“I helped too!” Leah tells me.
I raise eyebrows. “You made this delicious pie?”
She grins. “Sure did. I helped Pop Pop with the flour.”
“You did great, girlfriend. Are you going to be a baker like your uncle Gage?”
“I knew I’d seen you before!” he shouts.
Leah shakes her head seriously. “Nope. I’m gonna be like my daddy.”
“You want to be a lawyer?”
“Gramma said it’s a ’spectable career.”
A quick glance at Muriel is all I need to confirm she’s not the grandma Leah is talking about. She’s looking at Leah with a sad but soft expression. She catches my gaze and minutely shakes her head, telling me I was right and she’s not telling the girls what jobs are respectable.
It’s not my place to say anything, but there’s no way I could hold my tongue. No little girl should be forced into a box she doesn’t want to be in. “You want to know what I think?”
Leah nods.
I make sure I have Leah’s full attention before I say my next words. “Anything you choose to do will be respected aslong as you love doing it every day. If you want to be a lawyer like your Daddy, then go for it, but you could also be a clown or a computer programmer or even an ice cream flavor-tester.”
Leah’s eyes widen. “I could taste-test ice cream?”
I shrug. “Someone has to choose the new flavors for us to buy.”
Leah’s little arms are suddenly wrapped around my waist, and I melt into her hug. When I glance around the table, everyone suddenly starts talking again. I guess our conversation wasn’t as private as I thought. I bite my bottom lip as I hesitantly look at Holt. I could’ve just messed up big-time, but I still stand by what I said.
Instead of anger or annoyance, Holt’s bright blue eyes are soft. He leans closer to keep his voice low. “Thank you. That’s not the first time my in-laws have said something like that. It’ll mean more to the girls coming from you than from me.”
I shrug. “I know I’m probably the last person who should be giving advice, but I couldn’t let the comment go without saying something. I’m just not wired that way.”
Holt gives me a sexy grin. “I know. It’s one of the many things I like about you.”
“Many, huh? What else is on this list?”
“How about I show you later?”
CHAPTER 16
Holt
“Careful, Daddy,” Lauren says from the bottom of the attic ladder.
“Let me know when I’m at the bottom?” The plastic storage box in my arms isn’t heavy, making this descent a whole lot easier than when I bring the Christmas boxes down.
“Two more steps,” she says with her arms out as if she could catch me if I fell. Once I’m on solid ground, Lauren audibly exhales. “Why can’t we keep the decoration boxes in the garage, where it’s easier to get them out?” With her hands on her hips and her lips in a pout, she could give my mother a run for her money on how to scold me.
I bite the inside of my lip to keep from laughing. Lauren is parroting a question Hannah always asked when we decorated for the holidays. It would be a hell of a lot easier to get the boxes out if they were stored in the garage, but Hannah had so many decorations for every holiday that I wouldn’t be able to park my truck in there anymore. Which is what I tell Lauren every time she asks the question. She always huffs the way Hannah used to, and it makes me smile.
We finished packing up all the Christmas stuff last weekend, and now we’re going to make the house look like Cupid threw up in it.
I’m grateful that the girls hold me accountable for keeping these traditions. Without their reminders, I wouldn’t have put up a single festive thing since Hannah died. The first year they asked me to decorate, it nearly killed me. I had no idea I could feel so depressed at Christmas.
Now, putting up decorations makes me feel like Hannah is still with us in the only way she can be. It’s comforting in ways I hadn’t expected.
“Daddy, look what I made!” Leah races over to me with a piece of pink construction paper. I set the box in my arms next to the three others by the stairs and then squat down to look at Leah’s drawing.
