Page 82 of Ten Christmases Without You
“While you were with your dad, I went out and bought small gifts for everyone and wrapped them up so we could do the gift exchange, since you said you all hadn’t had a chance to plan one this year. I also grabbed a few bottles of wine.”
“Oh my goodness,” Emmy said. “You didn’t have to do all that.”
“Don’t get too excited.” He chuckled. “You haven’t seen the gifts yet.”
Charlotte clapped her hands together. “This is going to be so much fun!”
“I’ll make the slips of paper with the numbers,” Madison said.
“I even got a gift for you, James,” Charlie said, leaning toward the computer screen. “I’ll draw your number and let you tell me what gift to choose.”
James’s voice came through the speaker. “Thank you, Charlie.”
When everyone had turned their focus to the last of the finger-foods before dessert, Emmy pulled Charlie aside. “You’re an angel.” She pushed herself up on her toes and kissed his cheek, his spicy scent taking her breath away for a second.
With the test kit that Madison had brought home sitting in a bag in her bedroom, Emmy had gone into tonight feeling tentative, but now Christmas seemed to be just right, and that was what she wanted to focus on. Everything else could wait.
With only sixseconds before the end of the half, the Ravens’ kicker tied the game up with a forty-one-yard field goal, makingit a nail-biting ten to ten at halftime. Even Elsie, who never seemed to know what was going on during a football game, was out of her chair, pumping her fists, completely unaware of the ball of yarn rolling off her lap.
The house smelled of sugar cookies. Charlotte set a platter onto the coffee table while everyone pulled chairs into a circle around the room for Charlie’s gift exchange.
Uncle Brian was the first to draw a number from the cup of slips Madison had quickly scribbled down during the first half of the game.
“Number seven.” He danced a little jig in his chair.
Madison brought the cup to Emmy next. She reached in and mixed up the slips before grabbing hold of one. She pulled it out and opened it.Ten.
“Emmy got ten!” Madison said. “You never get ten. This is going to be an interesting year.”
Emmy agreed with her on that point, for sure.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
While the game they watched yesterday had ended in a Ravens win, after a fourth-quarter lead by the Falcons, everything else had gone perfectly. And now, wide awake at 6:00 a.m., Emmy stared at the ceiling in her sister’s guestroom, wondering if she should get ready before she went downstairs.
Charlie was asleep on the sofa.
She ran her fingers through her hair and put it up into the flamingo scrunchie she’d won last night—the best of the prizes, in her opinion. She’d had last pick, so it was between that or a mini whisk, chip clips, a lint roller, a pair of nail clippers, a bag of BBQ potato chips, a flip-flop keychain, a lanyard, a pack of straws, and a pocket flashlight. All in all, Charlie had done an incredible job shopping on the fly.
Her gaze roamed over to where the bag sat on her dresser.
The test inside could completely change her future.
She got up and pulled the kit out, then read the back:
These tests are marketed for at-home use. If legal paternity is required, the test should be conducted under specific legal... The test will provide a result of either “not excluded” (fatheris the biological parent) or “excluded” (father is not the biological parent), with an accuracy rating of 99.99% or higher if the father is the biological parent.
So the test was pretty accurate, then. Once they did this, there would be no question. She put the box back into the grocery bag and sat down on the bed, trying to decide what she might do if her dad wasn’t actually her dad. While she knew her mother well enough that she couldn’t imagine there would be anyone other than Mitch and her father, the test would only confirm or deny her own father. She’d have to do another test if she wanted to know if Mitch was a match. Would she want to tell him? Would he want to know? And if her father wasn’t actually her dad, would he want her to tell Mitch? Could Mitch become part of their family?
The hearty scent of freshly ground coffee tickled her nose.
She wasn’t quite ready to know the answer yet. She had the rest of her life to figure out where she came from, but she didn’t have that kind of time with Charlie. She pulled her toiletries from her bag and padded down the hallway to the bathroom. After washing and moisturizing her face, she brushed her teeth, then went downstairs.
Jack and Charlie were at the kitchen table talking about fishing.
Charlie looked over at Emmy. “Morning.”
“Morning.”
