Once Upon a Christmas (PTA Moms Book 2)

by Holly Jacobs

  Michelle was about to argue but decided against it, so she changed the topic. "It's been a while. Have you heard from Carly?"

  "No. I was hoping you had."

  She shook her head. Before she could say anything about how worried she was, Connie was tapping her on the shoulder. "Daniel's taking a break and asked if you would meet him in the coat closet."

  "Do we even have a coat closet?" Michelle asked. She'd been involved at the school for four years, and couldn't recall a coat closet anywhere.

  "I think he means the locker room." Connie suddenly looked wistful. "But I wish we did have a coat closet. I remember, back in high school, we had one. No lockers then. And there was this redheaded boy—"

  Before Connie got lost in the coat closet of her past, Michelle interrupted her and said, "I'd better see what Saint Nick wants."

  Michelle walked to the back of the gym and found the locker room door open. She peeked inside and Daniel was there, still dressed as Santa. "Hey, what's up?"

  Daniel pointed into the gym. "See that kid?"

  Michelle looked at the kindergartners milling about the gift tables. "I see lots of kids."

  "The one in the faded shirt." He pointed again.

  "Oh, yes. Lincoln White."

  "He said he didn't want me—by me I mean Santa—to bring him any toys. He just wants a Christmas tree. His mom said they couldn't have one this year because she lost her job."

  "Oh." Michelle hadn't heard that Mindy had lost her job.

  "Could you find out where he lives?" Daniel continued. "I mean, not let anyone know why, just get an address?"

  She didn't need to ask why. "You're going to get him a tree."

  He shrugged, as if it wasn't anything, but it was. It was something big. And at that moment, Michelle thought maybe her friends weren't as wrong as she thought. Maybe she lo—

  "Michelle, hurry," Samantha called. "There's a glue crisis at the craft table."

  She wanted to stay. She wanted to tell Daniel about the feelings she was just realizing—no, she'd realized it before, she was just admitting to it now. But she knew she had to go. "Sorry."

  "Just don't forget that address."

  "No," she promised him wholeheartedly, "I won't forget anything."

  She solved the glue crisis and everything seemed to be running smoothly. Everything except Carly. Carly hadn't called her or Samantha.

  It was after lunch when she finally arrived. She walked into the gym and Samantha all but pounced on her before Michelle could. "What happened?"

  Carly looked exhausted and not nearly as happy as Michelle would have thought. "Carly?"

  "There was a bit more to it than we thought," she said slowly, "but it's all fine."

  Michelle could see that it was anything but fine. "Carly, we can see it isn't."

  "My record will be expunged in a few weeks."

  Michelle knew there was more, but it was obvious that Carly didn't want to talk about it. She understood that, so she simply leaned forward and hugged her friend. "Just remember, we're here if you need us."

  "I'm fine. Now, where do you want me to work?"

  DANIEL WATCHED Michelle with her friends, then went back to his Santa duties.

  Playing Santa made the day go fast. The older kids didn't do any lap-sitting, but when those classes came in, he volunteered at the wrapping station. He had to lose his Santa gloves, but otherwise he was successful.

  When the last class had cleared out, all the mothers swarmed the gym, clearing the tables. They had some of the seventh- and eighth-grade boys carry the tables and chairs back to storage.

  "Hey, Dan," Brandon said. "Are you going to be here when I get out of school?"

  He hadn't talked to Michelle, but nodded. "I should be."

  Brandon grinned. "Great. See you in forty-six minutes."

  "That's very specific," Daniel teased.

  "Hey, I'm Aunt Shell's nephew. . .and as soon as that bell rings, I'm on Christmas break, so yeah, I'm specific." He took off down the hall.

  "What was that all about?" Michelle asked.

  He turned, and it took all he had not to sweep her into his arms, right here in front of her friends. "He asked if I'd wait till he got out, and I said I would if it was okay with you."

  "When I say yes it's going to be because I have an ulterior motive."

  "Oh?" He liked the sound of that.

