Page 7 of Back to You

Tyler settled back in his chair, crossing his arms.

“Fine. I’ll stay here.” He hurried on as she grabbed her wallet and phone. “Can me and Thor read on the roof deck?”

Since she’d put high railings up there, he’d been asking all the time, but that was a no go. “No. You know you can’t be on the roof without an adult.”

“How about Cam?”

Vivian mentally counted to ten at warp speed since she needed to be somewhere. “Cam has to work, and you already got him in trouble, which we will be talking about.”

She ignored the heavy sigh from her offspring as she headed toward the door. If anyone should be tossing out deep sighs, it was her. He was way too young to be acting this difficult. There was no way she’d last through another decade of this.

There were going to be some serious resetting of rules and boundaries tonight.

Tyler was going to find out what happens when you lie to an adult, lie to your mom, and break a standing rule pretending it was a loophole.

And he wasn’t going to like it.

Vi was halfway across town when she realized she’d forgotten to let Cam know Tyler was on lockdown since her trust level in her son was running at nil. But Cam wasn’t an idiot. She had to trust he’d get that if he saw her little guy wander in.

Pulling into the town buildings’ parking lot, she couldn’t help but notice the crowd gathering behind the large barn they stored the Christmas Holidayer’s things in.

“Oh, look. The cavalry.” Mrs. Macalister, her fourth-grade teacher, grinned at her as Vivian came striding across the parking lot. “Vivian, you are not going to like what you see here.”

“How bad is it?” she asked, pulling out her travel toolbox and iPhone to get some decent pictures of the damage.

“How bad? Maybe leave the toolbox and bring the tow truck?”

Vivian shook her head, trying not to roll her eyes as people glanced their way. “Only Ms. Angie.”

“I think you mean only Ms. Angie’s dog. You know she’ll never take the blame for this.”

“Truer words.”

The two women headed toward the crowd as Ms. Angie flitted around, answering questions that weren’t going to get anything moving.

“Oh, Vivian. Thank goodness you’re here,” she gushed as if she hadn’t just been at Vi’s shop to get her.

“Okay, Ms. Angie. Let’s see what Captain Jack did this time.”

The crowd parted and Vivian stutter-stepped to a halt, nearly dropping her toolbox at the same time.

“Ms. Angie!” She turned toward the older woman, shocked at the understatement of damage she’d made. “The sleigh needs more than a little tweaking. I don’t even know…”

She went around to the front of the motorized sleigh and just stared. The front end was completely smashed in. There was as much body damage if not more than a fender bender would have created. Gently unlatching what was left of the front of the sleigh, she lifted it away and found a mass of engine wreckage under the hood.

“Well?” Ms. Angie stood next to her, looking down at what was obviously a destroyed engine.

“All I can say is I hope Captain Jack has insurance.” She pulled on some work gloves, ignoring the gaffs from the crowd. “It looks like we’re going to need to get this into the shop. This isn’t a quicky job you’ve got here.”

Behind her a small yip grabbed her attention.

“Sure, Captain Jack. You give all the advice you want, but it’s not going to get you out of trouble.”

“So, you can have it done by the next Holiday, right?” Ms. Angie was starting to sound nervous.

Which she absolutely should. This was ridiculous. Vivian would have to be a miracle worker to get the sleigh ready for the next Holidayer's weekend in sixteen days.

Grabbing her flashlight, she leaned under the hood and checked out the frame to see if there was any structural damage. Looking good on the outside was great, but safety was vital—especially since you never knew who would be working the sleigh. It wasn’t a private vehicle with an owner who could deal with small quirks if they chose to.

---