Summer cleared her throat. “Don’t you think it could be … kind of awkward?”
“Awkward why?”
“You know. Esme.”
“Oh, she’s fine with it.”
Summer hesitated. “You’re sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Okay, then,” Summer agreed. “When’s good for you?”
“I’ve got the afternoon off. Let me give Harris a call and see how things look, then I’ll firm up the time with you.” He paused. “It’ll be fun. Harris is a great guy. And you and I can talk over old times.”
“Thanks, Austin.”
“No problem.”
Summer hung up the phone. Her pulse hummed in her throat. Her palms were damp.
No problem at all.
4
Santa’s Little Helpers
Diana sat next to Sarah on the couch. Sarah looked at her with wide, questioning eyes. She had impossibly long lashes. Her T-shirt was too big for her tiny frame. The laces of her dusty tennis shoes were untied.
“Want me to tie those?”
She gave a small nod, watching intently as Diana tied each shoe. “Do you know where your mommy went, Sarah?” Diana asked casually.
The little girl shook her head.
“What did she say when she left?”
Sarah studied the loops in her laces. “She loves me.”
“That’s all she said?”
Sarah gazed pensively at the door. Suddenly it popped open, revealing a breathless Marquez, her reindeer head tucked under her arm.
“Hey, Rudy. Come here, quick.”
“Be right back, Sarah.”
Diana slipped out into the hallway. “Well?”
“I can’t find Jennie anywhere. But one of the elves saw a blond girl hightailing it out of the parking lot in a blue Chevy just now. Also, Santa’s really p.o.’ed that his senior reindeer is missing in action. I told him you flushed your nose down the toilet by accident.”
Diana groaned. “This is not good. This is definitely not good. She left a note.”
“What did it say?”
“Let me put it this way. Do you prefer to be called Mommy or Mom?”
“Oh, man.” Marquez let out her breath. “So what do we do? Call somebody, like social services or something?” she demanded.
“How should I know what we do? I don’t have a clue.”
Marquez leaned against the wall. Children’s laughter floated on the air, followed by a loud “ho-ho-ho.” “Where’s the real Santa when you need him?”
Diana toyed with her Rudolph nose. “How old do you think Jennie was, anyway?”
“I don’t know. Twenty-one?”
“No wedding ring.”
“And she’s obviously broke.”
“How can you be so sure?” Diana asked.
“Well, first off, she’s here for this party. And second, she was way interested in your mom and the house and all.” Marquez shook her head. “Look, I think we should call someone. Or maybe one of the organizers here would know what to do.”
“They’ll put her in a foster home.”
“Probably.”
“At Christmas,” Diana said. “A foster home with strangers.”
“Could be it’d be better for her.”
Diana opened the door a crack. Sarah had untied her shoes and was attempting to retie them.
“Jennie looked so tired,” Diana said, closing the door. “Maybe she just needed a break. Maybe she was just so worn out—”
“So she decided to take a little nap while peeling out of the parking lot doing eighty?”
“Her note said she was coming back, Marquez. It said she just needed a little time.”
“My mom had six kids and no money. She came here from Cuba with nothing. She got way tired. And she never pulled a stunt like this.”
“But she had your dad.”
“Still. That’s no excuse.”
“Maybe Jennie had something to do,” Diana ventured. “Fill a prescription. Buy animal crackers. I don’t know, some motherly thing a mother would do.”
“Mothers don’t just run out on their kids, Diana.”
Diana shrugged. “Mallory used to. Whenever the spirit moved her.”
“But your mom left you with a baby-sitter.”
“An au pair.”
“So a baby-sitter with an attitude. The point is, she never left you in a bathroom with a couple of moldy reindeer.”
“I remember one time she met this guy, three days before Christmas …” Diana hesitated. “Never mind. Long story.”
She opened the bathroom door again. Sarah looked at her expectantly. Her dirty T-shirt was ripped at one shoulder. Her face was smudged.
