LITMIR.BIZ

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too.”

      “I’m so glad Bob is enjoying the holiday season,” she said solemnly.

      Maddie hopped around, apparently unable to contain her happiness in one spot. “Today after everybody opens their presents, we’re going to go sledding and Carter and me and Faith are going to build a snowman and take Daisy and Max for a walk and maybe go visit Cinnamon.”

      “That sounds like a very full day and a wonderful Christmas.”

      Everyone had been so kind to them. Maddie would miss this place and this family so very much.

      “Santa found me here, too, just like you said! I was afraid he wouldn’t, since it’s not even our house, but he knew just where we were.”

      “Santa is magic like that, sweetheart.”

      “I wonder if he found Carter and Faith, too.”

      “I don’t doubt it for a minute,” she answered with a tired smile.

      As she should have expected, sleep had turned out to be impossible after she returned to bed. Heartache tended to have an insomnia-inducing effect, she had discovered, so she had still been lying awake when the first rosy fingers of dawn crept across the room to awaken Maddie.

      “We should go see them. Carter and Faith.”

      “We’ll find them in a bit. Let’s try to build something out of the magnetic blocks first.”

      Her daughter was easily distracted. “Okay. Maybe the rocket ship.”

      “Perfect.”

      They were reading the directions to figure it out when Eliza heard a soft knock on the door. Perhaps Sue needed her help earlier than expected.

      She rose from the little table in their room to open the door and was stunned to find Aidan standing there, his eyes bleary and his hair sticking up in every direction.

      “Aidan. Hi. Merry Christmas.”

      “Merry Christmas.”

      An odd intensity seemed to seethe and froth around him. Through the lenses of his glasses, his eyes seemed to glitter with barely suppressed excitement.

      “Sorry to interrupt your morning with Maddie. Should I come back?”

      “No. We’ve opened everything. Santa must have a big backache this morning from carrying all of Maddie’s gifts, right, sweetheart?”

      Her daughter giggled and rushed to hug him. After a surprised moment, he hugged her back.

      “Merry Christmas. Did Santa find where you live, too?” Maddie asked.

      “Why, yes. Yes, he did. And he left a present for you under my tree. He must have made a mistake, since our names both have an A and a D in them.”

      He held several presents in his arms, two large gifts and a smaller one.

      He handed the two bigger presents to Maddie.

      “Are those for me?” she breathed.

      “I believe they do have your name on it.”

      She took them, eyes wide. “Mama, can I open them? Right now?”

      “Of course.”

      Aidan sat down on the sofa beside her, stirring the air with that luxurious, delicious scent of him. She tried to ignore it, ignore him, as together they watched Maddie handle the first clumsily wrapped package, trying to figure out what might be inside.

      Had he wrapped it himself? Eliza wondered. She couldn’t imagine him going to that kind of trouble but she suspected he had. Most of the presents he had ordered for his family had been wrapped by his assistant in California or had been delivered pre-wrapped.

      It seemed significant, somehow, that he had taken the time himself to wrap this one for her daughter.

      The first gift was a doll she remembered Maddie admiring at the town festival. Her daughter shrieked with glee and hugged him.

      “Now the other one,” he said.

      “Is it another doll?” Maddie guessed. “Or maybe a game? Or a bunny?”

      She continued to list about a dozen possibilities, growing increasingly more ridiculous as she went, and Aidan finally tugged at her braid gently. “Open it and find out, silly.”

      “Okay.”

      She ripped the packaging with care and a moment later unearthed a beautiful leather-bound art set that Eliza would have been envious to own, filled with charcoals and watercolors and crayons, along with several pads of sketch paper.

      “You’re so good at art,” Aidan explained. “Every artist needs good tools.”

      “I love it! I love, love, love it. Thanks. Thanks a lot.” She gave him a wildly exuberant hug and Aidan laughed a little as he returned it.

      “You are very welcome, sweetheart.”

      “Where’s my present for him, Mama? Can I give it to him now?”

      Eliza forced a smile, feeling foolish about their gifts after he had given Maddie such an obviously expensive art set. The two gifts were curiously symbiotic, she had to admit. “Sure. It’s over behind the chair.”

      Maddie found her present and the one Eliza had made and brought them over to him.

      “I get two? Wow. Thank you.”

      He opened the larger one first, Maddie’s gift, and exclaimed with delight over the elaborate picture she had colored of Snow Angel Cove, with the lake in the background and little horses—of course—grazing in the meadow. Eliza had matted and framed it and thought it actually was quite good, for a drawing done by a girl who wasn’t quite six.

      “You did this? Seriously?”

      Maddie nodded, clearly thrilled at his reaction. “It took me a whole half hour to do the barn.”

      “I love it! It’s perfect. Do you know what? I’m going to take it back to California and hang it in my office, so I can always remember this Christmas with you.”

      Eliza’s heart gave a little squeeze at the thought of him, years from now, looking at the picture and trying to remember the little girl who had once drawn it for him.

      When he started to open the other one, she wished she could yank it away and tell him not to bother opening it but she couldn’t figure out a graceful way so she sat mutely while he tore away the wrappings to uncover the scarf she had clumsily knitted to match the hat his sister had made him.

      “You made this?”

      “Yes. I’m worse than Charlotte, as you can see.”

      “No, I love it, especially because you made it. Thank you.”

      He gave her a genuinely thrilled smile. Suddenly, foolishly, she had to fight the urge to burst into tears.

      How on earth was she going to leave this place? Leave him?

      “Can I draw something right now?” Maddie asked. “Bob wants his picture with a wreath around his neck.”

      “I would love to see that picture,” Aidan said.

      “Okay.” Doll in hand, she raced over to the small table in the corner, flipped open to a page in one of the sketchbooks and immediately went to work.

      “That was very thoughtful of you,” Eliza said. “The perfect gifts for her.”

      He was silent for a long moment and she watched his throat move as he swallowed. If she didn’t know better, she would suspect he was nervous.

      “I have one for you, as well. Two actually. Here. Open this one first.”

      It was wrapped just as the other one had been, with the addition of a lopsided bow. He held it

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