Page 26 of Fated Midlife Christmas
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he replied, knowing that he truly was. “I want you to have it. With giving gifts on Christmas Eve and doing our Advent calendars, I was never able to hold onto a present for very long. You’ll have that much more time to enjoy it.”
“I’ll have plenty of excuses to wear it with this cold front that’s come in.”
He put his arms around her waist and pulled her close, wanting more than anything to warm her up himself. Lars kissed her gently, his body and soul easily remembering those amazing moments with her in her bed, but he was teasing himself. “Good. That way, you won’t forget about me after I’ve gone back home.”
“But I won’t?—”
“Goodnight, Amanda.” He stepped back, smiling at her but feeling the sorrow behind his eyes as he moved toward the porch stairs.
Her brows furrowed a bit, and the corners of her mouth went down. “Goodnight, Lars.”
10
Amanda rushedin the front door of the covenstead, surprised to find only Colette in the living room. The place was usually pretty busy around dinnertime. “Where is everyone?” she asked.
Colette was seated on the floor next to the coffee table. She had several books and notebooks spread out on the glass and wood surface, with plenty of pens, pencils, and highlighters in between. Though she was dressed in pajama bottoms and a hoodie, she still had her signature glam makeup on, and her earring stack sparkled. “Various places. Dinner plans, company parties, holiday shopping. Great hat, by the way.”
She touched her head. The warm woolen hat felt so good that Amanda hardly wanted to take it off, even when she was inside. “Thanks. What are you up to?” She nodded toward the assortment on the coffee table and tried to ignore the eager anticipation inside her.
“Just studying. I’ve got to make sure I keep my grades up so I don’t lose my scholarship.” Colette pulled yet another book out of the backpack that sat next to her on the floor. “The marching band is supposed to go on a competition trip, so I need to get ahead of things before I get behind.”
“If only we could do that with everything in life,” Amanda murmured. “Hey, is Maeve in?”
“Yeah, I think she’s in her altar room.”
“Darn. I won’t bother her, then.” There were only so many people she could ask about her current problem, and Maeve was one of them.
“Oh, you’re good,” Colette assured her. She grabbed her mug to take a drink, came up empty, and frowned into the cup. She got up and headed toward the kitchen. “Maeve said she was just looking up a few things, so I don’t think you’d be bothering her.”
“Great. Thanks!” Amanda took the stairs two at a time to the second floor. She noticed the door to Maeve’s bedroom was shut, but the one to her altar room next door was open a crack. She knocked on the door frame. “Hey. Do you have a minute?”
The door swung open, revealing her aunt in a duster-length cardigan and loose pants. “Hi, honey. Nice hat. What’s bothering you?”
She hadn’t even said that anything was bothering her. That was one of the reasons Amanda had always liked coming to Maeve when she had problems. All the women in their family were close, and she could go to her own mother with most things. Sometimes, though, she wanted an opinion that wasn’t colored by the fact that Lucille had given birth to her.
“Well, the hat itself, in a way,” Amanda replied.
“Come in, come in.” Maeve opened the door wider and then closed it almost silently behind her. “I was just doing a little research.”
The small space that Maeve used as her altar room was very efficiently packed. A desk on one side near the window resembled Colette’s assortment of books and papers on the coffee table downstairs. Several candles had been lit, sending the warm scent of beeswax floating into the air. The shelves werepacked with books and crystals, and a small couch occupied the wall opposite the desk.
Across from the door sat the large cedar chest that served as Maeve’s altar. Right now, it bore photos of Kendrick and the other dragons among a very carefully curated assortment of herbs and candles.
“They’re not feeling any better?” Amanda asked.
Maeve’s long beaded necklaces clacked gently. “I’m afraid not. It’s rather like exhaustion, except that rest and electrolytes aren’t making it any better. They don’t have any symptoms of illness, like a cough or fever, not that we really think it has anything to do with a virus, anyway. Corbin is doing a little better than the others, being young. I’m sorry. You didn’t come in here to hear me rattle on like this.”
But Amanda realized that she should have. She’d been so caught up in her own problem with Lars that she hadn’t checked in. “No, that’s all right. How’s Kendrick?”
Maeve pressed her lips together into a hard line. Deep wrinkles formed in her forehead, ones that made her look much closer to her real age than she usually did. “He’s lying down in the bedroom. That’s not like him. He’s always up and looking for things to do, fixing things that hardly even have anything wrong with them just to stay occupied. I tease him about being an old dragon in his lair, but the truth is that I’m worried.”
“Is there anything we can do?” Amanda floundered for some sort of solution.
“I’m trying to figure that out,” her aunt told her, gesturing to the messy desk. “I’m doing some research. That’s your mother’s wheelhouse, and of course, she’s doing the same at the library. I’m hopeful that she’ll find something soon.”
Amanda pursed her lips, thinking about how much Corinna had gotten under her skin. She was haughty and dismissive, treating Maeve and Lucille as if they were no one, even thoughthey had far more experience. She also seemed interested in Lars.
