TUESDAY TALES - WORD PROMPT - CHRISTMAS

Welcome! Merry Christmas! The word prompt this week is "Christmas"! This week's episode of "Santa's Thrift Shop" continues from Giselle's pov. Don't worry. We will get to Cal's side of things. 
I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Thank you so much for stopping by. Scroll down to get back to Tuesday Tales. 

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Julia Davenport entered her niece’s house carrying a shopping bag.

“You’re just in time for tea. I have water boiling,” Giselle said, giving her aunt a hug.

“You’re so self-sufficient. It’s amazing.”

“I’ve had a few years to adjust.”

“Can’t I be impressed?”

“Life goes on, Julia. No matter what.”

“True.”

“Camomile or Vanilla Chai?” Giselle asked, on her way to the kitchen.

“Vanilla, please. I brought you some Christmas decorations.”

“I’m not going to have a tree. No point.”

“Can we put these up in the window, instead?” Julia asked.

“Sure. I don’t want people to think I’m a Scrooge.”

Giselle took down mugs and recognized the box of vanilla tea by the cream color.

“Do you need help?” Julie asked, joining her niece.

“Just say ‘when’, will you?”

“Sure.”

“I brought some of Laura Dailey’s scones,” she said, rummaging through the shopping bag.

Julia swallowed her food, then spoke. 

“Are you going to do Santa’s Thrift Shop?”

“Me? No. That was mom’s thing. Not mine,” Giselle responded, putting a piece of the confection in her mouth.

“But you always helped out.”

“When I had perfect vision. But now? No.”

“I’ll help. I’m sure we can find others.”

“There’s probably a ton of dust and mold growing in that old shop. Ugh.”

Julia patted Giselle’s arm. “The children look forward to it. And when I told people you were moving back, everyone asked me if you were going to do it.”

“And what did you say?”

“Said I had to talk to you first.”

“If everything was normal, well, maybe. But the way things are…”

“People will pitch in.”

“I don’t want that. I don’t want help. I don’t want pity. I just want to be left alone,” Giselle said, pushing to her feet and stomping to the bay window.

Through the fuzziness, she made out a snowball fight happening across the street. Her heart squeezed. Of course, it would be Cal. She recalled the many times he’d rifled a snowball at her bottom with amazing accuracy.

She sighed and turned away. No sense torturing herself. Cal had a new life, a child, and probably a girlfriend. Julia came up behind her, laying a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s time for you to get a life, too.”  

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PICTURE PROMPT WEEK - SANTA'S THRIFT SHOP

This is picture prompt week. Our stories must be no more than 300 words. I am starting a new story, too. The tentative title is "Santa's Thrift Shop." Scroll down to return to Tuesday Tales. Thanks for stopping by. 

   Giselle stood at her living room window. Holding up binoculars, she could make out the Christmas tree in the window across the street. Her poor vision prevented her from distinguishing the people moving around. She guessed it was Cal and his son, Bobby. Pain pierced her heart. That should have been her son with him. She sighed.

   “You’d think after dealing with this crap for four years, I’d be used to it by now,” she said out loud to herself. Early onset macular degeneration had disrupted her life, robbed her of her profession and forced her to sell her family home.  

   She made her way to the kitchen and plugged in the electric kettle. The beauty of it was that it stopped boiling and kept the water hot with no open fire. With help from her aunt, she’d laid out the kitchen and memorized it. Find the tea? Easy peasy, she went right to the correct cabinet. Sugar? Milk? Giselle pulled things together for a hot cuppa to chase the winter chill away.

   Aunt Julia had picked out this house, a two-bedroom ranch. Giselle couldn’t handle stairs. She’d instructed her Aunt to tell no one about her condition, especially not Cal Morrison. She could take his hostility, but never his pity.

   Julia said he’d never forgiven Giselle for taking the job in Europe. She’d thought she told him it was only for a year, but he didn’t listen. Within nine months, he’d knocked up a woman and gotten married. Cal’s wife, Jane, had drowned in the Delaware two years ago.  

