Carousel Horse Christmas Read online

  Danni Roan

  Carousel Horse Christmas

  Ornamental Match Maker Book 1

  Danni Roan

  In the busy world of Party Planning Audrey Alberton has no time for love, she’s not even sure she has time for Christmas as her calendar continues to fill through the Holiday season. Can one simple gift from an unknown giver change everything? Holden Bays has too much to do to be slowed down by an accident but when his truck and trailer are damaged moving through the city one chance encounter could turn his world upside down. Christmas Miracles come in small packages in this delightful short bundle of Christmas Cheer.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Audrey Alberton lifted the delicate hand carved horse from the ornate box and examined it carefully. The elegant ornament was beautifully crafted and almost lifelike in appearance.

  Placing the item in her hand she studied it further. The modeled horse was made of rich golden wood and had been polished and painted until it glimmered in the afternoon sun pouring through her apartment window.

  Gently setting the ornament on the table she turned back to the box it had arrived in. It looked like any other Christmas present but the return address simply read Mrs. Claus, North Pole.

  Audrey placed an elbow on the table settling her chin in her hand and shaking her light brown hair away from her face.

  “Now who sent you?” she asked looking at the horse. It was much larger than any ornament she’d seen before, nearly four inches tall and again as long but it was so expertly wrought that it seemed almost ethereal.

  “Maybe Aunt Linda sent you,” Audrey continued, her brown eyes examining every angle of the horse. Aunt Linda wasn’t the most eccentric member of Audrey’s family, but she could see how the woman would think it a good laugh to address a package to her niece that way.

  Audrey reached out with her other hand running her fingers gently over the horse, the subtle glow of the wood, and the soft purples and greens of its painted saddle and tapestry blanket seemed to bring the object to life.

  The classic carousel miniature was a soft silver dun color with dark mane and tale heavily streaked with cream colored strands that seemed to flow as if in a breeze.

  “I wish I knew who to thank,” the young woman said. “You’re too beautiful for someone not to know how much I love you already,” she added with a smile.

  A soft buzzing in the back pocket of her jeans made Audrey stand up and retrieve her phone.

  “Hello?”

  “You ready,” her friend Lisa asked. “Christmas shopping doesn’t wait you know.”

  Audrey repressed a groan. She hated shopping, and if Lisa didn’t drag her out each year to select various items for her Aunts, she’d send them all gift cards and be done.

  “I just need to grab my coat,” Audrey replied. “Are you down stairs?”

  “No, but I’m only a block away. See you in a mo,” she finished clicking off her phone.

  Audrey laughed, that was Lisa, impatient, full of excitement for the Christmas holidays, and always ready to shop.

  Leaving her little horsey on the table, she headed to the front hall grabbed her coat, hat and mittens and stepped out into the frosty air of a Colorado winter.

  Beep-beep. Lisa pulled up in her little red car not bothering to take a parking spot, but instead expecting Audrey to hurry around and jump in.

  “I knew you’d be Johnny on the spot,” Lisa said as Audrey pulled the door shut and dashed back into traffic. “You’re never late for anything.”

  “Probably because I’m a party planner, and you can’t be late for anything in that job.”

  “Too true,” her friend smiled, fluffing her dark bouncy curls. “So where do you want to go first?”

  “Home,” Audrey droned.

  “Oh stop that, you know you’ll have a great time,” Lisa said flapping at her with a well manicured hand. “Besides, you’re with me, and I’ll do all the heavy lifting.”

  Audrey laughed, “You mean you’ll pick out the gifts I should buy. Are you sure you shouldn’t be a personal shopper instead of a personal secretary?”

  “What? Here in Colorado? No thanks.”

  “You really are good at it though,” Audrey insisted. “You have a knack for knowing what people like or will appreciate, and you find the best bargains.”

  Lisa smiled, “You’re just saying that because you hate to shop.”

  “Well there is that,” Audrey agreed with a chuckle.

  “So have you purchased anything for your aunts yet?”

  Audrey shook her head. She knew she should have dealt with this chore already, but this time of year was crazy. She’d barely had a minute between events and several of the ones closer to Christmas overlapped.

  Fortunately, she was only the organizational whiz and not the people who supplied everything for her parties. On top of that she had a terrific crew.

  Often she never even met her clients in person instead using her trusty phone, massive planner, and fantastic assistant to see that everything went off without a hitch.

  “What’s on the schedule this week?” Lisa said zooming between two pickup trucks and making a hard right turn toward the Mall.

  “I have five Christmas parties, two birthdays and three weddings,” Audrey said. She hated wedding planning but would take it on if one of her other friends in the business asked her to pick up the slack. At this time of year there was always slack. People craving a crisp Christmas Wedding.

  “Why do you always make that face when you do a wedding?” Lisa said pulling into a parking space with a screech of brakes and turning to her friend. “You’d think a wedding at this time of year would be the best,” she smiled brightly, “and so romantic.”

  Audrey shrugged getting out of the car and skirting the piles of snow that had collected between the cars.

