A Winter Discovery Read Online Free

a D?”
    Tanya startled. “A D? No, jeez! I don’t know, maybe a B-minus. I had a B-plus average in the class going into the final.”
    Gerry tipped his head toward his daughter. “You’re wringing your hands over a possible B-minus?”
    “Are you telling me I should set the bar lower?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “Then what’s your point?”
    Gerry resumed slicing. “No point. Never mind.” He decided to switch tack and ask about Tanya’s roommate. “How’d Shauna think the semester went?”
    “Are we talking classes or hookups?”
    Gerry had always found the term “hookup” offensive, never having had any taste for casual sexual relationships. He and Maureen had started dating in their sophomore year of college and he hadn’t been a “player” before then. “Is she still, um, dating around ?”
    “She and Greg stayed together for three weeks. If they made it to a month, I was gonna get her a trophy.”
    Gerry found it a little creepy to think about his daughter’s friends having sex. He supposed it was similar to the creepiness they felt if they ever thought about him and Ally together. At least in Shauna’s case, Gerry hadn’t met the girl until she and Tanya started rooming together a few semesters ago. Last summer, Laurel, a girl he’d known since she was a preschooler, came to a barbecue at the house with a boyfriend, and made out in the back yard for most of the party. Gerry was tempted to stay inside that day.
    “Okay, how’d her classes go?”
    “Classes? Fabulous, of course. She’s a certifiable genius. She doesn’t have trouble with math.”
    Gerry shook his head and went back to the pan to turn the chicken. “And Ron?”
    “Wow, Dad, I’ve been home this long and this is the first time you’ve asked me about him. I should call Guinness.”
    Tanya has been dating Ron, a senior at the University of Wisconsin, for nearly a year. He was her first serious boyfriend since her near-disastrous relationship with Mick that had led to her leaving home at sixteen and nearly disappearing from the family. Fortunately, Ron seemed nothing like Mick, as evidenced by Tanya’s being in the kitchen now.
    “I’ll take that to mean that he’s still bringing you flowers every weekend.”
    “He missed a weekend in early November. I nearly booted him out on his butt.”
    “He has no idea how lucky he is.” Gerry tossed the linguiça into the pan and then turned back to Tanya. “Is he trying to line up a job?”
    Tanya sat forward in her chair. “He has something like five networking interviews set up for the break. He even has one in Syosset at the end of December.”
    Syosset was only a little more than a half-hour from their home. “Ron’s going to be around?” Gerry said.
    Tanya grinned. “Well, there’s around and then there’s around .”
    “Does around involve his finally shaking your father’s hand?”
    Tanya fixed him with her eyes. “Will you be good?”
    Gerry held up his hands. “When have I ever not been good?”
    Tanya smirked. “Dad, really.”
    Gerry had been openly contemptuous of Mick from the moment he’d met the older boy.
    “I’ll be very good. Ron brings you flowers.”
    Tanya’s expression softened. “Then maybe I’ll let you make him dinner.”
    Just then, Reese walked into the kitchen and hugged his sister. It was the fourth time Gerry had seen him do that since Tanya had come home.
    Reese sat in the chair next to her. “How much do you know about elves?”
    Tanya turned to face him. “Quite a bit, actually. Some of my best friends are elves.”
    The top of Reese’s head practically came off. “Really?”
    Tanya seemed to realize that Reese was likely to take her seriously on this topic. “I might be exaggerating a little. But I know quite a bit about them.”
    “So you know about the workshop?”
    Tanya’s eyes grew large. “Definitely.”
    Reese got up on his knees to get closer to her. “If I asked for a sleigh, could they make one for