Read Online A Cherry Cola Christmas by Ashton Lee - Free Book Online Page A

it feels like Cherico has moved to Florida all of a sudden and is slowly being swallowed up by one of those gigantic sinkholes!”
    Jeremy put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed it gently. “It’s not as bad as all that. You’ve still got your library going up out at the lake, and I’ve still got my job teaching.”
    Maura Beth tried her best to smile but couldn’t. “I’m thankful for that, sweetheart. Believe me, I am. But I’ve got the feeling that things might get worse before they get better.”
    Â 
    Mr. Place’s drive to his mother’s house on Big Hill Lane that evening after work was filled with great anticipation. Once or twice he caught a smirking glimpse of himself in the rearview mirror. Why, the handsome fella he saw there was gonna blow his mama’s socks off with what he had to tell her! The two security cameras that had been installed that morning at The Twinkle—one in the dining room and one in the kitchen—were working to perfection, and it was Periwinkle who had put it succinctly: “Just let anyone try anything low-down now. I flat out double-dog dare ’em. We’ll catch ’em and put their little behinds in jail!”
    They had also decided to treat Ardenia to dinner with all the trimmings sometime during the coming week, showing her the monitors in Periwinkle’s office and letting her keep an eye on things for a while after she’d finished her dessert. They even planned to let her keep a log of anything significant she saw. Even if it was nothing but business as usual throughout the restaurant.
    â€œI know Mama’ll be impressed, and it’ll make her feel like she’s helping out with the crime-prevention thing,” Mr. Place had added. “She’s so adamant about it, but I really do understand. She wants to be a part of everything now. When she was growing up, she couldn’t be a part of anything with the Jim Crow laws and all.”
    In truth, his mother had remained downright crotchety about his decision to take her keys away from her, but he could not in good conscience allow her to drive around by herself any longer. He planned to sell her car, deposit the money in her savings account, and that would be the end of it. They had argued about it more than once, and there had been her outburst at the library when the sheriff had given his crime-prevention lecture. But perhaps letting her come into the restaurant now and then to check things out in the office would keep her frustrations at bay. Besides, she loved watching television and was very possessive of the remote; this way she would have two screens at once to occupy her time. It would be the perfect solution.
    As Mr. Place entered his mother’s tidy kitchen, which always featured a homemade pie or cake sitting out on the counter under a clear glass dome, he noted for not the first time that she had the volume on the TV set in the living room way up. He had begun to think she was starting to lose her hearing on top of everything else that was wrong with her. After telling her about the security cameras, he was just going to have to work in a suggestion to go to the doctor for a test—diplomatically, of course. There was no way around it—seventy-five had been taking its toll on his beloved mother for some time now, and it was his duty as a good son to protect her as best he could. After all, she had given him a home after the Grand Shelby Hotel up in Memphis had been torn down, and being vigilant was his way of repaying her.
    â€œMama, I’m home!” he called out as he entered the living room. “Can you turn that down a little bit? I wanna tell you all about the cameras and something else Peri and I think you’ll really like doing.”
    Across the way, he saw that she was propped up in her usual spot on the end of the sofa with her treasured remote resting in her lap, and it brought a smile to his face.