Page 69 of Two Hearts' Christmas Homecoming

As he looked into her eyes, they both smiled widely.

* * *

It was a beautiful day for decorating. They’d spent most of the morning in the garage digging out the lights that were still functioning before the truck had arrived from the home improvement store to deliver the new decorations Lex had ordered. Supposedly, one of the calls he’d made this morning had been to the store. He’d added several boxes of lights to his order because Matt had mentioned that they were running low.

Both Mom and Dad had headed to the winery since it was getting busy for lunch, so Lex, Caleb and Matt set up the new displays near the lakefront before Matt took off to supervise the winery café.

It was left up to Ashton, Caleb and Lex to climb onto the solarium rooftop to anchor Santa and his reindeer combo.

Everyone took a break for lunch, and then went back to work, hanging lights on the eaves of the house and around the rest of the windows that Arielle and Amy hadn’t been able to reach on their own.

Finally, the lights were switched on when Mom and Dad came walking along the driveway toward the house.

Obviously surprised, Mom covered her mouth as tears filled her eyes. “Something tells me that Lex has been doing a lot of shopping. It’s Santa and his reindeer.”

“And Rudolph and Clarice,” Amy called out as Lex wrapped an arm around her shoulders while they proudly surveyed their work. “They’re out front so we can see them from the living room windows. Anyone fishing or snowmobiling should be able to make them out from across the lake.”

Dad started laughing. “Thanks to Lex, Santa came early this year.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Sunday had been another exhausting day, because they’d gone to the tree farm to choose their trees. They’d spent most of the day inside after that, decorating the trees before hanging lights throughout the house while Mom and Amy cooked a big midday meal. Later they brought out the boxes and boxes of family ornaments and collectibles to display throughout the house. Mom had a Santa collection which she arranged in the living room every year, while the nativity was set up on the high shelves in the solarium.

Monday morning, Lex and Amy drove to Dr. Donnelly’s office to get their blood tests.

For some reason, he didn’t seem to be too surprised when they walked into the clinic. “They’re probably going to abolish having to have blood tests to get a marriage license before too long,” he said.

After having the nurse in the office draw their blood, he sat with them for a moment in his office. “Lex? I have to say that out of all of Gabe’s kids, you were the one I was the most concerned about. You’ve worked hard to get where you are today. You could barely read or write and your health was so shaky. I’m thinking that I never mentioned that you made a full recovery from your STD. I’m assuming you’ve mentioned it to Amy?”

Lex grimaced. “I haven’t.”

But Amy reached out, squeezing Lex’s hand. “I knew.”

Lex blinked. “How?” But then he rolled his eyes. “That’s right, she used to listen at the keyholes. I don’t know how many times I caught her.”

Dr. Donnelly smiled. “Yes, all of you were very well informed about each other’s problems. I think that Gabe always thought it was better to be transparent, in case there was ever any trouble because of your pasts.”

“But that means we can have kids?” Lex asked suddenly. “Of course, we’re going to wait a while. I’m being deployed again and I want Amy to get her master’s.”

“There are never any guarantees, but everything should be good to go when you’re ready to consider having a family,” Dr. Donnelly replied.

Dr. Donnelly had been able to have the blood test results ready for them in less than a few hours, so after stopping to have a quick lunch, they went to the county clerk’s office to get their license.

“Now we just have to wait at least three more days,” Lex said.

“Okay. So, we’ll just play it by ear then as to when we say when.”

They spent their week helping out at the winery and doing some shopping in town. Amy went out on her own a few days to the Inn to choose a few more gifts for the family, since Jake had decided that Lex should stay clear of the place for a while.

They went to pick up their license on Thursday, and afterwards, went to eat again at the Crystal Rock Tap, but during the middle of lunch, Lex got a call from Jake.

“Hi, Jake,” he said, switching on his cell phone.

“I’ve got some news for you,” Jake said, sounding grim.

“What’s wrong?” Lex asked. “I can tell that something’s up by the tone of your voice.”

“I’ll come over to the house to tell you what I found. Where are you now?”

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