“Why are you waking us up at daylight? What day is it anyway?” Rae grumbled and gave Ursula dirty looks as she rubbed sleep out of her eyes. “I work the night shift at the police station, so my body is used to sleeping during the day.”
“The day after Thanksgiving.” Ursula handed her a cup of steaming hot coffee. “This should get you going this morning. And, Sister, there hasn’t been a night shift at the Paradise since it was a brothel. If you ever move back home, you’ll get along with Bernie really well.”
“Why’s that?” Rae sat up carefully and took a sip of her coffee.
“All those years of working in a bar at night has messed up her sleep pattern. But hey, y’all can stay up all night looking at brides’ magazines and picking out wedding dresses.”
“Are you asking me to be your maid of honor?” Rae asked.
Ursula sat down on the edge of the bed. “No, I’m telling you that Bernie wants one or all of us married. You and Luna can be next. Drink your coffee and wake up. Today is when we put up Christmas trees and decorations, and everyone gets up for breakfast, just like we all did when we were kids. Your personal Christmas tree is in the box right outside your door.”
“I stumbled over the box last night when I came up to bed. We don’t do our own trees until the rest of the decorations are up, right?” Rae covered a yawn with her hand and then took a sip of her coffee. “This is so much better than the thin stuff they have at the police station. Is Mama cooking?” She sniffed the air. “I don’t smell bacon.”
“Mama doesn’t cook the day after Thanksgiving. Leftovers from dinner yesterday are everywhere,” Ursula told her. “I had a slice of pumpkin pie with whipped cream on it this morning, and I can hear a turkey sandwich calling my name for lunch.”
Rae set her coffee on the nightstand and got out of bed. “Am I the last one awake?”
“Yep,” Ursula answered. “Daddy, Shane, and Remy are stringing lights in the pecan trees down the lane and on the sleigh out in the front yard. After that, they’ll put up the lights around the edge of the roof and wrap them all up the porch posts. Mama is unpacking boxes in the living room with Endora and Bo. You better wake up and come on down or you’ll miss all the fun.”
Ursula stood up and started across the floor.
“Hey,” Rae said.
Ursula turned around at the door. “What?”
“Thanks for waking me.” Rae smiled. “I love all the fun of decorating, and I’m hoping that the holidays bring Endora up out of her sadness.”
“Me too.” Ursula waved. “See you down there in a few. There’s still a slice of apple pie left if Tertia hasn’t eaten it.”
“I’ll hurry,” Rae said with a chuckle. “That’s my favorite.”
Ursula was making herself a glass of sweet tea when Luna toted a box into the house through the back door. BREAKABLE was written on the side. She took it straight to the living room and came right back.
“That was the last one in the barn,” she said as she took the container of leftover turkey out of the refrigerator. “They’re the ornaments that Mama kept from when we were all little kids. I’m having this and potato salad for breakfast. You want some, or should I put it back when I’m finished with it?”
“Nope, but I will pour each of us a glass of sweet tea,” Ursula offered.
Luna brought her plate to the table and sat down across from Ursula. “I’m glad you’re home and flirting with Remy. It takes some of the heat off me and Shane. Endora is determined that we all seven are going to be old maids like her and never even think of marriage.”
“I’m not flirting, and you said you weren’t—” Ursula stopped in the middle of the sentence when Endora breezed into the kitchen.
“Turkey for breakfast?” Endora frowned.
“You know I’d rather have leftovers as breakfast food,” Luna answered.
“That’s the one area where we are totally different,” Endora declared. “I’m making hot chocolate for me and Bo. Anyone else want some?”
Ursula held up her glass of tea. “Not for me.”
“Not me,” Luna said, “but thanks for the offer.”
“You seem to be in a good mood, Endora.” Ursula hoped that her blunt speech the day before had helped.
Endora set about pouring milk and packages of hot chocolate mix in each of the mugs. “Yes, I am. Mama reminded me that this is the Jesus season and that love can’t live in the same heart with hate. So I’m going to try to get rid of all the bad feelings I’ve been having—one day at a time.”
“Good for you,” Ursula said.
“But I’m not ready to trust men yet.” Endora whipped around and pointed a long, slender forefinger at Luna and Ursula. “And I want you two to be careful and not make the same mistake I did.” The microwave dinged, and she carefully took the steaming mugs out. “We just put up that old metal Christmas tree in the middle of the dining room table, but Mama says we all have to gather around and put the tiny little bulbs on it together.”
“Just like we did the first Christmas we were here,” Ursula said with a nod. “I love our traditions.”
“Me too,” Luna agreed.
Ursula had never made traditions of her own because she had always come home for the holidays. When she was in college, she spent the time between semesters at Spanish Fort. Then when she landed a job at the same college, her schedule hadn’t varied very much from when she was a student. Since the family had moved into the Paradise all those years ago, she had put up her own small tree in her bedroom, but she never even thought about decorating one in her dorm room or her apartment.
“What were we talking about before Endora arrived?” she finally asked.
