Page 62 of Milkshakes and Mistletoe

“It is. And unless you spell your name in some unusual way –”

“Nope!” Ava laughed. “It’s A-V-A. And backwards it’s still A-V-A.”

Jacob laughed with her. “I told you, your name is special just like Hannah’s. Do you know what words like that are called?”

“Words that are spelled the same backwards?”

He nodded.

“No. They have a name?”

“They do. They’re called palindromes.”

Hannah rolled her eyes at him. He was doing great, but she wasn’t sure that he needed to give the kid a grammar lesson.

“Palindromes.” Ava repeated the word to test it out, and Jacob made a face at Hannah before turning back to Ava.

“That’s right. There aren’t many of them.”

“Wow!” Ava smiled. He cocked an eyebrow at her, and she laughed. “That’s one, isn’t it?”

“It is! Well done.”

“What are some more?”

He rubbed his chin as if he had to think hard about it, but Hannah knew that he could probably reel off a bunch of them in half a dozen languages. She wanted to hug him when he spoke again.

“Level.”

She could see Ava spelling it out in her head. “That’s right!” Ava clapped her hands together.

“Madam.” Jacob was apparently thinking so hard to come up with words that Ava would be familiar enough with to be able to spell.

Ava looked at Jacob and then back at her before she whispered, “Mom.”

Hannah’s heart ached for her. She wanted to hug Ava tight and take all her hurts away. She hadn’t talked about her mom much, but there was a wistfulness in her eyes whenever she said that word.

Jacob caught Hannah’s gaze with a sad smile. Jeez, he could feel it too! “That’s right, mom and …?”

“Dad,” Ava added.

Jacob nodded. “We’ll have to see if we can think of any more later. But forgive me for being so rude. I was so excited to meet you that I didn’t invite you in. Do you think you could help me up? Then we can go into the kitchen and see what we can find.” He winked at Ava. “I think there may be some cookies.”

Hannah had the feeling that he’d already conquered Ava’s fear of him. He let her help him up, and she kept hold of his hand as he led them inside. She was tempted to try and get a photo of them together. She knew Xander wouldn’t believe her about this if she told him.

~ ~ ~

Grady brought the car to a stop when he reached the gatehouse. Slade came out and greeted him with a smile. It felt kind of weird to know that he must be aware what was going on with him and Hannah. He knew that he came in the gate at night, and no doubt saw him leave again in the morning. And he’d probably seen Ava coming and going with Hannah, too.

“I’m back again,” he said with a smile.

“It’s good to see you. Ava was out with Hannah walking Scooter a little while ago.”

Grady nodded.

“She’s a good kid.”

“She is. Hannah’s helping me out because I needed someone to watch her.”

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