Blessings of the Season by Annie Jones Read Free Book Online

my mom and dad handled it so well. I was sad, and I miss him to this day, but I also got a chance to see real faith in action.” Her eyes grew moist, but she did not cry.
    He listened intently.
    â€œDad was so brave, right up until the end. Since thenmy mom has always…” Addie stopped to think of her mom and their discussion this morning. She could practically hear the hum of all the lights and motors from their front-lawn display as she fought back a wave of embarrassment at how hard she had always been about her mother’s Christmas antics and said, “She always made a point to celebrate big at Christmas after that.”
    â€œSo you doing this promo is probably making her very happy?”
    In that moment she felt at least a little comforted about her years of trying to distance herself from her mom’s displays. “Yes, I guess, it—”
    â€œAddie McCoy, phone call on line one.” The voice of the lady from the customer-service counter echoed through the building.
    â€œI better take that. It might be the Star City Satellite .” She excused herself and hurried to the phone attached to a column behind an empty sales counter.
    Moments later she found herself listening to the editor of the Satellite telling her he didn’t see any value in doing a story on Goodwin’s Christmas promotion. “It’s just not newsworthy. If they want to pay for an ad, I’d be happy to talk.”
    Addie stiffened. Everything she had worked so hard to achieve these last few days came down to this. Goodwin’s needed publicity. She was in charge of marketing, and if this editor hung up now, she would have failed to get any advance word out. She wasn’t sure what to do. Her gaze fell on the cardboard cutout, then on Nate. She thought of what he had said about Jesse and his school, then about her mom loving all this. Sherecalled what she had learned about the Web cam, the contest and how to give people what they wanted.
    There was also the idea that something could compel Nate to perhaps want to stay in Star City, but not if he left because the promotion got cancelled.
    â€œAll right, you want newsworthy?” She took a deep breath and gripped the phone receiver tightly. “How about this? In a matter of days, Goodwin’s Department Store is going to go back in time and around the world. We are going to give people something to feel sentimental about, something to cheer for and something to help them show their commitment to Christmas and help children in the process. If that’s newsworthy enough for you, show up here Thursday morning and bring your camera.”

Chapter Six
    I f anyone at the temp agency would have warned him when he took this assignment that there was even the slightest chance that twelve days before Christmas he’d be still in Star City, dressed like a dad straight out of a 1950s family sitcom, Nate would have turned the job down cold.
    But if he hadn’t taken the job caring for Jesse Goodwin, he’d have missed out on so much. First and foremost, of course, getting to know a great kid and being able to make a difference in his life, however fleeting. Next, he’d have missed meeting all the great people of Star City, from the Goodwins to the parents and teachers at Jesse’s school to Addie McCoy.
    He stood back and folded his arms over his gray suit jacket, courtesy of the costume department of the Star City Community Theater, to watch his counterpart at work. Somehow in the last five days she had managed to take the Christmas promotion in hand and spin it offin a whole new direction. With Web cams streaming live directly from inside Goodwin’s on a Web site set to go live in a matter of minutes, she’d already garnered attention from all over. It helped that she had found a way to connect the whole stunt to a worthy cause—raising money for Jesse’s school—and to get people engaged by turning the whole