Free Blessings of the Season by Annie Jones Page B

too.
    â€œOkay, so I am no good at keeping a secret.” She walked around from the back of the counter to stand beside Addie, whom she nailed with a steely-eyed glare. “Like mother, like daughter.”
    â€œMe?” Addie scoffed. “I didn’t tell you anything.”
    â€œYou don’t have to tell me a thing, sweetie. It’s written all over you.” She pointed her finger, now with a fire engine-red nail, at Addie and made tiny circles. “You’re in love with Nate Browder.”
    As if he had heard his name spoken, the man turned, smiled right at her and then started walking in her direction.
    Addie’s heart leaped. Love? She’d known him less than a month. He was California-bound, and she was a Star City citizen through and through. He was a standout in everything he did, and she was…
    She brushed her trembling fingers over the snowflake clasped to her headband. Suddenly she couldn’t standto think another second about who she was and what might have been. So, in order to change the subject, and preferably to something that would make her mother hush, she blurted out, “I got Jesse one of the snow-globes with the silver snowflakes inside of it that they sell in the gift department here in the store. You won’t tell, will you?”
    â€œAddie, honey, I know you think I’d do anything to draw attention to myself, but I would never give away your most precious secrets.”
    Addie exhaled, but it didn’t really ease the pressure in her chest. “Thank you, Mom.”
    â€œEven if I think you are foolish not to own up to those secrets when they are right there for anyone who has ever been in love or who just has eyes in their head to see.”
    Nate strode up, with Jesse tagging along behind. “Eyes to see what?”
    â€œHow cute you two are, darlin’.” Bivvy crinkled her nose at Nate and then Jesse.
    â€œYeah.” Addie smiled, weakly, ducked her head and then made her getaway. “I have to go now. I have to demonstrate how to make manger animals out of common household items.”
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    After the changes, the time seemed to fly the following Monday. Bivvy was a big hit, and as a result of her appearances on the Goodwin’s site, her votes in the Web contest had skyrocketed. That got her house on the local news all the way over in Knoxville.
    The Goodwins, though tight-lipped about business, seemed happy with the results. Doc, getting a lot ofinterest in the vintage goods used in the promotion, was even looking into going through all the junk he had warehoused in the now-vacant part of the Goodwin’s building. Addie didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad one. Maybe he had finally resigned himself to the fact that the place was going to close, and his son, whose investment time-wise in Jesse could have been measured in minutes rather than days or hours this week, didn’t care what happened to his family or his family’s business. That broke Addie’s heart for the Goodwins and for Jesse.
    That feeling grew each day when, at shortly after five o’clock, Nate pretended to come home from the office and she and Jesse greeted him with open arms. That part was not pretend, they were actually glad to see him and know the three of them would be spending the next few hours as a family. It was the kind of thing that Addie hadn’t known since before her father died. But at least she had known that kind of love and shelter. For Jesse and Nate it was a completely new, and obviously welcome, experience.
    With that in mind—and not at all because of what her mother had said about her being in love with Nate—Addie decided to make their last regular day together special. Before the chaos of the Open House all day on Saturday and their parting on Christmas Eve morning, she thought these two special guys in her life deserved an evening as a family. So she had asked Doc to allow them to stay