A Magical Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page B

advertisement. “Well, they might be booked already.”
    “Won’t know till you give it a try,” Jack advised. “I’ll buy a chocolate bar if you give it a go.”
    “Ouch!” Millie protested as Jack elbowed her. “Oh, all right, all right. I’ll buy a chocolate bar if you try, too. Hell, I’ll buy a few of ’em.”Julie found herself smiling.
    Millie stood, staring down at Jack. “Jeez, Jack, what am I paying you for? The phones are ringing off the hook.” She lowered her voice. “That Casey is a downright flibbertigibbet. You just can’t get good help these days!” She sighed.
    Jack stood, groaning. “She doesn’t need to wear that bitch sign. She needs the words tattooed all over her body.”
    “That’s sexist!” Millie snapped, prodding him out of Julie’s office.
    “I didn’t say it ought to be tattooed on your breasts or fanny or anything,” Jack protested.
    Millie was out of the office first. Jack turned back, winking at Julie. “Her fanny’s been dragged down a bit too much and too long by gravity for a decent tattoo anyway,” he whispered.
    Then the door to her office closed.
    She sat in silence for a few minutes.
    It just didn’t feel like Christmas. She’d been going through most of the motions, of course. She had children. Christmas was definitely important to children.
    But…
    What was one more Christmas?
    Especially, as Millie had said, if she was planning on a divorce.She didn’t know what she was planning. She only knew that she was tired. And hurt.
    She sat another minute.
    Then she picked up the phone and dialed the 800 number listed on the advertisement.
    One more Christmas.
    For the family.
    Maybe the place would be completely booked. She was calling so very late. She’d hang up after another ring.…
    But someone answered.
    “Hello? Oak River Plantation.”
    The voice was feminine, soft, nicely modulated.
    Just a bit impatient.
    “Hello? Is anyone there?”
    “I—yes!” Julie said quickly. “I’m calling about your Christmas holiday plan. I suppose I’m too late, but I thought I’d like to give you a try—”
    “Actually, we had a cancellation just this morning,” the woman said pleasantly. “Your timing is wonderful.”
    “Oh—oh, great. Except that… well, we’re a family of five. Two adults, three children.”
    “Girls or boys?”
    “My children?”
    “Yes.” The female voice sounded slightly amused. “Well, perhaps I’m being presumptuous in this day and age, but the way you said
family
… Iimagined you meant your husband and yourself, and naturally I assumed your husband to be a boy. I’m sorry, a man.” She sighed, struggling to get her meaning out right. “Male!”
    “He is. Yes. Naturally,” Julie said, and she found herself leaning back in her chair, smiling.
    “I was referring to your children. Can two share a room?”
    “Oh, yes, of course. I’ve one boy, two girls.”
    “You’ll be perfect in the guest suite,” the woman said. Her tone was lovely, her laugh captivating. The warm sound of her voice fit in perfectly with the look of the place in the advertisement. Julie felt her uncertainty slipping away.
    “Good. That’s—great,” Julie said.
    “It is a bit primitive out here,” the woman warned her. “We’re not difficult to find, but we are quite remote. Of course, that does add to the beauty of the place.”
    “That’s the part we’re looking forward to most,” Julie assured her. No traffic. Oh, God.
    One morning without traffic. That just might be a Christmas present in itself.
    No Cruddy-Disgusting-Joe to walk across the road, no cars on the butt of her own to crash into her when she was forced to brake to avoid vehicular homicide—or roadkill, whichever you might want to consider Cruddy-Disgusting-Joe.“Well, then, we’ll be looking forward to seeing you. When do you expect to arrive?”
    Julie thought out the distance. They’d fly into National, probably, on the same night the kids finished with their