He watched Adria walk to the window, hating the fact she was taking a liking to this stranger, and he seemed to do the same with her. He could hear a faint cry of joy come from upstairs.I guess Becca saw the snow.
“Yay! This is perfect!” Adria turned around and hugged Liam. He did all he could do tonotjump in and separate them. When she let go, both of them were laughing, and Devin thought she’d turn to him and do the same, but no luck. Adria smiled. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that, Liam, I forgot myself.” She then turned and went back to whatever she was doing.
Liam looked at him and chuckled.
Three
Everyone was settled in a room, and the snow was still coming down. Adria had made everyone sandwiches and chips for a light dinner, thankful to be at the cabin. She was tired and wanted to get some sleep.
Quickly she walked to her sister's room and poked her head in. Devin was sitting on Becca’s bed with her as she filed her nails while he was looking at an old newspaper their mother had left around. “I’m off to bed and I just wanted to say good night. It’s so good to have you here, Devin. It’s been so long since we saw you, and now we're all together again, at least for a little while.”
Adria refused to be upset when he glanced at Becca first as if making sure she was okay, and then smiled at her. “Yeah, me too. Personally, I’d like to throw your houseguest out in the freezing snow and leave him there until spring, but yeah, I’m glad too. It gives me a chance to catch up.” He patted Becca’s hand. “Right, Becca?”
Becca looked up from her nail filing and blinked. “Oh yeah, we can catch up. Devin was telling me he practices law in other states, so technically if he wanted to move, he could with little fuss.”
Adria wasn’t about to get hopeful Devin had been talking about catching up with her. It was most likely he wanted to reconnect with Becca. He’d barely known she’d existed back in high school, other than she was his friend’s twin sister. “You're right, but I think if he’d been interested in doing that, he would have done that by now, Becca.” Adria looked at Devin. “Don’t let her convince you to move to Portland. She did a photo shoot once there on the beach. I went along and it was beautiful, but the people in Becca’s world are a bit different and not what I’d consider to your liking, just saying.”
He nodded his head.Obviously not interested in what I had to say.“Well, good night, Becca. I love you and I’m glad we're home. Good night, Devin, I hope you both sleep well.”
“Good night, sis.” Becca blew an air kiss.
“Good night, Adria.” Finally, Devin focused his attention on her.
Three steps down the hall she stopped at Liam’s room. He was sitting on his bed with a smaller easel beside him as he painted.
“Good night, Liam.”
“Going to bed already? Come on in and have a seat. I never got to show either of you how to paint. You’ll have a lot of fun.”
Adria was tempted to go inside and sit for a few minutes. He seemed really nice and very talented, so she thought now would be a good time to get to know him. “Thank you.” She sat on the bed next to him and watched as he made brush strokes.
“Wow, you are really amazing.” Fascinated by this man and his talent, Adria watched him paint and for a few minutes they sat in silence, side by side on his bed in his room.
Eventually, Liam spoke, looking at her smiling. “You could do it too with some time, practice, and patience.” He held out the brush to her.
“Oh, no.” Adria waved her hand in the air. “So, what would you make for Christmas? I thought maybe you could paint something for me and my sister to remember our time here, and you and this moment. This Christmas together. And by the way, don’t pay attention to Devin, he's just overly protective of Becca. This is to be our last Christmas here and we’re selling this place come spring, it's time. So, you being here is good too. We will have someone besides each other to share it with and Christmas is always more fun when it’s shared.”
Liam frowned but continued to paint. “Thank you for saying that. I don’t want to ruin the time between you and your sister, so the sooner I can be out of here once my truck is fixed, the better. Besides, I know little about Christmas.”
“You don’t celebrate?” Adria was stunned.
“No. I was an orphan and I spent most of my life with other kids as no foster parents seemed to want me. I was a late developer as a kid, so they thought I had a few learning disabilities. Later they found out I didn't, but at that point the damage had been done. I was sixteen and no one wants to adopt a sixteen-year-old. So, by the time I reached adulthood, I just never celebrated Christmas or any other holiday. It’s foreign to me.”
“And yet you were traveling to see someone when your truck broke down here? Or was it something to do with your art?” Intrigued and curious, Adria wanted to know more.
“It's the reason I travel. With everyone celebrating the holidays, I find it hard to sit still because I don’t understand it and I’ve never experienced it.”
Stunned, Adria continued to watch him fan the paint and continue to make his abstract design. Then an idea hit her. “Well, you're in luck.” She smiled. “My sister and I are experts on everything Christmas and since you owe us for our kindness, you are going to do one Christmas thing to repay.”
“I guess I owe you, butpleasemake it something easy like sledding or something.” Liam smiled.
Adria started to laugh. “Oh my, no, Liam, you're going to help us bake cookies tomorrow. How's that?”
He laughed. “Alright, I think I can do that. I love to cook and my specialty is lasagna, but sure, cookies it is.” Liam looked past her to the open doorway and he smiled.
“Hey, I thought you were going to bed?” Adria realized her sister was standing in the open doorway.
“I was, but I stopped to say good night and Liam invited me in. He wanted me to do some painting, but I couldn’t do it. So, I’ve just been sitting here talking to him as he paints.”
