthling Olympic runner going over a hurdle. Draeken loved watching recordings of Olympic events from years gone past, so felt qualified to judge.

  He was surprised the guy didn’t throw his arms victoriously in the air once he got over the fence. The man didn’t break stride, though. In record time, he sprinted across their front yard to snatch up the basket with the cute meowing kitten before either of them could touch it.

  “So sorry to bother you,” he said with only the hint of a gasp. “I have the wrong address.” And he whisked the kitten away like it had never been there, climbed back into his truck, shut the door with a bang and hurriedly pulled away from the curb.

  Draeken pushed out a sigh of relief as he closed the door. “Whew. That was weird, right?”

  “Definitely.” Stella narrowed her gaze. “Wait a minute. You didn’t buy me a kitten for Christmas, did you?”

  He shook his head emphatically. “I swear to you, Stella. I did not buy you a kitten for Christmas.” He put his hand over his heart, signifying the Alpha version of a scout’s honor promise. “I know you love them, but you’re highly allergic.”

  She couldn’t have a kitten, so he’d gotten her something else. Something he knew she’d always wanted. Something he knew she wasn’t allergic to. He couldn’t wait to see her face, but his surprise was obviously going to have to wait a couple more days. Draeken’s surprise was to be delivered the evening of their party. He couldn’t wait to see her expression.

  Stella nodded, peering through the window next to their front door, her expression wistful. Draeken didn’t want her to be sad. “I did get you something cool, though,” he teased.

  “Oh?” A sweet smile appeared.

  He nodded earnestly. “But you’ll just have to wait until Christmas to find out what it is.”

  “Okay.” Her gaze went in the direction of the spare bedroom. She seemed lost in thought, not really seeing anything. She’d been lost in thought quite a bit lately. He’d attributed it to the busy holidays and the trip to Georgia. But maybe not. Maybe it was something else. Did she have regrets? About him? That subject had been on his mind too much of late.

  “Are you okay?” Draeken asked, trying to keep his tone light.

  “What do you mean? I’m ecstatic.” He could see she tried to hide it, but she suddenly looked very tired.

  “In the past several weeks you haven’t seemed…I don’t know what the right word is, but not completely happy is as close as I can come.”

  Stella shook her head. “I’ve just been busy at work and with the end of the year and the holidays. Life is a bit more stressful at this time of year, that’s all. But now we are on vacation, in our new vacation home, so I promise you that I’m so happy I could burst.”

  Her communicator buzzed. She took the device from her pocket and checked the message, frowning.

  “What’s up?”

  She sighed. “Nothing really. I had a surprise for you, too.”

  “A surprise? For me?”

  “Unfortunately, the delivery has been delayed until tomorrow or more probably the day after that. I just hope my surprise makes it by then.”

  “That’s okay. I can wait.”

  “Really? That doesn’t seem like you,” she said with a growing grin. Maybe he’d been wrong about her melancholy.

  Draeken took her into his arms, hugged her tight and asked, “So, are you going to give me a hint about what this surprise is?”

  “Nope. You’ll just have to wait until it’s delivered.”

  “Okay. The truth is, I can’t wait.”

  “That’s what I thought.” She left his arms and began to clean up the boxes and packing material left over from the tree decoration supplies. “I promise it will be worth the wait.”

  Draeken thought he knew what her surprise was. He’d had his eye on a special something for the past few months and hoped she’d noticed his interest. It must have paid off. Whatever her surprise was, he’d love it, especially if it was the electronic dart board he wanted to put up in the garage for when the guys came over.

  He’d played with the one on display at the mall for almost an hour. It was amazing. It sang songs. It made fun noises when someone scored. If the dart landed directly in the center, super-duper bull’s-eye, celebratory music played. It was the coolest dart board ever.

  Stella had to come back for him twice that day at the mall. He rubbed his hands together mentally, certain she would know what his heart desired with regard to boys and fun toys.

  Even so, Draeken vowed to be astonished and delighted no matter what her surprise was.

  Chapter Three

  They plugged in the colorful string of lights twined through the tree’s boughs and turned all the other lights in the house off to watch it twinkle. Not surprisingly, Draeken’s stomach rumbled, even though they’d had a big dinner.

  Stella left Draeken to enjoy a snack in the kitchen while she crept quietly into the spare bedroom. She looked over her shoulder to ensure Draeken stayed in the kitchen and carefully pushed the door closed without letting the latch make a noise. She’d put a suitcase with something special inside under the bed. It was a clue to her biggest Christmas surprise. She couldn’t wait for Draeken to see it.

  Stella had more than one surprise for him this holiday season and this one was a doozy. Yesterday, she’d opened the suitcase on the bed and started to get the item out from beneath her folded yoga pants, intent on moving it to a better hiding place in the closet. When Draeken came looking for her, calling her name, she barely had time to throw a blanket over the open suitcase and the unwrapped white box that displayed a picture of exactly what was inside.

  She decided the blanket wasn’t sufficient. He’d figure out she was trying to hide something in a nanosecond. She grabbed the suitcase, blanket and all, and shoved it back under the bed.

  With Draeken distracted by his snack, she had some time to unpack her secret gift, then wrap and hide it so he wouldn’t find it. Or if he did, he wouldn’t be able to figure out what it was without taking the wrapping paper off.

  Stella particularly looked forward to the Christmas holidays. Raised as an orphan, she was so grateful to have a family, at long last, to share this time of year with. Earther colony holidays had been popular on Alpha-Prime before they’d even colonized the planet.

  Alpha-Prime was home to a very technologically-minded society. Knowledge, education, bettering the world through technical means and any advancement in that arena was considered the best way to live. Many Alpha traditions had been left behind generations ago.

  Because of that loss of culture, several narrow niches of society on Alpha-Prime had adopted Earther colony traditions over the past several decades. Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Halloween were the t
op three, although Alpha-Prime did share some celebrations in common with Earth, at least in spirit. Instead of Veteran’s Day, they had Guardsman Day, celebrating all the law enforcement entities on Alpha-Prime. Soldiers in their finest, fully decorated uniforms marched in parades in the center of their protected spheres. Instead of Independence Day, they had Civic Day to honor communities and the spirit of being neighborly—basically, getting along with those in nearby municipalities under the spheres.

  Contribution Day, Alpha-Prime’s version of Christmas, had more to do with getting together as friends and families at the end of the Earther calendar year to celebrate the blessings of the past year and look forward to the coming one. The definition of family did not have to be by blood, although that was the basis for most celebrations across Alpha-Prime.

  Contribution Day was perhaps not as spiritual as Christmas on Earth, but no less important to Alphas. Stella had spent quite a few lonely Contribution Days on Alpha-Prime at the children’s home. The staff did their best to make it special for the orphans waiting for a forever family, but it wasn’t quite the same.

  The two Christmases she’d spent in Alienn, Arkansas with her newfound cousins, the Greys, had been glorious. With seven grown siblings in attendance, Grey holiday gatherings were raucous events. The first year, Stella thought they’d gone completely overboard showing her every single one of the family traditions they had—until last year, when she discovered they always went crazy at Christmas. Now she could share all those traditions with Draeken in their new little vacation home. He was her family now, no matter where they spent the holidays.

  Stella reached under the bed and pulled out the suitcase with a swift jerk. She lifted it onto the bed. One side of the blanket had folded back to expose her yoga pants. She whipped it off completely to search for what she needed. She took the folded red gift bag from the suitcase pocket along with the white tissue paper she planned to use.