  "I got that address, but I also know the ages of all the kids in the family. I thought we could run to the store and do a bit of Christmas shopping for them, then buy the tree and drop it all off. . .from Santa, of course."

  "I know you don't want to hear it, but I really love you, Michelle. There are so many reasons, but that suggestion pretty much sums them all up." And because he needed to touch her, or burst, he leaned down and planted a very chaste kiss on her cheek. "You've got a date."

  Chapter Twelve

  At eight o'clock that evening, the three of them ran into Daniel's house with the pizza box.

  "I can't remember when I've had so much fun," Michelle said. They'd shopped at Kmart and had all the gifts wrapped at a Toys for Tots wrapping station at the front of the store. There was a tree lot in the store's parking lot, and they bought the biggest blue spruce they could find.

  Quietly, under cover of the early winter darkness, they'd brought bag after bag of presents as well as the tree onto the Whites' porch, then Daniel, still dressed as Santa, rang the doorbell, while Michelle and Brandon watched from inside his truck. "You can never tell," she'd warned him.

  He'd promised not to. She watched him now, laughing with Daniel as he shoved half a piece of pizza into his mouth. Knowing that Brandon was a soft touch, Chloe was at his feet hoping for a treat.

  And Daniel. . .

  Pretty much everything in her life seemed to have an and Daniel to it. Not only had he invaded the Christmas Fair, but he'd sort of crept into her entire life. She waited for the familiar sense of fear that always accompanied the thought, but instead, there was something else there. Something warm and sweet.

  Something like. . .love.

  As Daniel and Brandon laughed and joked, she knew that this was what she'd always wanted, even when she hadn't known it was what she'd always wanted. She wanted more nights like this.

  A lifetime of nights like this.

  "Hey, Dan, did you check your mail?" Brandon asked.

  All three of them froze. "No, it's the first day that wasn't the first thing I did."

  He got up and walked to the front door and, within moments, was back, an envelope in his hand. "It's here." His voice sounded strangely flat.

  Michelle felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. Once he opened that envelope everything could change.

  "Do it, Dan," Brandon said. "Come on."

  RATHER THAN TEARING it open, Daniel sat back down at the table. Michelle looked pale, and he understood. "Before we open it, I want to say something."

  His hand shook as he set the envelope in front of him and put his folded hands on top of it. He knew these were the most important words he'd ever say. "Listen, whatever is on that piece of paper doesn't matter because I know now what I'm meant to do. Bran, your mom taught me to follow my dreams. And for a while, that dream was the work I do now. And though I still love what I do, I've discovered that it really wasn't my biggest dream. Remember when you told your aunt you were what she was meant to do? Well, you and your aunt are what I'm supposed to do. Being with the two of you means more to me than any job, any project. I want to be your father no matter what this paper says."

  "And Aunt Shell?" Brandon asked.

  Daniel's gaze caught Michelle's and held it as he said, very clearly, "I want to be her husband." Before she could protest, or even speak, he hurriedly continued. "I know it takes you a while to process things, Michelle. And while I'm willing to wait until you figure out that we are meant to be together, you should know that what I'm planning to do is marry you. Because that's what I was meant to do. The three of
us were meant to be a family."

  Brandon's grin was the broadest Daniel had ever seen. "It's a once-upon, Aunt Shell."

  "A what?" Daniel asked.

  Finally, she found her voice. "When Bran first came to live with me, we read together every night. I started with a book of fairy tales I'd loved as a kid. They all started with once upon a time—"

  "And ended with a happily ever after," Brandon supplied.

  "Ever since, when something good happens, we've referred to it as a once-upon."

  "Not just really good," Brandon corrected. "Something even better than good. Like if I make the hockey team, that'll be a once-upon. And when you tell Daniel yes, Aunt Shell, that'll be the best once-upon ever." He looked a bit chagrined. "I know, it sounds kind of babyish, but it's one of those things me and Aunt Shell do together. We don't tell anyone."

  It was a warning to Daniel that he wasn't supposed to be spreading Brandon's lapse around, but it was also a gift. They'd included him in a private family tradition. "I swear, I'll never tell. Thanks for letting me in on it."

