Page 73 of Wrapped in You

"Guys, I still live here!" Sophie cried.

"Only part-time," Mrs. Reynolds said disapprovingly as she cut Sophie a slice of cake.

Sophie rolled her eyes and smiled.

"First, she's in LA. Then she's in Bali, wherever that is," Johnny, the postman, said. "We can't keep up!"

"But I'll be here all winter long," Sophie promised them. "And Derek will be here, too!"

Mrs. Reynolds clasped her hands. "You're still together!?"

Sophie laughed. "Is that such a surprise?"

Mrs. Reynolds looked panicked. "No, dear. No. It's just—"

"We don't like sharing you," Cindy said, coming up beside her.

Across the room, Randy was on his phone, chatting with Fiona, who was back at home, very pregnant with their first child. "I'll be home in an hour," he told her adoringly. "We just have to square away a few details. Yes, I already told Sophie you said hi." He turned to look at Sophie and wink.

Just as ever, the committee turned to Sophie as their director of the Christmas Festival. Sophie fell into it easily, offering brand-new ideas for this year and also complimenting Randy on his "inventive new plans" for food stalls, including a taco truck and a place where you could make your own hot cocoa mug with whipped cream and candies.

"It's going to get messy, but the kids will love it," Randy affirmed.

"Everyone will love it!" Sophie said. She clicked her pen and gazed across the sea of faces; this group of people she loved dearly. Why did they trust her so much? Maybe they knew that no matter where she went, how far, or for how long, she'd always return for the Christmas Festival.

After the Christmas Festival planning meeting, Cindy walked Sophie home and peppered her with more questions about her travels. "Annie has an ear infection," she explained as they walked up the front steps, "or else I'd beg you to let me stay over for a sleepover so we can really catch up."

"We have time!" Sophie wrapped her arms around Cindy and held her tightly. Her heart pounded. "I can't believe how much I missed you!"

Cindy pulled back and touched her hair. "You look happier and more beautiful than I've seen you in years. Don't feel guilty about doing what you want."

"Remember what you said on the Ferris wheel?" Sophie said. "You told me to help everyone else love me better. You told me to say what I want."

Cindy raised her chin. "You actually listened to me?"

"Sometimes, my little sister is wise," Sophie said. "Who would have thought?"

Cindy cackled and jumped down the steps. She hollered over her shoulder, "Love you! Sleep well."

Sophie echoed her love.

That night, Sophie talked to Derek on the phone. He was still in Bali, wrapping everything up on the film.

"I'm exhausted," he said. "I just want to climb in bed with you and sleep for the rest of December."

"Just get here as soon as you can!" Sophie said. "We can sleep from Christmas Day to New Year's Eve."

Derek chuckled, then lowered his voice. "Did you tell Cindy?"

Sophie's heart leaped. "Not yet. I want to wait till you're here."

She could feel Derek's smile from the opposite end of the earth.

"I'll be there the last night of the festival," Derek assured her. "I'll kiss you by the Christmas tree."

Sophie closed her eyes, remembering a year of thousands of kisses, late nights of wonderful conversations, beautiful dinners and breakfasts and lunches and snacks, big plans for the future, and—of course—therapy, which Derek had gone to both by himself and with her. Derek was working through his grief. And despite his assertion that he wanted to do it alone, he'd thanked her many times for "being patient with him."

"You love me so well," Sophie had said so often. "I'm just trying to love you—and everything you were in the past—as well as I can. I want to honor every story of your life. And I want to honor Georgia, too."

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