A Texas Holiday Miracle Read Online Free PDF Page A

heading home. Emma was very quiet. She probably was feeling lonely, just like Lacey was.
    Emma plopped onto the sofa. “Can Jimmy come over to play?”
    “No. He’s gone to his grandmother’s today. Change your clothes and we’ll play games or something.”
    “No.” The word was spoken in an angry tone.
    Lacey gave her a minute. Then she placed her hands on her hips. “Go change your clothes. Now!”
    Emma jumped up and ran to her room. Lacey groaned. Another one of those days. They were due for a good one. Soon.
    After slipping into jeans and a pullover top, she went to check on Emma. The little girl was lying on her bed, reading a book. She took after her mother. Mona had been a librarian.
    Lacey glanced around the lavender, white and purple room she’d helped their father decorate. Emma was not a girlie girl and had not wanted a pink room. Her father had bought all kinds of Barbies and a Barbie doll house and numerous other Barbie toys, but Emma barely touched them. She liked the outdoors and would rather play with a ball instead of a doll. But she did love stuffed animals, and they littered the comforter on her white four-poster bed.
    Lacey sat beside her sister. “What are you reading?”
    Emma closed A Light in the Attic and scooted up. “Why don’t I have a grandma?”
    Oh, that was the reason for the sulkiness. “You did have a grandma. Two, actually. Dad’s mom’s name was Martha and your mom’s was Ruth. Grandma Martha died when I was fifteen. She would’ve loved you.”
    “She would?”
    “You bet. She gave big hugs and made everyone feel loved. I always looked forward to staying with her during the summer.”
    “What about my other grandma?”
    Lacey took a breath, hating to talk about so many deaths. But she had to be honest. “She died, too, sweetie. I never met her. She was a librarian like your mother.”
    Emma stared down at her sneakers. “Why does everybody have to die?”
    Lacey frantically opened the book in her head and searched for answers. As always, none was suitable. She had to go with her gut feeling. “That’s life, sweetie, and as you get older you’ll understand more.” That sounded lame even to her own ears. She was terrible at this. Hugging Emma, she said, “You know what? You can call me Lacey or you can call me Grandma. I can be both.”
    Emma giggled. With a hand over her mouth, she said, “You’re weird, Lacey.”
    “How about if we walk to the park and play on the big slide and swing set?”
    “’Kay.” Emma jumped off the bed. “They have a really big slide. It makes my stomach feel funny and it’s fun.”
    “Let’s get our coats and go, then.”
    Emma grabbed her coat from a chair. As Lacey went to her room to get hers, the buzz of her cell phone stopped her.
    “Just a minute, Emma. I have to answer my phone.”
    It was her mother. Lacey sank onto the bed, ready for another round of complaints. “Hi, Mom.”
    Her mother wasted no time getting started. “Since you couldn’t spend Thanksgiving with me, I was hoping we could spend Christmas together.”
    Lacey closed her eyes and counted to three. “Mom, you know I can’t leave Emma at Christmas.”
    “What about me? Your own mother? You have no time for me anymore. I don’t know what Jack was thinking when he asked you to take care of that child. You’re a young woman and should have your own life.”
    They had been through this so many times, and Lacey had grown weary of the subject. “It was my choice. Mona’s sister offered to take Emma, but she has four children of her own. If Emma was taken from the home she’d shared with Dad, I knew it would be detrimental for her. I love my sister and I couldn’t put her through that. I’m here and I intend to stay here. I will work something out for Christmas.”
    “Like what?”
    “If you would just accept Emma, you could come to Horseshoe.”
    “I’m not stepping foot in the house your father shared with that woman.”
    Lacey wanted to beat