Rescuing Christmas (9 page)

Chris pulled Kevin close and planted a kiss on him to shut him up. “You took better care of him than anyone else has. I mean look at him, he may have suffered here and there but he is whole and alive and healthy and now I am hoping, happy.”

Kevin sighed and snuggled against Chris’s side. Chris looked up at Jamie as he sat down on his other side. “I am very happy Chris. Now, tell us the story.”

Chris sighed and put one arm around each man. He looked down at each of them and said, “If I wasn’t so much in love with Jamie, I might take advantage of this situation here.” They all laughed and Chris cleared his throat.

“Okay, it starts with the Post Office. I was in there preparing to mail a letter to my former partner back in Los Angeles. He is looking for a new job and wants to move to a small town but stay in law enforcement. I had to reject him because unfortunately the budget won’t allow for me to hire any new officers. We just don’t have the funding for it.”

Jamie sat up and said, “Kevin.”

Kevin jumped up and ran to the security office and was back in a moment and he handed a very large and very thick envelope to Jamie who promptly handed it to Chris.

Chris said, “What is this?”

Jamie said, “Well, in light of recent events, and the positions my mother and I hold in this town, Kevin and I talked and decided this might be prudent. Half of that in there is from my mother.”

Chris opened the envelope and pulled out a thick sheaf of papers. Jamie grabbed the top one and said, “The rest of this is all legal documentation. Just read this paper here.” He handed it to Chris who took it and read it.

Chris stared at Jamie bewildered. “Are you kidding?” he asked.

Jamie shook his head and said, “Nope.”

Chris read the paper again. Jamie had donated twenty million dollars to the Sheriff’s Department and his mother had donated the same. The funding was to be used to hire new personnel and keep up with any needs in the future. He was to also use the funds to give raises to his current staff, including himself. The Mayor had already approved all of the decisions and raises were already in effect, allowing for his deputies to have extra money before the holidays kicked in.

The large empty warehouse on the vacant lot next door was already owned by Jamie and he had donated it to the Sheriff’s Department and renovations would start after the New Year to connect the two buildings and the fire department and ambulance house were being brought in to be there so that the towns emergency services would all be located in one space. Plans were also brought up to add on to the back of the Sheriff’s office to make room for three extra deputies and a small jail, removing them from the main portion of the precinct.

They had also donated money to add on to the hospital and upgrade it at the same time.

Jamie said, “Before you came home, my mother and I, we were just living. Nothing else, just living. Same boring thing day after day, our money amassing in the banks and we were doing nothing. You came home and brought meaning back to my soul and my heart. My mother and I decided it was time to give back and we decided it was best to revitalize our EMS system and the hospital. We have plans underway also to start helping get the town cleaned up and stop looking so shabby and to tear out that trailer park, which is empty now, and tear all those empty lots out of town no matter where they are and to build parks in each area where there is an empty lot.

“We also talked with the Board of Education and are going to help them bring the two schools into the future and rebuild and provide new textbooks and everything else. We are trying to breathe fresh air into this old town and revitalize it and hopefully reenergize the people living here.”

Chris stopped Jamie from talking by slanting his mouth down over his and shoving his tongue down his throat. Jamie started groping around and finally grabbed what he was looking for.

Kevin coughed and said, “Jamie that is my dick you are grabbing there. Not that I mind, but I quite prefer remaining friends with Chris. I don’t want him putting me in that new jail once it is built.”

Chris laughed and stopped kissing Jamie who yanked his hand back quickly, his face turning red. Chris turned and grabbed Kevin’s crotch and said, “There, now we’re even.” He kissed Kevin’s startled face then stood up and stretched. “One second while I use the bathroom now please.”

When he went to the bathroom Kevin grabbed the pile of letters and started reading through them. He had just finished the fourth letter when Chris came back out and he put them down and waited for Chris to resume his story.

“So, before you gave me this surprise, I was telling you a story.” He stopped and stared into space for a minute and said, “Shit! One second.” He yanked his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number and putting it up to his ear.

Jamie and Kevin could hear someone answer faintly.

“Hey Mark. How would you like that job after all?” He paused waiting for a response. “Yeah, we now have the funding to hire three more officers and give all of the current ones raises. It even includes a moving budget, so if you want the job, it is open. January tenth is when I would need you here. You and Carla can pack up Jeff and Clarissa and get down here. Just call me in the morning and I will take care of the moving budget for you and discuss all the details.” He fell silent as he listened to Mark talk on the other end of the phone and said, “Great. Just be here on the tenth and you can start working on Monday the eleventh. Bye.”

He hung up the phone and turned back to Kevin and Jamie grinning. “Well, that settles that.” He turned to Kevin and said, “Kevin, I want to hire you as a deputy, but a special kind. Your duties would not change in the slightest and you would not wear a uniform. But you would have a badge and a department issued firearm and handcuffs, etc… You would still get a uniform, but only to wear on specific occasions. You would also get a locker and a desk at the precinct. This way I only have to hire one more person, and I could keep my internal staff small. I need Jamie’s bodyguard to have some real official authority in town. If something happens, I need you to be able to arrest someone and not have to wait for someone with a badge and handcuffs to show up and decide whether or not to arrest someone based off of your word, and it gives Jamie extra protection as well. Call me overprotective, but as of lately you can see why I might feel that way. How does that sound to both of you?”

Jamie smiled and said, “I think it is a great idea. It also gives you an extra paycheck. But the choice is up to Kevin, Chris.”

Kevin nodded and said, “I think it is a great idea. Thanks for offering. I happily accept.”

