Harper, who was there, straightening and tidying, read my face and nodded at Emery. “It’s all her. I just work here.”
“No, Harper helped a ton,” Emery said, guiding my dad to a seat on the couch.
“Oh, Emery,” my dad said, pulling off his winter hat. “Oh, my sweet girl.”
Our living room was still our living room. I don’t know what I expected—Emery’s talents were such that I wouldn’t have put it past her to make the place seem brand new even with three hundred bucks. But instead of making it unrecognizable, she somehow made itmore.
She’d rearranged some of the furniture to take advantage of the space and the light to amplify the cozy hominess I remembered as a kid. As if she’d returned it to a former, happier time when my family—and my father’s mind—were still whole.
A Christmas tree covered in white lights and ornaments glowed from beside the fireplace, where green garlands of fir and pine were strung across the mantel. The window wore green too, highlighting the rustic bones of the house, while red-and-green plaid cloths were draped over the piano and the coffee table. Red candles, pinecones, and silver ornaments made a centerpiece on the table. Over the chimney were two stockings, one red and covered in silver stars, the other green with little atomic symbols.
Which don’t exist at your local store. She made those.
I’d asked her to help me decorate two days ago, and she managed to make those damn stockings. She made all this happen, including the look of pure delight on my dad’s face, and I’d never be able to repay her for that.
“Would you like some eggnog, Russell?” Emery asked.
“My dear, that would be lovely.”
She moved to take the grocery bags out of my hands. “I’m assuming you bought eggnog.”
I nodded faintly. “Emery…”
“It’s nothing,” she said softly. “I’m so, so happy to do it. Really.”
While Harper and my dad got acquainted and Emery and I headed to the kitchen, a sudden thought jumped into my mind. “His equations…”
“I didn’t touch his desk,” Emery said. “I figured he might have a system or something, and I wasn’t about to mess with it.”
A quick glance at Dad’s desk showed the same cyclone of paper as usual. In the kitchen, I set down the bags and took her in my arms. “You’re an angel.”
“It’s really not a big deal—” she began, but I shook my head.
“Did you see his face when we came in?” I swallowed hard. “That was my Christmas present. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
“That’s very sweet, Xander.” She kissed me softly, then her smile turned playful. “But you’re still getting a real present.”
She laughed and bounded back into the living room, a ball of pure light and energy because what she’d done for my house was what she was meant to do. And the only lone shadow of the afternoon was the certainty that she needed to get far away. To make her dreams come true, and I couldn’t let anyone take that from her.
Not even me.
***
By twilight the following afternoon, with food and drink ready and Christmas carols playing from my phone, which was hooked up to a home device Harper let me borrow, our little party was in full swing.
I’d built a fire in our fireplace for the first time. Dean, Harper, and the rest of the Math & Physics Club—Elena, Jasper, Micah, and Kevin—surrounded my dad on the couch, peppering him with questions. Elena hadn’t been kidding about bringing a copy ofScientific Americanwith her for him to autograph. She was a small girl with bright eyes and looked like a groupie meeting her idol.
Emery arrived last, needing to extricate herself from her family with some excuse. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me in front of the whole group.
“I thought we were a secret,” I said.
“We are, but Harper and Dean assured me this was a safe space,” Emery said.
“She’s correct,” Kevin said, tipping an imaginary hat to her, while Micah—a freshman—nodded with a big grin.
“Well in that case…” I kissed her again, incurring laughs and hoots.
“Get a room!” Dean bellowed.
