Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 31777 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 159(@200wpm)___ 127(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31777 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 159(@200wpm)___ 127(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
“I wanted the plane to land! I was practically praying to get off! And now we’re miles from Wishingbone! What if we’re stuck here through Christmas? How will Santa find us? And what about Juliet? She’ll be so upset. They probably bought a six-person turkey and now there’s only three people to eat it!”
“A six-person turkey?” he asked, scratching at his head. “There’s only five of us.”
“Well, yeah, but I figured they probably don’t sell five people turkeys,” she told him. That would be odd.
“Um, pretty sure they don’t sell six-people turkeys either,” he said. “Or any sort of person turkeys. Okay, wait, this conversation is getting off track. Baby, we’ll be okay. If we can’t leave, we’ll spend Christmas here with Alfie and Ralph. Santa will find us. And then we can continue on to Montana. But I don’t think that will happen.”
“We don’t have a tree.”
“It’s all right, I’ll get a tree if we need one.” Reuben drew her close. “Everything is going to be all right, Little Blossom. Don’t worry.”
She’d try not to.
But she still couldn’t help but feel like she’d ruined Christmas.
10
CAT AND ALEJANDRO
23rd December
His Pequeña was up to something.
Alejandro eyed her for a long moment. “You need to go into town to get some last-minute gifts?”
“Uh-huh. But don’t worry, we’ll take Rafael and the Scot,” she told him with a smile.
Yeah, that wasn’t suspicious at all. Did she think she was fooling him?
“I could take you,” Sampson offered.
They were all sitting around the large dining table eating the brunch that Bernard had prepared. Well, Immy and Maeve weren’t here. Which was also suspicious.
Cat continued to smile. “Sure.”
Hmm. She took that well.
“What if I wanted to come?” Abe asked, eyeing her curiously.
“Well, we might have to take two cars. And you guys wouldn’t be able to come into some of the shops with us.”
“Why is that?” Sampson asked, leaning back in his chair. “Did you forget to buy us a gift?”
“Of course not! But you both have big mouths.”
Sampson snorted while Abe smiled.
Alejandro was glad they found this amusing. He did not. He didn’t want Cat going anywhere, he wanted her right here where he could keep an eye on her.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Alejandro told her.
“But why? Immy and Maeve want to have a look at the town. They might want to do some shopping. What else are we going to do?”
“You could watch a Christmas movie,” Jenner suggested.
“Play in your playroom,” Alejandro told her.
“Bake cookies,” Gray said. “Maeve has been looking forward to Immy’s snickerdoodles and her mac and cheese.”
“Yum, mac and cheese,” Cat said. “No, wait. We’ll do all that tomorrow. It’s all right, I guess. We’ll find something else to do. Not sure what . . . maybe I’ll set up a sledding track. Ooh, that could be fun. Can we go sledding?”
Alejandro sighed. He could feel a headache forming. There was something going on, but he just couldn’t work out what. He glanced over at Gray and raised his eyebrows.
“I don’t want them going into town,” Gray stated. “Too much could go wrong. A storm could hit. They could be kidnapped. The wannabe-Deity could be out there, watching and waiting.”
Alejandro agreed. “Whatever you want, make a list and send the Scot down to get it.”
“The Scot? He can’t get it. Urgh.” Cat turned and strode out of the dining room.
“What is going on?” Sampson demanded.
“I don’t know,” Alejandro replied. “Rafael, stick close to them today. They’re up to something.”
Rafael nodded with a resigned look.
At this point, Alejandro was pretty sure he’d rather be back working undercover as a spy than watching Cat.
It would certainly be a more relaxing job.
11
IMMY, JENNER, AND TOBIAS
23rd December
“What are we going to do?” Immy asked worriedly.
Two hours had passed since Cat stormed back into her bedroom after announcing that they weren’t allowed to go into town.
They’d tried to come up with another plan, but everything had involved Cat sneaking away, which no one thought was a good idea.
Except Cat.
After eating, they’d headed out to Cat and Alejandro’s barn. Although she wasn’t sure you could call it a barn it was so big and flash
“We’re going sledding,” Cat said as she pulled out a large red sled.
“Um, yeah, I can see that. I meant about . . . you know . . .” Immy whispered.
Maeve was sitting on a crate. She was looking a lot better. Immy had grabbed her a Gatorade from the fridge, and she’d sipped on that. But they’d decided to head out of the house so Gray didn’t see her looking so pale and wan.
Immy still thought they should tell Gray. What if Maeve was pregnant? That would be amazing!
And what if she wasn’t pregnant and was actually sick? Then they needed a doctor.
She really didn’t see how sledding was going to help.