Diana let the door slowly close. She felt herself coming to a decision—the kind of decision she’d kick herself for later. The kind of decision that would give Marquez ammunition for years of I-told-you-so’s and sarcastic comments.
“Diana?” Marquez nudged her arm. “Listen to me. We can’t take care of her. Remember when Summer wanted to adopt that stray kitten and we had a big roomie meeting and decided we weren’t mature enough to handle the responsibility of changing a litter box every day?”
Diana nodded vaguely.
“Diana. We are immature. All the forks we own are from Taco Bell. Summer sleeps with that stuffed animal, that weasel football mascot.”
“It’s a gopher.”
“I snort milk through my nose almost every day. And last Saturday I caught you watching Dora the Explorer.” Marquez tugged frantically on Diana’s fur-covered arm. “We are not—I repeat, not—mature. That kid in there is probably more emotionally mature than we are.”
“Still …”
“Think back, Diana. Think back on all those awful babysitting low points. The tantrums, the pouting, the—” Marquez narrowed her eyes. “Wait a minute. You’ve never babysat in your life, have you?”
“Not exactly. Although a friend of my mom’s brought her daughter to dinner once, and I helped her color in her coloring book. It was fun.”
“Fun? Fun? Let me tell you about fun, Diana. It is not fun calling nine-one-one when the kid you’re babysitting gets her arm stuck in the toilet because she thought she saw an alligator. It is not fun trying to unglue a kid’s tongue from the freezer. It is not fun removing a sour ball from some unfortunate child’s nostril.”
“Boy, you sat for a rough crowd.”
Marquez paused briefly, her cheeks reddening. “Um, actually, I think I did all those things. I was kind of a hyper kid. The point is, taking care of a kid is a twenty-four-hour-a-day job. You are, forgive me, a spoiled rich kid. You’ve never even had a four-hour-a-day job.”
“I volunteer at the Dolphin Interactive Therapy Institute.”
“I know. And you’re great with those kids. But you get to leave them after a couple of hours. You couldn’t leave Sarah.” Marquez lowered her voice. “Look, I don’t want to call social services any more than you do. It sucks. But I don’t see any other choice.”
Diana chewed silently on a thumbnail.
“Besides,” Marquez added, “even if we did keep her, which we can’t, how would we ever find Jennie?”
“She knows where we live, more or less. She asked because she’s planning on coming back. She left a note, Marquez. She said ‘till I get back.’”
“So what if she comes back and accuses you of kidnapping?” Marquez demanded. “Maybe she’s just after your mom’s money.”
“I have the note as proof.”
Marquez rolled her eyes.
“It’s Christmas, Marquez.”
“I’d expect that argument from Summer. But you?”
“Just because I didn’t want to drape the house in tinsel doesn’t mean I don’t have Christmas spirit. It’s just … subdued. Like in high school, where I sort of vaguely wanted our team to win, but I still cut out on the pep rallies.” Diana took a deep breath, waiting patiently. She knew Marquez was coming around. It was just a matt
er of time.
“I definitely get to say ‘I told you so,’ right?”
“You’ve never asked my permission before.”
“But this is big. This is the I-told-you-so to end all I-told-you-so’s,” Marquez muttered. “This is majorly stupid. This is stupid cubed.”
“I know. You going to help me or not?”
Marquez peeked inside the bathroom and smiled at Sarah. She sighed heavily as she let the door close. “I’m going to regret this.”
“Thanks, Marquez.”
Diana went back inside. Sarah was talking to her lamb.
“Hey,” Diana said, kneeling down. “Here’s the deal. You mom had to … to run an errand. And she asked me if I would keep an eye on you till she gets back. Would that be okay with you?”
Sarah considered. “What’s an errand?”
“An important thing you have to do.”
This required some time to digest. Sarah stared at her lamb as if they were having some kind of private, telepathic consultation.
“You know, there was this one Christmas I remember where my mom had to run an errand,” Diana said. “I missed her a lot. But I had a nice time with my au pair.”
“A pear?”
“An au pair. She’s the person who hangs out with you while your mom runs her errands.”
