A Winter Discovery Read Online Free Page A

me?”
    Gerry’s ears pricked up. He and Ally were still no closer to deciding on Reese’s big present.
    “A sled?” Tanya said. “Yeah, sure.”
    Reese shook his head briskly. “Not a sled, a sleigh. Like Santa’s sleigh.”
    “You mean with reindeer and stuff?”
    Reese scoffed. “You can’t make reindeer.”
    Tanya pretended to slap herself on the side of the head. “Right, of course. Do you really want a sleigh?”
    “Could be cool.”
    “What would you do with one?”
    Reese sat back. “I don’t know. Sit in it. Fly around.”
    Gerry nearly burned the linguiça focusing on this conversation. Now he turned back to the pan and lowered the heat. He needed to get Tanya off the hook.
    “You know, I was reading something about this online just the other day,” he said. “They were saying that if you wanted stuff like that you needed to get your letter to Santa in super-early. Right after Halloween, or something like that. It turns out that it’s a special order.”
    Reese lowered his head. “Yeah, I had a feeling.”
    Gerry glanced over at Tanya, who’d put a hand up to her heart. “You know what, though, Reese? The elves can make just about anything else, and there’s still plenty of time.”
    Reese brightened. “You think?”
    Tanya stood up. “No question about it. Let’s talk about it and put together a plan. Meanwhile, you know what? I haven’t seen your room since I got back. I’ll bet you have all kinds of new stuff in there.”
    “Wanna see my new Uglydoll?”
    Tanya gasped in feigned excitement. “You have a new Uglydoll?”
    “Come on; I’ll show ya.”
    They ran off to Reese’s room and Gerry tossed the rice in the paella pan, feeling supremely thankful that his two kids were in one place again.

Chapter Six
    Marry Christmas
    Reese and Tanya were huddled together on the couch watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” which Tanya called her “absolute favorite-ist, most epic Christmas show of all time.” She had the big bowl of popcorn in her lap, Reese had the giant bag of Sour Skittles in his, and the mega-tub of pretzels was on Reese’s other side, since that made it easy for both of them to reach. Tanya got the cup of root beer from the coffee table, took a sip, and then handed it to Reese for a drink. Reese was glad she did so, because it wasn’t really easy to move with all these snacks around him, and he was getting thirsty.
    Dad and Millie were out at a party, and Tanya was Reese’s babysitter because she was home from school. She said she was going to a party after they got home, which seemed a little weird since Dad and Millie weren’t getting home until after Reese went to bed. He guessed college kids could go to sleep whenever they wanted, so if Tanya wanted to go to a party later, that was cool. He was glad she was staying with him now, though. Samantha was a totally good babysitter, but having your big sister watch you was definitely better. Especially when it came to snacks. Samantha would let him eat popcorn or Skittles or pretzels, but she never let him have everything at once.
    “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was pretty great. Tanya said that they watched it together a few times last year, but Reese only sorta remembered it. That had happened before this Christmas. Now that he was older, he was remembering stuff way better. No chance he was gonna forget about this show again. He thought it was hilarious the way Linus could shoot snowballs out of his blanket, and he thought the kids looked cool bobbing their heads back and forth when they were dancing on the stage.
    He didn’t like how hard everyone was on Charlie Brown, though. They didn’t talk to him in the Christmas spirit at all, and when Lucy called Charlie a blockhead, that was just mean. It made Reese feel the way he did when Tyler said he was better than Reese because he could build Legos faster.
    Charlie had just picked out a tiny little tree and he and Linus were walking back to the school.
    “This