“I was saying that…” Luna scanned the doorway and lowered her voice. “Shane and I are doing more than just flirting. We’d like to date openly, but…”
“But Endora is your twin, and y’all have been together since before birth,” Tertia finished the sentence for her.
“And you don’t want her to feel like you are leaving her out,” Ursula said. “Even though she was engaged.”
Luna shrugged. “I know, I know.”
“Are we talking about Endora?” Rae asked as she came into the room.
“Yep,” Luna answered.
Rae grabbed the last piece of apple pie, added whipped cream, and took her first bite on her way to the table. “Has she decided to move on and forget that sorry sucker?”
“I think she’s making progress,” Luna said.
“It’s going to take a while for her to feel good about you dating. You need to just rip off the Band-Aid, girl, and tell her how you feel.” Rae covered a yawn with her hand. “Maybe if she sees you happy, she’ll realize that all men aren’t like the one who did her dirty, and you deserve to be happy.”
“I agree,” Ursula said. “We all love Endora, but we can’t stop living our lives for her. If you and Shane have a connection, then go for it. I can see the chemistry between y’all, and what if he’s really the one, and you regret not doing anything about it? We’re getting too old to have to look back at decisions we made with regrets.” She wasn’t sure if she was thinking about Daisy’s words or if she was preaching to herself.
“Part of that chemistry we saw belonged to you and Remy,” Rae declared. “I’m more than a little jealous of the both of you and Luna. If you don’t stake a claim on Remy, I may rush in ahead of you and take him for myself.”
“Not possible,” Luna disagreed. “He had a crush on her in high school, and I don’t think he’s ever gotten over it.”
“Okay, enough!” Ursula scolded as she pushed back her chair and started out of the room. “This is our Christmas tradition day to make the Paradise look better than it ever has before. It’s not one of those talk shows on television.”
She found Endora in the living room working on decorations with Mary Jane. Her youngest sister was setting up the nativity scene on the fireplace mantel. Mary Jane was busy taking the old Christmas tree out of the box and laying the limbs out in piles.
“Mama, you should buy one of those prelit trees that are already put together,” Endora said. “All you have to do is take them out of the box and pull them up from the bottom.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Mary Jane asked. “This tree has been with us since our first Christmas at the Paradise. I remember you girls sorting the limbs according to color and our first kittens breaking a few ornaments when they batted at the ones on the low branches. It was Joe Clay’s and my first tree together, and I’ll use it forever or until the limbs get too worn out to stay on the base.”
Ursula opened one of the boxes marked Ornaments, removed the tissue paper from each one, and then laid them out on the coffee table. The first one—baby’s first Christmas—was engraved with her name. There were six more just like it hiding in the box somewhere, each with one of her sisters’ names on it.
Ursula thought about the ornament she was holding. Her mother had been younger than Endora and Luna when she hung it on her tree the year that her baby daughter Ursula was six months old. By the time Mary Jane was Ursula’s age now, she had seven daughters.
And you sit there with that ornament in your hand, a sexy cowboy across the fence from you, and dragging your feet. By this time next year, you should be ordering something pretty for your baby’s first Christmas, Bernie’s voice scolded in Ursula’s imagination.
“Where is Aunt Bernie?” Ursula asked.
“She’s hasn’t gotten here yet. The rest of the bunch is outside helping your daddy and Shane and Remy,” Mary Jane answered.
Ursula laid the ornament aside, but the thoughts in her head went round and round like they were on a fast-turning merry-go-round. She wondered if she would ever buy one for her baby’s first Christmas and have it engraved. What name would go on it? Maybe something like Abby or maybe Will? Or would she name her baby after a grandmother or grandfather?
The name Mary popped into her head. Mary Jane had been named after Bernie—Mary Bernadette. As much as Ursula would love to name her daughter Mary, she figured she should leave that one for Ophelia to use since her full name was Mary Ophelia Simmons.
“We’re coming in for a cup of coffee to warm us up.” Joe Clay’s big, booming voice filled the room when he, Shane, and Remy entered the house. “The girls are still working on putting up the red bows around the porch.” Joe Clay met Mary Jane in the middle and wrapped her up in his arms, then tipped up her chin with his fist and brushed a kiss across her lips. “This is my favorite time of the year, darlin’.”
“Mine too,” she said.
Ursula could see that for just a brief magical moment, they were in a world of their own. That’s what I want, she thought. I want to feel like they do even after twenty years of marriage. I want something as simple as seeing each other again to be new and fresh and for my husband to look at me like Daddy looks at Mama.
As if on cue, Remy walked up beside her.
“Good mornin’,” she whispered.
“Right back at you.” He flashed a brilliant smile. “Being a part of today is awesome.”
“And to think I’ve taken it for granted,” she said and suddenly felt as if she and Remy were the only ones in the living room. Was that an omen?
Luna came into the room, nudged Ursula on the shoulder, and whispered, “You think Remy and Shane would help us do our little personal trees? In our bedrooms?”
“I would love that, but you know the rules,” Ursula answered out of the corner of her mouth.
Boys had never been allowed to put a single foot on the second step of the staircase—not even after the sisters were all grown and away from home. If they brought home a boyfriend to stay for a couple of days over a holiday, Mary Jane rented a motel room for them in Nocona.
