The Mistletoe Inn Read Online Free PDF

crying. He took my hand. When I could speak, I said, “Can we go home now?”
    He leaned over the table and kissed my forehead, then said, “Whatever you want, sweetheart. Whatever you want.”

CHAPTER
Six
    How different life would be if we knew just how little of it we actually possessed.
    Kimberly Rossi’s Diary

My father’s house was simple but beautiful—a typical Las Vegas rambler with a rock-and-white-stucco exterior surrounded by palm trees. It wasn’t a large home, and everything was on one floor—three bedrooms, two baths—but there was plenty of room for the two of us.
    In spite of my aching heart, or perhaps because of it, I was especially glad to be back. After all this time it still felt like home.
    My father gave me his keys to the house, then grabbed my suitcase and followed me in. In the foyer was a large new saltwater fish aquarium filled with beautiful exotic fish, his newest hobby.
    â€œHow are your fish?” I asked.
    â€œThe fish,” he said, sounding a little exasperated. “I had an incident last week. I purchased one of those triggerfish. It started eating the other fish, including my hundred-dollar pygmy angelfish.”
    â€œExpensive hobby,” I said.
    â€œToo expensive for my budget,” he said. “Never should have done it.”
    He carried my bag to my old bedroom and set it down next to the bed. “I washed the sheets and everything.”
    â€œThanks, Dad.” There was an uneasy awkwardness between us, as if he wasn’t sure if he should leave me alone or not. Finally I asked, “Are you ready for tomorrow?”
    â€œJust about. I baked the pies this morning.”
    â€œ You baked pies?”
    â€œIt’s something new I’m trying,” he said. “I got the recipes off the Internet. And I had a little help. That woman I told you about from the VA hospital. She came over and helped me cook.”
    â€œYou mean Alice?” I said.
    He grinned. “Alice. As in, Alice’s Restaurant.”
    â€œWhatever that is,” I said.
    â€œSo I made a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie. The pecan pie was a little tricky, but it turned out all right.”
    â€œI’m glad that she came over,” I said. “I don’t like you being alone all the time.”
    â€œI’m not alone. I’ve got fish.”
    â€œIf they don’t all eat each other.”
    I suspect that he guessed I was just making small talk to avoid the cancerous elephant in the room, because he sat down on my bed next to me and put his arm around me. “Let me tell you something. When I was in Nam, there was this guy I served with named Gordie Ewell. He was regular infantry, served four years in combat. That man was indestructible. He was in some of the most intense battles of the war: Hamburger Hill, Khe Sanh, and Cu Chi. He surviveda crash in a downed helicopter, had a jeep blown up beneath him from a land mine, was hit by grenade shrapnel in a trench, got bit by a viper and shot twice. But nothing stopped him. The men nicknamed him Boomerang because he always came back.
    â€œWhen he was finally released, he was awarded three Purple Hearts. He went home to Brooklyn in June of seventy-three, around the time the war started winding down.
    â€œAbout a month later he went in to get a wisdom tooth pulled. He was given too much anesthetic and died in the dentist chair.”
    I just looked at my father. “Exactly what part of that was supposed to make me feel better?”
    â€œI’m just saying that when it’s your time, it’s your time. I know that might sound foreboding, but I take hope in it.” He put his hands on my cheeks. “I don’t believe it’s my time, girl. We’ve still got plenty of good years ahead of us, you and I.” He kissed me on the forehead, then stood. “Now go to bed. We’ve got a lot to do tomorrow.”
    â€œGood night, Dad.”
    â€œGood