It wasn’t long before Krista realized that most people in town genuinely believed that Krista, a power-hungry young outsider, was behind the whole mess. And it was rumored that she had only begun to “clean house” and that many city employees’ jobs would be on the chopping block.

  By Friday afternoon, Krista was emotionally exhausted. “I think Emily and I will lay low this weekend,” she told Pauline as she turned off the lights in her office. “I just called Martha Morgan and asked her to find someone to replace us as volunteer elves at Christmasville tomorrow.” She didn’t mention that Martha had sounded glad to excuse them, as if she’d bought into the negative innuendo too.

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea to run and hide?” Pauline asked. “And won’t Emily be disappointed?”

  “She’d be even more disappointed if Val Palmer and her friends showed up and made a scene.” Or threw rotten produce, she thought wryly as she pulled on her coat.

  “Oh, dear. Well, I suppose that could happen. But I hate to think of you being held hostage by false accusations. You’ve done nothing wrong. And what about the festivities tomorrow night? The high school orchestra will be there, and the drama kids are performing scenes from A Christmas Carol. They’re even announcing the winner of the Christmas House. Certainly, you and Emily won’t want to miss all that fun. Not for the sake of small-minded gossip.”

  “I know you’re right, Pauline. And I hate being so cowardly. But I also hate exposing Emily to this venom.” She wrapped her wool scarf around her neck a couple of times, hiding part of her face. “But maybe there’s a way I can go incognito. It’ll be dark, so maybe no one will recognize me.” She wanted to laugh, but couldn’t quite pull it off.

  “I just feel so sad that you’ve been portrayed like this. And that you feel the need to hide out all weekend.” Pauline frowned. “But here’s an idea, Krista. It’s pizza and White Christmas night tonight.”

  “What?” Krista pulled her scarf back down.

  “Just a funny old tradition we started when the kids were young. We’d bring home a couple of pizzas and watch the old White Christmas movie a week or so before Christmas. Why don’t you and Emily join us tonight?”

  “You know, I’ve never actually seen that movie.”

  “Then you must come! We’ll expect you both around six.”

  Krista agreed and headed for the elevator, feeling hopeful. But as the elevator went down, her emotions went with it. How was she going to deal with this mess?

  When the doors opened on the first floor, Winston was waiting to get in. “Winston,” she said in surprise, trying to hide a rush of actual fear. “What are you doing here?”

  “If it’s any of your business, I came to pick up some of my personal things.”

  “Oh.” She attempted a smile, keeping her hands over the door to keep it from closing. “Have you been enjoying your time off?”

  He simply grunted.

  “I wish I’d had a chance to speak to you earlier this week,” she said. “I wanted you to know that I only expressed concern over discrepancies in the budget reports. I never meant to make any accusations. But it was protocol in the City of Phoenix to request an occasional audit if the numbers didn’t add up.”

  “The numbers add up,” he said woodenly.

  “Well, that will be a huge relief to everyone. I’m sure it’s all just a clerical error.” She forced another smile. “In the meantime, I’d think you’d be enjoying the downtime. I know I would.”

  “Well, maybe you’ll get yours.” He pushed her hand away from the elevator door. “Excuse me.”

  Her knees felt slightly wobbly as she exited the elevator and watched the doors close. Perhaps she was reading more into it than she should, but the look in his eyes had felt seriously threatening. Oh, she didn’t think he was planning anything truly diabolical, but it was clear he hated her. She’d honestly hoped to extend an olive branch . . . or at least try. But clearly, Winston Palmer wanted no part of it.

  As she went to her car, she wondered what exactly he was planning to do in his office. Before she started the engine, she gave Byron a quick call and he promised to handle it.

  13

  Naturally, Emily was thrilled at the news they were going to the Harris farm. She’d been somewhat aware of Krista’s challenging week and had even heard some unkind words at school. More than anything else, Emily had sounded concerned that her mother was starting to hate Christmas again. Krista had tried to reassure her that the problems at City Hall were not related to Christmas or Christmasville, but Emily was thoroughly disappointed to learn they wouldn’t be playing elves on Saturday.

