A Christmas Waltz Read online

  Emma did not stop him, and so he continued. “Life is about to become much bigger for you than it has ever been before. You will meet new people and learn a great deal about the world, as well as yourself. As you take those steps toward adulthood, do not be in too much of a hurry to dictate how it must go in order for you to be happy. Allow life to unfold without trying to force it into one shape or another—there is only so much control you can take, and believing differently can be a painful illusion. There is always something to learn, a way to grow, and if you can live that way, then not a single day will be wasted.”

  She nodded as though she understood, but of course she did not. Could not. She was too young, and life was too big. He hoped she would remember it when the path beneath her feet crumbled and she had to pick herself up from the dust of poor choice or poor timing or both. They spoke of school and friends and the horse she would break in the spring, until the dance finished. He returned her to Betsy and then made his way out to the veranda and looked over the garden. Aging had a way of putting a gilded frame on his memories of this place, keeping them rich and real within his heart.

  A light snow had begun to fall, and he looked up toward the whited-out night sky.

  “Happy Christmas, my beautiful girl,” he said into the snowfall.

  A breeze created a swirling flurry of snow on the path before him. He took a breath, held it in, and then breathed it out. The important thing was to keep moving forward, even when the stumbles came, and find joy wherever he could.

  He turned back to the ballroom. His family. His world. The gifts of Christmas he was grateful for every day of his life.

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  Josi S. Kilpack hated to read until her mother handed her a copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond when she was 13. From that day forward, she read everything she could get her hands on and credits her writing “education” to the many novels she has “studied” since then. She began writing her first novel in 1998 and has written thirty-three novels, one cookbook, and several short stories since then. She is a four-time Whitney Award winner, including two Novel of the Year awards for Lord Fenton's Folly and As Wide as the Sky and a Best of State winner in Fiction. She writes her national women's fiction under the pen name of Jessica Pack (say Josi Kilpack really fast and you'll see why she chose it). Josi currently lives in Northern Utah and is the mother of 4 wonderful kids. Visit her website here.