I’m speechless, my eyes burning with unshed tears. The feeling of love that drifts around the room is almost too much to bear, but he’s right—this town and the people in it have healed something inside me that I thought was irreparable.
And I’m pretty sure I found love.
“What about you, Seraphina?” I ask, willing my body to absorb my tears so this family doesn’t see just how much they affect me.
“My own gift” —she gives me a coy smile— “is to renovate the one and only spare room at the school into a preschool and after-school program for Paris.”
“Huh.” I’m amazed, and curiosity eats at me because I want to know more. No, I need to know more.
“I have everything I could ever want, Wren.” She smiles as she moves to another pile of Christmas lights. “A family who not only loves me, but supports me in every avenue of life. A town that will bind together when I or another needs it most.”
“We even got Christian a job.” Autumn hands Robin yet another glass of eggnog, and this time, she watches him as he sips the drink.
Robin cocks his head to the side and waves Autumn off, choosing to keep that glass.
“What job?” But somehow, I already know. Deep down, I know what they set him up to do.
“The history teacher has wanted to retire for the last decade. Christian has all his credentials, so for the rest of the year, he’s going to shadow him.” Her eyes light up with a disturbing glint that I’m learning is Autumn’s conniving face, and it terrifies me.
“I can’t believe you got him a job.” I shake my head. We all deserve a second chance, but with the way he showed up in this town, I thought they’d just throw him on his butt and call it a day.
“Yep, and he’s my new roomie.” Robin also holds that scary glint in his eyes. A nd now I know I should have kept him and Autumn apart. “And I’m the new gym teacher.” He wags his brows.
Their friendship already frightens me, and he’s only been here a week.
“Good luck with that one,” I mutter.
“Oh, I have all the luck on my side.” Robin smiles before downing his glass and handing it back to Autumn for a refill.
“All right, Autumn, what do you want?” My mind itches to know what else these people could want in this world. I’m learning there is a solid theme.
“Ah.” Autumn points at me while handing me a glass of eggnog. “I haven’t given it much thought, to tell you the truth. I want to make sure Paris has her clinic set up and she’s healing.” She shrugs as though there isn’t anything else, but she averts her eyes, and I feel like there is something she wants. S he just isn’t ready to spill it.
She may never spill it.
“Okay, Saffron?” Just when I think I untangled my ball, it suddenly isn’t, so I toss it at Saffron.
“Oh, my dear, I cannot say.” She winks at me before leaving the room just as a timer goes off in the kitchen. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear she planned that.
“I know what I want!” Lark pipes up from the corner where she sits with a glass of milk and a pile of cookies.
“What’s that, kiddo?” I ask her with a burning curiosity. Usually on Christmas day, it’s just the two of us and we open a few presents, eat, and then go for a long walk. As the idea of gifts swirl about the room, all I can think of is all the material items I purchased her throughout the years that ended up in donation piles.
“Home.” Her gaze fixes on me with such purpose and conviction that I could never dispute it. Then those beautiful eyes of hers look around the room, then back to me before she shrugs and says it again, a bit more softly this time. “Home.”
A place to call our own.
A place to come back to after adventures and long days, a place that will always exist that is solely ours.
When we first got to Silent Springs, I didn’t know how this would play out. All I wanted was to get to Maine as fast as I could. Yet here I am, sipping eggnog and talking to these incredible people about what gift giving really is.
It isn’t about the material items we wrap in shiny paper, though sometimes a gift like that is just what the soul needs at that moment, but this discussion taught me that there is so much more to gift giving than what I thought.
There’s that soul deep giving that I didn’t even know existed. It’s not just about giving someone a pile of toys they may discard or endless things to never be seen again.
But gifting life purpose and knowing someone so well that they gift what would be the most meaningful to that person.
Paris won’t just love that clinic, it’s her soul purpose.
