Adoring April: Calendar Girls' Ranch, #4

By Caroline Lee

April Calendar might be a little obsessed with Christmas. Or a lot. As far as she's concerned, Christmas isn't just the most wonderful time of year, it's basically her reason for existing! Now, if she could—just once—manage to win the annual town Christmas Tree Decorating Contest and win the money her family's ranch so desperately needs, she'll be able to prove her Christmas obsession is actually useful!

 

Too bad she can't come up with a winning theme. And too bad she's paired up with the ranch's grumpy new handyman in her attempts to win the contest…no matter how hot he is.

 

Cole Carpenter only took on this new job because he wants to save money for the house he's building. He doesn't need the distraction of an adorable, far too energetic, Christmas-obsessed lady. And he definitely doesn't need to worry about some stupid tree-decorating contest.

 

But it's hard to deny her enthusiasm, though silly, is starting to make him feel pretty good inside. And it's impossible to deny how good she feels in his arms. Maybe there's something to this whole "Magic of the Christmas Season" thing after all. Maybe that's all it'll take for a grinch and an elf to find love this year!

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Caroline Lee
• Release date: Jan 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393669708

Book preview

Chapter 1

That beautiful old classic, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, was playing over her speaker as April Calendar helped her sister move out of their shared bedroom, and the only bedroom they’d ever known.

I can’t say I’m going to miss this one, April declared, lugging a rodent cage out of the room and into the hall.

Her sister—sweet, sweet May—frowned at her as she easily took the cage from her hands. Despite May’s delicate stature, she didn’t seem to have any difficulty lugging around animals at all. PJ is the absolute cutest squirrel in the existence of squirrels. How could you not love him?

April sent her sister a teasing grin, as she turned to scoop up a laundry basket full of rodent feed. "Because he’s also the smelliest. You only love him so much because he’s your baby, and you bottle-fed him. All mothers think their little PJs are the cutest."

And we’re right, cooed May, as she propped the cage on one hip so she could use her free hand to loosen the lid. And we want our babies to have fun. Come on out, honeybun. Come play with Mama.

April rolled her eyes as the squirrel—now fully grown and looking nothing like the tiny little pink worm he’d been when May had rescued him—scampered up May’s arm to perch on her shoulder.

He’s not a squirrel; he’s a parrot, she muttered, lugging the basket down the hall to her sister’s new room.

May was giggling as she set up PJ’s cage next to the one for her three-legged bunny, Pickles.. "I don’t think they smell at all, but I know you’ll be glad to see them all go."

Well, now April felt guilty. "They do smell, but I don’t mind them all that much. It was worth it having you nearby! It nearly broke my heart when Junie decided to leave."

It nearly broke her heart too, May agreed quietly, but I think it was the right decision.

Sighing, April wiped her palms on her jeans and pulled her sister into a hug.

She was one of twelve Calendar sisters, all named for months of the year. She loved being a part of such a special family, but she loved even more the fact she and May and Junie were triplets. They were the only biological siblings among the thirteen Calendar kids, and even though everyone knew triplets were bad luck—which is probably why they’d been abandoned in the NICU when they were born—she loved the connection she had to May and Junie.

I’m not going very far, her sister mumbled against her shoulder. Just down the hall.

Right. April straightened and patted sweet May’s shoulder. And I won’t be alone.

Sparky’s moving in, right? Or is it Berry? Which one won the coin toss.

"I think you mean lost the coin toss, since one will have to move. I don’t actually know, but I think as long as one of them moves out, the other will go less crazy. And I don’t mind Sparky’s messes, but then, neither does Julia. Maybe Berry should move in with me…"

May snorted as she began fussing over another cage. You know how exact Berry is. Now that Christmas season has started, and our room looks like it vomited lights and glitter and sparklers, you might be better off with Sparky after all.

Hmm. Very true.

The Calendar family lived in a large house on the ranch, and the girls had always bunked together. The twelve of them were spread over four years, so it made sense to group them by sets of three. The three oldest—Jana, Val, and Marci—had lived together, and the next oldest, the triplets, lived together until Junie had moved into town a while ago. Julia, their resident artist, lived with Sparky and Berry, who were total opposites. She’d always had trouble keeping the peace between techie Sparky—who’s real name was August—and foodie and chef Berry, September’s nickname.

Compared to the three of them, the youngest three Calendars—October, Novel and Dawn—got along perfectly fine.