“Do you think you might come over to my house after church on Sunday and help me put up my tree?” Remy asked Ursula as they made their way to the kitchen.
“I’d love to,” Ursula answered. “I could bring Daisy’s diary back then too.”
“I told you to keep it as long as you want,” Remy said. “You might need to backtrack and reference something while you’re building your outline.”
“Thank you,” she told him with a smile. “Now, who wants coffee and who wants hot chocolate?”
“Chocolate for me,” Joe Clay answered, “and if there’s any apple pie left, I’ll have some of that rather than cookies.”
“You’re out of luck on that apple pie,” Ursula told him. “Rae got to it first.”
“Pumpkin or pecan?” Joe Clay asked.
“Either or both?” Ursula asked.
“Both, since there’s no apple pie,” Joe Clay said.
“Coffee is fine for me, and can I take it with me? Luna and I still have to put lights around the cutouts of Santa and Mrs. Claus down at the end of the lane,” Shane said.
“I’ll take my coffee to go too,” Luna said.
“I’ve invited Shane and Remy to go with us to cut down a cedar tree for the porch tomorrow,” Joe Clay said and slid a sly wink toward Ursula. “I might need some help with that cranky old handsaw.”
She had no doubt that Joe Clay could bench-press a Brahma bull, so he didn’t need help cutting down a Christmas tree.
“Oh, and I put a big ball of mistletoe in one of the rocking chairs out on the porch. Remy found it on a limb in one of the pecan trees. I thought your mama could use part of it to decorate with,” Joe Clay said.
Ursula’s thoughts quickly jumped from finding the right tree for the porch to standing under the mistletoe and gazing into Remy’s eyes just before a long kiss. Warmth filled her whole body, and she felt heat crawling up—again—from her neck to her face.
“I’m sure we can find a place for it,” she said and then whipped around and headed out into the foyer.
All of us girls feel like we are teenagers again when we come home, she fussed at herself, but I’m acting like I’m sixteen and mooning over Remy again.
Mary Jane peeked around the doorjamb into the living room and held up a big ball of mistletoe. “I’m so glad y’all found this. It’s beautiful. What I had packed away is so dried up that it’s falling apart. Ursula, you are in charge of breaking off small pieces to hang in every doorway. We’ll need red ribbons at the top of each stem, and maybe a jingle bell or two.”
“Think either one of us will be able to take advantage of this?” Luna asked.
Ursula led the way into the living room. “Depends on whether we want lectures from our baby sister. Would it be your first kiss from Shane?”
“That’s ‘need to know,’ and no one does, not even my big sister,” Luna answered as she picked up two disposable cups of coffee and headed toward the foyer with Shane right behind her.
Ursula sat down on the floor next to a box with RIBBONS printed in bold letters on the outside and patted the space next to her. “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas,” she singsonged.
“Ohhh, mistletoe,” Ophelia squealed. “I’ll help put ribbons on it. Maybe I’ll get a kiss or two at our big community party this year.”
“What if Old Man Versey takes up residence under it?” Ursula teased. “Mama says we’re putting them in every doorway. He could stand under one or another of them all evening with that big toothless grin and a little dried snuff in his gray beard.”
“I’m not kissing anyone if that’s the best I can get.” Ophelia shivered.
Endora snarled her nose. “Me neither. Like I’ve said before, I’m going to be the old-maid aunt in this family, and the rest of you would do well to follow my example.”
“There’s got to be babies before you can be an aunt,” Mary Jane said and opened a box with lights inside. “Endora, help me stretch these out and make sure they’re all in working order.”
“Mama, why do you use these big old lights that have to be tested every year?” Ophelia asked. “You could trash them and buy some of the twinkling lights that you just put on the tree and plug in.”
“These were the lights my grandmother put on her tree when I was growing up. Her mother had used them when my grandmother was a little girl. I inherited them when she passed away, and I’ve used them every year since then,” Mary Jane answered. “Your father hated them.”
“That’s enough reasons for me to love them,” Ursula declared. “I’ll help check every bulb if you need me to help. Have you got extras if one is out?”
“I bought dozens of them years ago,” Mary Jane answered. “And you and Ophelia have a job to do with the mistletoe. Endora can help me with this.”
Ursula picked up a spool of red-and-green-plaid ribbon and cut off a long length to make a bow. “Hey, is this the same stuff you used to tie in all the twins’ hair the first Christmas we were here?”
“Yep.” Mary Jane nodded and smiled. “Good memories.”
“Not for me,” Endora declared. “Luna acted up at the church Christmas program, and since we were identical, I got blamed.”
Ursula made a bow for a sprig of mistletoe, but her mind was on the possibility of having twins. She’d never thought of the fact that she could have multiple births, but it didn’t scare her. Her mother had raised two sets, born only a little more than a year apart, at the same time she had three other daughters and very little help from her husband. Ursula was following in Mary Jane’s path when it came to writing, so she had no doubt that if she did the same thing with children, she would manage—especially if she had support from her future children’s father.