Page 117 of Season of Gifts

Henry had said last night that his mom had adamantly refused having a live-in nurse.But that probably wouldn’t be the same as having family in and out all day.They could visit more often, for one thing.A close friend would be better.Some kind of companion that Mother could rely on.

A hand closed around hers below the table; Henry squeezed tight, and she rubbed her thumb along his fingers.A bittersweet shuffle crossed his face, the pained squint of his eyes contradicted by the gentle smile on his lips.“I mistakenly believed your presence would be a distraction, my dears.But you are an extraordinary help.And I shall need Jay’s assistance preparing today’s activities.”

“You got it.”Jay shifted back into his seat only when Mother let him go.“Are we doing an assembly line?Or each doing our own?Are there toppings?”

“There are whatever you would like there to be, as we’ll begin with a trip to gather supplies.”

Alice rattled Henry’s hand back and forth atop her napkin.“But you’re going to share what we’re doing first, right?”

Mother raised her teacup in both hands.“I confess, darling, I would also like to know.”

Surveying them all, Henry saved a wink for Jay alone.“Shall I read the card and enlighten them?”

Grinning, Jay stared across the table at Alice.She raised a stern eyebrow at him, although her mouth kept puckering as she held back her laugh.Jay let his loose.“I think if you don’t, Alice is gonna grab that card back from you in two seconds.”

“Good guess, st—” Whoops, probably don’t call her husbandstudin front of their mother-in-law.“Sweetheart.”She smiled a mouthful of teasingly menacing teeth at him.

Henry cleared his throat—a whole epidemic of chuckle-covering seemed to be going around—and lifted the card in one hand.He left the other clasping hers, less tightly now but stroking her skin like one of Jay’s fidget stones.

“My dearest loves.”

His voice carried a solemn weight to it, and Alice shivered.

“We have missed much time together.I cannot give you back that time, just as none of us can be those past selves again.What the future holds, we mortals cannot say.But the present is our time, and each moment of it we spend together builds a shared past and shapes a collective future.Let us spend today as a family, remembering and honoring those we have lost by bringing love and joy to the present that will nurture us in the future.May ours be as sweet and bountiful as the treats we make today.”

Henry fell silent.

Alice swallowed the tears building in her throat.“That was beautiful.”

Jay and Mother chimed in with appreciation.Henry had written that last night, after the tree-trimming.Before they had gone upstairs, before they had talked everything out.He’d been hurting and on edge, working toward a panic attack, and still focused on love and kindness and compassion for all of them.On their future together.Alice curled her left hand in tight to taste the bite of the wedding band beside her knuckle.This was forever.They were forever.

Amid laughing exhortations to eat, they finally dug into the meal.Even cooling, her omelet was exquisite.Henry, sampling his, nodded distractedly and dabbed his mouth with his napkin.

“Our baking, of course, shall be in honor of Mrs.Eickhoff.”The words landed gently, Jay turning to Henry as a flower to the sun.“Do you suppose she would have liked caramel apples, Jay?Perhaps there’s something special you would like us to make as well.Robert and his brood will arrive Tuesday, and I’ve no doubt we’ll wish for a robust assortment of sweets to offer.”

“She liked alotof sweet stuff.”

“A wise woman.”Eyes twinkling, Mother bit into the toast Jay had doctored for her.

Mother had gone with the peach-blackberry jam, and somehow her bite managed to be dainty but enormous without sending a single piece of fruit over the edge.Alice eyed the three blueberries dotting her omelet from her own overzealous enjoyment, then jabbed them onto her fork and finished them.

“But I think…” Jay glowed, bouncing up straighter in his seat.“She made some sort of forest cake with cherries and whipped cream all the time.I think it was her favorite.”

Henry and his mother exchanged a look.

“Would you happen to—”

“Oh, we must.”Mother waved lightly toward a giant cupboard against the back wall.Not a regular kitchen cabinet, but a freestanding hulk of dark wood and intricate carving.“We’ll investigate the recipe cards straightaway after breakfast, and if it’s not there, I’ll ask Lina for a copy.It’s her recipe; you must have made it with her often enough as a child.”

Humming softly, Henry raised both eyebrows at Jay.“And stolen more than a few alcohol-soaked cherries.”

“You?”Jay wore the disbelief scattering sparks in Alice’s head.

Mother chuffed and sipped her tea.“Henry was much loved and much indulged.He absorbed everything we could teach him and hungered for more.”A frown sped across her face, dark clouds dissipated by a swift wind.“I have never found austerity and asceticism to serve a child well.A foundation of empathy and compassion are sufficient to rein in the more dangerous impulses without breaking the spirit.And the smaller mischiefs may be a source of delight, when one’s own emotional house is in order.”

Good advice for adults, not just children.

Alice lifted her cup of breakfast tea.“To putting our emotional houses in order and enjoying merry mischief all our days.”

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