Winter of Wishes Read Online Free PDF Page A

the Baryonyx,” she challenged. “Your dat ’s told me all about how ya terrorize your sister and play tricks on your poor grandma.
     Ya might be a killer dinosaur who’s thirty-two feet long with claws of nearly twelve
     inches, but ya don’t scare me one little bit.”
    Brett yanked off the funny glasses to gawk at her. “You know about dinosaurs?”
    “For sure and for certain.” Rhoda glanced at the girl, a little older, who assessed
     her from behind Brett. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Miss Taylor. Does it smell so gut in here because you’re bakin’ cookies?”
    She nodded cautiously, which made the ponytail at her crown bob in its pink ribbon.
     “You talk kinda funny.”
    “Depends on whose ears are doin’ the listenin’,” Rhoda said with a shrug. “Everybody
     I know talks this way on account of how we all learn German—we call it Pennsylvania
     Dutch—at home. Didn’t speak English until I started to school, ya see. Ya might want
     to check your cookies, ain’t so?”
    Taylor’s eyes widened and then she dashed toward the back of the house. Brett scurried
     behind her, hollering, “I’m not gonna eat the burnt ones, Tay! Those’ll be all for
     you.”
    Andy squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Most times they’re not quite so, um, charming . But you handled them like a pro, Rhoda.”
    Heat crept into her cheeks as he took her coat. “I grew up dealin’ with all manner
     of cousins and neighborhood kids, ya know. The fellas on the Willow Ridge school board
     asked if I’d be their teacher, but that was right after Dat had passed and Mamma was
     startin’ up the Sweet Seasons.”
    “Any second thoughts about leaving the café to help us out? No hard feelings if you
     want to keep working there,” he said, watching her reaction. “But I really, really
     hope you’ll stay and take care of us.”
    Rhoda’s heart skittered in her chest. “What a nice thing to say. I—”
    “A man in my position, working crazy shifts and finishing his degree, can’t just be nice when he’s hiring someone to care for his mom and keep his kids out of reform school.
     I’m watching out for my own sanity.” Andy glanced at the big picnic hamper she’d carried
     in. “That smells so good, do I dare to hope it’s dinner? I could offer you frozen
     pizza, but—”
    “We had turkey and the fixin’s left from our lunch shift today. Mamma wanted ya to
     have a little Thanksgiving dinner because, well—” She smiled up at him, noting how
     he stood head and shoulders taller than she did. “Every day’s a chance to be thankful,
     for every little thing God’s given us, ain’t so? And I’m thankful for this chance
     to check out your kids and a whole new way to spend my days.”
    Andy gazed at her with eyes of the deepest, darkest brown she’d ever seen. “You’re
     awesome, you know it? The answer to a prayer—when I didn’t think I had a prayer,”
     he added with a sigh. “Come on back and meet Mom. She’s feeling a little puny today.”
    “How about if I tuck these pans into the oven first? I’ll just be a minute.”
    Was it too nervy, heading off in the same direction Taylor and Brett had disappeared?
     Through the front room she went with her basket, noting various shoes and schoolbooks
     scattered around furniture that was showing some wear . . . smelling cookies that
     had indeed spent too long in the oven.
    She stopped in the kitchen doorway. The countertop was strewn with a hand mixer, a
     dough-smeared bowl, and the ingredients Taylor had used. The poor girl was scraping
     blackened cookies off a baking sheet with a knife nearly as big as she was. Tears
     dribbled down her cheeks.
    Rhoda slipped an arm around Taylor’s shaking shoulders. “Ya know,” she murmured, “if
     I had a perfect cookie for every one of them I’ve burned—mostly because something
     interesting distracted me for too long—why, I could open a bakery with them! Just
     takes practice and patience,