Page 89 of Forgotten Romance

The flicker of hope dies. No Christmas miracles for me. “Right.” Too late, I add, “You too.”

There’s a beat of silence. “I know you’re disappointed about the rearrangements, but?—”

“It isn’t something we’ll be discussing today.”

“I also wanted to let you know your Christmas bonus should show up today. Congratulations, Davey, you’ve earned it.”

“Thank you. Merry Christmas.” I hang up before he gets a chance to reply. I’m sure there’ll be a conversation about my rudeness, but that conversation can happen when I’m on the clock. Not now. Not here.

Mack might have been okay with me taking that call, but I’m not. Work already overreaches when it comes to my family time. How many phone calls have I answered over dinner? How many nights did I sit up working on my laptop? The flexibility to be able to work from home is amazing, but it blurs the line between office hours and family time to the point where I always have to be on. Talking to someone in the office as I drive the kids to school or Mack to work is usual. Creating meeting minutes or last-minute updates to a client’s package the second the kids are in bed is common.

Once I’m back at work, my professionalism won’t be the only conversation we need to have. I’ll be drawing clear lines between what’s acceptable and what isn’t.

I rejoin my family, and the second I’m back cross-legged on the ground, Van wriggles up into my lap. I hold him close, loving how attached he is, even as my heart breaks over why it might be. Mack is gently teasing Kiera as she lands on a snake during her turn, and then Van rolls the dice, almost knocks the board over, moves Mack’s piece instead of his, and shrieks when we try to put it back. Then also shrieks as we try to replace Mack’s with the one he’s sucking on.

“Van’s ruining it!” Kiera pouts.

Van responds by throwing the dice at her head, which immediately has her in tears.

Mack smiles at me over our bawling daughter. I smile at him over where our son is chewing on the side of the board.

“Why do we keep trying to have a games night?” he asks me.

“Because we love it.”

He gives me a you sure about that? look, but I am. Sure. Because I’ll take all the good and bad I can get with these three.

Not even the five-figure bonus I get can change my mind.

28

Mack

This week has been way more stressful than it has any right to be. Mary and I aren’t completely sure we got the recipe right, so I’m relying on Davey’s taste buds being shit at this point. His LEGO Millennium Falcon had some, uh, setbacks that involved an old man, an unreliable brake, and a broken wrist. I should be more sorry about Taylor’s broken bone than a broken LEGO set, but I’m struggling to find the balance.

Christmas Eve is two nights away. Two. I’m running out of time to get everything perfect, even with Ford and his grease monkeys staying back this week to help me. I’d feel guilty about that fact if I wasn’t so selfishly determined to make Davey happy and if they all weren’t so ridiculously determined to get it done.

“Got everything?” Davey asks, ready to pull the front door closed behind us.

I peck him on the cheek. Even knowing he’s back at work in a week, I think I’m the happiest I’ve been in my life. That might change again when he’s actually gone, but for now, I can ignore that and live this, and everything is great. “Think so. We’ll buy them fries and corn dogs for dinner.”

“That they’ll probably throw up after all the rides.”

I do not want a repeat of last year. Things were tense enough between us before we left the house that losing Van for a solid thirty seconds, having Kiera throw up her food, and then carrying Van out of there screaming has scarred me for tonight. I want everything to be perfect, but with my track record so far, “perfect” and “us” don’t fit in the same sentence. I’m good at getting things wrong. At putting too much pressure on a moment instead of letting the moments happen.

So I’ve decided that I’m going to pull up my man panties and take whatever fuckery comes.

The winter fair is held at the sports ground on the edge of town. The fair is expanding, and with it growing that little bit every year, the oval won’t be able to hold it soon. I overheard Payne and Art talking about him putting in a proposal to hold it at Killer Adventures.

The more I think about it, the more it would be the perfect location, but given they’ve only just gotten the place up and running, taking on something this large would have been too much for him.

It’s awesome to see him expanding. To see Beau moving in with him. Then there’s Griff and Heath, who’ve made their partnership in Magnolia Ridge official. Ford and Orson, who are looking to open a second garage. Art, who’s been prodding Joey to run Killer Brew with him while Joey keeps turning him down. Keller and Will recently settled down. Then me and Davey. Further behind than we’ve ever been in terms of our relationship.

And I’ve never been more positive about the future than I am right now.

Sometimes you have to go back to the foundations and figure out where you went wrong before you can rebuild, and it feels like that’s what we’re doing. We didn’t focus on that the first time around.

The parking situation is a bit of a mess when we arrive, especially with Kiera and Van going wild in the back. The rides are all lit up, music blaring, and even with the droopy gray sky, the whole thing does look magical. I remember coming when I was a kid and thinking it was the most amazing experience ever.

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