Free The Christmas Dog by Melody Carlson Page A

thought she could hear another voice in the background. “But, uh, Stephanie is not too happy.”
    “Oh?”
    “She really wants Avery home for Christmas.”
    “That’s what Avery said.”
    “And she wants me to tell you that you should send her home.”
    “I should send her home?” Betty blinked as she imagined packing her granddaughter in a large cardboard box and shipping her out to Atlanta on a UPS truck.
    “Naturally, we’ll pay for her airline ticket,” he said quickly. “But if you could just make Avery see that she needs to—”
    “I doubt that I can make Avery do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
    “Okay, Mom, make was not the right word. But I know that you could influence her. Avery would listen to you.”
    “Avery is an adult, Gary.”
    “An adult who can act very childish.”
    “Perhaps she acts childish because she is so often treated as a child.”
    There was a long pause. “You make a good point.”
    “Avery seems to want to stay here,” Betty said. “She has offered to help me with the Deerwoods’ fiftieth anniversary celebration.”
    “They’ve been married fifty years?”
    “Yes.” Betty wanted to point out that she and Gary’s father would’ve been beyond that milestone by now if Chuck was still alive. But she realized there was no reason to.
    “Tell them congratulations for me.”
    “I will. But, you see, Avery has helped me to get things. And she’s going to work on them and—”
    “Sorry, Mom,” he said quickly. “But Stephanie wants the phone. Do you mind talking to her?”
    “Not at all.” But Betty wasn’t the one to do the talking. When Stephanie got on the other end, she immediately began to rant and rave about how Avery needed to come home—right now. About how she’d been gone away too long. And about how it was wrong for Betty to keep her away from her family.
    “Excuse me,” Betty said. “I am not keeping Avery from anyone.”
    “You’re making it easier for her to avoid facing up to her responsibilities.”
    “Her responsibilities?”
    “To her family.”
    “What responsibilities does she have to her family?”
    “To be here with us. To be with our friends. It’s what we do every year. Avery knows that.”
    “But Avery is an adult,” she said for the second time. “She should be able to make up her own mind about—”
    “Avery has the mind of a child,” Stephanie snapped. “She proved that by running off and doing God only knows what with God only knows who.”
    “That may be. But she’s here with me now. She’s in no danger.”
    “And I suppose you can promise me that, Betty? You’re prepared to take personal responsibility for my daughter’s welfare?”
    “I’m only saying that she is just fine. And she’s welcome to stay with me for as long as—”
    “So you’re choosing her side. You’re taking a stand against me while you enable her.”
    Betty wasn’t exactly sure what enabling meant these days, but the way Stephanie slung the term, like it was an accusation, worried Betty. Why didn’t game shows like Jeopardy talk about words like this? Just the same, Betty decided to give it a try. “Wouldn’t enabling mean that I’m helping a person to do something . . . as in making them able ?”
    Stephanie laughed so loudly that Betty’s ear rang, and she had to hold the receiver away. “Of course that’s what you’d think, Betty. But no, enabling is making it easy for a person to avoid what they really need to be doing. You enable them to fail.”
    “Oh.” Betty had no response to that.
    “But if you’re determined to position yourself between us and Avery”—Stephanie made a sniffling sound, although Betty did not think she was really crying—“then I suppose I can’t stop you.”
    “I’m not taking a position,” Betty said.
    “Oh yes you are.”
    “I’ve simply told Avery she can stay with me through the holidays if she wants to and—”
    “Fine. Have it your way. I hope you both have a very merry