by Nicole Ellis
“You too.” She pulled away from me. “Now, where are my favorite niece and nephew? I thought Mikey would be out here waiting for me.”
“He probably would have if I’d let him.” I grinned and shouted into the house, “Mikey! Aunt Becky’s here.”
He ran to the door and attached himself to her before she had even crossed the threshold.
“I love you too, buddy.” My sister stepped into the room and removed her jacket, hanging it on the hook inside the door. “Brr. It’s cold out there.” Goldie sniffed at the jacket. “You can smell my cat, can’t you?” she asked as she patted his head before walking into the kitchen.
“Hi, honey.” Mom stood and embraced Becky. “I’m so glad you were able to come this year.”
“Me too.” Becky sat down at the table and smiled at everyone. She grabbed a scoopful of tuna salad and plopped it down on a piece of whole grain and nut bread. “This looks good. I wasn’t hungry this morning when I left home and I didn’t want to stop for food on the drive, so I’m starving now.”
It was nice having my sister around again and filled me with hope that our relationship would be closer in the future. My phone buzzed and I checked it. Someone had e-mailed my personal account. On Christmas?
My good mood dissolved when I read the message. “Oh, great.”
“What is it?” Adam asked.
“Our babysitter has decided to stay home for the semester because her father is ill and she wants to take care of him.” I sighed. “Now what are we going to do?” I hastily added, “I mean, I’m glad that she’s able to do that for him, but it’s unfortunate for us.”
Becky put her sandwich down on her plate. “You know, I might have a solution for that.”
“Really? What?” I peered at her. “Do you know of someone in the area who’s looking for a job?” Finding a babysitter hadn’t been easy. I’d interviewed several candidates and only one had met my standards.
“Yeah. Me.”
My mother’s face lit up. “You’re going to move up to Seattle? That would be wonderful. I could visit both of you in one trip.”
“Not so fast, Mom, I haven’t decided yet. I’m considering going back to school to become an elementary school teacher, but most of it is online until I get to the student teaching part of it.” Becky looked at me. “What do you think?”
“I think you’d make a wonderful teacher,” I said. “I’m surprised you aren’t one already. You love kids and they love you. We’d love to have you around and for you to babysit the kids. That would be amazing.”
“Following in our educator footsteps,” my father said proudly.
“But what about your house?” I asked. “You worked so hard to build your tiny home. Are you going to sell it?” When she’d built the home the year before, she hadn’t stopped talking about every part of the building process. I’d thought she was crazy until I’d seen how cute it was in person. As adorable as it was, however, I couldn’t picture myself living there without going crazy, much less having two people living in the small space. I half wondered if that was one of the reasons for the breakup between Becky and her husband.
“That’s the beauty of a tiny home. I can take it with me.” She eyed Adam first, then me. “Actually, that’s another thing I wanted to talk to you about. I was hoping I could park it in back of your house. It doesn’t take up much space.”
I froze. Did I want a tiny home in my backyard? Would the city even allow it? Most importantly, how did I feel about having my sister practically living with us?
She laughed. “I know. It’s a lot. You don’t have to decide now, but let me know so I can start making plans.”
“We will,” Adam said. “There are some things Jill and I will need to talk about and we’ll need to check with the town to see if it’s even legal to have a tiny home on our property.”
“Of course.” She beamed at us. “I’d love to see my niece and nephew more often, but real estate is so expensive up here that I don’t think I’d be able to afford an apartment while I attend school.”
“We’ll think about it and let you know.” I smiled at her.
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing board games, singing Christmas carols in funny voices, and watching It’s a Wonderful Life.
For dinner, my mother prepared our customary Christmas ham, which we ate with boiled new potatoes, green bean casserole, and a Jell-O fruit salad. My family usually had mincemeat and pecan pies for dessert, but Adam had insisted that Christmas wouldn’t be complete without a chocolate cream pie. I’d half-heartedly fought with him over it because I didn’t want to end up with pie leftovers hanging around the house and add to the five pounds I’d already gained this season, but I’d bought one from the grocery store and stuck it in the fridge for later. I didn’t tell him because I didn’t want to let him know how much I was looking forward to it, but I saved room at dinner for a big helping of chocolate pie. I mean, it was chocolate—how was I supposed to resist that?
After dinner, we exchanged gifts. I’d found a backpacker’s espresso machine at the outdoors store and wrapped it up for Becky.
She unwrapped it and set it in front of her.
“Do you like it?” I asked anxiously.
“I do. I’ve been wanting one of these. I hate waking up and not having good coffee when I’m out hiking. I saw someone use one of these last time I went and was envious.”
“I’m glad it will be useful for you.” I’d gone back and forth on what to get her and was relieved that she liked it.
“You know, I’m sorry I put you on the spot earlier. If you don’t want me living in your backyard, feel free to say so. I just thought it would benefit both of us—I’d get a cheap place to live and you’d get a live-in babysitter.”
“I know. I’m not upset with you, but it’s something Adam and I will have to talk about, ok?”
“Ok.” She smiled at me, then crawled over to where Mikey was setting up a complicated race track that he’d received from my parents. She pointed at a piece of track and then at another, helping him to figure out where things went.
Later that night, with Ella sleeping in our room in a Pack ’n Play because Becky had her room, Adam and I had a chance to discuss Becky’s proposition.
“What do you think, honey?” He peered at me.
“She’s my sister. What do you think?”
“I think it might be a good idea. We’ve been so stressed about finding childcare that it’s starting to take a toll on the family. And she’s so good with the kids. We could leave them with her and know they were in good hands.” He sat down on the bed and buttoned up his pajama top.
“But it would be another adult living here. Are we sure we want that? She’d probably be in the house all the time.” Becky and I were so different that I wasn’t sure what it would be like to have her here on a long-term basis. While my husband had often accused me of over-planning everything, Becky was the exact opposite—a go-with-the-flow kind of person. I had a feeling that things wouldn’t always be smooth if she lived here.
“Yeah, it would take some getting used to, but she’s your sister. I think it would be good for you to spend some time with her.”
I sighed. He was right. “Ok. I’ll tell her tomorrow that we’ll check with the town to see if it’s even a possibility.”
We turned off our bedside lamps and lay down. Beside me, Ella was snoring softly. Down the hall, my sister and Mikey were sleeping in their rooms and my parents downstairs. My entire family under one roof. I’d made it through the Christmas season, but I knew the New Year would bring many changes—some good, and some bad. I also knew that together as a family, we could make it through anything.
Thank you for reading A Killer Christmas Party. I hope you enjoyed spending more time with Jill Andrews and her family. If you did, I’d really appreciate it if you left a review.
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BOOKS BY NICOLE ELLIS
Jill Andrews Cozy Mysteries
Brownie Points for Murder - Book #1
Death to the Highest Bidder - Book #2
A Deadly Pair O’Docks - Book #3
Stuck with S’More Death - Book #4
Murderous Mummy Wars - Book #5
A Killer Christmas Party - Book #6
Candle Beach Sweet Romances
Sweet Beginnings - Book #1
Sweet Success - Book #2
Sweet Promises - Book #3
Sweet Memories - Book #4
Sweet History - Book #5
