Page 15 of Doctor Holliday

“Cute.” She nodded.

“You could add it to my list,” the girl suggested with a little grin.

“Why don’t you ever wear bright colors?” Lucy asked her, but she pulled her phone from the butt pocket of her jeans and took a picture of the sweater. Through the years, she had found it was the easiest way of remembering Callie’s hints.

“Because bright colors aren’t in.”

She might not have rolled her eyes, but her voice gave away her impatience. Callie was a good kid, but she was still a teenager and liked to remind Lucy that she was cool and Lucy, being a mom, was not.

“Then why is that rack of stuff over there bright blue and green?”

“The question you should be asking yourself,” Callie folded the beige sweater and put it back on the shelf and continued, “is why are all those topsstillon the rack? See that sale sign? They can’t get rid of them, because those colors are out of style.”

Lucy laughed and shook her head as they walked through the department store.

“I like blue,” she argued just for the sake of keeping the conversation going.

“That’s because you’re old.”

The feeling of Callie’s arm slung over her shoulder took any sting out of Callie’s teasing.

“You hungry?” Lucy asked her.

“Yep.”

“Too bad. You called me old. You’re gonna have to starve.”

Callie snorted softly.

“How about The Burrito Barn?”

“Sure.”

They left the department store and “Silver Bells” behind and blended into the light crowd in the mall. Lucy rarely ventured into malls now. Not that there were that many survivingshopping malls left across the country. But she loved the Eastport Galleria during the holidays. The closer they got to Christmas Day, the bigger the crowds would be. Santaland still drew in all sorts of young families and children. Either Christmas carols were piped in through hidden speakers or a local choir or orchestra or something was here performing. And mostly, people were on their best behavior.

“You wanna sit on his lap?” Lucy nodded her head at the crowd gathered around Santaland.

“Creepy.” Callie shook her head.

“Is it, though? I mean, what if he’s just a nice old man who puts on the red suit each year to make kids happy? What if he’s a grandpa?”

“I’m eighteen,” Callie reminded her. They shared a laugh over the same conversation they’d been having for the past ten years.

“Aunt Kim wants to get Grandma and Grandpa a new TV this year,” Lucy said as they walked. In no hurry, they both strained and stretched their necks to look at the mall decorations for Santaland—the decorated trees, the toy soldiers, the elves—and Santa himself. A blond-headed toddler sat on his lap at the moment.

“That’s cool.” Callie nodded. “Grandma would love that for football.”

Lucy smiled. Her mother was a passionate Giants fan; she never missed a televised game.

“Ice cream? After lunch?”

Lucy laughed as she looked at her daughter. Every year on their big shopping days, they ate at The Burrito Barn for lunch andended their outing later with ice cream treats. And then both of them complained the rest of the evening about how stuffed they were.

“Of course.” She rolled her eyes.

“Two,” Callie told the hostess as they approached the popular Mexican restaurant. The young girl nodded and selected two menus from the stack. They didn’t need them. Lucy wasn’t sure either of them had ever ordered anything other than their regular choices.

“Just a second.”

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