Read Online 'Tis the Season by Judith Arnold - Free Book Online

thick colorful muffler of some sort, Gracie peeked at him from her perch in the woman’s arms, evidently trying to gauge his mood.
    He started babbling, asking if they were okay, asking what the hell was going on, tossing in a few profanities for good measure. When no one answered, he paused to catch his breath and directed his attention to the woman.
    He’d never seen her before. If he had, he would have remembered. She appeared mysterious and exotic and altogether riveting. Black hair flowed halfway down her back, framing a face of huge dark eyes, chiseled cheeks and full lips. Her skin was tawny in the diffuse light from the outdoor fixture, and her clothing struck him as arty, too big and bulky for her slender build. Her jewelry—flamboyant earrings and a moon-shaped necklace—was oversize. Her feet were encased in clunky boots.
    He wondered what she would look like without all that oversize apparel hiding her. An image—a very erotic one—of her in lacy lingerie flashed across his mind, and he chased it away. Now was not the time to entertain adolescent fantasies about the stranger holding his daughter.
    â€œWho are you?” he asked.
    She smiled and extended her right hand, practically blinding him with the flashlight. “Oops!” She clicked itoff and handed it to Billy, then presented her hand to Evan again. “Filomena Albright.”
    Filomena Albright? Quite a mouthful, he thought as he shook her hand. “Evan Myers,” he introduced himself. “What are my kids doing with you? Why are you holding Gracie? Gracie, why are you running around outside in your nightgown?”
    â€œI’m not running around,” Gracie corrected him. “Fil is carrying me.”
    â€œThat’s very nice of her, and she’s probably going to send me a bill from her chiropractor once she assesses the damage to her back from hauling you around.” He reached for Gracie and eased her out of Filomena Albright’s embrace. Gracie immediately lowered her head to Evan’s shoulder. It was way past her bedtime. She was probably exhausted. “How did you wind up with my kids?” he asked Filomena. He was beginning to calm down; his voice was no longer edged with hysteria.
    â€œThey showed up in my yard,” she explained. “I’m not sure why, but I thought they needed to be brought home.”
    â€œThey should never have left home in the first place.” He glared at Billy, who glanced everywhere but at Evan. “I can’t believe you climbed out your window.”
    Billy peered up at the open window above the garage roof—one more place he could look to avoid meeting his father’s gaze. “The screen snaps in and out real easy,” he mumbled.
    â€œToo easily. Why did you do that? What the hell were you thinking? You could have fallen off the roof and gotten killed!”
    â€œIt’s not that far to the ground. And anyway, the oak tree is right there.”
    â€œI’m having that tree chopped down tomorrow,” Evan snapped, although of course he wasn’t going to do that. It was a beautiful tree, older than Evan and the house combined. It deserved to live.
    Which was more than he could say for his children at the moment. “Okay,” he murmured, then sighed, trying to keep his rage from erupting. “I don’t know what’s going on, but…” He caught Filomena’s eye and managed a feeble smile. “I’ve got to get the kids inside. Would you mind coming in for a minute? Maybe you can help me make sense of this whole thing.”
    â€œAll right.” Something in the woman’s smile befuddled him even more than the situation with his kids did. Her smile was dazzling, intoxicating. It overwhelmed him as the thought of his kids climbing through an upstairs window overwhelmed him. It made him just as breathless, but in a different way. It made his heart pound, not with fear but with