  "I knew you wouldn't." In Brandon's voice was a wealth of trust. "And I want us to get a once-upon. That's what Mrs. Williams and Principal Remington got."

  "We'll just have to wait for your aunt Shell to make up her mind," Daniel told him. "We're going to have to be patient because it takes her a while—"

  "To figure stuff out," Brandon finished.

  "Pardon me, boys," Michelle said loudly. "I'm sitting right here."

  "Yeah," Brandon said as if she hadn't spoken. "She'll need time to think it through. To make a list. Collect her data. Analyze it. You might have to wait a long, long time, Dan."

  "Right here," Michelle said again.

  They still ignored her. "I'm willing to wait, Bran," Daniel assured him. "Your aunt's worth it. Us being a family is worth it."

  "I don't know why I'm bothering to even talk," Michelle grumbled. "I mean, here I was, about to throw caution, lists and analysis to the wind and say, Yes, Daniel, I'll marry you—"

  She didn't get any further than that. Daniel pulled her to her feet, lifted her into his arms and swung her around.

  This woman. How could he not have known that his life was missing this woman? "Say it again."

  "No lists—" she started.

  He interrupted. "No, the other part."

  "Yes, I'll marry you. Samantha was right. Love doesn't have a timetable."

  Brandon was there, hugging both of them. "This is the best Christmas ever."

  "A once-upon Christmas if ever there was," Daniel agreed. "This calls for a celebration."

  "The lights are up on Perry Square," Michelle said.

  Daniel knew the downtown two-block park well. Each year they decorated the whole thing and the surrounding businesses for the holidays. Multicolored lights. Tons of decorations. And Christmas carols. If anywhere in Erie said Christmas, Perry Square did. "We could probably stop at Monarch's and get some hot chocolate," he added.

  "Double whip cream?" Brandon asked.

  "Tonight deserves more than double whip cream. It's triple, at least," Michelle assured him.

  "Can Chloe come, too?" Brandon asked.

  MICHELLE LOOKED at Daniel. She knew she should be nervous, that her answer meant a huge permanent change, but all she could feel was an overpowering sense of love. A sense that he was right. . .this was what she was meant to do. Loving Brandon, loving Daniel.

  Chloe barked at the sound of her name.

  Even loving Chloe. They were a family.

  "Sure, she can come," Daniel said. "It's a celebration and she's part of the family."

  Michelle squeezed Daniel. Her fiancé.

  The word felt strange but right.

  She glanced back at the table; the envelope with the test result still sat there unopened.

  Michelle didn't mention it. They'd open it later. After all, DNA didn't matter in this case. Brandon had found his father, and she'd found her very own once-upon.

  Once upon a Christmas.

  Epilogue

  Friday, the day after Christmas, Michelle walked into Colao's restaurant, balancing three boxes. Samantha and Carly were both there already in a booth. They'd agreed their Christmas meeting should be all fun, no business. And her announcements were definitely going to be fun.

  "Merry Christmas," she cried. She couldn't get over the bubbly excitement that had sat below the surface since Monday. "I have some news. So much news for a mere couple days."

  She set the boxes down, pulled off her gloves and extended her left hand, wiggling her fingers in case they missed it.

  "Oh, my—" Samantha didn't get any further. She stood and swept Michelle into a huge hug. Michelle hugged her back wholeheartedly. Then she turned to Carly, who grinned. "I told you so."

  The waitress walked by. "Hi. Can I get you something to drink?" she asked Michelle.

  Carly didn't wait for an answer. "Champagne, please. We're celebrating our friend's Christmas engagement."

  "Congratulations," the waitress said, and hurried off.

  Michelle slid into the booth. "There's more."

  "More than you're engaged?"

  "The test result came." She launched into the story, of the envelope arriving, Daniel's proposal and promise to wait and her own unwillingness to do so. Ending with the hot chocolate and Perry Square. "We didn't open the envelope until we got back."

  "And?" Carly asked.

  "Daniel is Brandon's father. It sort of seemed anticlimactic, if you know what I mean. After all, we knew that Daniel was Brandon's father, no matter what the test showed."