  “Honestly Audrey, I don’t know how we are even friends,” Lisa continued locking the car with a beep. “You don’t like shopping, you have no romantic notions, and you almost never go anywhere.”

  Audrey wrapped an arm around her significantly shorter friend as they trotted toward the mall entrance, “But you love me anyway.”

  “I really do,” Lisa said with a giggle, yanking the door open to the giddy strains of Jiggle Bells as she entered what she considered her own private domain.

  Chapter 2

  “Are you sure I need all of this?” Audrey said carefully balancing her brightly wrapped boxes on the way back to the car. The sun was nearly to the horizon now, and she was ready for a nice hot cup of cocoa and a book.”

  “Yes, you do. You know your aunts love everything we get for them. Besides after all they’ve done for you over the years, they deserve it.”

  Audrey arranged the boxes in the trunk of Lisa’s car and sighed. “I’ve been lucky,” she agreed walking around the car and slipping inside.

  At fifteen Audrey had gone to live with her four maiden aunts who still lived and worked the family farm after her parents had been presumed dead when their two stroke engine airplane had disappeared ten years earlier.


  “Have you gotten anything from the L’s yet, or are you planning on going home for a few days?”

  Audrey chuckled at Lisa’s use of the letter L to represent her aunts. All four women had names that started with an L and it had been a joke among them for years. Louisa, Lois, Linda & Lydia Alberton were known collectively as the L’s.

  “I really haven’t decided yet,” Audrey said, hurrying to click her seatbelt on while Lisa ripped out of the parking space and headed for the main road. “Maybe you could go with me.”

  Lisa sniggered, “They’re still nagging you about getting married aren’t they?”

  “Oh my yes,” Audrey groaned rolling her eyes. “Every conversation ends with a lecture and a barrage of questions about my dating life.”

  Lisa laughed then screamed as she swerved slamming on her brakes and jerking Audrey forward against her harness as a horse the color of an old nickel reared before them, nearly unseating the man on its bare back before wheeling and racing down the road.

  “Did you just see that?” Lisa whispered turning to Audrey, her eyes wide.

  Audrey nodded speechless as a vision of her little figurine came to mind.

  She could still see the man on horseback riding toward the setting sun and her mouth grew suddenly dry with wonder.

  “What do you think happened?” Lisa said easing back into traffic that was now creeping along.

  “I don’t know,” Audrey admitted, still peering out the windshield.

  A half a mile further and it became apparent what the commotion was about. A long horse trailer was jack knifed on the side of the road, its dented back gate hanging open at an odd angle.

  As Lisa and Audrey rolled slowly by under the blue and red glow of emergency vehicles, Audrey caught a glimpse of the cowboy loading his shimmering mount into a trailer his hand on the horse’s mane his only guide.

  To Audrey’s surprise, he tipped his head smiling and winked a bright blue eye making her heart flutter oddly in her chest.

  “I hope no one was hurt,” Lisa said finally inching out of the slow moving traffic and hitting her accelerator. “I’m sure we’ll hear all about it on the news tonight.”

  “Hm?” Audrey asked, a pair of blue eyes dancing like sugar plums in her head.

  “Audrey, Audrey,” Lisa practically shouted as they pulled up to her apartment, “Earth to Audrey, we’re home.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Audrey said. “Are you coming up for cocoa and cookies?”

  “Who made the cookies?” Lisa asked suspiciously.

  “Aunt Lou,” Audrey said rolling her eyes. She was no great cook but she could bake a decent Pillsbury cookie.

  “I’m in,” Lisa said. “Now let’s get our haul up those stairs.”

  Audrey laughed grabbing a handful of boxes and heading up the stairs her keys jingling in her hand as she listened to Lisa chatter about all the decorating she’d done this year.

  “You probably haven’t even hung a wreath have you,” her friend chided as she inserted the key and shoved the door open letting Lisa enter first.

  A loud clatter and bang made Audrey cringe, and she wondered what Lisa had broken this time.

  Still balancing her boxes she flicked on the lights to see her table covered in colorful boxes.

  “I’m so sorry,” Lisa wailed. “It was dark, and I didn’t know anything was there,” she said while scrabbling around the table to retrieve what had fallen only to stand with a gasp as she held up the wooden horse.

  Audrey’s heart sank as Lisa stood holding the carved figure in her hands and dropping her packages on the kitchen counter she hurried to inspect the damage.

  “I’m really sorry,” Lisa said again. “It’s not bad though honest, look,” she said pointing to a tiny chip in the horse’s ear. “No one will ever know.”

  Lisa breathed a sigh of relief, she had been sure the delicate looking ornament would have broken into a dozen pieces as it hit the floor, but it was barely touched.

  “It’s alright Lisa,” Audrey said taking the horse from her. “No one will ever even notice. Besides it adds character.”

  Lisa sighed. “I’m such a klutz.”

  “No I should have told you. Now how about that cocoa?”

