Page 233 of A Merry Mountain Christmas

“Ben,” she says softly as she approaches him. “I brought someone to see you. An early Christmas present.”

He turns to look at her, and my heart thuds against my rib cage. How will he react? Belatedly, I realize I probably should have let Amanda have a few days to prepare him for my visit. Too late for that now.

He bolts off the sofa and lunges for me, wrapping his arms around me as he bursts into tears. “Uncle Jace. You came back,” he chokes out. “You didn’t forget me.”

My own tears clog my throat and sting my eyes as I tighten my arms around him. “I have never,everforgotten you.”

We spend the next few minutes like that, both of us crying as we cling to each other, and I find some relief at the guilt in Amanda’s eyes.

“Who’s hungry for lunch?” she finally asks. “I need to feed y’all before I start baking.”

“Are you eating lunch with me, Uncle Jace?” Ben asks with pleading eyes.

“Yeah, buddy. I’d love to eat lunch with you.”

We eat lunch—cheese sandwiches (Ben’s new favorite) and chips—and then I give him his gift, a pair of highly rated noise-cancelling headphones. They’re not cheap, and I suspectAmanda has struggled to replace the pair he had before I left. She gives me a grateful look, then mouthsthank you. I wanted to get him something more fun too, but I wasn’t sure what he would like. It’s been six years. So I decided to wait until I know more about what he likes now.

After he tests out the headphones, we take a long walk outside, and he tells me about school and his friends and his mom and anything and everything that pops into his head. I’m overwhelmingly grateful for this time with him and his openness to spending time with me after what he surely sees as my desertion.

“Why haven’t you come to see me before, Uncle Jace?” he finally asks, and frankly, I’m surprised it’s taken this long.

“Well,” I say carefully. It would be easy to throw Amanda under the bus, but she’s still his mother and he needs her. “I went to prison, remember? I told you right before I left.”

“Yeah. I remember. But you said you were gonna send me letters.”

“Ididsend you letters,” I say, my anger stirring. Amanda must have kept them from him. “I guess they got lost in the mail.”

“I wrote you letters too.”

A few of his letters had trickled in up until Mom passed away. She must have sent them behind Amanda’s back.

“Well, I’m back now,” I say, forcing a smile. “And we can talk on the phone and use FaceTime.”

“Are you moving back into your house?” he asks. “Somebody’s living in it.”

“No,” I say. “I had to let it go when I went to prison. I’m living in Asheville now, but I’ll come see you, and I’d love for you to visit me too. I have a cat.”

“Mom hates cats, but I like them.”

“I know,” I say with a laugh. “That’s why you can come visit me and meet Bingo. But I have to warn you, he’s not very cuddly.”

We spend the rest of the afternoon playing a video game until I have to leave. Ben gets upset when I say that I’m going, but to my surprise, Amanda tells him he’ll see me soon. Still, he doesn’t settle until she marks our next visit on the calendar and he and I plan out what we’ll do together.

She follows me out to my truck, her mouth twisted to the side. “I’m sorry,” she says, sounding much more sincere than she did earlier in the gazebo. “I forgot how good you are with him.”

I shove my hands into my pockets, unsure how to respond.

She waves a hand toward me. “You look great, Jace. I shouldn’t have sent you away, but I guess it worked out for you.”

“Yeah, I suppose it did.”

She scuffs the ground with one shoe. “I’m sorry I sold your stuff. I would have sold your truck too, except I needed you to sign the title.” She grimaces. “I shouldn’t have done that, but I was desperate. I didn’t have Mom’s social security anymore after she died.”

“I got new stuff.”

“Still, it was wrong.”

I give her a tight smile. “Water under the bridge.”

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