Page 58 of A Christmas Bargain

He laughed. “What about Peanut the hamster?”

I laughed louder. “I can still hear Mom yelling that she saw a mouse in the closet.”

“I don’t,” he said, laughing louder than me.

“Because you ran so fast to the rescue that you tripped on a shoe in the hallway and knocked yourself out hitting your head on the wall.”

Everyone had a hamster story, and ours was when Peanut, Grace’s hamster, figured out how to sneak out of his cage. It made Mom think she saw a mouse, assuming that the hamsters would of course be safe in their cages.

We’d never gotten to the dog phase, starting with hamsters as pets to teach me and Grace how to be responsible for a pet. She got her cancer diagnosis before we could seriously talk about getting a family dog. And then, that was that. Life was just different, and none of us could bring up the topic of getting a dog because Mom had been the one most excited for it.

Sitting at the island, we reminisced for a while yet. Grace video called too, and we all had a trip down memory lane. When she said she’d talk to Dad later, I got suspicious again.

“Is she working on something?” I asked. “Something I don’t know about?”

He smiled and shrugged. “I promised I wouldn’t say.”

“Oh, no.”

He laughed lightly. “Claire, you’ve got to stop mothering her. It’s past time she starts owning up to her mistake. Give Grace some… well, give her some grace. She’s trying, and we owe her the space to figure out her own way out of this mess.”

I took his message with me as I gathered my clothes and packed for staying with Derek and Naomi. It sounded too good to be true, that she’d be wizening up and growing like that.

But I will.I would step back and let her do her thing. If Dad was confident she was learning from her bad decisions and trying, then I’d give her the space to do so.

I could turn my mothering instinct toward Naomi, and I did. I arrived just in time foranotherdiscussion about the dogs we saw at the shelter. She’d gone back on the shelter’s website to list the pros and cons of each dog she saw.

“I have to say, this is… impressive,” I admitted the next day when she presented us with a slide show at breakfast.

Derek grunted as he dodged around me at the stove as I turned the Canadian bacon over.

“Impressive, or obsessive?” he teased, leaning in to sneak a kiss on my cheek.

Naomi smiled, watching us, and I felt good about it. Staying with them. Letting her see us kiss here and there or holding hands. Making food together and tackling chores.

It was all so domestic, like we were meant to find each other and glue together in a family unit. It wasn’t all sunshine and roses. We had moments, slight ones, and those kept us from being in some kind of la-la land of bliss.

“I thought you had your heart set on a white German Shepherd, though,” I reminded her.

“No. After further consideration, I am opposed to getting a dog from a breeder. I would prefer to rescue and adopt.”

After further consideration.I bit back a smile at her proper and loquacious mannerisms.

“I’ll collect a consensus,” she said as she hopped out of her chair to grab the papers she’d printed. “I’ll ask Aunt Stacy and Uncle Nicky what they think!”

“No, no…” Derek groaned. “I’m not getting a teacup anything. It’d get lost out here in all this land.”

I laughed as we cleaned up for the tree-cutting tradition the family had.

“Stacy keeps encouraging her to get a little frou-frou thing.”

“What about Nicky?” I asked.

“Oh, he’s on my side,” he replied as he hugged me, kissing up my neck with Naomi off to get ready. “He’s being logical about it.”

“Well, don’t look at me.” I smiled, thinking back to those adorable little puppies.

“Oh, you’re trouble,” he taunted. “Making up that stuff about a ‘real’ dog pack having four dogs.”

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