  “Can we still go to Christmasville tomorrow night?” Emily asked as Krista drove them to the Harris farm. “There’s going to be lots of fun stuff—and they’re going to give away the Christmas House. We don’t want to miss that, Mama.”

  Part of her wanted to miss it completely, but another part wanted to give in. “Yes, we can still go to that,” she conceded. Hopefully they wouldn’t run into any haters there. Or perhaps the mayor’s damage control methods would finally start working.

  It was a pleasant distraction to pig out on pizza and watch the Christmas movie with the Harris family. And, of course, Krista was always glad to see Conner. It was encouraging that he looked equally glad to see her. And when he invited her to help him fix a broken railing out on his parents’ front porch, she eagerly accepted. Of course, once she got out there, she could see that he didn’t really need help. But she held the rail in place while he did his repairs, watching his expertise as he used various tools to make the rickety rail solid again.

  “I hear you’ve had a rough week,” he said as he worked. “I wish I’d known. I would’ve made time to come cheer you up.”

  “Thanks. I hear you’ve been pretty busy trying to finish up a house in time for a family to get in before Christmas.”

  “Yes. The Garcias have been waiting a long time to get into their own home.” He handed her the power tool to hold for him. “And if you think you and Emily are crowded, imagine a family of six in a space about as big as your apartment.”

  “Well, good for you for helping them. That’s better than wasting your time on me.”

  He stood up straight. “I would not consider it a waste of time, Krista.”

  “I know you wouldn’t.” She smiled. “You’re a good guy, Conner.”

  “Well, thank you.” He tested the rail, seeing that it held firm. “That takes care of that.” He pointed to the sky. “Now how about some stargazing?”

  “Really?” She set the tool on a porch chair, then went down the steps and looked upward. “I don’t see any stars tonight.”

  “That’s because of the clouds.”

  “Oh, yes, the clouds. Emily is certain it’s about to snow.”

  “I don’t think so.” He chuckled as he reached for her hand. “I obviously used the stars as an excuse to get you down here.”

  “Oh, you did?” She felt a happy rush of nerves. Was his excuse what she hoped it was?

  Still holding her hand, he strolled toward the barn. “I was thinking about you a lot this week, Krista.” He paused by the rail fence, gazing out across the pasture, illuminated by the moon filtering through the clouds.

  “Despite my difficult week, I was actually thinking of you too,” she confessed.

  “I was going to ask you out tomorrow night, but Anna informed me that we need to be at the Christmasville celebration tomorrow. She plays flute in the high school orchestra and they’re performing. But I thought maybe the four of us could go together.”

  “I’d love to go with you.” She confessed her trepidation about being seen around town. “It’s not that I’m afraid for my safety or anything like that, but it would be unpleasant to have a nasty encounter with Val Palmer or one of her friends—for Emily’s sake.”

  “I happily volunteer to be your protector.” He was just leaning down toward her. Looking earnestly into her eyes. Was he about to kiss her? She hoped so. But his intentions were cut short by the sounds of gleeful shouts coming from the house. They both turned in time to see Anna and Emily clomping down the porch steps, laughing as they raced to the barn.

  “What’s going on here?” Conner called out.

  “Oh, I didn’t know you were out here,” Anna yelled back. “I’m going to show Emily the new baby goat.”

  “A new baby goat?” Krista said.

  “That’s right,” Conner told her. “Let’s go see it too.” Soon they were all standing outside a stall, admiring the pint-sized kid that had been born just that morning.

  “He’s so tiny,” Emily said as she knelt by the fuzzy brown-and-white critter. “I just want to take him home and keep him forever.”

  “Well, he needs his mother right now,” Anna told her.

