Page 30 of Home for the Holidays

“You’re good with her. Not that a six-year-old is hard, but just that…” She paused and licked her lips. She was digging a hole. “You’re just good with her.”

Iris’s eyes crinkled at the corners when she smiled. “I have a lot of cousins. Come from a pretty big family.”

“You do, hmm?”

“I’m sort of still a mystery, aren’t I?”

Heidi folded her arms across her chest to stop herself from fidgeting. All she wanted to do was grab this woman and kiss her. But she couldn’t. She would never be able to again, and that was going to drive her insane. She could tell by the way her heart was in a constant state of panic, clenched and beating like crazy. “We’ll have a lot to talk about, you being a mystery and all.”

“That is true.”

She took a few steps backward so they weren’t standing over Nora’s bed any longer. “I’m so sorry. I can’t… I never would have done…” She waved her hand in the air. “Donethatif I knew you were withmy son.” Iris’s face twisted when she said that, and it gave her pause. “And I would haveneverinvited Evan had I known that Zac was bringing a girlfriend.”

Iris’s eyes were locked onto hers. The intensity of her stare was making Heidi’s palms sweat. “I know what this looks like, and I’m sorry. But I’m not sorry about anything that happened between us,” Iris said softly.

She knew what this looked like? And she wasn’t sorry? About cheating on Zac? What the hell? She couldn’t help her short tone when she said, “You should probably be a little sorry, right?”

Iris tilted her head and licked her lips. “I guess, based on what you know, you’re right.”

“And you should probably be more upset that he didn’t tell us about you.” Heidi lifted her chin. “You’re too great for him to have hidden you for so long.”

“That’s nice of you to say.” Iris started to take a step closer but stopped and looked away. She slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, looking like something had just plucked her heart from her chest.

“Hey.” Concerned, Heidi placed her hand on Iris’s bicep and squeezed gently. “Are you okay?”

Iris’s chest rose when she breathed in. She held the breath for what seemed like forever before she answered with a gentle, “No, not really.”

Her honesty was refreshing. “Can I say something?” Heidi asked, her eyes still searching for answers to questions she was too afraid to voice.

“Yes, please.”

“I feel like I’ve been left out of the loop when it comes to you and Zac. And that’s okay. But”—she shrugged—“if you ever need to talk, I’m a very good listener.”

Iris’s expression, the way her eyebrows lifted slightly, the eagerness dying in her eyes, the way everything about her changed from optimistic to defeated was bewildering. “Oh.”

“What?”

“I thought you were going to say something else.”

“Yeah?” Heidi tried to stop the anticipation from showing in her voice. “Like what?”

“Like you want to kiss me again,” Iris whispered. She must have felt instantly bad about it because she grimaced and shook her head.

Heidi wanted to respond. She wanted to say that yes,emphatically yes, she wanted to kiss her again. And never stop. But all she could do was smile a smile she hoped conveyed how sad she was that all she could offer now was understanding. Her hand was still on Iris’s bicep, so she squeezed her one more time before she dipped her chin and left Iris standing there in the dim light of a winter afternoon.

* * *

Two o’clock wasright around the corner, and Heidi was trapped between excitement and apprehension. On the one hand, she would finally get to see her son around the guy who had been his very best friend in high school—the same guy who had essentially ghosted him, leaving Zac to spiral into an unending depression. But on the other hand was the possibility that the relationship she thought she was reconnecting had been nothing more than a blip on the radar, a blip fueled by hormonal teenage angst.

“I’m sure he’ll get over it,” Karen, Oscar’s wife, and the only person Heidi could lean on during the holidays, said as she poured water from the kettle over a sachet of green tea. “He’s always been the most dramatic of the three of them.”

Heidi rolled her eyes. “My god, you’re right. How’d he get like that?”

Karen’s wide-eyed stare was enough of an answer.

“Got it. Me. You’re saying he got it from me.”

“I didn’t say a word.” Karen winked at her, though, and Heidi couldn’t help but laugh.

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