Angel Cookie Christmas

Chapter 1: Pinetop Homecoming

She read the name, squinted at the smudged ink, then read it again. If her eyesight was to be trusted, the letter was from the North Pole! Unbelievable! Someone had to be playing a prank on her. It was from Mrs. Claus, to be exact, and it read:

Watch for the angel in disguise who will soon cross your path.

What a puzzling message! Thoroughly intrigued, Willa tore open the small package, dropped the paper to the floor, and stared at the delicate box cupped in her hands. It was white cardboard with an intricate eyelet snowflake pattern cut into each side. Whoever had sent it possessed a lovely eye for gift packaging. She lifted the fragile lid and gasped.

An iced gingerbread cookie ornament in the shape of an angel lay inside, nestled on a bed of snowy white felt. She lifted the box to breathe in the soothing aroma of gingerbread and holiday spices, and her heavy heart instantly lifted a few degrees.

Thank you, Mrs. Claus or whoever you are. I really needed a dose of holiday magic this evening.

She sashayed her way back to the parlor and ever so gently propped the precious gift on her mantle. It leaned against the wall like a delicious morsel of hope drizzled in white icing. She reached for her mug, only to carry it to the kitchen and dump the remaining contents in the sink. Her fingers were no longer cold.

She retired to her bed chamber, where her part-time maid had so thoughtfully drawn her a steamy bath. You're an angel, Tilly, if I ever met one! Not one in disguise, though. She bathed, changed into her white silk night robe, and lounged against the mountain of quilted lilac pillows on her antique four-poster bed. An hour later, she was still wide awake, unable to get the angel cookie ornament out of her mind.

Gingerbread always reminded her of Christmastime and home. Home was Pinetop, Arizona, a small town she hadn't visited near often enough since her launch to stardom. Her acting career had taken her to theaters all over the world the past ten years. Sure, she tried to squeeze in a quick visit home now and then, but Christmas? The last time she'd been home for Christmas was...

Ugh! She sat up and rubbed her eyes, making her down-filled mattress puff up a bit around her legs. It had been so long she was having trouble pinpointing the exact time. Six years? Maybe seven? Too long.

I really should go visit my folks. Mother and Father would be overjoyed to spend the holidays with their only child.

She stared across her enormous moonlit chamber and allowed the endless months of loneliness and homesickness wash over her. She certainly had the time for a visit home this holiday season. Thanks to the new owner of Desert Productions replacing her lead role in the upcoming Christmas play with his niece, she had the next several weeks to do whatever she wished. She wasn't scheduled to work again until January.

Yes, indeed, it was time for a visit home — not one of those rushed stopovers between productions either. A real visit. The several week kind.

Her mind made up, Willa plopped back on her pile of pillows, scattering several across the bed. One dropped to the wood floor with a soft, muted thud, and she was finally able to fall sleep.

* * *

She rose at dawn, attempted to throw together a quick travel bag, and gave up in defeat. She simply didn't possess the ability to pack quickly or lightly. She might be staying in Pinetop for six weeks or longer. That required some careful planning when it came to her gown selection, shoes and accessories, toiletries, and comfort items like scented candles, books, and that spare theater prop or two a girl never knew she needed until she did.

She was surrounded by mountains of hat boxes and shoes by the time her maid made her morning appearance.

"Land sakes, child!" Tilly Cassidy took one look at the towering piles of female belongings, smoothed her white ruffled work cap farther back on her pile of red hair, and dove in to set the room to rights.