Christmas Surprise

Christmas Surprise

by

Dominique Goodall

 

 

Melody growled in annoyance as she peered out into the snow-decorated porch. It was getting dark, the wind was bitter and the object of her frustration was peering at her with a complete lack of concern. Bending down, she extended her hand out and made all the expected noises of one trying to encourage a cat towards them.

“Come on, puss. Come inside here, where it’s nice and warm, out of that snow.” When she was disdainfully ignored, the annoyed look clear on the cat’s face she stepped back and growled softly. “Fine then you stupid fat thing! Stay out there and freeze your bloody tail off for all I care!”

 She sighed softly as she straightened up. There was nothing she could do to encourage Blitzen to come back indoors before he was ready- and if she didn’t know better, she would have thought that the cat was part sled-dog. Tucking the hair back from her face, she pushed the door to, leaving just enough space for the cat to squeeze back through if he really needed to. She winced as she walked; frowning only when she stepped into the front room and saw how empty her living room looked without the Christmas tree and decorations up.

 She didn’t worry though, as there was a familiar sound coming from the open laptop. She almost ran to it, but soon sat down and smiled as she clicked the ‘answer’ button on Skype. A couple of seconds and she could see the face she had been longing for. They spoke softly, catching up on everything they had missed for the last week, as Mark had been away on business…and just the emails she had received here and there hadn’t been enough to stave off the loneliness just the sound of his honeyed voice eased.

 “So where did you go this time honey? I missed you- and your card didn’t come through, either.” The frown that appeared between Mark’s eyes looked off, but Melody shrugged and smiled at him. “Probably just the Christmas post, it’ll turn up. I hope you got my email...” Her voice trailed away as Mark laughed and nodded, shifting the laptop so she could see his face properly.

“The one about your Christmas dinner, that had me drooling, or that dratted email that came through while I was working? You know…the one with the picture of you?”

 

Melody laughed again, throwing her head back a little before she shifted a touch on her own couch, tipping her head to the side as he shifted once again, clicking on something which made him groan.

 The sound of beeping had him jumping, which made Melody frown just a little before he looked guiltily at the computer screen, and clearly at her pouting face. She already knew what he was going to say. There wasn’t much evidence from this, and it had her shaking her head in disgust.

“I’m sorry love, but…I gotta go. You know that I’m on call a lot. I’ll send you an email or something when I get back…since you’ll probably be asleep. I love you, darling.” The call shut down, his picture disappeared…and Melody broke into helpless, wrenching sobs. She hated the constantly broken calls, someone pulling on Mark’s string every time they spent, or tried to spend, time together.

 It was when the huge cat slunk across the floor, leaving watery drops behind his thick brush of a tail. He purred quietly before arching himself up against her legs. When she didn’t move, he leaped beside her, butting his head against her side until she opened her arms and let him step forwards onto her lap. Without a complaint, he took the hug when it came, the tip of his tail curling to and fro as his luminous eyes glowed beneath a curtain of her brown hair.

 “Ah Blitzen. I do love you, my handsome lad. And I’m glad you finally came indoors! I was only going to take off your Christmas collar and put your normal one on, surely you know that?” The cat gave no sign of understanding her words, instead just staring at her blankly. Melody rolled her eyes a little before unclipping the red collar with green trees and chucking it over her shoulder. It was a struggle for her to wrestle the normal black collar over his head, but when it was on, he settled with a deep, rasping purr against her stomach, his paws kneading at her while she brooded.

 A knock at the door had her bolting upright, the cat slung awkwardly over her shoulder as she staggered to stand upright. The knock was repeated, louder this time and Melody frowned, shaking her head as she finally got to the door with Blitzen hissing over her shoulder. She could already see that something was being delivered, the box enormous beside the non-descript woman who was standing against it casually.

“Are you gonna sign or not? Really don’t wanna be heaving this back to the depo, was hard enough getting it in the truck.”

 She sighed softly, scratching her signature down before putting Blitzen down and pushing him with her foot into the living room. She shut the door in time with the woman leaving and then ripped open the box with her keys. She was confused, not expecting anything. When the flaps of the box opened to reveal another box, she groaned, frowning before finding herself surrounded by boxes as she undid box in box in box. When she got down to a box the size of her hand, she opened it, expecting to find nothing after all that work. Instead, she found a plain white card which she turned over in her hands with a frown.

 

Come around back.

 
M

 

She frowned, mouthing ‘M’ to herself before obeying the card, her head tipped to the side before she laughed softly. Mark had probably had something delivered in the back, which just meant that she had to go and see what it was. She broke into tears for the second time in an hour when she saw Mark standing on her back-porch in the dark, just a bunch of flowers in his hand and a grin on his face. For the first time to meet, this was just about the most perfect thing ever, the best present…the most unique way to find yourself falling fully in love with someone. And though I'd said the words before, now I truly felt the love burning in my stomach as I saw him standing there.

 

“Happy belated Christmas Melody!” She only burst into laughter when she spotted the red ribbon tied around his waist, held in place by the loops of his jeans. “Hope you don’t mind your present…”

 

 

 

Dominique Goodall is the author of Echoes of Winter, book one in the Seasons of the Wolf series and a self-confessed wolf addict. She has currently been published in two anthologies by Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing and is currently working on getting herself better known by sending in manuscripts for as many different anthologies as she possibly can.

 As much as she loves to admit it, she never will be able to count her wolf stuff- there’s nothing left for her to be truly able to collect without her own home.

 She can be friended on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/WaterSinger

Her author page on Facebook is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dominique-Goodall-author/250907358312446

The page for Echoes of Winter is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Echoes-of-Winter/355235744499607

Her twitter name is: https://twitter.com/#!/DomGoodall

And her blog can be found here: http://dominiquegoodall.wordpress.com/

And the trailer for her book is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kix63EXBW50&feature=plcp

 

Link to Echoes of Winter UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Echoes-Winter-Seasons-Wolf-ebook/dp/B00AMR9W1Y

 

Link to Echoes of Winter US: http://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Winter-Seasons-Wolf-ebook/dp/B00AMR9W1Y