Page 152 of Season of Gifts

“You needn’t worry, dear.This one isn’t for them.I’m sure they are well pleased with their gifts”—Mother raised an eyebrow and gazed across the table, and both boys nodded—“though I daresay Henry won the gift-giving prize this year by bringing a new uncle to entertain them.”

Jay preened with imaginary suspenders before delivering a simultaneous high-five to Eddie and low five to Gabe.A flutter of cheers erupted.

Constance pushed back her seat and stood, her impeccable posture the natural outcome of a prep school education.“Boys, have you finished your breakfasts?”

Eddie checked his brother’s plate and nodded.“Yes, Mother, we’ve finished.”

“Upstairs, then, please.We’ll need to pack before we visit your other grandparents.”Patting Robert’s shoulder as she passed, she added more quietly, “I’ll keep them on task, dear.We’ll be ready to depart when you are.”

As the door to the kitchen swung shut behind the three of them, Jay gathered their plates and added them to Alice’s now-empty one on his way to the sink.“You don’t stay the whole week?”

Jay’s clear tenor rang with surprise, but neither hurt nor panic colored his voice.At the Kress farm, Jay might have expected days yet of wrangling a horde of children.Here, the crowd was small and the employment brief, at least until they began adding to the numbers themselves.

Robert ceased staring into his coffee.“Us?No, it’s not feasible.We’ve Constance’s parents yet to visit today.They drop hints every year—well, that’s neither here nor there.”He crossed his knife and fork atop his plate and removed his napkin from his lap, the subtle twist of his wrist almost certainly a glance at his watch.“First, however, there is the matter of Mother’s care to arrange.Henry has developed an excellent proposal, Mother, and I suggest you follow it.He has my full support.”

More of a blunt conversational entry than Henry would have made, but sufficient.They couldn’t defer the discussion indefinitely.“Thank you, Robert.If you’re ready to consider the specifics, Mother?Have you finished arranging your gift?”

Mother laid her phone on the table and rested her hands across it.Her eyes gleamed; her Cheshire smile promised mischief, like the nights they’d tiptoed downstairs and eaten ice cream straight from the carton after story time instead of turning out the light.“I have indeed.I do hope you’re pleased.While I truly appreciate that you boys have worked together on this, you may dispense with your plans.The matter is solved.”

The matter couldn’t possibly be solved; Mother hadn’t so much as asked for the contact information to engage the home health service.

Alice inhaled softly; gripping the table edge, she leaned forward.“So Lina said yes?”

“Oh, you darling clever girl!”Mother bounced gently in her seat, her fingers tapping the table.“Henry, I just love her.”

“As do I.”He rested his hand against Alice’s back, more for his steadiness than hers.“Though I confess I’ve missed something.You’ve hired Lina?I recognize that she is a dear, dear friend, but she is not a trained medical professional.”

“I haven’t precisely hired her, darling.I’ve invited her to move in, and she has accepted.”

“Good for you!”Alice undoubtedly loved Mother’s solution because she’d proposed the same one herself to Henry earlier in the week.Though not, so far as he knew, suggested it to Mother.“That’s a great idea.”

He ought not be surprised that the two most important women in his life had come to the same conclusion; he should perhaps inquire of himself why he had not.He’d rejected the thought without much consideration, despite Mother’s established comfort with Lina and a friendship going back decades.

“Mother, really.”Robert rubbed his forehead.“I apologize for my bluntness, but time is short.You may be underestimating the seriousness of your health condition.A trained nurse will be far safer at this juncture.”

Robert voiced the same thoughts that had kept Henry from endorsing such a plan.

Mother sat at her full height, her shoulders back, her chin raised.“Do you believe this heart trouble has addled my mind?Do you think me incapable of assessing a problem and determining the solution that best fits my needs?”

Henry winced, though her chiding tone was aimed squarely at Robert.She might as well have targeted Henry in her chastisement; he was the one who’d first denied her participation in decisions surrounding her care.

“What are your needs, Mother?”Henry folded his hands on the table.Her plan might indeed be more suitable, and were it not, modifications could be negotiated.His control wasn’t needed here, only his love.A lesson he might take to his marriage.“I apologize for not centering your experience during this difficult time.I was unnecessarily overbearing.”

Mother clasped her hand over his, her fingers slender but her grip once again strong.“Fear drives us in strange ways, darling.I know your intent was pure.That both of you”—she included Robert in her gaze—“have been acting as you felt best.”

“The fear has driven me a bit mad these past weeks.”The shame he anticipated failed to materialize.Alice wrapped her arm around his waist, and Jay inched his chair closer on the other side and leaned his head on Henry’s shoulder.They regulated him as much as he did them; their presence held his course steady, his goals fixed.

He’d been a fool to face this crisis alone.He hadn’t lost their love, not one bit, by exposing his vulnerability.“But I am now eager to listen.”

“You’ve always been good at that.”Mother smiled softly, laugh lines adding definition to her eyes.“I would have mentioned this sooner, but I didn’t want to put the cart before the horse.Lina delivered the news to her daughter yesterday as a Christmas gift, and they needed time to discuss the possibility as a family.”

That left the flaw he had already used to discount Alice’s suggestion.

“I doubt poaching Lina from minding her grandchildren would be a gift in her daughter’s eyes.”He’d rarely seen Brooke since his visits home from college, when she was a skinny child in play clothes in the garden.The garden apartment did contain two bedrooms; she’d grown up there, in the space Mother’s studio now occupied.The door stood just past the end of the kitchen, beyond the butler’s pantry.The house might be as familiar a refuge to her as it was to him.And a suitable place to raise her daughters.“Ah.But you aren’t proposing that, are you?”

“I would never.”Mother held her hands to her heart and breathed deeply, as deep as he’d seen in days.“Lina, Brooke, and the girls will be coming to live here.I have more rooms than I know what to do with, and she is my dearest friend.”

Two adults in the house with Mother would be a vast improvement over her living alone, although two rambunctious children could prompt her to overexert herself.And become a tripping hazard.How old were they?Still crawling?Mother would need—she would need him to trust her judgment.He carefully relaxed tense shoulders, recognizing the light caress of Jay’s hand on his forearm and Alice’s across his back.“That seems a reasonable beginning.”

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