Icicle Falls Christmas Collection: Merry Ex-Mas ; Christmas on Candy Cane Lane ; Christmas in Icicle Falls by Sheila Roberts

Author:Sheila Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2018-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan, so stay flexible.

—Muriel Sterling, Making the Holidays Bright:

How to Have a Perfect Christmas

Maddy was just dishing up Sunday breakfast when Alan’s cell phone rang. “Yo, Mark,” he said. “What’s up?” His Sunday-morning smile fell away, which could mean only one thing. Alan had to go into work. “No, no worries. There’s a lot of that going around.”

A lot of not wanting to work, if you asked Maddy. Mark called in sick at least once a month, and always on a Sunday. “Don’t tell me, let me guess,” she said as Alan set aside his phone. “Mark has some mysterious ailment.”

“Flu,” Alan said, and ate some of her ham-and-cheese strata.

“More like allergies, if you ask me. I think he’s allergic to work. Why you ever put him in charge on Sundays is a mystery to me.”

Alan sighed. “It’s hard to get good workers. Anyway, I can’t leave Wink there all by himself.”

“Couldn’t Joe come in?”

“Would you have wanted me to go to work one week after our daughter was born?”

Good point.

Jordan found this interesting. “Did you take off work when I was born, Daddy?”

“Of course I did,” Alan said, smiling at her. “I didn’t want to miss a thing.”

And he hadn’t. Neither of them had, really. They’d been there for every school concert, every piano recital (until Jordan decided she didn’t want to take piano anymore) and every Saturday soccer game (thank God she’d given up soccer). Granted, Maddy had been a little more MIA after buying the Spice Rack, but by then she’d figured Jordan’s self-esteem was pretty well boosted.

“You’re going to miss a few things today,” Maddy said irritably.

Alan’s brow furrowed. “What did we have planned?”

“Besides church and getting the tree? How about putting our candy canes back up?”

“We’ll have to get the tree tomorrow night. As for the candy canes, I guess you and Jordan will have to deal with that.”

Jordan made a face and Maddy could feel her own lips turning down at the corners.

“Or you can just not bother putting any more up.”

“Alan Donaldson, what a thing to say!”

He shrugged. “It’s your call. But if this batch gets ruined, you’re out of luck. I’ve sold out at the store and I can’t get any more in.”

“Good. They’re dumb, anyway,” Jordan muttered.

“They’re not dumb,” Maddy corrected her—again.

“Someone sure thinks they are,” Alan said. “I don’t know, hon. This is all starting to feel a bit like Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. How many times are we going to keep getting suckered into putting up candy canes for someone to come along and trash?”

“Those candy canes are going up this afternoon,” Maddy insisted.

“I thought we were going to see The Christmas Card this afternoon,” Jordan said.

The latest holiday offering was now showing at Falls Cinema, and although it looked slapstick and silly, Maddy had promised they’d go. “We are. But first we’re going to put our candy canes up.”

Jordan rolled her eyes.

“And no eye rolling,” Maddy told her. “You’ll break your eye sockets.

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