  Lisa smiled her eyes shining. “You’re the best,” she said gathering up the presents they’d purchased and heading into the small living room where she stacked them into little piles near the window.

  Audrey made her way to the stove and pulled down a heavy pan adding milk and cream to a mixture of sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and cocoa powder. She might not cook often, but she had paid close attention to her aunts instruction on their famous hot chocolate.

  “Mmm, that smells good already,” Lisa said plopping into a chair at the table and studying the carousel horse. “You know, this looks like that horse we saw tonight.”

  “Maybe a little,” Audrey agreed, shrugging a shoulder to brush off the thoughts she’d been thinking herself.

  “Where’d it come from?”

  “I don’t know. I think one of my aunts is playing a joke on me. The box only said from Mrs. Claus, North Pole.”

  Audrey poured the now steaming hot chocolate into two super sized mugs and sprayed on a liberal helping of whipped cream then shook her cocoa-cayenne pepper-cinnamon mixture over the top.

  “I don’t know what you do to your hot chocolate,” Lisa said looking up from her first sip, a whipped cream mustache gracing her upper lip, “but it is the best.”

  Audrey smiled. “Do you remember coming over to the farm and begging Aunt Lydia to make it for us?”

  “All the time. I think they gave us extra chores just so we’d burn off the calories the next day.” Lisa laughed.

  Audrey looked at the horse again where it still sat in the center of her table. Maybe she should make the trip home and visit her aunts this Christmas. Even she needed a little time off now and then.

  Audrey took her cup and walked to the bank of windows on the other side of her apartment. “It’s starting to snow,” she commented.

  “Urgh, again,” Lisa moaned, “how bad?”

  “Pretty heavy.”

  “Mind if I crash in your spare room tonight then?”

  “No, go right ahead. It’ll be like a sleep over when we were kids.”

  Chapter 3

  A bleary eyed Audrey hastened to the door the next morning before the sun had even peaked over the horizon.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming,” she called tying her robe around her middle as she ripped open the door.

  “Ma’am,” a tall cowboy stood in her door way, his hat in his hand and his blue eyes taking in her rumpled appearance.

  Audrey gasped eyes going wide as she closed the door in his handsome face.

  Audrey stood gaping at the inside of the door. What was the man she’d seen on the horse from last night doing standing in her hallway at way too early o’clock in the morning?

  A gentle knock came on the door again and Audrey’s mind reeled. Should she rush back to her room and put on her clothes, fix her hair, apply makeup, or should she let the man in?

  Again the knock came on the door, and shaking herself Audrey reached for the door opening it once more.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, taking in the man’s long legs, narrow waist, broad shoulders, and striking blue eyes. “You surprised me.”

  “I figured,” he replied, a smile playing around his lips.

  “I know it’s early,” the cowboy said, “but I wanted to track you down and make sure your car wasn’t damaged last night when Dasher darted in front of you.”

  “Oh,” Audrey said shaking her head again and opening the door wider. “Why don’t you come in.” She was feeling uncomfortably underdressed talking to the man in her hallway. “It’s actually my friend Lisa’s car.”

  “Thank you,” the man said, stepping through the door. “I take it you’re not Lisa then?”

  Audrey covered her face with her hands. It seemed that her brain had decided to com
pletely shut down on her, and she barely stifled a groan. “No, I’m sorry. I’m Audrey,” she said offering her hand.

  “Pleased to meet you Audrey, Holden Bays,” he said taking her hand in his.

  Audrey could feel the heavy calluses on the man’s warm hand and the sensation sent a shiver up her arm that traced down her spine.

  “Won’t you have a seat?” she finally asked removing her hand. “I’ll be right back.”

  Turning she hurried back to the bedrooms and knocked on Lisa’s door before running into her room, yanking on a pair of jeans and sweater before running a brush through her hair and tossing it into a messy bun with a hair clip.

  ***

  Holden Bays moved to the small kitchen table and gazed down at the little horse displayed there. It was a true masterpiece. Somehow the artist had even sculpted the lines and veins of the horse’s face into the wood.

  Gently Holden ran a hand over the carving noting how much it looked like his own horse. Last night he’d been very lucky. Despite the fact that he had been in rush hour traffic none of the horses he’d been hauling had been injured or worse caused a fatal accident on the highway when he’d been hit by a distracted driver who was driving and texting he’d been sure the damage would be much worse.

  He’d been even more fortunate that Dasher, his faithful silver dun had stayed with the trailer when the other three horses had panicked.

  Holden shook his head. He’d been beyond shocked when the other driver, who had rear ended the trailer, reversed causing the twisted tail gate on the horse trailer to fall open thereby allowing the horses to scatter along the freeway.

  With nothing but a rope halter, Holden had swung up onto Dashers back and charged after the other horses. He had just been turning one of the other animals back toward the trailer when the little red car had nearly collided with him making Dasher rear and pivot to avoid injury.

  Looking around the small apartment Holden wondered where the young woman with the very sexy early morning look had gone.

  ***