Underneath the wrapping paper was a white box. She removed the lid. A folded piece of paper sat on top of the tissue paper. She opened it.
Tasha,
Thanks for all your hard work on the show. It made Christmas for me. The same way your being here made the holiday season extra special. I’m sorry for everything that happened. I take full responsibility. I never meant to hurt you, but I did, and I hope you will forgive me.
I want you to have a keepsake, something to remind you of the Christmas you spent in Berry Lake.
Merry Christmas,
Elias
Tasha reread the note three times. Okay, four, but who was counting?
She folded back the tissue paper to see the top of an ornament. With trembling fingers, she removed it from the box.
“Oh, Elias.”
This wasn’t a generic ornament. The glass bulb was like the hand-painted ones she’d seen at Charlene’s. Only the image was different.
A woman skated on the lake. She peered closer. “That’s me.”
Off to the side was a man with a brown and white dog at his feet.
“Elias and Higgins.”
He must have asked the artist to paint this for me.
As Tasha cradled the ornament in her hands, tears welled in her eyes. She blinked them away to examine the opposite side of the ornament that showed her and Elias skating on the lake with Higgins watching them from shore.
“Why did he do this?”
The gesture touched her. Elias must have commissioned this before…
But he could have kept the ornament for himself. She cradled it to her chest. The bulb would be a keepsake for Christmases to come, a reminder of Berry Lake, Higgins, and Elias.
She glanced at the box of notecards with books on them from Katie Byrne. One of those would work perfectly for a thank-you card. Tasha could drop it off in his mailbox when she left.
But first, she needed to pack. She stood and made her way across the living room.
A dog barked.
Something scratched at the door.
She opened it.
Higgins barreled inside covered in snow. He wore his sweater and collar but no leash.
“How did you get here?”
He shook, sending snow over the living room.
“Off on another adventure?”
His tail wagged.
“Let me write a thank-you to your dad, and then I’ll take you home.”
Tasha grabbed a pen from the kitchen and scribbled a thank you. Except the words didn’t stop after writing,thank you. She wrote from the heart, more than she first intended, and hoped the words were coherent. She put the card in the envelope, putEliason the front, shrugged on her jacket, and shoved the envelope into her pocket.
