“You most certainly did not dream it,” Cindy said. “Just look around.”
The proof that a kind and generous lottery winner had left them a million dollars—tax free and completely legal—was everywhere. But MJ didn’t mean the money. She’d fallen for Matt, and he’d promised that he’d be back “in one year.”
“Well, I haven’t heard from him, so?—”
“MJ, listen to me. Matt was clear in his letter to you—he wanted to spend a year giving away his fortune to people and causes who need it more than he does. Like us! He wrote that letter on New Year’s Eve, so you still have more than a month before you doubt him.”
“I know. You’re right. And it’s not like me to give up hope.” MJ gave her an impulsive hug and when they pulled back, Cindy put a loving hand on her sister’s cheek.
“You’re glowing, too, you know,” Cindy said. “You’ve covered your gray?—”
“Gracie talked me into that. My daughter said I needed a bit of a refurbish myself.” Laughing, MJ gave her a nudge when the oven timer dinged. “Now, go gather the troops. I’m getting the bird out of the oven and Benny likes to video the carving, which he will then put on TikTok because…Benny.”
“Then let’s do Thanksgiving!” Cindy pivoted and headed to the great room to call their family and friends for dinner, floating a little on the power of her sister’s sweet words.
An hour or so later,eleven people lingered around the table, laughing, talking, and—in the case of Cindy’s father, Red—having thirds.
Cindy sat close to Jack Kessler, the man who held the unique position of being her ex-andfuture husband. He hadn’t been here for last year’s Thanksgiving, but came a few days later…and never really left.
Last summer, they’d gone to Vermont together to sell his house—which they did with no problem. They also tried to persuade his eighty-six-year-old mother to move back to Park City, but failed. Although Bertie had agreed to come to their wedding.
For this whole year, Jack had been by Cindy’s side. He’d rented a house just ten minutes away, and enthusiastically volunteered to assume all lodge management, freeing Cindy to run Snowberry Weddings, their newest venture.
It was no wonder MJ said she was glowing—Cindy had never been happier. Or busier, but that sat well on her workaholic shoulders.
“What are you thinking about?” Jack asked on a whisper, leaning into her. “Because you’re smiling.”
“Am I?” She touched her lips. “Well, I was just thinking about how happy I am.”
He grinned at that, a glint in his dark eyes that gave her a thrill, even after twenty years of marriage, ten of divorce, and one second-chance year of engagement.
“Same,” he said, coming closer to give her the lightest kiss. “I’m ready to start the sleigh rides, too.”
MJ stopped all the conversations with a few taps of her fork against a wine glass. “Guess what time it is?” she asked in a teasing voice.
“We know the rules, Mom,” Gracie said on a laugh. “No one gets dessert until they say what they’re grateful for this year.”
“So let’s do it fast!” Benny exclaimed from the bench he shared with Red. The two of them—one eleven, one eighty-three—had done an awful lot of muttering to each other during this dinner.
But that was to be expected. Benny and his great-grandfather had a bond unlike few others in the family. The combination of Red’s old-man sarcasm and Benny’s freakishly sharp brain was a match made in heaven—most of the time.
“You have somewhere to be?” MJ asked her grandson.
“Just…” Benny exchanged a look with Red.
“Newt’s getting restless,” Red said, clearly covering for him by drawing attention to Benny’s dog, who was snoring at their feet and certainly not getting restless. In the year since Benny got the Cavapoo, the family finally had permission to shorten the dog’s official name, so Sir Isaac Newton was now “Newt” and the light of Benny’s life.
“How’d the octogenarian end up on a bench with the dog under him anyway?” Red mumbled.
“You insisted,” Gracie reminded her grandfather. “So you and Benny could…whatareyou doing with that phone at the table?”
Benny shoved it under his leg. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, not looking sorry at all.
“Why don’t we let our guests start?” Cindy held her hand out to the four members of the Hale family, who would soon be extended family.
Cindy’s daughter, Nicole, had gotten engaged to Cameron Hale last March on the top of a mountain on skis. Cindy and Jack couldn’t be happier about the union, and they’d all become close friends with Cameron’s parents and his extraordinary sister, Elise.
“I’ll go first!” Elise leaned forward with her hands on the armrests of her wheelchair. A beautiful, vivacious twenty-five-year-old studying to be a vet, Elise had lost the use of her legs in a car accident many years ago.
