Come Home For Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page A

like that. Now, we have to hurry, the weather isn’t getting any better. I need some wine. I know it’s after six, but could you open the wine rack for me?”
    “Of course. You have to celebrate her coming home where she belongs.”
    “Leah, why don’t you and Krista go and get a turkey while I pick up the rest of the stuff we need? Grab a couple of those pizzas, too.” He smiled at her. “What kind of wine do you like?”
    “Dry red, please. A cabernet or a merlot.” She’d need more than one glass to get through the next few days.
    Maybe I should ask him to get a case.
    “Daddy, don’t forget your wish.”
    “I won’t.”
    “This way,” Leah said, taking charge of her as if she were some kind of celebrity. “First we’ll make the wish, then get the pizzas, and after that the turkey.” She screwed up her face. “It probably won’t taste very good this year.”
    “Why is that?” she asked.
    “Because Mrs. Jones had to go to her sister’s house, and she won’t be back until after New Year’s when I go back to school. Daddy’s got to cook it, but he’s only good at macaroni.”
    Krista chuckled at the forlorn look on the child’s face. So much for wishing for a buffer. The little girl was growing on her by leaps and bounds. She’d hoped to have a child like this, but at first she’d had her job, and then things had gotten bad between her and Theo. When she’d miscarried, he’d accused her of doing it on purpose and had hit her so hard, he’d cracked her cheekbone and blackened her eyes. The team lawyer had walked in on him and escorted Theo out of the room while the doctors attended to her. The news reports had said she’d hit her face on the ice when she’d slipped. No mention of the lost child. Two weeks later, someone had served her with divorce papers. Theo had moved out of the condo before she’d returned home from the hospital.
    “Maybe I can help out with that,” she said, knowing the time would pass more quickly if she had something to do, and she loved cooking.
    “Are you a good cook?” the child asked skeptically. “Can you bake cookies?”
    “I can.”
    “Peanut butter ones?”
    “Yes.”
    Leah grinned. “Chocolate ones, too?”
    Krista nodded. “We can make some tomorrow, just for practice.”
    “That would be fun. Mrs Jones lets me help when she makes cookies,” the child added. “Daddy likes oatmeal raisin ones.”
    “I seem to remember that. Maybe we can make some of those, too. Here’s the angel,” Krista said as they reached the small crèche set up in the store. Like so many things she’d seen since her arrival, here was another familiar one that brought back good memories. The figures had to be at least a hundred years old. They’d belonged to Mama’s mother, one of the few things the woman had managed to take with her when her family had left Germany after the war.
    “Do you have a wish ready?” Leah asked.
    “No, I don’t. I didn’t know I’d be making a wish today,” she answered as solemnly as the child had spoken, although she could probably think of a few—if she still believed in angels and wishes.
    “Then, can I ask you to make a wish for me?”
    “I’m not sure it works that way,” Krista said smothering her concern. Whatever the child wanted, she wanted badly. It was never good to make promises to children you couldn’t keep—promises like you’d love them and protect them forever.
    “Neither am I,” Leah answered resigned, “but I heard Daddy tell Mr. Slocum that sometimes you had to have faith and take a chance.”
    “Who’s Mr. Slocum?”
    “He’s Daddy’s lawyer.”
    “I see.” Ethan probably thought she was going to give him a hard time about the ranch. If she didn’t need money to start a new life, she’d just give up her share, whatever it was, and walk away. “Okay. So what do you want me to wish for?”
    “I want a new mommy,” the child said.
    Her sad blue eyes punched Krista in the gut, making her