amended carefully. “But mostly I just want our parents.”
Santa blinked behind his lenses. “Your parents?”
She nodded fervently. “Not our first parents, of course. They’re dead. But Pip says we can find new parents who will love us and take care of us and always let us be together. Aunt Opal and Aunt Essie don’t really want us and they said they’re going to split us up after Christmas, but me and Pip ain’t going to let them. Pip says no one can split us up, especially after we find our new parents. Will you help us find them, Santa?”
Santa listened to every word of the child’s artless rambling. Pip held his breath, regretting his sister’s tendency to talk too much and hoping this Santa’s helper wouldn’t do or say the wrong thing. Kelsey was so easily crushed.
“You know, Kelsey,” Santa said slowly, “I usually bring toys for Christmas, not parents.”
She nodded, a bit disappointed with his answer.
He scratched his beard. “However…”
She brightened and looked up hopefully when he spoke again.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said, gently squeezing her hands.
Pip thought his sister’s smile was brighter than all the Christmas lights in the mall. “Thank you,” she said, impulsively throwing her arms around the man’s substantial waist. “Oh, thank you, Santa.”
“Now, now, you must wait until afterward to thank me,” he admonished. He reached into a nearby basket and plucked out two candy canes. “Here’s a candy for you and one for your brother.”
“Thank you,” she said, hopping down from his lap. “When will we find our parents, Santa?”
“That remains to be seen. But in the meantime, have you seen the new doll shop upstairs on the third floor? I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. It’s one of my very favorites.”
Kelsey’s face lit up again. “A doll shop?”
Pip swallowed a groan, knowing where he’d have to take her next.
Santa patted the little girl’s blond head, then looked at Pip. “You take very good care of your little sister, you hear?”
Pip nodded somberly. “I intend to, sir.”
“Good. Oh, and you might want to look into the sporting-goods store across from the doll shop. There are some fascinating things to be found in sporting-goods stores these days.”
Pip took Kelsey’s hand. “Maybe I will.”
He fancied that he could almost feel the warmth of the bearded man’s smile as he and Kelsey walked away.
PIP NEARLY GAGGED when he saw the name of the doll shop. “Beautiful Babies?” he groaned. “Give me a break.”
But Kelsey was still tugging at his hand. “I want to go in, Pip. Santa said it was his most-favorite store. Please? I just want to see it.”
Pip couldn’t hold out against her pleading eyes. He sighed manfully and allowed himself to be towed inside.
Kelsey was entranced from the moment she walked into the shop and saw the rows and rows of dolls. Baby dolls. Fashion dolls. Collector dolls. Handmade dolls. One-of-a-kind dolls. Pip could certainly understand why Kelsey liked the place; if he were a girl, he thought indulgently, he’d probably like it, too.
“Pip,” Kelsey said in the high-pitched, breathless voice she reserved for very special excitement. “Look.”
The doll was displayed at Kelsey’s eye level. It had thick, curly dark hair, huge black eyes and a painted pink smile. It wore a pale blue dress with white lace, and tiny white shoes. Pip thought it was okay. Kelsey, apparently, thought it the most beautiful doll she’d ever seen.
“Oh,” she whispered. “Can I pick it up, Pip? Please? I’ll be very careful.”
Pip checked the store. Other kids were holding dolls, admiring and cuddling them as their mothers watched or shopped. “Sure,” he said. “You can hold her. But just for a minute.”
Kelsey lifted the doll as though it were made of the most fragile glass rather than soft plastic. Such love shone from her eyes that Pip wondered if maybe he could buy her the doll for Christmas. He was already trying to decide how he could hide it from her when he saw the price tag dangling from one pink, plastic wrist.
He gulped. Even if he spent his whole life’s savings of ten dollars and thirty-five cents, he couldn’t come close to buying the doll for Kelsey.
“Uh, Kels? You’d better put it back,” he urged. “You don’t want to get it messed up or anything.”
“I won’t hurt her,” Kelsey returned, cradling the doll against her little chest. “I just want to hold her for another minute.”
A woman approached them from the back of the store. “You like that one?” she said encouragingly, her voice musical and friendly.
Pip expected Kelsey to answer. When she didn’t, he looked around to see why. He found her staring open-mouthed at the woman, a look of shock on her baby face.
Frowning, he followed her gaze. He couldn’t quite understand his sister’s reaction. The woman was pretty—well, he supposed most people would call her beautiful. She had thick, wavy, shoulder-length dark hair that framed her face and moved when she did. Large, almost-black eyes surrounded by long, curling lashes. A little nose and a nice smile.
A pink smile, he realized. Just like the doll’s.
He suddenly understood. The woman looked very much like the doll Kelsey had taken such a liking to. She was wearing a blue shirt with white lace at the collar, and a full blue skirt with lace pockets. She was even wearing white shoes—though hers were sneakers, not the shiny vinyl of the doll’s shoes.
The woman was studying his sister with a curious smile. Probably wondering why Kelsey was looking at her as though she had two heads or something, Pip thought with a grimace.
He nudged his sister. “She thinks the doll’s real pretty, ma’am,” he said. “Put it back on the shelf, Kelsey.”
Kelsey replaced the doll with visible reluctance, though she hardly took her eyes from the salesclerk.
Pip caught his sister’s hand and tugged her toward another display. “Look over here,” he said, hoping the woman would turn to another customer. “These dolls are dressed like fairy-tale characters. See, there’s Cinderella and Snow White and—”
Kelsey suddenly regained her voice. “Pip!” she squeaked, clutching his arm. “That’s her! That’s my mom.” She was still looking at the dark-haired woman, who’d turned to answer a question from a very pregnant customer.
Pip blinked. “Huh?”
“She’s ‘xactly what I wanted. She even looks like the doll.”
“But, Kels—”
“It’s her, Pip. Really. That’s why Santa sent us to this shop. For her!”
“But—”
“Do you think we should tell her now? That we’ve picked her for our mom, I mean. Do you think she’ll be excited? I am!”
That was obvious. Feeling as though the situation was rapidly getting out of hand, Pip tried to calm his sister, who was tugging eagerly at his hand again. “We can’t just tell her that, Kels. We have to have a plan.”
Since Kelsey had great respect for Pip’s plans—after all, hadn’t it been one of his plans that had brought them to this mall in search of parents?—she grew still and nodded gravely. “What plan?”
Darned if he knew. “Let’s just watch her for a minute,” he suggested in a conspiratorial murmur. “We want to be sure.”
That