  “And our apartment doesn’t allow pets.” Krista knelt beside Emily. “But I can understand why you’d like to keep him. He’s awfully sweet.” As she petted the kid’s soft coat, she was thinking of Conner. Had he really been about to kiss her? Or had she simply imagined it? Although she’d been slightly relieved at the interruption, she was disappointed too. What would it be like to share a kiss with him? Would she ever find out?

  As Conner led Krista and Emily toward the town square on Saturday night, Krista felt uneasy. She’d already told Conner her plan to keep a low profile tonight, and had even stuffed her hair into a wool hat and wound a muffler clear up to her nose. She told Emily it was because she was cold, but her hope was to avoid any recognition as they listened to the music and watched scenes from the old Dickens play. Due to Emily’s height, they stood near the front, but off to one side where Krista felt concealed in the shadows. By the time Santa showed up at the end of the show, she had finally just begun to relax. It would soon be over and they could go home . . . and she could breathe easily.

  Like the opening night of Christmasville, Mr. and Mrs. Claus made the grand finale appearance. After a few compliments on the evening’s show, Mr. Claus told everyone that he had an important announcement to make. “As you know, tonight is the big night. We are going to announce the lucky winner of the delightful Christmas House,” he said merrily. “You may have already heard that there were nearly a thousand entrants. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for the judges to make their decision. Although I’ve been told the winning essay was unanimously chosen by the Christmas House Committee. And now I will share it with everyone.” He cleared his throat and began to read:

  The reason I hope I win the Christmas House is because I never lived in a real house before. But it is my dream to live in a real house. My mama says that’s too big a dream for such a little girl. But she never lived in a real house either. She never even had a real family before because she lived in foster homes. Those are houses with parents who are not your parents. So they don’t really love you. And that made her really sad. So now it’s my big dream for Mama to have a real house. A real house with real love with her real family. That’s me because I’m all that Mama has got.

  If I win the Christmas House, my mama will see that Christmas is a really special time. She will see that big dreams really can come true. She thinks that Christmas is a sad time because she always had sad Christmases. And she always had sad birthdays too because her birthday is on Christmas Eve and when she was a little girl everyone was always so busy that they forgot her birthday. Now Mama pretends like she doesn’t have a birthday at all. But I know she really does. So if I win the Christmas House, I will give it to my mama and it will be her best birthday and best Christmas present ever. That is why I want to win the Christmas House. Then me and Mama can live happily ever after. Thank you very much!

  PS. I’m sorry this is not 500 words long. I am only 8 years old and 500 words is way too much for me to write.

  Krista’s knees felt like Jell-O and Emily was jumping up and down like a wild thing, shrieking loudly with joy as everyone around them clapped and cheered.

  “We won, we won! Mama, we won.”

  “Will the writer of this essay please come up to the stage?” Mayor Barry said. “And her mama too?”

  “Come on, Mama.” Emily grabbed Krista’s hand, tugging her forward. But Krista’s feet wouldn’t move and she felt like she was about to be sick. This was all wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. Emily was about to get her heart broken, and Krista didn’t think she could bear to see it. “Come on!” Emily tugged so hard that Krista went forward. Feeling like she was headed for the guillotine, she followed her oblivious daughter.

  “Oh my! It’s you?” Mayor Barry looked so shocked to see Krista that he appeared to momentarily forget he was Santa. “Well, ho, ho, ho.” He welcomed them up with hesitation. “Who have we here?”

  Emily ran straight to him, giving him a big hug. “Thank you so much, Santa,” she shouted into the microphone he held in front of her. “I’m Emily Galloway. I’m the one who wrote that essay. And this is my mama. Her name is Krista Galloway. And I wanted to win the house for her.”

  “That’s the city manager,” someone yelled from the crowd. And now others began to murmur as well.

  “Is that true?” The mayor seemed to be wearing his Santa hat again. “Are you the city manager of Winter Hill?”

  “I—I am,” she stammered. “And I had no idea that my daughter had entered this contest. I honestly don’t know what to—”

  “We won, Mama!” Emily danced happily around the stage, still bubbling over with joy. “We won the Christmas House! We won!”

