Sun-Kissed Christmas (Summer) Read Online Free

surface of their friendship.
    The little girl tugged on Jennie’s sleeve. “Can we go to the party, Mom?”
    Diana shared a look with Marquez. Like Diana, she was doing the math. Maybe Jennie was older than she looked, twenty, twenty-one. Still, it was hard to believe this was actually her kid.
    “In a minute,” Jennie said, gently combing thelittle girl’s hair with her fingers. “Here.” She pulled a dirty stuffed lamb out of her duffle bag. “Play with your lamb for a minute.”
    “There’s lots of good food at the party,” Marquez said. “Punch, Christmas cookies. You should definitely check it out.”
    The little girl looked at her gravely. “Last year we forgetted to have Christmas.”
    “Quiet, Sarah.” Jennie shrugged. “The truth is, we’re sort of crashing this party. A friend of mine on food stamps told me about it. You’re supposed to sign the kids up at social services, but it slipped my mind. …” Her voice trailed off. “So, anyway, you live around here?”
    Diana nodded. “On Coconut Key.”
    “You must live in, like, a mansion or something.”
    “No, just a little rental place.”
    “But your mom—”
    “Well, yeah, she has a house on Crab Claw Key.”
    “It looks like Barbie’s Dream House,” Marquez volunteered.
    “Lots of bedrooms,” Jennie said quietly. It was not exactly a question.
    “The party, Mom,” Sarah said softly.
    “In a minute.” Jennie smiled at Diana. “So where exactly do you two live?”
    “Those bungalows at the end of the key nearFCU,” Diana said. “You know the ones on Full Moon Beach? Nothing fancy. But a nice view.” Diana looked at Marquez and cleared her throat. “Well, we should get going, Blitzen.”
    “I gotta pee first,” Marquez said. “It’s going to take me an hour to get out of this costume.”
    Diana left the lounge and went to the sink to brush her hair. She couldn’t see Jennie and Sarah, but she could hear Jennie talking softly to the little girl.
    With a sigh, Diana splashed some water on her face. These costumes were way, way too hot for Florida. She wondered if they could be dry-cleaned. She wondered if they’d
ever
been dry-cleaned.
    When she returned to the lounge, Sarah was sitting on the couch. Jennie was gone.
    “Where’s your mom?”
    Sarah shrugged. “Coming back.”
    “Oh. That’s good. That way you’ll be just in time for Santa Claus.”
    The little girl nodded solemnly.
    A few moments later Marquez joined them. “Where’s Jennie?”
    “I don’t know. The little girl said she was coming right back.”
    Marquez started for the door, but Diana hesitated. “Maybe we should wait till she gets back,” she whispered.
    “We’ll miss the big Santa entrance. Aren’t you supposed to be there, Rudolph-with-your-nose-so-bright?”
    Diana glanced at the floor. Jennie’s book was gone—her purse and duffel bag too.
    She smiled nervously at Sarah. “You wait here, Sarah. We’ll be right back,” she said.
    Diana grabbed Marquez’s arm and slipped out the door. “I have a bad feeling about this,” she said. “Do me a favor. Check the hall for Jennie. And maybe the parking lot too.”
    “You think she just …
left
her here?”
    “Her purse is gone.”
    “Oh, man.” Marquez started down the hall. “Wait here.”
    Diana returned to Sarah. The little girl was talking to her stuffed lamb. There was something tucked under the frayed ribbon around the lamb’s neck. A folded square of paper.
    “What’s that, Sarah?”
    “My mom put it there.”
    “Could I look at it?”
    Sarah handed her the little worn lamb. The folded paper was a page torn out of Jennie’s book.
    Around the margins was a hastily scribbled message:
Please take care of Sarah till I get back. I promiseI just need a little time. Merry Christmas
.

    Summer was lying on the redwood deck, her head resting on her U.S. history book, when the phone rang in the living room. Her sun-stun was so severe it took her a moment to find her way to her