Chapter 246

After dinner, they snuggled on the couch while Carter searched through the TV channels for something interesting to watch. Janelle's head rested on his shoulder. Since she'd left her parents in Michigan last spring, she'd only spoken with her folks once or twice and only when she'd made the effort to call. The calls were uncomfortable, both parties anxious to end them. Her mother had told her many times she should marry a military man like her sister Julie, and travel all over the world. Otherwise, her parents thought she would always be a loser and only attract losers. They made it easy to leave them in Detroit and gave her so many reasons to return to Saddle Creek and Carter.

Past Christmases with her parents and her sister whirled through her head. When they were children, it was almost as if the holiday was an ordinary day except for the food they ate. Her mother cooked either a turkey or ham, her mother decorated a three-foot tree while they were at school, and there was an unto