Coming Home for Christmas Read Online Free

opened it, noting that it had been sent the previous day. She really should delete her messages more often, she thought, as she read it.
    Hi O. How U? How are the plans for the surprise party going? Can’t wait 2 C every 1. So glad I’m coming home. A xx
    Olivia frowned. Bully for you! she thought crossly. Nice for Alison to breeze in from New York like the homecoming queen, be made a fuss of at the party she hadn’t had to lift a finger to
organize, and then breeze out because she couldn’t take time off work to spend Christmas with her family. No fear of her being at home to bring their uncle to the chest clinic, or help out
with the cooking and shopping when both their parents had been felled by a particularly nasty flu a couple of weeks ago. Alison was too busy acting like a character out of
Sex and the City
to give a hoot about what was going on in boring old Port Ross.
    Olivia scowled as she deleted her sister’s text. Alison had demurred at first about coming home to celebrate her mother’s seventieth. Did she not know how lucky she was to have a
mother as good as Esther? She wouldn’t always be with them; significant birthdays
should
be celebrated, Olivia had pointed out a touch sharply when the discussion had taken place over
the phone earlier in the year. Her younger sister wouldn’t think twice of flying to Hawaii or LA for R&R. She could damn well get her ass in gear and come home for her mother, Olivia had
insisted, annoyed that she’d had to push her sister to come to such an important family event.
    ‘OK, OK, I was hoping to bring her and Dad over for a few days. They always enjoy their trips to New York,’ Alison had argued, clearly irritated at Olivia doing her bossy older
sister act.
    ‘That would be fine if it was an ordinary birthday, but seventy is an important birthday, and we need to mark it in a special way with all the family,’ Olivia declared, frustrated
that she had to point out the obvious.
    Alison had agreed after that and, being her generous self, offered to pay half the cost. That was one thing Olivia couldn’t fault her sister on: she was generous to a fault with her money,
even if she was less than giving with her time. What a charmed life Alison led, with only herself to worry about. She worked hard, but she played hard too, and her free time was hers to do with
entirely as she wished.
    Olivia hadn’t enjoyed free time in years. Three young children, elderly relatives, a busy husband, a household to run and her own job left her constantly chasing her tail. She was lucky to
get a read of
Hello!
in the bath, she thought ruefully, remembering some of the descriptive emails her sister had sent while skiing, or scuba-diving, or meeting wealthy hunks at parties in
the Hamptons.
    Olivia had flown out to stay with Alison for long weekends several times over the past few years because Michael, her husband, had insisted she needed a break. The difference in their lifestyles
always fascinated Olivia. There was absolutely no comparison and, if the truth were told, she felt her life was deadly boring in contrast, and she always came home unsettled and dissatisfied,
knowing that she was hurtling towards forty and middle age. It would take her a month or so to get into her routine and settled down and to regain some sort of equilibrium.
    Although, in fairness, she reminded herself as she sat impatiently waiting for Leo, when she’d arrived home after the last visit and her three little girls had hurled themselves into her
arms at the airport and Michael had stood, thumbs hooked into his jeans and a big smile on his face, she’d felt an unexpected surge of happiness, which was enhanced even more when her mother
hugged her tightly and said, ‘I’m so glad you’re home, love. I missed you terribly, even though you were only gone for a few days.’ Olivia smiled at the memory. She and
Esther had a very close bond, and it was her dearest wish that her own daughters would have