Christmas on Bellevue Lane by Anna Destefano

Author:Anna Destefano [Destefano, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, heartwarming, sweet romance, holiday, echoes of the heart, Christmas, destefano, anna
Goodreads: 26883406
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Published: 2014-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

“Shannon’s still one of my favorite sisters,” Travis said over a mouthful of steaming-hot pepperoni pizza.

Dru and Bethany tossed wadded-up paper napkins at him from across the dining room table.

“Hey!” He used one of their napkins to wipe cheese and sauce off his chin, chuckling along with Oliver. “I said one of my favorites.”

The older kids were trying so hard.

Everyone was acting as if Joe not being there when the pizza arrived was no big deal. The younger ones were painfully aware now that something was wrong. But they were enjoying their pizza and making the best of dinner without their father. Marsha had tried to call Joe a half dozen more times, still not connecting. She was honestly getting a little scared, but she was doing her best not to let it show.

“You guys still know this Shannon girl?” Boris asked. He was one of their high schoolers. He snagged a slice of his favorite pizza—sausage and onion, extra olives. “She must be really old by now.”

Marsha smiled at his unfiltered honesty. It was so much a part of who he was, and who he would become. “She’s definitely not a girl anymore.”

“She’s grown and living on her own now,” Dru told him.

Marsha took a bite of her own pizza, barely tasting the spicy sauce. “She sends us pictures every year in her Christmas card.”

“I wanna meet her.” Camille picked at the crust of her pizza. She was sharing an extra-cheese pie with Bethany.

“She moved to Wisconsin to go to college and got married there.” And each summer Marsha and Joe still sent her a gift to celebrate Christmas in July. “She and her husband are thinking about adopting a little girl of their own—all the way from China.”

“But Travis said that I had to open my ornament first,” Camille said, “before any of the other presents, ’cause I’m new. In your story, Shannon opened hers last.”

“Well . . .” Marsha checked her watch again.

They were all crowded into the dining room, around her parents’ enormous antique table. The brownies were cooling. Christmas carols were still playing in the other room, which was now beautifully, if haphazardly, decorated. Everything was perfect. Almost.

Oliver leaned closer from where he sat beside her, his voiced pitched low so only Marsha would hear.

“If Dad’s not back by the time the kids are ready to open their gifts,” he told her, “Travis and Brad and I will head out to look for him.”

Marsha’s heart clenched at the worry in her son’s voice. What if Joe couldn’t make it back? He’d been so upset when he’d left. What if he’d had another heart attack somewhere?

Stop it, she scolded herself.

“Your dad’s going to be fine,” she told her son.

Joe had to be fine. Her world simply wouldn’t work without him in it.

“We’ll make sure he is,” Oliver promised.

He and Selena hadn’t gone home to change. They’d stuck close all afternoon. All Marsha’s kids had.

Pulling her smile back on, she turned to her granddaughter. Camille was happily

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