Page 92 of Season of Gifts

Dammit.She should have set an alarm so they could be up first and ready to step in and help.Henry doing everything himself was exactly the pattern she meant to disrupt.That needed to get sorted outtoday.Maybe Jay could sit with Mother after breakfast while Alice cornered their stubborn husband for a full update.She couldn’t analyze the options without the complete picture.

One medical crisis would not be allowed to implode their marriage.The shoddy communication and persistent exhaustion would get addressed before the behavior stuck.The co-submissives were about to hijack this ride.

She squirmed face-to-face with Jay and gently rubbed his chest.His heart beat strong under her hand.“Wake up, wise one.We have work to do.”

Chapter forty-seven

Jay

Jaytookakneebeside the kitchen table and squeezed Mom so gently that she swatted his back with her fingers.“I will insist upon a real hug, thank you.I am not gossamer and spun sugar.”

“Is that a dessert?”He tightened his arms a skosh.Henry hadn’t said that hugging too hard could stop Mom’s heart, but he’d halted his breakfast prep to watch them, and his sharp eyes shot out morecautionthanaww.“I don’t know that one.”

Laughing, she kissed his cheek.“Something like that.I’ve missed you, darling boy.You must tell me everything you’ve been up to while Henry has been mired in hospital visits with me.”

“Everything could take a while.I’m such a social butterfly!”He eased back into the seat next to her.Henry had rejected his offer to make an egg-and-cheese scramble for himself and Alice, even though Henry and Mom had already mostly eaten.Too bad, because then Alice could have pulled their husband aside and found out what was up with him while Jay entertained Mom with his cooking attempt.Maybe Alice would’ve sent Henry straight back to bed—the shadows under his eyes carried a year’s worth of luggage.

“Oh, you would have loved the ballet.It’s a shame we gave away the tickets—Henry?”Mom folded her hands on the table, her blood vessels mapping out blue rivers between her knuckles and her shirt sleeves.“I’m certain Robert would relinquish them if you’d like to take Alice and Jay this evening.Lina would be delighted to visit with me for a few hours.You’ve all been under such strain.It would do you good to have a night out together.”

Henry’s mom had the best ideas.And she was doing way better than he’d figured.Not sick in bed or forgetting who they were.She looked skinny and a little pale, sure, but not sick-sick.Jay checked in with Alice, but she was watching Henry with one eyebrow up and the problem-solver notch in her forehead.

Henry whisked eggs so fast the liquid sloshed up the side of the glass bowl and nearly hit the rim.“That’s quite thoughtful of you, Mother, but we have an exceptionally important activity to complete today right here at home, one that we may all enjoy.”

That sure sounded like normal Henry.A hundred percent more than last night.Yesterday could’ve just been a bad day.But now Jay was here, and Alice was here, and they could make today fantastic.“Anything you want me to get started on now?I can fetch stuff while you’re making breakfast.Get things set up?”

The eggs sizzled as Henry poured them into the pan.“I do have a task for you, but it’s not something you can fetch in the house, I’m afraid.I neglected to include our calendar in the packing list.We’ll simply have to work off memory.”

“No, I can get it.”His chair whooshed back as he popped up, and he steadied it with his hand.“Be right back.”

“You can—”

“He can.I forgot too, but he grabbed…”

Alice’s voice faded.He raced up the stairs and to their room at the end of the hall as quick as he could without actually running in the house.Only four envelopes left; they’d been simple enough to jam in the side pocket of his bag at the last minute.

He retraced his steps.Mom’s house was bigger than theirs, more sprawling, but had fewer stairs to climb.

“—more than two hours, Henry.”A steady stream of water poured into Mom’s teacup.“Thank you, Alice.”

The metal spatula tapped against the cast iron as Henry stirred the eggs.Alice set Mom’s tea kettle back on its base, brushing Henry’s elbow when she passed.Mom fiddled with the tea-ball chain hanging like a bracelet over the side of her cup, bent forward, and breathed in the steam coming off her tea.“Such an imposition, these constraints.Doctors insist on making rules for how one lives a good life.”

“Rules don’t sound so bad.”Jay leaned the envelopes against the sugar dish.Mom only took milk in her tea.He might add sugar to a bowl of oatmeal, though.Mom had a couple of bites left in her bowl, and Henry still had a pot warming on the stove behind the eggs.The fresh cranberries would be too tart without sugar.“I like knowing what to watch out for.Rules and a schedule mean less stuff for my head to fuss over.Like with the calendar Henry made for us—one card a day for the whole month until Christmas, to be opened at breakfast.”

If he hadn’t gotten discouraged and desperate Thursday, he wouldn’t have opened the second card and felt even worse.But then he wouldn’t have called Alice, either, and she’d needed him as much as he’d needed her.Rules in general were good.Rules sometimes were for breaking, but only in an emergency, like Emma said.When not-breaking was worse than breaking.

“Henry, you created an Advent calendar?”Mom picked up the front envelope, with its fancy script 21 on the front and its red wax seal on the back.“What an adorable gift!”

“It’s even better inside.”Jay mouthedthanksat Alice as she took the bowl from his place setting and carried it to the stove.“He gave us hints with the artwork on the cards.”

“Hints?”Mom handed the card over to him.“Do you open it now?My curiosity is thoroughly piqued.”

“For the activities.Like—” The taste of his new collar and cuffs, celebrated but waiting to be worn.“Umm, Alice, do you want to open today’s card?You didn’t get to open yours all week.”He smiled at Mom, determinedly shoving the best gift out of his head.“Alice is evens and I’m odds, but since she was on a work trip, I got to open hers.”

“Oh, yes, in South Dakota, Henry said?”Mom turned toward the stove, one arm braced against the table.“You grew up not far from there, is that right, Alice?How did it feel to be home again?”

He clamped his lips tight.Alice needed time alone to talk to Henry about that fiasco.Her dad sounded worse than Peggy.

“Home?Oh, well, it was, we were—” A pot lid slipped from her fingers and clanged against the grates on the stove.“Sorry.Busy, it was a busy trip.Lots to do.But Jay, you should open the card, if Henry’s ready for us.”

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