Page 109 of The Snuggle is Real
Charlie pulled a little stuffed dog out of the box from Mason. It had Pepper’s coloring, and she hugged it to her chest. “Oooh, he can be friends with my grinchy dog!”
“Good idea,” Mason said with a pleased smile.
Next, Charlie found the note he’d included, which she read aloud: “A donation has been made to the Santa’s Helpers Animal Shelter in Charlie Snow’s name. Wow! So cool!”
It was just like Mason to do some extra good with his gifts.
She hopped up and came over to hug him. “Thank you, Mason! I’m so glad we’re helping the other cats and dogs at the shelter too. Maybe they’ll get a Christmas treat with that money?”
“Maybe they will,” he said with a chuckle.
“There’s a bag there with some gifts from me and your mom too, honey,” Dottie said.
Charlie carefully hung her paw ornament on the tree, then dug through the bag from Dottie, pulling out knitted scarves, mittens, and even a lap blanket—all clearly made by Dottie, but one with a tag from LuAnne.
LuAnne shifted uncomfortably. “I didn’t have much I could give her, coming straight from…”
“She looks happy to me,” Mason said.
“Yeah,” LuAnne said, sounding bemused. “She really does. You two sure spoil her.”
“Nah,” Mason said. “She’s such a good kid. She deserves it.”
LuAnne bit her bottom lip, looking conflicted. I could almost read her thoughts. If this was what Charlie deserved, then had LuAnne been failing all these years?
Mason didn’t mean it that way. He would never even think something so hurtful. But I thought maybe LuAnne needed to hear it, anyway.
Because Charlie wasn’t happy about the amount or price of the gifts given. Heck, she’d loved that paw ornament as much as she’d loved the dollhouse that had taken me all season to save for—and maybe that was a lesson to me and LuAnne both.
Charlie’s happiness didn’t come down to money at all, but care and attention. She loved our gifts because we cared enough to give them—and wasn’t that the point of Christmas, after all?
It was late that night before I had the chance to give Mason his gift. This morning had been all about Charlie—and this afternoon we’d spent hours stuffing ourselves with delicious food and playing board games, then stuffing ourselves again.
Dottie and Vera had taken LuAnne under their wings, making her feel welcome as they sat at the table sipping coffee and nibbling on pie, moaning about all the holiday pounds they were putting on while shoving more calories into their mouths.
All day, I’d watched LuAnne’s face, searching for a sign of whether she’d ever agree to let Charlie stay, but I just couldn’t tell. She’d smiled a lot more than I remembered, though, like maybe she enjoyed the day as much as we did.
But now, I just wanted some alone time with the man who’d stolen my heart for Christmas.
I dug in my closet and came out with the present I’d stashed there a couple of days ago.
“It’s not much,” I said, handing over my gift. “I, uh, was saving for that dollhouse, so…”
He tore into it with a grin, then exclaimed with excitement. “Ford, this is too much.”
“Nah, it’s barely anything.”
Mason gazed down at the magnetic marker board he’d just opened. Across the top, I’d written Honey-Do List in red erase marker.
Below that I’d added:
Refinish bedroom floors
Strip wallpaper in second guestroom
Clean out gutters
There were a few lines where he could add extra items, too.