  "Oh, I think I'm going to cry." And with that, Samantha reached for the napkin and started dabbing her eyes.

  And that's when Michelle caught the flash. "Oh, Samantha?"

  Samantha looked down, then up at Michelle and Carly. "Us, too."

  "Jeez, this is turning into a freakin' wedding show," Carly mock-groused as the waitress returned with champagne and glasses. "When dinner's over, bring the check to me, since it appears we're celebrating not just one, but two Christmas engagements."

  "And will you be back to celebrate a third?" the waitress teased as she poured the champagne.

  "The day I come in and tell you I'm engaged is the day you'll know hell has officially frozen over."

  Michelle laughed. "Carly, if you'd asked me a month ago I'd have told you it was never going to happen to me, yet here I am, head over heels."

  "And me. If you'd asked me at the start of the school year, I'd have told you I planned to avoid men like the plague. And yet. . ." Samantha grinned and wiggled her finger at Carly. "Maybe it's the committee. Two of our social activities done, and two of us engaged. And, Carly, I hate to point out, you have the most romantic event of them all."

  Carly drained her glass and set it down with a thud, then poured another. "Let me repeat, when hell freezes over."

  Michelle raised her glass in a Christmas toast. "To happily ever afters for all of us."

  Samantha clinked her glass to Michelle's and Carly followed suit.

  "I can drink to that," Carly cheered. "Because I am totally and completely happy in my singleness."

  "So, tell us about your hearing," Samantha said. "We've blathered on about happily ever afters and engagements long enough."

  "Yes, I'm sorry. You didn't say much at the Christmas Fair. It wasn't so bad?" asked Michelle.

  "Well, the hearing didn't go quite the way we thought it would, you see. . ."

  I so hope you enjoyed Michelle and Daniel's Once-Upon in Once Upon a Christmas. Please take a moment to review it at Amazon.com. Then come back to Erie Elementary and read Once Upon a Valentine's where you'll find out what happened at Carly's hearing. Here's a preview:

  Once Upon a Valentine's

  Prologue

  September

  Carly Lewis threw her books into her bag and hollered, "Sean. Rhiana. If you're not in the car in two minutes I'm leaving without you."

  She heard hurr
ied scuffles and groaned responses from upstairs and knew her two seventh-graders believed her warning. She actually had followed through on this particular threat last year, right after she and the kids had moved from their upscale Millcreek subdivision to the small bungalow on Erie's upper east side. They'd been running late, and she'd had enough and left without them.

  Of course, even though their school was within walking distance, she'd felt guilty seconds after she'd pulled out of the driveway so—soft touch that she was—she'd simply circled the block. She'd pulled back in front of the house and found them standing there. They looked so much alike they could be actual twins rather than siblings born ten months apart. They'd appeared so forlorn and unsure. And as always, simply looking at the two of them melted her heart.

  As they'd climbed into the car she'd told them that next time she wasn't coming back and they'd be forced to walk to school. They seemed to take the threat seriously, which helped with her rather hectic morning schedule. But she knew she'd always come back. That's just what mothers did.

  "One minute," she called as she surveyed her bag, hoping she'd remembered everything.

  Thirty-two and finishing her nursing degree—it's not what she'd intended. Thankfully, almost all her old credits had carried over. If she could get through this last term, she'd have it made. She'd have her degree in December and in the new year she'd be ready to start a new life.

  The life of a single, self-supporting college graduate and mother.

  The phone rang.

  Carly glanced at her watch. And even though she knew she shouldn't, that a phone call this early was never good news and answering it was probably a mistake, she picked the portable up. She wasn't any more able to walk away from a ringing phone than she was able to drive away and leave her kids. "Hello?"

  "Hi, Carly. It's Heidi."

  Answering the phone wasn't just a mistake, it was a huge tactical error. One she might never recover from.

  Heidi.

  She didn't have to ask Heidi who.

  Heidi.

  The PTA President for the last three years.

  Heidi.

  The perfect, terminally optimistic, sunny force of nature who practically ran Erie Elementary.