Christmas Surprises by Jenn Faulk Read Free Book Online Page A

when he'd smile at his success.
     
    "Oh, easily," he'd said, sitting up and pulling her into his arms.  "But maybe I mis-spoke before.  Maybe your laugh isn't my favorite sound."
     
    "Then what is?," she'd asked, wondering what he was getting at.
     
    "Can't really describe it," he'd whispered, grinning, his lips already at her neck.  "But I'll bet I can get you to make it."
     
    "Aunt Maddie, why is the doorbell making that sound?," Mia asked, jolting Maddie back to the decidedly less exciting present. 
     
    Sure enough, the doorbell was making a horrible, dying sound.
     
    "Sounds like someone's leaning on it," Grant said.
     
    He let her go when they got to the door and nodded at the handle, unable to use his own what with all the flour.  So, she opened it up... and smiled almost instantly.
     
    "Gracie..."
     
    For as huge as Maddie herself was, she was nothing in comparison to Gracie, who was, from the looks of things, just a few days away from giving birth to her fourth child.  Her husband, Jacob, was looking a little round himself.
     
    And happy.  They looked so happy, even as Gracie beamed at Maddie.
     
    "Look at you!," she exclaimed, rushing right in and embracing her childhood friend.
     
    Yes, they'd grown up together, going to the same church as little girls.  While Maddie had been friends with Gracie's sister, Faith, first, she's spent plenty of time around Gracie over the years as well.  Now, they were married into the same family... in a distant, twice (or more?) removed way.
     
    "You, too," Maddie said, whispering it into her hair, feeling a little closer to home with her old friend here.
     
    "I read your last book," Gracie said, corralling her two older children into the house, even as one of them -- the boy -- was standing at the doorbell with his forehead pressed against it.
     
    Well, the horrible, dying sound was easily explained, then.
     
    "Andrew, stop that," Gracie said.  "You're going to wake up half the neighborhood, which is saying a lot since Micah and Rachel are, like, ten miles from the rest of civilization on this huge compound they've got."  She took a breath.  "Anyway, Maddie, the book!  I've read it!  And that's a big compliment, that I even read it, because you know how I am with reading, and I've had no time anyway, trying to pack up all of our stuff and ship it all from Argentina --"  She finally saw Grant standing there.  "Well, hello, handsome.  Don't you look cute with flour on your forehead?"
     
    Grant frowned at this, lifting up his arm to his forehead.  "Do I have --"
     
    Maddie reached out and wiped it away before he could make it worse.  He opened up his mouth to thank her (or criticize her for getting her own hands dirty and potentially harming the baby, his main concern these days), but Jacob cut him off.
     
    "Handsome?," he said, shifting the toddler he held in his arms.  "Only if he's got a plate full of samples for me to eat in there."
     
    "I do actually," Grant said, taking the slap to the shoulder from Jacob with a smile.  "Heard you were coming and made sure there were some snacks ready.  Better snacks than those premade cookies Rachel always tries to feed her guests."
     
    "Awesome," Jacob said, handing off his youngest to Maddie, who was surprised by the bulk of the small child as he stared at her, his eyes just exactly like her nieces’ eyes.  Jacob and Micah were cousins who strongly resembled one another, which might have explained why their kids looked like they were all siblings.
     
    "This one is Andrew, right?," she asked, staring back at the toddler.
     
    "No, that's Ben," Gracie said, grinning.  "These two are --"
     
    "Andrew and Lydia!" 
     
    There was Rachel, with Micah close behind her, going down on her knees to catch the two small children.  "Look at you guys!," she squealed.  "So big!"
     
    "You already looking for something to eat?," Micah asked his cousin, the two of them hugging in that cool guy, partial hug that