Page 132 of Season of Gifts

With contract revisions, his spouses’ eyes said, though they held their tongues in front of his mother.

“I’m quite fortunate to have the two of you to keep me honest.”

Alice kissed his cheek.“We will,” she whispered.Prodding his arm in what seemed likely part performance for his mother, she eased back half a step.“And I’m fortunate to have the two of you to keep me fed.What are you making for breakfast?”

He rattled off a menu as Jay scurried for the dishes.The morning routine got underway, Mother leading the conversation with stories of Robert and his family.Her astute social sense would derail any nerves Alice and Jay might have about meeting his brother for the first time at the holiday.

For now, Henry held no worries beyond whether he ought to have included a third dozen eggs in their shopping trip.Their trial by fire had proven the strength of their marriage bonds.Apparently he’d even learned something from Jay in the experience—how to find the silver lining.

Chapter seventy

Alice

PoetryrolledoffHenry’stongue in soothing baritone waves.Calm flowed through the music room and washed up against the shores of the hallway.On her way back from her relaxing shower, fresh and clean in her company-ready clothes, Alice stopped in the doorway.Her stocking feet soundless on the hardwood, she settled her hip against the jamb.

These were the moments they should’ve had all month.Henry, seated on the sofa, held a book in one hand and ruffled Jay’s hair with the other.Their lanky husband curled at his feet, leaning his weight against Henry’s legs and resting his head on Henry’s knee, every inch the faithful companion.

They had an hour yet, maybe two, before Henry’s brother and his family showed up.Mother was using the time to nap, eager to be at her best when they arrived.If Henry’s nephews had even half the energy of Jay’s, the house would be a chaotic whirlwind for the next few days.This moment to breathe was the calm before the storm.

They’d weathered too many storms alone this month.Some that were running under the radar, not yet showing themselves.But Nat had sent her picture proof of a successful mission, and Ollie had sent a text late last night, well after Alice had gone to bed:Talked to Mom.You didn’t make things worse.Promise.

Which was frustratingly cryptic.But Ollie was working the holiday.Catching her in a free moment today to make her elaborate was a nonstarter.

So Alice would just have to sit her ass down and chill with her husbands.Not a bad way to kick off Christmas Eve.

Henry’s voice faded; he’d reached the end of something lovely about carrying Jay’s heart with him.Bending forward, he kissed the top of Jay’s head, and as he rose, he tipped his chin and eyed her.“Will you join us, dearest?”

Jay, rolling his neck, stretched his arm out in love-drunk invitation.“Saved you a seat.”He patted the sofa cushion beside their husband.“Henry’s warming up his voice for tonight.”

“Something special tonight?”She sauntered toward them, her hips swaying of their own accord, her men a hypnotic vision she might sink into.

“Tradition,” Henry intoned, his mouth quirked and his bright eyes yet watching her.“Every Christmas Eve, we—”

Her pocket chimed, growing louder and more insistent as she yanked her phone free.“Shit, sorry, I don’t know who’d—”

Mom.

She swallowed hard and waved the phone in suddenly shaking fingers.“It’s my mom.I need to, I want to know—”

Henry joined Jay in reaching for her.“Come, sit, sweet girl.”

She couldn’t.Not yet.Her heart guarded the hurt too close, the fear tighter still, and their loving faces might break her.“I’ll find you after.”

Her thumb swiped Accept, and false cheer vibrated through her lips.“Hey, Mom, how are you?”Slipping out into the hall, she hunted for a private space to hear whatever she’d unleashed with her visit.“Got the little tree lit?”

“I do, for now.”Mom’s voice wavered.

“For now?”For fuck’s sake, it was a three-foot tree on the damn dining table no one ate at, in a room Dad barely entered.If he made her take it down on fucking Christmas Eve—

“I hauled the full-size one up from the basement this morning.Forgot how heavy that sucker is.”Not fear.Excitement.That was the cause of the trembling, Mom tumbling into word after word like a string of somersaults.“The ornaments, too.Dropped the whole mess right alongside the TV and yanked the plug out of the wall so he’d listen to something other than that chatterbox for once.”

“You did?”Alice groped for the wall and slid down on her butt in the room with all the plants, vibrant and green despite the snowy yard beyond the tall windows.Maybe she was hallucinating the entire conversation.“What, uh, what happened?”

“Oh, a shouting match the neighbors likely heard, and a fair bit of sulking, and more than a fair bit of tears.”Mom’s laugh held the fragile edge of those tears.She took a cleansing breath Alice felt in her own chest, the kind she’d taken sitting on a freezing roadside when she’d decided she and Jay were going to Maine, full stop.Mom’s sigh curled into a warm hum.“But the tree is up.Your dad is untangling the lights for me.I told him I needed some fresh air.”

“Out on the patio?”The yard sprawled out from that square of concrete, home base for practically every game of tag she and Ollie had ever played.

“Sure am.I’ll have to see if I can dig out the grill in time for supper.”

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