Page 76 of Take Me Home for Christmas

I had one more piece of news. “You know that job in the residents’ clinic that they hired me for last year? Well, they want me to take it in July, when my chief year ends. I like teaching. What do you think?”

She looked up at me, her smile wide and bright. “I think Atticus would be proud. I know I am.”

A clatter in the hall had both of us glancing toward the door again. But I needed Mia to stay with me just another minute. So I held her hands tight and said, “So I thought we might start from the point where things went wrong.”

She gave a snorty laugh. “When you said, ‘Take me home for Christmas’?”

I gave a little chuckle. “I was thinking about when we started talking about the job thing.” The chatter of voices in the now-deserted clinic got louder, and footsteps were coming closer by the second. I was going to have to step this up.

“What’s going on out there?” She tried to look past me, but I blocked her view with my body.

“Mia Maria D’Angelo, I, Braxton Michael Hughes, love you, with all my heart and soul. And I feel bad that your visit home got sort of messed up at the end.”

She frowned, like she was a little worried about my mental health. “I’m over it.”

“Just go with this, okay?”

As soon as she said “Okay,” back, I kissed her quickly and gripped her shoulders. “You took me home for Christmas, so now I thought I’d bring Christmas to you.” And then I turned around and said in a loud voice, “Everybody can come in now.”

Her family—and friends, who were really family too—all piled in. Her mom and her dad, carrying Emma. Liam andDina. Sam and Gabe. And Caleb, carrying pizza. Lots of pizza. And salad. And jojos, which, if you don’t know, are homemade fried potato wedges some pizza parlors around here make from scratch. And Diet Coke, which we all needed after these long few days. But mostly, they brought their love.

Caleb set down a six-pack.

Sam rushed up to him, no holds barred. “What are you doing, you big ortho lug? You can’t bring beer in here.”

“I wasn’t sure. I mean, it’s after hours,” Caleb said, sounding a little startled and looking at Sam like he’d just gotten attacked by a rabid dog. A cute one, but still.

Sam rolled her eyes. “Maybe this is how you ortho guys roll, but this is a clinic. In achildren’s hospital.”

“Sorry,” he said apologetically.

“Okay, fine,” she said, relenting a little. “I guess you meant well.”

He grinned at her concession, and then turned to Mia, “We’re going to your place for dessert.”

“Oh no,” Mia said, clasping a hand to her forehead. “I can’t go. I’m on call tonight.”

“No, you’re not,” Sam said. “I’m taking your call. You can do mine tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?” Mia hugged her. “You’re the best friend ever.”

“No problem.” Sam said. “Just save me some dessert.”

“Uh-oh, family,” Mia said. “My place isn’t looking too great after these past few days.”

“We don’t care,” Beth said. “We’ve been so worried about you.” She gave me a squeeze. “Thanks for asking us to come, Brax.”

“Hey, buddy,” I said to Caleb, pounding him on the back. “Thanks for helping me set this up.”

“Wait—youhelpedhim?” Mia said to Caleb.

“Yeah,” Caleb said, hugging. “We’re square now.” Turned out that because of the snow globe, I’d managed to score a few bro points with him.

Beth picked up a child’s drawing on the desk. “Looks like you’ve got a couple of fans,” she said to Mia. She dusted off her hand after getting glitter on it.

Mia walked over to her mom and put her arm around her. “Mom, I met the cutest little twins,” she said. “I can’t wait to tell you all about them.”

“Thanks for bringing the pizza, Mom and Dad D’Angelo,” I said. Maybe I should have stuck to Mr. and Mrs. but…why not?

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