“He probably won’t go with you.” Luna stretches her arms high above her head, then reaches for her toes as she inhales. “But you can try.”
She’s right. Oliver doesn’t want me to take him away from the books he discovered, so I leave him with his parents and head downstairs. Luna is being sneaky about something, and I’ll figure out what it is.
Gavin’s roast with potatoes,Yorkshire puddings, and brown gravy are all amazing. I sit down the table from him, chatting with Ruby and Luna about their lives and friends in Snowshill and getting updates while Hamish and Gavin catch up. The kids are clearly tired. They pick at their food, but their moods are generally grumpy. Rhys ate quickly and took Oliver upstairs to put him to bed well over thirty minutes ago.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Rhys fell asleep too,” Luna says, sipping at her Dr Pepper.
Poppy whines, throwing a carrot down the table, and Ruby gives a falsely bright smile. “That’s my cue. We’ll see you in the morning. Come now, Violet. Tell everyone good night.”
“But I don’twantto go to sleep now, Mummy. I want to build a snowman. You told me we could build a snowman at Gavin’s house.”
“There’s no light outside, darling. Besides, it’s bedtime.”
“But I don’t want to go to sleep.”
“The faster you go to sleep, the faster we’ll get to make that snowman.”
“And drink hot cocoa?”
Ruby glances up at Gavin. He nods quickly.
“Yes,” she says. “And drink hot cocoa. You can even dip toast in it like Aunt Luna if you’d like.”
Violet jumps from her chair. “Okay, Mummy. I’ll go to bed. Good night!”
A chorus of good nights that follow her from the room.
“Aunt Luna?” I ask, leaning toward my sister.
“It’s easiest that way,” she says, fighting a yawn.
“Violet would give anything to have a brother,” Hamish says.
Luna nods. “She likes to pretend Oliver is her cousin instead.”
Since Ruby and Rhys are first cousins who practically grew up as siblings, the relation is nearly there.
Gavin leans back in his seat and tips his chin toward Hamish. “We used to pretend we were brothers. Do you recall the accent I would make you try to do?”
Hamish fills his plate with another helping of meat and potatoes. “Never fooled anyone.”
“I don’t know about that. We tried it on a couple of lasses on holiday, and they seemed to believe it.”
“The blonde just wanted ten minutes alone with you. She would have pretended to believe you if you told her you were born with blue skin.”
Gavin rolls his eyes, but I believe Hamish. The man doesn’t seem to know how attractive he is.
Luna nods like she understands. “My mom used to dress me and Callie in matching outfits all the time. People would ask if we were twins, which drove me nuts because I thought I looked so much older than her.”
“Matching outfits,” Hamish says, eyebrows raised.
“She wouldn’t stop at us, either,” I tell them. “She’d get herself something to coordinate if she could.”
“Sounds like your mum likes to be involved,” Gavin says.
Luna laughs. “That’s a good word for it.”
“You’ll like her.” It’s partially a hope, and also me calling itinto existence. After Gavin’s story about the stockings, my heart has been aching over the childhood he must have had. Obviously an empty stocking is not the end of the world, but for a six-year-old, that’s pretty devastating. It makes me wonder what else he missed out on.
