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“Oh, and before I forget, I thought you might want this.” She took out an envelope and handed it to Calen. “It’s a copy of my birth certificate with Dad’s name on it and DNA test results for Dad and me.”

Calen took the envelope but kept his attention on Nessa. “Why DNA tests? Did Waylon ask for that?”

“No. My mom’s the one who insisted on it. She wanted me to know who my father was. She wanted me to know you,” she tacked on. “And now that we’ve met, I hope you won’t mind me stopping by the next time I’m in town.” Her smile widened when Calen nodded. “The same for you,” she said to Emmy. “I’ll definitely want to buy some books for the baby, and maybe we can chat.”

“I’d like that,” Emmy assured her. And she made a mental note to buy a whole bunch of those board books for infants.

Nessa stood. “Well, I’ll be going then. I want to walk through town and see the decorations. And get that muffin.” She chuckled. “I really am craving it.”

“Why don’t I go with you?” Emmy asked, standing as well. “The sidewalks might be a little slippery since the temps are right at freezing. The weather forecast is calling for snow tomorrow.”

“Oh, I heard that. A white Christmas.” Nessa’s eyes lit up. “Wouldn’t that be amazing?”

Well, Emmy hadn’t thoughtamazingwas the right word because she’d been worrying about icy roads, but since white Christmases were rare, it might indeed be a special treat.

And her mind began to spin in a different direction.

Maybe Calen and she could spend that white Christmas snuggled up together. Cuddling and talking about how this sister revelation was affecting him. Maybe sharing some of the day, too, with his sister.

“But I don’t want to trouble you,” Nessa insisted a moment later. “I suspect you both have work to do. I can go into town alone.”

“No trouble,” Emmy and Calen said in unison as he also stood. “I can take a little more time before going in to the bookstore,” Emmy added.

“And I don’t have to go in to the office for another hour or two,” Calen explained. “I can drive, and then Emmy and I can show you around. Or we can follow you into town. Maybe show you some of the shops you might’ve missed on your other visits.”

Nessa’s smile was tentative now. “But what if people ask who I am?” she said.

“Then, I’ll tell them you’re my sister,” Calen assured her. “Are you ready to start tongues wagging about that?”

The woman’s bright smile returned. “Oh, yes. Let the tongue wagging begin.”

* * *

Calen figured plenty of tongues were already getting a workout. A workout that’d started within minutes of their arrival in town, when they’d all parked in the lot next to the sheriff’s office.

Because Christmas Creek was crowded with tourists, shoppers, and locals who just liked being part of the holiday buzz, Main Street was jammed, and he saw plenty of long, questioning looks. Saw behind-the-hand whispers. Of course, some of the merchants might recognize Nessa from her previous shopping trips, but there’d be much speculation as to why she was with Emmy and him.

Calen saw that speculation in the Candy Cane Bakery when the owner, Tandy Roberts, rang up Nessa’s muffin and coffee to-go cups for Emmy and him. Tandy didn’t come out and ask why Nessa was with them, but that was probably because the store was packed, and she had customers waiting.

“This is one of my favorites,” Nessa said, eating the muffin while they stopped at the window of Santa’s Workshop, one of the town’s four toy stores.

As usual, the front window was set up with a display of a toy train choo-chooing and chugging its way through a mock-up of the town. Calen had seen it so many times that it was like white noise to him. In fact, the entire town had become holiday white noise, but he stopped because Nessa did. He looked in.

And frowned.

“Is that me?” He pointed to the tiny figure standing outside the sheriff’s office. The hair color matched his, but the figure was skinny enough to be one of those waving blow-up characters outside a car dealer.

“It is,” Emmy verified. “And that’s me.” She pointed to the equally weirdly shaped figure standing by the front of the bookstore. “Herman ordered the figures online and sent the artist photos of us.” She putartistin air quotes. “They used to have a Waylon figure by the post office, but they replaced it with Wheezer’s Dalmatian, which often takes naps there.”

Calen had some vague memories of folks talking about that, but he’d never paid attention to the display. It was sort of, well, touching in a small-town kind of way to be immortalized in, well, a small-town kind of way.

They got more stares and whispers when they went in so Nessa could make use of the bathroom and pick up the mobile she’d ordered. The clerk, Hanna Tarver, who was one of the town’s biggest holiday lovers, beamed a smile at them, and she opened her mouth, no doubt to issue that happy holidays/merry Christmas greeting. But Calen’s hard look stopped her. His mood had significantly improved, but he still wasn’t ready to hear it.

Instead, Hanna focused her efforts on getting the mobile for Nessa, and much to Calen’s surprise, it wasn’t a traditional mobile. This one featured first responder vehicles. A cop car, fire truck, an ambulance, and a rescue helicopter.

“I figured my daughter would get enough girl stuff,” Nessa said when she saw Calen eyeing the mobile. “But I thought it wouldn’t hurt if she had a reminder of what you did. What you are,” she added, pointing to the little wooden cop behind the wheel of the cruiser.

Again, he was touched, but it also made him feel more than a little lousy. Here, all these years Nessa had wanted to meet him, had wanted him to be part of her life, and he hadn’t known squat about it. About her. Of course, he could thank Waylon for that, but it still felt as if he should have figured it out sooner.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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