Page 26 of Christmas Past
“Have you met my Shelley, Sheriff?” Gracie asked as Chad stood, blocking the doorway.
Gracie was smiling. Her hair was up in a twist with little tendrils curling around her face. Her make-up tastefully, expertly applied, was a perfect complement to the gold jewelry in her ears and around her neck. She was wearing a dress – long sleeved and flowing down to her ankles as she sat, barefooted, in an old antique rocker in the middle of her living room.
Just sat there. Rocking. Holding a small boned little girl to her breast.
Shelley had clearly been the daughter Gracie had lost. The woman didn’t even seem to realize that she was in trouble. Bella wondered if she’d remember taking the child. If she had any conscious realization that she’d lived without Shelley. If they’d ever really know what happened to Bella’s foot.
“She’s such a good little girl,” Gracie was saying as Camille, having seen them, sat straight up. Her little eyes filled with fear as she stared up at Chad. “This was always my favorite dress on her,” The woman continued. “And look, it still fits.”
Bella hadn’t been aware they’d been able to salvage anything from Gracie’s burnt home, but clearly they had.
“May I hold her?” Bella asked, keeping her gaze locked on the little girl. Willing Camille to recognize a friendly soul, a safe haven. She didn’t wait for Gracie to give permission. Sensing that the other woman would respond to a woman’s confidence, especially with the sheriff she trusted standing guard at the door, Bella moved forward and took the child.
“Be careful, she hurt her foot,” Gracie said, when the swollen and badly bruised appendage came into view. “I had to pull her boot off and it wouldn’t come so finally I cut it off,” Gracie was saying, still seated in her rocker. “If it isn’t better by tomorrow, I’m going to have to call the doctor. Shelley’s afraid of doctors and I hate to do that to her, but I’m afraid it might be broken, not just sprained. What do you think, Sheriff?”
Camille, with two fingers in her mouth looked at Bella and started to cry. But she wrapped her arms around Bella’s neck. And held on tight.
Everything happened in a blur at that point. The paramedics were inside, but when Camille refused to let go of Bella’s neck, they allowed her to hold the child in the back of the ambulance while they took her to the nearest urgent care. Camille’s parents would meet them there and take over their daughter’s care.
And Bella, well, she figured, when she was no longer needed, she’d call a cab to take her home.
~*~
For once, Chad was glad not to be the man in charge. Once he was certain that Gracie would be handled with the care deserving of the sick woman she was, he left her in the care of the FBI and headed to Posey’s house. He had one last duty to perform before he could be off work for the first time in more than forty-eight hours.
Unusually revved up, he was embarrassed by the emotion in his voice when he told the frantic parents that their child was safe and sound.
Urging them to drive carefully, he gave them instructions to the urgent care, assured them that Camille was well-loved in Bella’s care until they arrived, and then…his job was done.
Case solved.
Successfully.
There was nothing for him to do but go home and get some much needed rest. Sleeping on the floor might be fine for kids. But his body was used to a mattress beneath it.
The thought brought another. His overnight bag was still at Bella’s.
And she’d need a ride home.
So maybe he’d been a bit premature. His job wasn’t quite done yet.
But it would be.
As soon as he tied up this last loose end.
~*~
Bella was talking to a crying Gabrielle Posey when she saw Chad walk in the front of the urgent care. They were the only ones there and Gabrielle had asked Bella to stay with them while Camille’s foot was being x-rayed.
Bella had lived in the town two years and felt like she’d grown to know the town, and her people more in two days than she had since she’d moved there.
Her fault, not theirs.
Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized Chad’s shoulders outside the door. And saw the concerned expression on his sweet face when he appeared inside.
“Sheriff Andrews.” Geoff Posey, Camille’s father, stepped forward holding out his hand. The two men shook, and then Geoff pulled Chad forward for a shoulder to shoulder embrace.
Before anything more could be said the nurse was there, telling the Poseys they could join the doctor with their daughter now. Camille could be heard crying for her mama and Gabrielle was gone with her husband right behind her.
