Page 122 of The Merry Matchmaker

Adele blushed, and so did Mario. “Nothing,” she said. “Merry Christmas, daughter dear.”

“I’d say Merry Christmas to you, too, but it looks like you’re already there.”

“I am,” Adele said with a grin. She looked to Mario. “Mario spoils me.”

“I would do anything for your mother,” he said.

Adele smiled at him, then got busy taking their breakfast casserole from the oven. “We are ready,” she announced as she took it to the table. “Let’s eat this while it’s hot. Bring the salad, Mario. And Frankie, grab the coffee cake.”

Frankie and her family had always celebrated the holidays together, even during the dark times when they didn’t feel like it. But this year there was no sadness overshadowing them, no forced smiles, no determined counting of blessings. This year they were awash in gratitude and joy.

And laughter over some of the silly presents. Warner received a hoodie blanket made to look like a shark from Frankie, which he happily modeled, rolling around the floor. In addition to socks and a book, Adele also gifted him with a whoopee cushion, and he was delighted when she and his father demonstrated how to use it.

“Thanks, Gram Gram,” said Natalie with a frown.

“I could have gotten him a drum set,” Adele retorted.

Mario opened his present from Adele and turned as red as the boxers she’d given him. They sported sweater-wearing reindeer.

No embarrassment for Frankie. Adele gave her a cookbook she’d been wanting.

Adele loved the adult coloring book from her daughters and granddaughter, which had a variety of gift cards tucked between the pages.

Stef was thrilled with the game Adele had given her that involved throwing squishy toy burritos at each other. “I think this might come in handy in the future,” she said, and Frankie was sure she was thinking of a certain reformed Scrooge and his son.

“Never mind the future, let’s play it now,” suggested Jonathan.

Later, after much squealing and chaos, Natalie and company left to go to the next set of parents and eat another meal, and Adele, Stef and Frankie settled in with eggnog while Mario built a fire in the fireplace.

“I used to love having a fire in the fireplace when I was a kid,” said Stef. “I loved watching the flames.”

“And toasting marshmallows,” Frankie added. “I remember doing that with Dad.”

“I wish we’d had him longer,” Stef said wistfully. “I barely got any time with him.”

“There’s never enough time,” Frankie mused, thinking of both her father and her husband.

Adele fell silent. For a moment it felt to Frankie as if something dark had floated out from those flames and was reaching for them, ready to pull them into sorrow with invisible fingers.

Adele banished it. “Of course, we wish we had the people we loved for longer. But I’m betting that those who have gone on before us would be glad to see us making the most of our lives and making the most of being together.”

“Dad would be happy that you’ve found Mario and to see you doing so well,” Frankie said.

“We are all doing well, aren’t we?” Adele asked.

“I think I am, finally,” said Stef.

Adele looked pointedly at Frankie.

“I’m doing fine,” Frankie said. As long as she didn’t dwell on the past.

Or stew over the future.

By the time she got home she realized she’d somehow missed a call from Mitch. “Not dead,” he said on her voicemail. “I’m in Seattle, visiting my aunt. See you tomorrow.”

“You bet you will,” she said after the message finished.

Griff called Stef later that evening. She hadn’t expected to hear from him again so quickly. It was Christmas, after all, and they both had families.

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