Page 20 of Midnight Clear

She started a fire in the fireplace and turned on Christmas music to complete the mood. She didn’t care if it wasn’t yet dawn. Christmas could be celebrated at any time, and that’s exactly what she was going to do. She eyed the neatly wrapped presents beneath the tree and bit her lip in curiosity. Surely Hank hadn’t done all thisandgotten her gifts.

She leaned down to look at the tags and her eyes filled. All the gifts were from her mother and Aunt Lori with specific instructions not to open until Christmas Day. She sniffled even as she chuckled at the written warning her mother had left. They knew her well. She’d never been able to resist a little peek or shake of what was under the tree.

She hugged the note Hank had left to her chest and went to the laundry room to put the sheets in the washer. Then she headed to the kitchen, humming under her breath as she looked back and forth between the kettle and the coffeepot. She knew tea was probably the better option, but coffee was calling her name. She measured out grounds and started the machine and then looked for something to eat. She decided toast was probably the safest bet.

The coffee was still brewing when she heard the key in the lock and the front door opened.

“Yoo-hoo,” her mother called out. “It’s me.”

“In the kitchen,” Sophie said, smiling.

And in came her mother, wrapped up in her long wool coat and scarf and covered with snow.

“Did you roll around in the front yard?” Sophie asked.

“It’s getting bad out there,” she said, stepping into the little mudroom and laundry area off the kitchen and taking off her coat to hang it up. “All this snow is just in time to remind me that it’s eighty degrees right now in Florida and I’m going to throw this coat away.”

Sophie chuckled and poured herself a cup of coffee. If her mother felt this way about the snow now, the next five months would be torture.

Maggie looked Sophie over from head to toe like only mothers could do. “Well, you look better than you did. You’re very pale. But the fever looks like it’s gone. You still look like something the cat dragged in.”

“Thanks, Mom,” she said, adding cream and sugar to her cup. “I can always count on you to keep it real. Coffee?”

“That’s what I’m here for,” she said, grinning. “And I’ll take tea.” And then she moved to the stove to take care of it herself. Her mother had lived in this house for a lot of years, and knew how to make herself at home.

“So…” Maggie asked. “How has your morning been? Christmasy?”

Sophie looked at the excitement on her mother’s face and knew she and Hank had been in on her Christmas surprise together. She put down her mug and walked straight into her mother’s arms for a hug.

“Thank you for this,” she said. “I didn’t know how much I needed it.”

“I’d love to take all the credit, but this was Hank’s idea. He’s a force to be reckoned with once he’s got an idea in his head. Reminds me of someone else I know. You two are going to make an interesting match.”

Sophie’s head came up and she said, “Oh, no. It’s not like that.”

“Uh-huh,” her mother said, skeptically. “You keep telling yourself that. But I’ve spent the last three days with that man. He cares about you.”

“He hardly knows me,” Sophie said.

“I think he knows enough to know that you’re worth pursuing,” she said. “And he strikes me as the kind of man who knows what would suit him. And I think you suit him.”

“Because he gives me flowers and decorates my house for Christmas?”

“Because he listens to your heart,” she said gently. “You’re a strong and independent woman, and I’m so proud of you for all you’ve accomplished. Don’t think I didn’t know the burdens you took on much too young. You’ve always worked and worked hard. You put yourself through college and made sure that you had an understanding of business, not to helpyou, but because you thought it would help me with the bookstore.”

“That’s not true,” she said. “A business degree was the most practical.”

Her mother just smiled with understanding, and Sophie felt like a child again and she’d somehow missed the mark.

“You’ve always protected those you love,” she said. “Look at Junie. It’s like the two of you were raised in completely different households. You always stood in front of Junie or sent her to another room when your dad was in a bad way. You made sure she had new clothes and was able to fit in with the popular girls at school. And Junie did what she always said she was going to do. She married a wealthy man and is living the life none of us ever had. It’s just good fortune that she happens to love Rory and he feels the same about her.

“You know I love both of you equally, but Junie doesn’t have your strength and grit. She doesn’t know what it is to suffer because you made sure she didn’t. I should have been the one to protect both of you, instead of letting you stand in the gap, and that’s my failure to live with.”

“No, Mom,” Sophie said, shaking her head in denial.

“Hush now,” she said. “That’s the truth and you know it. We can all make excuses for the way we did things, but we did them and we can’t change it. If I’d had a real backbone I would have left your father when y’all were little. But that’s not how I was raised, so I stayed, despite my better judgment. And it was wrong. I’m telling you that now. And I’m asking you to forgive me.”

“There is nothing to forgive,” Sophie said vehemently. “You did the best you could, and your best was amazing. Junie and I know that. We love you.”

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