Free All I Want for Christmas: A Kinnison Legacy Holiday novella by Amanda McIntyre Page A

second grade class two years before when a blizzard had blown up during an unorthodox field trip to the ranch just before Christmas—back when most of the community had dubbed the reclusive Wyatt Kinnison “the Grinch.” Still fighting the grief of losing her twin sister at the time, Aimee and Wyatt would fall in love in those few days they were stranded with children on the ranch.
    Aimee walked up beside Liberty. “Hey, I wanted to ask you something.”
    “Sure.” She kept an eye on Cody who’d gone around to the other side of the tree.
    “Do I look any different?” Aimee asked.
    Liberty studied her. “Different? How?”
    Aimee leaned in close and whispered. “I took a home pregnancy test. It came back positive.” She put her finger to her lips. “I’m not going to say anything to anyone else until I know for sure this time.” She glanced at Liberty. “You remember that you called it with Gracie. Before even I knew. I just wondered if you noticed anything.”
    Liberty took Aimee’s hand and squeezed it. “Has Wyatt cooked any bacon lately?”
    Aimee frowned as though in thought. “No, he hasn’t.”
    “I remember you turned green as a gourd at the scent of frying bacon. I can’t say that it’d happen again, but that’s when I first noticed.”
    A blood-curdling scream from the other side of the tree stopped Liberty’s heart. She and Aimee darted around the tree and found Emilee, her hand over Cody’s. Both were poised on a miniature John Deere tractor ornament.
    Emilee’s gaze was fixed on their hands. She seemed in a trance, unable to break free from whatever the child was seeing in her mind. Her dark brown eyes were filled with terror.
    “Emilee?” Angelique rushed to her daughter and knelt beside her. Rebecca followed close behind. Both women knew that it was the young girl’s gift as a ‘seer’ that produced these random events.
    “She’s seeing something. Be gentle,” Rebecca cautioned.
    Tears rolled down the little girl’s face. Her head moved slowly side to side as though she didn’t want to believe what she saw.
    “Em, it’s Mama, darlin’. I’m here, sweetheart.”
    Dalton also knelt next his daughter. “Em, dad’s here. Come on back to us, baby.”
    Liberty had witnessed snippets of the young girl’s ability to ‘see’ things in the past, but they’d never before been this pronounced, or this emotional.
    Dalton laid his hand carefully over Emilee’s, and, after a heartbeat, she looked up at him. Fat tears dropped from her eyes when she blinked. She grabbed Dalton around the neck and hugged him tight. Whatever she’d seen had clearly terrified her.
    Cody stood still, his little chest heaving in and out with his labored breathing. If not calmed down, he’d most likely hyperventilate. Rein picked up the small boy and hugged him close, walking away as he whispered softly, trying to calm the child.
    “I didn’t mean to see it,” Emilee sobbed into her father’s neck. “I didn’t mean to.”
    Rein suggested that maybe they should get Cody home and they’d call later to discuss what happened. Liberty drove home, with Rein, leaning back to hold Cody’s hand the entire way.
    Liberty wasn’t hungry, but suggested cold pizza or soup she had in the freezer for Rein and Cody. She wasn’t feeling well and decided to lie down, startled sometime later by the ringing of her cell phone. Angelique, calling to check on Cody.
    Liberty glanced at the clock by their bed, and realized through her grogginess that she’d slept much longer than she’d anticipated. It was past Cody’s bath time and well into getting ready for bed. She blinked to clear her head.
    “Are you okay? You sound as though you were sleeping.”
    Liberty swallowed at the dryness in her throat. “I’m fine. Just a little tired. Cody’s fine, I think. He’s been with Rein since we got back home. How’s Em?”
    “She’s better, but still pretty shaken up,” Angelique said. “Let me be honest in saying