A Seagrove Christmas (South Carolina Sunsets #6) - Rachel Hanna Page 0,16
with the man you were always supposed to be with. Don’t feel guilty or weird about that.”
SuAnn smiled yet again. “Thank you, Julie. You know, you and I have really come a long way.”
“We sure have.”
“I’m still worried about this Tina woman…”
“Oh, Mom,” Julie said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.
* * *
“Aren’t these adorable?” Meg said, holding up a tiny pair of pink cowboy boots. “Vivi is going to have a fit over these!” She added them to her pile of goodies as she walked toward the register.
“Christian is going to strangle you,” Colleen said with a laugh. “Vivi’s room isn’t big enough for all this stuff!”
“Our apartment is getting a little cramped. But come on. Look at this doll. She is going to be so excited when she sees it!”
Meg couldn’t help herself. Now that Christian was making good money at the college, and she had her extra income working for one of her professors, she finally felt free enough to spend a little on her daughter.
“Darlin’, that baby girl will remember none of this stuff, but you sure are when you get that credit card bill in January!” Dixie said in her larger-than-life kind of way.
“Fine. I’ll put back the yellow dress… and the tap shoes…”
“Tap shoes?” Julie said as she walked up with Tina. The two of them had gone to look at some particularly amazing candles. “Vivi doesn’t know how to tap dance, Meg!”
Meg grinned. “But wouldn’t she look so cute learning?”
Janine rolled her eyes. “Oh, goodness. Somebody take her wallet away.”
As the women laughed, even at her expense, Meg was so grateful in that moment. She was surrounded by strong women who loved her, and most people couldn’t say they were so blessed.
“Okay, let me pay for all of this and then can we eat some lunch?”
“Yes! I’m starving,” Julie said, putting her hand on her stomach.
“I’ll just meet y’all after you eat,” Tina whispered.
“What? No way! You’re eating with us, lady!” Dixie said. “We treat our guests like family, and I’m buying your lunch today. I won’t take no for an answer.”
Tina looked at Julie. “Trust me, she won’t. You might as well let her do it.”
“Thank you so much, Dixie. I swear, the people in this town are the nicest I’ve ever met,” she said, a broad smile on her face.
“Just don’t take advantage of that,” SuAnn muttered under her breath. If Tina heard her, she didn’t react, but Meg elbowed her grandmother.
“Stop it,” she mouthed, almost dropping some of her items. Sometimes, she didn’t know what was in her grandmother’s head.
“Pay for that stuff, Meg. We’re going to starve to death,” Colleen prodded.
“I told y’all to bring a snack…” Meg said as she walked away. She heard them all grumble and couldn’t help but smile.
Chapter Five
Dawson hammered in the last nail and then lifted the large structure over onto William’s boat. When he had heard that his friend was entering the Christmas boat parade, he assumed he was going to be helping him hang some garland and lights around the edge of the boat. Instead, he’d spent the last two hours building a platform that Janine and Julie would decorate. Apparently, William was going to dress up like Santa Claus and throw candy at the kids.
“Man, that thing is heavy!” Dawson said, wiping the sweat from his brow.
“Thanks so much for doing this. There’s no way I could build all of this stuff without your help. Besides, everybody knows you are the master at carpentry,” William said laughing.
“You don’t have to butter me up. I’m already here working.”
“So, Janine tells me you have some lady staying at the inn now?”
“Yeah. Julie met her at the bookstore and felt bad for her. Her name is Tina.”
“What’s she like?”
“Honestly, I don’t know too much about her. She seems nice enough, but very guarded. Pretty quiet. I think she’s had kind of a rough go at life.”
“It’s nice of y’all to let her stay. How’s Dylan doing?”
“Crazy and energetic as ever,” Dawson said, chuckling. “But, you know, he’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a son. I don’t feel like he’s adopted. He feels like my own biological child.”
“Blood means nothing. It’s all about family loving each other,” William said as he started sanding the edge of the wooden platform.
“You should write greeting cards,” Dawson said, teasing him.
“Janine and I have talked about adoption.”
“Really, I wouldn’t have predicted that.”
“With Janine’s age, it’s unlikely that we could have biological children, and it’s not that important