Page 55

“No. Not at all.”

“There’s a little leftover if you want it.” When she nodded her head and backed up, he grabbed it out of the fridge.

“So, how did you spend your evening?” she asked.

“I did a little of this and a little of that. Why don’t you go into the living room while I warm this up.”

“The living room? What’s in there?”

When he could see she wasn’t going to go without him, he left the plate sitting in the open microwave. He walked over to her and took her hand. “Come on.”

With Mochi right beside them, they approached the living room. Leah let go of his hand as she looked around at the room. At first, he wasn’t sure about her reaction, but then a smile came over her face.

She turned to him. “You finished decorating in here.”

“And in the dining room. Then I took the crates back up to the attic.”

“Thank you. It must have taken you hours.” And then she lowered her voice as though she were telling him a secret. “I didn’t know it was possible to own this many decorations.”

“Me either. It’s like Christmas threw up in here.”

“But it’s festive, right?” She sent him an uncertain look.

He nodded. “If your guests enjoy Christmas, this will certainly put them in the holiday spirit.”

“I agree.”

“But there’s still one more thing to take care of.”

She glanced around the room. “I don’t think you missed anything.”

“The Christmas tree.”

“Oh. You’re right. I can’t believe I’d forgotten it. With all of the decorations, I completely overlooked it.”

“After we put the tree up tomorrow, if there’s any decorations you want taken down, just let me know, and I’ll take them up to the attic.”

Her gaze moved back to him. “Thank you. You really shouldn’t have gone to such effort.”

“I didn’t mind. It’s been a while since I put up any decorations. Now let’s go get you some food, and you can tell me about your evening.”

They returned to the kitchen where he insisted she sit down while he warmed her food. Once he placed the plate in front of her, he took a seat across from her.

He didn’t have to wait long for her to begin talking. He had never seen her quite so animated as she told him about her new family. He was really happy for her. He got the feeling she would be staying in Vermont after all.

He liked the thought of that because it was easier for him to drive to Vermont than for him to drive to California. Wait. Was he really contemplating returning to Kringle Falls?

But as Leah smiled at him from across the table and as Mochi lay at her feet, he knew that he would be drawn back to this place. Over and over again.

Her night was full of dreams.

In the morning, Leah awoke with a smile on her face. She closed her eyes, trying to recapture the feeling of bliss. She could only recapture a snapshot of her dream, but she’d been a little girl, and her mother and Paul had been there.

She’d had similar dreams in the past, but all of those times she hadn’t been able to make out the face of her father. His image was always out of focus or lost in the shadows—but not this time. She’d finally found the missing piece from her puzzle.

She just wished her mother hadn’t kept Paul out of her life. It wasn’t like he was a bad guy. In fact, he seemed like a really good guy. And she liked that he was laid back. He didn’t push this relationship on her. In fact, when she left their place the prior evening, they’d told her to contact them when she was ready to meet the extended family or if she just wanted to spend time with them again, it was fine with them. Either way, they were waiting for her to reach out to them.

She actually thought of reaching out to them today, but she talked herself out of it. She was certain that, even though they smiled and were so nice to her, they were reeling with this new information, just as she was. They needed time to get used to having a new member of the family.