“I know,” Jack said with a wink. He turned to his mother. “Well, I haven’t made a wish yet.”
Julie’s eyebrows rose. “No, you haven’t. Do you have one?”
“Yeah, but can I say it out loud without putting it on the wish tree?” Jack asked, and at first Julie thought he was being sarcastic, but then she saw he meant it.
Julie smiled. “I’m sure the universe doesn’t mind.”
Jack leaned back in his chair, his expression turning thoughtful. “Okay then. I wish that Eve, Mia, and Lila find healing, hope, and the love their hearts are searching for here at the Christmas Inn.”
The words settled over the table like a blessing.
“That’s a lovely wish,” Isabella said. She turned to Julie. “I haven’t made one either. Can I?”
“Of course,” Julie said.
“Well, as Jack has taken care of our new friends,” Isabella said, “I’m going to wish that our family is safe on their travels to and from Miami.”
Julie felt her eyes prickle with emotion. “That’s a very sensible wish. I’m proud of both of you because you didn’t make selfish wishes.”
Jack shrugged. “We have everything we want or need.”
“That’s so true,” Julie said, her voice thick with love.
She glanced at her watch and gasped. “Oh goodness, I have to go get ready. William is coming early to fetch me for dinner. We’re taking Eve, Mia, and Lila to Salvatore’s.”
“Oh, nice,” Jack said, standing and helping her with her chair. “I’d better get back to work. There’s so much paperwork I’ve been putting off.”
“And I have to get going for the dinner rush,” Isabella said, rising as well.
They finished their hot chocolate and dispersed, each heading in different directions.
Julie walked through the Inn and toward their house, which was joined to the inn. Her mind was already moving through the evening ahead. William would be here within the hour. She needed to change, freshen up, maybe add a touch of lipstick. The deep green dress she’d chosen would be perfect.
She stepped into her bedroom and moved to the closet, pulling out the dress and laying it across the bed.
A breeze swept through the room.
Julie froze.
The window was closed. She could see it from where she stood, latched tight against the December evening.
But the breeze wrapped around her anyway, cool and insistent, pressing against her skin like a hand on her shoulder.
Julie closed her eyes and let the feeling surround her.
It was familiar. As familiar as her own heartbeat. As familiar as the way she knew when Jack was troubled or when the Inn needed her attention.
Her late husband had called it her gift. Her mother had called it sight. Julie just called it knowing.
And right now, she knew.
The breeze moved around her, through her, carrying with it something she couldn’t name but recognized all the same. A warning. A whisper. The kind of certainty that came from somewhere deeper than logic.
“Yes, my darling,” she whispered to the empty room, to the breeze that shouldn’t exist, to the presence she’d learned to trust decades ago. “I can feel it. More danger and mystery are coming.”
The breeze tightened around her, confirming what she already suspected.
It wasn’t a question. It was a fact, delivered with the gentle insistence of someone who loved her enough to warn her.