“Okay, now that that is all taken care of. I was mailing off the formal rejection letter to Mark and I noticed a box lying on the floor that had the year 2015 on it with Jamie McCormick written on it. I asked Mrs. Johnson what it was and she started stammering and grabbed it and tried to actually run away from me. I jumped over the counter and grabbed it from her and she just fell to the floor sobbing. When I opened the box I found all the letters from this year that I had written to you. I stood her up and put her in cuffs and asked if there were more. She nodded and pointed her head in the direction of her office. When I went in there I found nineteen other boxes.

“On Christmas day when I left she had apparently told my parents that her husband was killed by electrocution when he tried to rip out that silver Christmas tree outside your trailer. She said he had done it barefoot and died in the early afternoon. She blamed you for all of that and since she was the Postmaster, she saw when my letters to you came in. She started collecting them and reading them and finally started storing them in boxes and left them there at the post office. She has been hurting all these years and blames you for her husband’s death she refuses to accept it was because he was hateful and tried to ruin your Christmas. So, she decided to ruin your life and take away the only friend you had in the world.”

Jamie just shook his head in wonder. “Yeah, I was not getting any of my mail there for a while so I finally got a mailbox at the UPS Store. Now I can finally let that box go and resume mail service to the house.” He turned to Kevin and said, “Can you see to the proper installation of a mailbox that will allow for a mailman to get in here and deliver mail and packages? Just like UPS and FedEx.”

Kevin nodded and smiling Jamie turned back to Chris. “Thank you.”

Chris said, “For what?”

Jamie said, “For never giving up on me and always loving me and somehow looking out for me even when you were on the other side of the country.”

Chris laughed and said, “I will never stop taking care of you.”

CHRISTMAS DAY

Over the next couple of weeks Jamie and Chris worked their separate jobs. Both looked forward to returning home to each other's arms every evening. Their nights at home were spent, making love or just cuddling together and getting to know each other all over again. It was comforting to know that no matter the passage of time, some things would always be the same and their love would continue burning bright.

On Christmas Eve both of them took the night off and threw a large party. People from all over the town were invited and Jamie cut the ribbon on his newly restored bar that had been worked on around the clock in order to be repaired and ready for Christmas Eve. Jamie climbed up on top of his bar and tapped the side of his drink glass with a spoon. He tapped just a bit too hard and shattered the glass, alcohol raining down on the bar, spraying himself as well as the people around him. Laughing, Chris threw him a towel from behind the bar and proceeded to clean up the bar under his lover’s feet.

Jamie looked up sheepishly as everyone in the bar was laughing. “Sorry about that everyone. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for coming to the grand re-opening and for our Christmas party. For years now, this town has felt like it was crumbling and dying all around us. Despite this no one wanted to give up on the little place and move away. In fact we have people who wanted to move back and even more have moved into town in the last couple of days.”

Jamie paused and looked around and said, “For those of you who have not met him, this is the new Sheriff.” He reached down and pulled Chris up onto the bar. “Sheriff Chris Anderson, these are the people of Baysville. Well some of them anyway. We would all like to welcome you back to town.”

Chris smiled and waited for the cheers and whistling and clapping to die down before he said, “I would like to thank you all for welcoming me back to town after being gone for twenty years. After everything that has happened this past month I am glad things will be calming down and returning to normal. However, we have news, so while the bad things are gone, we have some new good things coming in. Mrs. McCormick here would like to say a few words and tell you what we have going for our little town.”

Together Chris and Jamie reached down and helped pull Mrs. McCormick up onto the bar being mindful of her injury.

“Hey y’all!” Everyone smiled and clapped politely. “We have put forty million dollars into the police department, fire department and the Paramedics and hired three new deputies and they have all received raises. We have more firemen and paramedics and a new building for them all to occupy that is being renovated and attached to the Sheriff’s Station. Baysville Hospital is being given a makeover and receiving updated equipment and all the doctor’s offices inside are being upgraded as well. We have plans underway to turn all abandoned lots into miniature parks. We are tearing out the old abandoned trailer park, between that and lots next to it the land will be turned into one giant park for the town. Streets will all be repaired and we have hired a graffiti removal expert to come into town and clean it up. By summer, our town will be brand new, clean and we will have a grand town re-opening party in the new park.” She turned to Chris and said, “We have you to thank for all of this Christopher. You have revitalized both my son and myself by bringing meaning back into our lives. It made us sit up and take notice of what was going on around us and we did not like it. Now we can put our money to good use.” She kissed Chris on the cheek as he hugged her.

The entire bar erupted into cheers.

Jamie waved his arms up and down for silence.

When the room finally quieted down he said, “Booze is on the house tonight ladies and gentlemen as is all food. Just enjoy yourselves. There is a fleet of designated driver cars outside with drivers all waiting to take each and every one of you home tonight. When you wake in the morning, you can call the number on the card given to you by your driver and they will go pick you up and bring you back here to recover your vehicles. Merry Christmas everyone!”

Jamie and Chris climbed down from the bar and helped Jamie’s mother down. She kissed them both on the cheeks then went to mingle with the partiers.

Jamie put his arms around Chris and said, “Don’t think I didn’t notice that every single letter you wrote was in green crayon, colored pencil or ink. You didn’t forget.”

Chris’s green eyes sparkled as they looked into Jamie’s and Chris said, “I could never forget something like that.

Jamie pulled Chris out onto the floor and they danced slowly together for the rest of the night, no matter what type of music was playing.

***

Jamie woke up on Christmas morning, curled up on the couch in the living room. He snuggled even closer to the warm naked flesh pressed against his body and sighed, content not to move.