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Keller chuckles. “I couldn’t be happier to take second place, but enjoy it because, next year, that blue ribbon is coming home.”
Hoyt officially announces the winner, and Bran proudly lifts the ribbon into the air.
Then, he reminds the boys and girls in the audience that Santa is watching and that they need to behave if they want to stay off his naughty list.
Trudy and Trixie, who were also in on the plan, move the celebration to the inn, where they have set up refreshments in the garden.
I find Sela and Cobie at the foot of the Christmas tree.
“There’re my girls. Are you two ready to head back to the inn?” I ask.
Sela turns her concerned eyes to me. Her hand is resting on Cobie’s shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as I hurry to their side.
“I don’t know. She just started crying out of nowhere, and I can’t console her,” Sela says.
I crouch to her eye level and take her face into my hands. “Talk to me, baby girl. What’s going on? Are you hurt?”
She gasps for air as she tries to tell me.
“Slow down. Take a couple of breaths,” I tell her.
She falls into my arms, her wet cheek coming to rest against my neck.
I pick her up and stand, rubbing soothing circles on her back.
Panic fills every fiber of my being as I hold my wailing daughter in my arms.
Once her body goes limp and her sobs turn to whimpers, I walk us to a bench by the lake and sit her in my lap.
I wipe the tears from under her eyes and wait for her to pull herself together.
“I did a bad thing, and Santa isn’t going to forgive me,” she explains between hiccups.
“I don’t think there’s anything that Santa can’t forgive if you confess, offer a sincere apology, and ask for forgiveness,” I tell her.
“But what if I’m not sorry?” she asks.
“You’re not sorry for doing the bad thing?”
She shakes her head.
“I’m afraid I’m going to need a little more information before I can help,” I say.
Her bottom lip quivers, and it breaks my heart to see her in such emotional turmoil.
“I did it,” she whispers.
“Did what?”
“I took the bag from your suitcase and hid it under Lexie’s bed,” she says, and she drops her eyes to the bench beside us.
“The bag with our passports?” I ask her to clarify.
She nods.
“I heard Mommy tell Greg to make sure he packed it in my bag because you couldn’t take me to France without it. Lexie didn’t want me to leave, and I didn’t want to leave, so we snuck into the closet and found them while you were out taking pictures with Sela, and we put them in the blanket box under her bed.”
