Read Christmas in Cupid Falls for Free Online

name. He extended his hand to the guy and they shook.
    “Nice to meet you,” Gideon said. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to work.”
    “Nice meeting you, too,” Mal said. There was a trace of a lilt in Gideon’s voice that Mal recognized from the local Amish community. He knew they spoke Pennsylvania Dutch at home, and the cadence seemed to carry through to their English as well.
    Before he could ask Kennedy about the man who Jenny said used to be Amish, the little girl who’d sat quietly through the introduction tapped on his thigh. “I’m Ivy. I’m five and I’m helping Miss Mayor today. I’m he r . . . ” She looked to Kennedy.
    “Assistant,” Kennedy filled in.
    “Yeah, that’s right. I’m the assistant. Who are you?” Ivy asked.
    “I’m Mal.”
    “Oh.” Obviously that was all the information that Ivy required. She turned back to her picture.
    “Kennedy, Pap left town this afternoon. I was wondering if you could come over to the Center later and show me the computer system and forms?”
    Her eyes seemed a dark grey and her expression said she’d rather have a tooth pulled, but she nodded. “My assistant and I have a few deliveries to make, then we’re picking up her brothers at school. Jenny’s off work at four, so how about I meet you about four thirty and we can chat for a bit?”
    “That would be fine.” He wanted to say more. He wanted to talk to her about the baby, about what they were going to do, but before he could formulate what to say, Jenny walked by.
    “Hey, here’s for my coffee.” He handed her a ten-dollar bill.
    “I’ll get your change,” she said.
    He smiled and shook his head. “I tied up your table forever. It’s your tip. Sorry I was short earlier.”
    “That was nothing. May Williams was in earlier. Now that woman has given short a whole new meaning. She wouldn’t know a happy emotion if it bit her on the butt.”
    He managed a small smile, and as Jenny went to attend to her other tables, he turned back to Kennedy. “I guess I’ll see you in a while then.”
    “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she said.
    “It was nice meeting you, Ivy,” he told Jenny’s daughter.
    “I know. I’m a nice girl, except when I’m not. Mommy always thinks I’m nice, but my brothers don’t. ’Specially when I spy on them. Timmy and Lenny don’t like girls, but I’m tricky.”
    “I’m sure you are,” he said and ruffled her hair as he walked past her and smiled. He felt sorry for her brothers. He suspected having Ivy for a little sister might be a bit of a trial.
    He stopped on the restaurant’s porch and looked through the window, back into the restaurant. Kennedy was helping Ivy bundle back up. The little girl was talking a mile a minute, and Kennedy was giving her every word her full attention.
    He couldn’t help but remember all the times his mother had come to his games. His mother was not a sports enthusiast. She was more at home with a book than on a bleacher. But she had been at every game. And after each one, she’d listened as he ran through the highlights.
    She’d always given him her full focus and made him feel as if everything he said was the most important thing in the world to her.
    That’s what he saw in Kennedy as she listened to Ivy.
    She’d be a good mom.
    And all Mal could do was hope he’d be a good father. A present father. Not simply an occasional weekend sort of dad.
    He wanted to listen to his kid talk abou t . . . anything. About friends, about school, about games. He wanted to hear about their dreams.
    He wanted to be there if they had a nightmare. He wanted to be there to pick them up and hold them.
    Mal had never intended to be a father, but that ship had sailed. Intention or not, he was going to be.
    And if that was the case, he was going to be the best father he could be.
    Mal let himself back into the Center. He had some calls to make, because it looked as if he’d be taking off more time than he’d