Oklahoma Christmas Blues

by Maggie Shayne

Chapter Eight

  When local bakery owner Sunny smiled at her from across the counter the next morning, Sophia thought there should be angels singing backup. “Hey, you’re Vidalia’s new niece, aren’t you?”

  “I didn’t realize I’d been here long enough to be famous already,” she said, extending a hand. “Sophia McIntyre.”

  “Sunny Jones,” Sunny replied. “So what do you think of Big Falls, Sophie?”

  
Sophia bit her lip for a second to keep from correcting her on the nickname and answered her, glad to be distracted from worrying about whether she should sleep with Darryl Champlain or not.

  She wanted to.

  But should she?

  Right, conversation. Distraction. What was the question again? Right, got it.


  “I love it, here. I grew up near here, you know. Well, fifty miles away. My family moved when I still in elementary school.”

  “And your uncle Bobby Joe had a history here. I’m glad he came back. He’s the best thing to happen to this town in a long time. That’s the consensus among the gossips, anyway.”

  “Odd he ended up back here though.”

  “And now you’re here, too,” Sunny said. “They say this town chooses her residents. You know that?”

  Sophia looked at her, brows raised, almost perking her ears to hear more.

  “The ones who belong here can’t seem to leave. So how about you? You gonna stay?”


  She opened her mouth to say no, but found the word didn’t want to come out. She laughed at herself for wondering if some force was preventing it.

  “I didn’t mean to pry,” Sunny said quickly, mistaking her long silence for unwillingness to answer. “Who’d want to stay here anyway? It’s gonna be miserable, having to go all the way to Tucker Lake for everything from ulcers to typhus.”

  “Ulcers to…what now?” Some of the small town Oklahoma euphemisms had come right back to her, but as far as Sophia knew, she’d never heard that one before.

  “You haven’t heard? Doc is quitting and moving to Boca. Some big retirement community with golf carts and swimming pools. Just like that.” She snapped her fingers. “Well, he is seventy-three, but—I’m sorry, Sophie. Didn’t mean to go off like that. What can I get for you?”


  Sophia stood there a minute, her brain spewing a dozen reasons why a perfect stranger would just happen to mention that the local doctor was leaving the town in a lurch. But for the life of her she couldn’t think of one.

  Other than her letter to Santa, at least.

  It felt good to think that. It surprised her how good it felt. Kind of innocent. She felt like she’d felt as a little girl who believed in Santa Claus liked she believed in her own mamma. She’d been that little girl. Maybe…maybe she wanted to believe in something again.

  Sunny was smiling, waiting for her to place her order. Sophia blinked out of what could only be described as a blinding rush of Christmas spirit—and said, “Right. A dozen half-moons, please. I’ve got inventory today and I want to bribe people to help me.”

  “I’ll throw in a couple of extras, then.” Sunny opened a glass case and used tongs to load the cookies into a wax paper-lined, pink cardboard box. She closed the lid and used a couple of pieces of masking tape to seal it. Then she pulled off her gloves and punched a few buttons on the oversized antique cash register.

  Sophia paid in cash and told Sunny to keep the change. Then she walked out of the bakery, blinking slowly and wondering if what she thought had happened, had actually happened.

  Was this a sign? Was this her answer?

  Man, if the local Santa was as good as she was starting to think he was, the children of Big Falls were in for one heck of a Christmas!