Page 20 of Mistletoe Mine

“Why not?”

The exasperated look on his face told her he would say no more about it. “I need to run. I’m picking up your grandmother and aunt at the airport in Gunnison at four. Have fun on your sleigh ride this afternoon.”

After he left, she inspected the bag and recognized the wrapping paper on the box on top. It was the reindeer paper she’d bought last year to wrap his gifts for Nana and Aunt Shelby. She picked up the second box and studied it. The gold foil struck a memory, too. She’d brought that paper home for the holidays from college two years ago. The third box . . . she remembered that one sitting beneath the Christmas tree the first year that her mother didn’t come home.

Molly sat cross-legged on her bed and stared at the packages. He’d kept buying Mom gifts. He’d kept buying her gifts, and he’d brought them to give to her this Christmas.

That had to mean something, didn’t it?

She thought about it during the sleigh ride, and it was still on her mind when she met her mom for a mother-daughter dinner. She wanted to tell Mom about the gifts, but she thought it best to work the conversation around to that topic carefully.

First, she brought up plans for Christmas Eve. The Stapleton family tradition was to open gifts after the midnight church service. “Are you sure you don’t mind attending church with the Malones on Christmas Eve, Mom?”

“Not at all, honey. They’re a lovely family, and I think it will be good to have extra people around.”

“Mason says they don’t exchange gifts until Christmas morning.”

Emma set down her fork, then sipped her water. “I’ve wanted to talk to you about that, honey. I don’t think an after-church Christmas exchange is right for us this year.”

It was as good an opening as Molly figured she would get. “You don’t have a gift for Dad?”

“I have a gift.” Emma’s lips twisted ruefully. “I have more than one gift, in fact.”

“Really?” As far as Molly knew, her parents never did multiple gifts. They believed a one-person/one-gift rule kept the season from getting out of hand.

“I have last year’s gift, too. I brought his gift for the years we haven’t been together.”

Now it was Molly’s turn to set down her fork. “You’ve continued to buy him gifts? Even though you weren’t speaking to him?”

“I always thought maybe . . .” Emma’s voice trailed off. “Well, that doesn’t matter anymore. I’m happy to go to church with you and your father on Christmas Eve, Molly, but I cannot do a traditional family gift exchange. Frankly, I’m a little too emotional right now for that. All right?”

“Sure, Mom.”

Later that night, as she met Mason and Lori at the hot springs for a nighttime dip, she told them about her parents and their Christmas gifts. “They both continued to buy Christmas gifts for each other even though they weren’t speaking. Don’t you think that’s significant?”

“You know your parents better than we do,” Mason said.

Lori sank into the bubbling hot water up to her neck, then looked above to the star-filled sky. “I think it’s significant. I think it shows they still care for each other.”

“I agree,” Molly replied. “I just don’t know what to do about it. They still don’t talk. Not about important stuff, anyway. They talk about the weather. They are polite to each other. It breaks my heart.”

The trio sat quietly as they thought about the issue. Then, after a few minutes, Lori said, “Why don’t you ask my mom and her friends for advice? This sort of thing is right up their alley. They do relationship ‘interventions’ at the drop of a hat.”

Molly glanced at Mason, silently asking his opinion. He took her hand and said, “I don’t see what it would hurt.”

“Okay,” Molly said. “But I’m running out of time. When do you think I could talk to them?”

“Come for breakfast tomorrow. Eight o’clock. That’s usually the best time to get everyone together. I’ll talk to Mom tonight, and if there is any problem, I’ll text you.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Molly said.

That’s how she and her maid of honor ended up in Lori’s mother’s kitchen on the twenty-third of December with Sarah Reese and her best friends— Ali Timberlake, Sage Rafferty, and Nic Callahan. As Sarah set a coffee cake fresh from the oven in the center of the table, a knock sounded on the door. Sarah waved Celeste Blessing inside.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Celeste said as she unwrapped a gold knit scarf from around her neck and shrugged out of her coat. As she hung them on a hook in the mudroom, she added, “Mason’s mother stopped me to inquire about some last-minute arrangements for the rehearsal dinner. So, what did I miss?”

“Nothing,” Sarah replied, handing Celeste a steaming mug of coffee. “We haven’t started yet.”

“I just arrived myself,” Sage added.

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