   Did Julia not know this house was across the street from Cal’s? Giselle didn’t think so. There would be no reunion with him. Between his anger and her disability, the gap was as wide at the Atlantic Ocean.

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NEW HOLIDAY STORIES HERE! FOOTBALL & HOCKEY, ROMANCE & COMEDY!

I have two new Christmas stories this season. The Final Slapshot is a hockey romance, written originally for the Hockey Holiday anthology. Santa's Surprise is my first romantic comedy short story. Find out more about there here.  

Harry “Deke” Edmonds is a Hartford Husky defenseman known to be tricky, fast, and unbreakable. An amazing defensive lunge in a playoff game ends in a life-threatening injury. But Harry’d bounce back. He always did, didn’t he?

Kitty, his wife, runs a successful art gallery in Washington, D.C. Over the last three years, the couple agreed to live in different cities and be together whenever they can. Harry swears they make it work.

Unwilling to face the truth about the damage he suffered, Harry hides his secret. Hoping for a Christmas miracle, but confronted with the inevitable, he makes a decision that breaks his heart. Is this the end of the road for him with the Huskies and Kitty, too?

Previously published in the Hockey Holiday Anthology.

Buy the ebook for ONLY $0.99 here:

UNIVERSAL LINK

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If you follow the "First & Ten" series, here are two new players and a new spin on their Christmas party for at-risk kids. 

When Connecticut Kings star football player, Keith Wilson, asks his actress sister, Molly, to sub for him at the annual Christmas party for kids, she refuses. Although he manipulates her into agreeing, she turns the tables by extracting a reluctant promise from him.  

Will she be able to carry off posing as a man? And what happens when Santa turns out to be someone she didn’t expect?

A sweet, sexy short holiday romantic comedy.  

Find the ebook here: 

UNIVERSAL LINK

TUESAY TALES - WORD PROMPT "CRAZY" FROM "SANTA'S HELPER"

Welcome to Tuesday Tales. This week is a little different. We have a snippet from a short, short holiday story, called, tentatively, Santa's Helper. I hope you enjoy it. Scroll down to return to Tuesday Tales. 

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House on Eve Lane,

“Are you crazy?” Molly asked her twin brother, Keith.

“Aw come on,” Keith whined.

“No. Nyet. Nunca, Non, how many languages do I have to use to get this across to you?”

“You’re my twin. Twins stick together.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I told you already. No.”

“Please? I’m on bended knee.”

She turned away from him.

“Valerie, I could use a little help here,” he said, staring at his wife.

“I know how she feels. This is risky. She could get caught.”

“Get caught? It’s not like she’s stealing the crown jewels, Val.”

“I know. She won’t get arrested, but the humiliation.”

“Look, Mom and Dad have already said they’d take the kids. I have a suite reserved at the Ritz tonight. It’s our anniversary, for Chrissakes.”

“That’s your problem.”

“I didn’t sign up to play Santa’s helper  at the team’s kiddie Christmas party. We drew straws. I lost.”

“Must I repeat myself? It’s not my problem.”

Keith Wilson, star running back for the Connecticut Kings, plucked another beer from the fridge.

“You’re right. I never should have asked you,” he said.

Molly faced him. “Do you mean that?”

“Yeah. Well, the only reason I’m asking is because you’re such an accomplished actress, I figured you could pull it off. You know, play any part. Isn’t that what the actresses who win Academy Awards say? Aren’t they always looking for that difficult part to sink their teeth into?”

Molly’s eyes widened. “You think I’m an accomplished actress? Since when?”

“Since…always. But if this is beyond your ability. Hell, well, then I understand, I guess.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Well can you or can’t you?”

She straightened up, squared her shoulders and made eye contact with him. “Of course I could. If I wanted to, that is. Which I don’t.”

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