Page 69 of Sweet Surprises

“I wish I could have seen it,” Olivia said.

“Me too,” her teacher told her. “You would have loved seeing her onstage. Hey, I wasn’t sure if I should bring this up with you before, but I still have a ton of old photos with your mom inthem, and maybe even a VHS tape of her performing. Would you want any of it?”

“Are you kidding?” Olivia asked. “Of courseI want it. I mean, I don’t really know how to use a VHS tape, but I’m sure my dad does. He loves old stuff like that.”

“That’s great,” Jess said with a chuckle. “I’ll look through my boxes next week. Do you want to go warm up now?”

“Yeah,” Olivia said, her eyes on the other kids, who were now yelling outzip, zap, zop,and clapping their hands at each other. “I guess I should get ready. Hey, thanks for coming in, Charlotte.”

Suddenly, Charlotte was wrapped up in a big, warm hug, and then Olivia was disappearing down the aisle to join her friends.

“You’re good for her,” Jess said quietly. “I’m glad she has you in her life.”

“Thank you,” Charlotte said, inwardly wondering how much longer she and Olivia would have each other.

22

TAG

Tag sat in the dark theatre, barely able to breathe.

Charlotte sat beside him, her eyes fixed on the stage in front of them, her mind obviously wrapped up in Olivia.

They’d gotten here separately, since she had been working in the shop all day. But his devious family had fixed it so that the only seat left of the row they had purchased was the one on the end. And when Tag got up to take a call from one of the farmhands, they all moved over, so that he was forced into the seat next to the empty one for Charlotte.

He hadn’t even given them a hard time about it. He’d just sat down and accepted his fate.

The chances that he could rekindle anything at all with Charlotte weren’t good. And that was probably for the best. She was a sweet young girl, and she deserved better than a grumpy old cowboy like Tag.

But as he stole another glance at her face now, and watched her close her eyes like she was praying for his daughter, his heart ached and he knew he wouldn’t be able to help throwing himself at her feet if she gave him half a chance.

Her heart should be hurting, but she’s thinking of Olivia instead. Even if I don’t deserve her, Olivia and Chance do…

Before he had time to think on it any more, the lights were coming up on the stage and Olivia was there, the costume and makeup doing nothing to hide her obvious excitement. It was a look he knew well from sitting in these same seats to watch her mother work her magic up there. The rest of the audience had no idea. But Tag was pretty sure they were about to see an amazing performance.

Olivia hunched over her desk as Scrooge, scrawling away in a big ledger, as the Martin triplets’ older brother, Cal, walked onstage.

“A merry Christmas, uncle,” he said.

“Bah,” Olivia coughed out viciously. “Humbug.”

Her pencil began scratching the ledger again instantly, as Cal’s eyebrows lifted.

There was a moment of silence, and then a burst of surprised laughter rolled through the audience, as they realized that Olivia Lawrence was going to make a great Ebeneezer Scrooge.

And before too long, Tag was so caught up in the performance that he almost forgot it was his daughter up there.

Two hours later,Tag and Charlotte stood in the hallway outside the stage door, with practically the whole rest of the town waiting there to congratulate family members.

There was that buzz of excitement that came after a particularly good performance. Tag remembered that from Iris’s performing days, too.

“She was incredible,” Charlotte murmured.

Oliviahadbeen incredible. Tag had watched in awe as his quiet daughter raged and wept onstage, leaving the whole community breathless as they watched Scrooge’s transformation from bitter old man to loving friend and neighbor.

And he knew why it had been possible.

“Thank you,” he said, turning to her. “Thank you for helping her, even though I was a monster to you.”

---