Page 164 of Season of Gifts

Except Alice insisted on helping with the bags so they could all go in together.Then she rushed past him and flipped on lights—in the hall, in the living room—and let out a big ol’ gasp.

“What?Did it drop?”He dashed through the opening into the living room.Dead branches wouldn’t be making a comeback this far from cutting.He should’ve added a second watering system— “Whoa.”

“Yeah.Nat didn’t say…” Alice, shaking her head, brushed her hand against a new banner draped across their Christmas tree.“That’s way more than the favor I asked.I hope you like it?”Lips tucked together, she eyed him with a hopeful lift in her brows.“You both?I, uh…”

Henry stepped up against Jay, hip to hip, his arm snug around Jay’s back as Alice dug in the bag of gifts she’d carried inside.She pulled free an old-timey popcorn tin with a winter sleighing scene.“These are for you.”She held the canister out toward Henry.“And these”—she thrust a hand toward the pile of half a dozen boxes that had joined her shoebox from South Dakota under the tree—“I guess are all Nat’s doing?”

“There appears to be a card.”Accepting the tin, Henry tipped his hand toward a creamy-white envelope cradled in the branches.“Jay, perhaps you would care to read it to us?”

“Uh-huh, yup.In a second.”Once his heart stopped pounding and his eyes stopped blurring and he was sure he wasn’t gonna wobble off his feet.“It’s a pretty nice banner, right?”

It was a glorious mess.Started as a bedsheet, probably, before it became a canvas for red-and-green paints.Giant brushstrokes spelled out the message:

Merry Christmas to Uncle Jay, Uncle Henry, and Aunt Alice!

Love,

Fourteen sets of handprints and fingerpainted names filled up all the empty space, from Becky and Aaron’s grownup palms to Gracie’s chubby baby-fat fingers.

“It’s the best banner,” Alice murmured, cozying up to his other side.“We’ll have to hang it every year.”

“I hope nobody got in trouble—” His brain snapped pieces together.“Wait, Nat washerefor Christmas?At our house?”

“I left her a key with Emma before we went to Maine.But honest to God, I only asked for a little favor.I just wanted…” Alice tapped the popcorn tin in Henry’s arms.“Well, open it and see.”

Henry popped the lid with a brassy twang.Acres of tissue paper peeked over the rim.He dipped his fingers inside and browsed the same way he finger-tiptoed through records when he put on music.“Are these—” He folded back paper and lifted something small and colorful.An egg?Painted with a yellow dotted star at the center and repeating patterns spreading all around.“Mother and I made several of these one winter.How did you…?”

“I kinda enlisted your mom’s help to pick out yours.You haven’t seen mine yet, but—” Alice dropped to her knees in front of the tree and dragged out the black-and-white shoebox.“I brought them back from home after Mom and I went through ornaments.I don’t know why, after ten years apart, that was the most important thing.It just, it just was.”She clutched the shoebox to her stomach, both arms wrapped tight around the raggedy cardboard.“And I thought you two should have things you love for our tree, too.Not that the fancy bows and balls look is bad.It’s a beautiful tree.It’s just different.”

“You made the house a home.But with trees.”Jay pressed his hand to the banner.Soft cotton bedsheet, one hundred percent.Every one of his nieces and nephews had signed it.How Nat had managed that—well, he’d ask her later.The card might say.The front, in Nat’s slashing print, readThe Webbs.

Master Will had introduced them that way after the wedding ceremony.A real good day, that one.Jay plucked the envelope loose, trying not to bobble it.The back was tucked inside the flap, not sealed.He pinched the card and tugged it free.Two elf mechanics worked under the hood of Santa’s sleigh.TheHappy Belated Christmas!printed text had been scribbled out.Beneath it, in Nat’s scrawl, blue ink blared:So you need a Christmas tune-up…

His laugh sparked grabby hands from Alice, so he flipped the card around to show her and Henry.“Nat’s gotta put her individual style on everything.”

Henry settled on the floor beside Alice.“I daresay we were indeed in need of a recalibration.”

“And we’re running better for it.”Alice draped her head over Henry’s thigh and beckoned Jay down to the rug with them.

He tipped his head back, his ear touching hers while their bodies stuck out like a T with Henry as the center.Raising the card over his face in one hand, he cleared his throat.“Here we go.”

Merry Christmas to my marvelous little brother and his amazing spouses!I didn’t know what this trip was gonna be before I started, but now it’s—well, I owe you.Thanks for the inspiration and the opportunity and the place to stay.We might’ve gone overboard, but I’m not sorry about that.If anybody deserves extra, it’s you, Jay.I needed Becky’s help to pick out ornaments like Alice asked, and you know how snoopy her brothers are.So you’ve got what I think are your favorites, plus fourteen new ones the kids made for you, plus the banner because they miss you.And there’s a gift from me and one from Kevin.I hope you know how loved you are, Jay.Henry and Alice, too—they have a bunch of pint-sized admirers up at the farm.All right.The dryer’s done, and Devon says I gotta stop stalling and wrap this up.See you sometime soon, I hope.

All my love,

Nat

Alice squinted at the card, grasping his wrist.“Who’s Devon?”

“No idea.”Fuzzy warmth curled up in his chest like a purring barn cat.Alice loved him enough to ask Nat for a favor.Nat loved him enough to road trip from wherever she’d been lately and lead the kids in a revolution before coming down to Boston to leave all this stuff for him.“Guess I’ll ask her when I give her my thank-yous.”

“Sooo…” Alice gently clonked their heads together in a slow beat.“Wanna open some presents and redecorate a tree?”

For sure he did.But first they agreed on a timeout for bathroom breaks and for Henry to check on whether the kitchen had anything that could become dinner.Jay rolled to his feet and offered Alice two hands.Pouty-faced, she took them, and he threw in more oomph than he really needed.She landed against his chest and laughed, planting kisses under his jaw.

“Ideally, I may take something out to thaw, and dinner will not be delayed.”Henry crouched on the way to standing, his dark pants hugging his ass, one broad hand planted on the rug.“We shall see.”

Henry strode off toward the kitchen, and Jay squeezed Alice extra-double-plus hard.The jumble of boxes beneath the tree all had his name, some in Becky’s neat hand and the rest in Nat’s chicken scratch.“Thank you, Alice.I mean it—you brought home to me.I was thinking I’d kinda sailed that ship, and you and Henry would be my only real family from now on.”He’d tried to figure on that being enough—no more decorating trees he’d tended for seasons, lifting the littlest kids onto his shoulders so they could hang ornaments from the top branches.“But it’s more like shaping a tree, right?Nurturing the branches I want to grow and pruning away the dead wood.Thanks for showing me”—shit, the words needed to get out before his heart clogged his throat—“showing me that I have a bunch more good branches than I thought.”

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