The Best Christmas Ever. Stella Bagwell

was only hoping,” Kathleen said with a laugh.

      Tired of sitting from the long drive across Oklahoma, Nick got to his feet and joined his mother and sister at the work island in the middle of the kitchen.

      “Is Old Lady Lee still living?” he asked thoughtfully. “I see Sam planted the fields around her house this year.”

      “I’m sad to say she’s in a nursing home now,” Ella told him. “The poor dear could no longer see to take care of herself. And Allison, well, she has all she can do as it is. Still, the little thing feels so guilty about her grandmother.”

      Nick turned to his sister in confusion. “Who is this Allison she’s talking about? The only person I ever remember living in that house was Old Lady Lee.”

      “Nick!” his mother scolded. “Quit calling her that. You know her name is Martha. My word, she fed you licorice every day of your young life.”

      “Yeah, and I hate licorice. But I kept going to see her thinking she’d give me something different,” Nick confessed.

      “Oh, my, you were awful,” Kathleen said with a groan.

      Nick gave her a wicked smile. “Awful good, sis,” he teased, then asked, “So, who’s living in Old Lady Lee’s house now? There was wood on the porch.”

      His mother gave him an impatient look. “Why, Allison, of course! Martha’s granddaughter.”

      “She’ll be here tonight for supper,” Kathleen explained, then with an impish smile, she reached up and grabbed his chin. “She’s coming over to help us with some of the wedding preparations.” Still holding on to his face, she glanced at Ella. “Look at him, Mother. Isn’t he the most handsome thing? Who do you think is more handsome, him or Sam?”

      Nick made a face at his sister and playfully swatted her hand away.

      Ella’s eyes were suddenly misty as she raised on tiptoe to kiss her son’s cheek. “It’s so good to have you home, Nick. Christmas wouldn’t be right if you weren’t here.”

      “Of course it wouldn’t,” Nick said with a waggle of his eyebrows. “If I weren’t here, Santa would skip right over the Gallagher house.”

      Kathleen quickly switched on the coffeemaker and grabbed him by the arm. “Come on while the coffee perks, Nick, and look at the Christmas tree. We trimmed it just last night and it’s absolutely beautiful.”

      * * *

      Allison Lee clutched her three-year-old son’s arm with one hand and waved at the day-care worker with the other. “See you in the morning, Cybil.”

      “You drive safely, Allison,” the woman replied. “The radio reported rain moving in and the streets are so busy now—everyone is out Christmas shopping.”

      Everyone but her, Allison thought wearily as she hustled Benjamin to the car. She appreciated her job as a bank teller, but even when the holidays weren’t going on, her paycheck did well to take care of the necessities of living.

      Once Benjamin was safely buckled into his car seat, Allison started the car and headed home. Her route took her down busy Rogers Avenue. As she passed the huge shopping mall to her left, she noticed the parking lot was completely filled with cars.

      With a wistful look in her green eyes, Allison thought of the few friends she would like to buy gifts for this Christmas. But it looked as though she’d been lucky to manage getting Benjamin’s toys out of lay-away.

      Don’t be feeling sorry for yourself, Allison. You have a warm roof over your head and a beautiful, healthy son. That’s more than lots of people will have this Christmas.

      The reminder made Allison shake back her long strawberry blond hair with a proud toss of her head. She wasn’t a person who whined or thought she deserved more than her fair share of things. She was doing the best she could as a single mother, and if her friends didn’t understand, then they weren’t her friends.

      “I’m hungry, Mommy. Let’s eat.”

      Allison glanced back at her son. He wasn’t a chatterbox, but when he did talk, his meaning was clear.

      “As soon as we get home I’ll fix something, honey,” she promised, then suddenly remembered she was supposed to go to the Gallaghers’ tonight. Two days ago Ella had asked Allison if she could come over and help get things ready for Sam and Olivia’s wedding. Then this afternoon she’d called again to tell her that Nick had surprised everyone by coming home early, and that they’d be expecting her and Ben by six-thirty.

      Allison stifled a tired groan at the idea. She’d had an extremely long shift working the drive-in window at the bank, and the steady stream of customers had scarcely let up throughout the day. Her head was fuzzy and her neck and shoulders ached from sitting in one position. A can of soup and bed was all she needed or wanted tonight.

      But the Gallaghers were so wonderful to her that Allison could hardly ignore the invitation. Since she’d moved into her grandmother’s house, they’d taken her in and treated her almost like a family member. Benjamin felt at home there, too, and ever since S.T. had taken him for a ride on the tractor, he thought the older man was Santa Claus himself.

      She glanced once again at her son. “How would you like to eat with Ella and S.T. tonight, Ben?”

      “Yeah! Yeah! Tractor ride!”

      Allison shook her head. “We can’t ride the tractor tonight. It’s too dark and cold. But I’ll bet Jake and Leo will be somewhere around the house, and you know how much they like to play with you.”

      At the mention of the collies, Benjamin forgot about the tractor and began to talk about his last visit with Jake and Leo. Allison did her best to watch the heavy traffic and converse with her son at the same time. All the while she wondered what Ella and S.T.’s other son was like.

      She’d heard different members of the Gallagher family mention him from time to time. She knew he was around twenty-four years old and had been serving in the military for the past six years. Ella had told her he was tall and handsome, but didn’t every mother think her son was handsome? she asked herself, her eyes automatically filling with pride as she looked at Benjamin.

      Thankfully, her son looked like her and not like the father who’d abandoned them long before Benjamin had been born. Larry didn’t deserve to have a child resemble him. The only thing he deserved was to be treated in the same unpardonable way he’d treated her.

      A few minutes later, she and Benjamin arrived at the old farmhouse. She quickly gave him a graham cracker to snack on while she rummaged through her closet for something to wear.

      Most of her clothes were left over from her college days. All of them were well-worn, so there was no danger in her overdressing, she thought drearily.

      Allison had gotten one year of higher education behind her before she’d met Benjamin’s father, Larry. For a short time she’d allowed herself to be drawn in by his slick charms, his vows of love and the plans he had for their future. Their future.

      She gave a deprecating snort at the idea. The only plan Larry had really had was to get her into his bed.

      Up until a few months ago Allison had lived in Monroe, Louisiana. She’d been born there and had grown up there, but the place held nothing for her now. Her mother had died a long time ago. After his wife’s death Clifford Lee had never cared much what happened to his daughter. Now that Allison had Benjamin, Clifford Lee had completely turned his back on her and his grandson.

      She’d learned a hard lesson about men and responsibilities when Larry had walked out on her. But she’d learned an even harder one, she supposed, when her father had discarded her like an old rug he’d grown tired of stepping on. She could still remember him calling her a worthless embarrassment and that he wanted her out of his house and out of his life. He wasn’t about to let her stick him with raising another kid.

      Allison had been three months pregnant