  After she finally paused, the mayor continued. “Well, the committee unanimously selected your essay,” he told Emily. “So it certainly looks like you won.” He handed her a brass key. “Here is the key to your beautiful Christmas House. I offer you my best wishes and congratulations.” He gave Krista a concerned look.

  Emily clutched the key to her chest, still hopping and jumping for joy as some of the audience began to clap. But not all of them—the gesture didn’t seem to hold much genuine enthusiasm. And Krista knew why. She truly wished the earth would open up just now and swallow her whole. Instead, she forced a smile and took Emily’s hand. “I suppose we can sort this out later,” she mumbled to the mayor, then quickly made her exit. Could life possibly get any worse?

  Despite Conner’s reassurance that everything would work out, Krista wanted to pack up her life and her daughter and return to Phoenix ASAP. She’d never been so humiliated—ever. And of course it would happen at Christmastime. Wasn’t that just par for the course? Why had she ever believed she was over her holiday PTSD? Still, she kept these thoughts to herself as Conner and Anna drove them back to their apartment. Of course, Emily was convinced they would move into the Christmas House tonight, and, so far, Krista hadn’t told her it was impossible. But she knew it was. She knew that house could never belong to her and Emily. Good grief, why hadn’t the committee figured it out when they’d seen her daughter’s name—Emily Galloway? After all, it was a small town. Everyone knew that Krista Galloway was a city employee and that she was clearly ineligible.

  “We’ll just get our pajamas and things for now,” Emily was telling Anna in the backseat. “Then we’ll go back to the Christmas House to sleep tonight. You have to come see it too, Anna. Since you helped me to enter the contest, you have to come see how nice it is.”

  At the apartment, Krista let Emily and Anna go inside, but remained out in front with Conner. “What am I going to do?” she asked him.

  “Go enjoy Emily’s house,” he said simply. “She won it fair and square.”

  “But I work for the city,” she reminded him. “I’m certain that makes me exempt from—”

  “First of all, this wasn’t a city project or a city contest,” he pointed out. “Second of all, Emily is the one who entered—”

  “With Anna’s help.”

  “Anna already told me that Emily wrote the whole thing herself. It was Emily’s idea. Anna simply helped with punctuation and to print it out and make sure it got entered into the contest on time. That’s why she offered to babysit for free. It was their chance to work on it. But Anna confirmed that the words all belonged to Emily.”

  “Even so, Emily is a child. How can an eight-year-old win a house?”

  “The committee obviously knew she was a child and yet they chose her, Krista.”

  “But you heard the crowd tonight. They feel it’s unfair. And I don’t blame them. I feel like it’s unfair too. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before someone comes to inform us it’s a big mistake. And I’ve got to prepare Emily for that disappointment. Because I know they’re going to take it away.”

  “Who’s going to take it away?”

  “I don’t know for sure. But I just know—”

  “Mama,” Emily called through the still-open door. “Want me to get your stuff for you?”

  “We can’t—”

  “Krista.” He stopped her. “Don’t ruin this for Emily.”

  “But why get her hopes up?”

  “Because it’s legit. The contest was part of Christmasville and the city does not own Christmasville. It’s volunteers like my parents and me and my sister and her husband and hundreds of others. I’m sure the contest committee knew that Emily was your daughter—by the time they selected her, anyway. And they could’ve pulled the plug then, but they didn’t. You and Emily won the house fair and square. You need to go enjoy it. And enjoy it with Emily. It’s her gift to you. Don’t take that away from her.”

  Krista wasn’t convinced, but she was too weary to protest. “Well, I suppose one night won’t hurt anything.”

  “That’s right.” He reached out to pull her toward him, giving her a nice solid hug. “It’s going to be okay, Krista, I promise.”

  She looked up into his eyes, wondering how he could back such a claim, but she kept her doubts to herself.