Now that Jana, Val, and Marci were all married, there was an empty room on the second floor of the house. It made sense to move Berry or Sparky into it, but since May was older—and had been living with a menagerie under her bed for years—she got first dibs.

And since April didn’t like being alone, she was willing to welcome anyone into her space.

She headed back to her room—the only room she’d ever known. It wasn’t that she particularly loved it, but it was hers. And May was right; Christmas really had exploded all over it. How could it not? It was December, the most wonderful time of year, as far as she was concerned. Sure, Easter and Halloween, and pretty much any holiday where she could decorate, were okay too. But Christmas was…?

Christmas was special.

Just standing here, among all of her personal decorations, she felt her heart expanding. There was something so exciting about all the lights and eggnog and good cheer and happiness and charity and love and joy and—

Well, all those reasons and more were why she loved this season so much.

Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow will find it hard to sleep tonight.

Smiling, April spun slowly in the middle of the room, so grateful May hadn’t minded her decorating back in early November. Mom’s policy was that April wasn’t allowed to decorate the ranch itself until the day after Thanksgiving—which, okay, plenty of other people felt that way, she supposed, but why wouldn’t you want to decorate for Christmas as soon as it started getting chilly? Or even mid-summer—but she could do whatever she wanted in her own room.

So the day after Halloween, the Christmas lights went up. Yippee!

I can get the rest of this, May said with a smile, as she ducked back into the room. Bob offered to help move the drawers out of my dresser—he’ll just switch out the drawers with Jana’s empty ones since we all have the same dresser. It’s great having an engineer as a brother.

April wrinkled her nose. Bob’s not an engineer. And that’s not such a brilliantly earth-shattering innovation…or whatever.

No, but he’s beefy enough to do it without straining, and that way, I can focus on the closet. Sometimes he’s not a complete booger-head.

Hmm. April cocked her head to one side as she considered. "No, I guess not always. But remember the time he sent you on that wild goose chase?"

"Hey, Herman was a wild goose, and he did have a broken wing. I’m glad I was able to chase him down and help him!"

Chuckling, April shook her head. Some people collect stamps or Barbies, things like that. She nodded to the squirrel still perched on her sister’s shoulder. "You collect animals."

Yes, but now I have more space to do so!

Mom’s not going to like it if you snatch up more woodland creatures.

May winked. "What Mom doesn’t know won’t hurt her. Now…shoo. She flicked her fingers at April. Go away. Go hang Christmas lights or something. Don’t think I didn’t hear you in here singing Christmas carols to yourself. You’re desperate to be Christmas-ing somewhere else, and I can manage the rest with Bob’s help."

"Christmas-ing isn’t a verb, but it should be, April teased. And how do you know I was singing carols? Maybe I was singing about"—Chestnuts roasting on an open fire—um…snacks for wee PJ?

"First of all, wee? When did you become Scottish? Second of all, don’t you feed my squirrel any wild chestnuts—or any nuts you find—without running them by me first."

Run my nuts by you first, got it.

May rolled her eyes. I just mean the animals have very carefully planned diets, and you can’t go messing with—

It’s hard to take you seriously when you have squirrel poop on your shoulder like some kind of tiny, adorable pirate.

Distracted, May glanced at her shoulder. Oh, that’s not squirrel poop. It’s—

Wee?

Her sister clucked her tongue. It’s the design of the shirt! Don’t you have something sparkly you could be hanging somewhere? I’m sure you could cram some more lights on one of the downstairs trees if you tried.

Suddenly beaming, April’s gaze slid back to the lights festooning their room. "I probably could, but not without buying more, and Dad’s put a moratorium on buying anymore lights this month. I’ve already got all the lights we own hung up, thanks to Sparky and Marci’s new husband, but I still do have to hang the garlands on the front fence."

May’s brows went up in surprise. You haven’t done that yet? Garlands are usually your favorite and the first to go up.

"First after the trees, yep-yep-yep! But this year I’ve been a little busy with the Christmas Village. It was a new addition to the ranch and had taken a lot of work but was a grand success in terms of bringing in money. Plus, it took me longer to make the boughs than usual since the stores were all out of floral wire for, like, ever."

"Ooh, so that explains why the sitting room has smelled like pine for, like, ever," May teased.

April sighed happily. I know. Isn’t it wonderful? It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Crossing the room, May scooped up another small cage, although this one appeared to be empty. "If you don’t get those boughs hung soon, how will Santa find his way here? His pickup will get stuck, and then Dad will have to go dig