The Christmas Sisters Read Online Free Page A

know—I also want to sell my share of the house for as much as I can get for it.”
     

 
     
    Three
     
    What are you saying, Nic?” Collier dropped the lid back onto the pot of potatoes with a decisive clank. She waved away the cloud of steam swirling up into her face. “Sell your share? Not go down for winter vacation?”
    “Look, I know it's an awkward time to bring it up.”
    “Don't you dare shrug your shoulders and play all coy about this, li'l sister.” Petie looked ready to snatch her bald. “This is not like you've just announced you're on a diet and not eating pie today. You're talking about the end of a tradition—of selling our home.”
    “It hasn't been our home for years. People don’t even know who we are around there anymore. They call us the Christmas sisters because that’s pretty much the only time we get down there. You had to hear about my plans sometime.”
    “Heavenly mercy, Nic, why do you always drop this kind of stuff on us during the holidays?” Petie cut in quick. “You just have to command center stage with some pronouncement sure to startle this family out of their senses, don't you?”
    “Oh, like driving this crew out of their senses is some kind of challenge,” Nic muttered, more defensive about the accuracy of her sister's claim than haughty over being scolded in front of everyone.
    Nine years ago she had ruined one of the few serene New Year's Eves her family had ever known with her failed attempt to run off with Sam Moss. She'd spoiled that next Easter with the news that she was pregnant, caused more fireworks than the Fourth of July display with the threat of losing the baby, and aptly chose Labor Day to give birth. The only holiday gatherings she had not made a mess of yet were Decoration Day and Christmas. And Christmas was coming.
    No wonder they all looked like she'd scared the daylights out of them.
    “Oh, Nicolette!” Mother tossed her head back in a display of high drama that few women, short of Nic and Petie and Collier’s aunts, could have surpassed. “Oh, my...my... Just listen to the way you talk to your family! I'm having a dizzy spell, I swear I am.”
    “Scott, if Grandma faints, do catch her.” Petie propelled Nic straight through the melee of the kitchen toward the sliding glass door that led out back. “Everyone else go on about your business.”
    “What about me?” Collier slapped her oven mitt down on the butcher-block.
    “ You might want to turn down the heat on that turkey. Nicolette and I are stepping out onto the back deck for...a chat.”
    “Turn the heat down?” Collier cranked the knob on the oven even as she protested. “Do you have any idea how hard I've worked to time everything out to perfection?”
    The glass door slid open with a whoosh! Crisp fall air flooded into the warm, damp kitchen.
    Collier stepped forward. “Can't this wait until after dinner when we can sit down and discuss it calmly and rationally?”
    Petie escorted Nic right on by without batting an eye.
    Their youngest sister hurried to catch up to them. “Don't think you're going to leave me out of this, then.”
    “Me, too! I want to come, too.” Willa leaped in the air.
    “Stay and help Jessica watch the dinner,” Nic ordered over her shoulder as Petie gestured for her to go through the door first.
    “Mom, it's November in Chicago.” Sweet, practical Jessica already had Willa by the hand. “You don't really plan to go outside now, do you?”
    “This is between me and my sisters, sugar.” Petie did not look back at her daughter.
    Everyone, even the closest kin, knew that no one but the three of them had any say in what went on between the Dorsey sisters.
    Wally blurted out an ugly belly laugh. “Is this what you Southern folk call getting taken to the woodshed?”
    Petie and Nic stopped in their tracks.
    Collier whipped her head around so fast she risked a sprained neck. She pulled up short. Save for a last minute side step, she would have collided