Page 146 of Season of Gifts

“We can’t goyet.”Robert trotted to the closet and dragged out winter boots and heavy coats.“We need proper attire.”

“Ohhh, snow gear.Good thinking!”Would their kids talk like that someday too?Growing up around Henry, they’d kinda have to pick it up.The nephews hadn’t even gone to the fancy boarding school yet, so they must’ve gotten it from their dad.“What else do you think we’ll need to clear the snow?”

“Shovels!”Gabriel shoved his arms through the jacket his brother handed him and fussed with the zipper, struggling to get the track lined up.

Jay flipped his hands in front of him like a magician promising no tricks up his sleeves.“I guess that’ll be faster than using our hands.I bet I can clear a lot of sidewalk squares, though.”

“I can too.”The stubborn zipper shot all the way up the track.The puffy down practically shrink-wrapped Gabriel.He pushed his way backward onto the bench and bent forward, snagging the edge of his boot and missing the opening, sliding his foot down the side.“A whole lot.”

“You think so, huh?”Jay made thinking face, pinching his chin and tapping his lips with one finger.The older kid had done his boots first and stood zipping his coat.“I bet I could dotwosquares.”

Robert squinched gray eyes at him.“Two isn’t a lot.The term ‘lot’ is imprecise, but not that vague.Even three would only be a few.”

Glancing up at Jay, Gabriel missed the boot again.“Two because you’re old?How old are you?”

“Don’t ask that.It’s rude.”Robert adjusted his knit cap over his ears.

“Nah, I’m thirty.Ancient as the dinosaurs.”Bending over, Jay looked Gabriel straight in the eyes and widened his, lifting his eyebrows.He dropped his voice to a whisper.“I rode a woolly mammoth to school in the winter.”

Gabriel’s giggles bounced around him, pinging off the tiled floor.“You’re silly, Uncle Jay.”

He swallowed back the sting of tears.Henry’s family might be smaller, and they might start off a little more formal—okay, a lot more formal—but they accepted the real Jay faster than his own did.“Thank you!I’ve had lots of years of practice.Five times as many as you.”

“I don’t know my times tables yet, but Robert does.”Gabriel twisted toward Jay, puffy coat rustling, boot dangling from his hand.“Can you put my boots on?My feet won’t go in.”

His heart pulled a reformed Grinch and grew three sizes in his chest.Crouching in front, he scooped up the offending boot.“I dunno, Gabe, if it won’t fit your foot, I don’t think it’ll fit mine either.”

That earned him a snort-laugh.“Nobody calls me that.”

“’Cause you don’t like it?”He could do without hearing Peggy call himJay Michaelever again.If Gabe was strictly a Gabriel, he’d stick with that.He loosened all three straps and slipped the first boot onto Gabriel’s dangling foot.“One down, one to go.”

“Gabe.Gabe.Gabe.”Head bobbing, Gabriel chanted at the ceiling.“No, I like it.But everybody uses my big name.”

“Well, I have a sister who uses my full name, and I don’t like it.”The second boot went on just as easy, and he tightened down the straps.“It’s okay to be called by whatever name you want.It’s your name; you get to choose it.”

“No we don’t.”Robert stuffed his hands in his pockets.“I’m Robert because that’s Father’s name, and that was his father’s name, and his and his.”

That was the thing about rules.Sometimes a guy followed them because he didn’t know other options existed.And then it turned out the rules weren’t good ones anyway, or they hadn’t been meant to be rules at all.Danny saidbecause we’ve always done it that waywasn’t a deep enough answer.Jay pushed up from his squat.“Is there a name you’d rather be called?”

“I like Gabe.”The younger boy scooted off the bench; his boots thunked against the tile.“You can call me that, Uncle Jay.”

“Then I will, Gabe.”He pitched his voice softer, trying to catch Robert’s eyes.“How about you?”

Twisted lips and a shrug greeted him.Hell, that was the first proof the boys actually could shrug.“Something that’s just mine would be nice.”

Easy enough.“What’s your middle name?”

“Edmund.”The boy glanced toward the music room, his voice low.“Same as Father’s.”

Shit, right, the kid didn’t own any piece of his name to himself.He was the fifth or whatever.How could they expect a kid to find his own identity when they didn’t give him any space to be someone else?Something fun.Robert the Fifth was more serious at nine than Henry at thirty-nine.Jay whipped up his best detective-solving-the-mystery index finger.“Ahh, but does your dad ever go by Eddie?I bet he doesn’t.”

Robert cracked a smile.“He’d say it’s undignified.”

“But what would you say?”

Robert bit his lip; his gaze went distant.After a few moments, as Gabe walked heel-toe around them both, Robert blinked his way back.“That it’s mine.”

Jay put out his hand for a grown-up handshake.“Then that’s who you are to me, Eddie.”

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