“Did she give you presents?”
“Gretchen? Oh, sure. Lots.” Carefully wrapped by a gift-wrapping service. Carefully selected by a gift-buying service.
Diana remembered the doll she’d wanted that year, Li’l Baby Angel. The doll came with wings, a halo, and a hair extension that went all the way to her li’l baby feet. Very much in demand. Parents were starting small riots trying to get their hands on her. Diana had had a name all picked out for her: Veronica, a character in one of her mother’s books. She’d told her mother about it a hundred times.
The personal shopper had come through for Mallory. Diana always got everything on her wish list. The card—in block print, not her mother’s illegible scrawl—had read, Here she is, honey! Your new baby, Tabitha.
Diana had carried the rechristened doll around with her for a year. Tabitha had lost her wings to a teething beagle. She’d lost her wiry hair to Diana’s enthusiastic combing and washing efforts. And finally, one day at the mall, Tabitha had been lost altogether.
But Diana still had that card.
“Come on,” Diana said. She held out her hand. The sight of Sarah’s tiny hand in hers was startling. “I think maybe we’re too late for Santa. Sorry. Maybe we can catch up with him later.”
Sarah just shrugged. “He forgetted to come last Christmas,” she reported again. “So I know he’s not real.”
“I know how that goes,” Diana said softly. “Sometimes the old guy has a lot on his mind.”
5
Ex-boyfriends of Christmas Past
and Christmas Present
On the way home Diana ran into the Quickie Mart. She bought peanut butter, jelly, animal crackers, milk, and red licorice, all her favorite childhood foods. She also bought a bottle of Bain de Soleil, some Blistex, and a copy of Sassy.
Summer was waiting on the porch when they reached the house. She looked way too nice for hanging out—short blue sundress, new hoop earrings, black T-strap sandals she’d borrowed from Diana. She was holding a notebook.
Summer walked down the front steps to greet them. “Who’s this?” Summer asked, glancing at Sarah.
“This is Sarah,” Diana announced. “She’s going to be hanging out with us for a little while.”
“Hi, Sarah,” Summer said, squatting to give her a smile. “Today, you mean?” she asked, casting a questioning glace at Marquez.
“That’s sort of open to interpretation,” Marquez said as she unloaded the reindeer costumes from the trunk.
“You can explain that in a minute,” Summer said, frowning. “First, guess who called for you, Diana.”
“Diana motioned for Sarah to join her on the chaise longue. “It wasn’t some girl named Jennie, was it?”
“Some guy. By the name of Seth. Seems he’s flying in to visit his grandfather. This afternoon.”
Marquez cocked her head at Diana. “Did you already know about this?”
“Well, kind of. I mean, he sort of mentioned it in his last letter, but it was, like, a maybe deal.”
“Now it’s, like, a real deal,” Summer said. “You could have given us some advance warning.”
“It’s not exactly front-page news,” Diana said.
Summer’s eyes locked on Diana’s, cold and intense. It was rare to get a look like that from sweet, easygoing Summer.
Summer and Diana almost never discussed the big mess between them. Instead they chose to tiptoe around it as though it were a big, ugly piece of furniture in the middle of the living room. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible for Diana not to smack her shin against it once in a while.
Seth was Summer’s old boyfriend. More than that, he was her ex-fiancé. But the previous Christmas, when Diana and Marquez had traveled to Bloomington, Minnesota, to visit Summer and Diver and Seth, something had happened. On New Year’s Eve, Diana and Seth had been driving home from a party together and gotten trapped in a deep snowbank. One thing had led to another and … well, Diana would never again think of Seth as just a friend.
Summer had found out about it six months later. It had effectively put an end to her and Seth’s struggling relationship.
It was exactly what Diana had wanted. And one of the few times in her entire life when Diana was ashamed to have gotten her way.
Marquez stepped between them, casting a worried look at Summer. “Hey, I for one like to be updated, Diana. It takes a scorecard to keep track of you three.”
