Books » Janet Evanovich » Christmas Wishes

Author: Svendances

1. Santa Baby 2. All I Want For Christmas

Rated: K - English - General - Reviews: 19 - Published: 12-02-07 - Updated: 12-04-07

id:3924291

Well I was singing at these Carols in the park the other night, and I had the pleasure of hearing one very talented woman sing a very different Christmas song. It was my third year at these carols and each year she's sung the same song and each year it stuck in my mind, so I decided to share it with you all in the best way I know how. Through our favourite Bounty Hunter, Stephanie Plum. I hope you all enjoy it.

"Santa Baby"

Steph sat on a bench at the mall, all alone, a week before Christmas. Her shopping bags sat on the ground all around her and on the seat beside her. She was determined not to be a screw up again this year, and was proud of herself for getting presents for all her family and friends. The only problem was that now she didn't have any money left to pay her bills. Well, surely in the spirit of Christmas the electric company wouldn't cut off her power, would they? Live in hope.

As she began speculating on her life and asking herself how it ever got this bad a lady in a mink shawl walked past. Clearly she wasn't from around here, nobody in Jersey wears mink. Steph couldn't help feeling jealous though. There was this woman dressed to the nines and looking every bit rich and her was she, dressed in her winter woollies wondering if she'd have power on Christmas day. It made her wish she had done things differently. Made her want to write to Santa and demand that he set things right for her.

Finally, standing and gathering up all her bags once more, she made her way outside to wait for her father, the taxi man. Her car was once again, for want of a more subtle term, dead. Well, okay, it was more like, disintegrated, extinguished, extinct, permanently out of commission, you get the idea? She had no car. Which, of course, made things super easy when you're a bounty hunter and you have to drive around town trying to track down your skips.

She hadn't told Ranger; otherwise she wouldn't be carless. The thing was, she and Ranger had, she assumed, been on the outs of late; she hadn't seen him in over a month, and things weren't all that much better with Morelli. So, she was alone for Christmas once again. How many years would that make it now? Too many, that's for sure. She was approaching forty for God's sake, and she still couldn't land herself a man for the holiday season? Pathetic, that's what she was, utterly pathetic.

It was times like these that made her wish that he father still went sailing every year in the week leading up to Christmas. It would be just Steph, her sister and her father, riding the seas and looking a little green around the gills; they never did gain their sea legs in all those years. Maybe I could save up for a sailing trip this year, Steph thought as she stack her bags in the back of her father's car and hopped into the passenger seat.

As he pulled into the carpark of her apartment building she sighed. Another year in that dinky little apartment with green and brown bathroom just making her want to gag. She really was sick of it. She needed something new, something exciting! Something that didn't scream, OLD PEOPLE'S HOME. She needed something different. Something everyone would envy her for.

"Daddy, has Mum mentioned anything about my Christmas present this year?" Stephanie asked before removing herself from the car. "I don't want her to get me something that I don't need. It will only be put in the cupboard and never used, ya know?" Or hocked off to pay rent. "What I think would be really nice this year would be if you and Mum could just give me money so I can get something that I need and will use." Or pay rent.

"Darling, you know I think that's a brilliant idea, but your mother, you know how she thinks. All I get from her if I suggest that is, 'Money is so impersonal Frank,' and she'll go out and buy something you don't need anyway. I'm sorry pumpkin, I'll try though."

Steph leaned over and kissed her father on the cheek and got out grabbing all her purchases as she went. Her father waited until she was inside the building and had waved back at him before leaving and she made her way up to her grungy little apartment. The answer machine was blinking as she entered the door, the closest she was going to get to Christmas lights. Rex was running on his wheel. And her pathetic little Christmas tree was looking as sparse as ever. She'd taken the time, the previous night, as she watched the Christmas Special Re-runs, to make a paper chain out of the newspaper she had stolen from her neighbour's door, but it just wasn't festive and had the impression on her of impending gloom, which of course was fail safe, because that was her life in a nutshell.

As she settled down on her sofa with a bowl of popcorn and another round of re-runs the phone rang. Shuffling in a half hearted way back out into the kitchen , Steph thought of all the people it could have been and decided that none of them would really have a great reason for calling, so her answer to the voice on the other end was very bored.

"Yeah?"

"Merry Christmas, Babe."

"Ranger?"

"You sound surprised."

"I didn't think you ever wanted to speak to me again," she began to babble. "I figured you had permanently fled my presence and were well and truly settled down in Europe or something."

When Steph paused to take a breath he jumped in, seizing, what one can assume, was the only opportunity he was going to get. "Babe, why wouldn't I want to see you, or speak to you?"

"I don't know, you just left and well things really didn't go that well the night before you left and naturally I thought it was my fault you left and I was resigned to the fact that I was never going to see you again. And-."

"Babe, are you at home? I have something important I want to talk to you about and it doesn't seem right to do it over the phone." Stephanie's heart began thumping harder in her chest. Could this be it? Could there be something life changing in the content of the up coming discussion? Could there finally be something more between them? Was he finally listening to his heart? Was he going to-. "Babe? You still there?"

Blinking several times as she came out of her daze, Steph answered softly, "Yeah, Ranger, I'm at home."

Merry Christmas everybody. I hope I've brightened your holiday season as you have all brightened mine all year. Thanks for all the support I've recieved on previous stories and thanks for not boo hooing my very lacking sense of huimour. HAve a great holiday!

LUV Bec