Page 64 of Christmas Criminal

My mom pats my hand. "And I'm happy for you, honey. Truly. As much as I would love to have both my girls close by, the only thing I care about is that you're happy."

"Thanks, Mom."

I lean back in my chair, grabbing a piece of bacon off Christina's plate because she's my big sister and I can. She slaps at my hand.

"Hey, Chris?"

"What?" she asks, reaching forward and taking a piece of bacon off my plate.

"You wanna tell me about your fancy new job?"

"Don't you have community service to do?" she asks.

I shrug. "I decided to play hooky today. So you might as well tell me." I take a pancake from the plate my mom left on the coffee table and hand it to her. "Come on, I want to hear."

Her eyes flash as she smiles. "Fine. But if I'm telling you about my fancy new job, I want to hear about the math teacher."

"Oh, Iknewthere was something going on there!" my mom says, settling into the couch. "Christina, you go first. Then we get math teacher details."

I roll my eyes as Christina grins.

"Well, I'm still doing data science, but this new company is actually a non-profit that does research into childhood cancer. They've made atonof progress over the past ten or so years, and they're on track to improve survival rates for childhood leukemia by twenty percent by the end of the year. Twenty percent!"

Christina has always had a passion for kids, but she never found the right way to use it. She's super smart–probably too smart for her own good–and a lot of the jobs she's had haven't let her stretch her brain in the way she wants to.

I squeeze her hand. "If a perfect job does exist, that's the one for you."

She smiles, nodding. "I'm really excited about it. And honestly, I've been missing home." My mom squeezes her shoulder. "I know how much you hate it here, but every time I come back, it's like a breath of fresh air."

"As it should be. If that's what Snow Fallsis to you, I willnotget in the way of that. I'm really, truly happy for you, Chris."

"Thanks, Noelle." She squeezes my hand back, and we have one of those quiet sister moments where I can only hope she's waxing poetic in her head about her love for me like I'm doing in mine for her.

My mom purses her lips, her eyes darting between the two of us. "Okay, now I want to hear about the spicy math teacher!"

"Ew, Mom!" I shout. "He's not spicy!"

She raises her eyebrows. "Honey, I've been on this Earth long enough to know a spicy man when I see one, and he looks at you like you hung the moon and he's ready to feast on it."

My mouth drops open at the same time Christina's does, and we can only look at each other in shock before my mom starts squirming under my sister's cast.

"Come on, tell me!" my mom says.

"Why don't you go ahead and tell us about Hanky Panky?" I ask her.

Her cheeks go pink, and I bite my lip to soften my grin.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," I say.

"Hanky Panky?" Christina asks, her eyes wide as she turns her attention to my mom.

"We dated briefly in high school," my mom says.

"Long enough that he signed your yearbookHanky Panky.”

She shakes her head. "Well, I don't know what to tell you. He was a very nice young man."

"Are you seeing him again?" I ask.

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