Page 45 of Season of Gifts

“Heart trouble,” Alice called from the back seat.“But she’s recovering.”Her voice rolled past his ear; she’d sat right behind him, and he couldn’t see her without turning his head like an owl.“Henry’s handling her care setup, and Jay and I will be going up this week to help out and bring the holiday cheer.”

Her confidence almost sent him digging for his phone, because none of that was in the messages Henry had sent or what he’d said yesterday when they’d crammed in as many hugs as possible before he got in his car.A soft touch brushed the outside of Jay’s thigh on the door side.Took a second before his brain caught up and he squeezed Alice’s fingers.She squeezed his, too, and rubbed his knuckles before taking her hand back.

But Kevin, after hisgood, goodreply, dropped the whole subject and told them about the party coming up for the boys’ hockey teams.Alice must’ve said what he’d wanted to hear.Ten minutes later, they were pulling into Kev’s driveway, his butter-yellow suburbs house surrounded by patches of trees.The engine cut off in front of the garage.“Lot shorter drive to the bus station.Preciate that.”

“Thank Alice for that one.”Jay had almost always taken the train to the end of the line, and Kev had driven three times the distance to get him.When he’d told Alice yesterday morning, she’d made her frowny face and mumbled something about friction points and found a better solution in under ten minutes.Like Henry, she made his life run smoother.But he’d been smart enough to marry them both, and that was a win in the Jay column.

“You picked a great wife, no doubt.”Kevin cracked his door as their seat belts zipped back into the holders.“C’mon in.Char’s got Sunday supper going in the kitchen, and the boys are hungry for new adults to inflict their video game addiction on.Hope you like hearing minute details about virtual battles with villains you’ve never heard of.”

Alice laughed, taking Jay’s hand the second their feet hit the asphalt.“Oh, I’d bet half the guys I work with play the same games.Don’t worry about us; we can keep up.Right, sweetheart?”

“Right on, honey-o.”He cocked a finger gun in his other hand and blew imaginary smoke from the end.“My mad skills are the bomb.”

Kev snorted.“They’re gonna eat you alive.”

But the kids would have fun doing it, and that was what mattered.Not being the smartest in the room or the one who won all the games.When he entertained the kids at family gatherings—his favorite choice and also Peggy’s way of taking advantage of him, because Danny said the sneakiest patterns could be two things at once—his checklist for a great activity or adventure or whatever was: Did all the kids get to excel at something at least once?Did they all get to talk themselves hoarse about the coolest or raddest or most epic thing that nobody else listened about?Did they all have real smiles at the end?Then who cared whether they laughed at his old slang and groaned at his music.

He swept into the house like a storm, turning Dylan’s tackle-hug into an upside-down hang over his back, with his hands tight around his nephew’s ankles.“Where’d he go?”He spun carefully, avoiding the fancy knickknacks Kevin’s wife had decorating the entryway.“Alice, do you see him?”

“Uncle Jay, Uncle Jay!”Giggling, Dylan smacked his calves.His coat crunched under the flailing at his back.“I’m here, Uncle Jay.”

Alice shook her head, her eyes comically wide.“I thought I did, but now it’s just his shoes.Did he teleport?What magical powers does he have, do you know?”

“I thought I heard him—hang on, let’s follow that voice.”He tromped back to the kitchen and bobbed his head at his sister-in-law.Futuristic whirrs and zaps rumbled from the family room; Evan sat in a gaming chair on the floor in front of the TV.“Charlotte, I’m so sorry, I think we’ve lost Dylan.I’m gonna sit on the couch and try to figure out where he could be.”

He crouched in front of the seat while Dylan scrabbled upward.“No, don’t sit!I’m here, Uncle Jay.Don’t squish me.”

“Whoops!”In a deep squat, he released Dylan’s ankles and smacked his own ass down on the carpet.“Missed the seat.”He tipped his head back.“Dylan!Hey, there you are.How’d you get there?”

As Dylan insisted Jay had carried him there, Alice chatted with Charlotte in the kitchen.She joined him a few minutes later, with drinks that he nabbed a pair of coasters for.

“Pot roast and baked beans.”She set the glasses down in front of them and sat beside him, on the actual couch cushion this time, her thigh pressed along his.“Nothing we can assist with, I’m told.”

He lifted a glass and stared at the sweet tea with ice, fighting to keep his face completely serious.“You’re sure there’s baked beans in here?”

“You.”Mouth twisting, she shook her head and raised his hand, stealing a sip of his tea.She’d dumped her coat and hat somewhere, and her hair tumbled across her shoulders.“I love every minute with you, you know that?”

If he hadn’t before, he did now.Sure felt good relearning it every time.Repetition fixed things in a person’s brain until they knew them without having to ask.Danny said repetition would help him learn that he deserved love but that it was always, always okay to ask when he needed to hear it again.“I know.But you can tell me anytime you want.”

“I’ll make a habit of it,” she whispered, before the boys clamored for attention.

The time rushed past like wind on a downhill coast.Video gaming, admiring the boys’ play-by-play recap of their highlights on the ice, complimenting his sister-in-law’s supper, which was tasty even if Henry would’ve done it better.Char moved them into the frou-frou living room for company after they ate, sending the boys back to the family room with orders to keep the noise down.She set out a tray of store-bought cookies—not a single one missing, so the boys must not’ve seen them yet—and offered tea and coffee.

Sitting around with the grownups wasn’t a skill he had a ton of practice at.But Alice, man, she asked all the right questions and made the sympathetic chipmunk noises girls did like she cared about his sister-in-law’s gossip about the other hockey moms.Plus, she crowded up beside him on the little couch, the kind Henry would call a settee, with its skinny cushions and wood frame, and she draped her hand over his knee like she owned him.Which she did.He tucked his arm around her back, and she wriggled her hip right into his hand.It was the best afternoon he’d spent with his relatives in—ever.

“And of course congratulations; the rings are gorgeous.So unusual.”Charlotte waved toward them, and Alice flexed her hand over his kneecap.“Kevin told me you got married—Alice had us all fooled, saying you hadn’t been thinking about that sort of thing yet.Well, I think it’s wonderful.”Char glided over the tops of the cookies, not touching, her fingers vibrating like a dowsing rod before she chose a peppermint pinwheel.“So expensive, weddings.I’m glad we won’t have to think about that for the boys for a long while yet.I’m still basking in the joy of not depending on hockey scholarships for their college education now.”

“Yes, aren’t we.”Kevin gave his wife a one-armed hug, tipping her toward him with a tug at her upper arm.He cleared his throat, the same sound he’d used to quiet the boys at the dinner table.“Jay’s been incredibly generous.It’s great that your business is doing so well, Jay.We’re all proud of how you’ve, uh, how you—”

“How you’ve settled down.”Charlotte beamed at him.“So much maturity in such a short—”

A blaring phone sent them all jumping, although only Alice recovered fast enough to paw through her purse at the same time.

“So sorry, let me just—huh.Um.”She raised her butt off the couch, levering up with her hand on his knee.“I—I have to take this.”The ring sounded again, and she froze with her eyes fixed on him and her phone clenched in her hand.“I’ll only be a minute.”

A chill flushed down his face and through his chest.“Henry?”

She shook her head, bringing the phone to her ear as she slipped out the pocket door into the hallway.“This is Alice.”She slid the door shut behind her.

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