Her Wish Before Christmas (Holiday Hearts) Read Online Free PDF Page B

with nostalgia. “I’ve been looking for these for years. Why did she have them stashed away in here?”
    Cilla held up three identical-shaped small bottles, the size of a perfume sample, made of different shades of glass and attached to a leather string with a gold clasp. Jacqui’s in dark amber, Lena’s in azure blue, and her own in clear yellow.
    “Where’s yours?” Cilla asked, pinning Genny once again in the hot seat.
    “I don’t know.” She shifted on her feet.
    Connor has it because he’s the one.
    Just a coincidence, Nona .
    “You might as well tell us. You’ve been trying to lie your whole life and never succeeded.” Cilla’s maternal tone took control of the interrogation.
    She was right about Genny’s not being able to lie with success.
    “Okay, Connor was here last night, and he found the necklaces when the bowl fell and spilled all over him.”
    “Oh my God, Genny.” Lena didn’t hide her excitement.
    “Nona would make sure he has it if he’s the one.” Jacqui’s assuredness at their grandmother’s posthumous meddling irritated already raw feelings.
    Lena clasped her hands together. “Do you think he’s opened it?”
    “If he does, he’s the one to make your wish come true.” Jacqui and Lena crowded in close. The three encircled Genny. All she needed was for Nona’s spirit to come crashing through the room, and they’d have Connor and her at the altar before she could bake a batch of get-the-hell-out-of-my-life brownies.
    “I’m not talking about this anymore. The necklaces are trinkets she gave us on our birthdays. We were girls having fun. I’m not going to build my life around the hope of something magical happening. I’m a grown woman, and I know full well wishes don’t always come true.”
    “But—”
    “But nothing. I have a child to babysit and cookies to bake.” She motioned for them to move and left them to discuss their own fortunes and wishes.
    Once upon a time she’d believed, but then her wish left her with no intention of ever returning.
    Connor’s back now and interested.
    I’m ignoring you, too, Nona
    She found Jake playing with a train set under one of the Christmas trees in the passageway between the front and middle rooms.
    “Hey, buddy, are you ready to go bake some cookies?”
    Genny held out her hand to him and waited for him to take hold.
    “Okay.” He focused on his feet instead of looking her in the eye, but slipped his small hand into hers.
    “My grandmother’s kitchen upstairs will be the best-smelling place in town when we get through.” She led him to a hidden staircase that took them into Nona’s apartment. It seemed empty without her, but Genny loved baking there.
    When Nona had decided to sell the family’s cookies in her shop, she refurbished her kitchen into the envy of any bakery. Her small dining room held shelves full of packaging. Genny had spent hours every evening the last couple of weeks baking dozens of the best-selling cookie varieties their regular customers had come to expect. She’d even tested a couple of new recipes, but her heart wasn’t in the task. Every batch of pumpkin raisin and chewy molasses reminded her of time spent with her family, from the early years of baking for just themselves to expanding for the store. Memories both comforting and too exhausting to filter.
    “Let’s see. I think there’s an apron just your size in here.” She rummaged through a hall closet and pulled out a white child-sized apron. “This was mine when I was your age. My grandmother taught me everything I know about baking cookies.”
    “My grandma let me help her bake cookies once.”
    “Oh? What kind’s your favorite?” She smiled at him. He seemed to have gotten over his shyness. He pulled the apron over his head and turned for her to cross the strings at his back and loop them around his waist to tie in the front. Just as she had done.
    “Chocolate chip. She wouldn’t let me eat any of the chips, and I could only