Read Online Home for the Holidays by Rebecca Kelly - Free Book Online

had considered his personal scratching surfaces.
    “Oh no!” Alice scooped him up and firmly closed the closet door. “I can’t get away with claiming that the shredded-wrapping look is the latest thing again.”
    The tabby jumped down from her arms, gave a single, slightly disgusted look and stalked out of the bedroom.
    For their other friends, Alice and her sisters were giving gift baskets like the one Louise had taken to Viola Reed. In each basket Jane had tucked two dozen assorted cookies and a loaf of Louise’s aromatic fruit-and-nut bread. Alice had left the cooking to her sisters and had done her part by decorating the baskets with white ribbons, and red and green fabrics with snowflake patterns.
    All she needed was one last gift, a gift for Jane, who had been insisting all month that she wanted nothing special for Christmas.
    She should have something special. She
needs
something special
. As Alice went downstairs to finish stapling the caroling booklets that she had made up for her ANGELs group, she thought of how busy Jane had been keeping herself.
    Ever since the last of their guests had departed, her sister had thrown herself into hectic activity and had spent most of the day in the kitchen. She had already made so many cookies, candies and pans of fudge that her output could satisfy the entire town’s sweet tooth. Alice could not recall the last time she’d seen Jane sit down for longer than two minutes.
    “Lord, I hope it’s only excitement and not something else.” Alice went into her father’s study, where she had been working at the desk, and sat down to finish the booklets.
    Although the ANGELs went caroling from house to house each Christmas, this year’s forecasts of colder temperatures and heavier snowfall made Alice decide to try something different. At their last weekly meeting, she had suggested that the girls perform in front of Town Hall. By doing so the girls could sing without having to tramp through the snow, and visitors as well as townspeople could enjoy the carols.
    Clarissa Cottrell had generously offered to provide free hot chocolate and some of her beautifully decorated sugar cookies for the girls after their performance.
    “I’ve been keeping the bakery open an extra hour everynight so I can catch up on orders,” she had told Alice, “so it’s nice and warm inside. Just send them over when they’re through for their treat.”
    The red kettle one of the mothers had given her to use to collect donations after the performance was a little dusty inside, so Alice took it to the kitchen to wash it. There she found Jane sitting at the table, a mug and an open cooking magazine in front of her. Holiday music spilled from the radio on the kitchen windowsill, while two large pans of oversize brownies iced with a textured, golden brown mixture added the scent of dark chocolate and caramelized sugar to the cozy kitchen atmosphere.
    The sight of her sister relaxing for a change made Alice’s heart lighten.
Maybe I’m simply imagining things
.
    “Can you spare a treat for your poor, overworked sister?” she joked. When Jane did not reply, she set the kettle in the sink and the sound it made caused her younger sister to jump. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
    “It’s only what I deserve for sitting here daydreaming.” Jane came to join her at the sink, but her smile seemed a little dim. “What’s this for? You’re not having the girls bob for apples in this weather, I hope. They’ll need to chip a hole in the ice first.”
    Alice chuckled at the image. “No, we’re hoping to collect some donations after the caroling for our Christmasmission.” As she filled the kettle with water, she gave her sister a sideways glance. “You were a million miles away when I came in here.”
    “Yes, and it was much warmer where I was. I want to go back.”
    Alice was not fooled by her casual explanation. “Something bothering you?”
    “Nope.” Her younger sister squared