Free Once Upon a Christmas by Lauraine Snelling, Lenora Worth

peered under the bed. Matty wagged her tail. “Come on, girl. Let the little one have her blankie.” She could hear screaming coming from the living room. Thank you, God, that I only have to worry about the dog. She reached for the corner of the blanket nearest her and Matty growled. Not a warning growl, but a “let’s play some more” growl.
    Blythe collapsed on her stomach, giggling into her arms.
    The screams died to whimpers and the whimpers sounded close. Blythe turned to look. Thane and child stood in the doorway.
    “She won’t come out.”
    “Matty, bones.”
    The dog charged out from under the bed, her tail whipping Blythe across the face.
    “You just have to know the right words.”
    She spit dog hair out of her mouth, half crawled under the bed to reach the blanket and crawled back out. No one needs a bed that big anyway.
    Back in the living room she handed Amie the blankie and received a glare in return as if she’d been the one hiding the treasure all the time. So much for good deeds.
     
    Within an hour and a half they were back at the condo, where Thane called the manager to ask for help getting the new furniture up into his home. Besides the chest of drawers and a toy box, they had a bookshelf and a play table with two small chairs, all painted white.
    While the men moved the office furniture, Blythe made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for herself and Amie, then emptied the boxes into their proper places. She set the toddler to putting together a puzzle on the table, making sure that Matty didn’t get into the act again, and put the living room and kitchen back to rights.
    “Thanks, John.” Thane waved the moving helper out the door and took a deep breath. “Thank you, it looks like I have my home back again. Are you a genius or what?”
    Blythe finished a last swipe of the kitchen counter. “You’re welcome. Now I need to get home and get to work.”
    “And leave me alone with—with them?”
    “Them?”
    “Matty, Amie, you know.”
    “Sorry, but I’ve got work to do. You said you were taking time off.”
    “I am. I’ve got to find some kind of day care. You wouldn’t…”
    “Nope, but you can call my sister. She knows about things like that.” Blythe rattled off the phone number. How come a man who can run a company of his own and save all these companies’ computer systems panics with something as simple as this? And yet, he’d never looked more endearing. Blythe blew him a kiss as she left.

CHAPTER TEN
    C all her now, she needs a break.
    Thane almost hated to destroy the hard-earned peace and quiet by speaking aloud. Amie had finally fallen asleep, Matty’s snores at his feet didn’t count as noise, only one more piece of the peace and quiet. He stared at the Gary Larson calendar on his desk, a gift from his sister. She’d always tried to get him to lighten up, take time to smell the marigolds. He never had liked the fragrance of marigolds.
    Call her. When his inside voice became so insistent, he usually heeded it. Red hair. Why had she dyed her hair red? What was wrong with blond? But then, what was her natural color? And did it matter?
    He shook his head and punched the keys. Ten-thirty, surely she wasn’t asleep yet. Not with all the work she’d had to do, and she’d taken out several valuable hours to help him. He well understood deadlines and fighting to keep one’s head above water when building a company of your own.
    “Come on, answer, don’t let it go to the answering machine.” Screening her calls, was she? Surely no clients called her at this time of night. “Pick up.”
    “Blythe’s Graphics, I am away from the phone right now…” He listened to her message, fingers drumming a tattoo on his leather desk pad.
    “Hey, Blythe, sorry to not catch you, just wanted…”
    “Don’t hang up. I’ll turn the machine off.”
    Even the sound of her voice made him smile. She sounded breathless.
    “Sorry about that. I had my head in the oven.”
    “Blythe,