Summer shrugged. “It’s okay, Marquez. I mean, I’ve known Seth and Diana were writing each other all fall. It’s no biggie. She’s been really up front about it.” She gave Diana a tolerant smile. “For a change, I’ve even talked to him a couple of times on the phone when he called for Diana. It’s just …” Her voice trailed off. “Well, it’s weird to think about seeing him.”
“I have to pee,” Sarah announced.
“Come on,” Marquez said. “I’ll show you where the bathroom is. We’ll let Aunt Diana and Aunt Summer have a discussion without us.”
“What’s a dishcussion?”
“Louder than talking but quieter than yelling.” Marquez held up the costumes. “What do I do with these?”
“I thought we’d have them dry-cleaned,” Diana said. “They’re not in any hurry to get them back. And it’s the least we can do, since we sort of blew our big appearance.”
She watched Marquez and Sarah head inside. “So,” she said lightly, “you look nice. How come you’re all dressed up?”
“I’m going with Austin to meet his great-uncle Harris. And I’m not dressed up.” She smoothed her dress. “Am I? Am I, like, way-over-the-top-desperate dressed up? Or just showing-respect-to-your-relative-for-our-interview dressed up?”
“Don’t worry. You look just right. Besides, guys never catch the subtleties. All they ever notice is whether you smell good.”
“So who exactly is Sarah?” Summer asked, lowering her voice. “And why exactly is she here?”
Diana cleared her throat. “It’s a funny story, really. I mean, you’re going to laugh when I tell you.”
“Why is it I almost never end up laughing when someone says that?”
“See, she was sort of abandoned at the Christmas party. In the bathroom. Her mom—she’s, like, our age, Summer!—was reading one of Mallory’s books. The one with the Indian with cleavage—you know which one I mean?”
“Diana, Austin’s coming. I can hear his car. Give me the condensed version.”
Diana swallowed. She wasn’t used to sounding like a ditz, even a well-meaning one. She was the cool, rational ice queen. In this household, Summer and Marquez were the ones who came up with harebrained schemes.
“We’re keeping her.” br />
Austin pulled up in his recently purchased, very old, shuddering green Dodge. Summer kept her eyes glued on Diana. “Keeping her?” she repeated.
“Just until her mom comes back.”
“Which will be when, exactly?”
Austin honked. Summer turned to wave. Esme was in the front seat, nuzzling his neck.
“Oh, fantastic,” Summer muttered. “This day is getting weirder by the minute.”
“I know this stuff with Sarah seems crazy … ,” Diana said.
“Actually, I think it’s really sweet. In a demented sort of way. But even if we all pitch in, Diana, we aren’t exactly ready to be parents of the year. The last time you had a pet, you killed it.”
“Sarah is not a turtle, and I promise I will not feed her Count Chocula till she explodes.”
“What if her mom doesn’t come back?” Summer asked gently.
“We’ll deal with that if it happens. Which it won’t. I hope.” Diana sighed. “It’s Christmas, Summer. We can’t let her be all alone on Christmas.”
Diana could tell from Summer’s hesitation that she was buying into the idea. Her cousin was an easy touch when it came to Hallmark moments.
“You’re right,” Summer finally agreed. “That would be awful. Okay, but just till Christmas, though. You really think her mother’ll come back?”
“I’m positive.”
“I can’t be much help because I’ve got to finish this paper. You think you can handle things?”
“Oh, yeah. No sweat.”
Summer gave a dubious smile. “I hope you’re right.” She put on her sunglasses and turned to go, then paused. “Listen, don’t forget to give Seth a call. He said maybe you guys could meet up at the boat parade tonight.”
“Are we going to be okay with this? You and me and Seth?”
“And the ghost of Christmas past,” Summer added.
Diana looked away. “Let’s not talk about Christmases past, okay?” she said softly.
Summer nodded. “I think things will go okay, Diana. If we all just lighten up about everything. Although to tell you the truth, I’ve never had to hang out with my ex-boyfriend before while he dated someone else.”
“Looks like you’re about to,” Diana said, jerking her thumb toward Austin’s car.